Lathany

Thursday was our last day out and about of the fortnight, in part because of the weekend train strike.

Our main stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum. I forgot my camera - but my phone worked OK.

This is Ryan outside the Japan area.



Bea and Dom considering architecture.



My favourite bit of the jewellery section. It starts in the middle with diamonds, then goes on to rubies and sapphires and so on. I really liked the non-standard colours.



We bought souvenirs for the first and only time - I got a couple of pairs of earings, Bea a Winnie the Pooh badge and bag and Ryan a Kaleidoscope (we, sort of).

We then had lunch at Thai Square which I recommend. Lovely Pad Thai.

For the next fortnight, I'm holidaying in London.

So far, we've made a trip up to the Barbican (Saturday) and one to Greenwich (today).

Saturday began with the AI exhibition at the Barbican. It was interesting and quite fun. The main part of it was the exhibition in the Curve and then there was a shadow/symbol display at the bottom of the building where you touched icons with your shadow to see what they meant.



The main exhibition showed approaches to AI over the centuries from the early stories about golems to code cracking and social bots today.

After we had finished with both rooms we headed onto afternoon tea at the Modern Pantry. Now this was the main reason we were in the area - as it was afternoon tea with a difference.



It was wonderful. The savoury courses were slightly better, but the sweet ones (except those at the top tier where the passion fruit drowned out everything else) were also great. I liked the fritters, savoury scones and the cake slices.

Today we headed over to Greenwich - quite a long journey from here.

We started at the Cutty Sark. It was interesting, although also crowded.



We then headed towards the observatory, stopping at an excellent pie place (pie and soft drink for four for £22).

We looked around the observatory and the meridian line.



Then we went into the Planetarium for a show about the Night Sky. We finished our day with Ben and Jerry's ice creams back at the station before heading home.

About a fortnight ago, Dom and I went to Ryan's school to see him waitering in the cafe there. He is doing this is for a term.

Here's a picture of our order and the order slip (frothy coffee, lemon cake, tea and coffee cake).



Then yesterday we went to HintHunt as a family to do the Zen Room escape room. I had wanted to take the family because it's where I went with work last year and I had really enjoyed it.

Fortunately it went down quite well and we completed within the hour.



We then had buffet lunch at Chutneys (which does a vegetarian curry buffet lunch) before heading home.

Today's advent picture was a pair of badgers. It made me smile.

As the holly I took from the garden had wilted, I went out and got more. I was pleased to see it still had berries.



venta hosted Writers' today and produced an excellent roast lamb dinner. I'll still be waddling everywhere tomorrow! She also wrote the first story that made me cry.

Last week I finished Too Like the Lightning: Book One of Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer. It was the author's debut novel so, needless to say I hadn't come across her before. It had received a Hugo nomination and various good reviews so I was expecting to enjoy it. Instead I was disappointed as I felt it had a number of flaws. Firstly - it introduced too many characters too quickly. I was barely keeping track of who was who, let alone finding the time to care about them. Which brings me to point two - I didn't really care about any of them by the end. Granted, the protagonist is supposed to be a git (as they tell you, themselves, repeatedly) but I felt I should have cared about someone, somewhere in it. Third up - the book turns out to be about the twenty - or maybe fifty - most important people in the world. However, it explains that they are important by constantly telling you this rather than showing them as important. And onto the fourth (mild spoilers, but I'll try not to be too specific) - the whole brothel scene. This felt very much something the author was desperate to include, but left me feeling that it ruined the careful construction of politics up to that point (although, perhaps that was intended). Finally(!) the book doesn't conclude, it stops. Yes, I know it's the first of a series, but I feel it should have been somewhat self-contained and answered at least one of the threads it began in its first couple of chapters.

Having piled on the criticism, it did have some good points. There are some nice ideas in there and one or two characters that might have promise if they weren't struggling for stage space against forty-eight or so others. I remember someone once telling me that the rule of thumb with authors is that once they've written a million words, they'll be ready to write their best work. I feel this author is still making her way through her million words and maybe I should come back in a few books' time.

Last weekend, Alistair started the rerun of The Magnificent Sven which he originally ran last year in Derbyshire. The players this time are me, Dom, Martin and Leon. I haven't seen Leon for ages - possibly twenty years - and it was really good to meet him again. I've been asked not to say anything about the game until we're done (another two sessions, probably) - but it's going well so far (and it's Warhammer, although not 40K).

This week, I'm on leave. So this means glitter tattoos. I've done two: moon and stars.



And also a dreamcatcher.



