Fun fun fun!!!

It was a pretty active week just gone, which means that I probably won't be doing much else for a while now.  Since the last time I spoke to you guys, Nav came up to London on Wednesday to stay for a couple of nights before his conference/presentation in Regent's Park area.  Thursday saw us head to Cutty Sark/Greenwich Park area to have a look at the University of Greenwich, Camera Obscura, Maritime Museum and Oxford Street/Regent Street.

Having seen the Obscura at Bristol, I was excited to visit the one in London as many people have said that its skyline is something to marvel at.  My brother had been before and said it to be a good view, but when we got there it didn't seem as impressive as that in Bristol.  Firstly, the magnified view was in a set direction with no means to closely examine any other part of London.  Secondly, the magnified view itself was too magnified - at least, more so than the Bristol Obscura.  I was a disappointment honestly, but luckily we didn't have to pay to look - mind, the view from the Observatory hill was very nice although it was busy at the lunch hour we attended.  And we stood on the GMT line - all very (un)exciting...

Thursday night saw Nav hold his head in his hands as he got a call from his work colleague apologising for leaving their presentation posters on the Southampton-Waterloo train!  It was too late to get run prints in a local shop, although on Friday morning we found that it wasn't possible anyway.  So Nav headed into London with nothing but his laptop and a Powerpoint presentation - however, it turns out that his colleague managed to print B&W A1s in time for their presentations (although the entire event was .

Friday afternoon (after getting a call for my first job interview - yay!), I eagerly headed down to Southampton to visit friends.  Everytime I trek there, it's always pleasant and fun - it's a different feeling visiting friends and places when you don't live there (even though I was there for four years).  I thought that I'd make the effort to get there that day as Max was too - didn't want to let him have all the fun.  Meet-up with the usual crew, and managed to get Tom to come along for the night (nice to see him after more than a year), and Friday night was seen away in Clowns followed by Jesters... ah dear, naked young 'uns dancing around being idiots - luckily my vision was blurring so as not to have my attention drawn to them (the short glimpse of a bloke's naked back was enough).  More drinking and OAP-dancing and soon 2am was upon us, so it was time to depart.  Suk's lounge sofa was pretty comfy, even more so after a few drinks and heavy head.

Next morning, after de-smellifying myself, I got my usual tingly face and hands syndrome from drinking to a jovial state and probably from having only 5-and-half-hour deep sleep (which was enough, mind).  A hugely fatty fry-up, a walk around the Common to burn it off, and then finding an ice-cream van to put it all back on instantly.  Kieran left with other arrangements and Caroline (whom many hadn't seen in a long long while but still as smiley-cheery as ever), found Suk, Max, Ian and I at the Gordon's Arms in a deteriorating state towards zombification.  I still had my tingliness which didn't seem ready to recede yet (probably until I started drinking again).  We all met up in the late afternoon - after Ian painted his pig (not a euphemism... surprisingly) and Caroline had seen to other things - for curry, beers and more beers in a pub.  It's always nice to catch up on things and discuss things in an adult manner (basically slagging off the young 'uns who choose Degree in Surfing - I mean, wtf?! - and other such pointless degrees which flood the market and consequently lower the Degree status, rant rant rant...).  Oh and meet Polly a couple of short times over the weekend - my, she was her busy self, running from table to table chatting to friends - good ol' Polly.

Another late night and short but heavy sleep, more tingling in the morning and practiced poaching eggs with Suk - me reckons we perfected it:

boil the 1-and-half to 2 inch-depth water and then down to a simmer;

stir the water slightly to make a vortexy-whirlpool effect;

crack in the egg (one at a time) from a low height;

let it cook (2-3mins to keep the yolk soft), take out with slotted spoon, and serve.

What not to do, which we did, was to poach the egg in fast moving boiling water because the eddy currents (ooh, how scientific!) will rip apart the egg white before it has a chance to solidify as one piece, leaving you with lots of flaky looking egg white part.  Looks a bit yucky, but well, expect toget it at least on the first poach.

Lunch with Lucy and fiance Graham, Suk, Ian, Max and I - and then it was off back home after saying good-byes and see-you-soons.  The train journey was an arse though, 2-hours on the train Soton-Waterloo, and then another hour to home - some 45-mins to 1-hour longer than it should have taken.  It was, however, made up with me sitting diagonally opposite a rather cute-looking, mid-20s (me reckons), brunette.  puuurrrrrr.....