Leave also means a fair amount of FFXIV, a bit of housework, a certain amount of washing, an outing planned with Bea tomorrow and some new cooking. Or, to put it another way, I made gnocchi for the first time yesterday. I can't say that they had any artistic merit (I really couldn't get them to look like anything other than blobs, let alone like their picture), but they did taste nice - so I may try again.

I woke up yesterday morning feeling snuffly and we nearly cancelled our booking. Fortunately I recovered across the day and so we went to Chiswick to try the tasting menu with wines of La Trompette. It was our third ever visit (previously July 2004 and August 2009) and the first time we'd tried their tasting menu.

Pre-starter
These were little pieces of fish (I think) sitting in a sort of shell of the type that Chinese restaurants sometimes do. They were good and the bread arrived at the same time - we think it was wholemeal sourdough.

We decided not to have aperitifs (even though both looked good - a rhubarb gin and tonic and a variant on Bucks Fizz). We knew from experience that if we were drinking the paired wines, that was probably more than enough in itself. Actually, by the end I concluded I could have managed an aperitif, but didn't know at the start!

Canapés
These again were fish, this time more substantial and involved a sort of fish coleslaw with sliced vegetable and, I think, a form of chorizo. Very tasty and the chorizo was very strong.

First course
Food: Raw gilt head bream, pickled shimeji, English wasabi, bonito and shiso cress
Wine: Bacchus, Sandbar, Lyme Bay, Devon, England, 2015 and a Riesling
The course was completely cold and delicious. It looked like a small salad and tasted much better. The wine on the menu was the Bacchus which was very much like a Sauvignon Blanc. However, the sommelier told us that there was an alternative on offer - the Riesling. So, of course, we each had a different one and compared. I think I slightly preferred the Riesling which was slightly less crisp. Both were good though.

Second course
Food: Hand rolled linguine, black winter truffle and aged parmesan
Wine: Anjou Blanc, Coteau des Treilles, Pithon-Paillé, Loire Valley, France, 2013
We concluded that this course was mainly a vehicle for truffle tasting, but was gorgeous all the same. Pasta in a lovely, creamy/cheesy sauce with a generous helping of black truffle shavings. Lovely and one of my favourites. The wine was good too - crisp and a nice contrast.

Third course
Food: Isle of Orkney scallops, new season ceps, lemon and hazelnut
Wine: Blind Tasting
This was Dom's favourite course and one of my favourites. The scallops were simply amazing, the little mushrooms were gorgeous and the sauces went really well. The blind tasting was also very interesting. It arrived in completely black, opaque wine glasses so that we couldn't see the colour. We sniffed it, I declared it to be Chardonnay, then I tasted it and I was no longer sure it was a white wine! At the end, the sommelier told us that it was a Chardonnay, but a very unusual one. Certainly it was utterly unguessable for me on taste!

Fourth/main course
Food: Barbecued shortrib and croustillant of beef, purple sprouting and roasting juices
Wine: Saint Emilion Grand Cru, Château Lassègue, Bordeaux, France, 2009 or an Italian red
There was an alternative - Cornish turbot - but we both went for the beef, in my case because I wanted a red meat and a red wine. The beef was excellent, as was the broccoli and the juices (including, I think, a walnut chutney). It was also the largest course - probably because it was the closest to being a main course. We were given a choice of wines again, so again had a glass of each. The Bordeaux was a lovely red, I guess the term is "full-bodied" and Dom's favourite, I slightly preferred the italian red which was slightly lighter, and had a few different flavour tones. This may be my favourite course - with strong competition from the scallops and the dessert.

Fifth course/palate cleanser
Food: Yorkshire rhubarb and blood orange
This worked really well as a palate cleanser. It was somewhere between cold fruit and sorbet and the two flavours worked well together.

Sixth course/dessert
Food: Caramelised banana soufflé, gingerbread, passionfruit ice cream
Wine: Vidal, Ice Wine, Peller Estates, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada, 2014
Finally the dessert course. The souffles arrived very hot and the waitress took the spoonful of ice cream and inserted it into the top of each. The result was really impressive - it's one of the best desserts I've had as part of a tasting menu. I liked the ice wine too - cold and sweet, as wanted.

We ignored the optional cheese course and I had a coffee (an Americano as they don't do filter) which arrived with a pair of chocolate truffles. We then paid and waddled back to the train station.

Overall the staff were friendly and knowledgeable, the service was the right speed and the meal overall felt like a meal - not too little and not too much. Perhaps more importantly, every course was wonderful. Usually some work much better than others. We did have favourites, but also liked the others a great deal. It is expensive - as tasting menus including wine tend to be - just short of £300 for two, both with wine (including my sparking water, my coffee and the tip). But well worth it as a lovely evening out on a special occasion.

Last Monday I joined colleagues from work at HintHunt near Euston station for an hour long escape room. They have two rooms and the premise of my one was: "A crime scene investigation where a private detective (JM) has found a dead body in his office and he has been wrongly accused of murder. The police have sealed off the office and you have managed to gain access to the crime scene. You only have one hour to find the evidence and clues to wind up with case, prove JM’s innocence and find your way out of the locked room!"

I thought that the game was an excellent way to spend an hour. We did manage to escape with 1 minute and 37 seconds to go, although we needed hints galore (although, apparently, so does everyone else). Thoroughly recommended and, one day, I'll try the other room.

It being half-term, I took a couple of days off - Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday I mainly used it to relax and enjoy not having to commute or work. On Friday I took the family off to Kew for the day.

We saw this year's Orchid display which, despite this photo not showing people, was very crowded.



The weather was lovely and sunny and the gardens looked beautiful.



We also saw some peacocks on our travels.



On Friday evening, we did pancakes (bateleur was out on Tuesday evening). Savoury ones with bolognese sauce and then sweet ones. My favourite was my last which I did with chocolate-and-caramel spread, a touch of maple syrup and some brandy.

Also on Friday, I started playing Goetia, a ghost game that I finished today.



It's an interesting puzzle game, although with a somewhat gloomy atmosphere. If and when my GameFAQs review is published, I'll link to that from here.

Today I took Ryan to Kew. This was the counterpart of Wednesday's shopping trip.

We started with The Hive, although it was already quite busy.



From there we headed down to the Pavillion for cake (he had blueberry and lemon and I had banana and coconut).

Next was back to Palm House.



Then we went to the Treetop Walkway.



We also managed the Princess of Wales conservatory and Sackler Crossing. At some point we found this.



Then we headed home for a late, small lunch.

My last day at work, Friday of last week, was my colleague's celebration of her 50th birthday. Her desk was decorated for her in the morning. This isn't a brilliant picture, but she got flowers, confetti and a balloon (above the photo).



We went out for lunch to Bread Street Kitchen which is a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. The meal was rather good. We were all served freshly baked bread. Then I had pork and fennel sausages, borlotti bean casserole, 'nduja, salsa verde with a side order of truffled brie mashed potato. Picture below and thoroughly recommended.



For dessert I had Praline parfait with Kent cherries, chocolate hazelnut crumb which was also excellent, but I forgot to take a picture.

Wednesday started with another morning walk, this time up the steps behind the house and onto the path there. bateleur came with me.



That afternoon was the Star Wars: Con Wars game. Eva (myself) who was a medic, Gannics (shadowjon) who was a retired soldier, Rin (chrisvenus) a (former) Padawan and Kal (davefish) a mining engineer were passengers on a shuttle that crashed into the Hydra 4 station in the middle of a local war. There were three factions - the bling gang, the war droids and teenagers and the Corellian (Republic) forces. We initially allied with the last of the three only - of course - to discover that they were actually working for a slave trader and looking to defect to the Empire. Over the rest of the game we determined that the bling gang was a pirate crew known as The Red Claw and the droids/teenagers group was the Free Sapients League. We spoke to the league secretly and agreed to help them free the slaves on the station and generally take out the other two factions. There then followed a certain amount of covert fighting including Kal taking control of various gunnery stations, crit failing to drop a flash bang during a night operation in pirate territory and then stealing their warshuttle before realising that no-one had pilot and then having to default it from engineering (fortunately this worked). Gannics was generally on sniper duty and Rin was doing the quiet assassin thing (I mostly stayed back at base, but did covertly help the astrodroid seize the central building). In the end we got the slaves out, took down the bad guys and escaped with the league before the Empire landed.

Wednesday dinner was Man vs Food burgers from davefish followed by the remains of the ice cream.

Thursday saw us down to seven when davefish and Alistair departed and then down to six when shadowjon left. It was my second game - an attempt at running Lockwood & Co. The agency was Dalton and Clay and the agents Claire (lanfykins) and Jimmy (chrisvenus) were accompanied by an adult supervisor across two different cases. The team successfully banished Visitors and the players felt it was in the spirit of the books - I was very pleased.

Thursday dinner was baked potatoes and leftovers. My tattoo was still in very good shape (the photo below is an early one, but it still looks very much like this).



Friday morning the remaining six of us did the usual pack-up, check, mop up and exit. Fortunately the weather was rather better for driving and the roads started off much clearer. We finally got home to be welcomed by an extremely vocal puss.