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Well, found out that I can blog on my mobile and send it as a post via email. I’ve been really slacking with the updates, even if my posts were short or bulleted. I suppose this was inevitable once you have a job and barely any time to do outside the nonworking timeframe. Ah well. Good thing is I’ve been using Google Calendar to keep note of all the dates as well as Flickr to provide me with quick memory bumps of what happen at what corresponding day.
Think I’ll just compile a list of entries I still owe, and boy it dates back to Christmas. Don’t expect super long posts though, unless I have lots of time available:
Stu’s birthdayE61i reviewChristmas with aliceNew Years at Stu’sThat random MiM gigGraduation with AliceNew York New YorkThat quick meetup with KazzieDouble gigging weekWeekend with Alice
So yeah, loads to write, hopefully a nice batch of flickr photos to illustrate everything, maybe I should use the blog feature on Flickr to start my posts, seems logical and all, I kinda like the idea of making it so every Flickr photo is significant enough to have a story for each one.
One of the funniest things happened when spending time with Alice last weekend. We went to dine at a lovely Chinese Restaurant called Red Chilli, I’ve been there twice and was very impressed both times (this will be the place where I’ll be celebrating something with a whole roast duck).
Anyway once at the place we were told to wait for an hour for a table, this was a bummer since we went to Leeds just for this, loads of people didn’t bother getting a table because of this, I was persistent and eventually we got a table within 15 minutes, turns out the predicted hour is simply what you should expect to wait for and not an accurate measurement of when you’ll get your table, ho hum.
We ordered a lovely Peking duck at Red Chilli, we were both very hungry and was determined to get some duck action. Anyway, there were two n00bish tables next to us, I already got an idea that they had no idea on what to get and will most likely eat set menu stuff, most of which had “Crispy Aromatic Duck”. Take note that it’s simply NOT peking duck, Peking ducks are roasted nicely and sliced up right in front of you by some fat chef (which makes you wonder why he’s always fat hehe) whilst the crispy variety only involves deep frying some duck and having the waiter/waitress “shred” it for you, it’s a lot more dry and has a dull deep fried brown look contrary to the nice golden glossy orange look.
Anyway, we were sat in some corner and the two n00b tables were placed in a way that our fat chef couldn’t come cut the duck right next to us. In comes the hilarious bit… Since the chef couldn’t cut the duck next to us he had to do it between both the tables, when the duck arrived both tables were staring at our duck being sliced up, one even took photos. They thought it was their duck since it’s being cut up next to them despite the waitress handing us the pancakes. Both tables just finished their starters so you can’t blame their gullible selves that they thought this was their duck. After some slicing the moment came, they served US the duck. Their faces were disappointed but by the looks of it they looked like they were expecting to get the same, this was when the waiter came and placed a lovely dull brown duck on their table. The reactions were priceless! Not to mention we got to see for both tables. Lesson of the day, Peking = win, Crispy = fail, thinking you’re getting a peking duck but getting a crispy = double fail
I managed to book a cheeky holiday to see Alice, she was busy the entire month except this weekend so it was important that we got to see each other this weekend. It was quite a lovely one even though we hardly go out. We spent the Friday shopping for ingredients to make ourselves an epic spaghetti! We once again failed in making a correct amount of spaghetti however we simply ate the rest for breakfast. We also bought ham and bagels to make… ham bagels… The spaghetti itself was awesome, we used good old Lloyds Grossman Smokey Bacon for the sauce as well as some actual bacon pieces. It was full of flavour, an awesome and epic team effort, we should of high fived each other but that’s lame haha.
The next day we went out to the moors for walkies, I forgot to do some shouting but was too tired from walking haha, mainly because I was getting pumped for Red Chilli. I wanted to get some duck action and all! We got to Leeds rather late (damn trains and whatnot) and when we were at Red Chilli we had to wait a bit before getting seats (originally we were told to wait for an hour! bastards!) We had a lovely evening eating awesome food and laughing at other tables.
The next day we had Sunday roast, this time was pork, however I missed the crackling 
it was nice nonetheless, I miss Alice’s mum’s cooking. I showed Alice and her parents the macbook too. I brought it for the weekend to convince Alice that she should get one, she seemed pretty convinced now so yeah 
The weekend was pretty sweet, I’ve booked another holiday soon after when I was back work to see her on easter! Not to mention DUCK WEEKEND!
I decided to go see them the day before they were playing, tickets were still on sale and I really enjoyed the song Alice put on my mix cd so I decided to pay them a gigging visit. The gig was awesome, I was sly enough to check out their latest setlist and make a playlist out of it so I knew some songs during the gig. I managed to smuggle my dslr camera using my usual smuggling technique and got loads of photo action. They played at Scala, Kings Cross, the beauty of this venue was that there wasn’t a gap between the band and the fans, we were literally next to the stage, meant I could take some nice shots. The lighting was amazing (it’s a club so it should have epic lighting) so the photos turned out really good. I got some real crispy action!
The most epic event in your life you’d think? The day you graduate, sadly it didn’t feel like it for me. I was to engrossed with working that uni stuff felt like “meh”. I suppose you need the studies to get the job and all but yeah, just weird that graduation would be blasé due to the fact that you feel like work makes more sense. Anyway, a graduation is a graduation and I decided to invite Alice as my guest and all. It was held at the Barbican Hall on a Friday so I booked myself a lovely holiday (as well as Alice) for the day. It also meant I got a weekend with Alice too in London.
The graduation itself was pretty boring, it was fun wearing the fancy graduation robe, but my part went quite quickly… a bit too quickly one might say, I was literally the SECOND person to receive my certificate. First class students get to go on stage first ;). But yeah the rest of the event was spent listening to a bunch of imbeciles hoot their fellow students when they received their awards, I mean, it’s a formal event, we’re at the Barbican, dressed up in robes and hooting? wtf? Ah well. The highlight of the graduation event (me picking up my award aside) was the fact that Mark Shuttleworth (founder of ubuntu) was there to make a speech! That was pretty epic. I spoke to a few students but kept it simple.
We went to hardwok cafe afterwards, Alice had never tried it and it was lunchtime so it made sense hehe. We managed to get the last of the yummy hardwok food, I had a Thai Red Curry (per usual) and Alice had a chicken in black bean sauce. We ate outside the place and had Krispy Kremes for dessert. Alice finally understood why I kept raving about hardwok cafe (if only the rest got it). Later on that evening we met up with Jason and Rachel for ANOTHER Royal China. We went to a Caffe Nero beforehand since it was a wee bit early and there we talked about how “judge judy” was the ONLY famous judge. Rachel said that there was another famous judge called “judge brown”. It was hard trying to make her crack that it was a lie since she kept building up a more and more elaborate lie about who judge brown was and what he did that made him so famous, it got to a point where Rachel said she was in contact with him and that he was her father. After a the battle of judge brown we headed to Royal China for our grub. This time we ordered a half duck to feast on as well as some dim sum dishes and awesome seafood noodles / ho fun. The meal was epic as ever (especially when we got ourselves some scallops action too) and though it was about £20 odd per head, it was a yummy meal! Afterwards we settled in the Natural Cafe and had a lovely chat like before.
The next day we had a meal at Wagamamma and spent the rest of the day at Central London, I took Alice to loads of places including Cyber Candy at Covent Garden and the Apple Store (beautiful landmark). It was disturbing how we managed to get a lot of things done, we also went to china town and got ourselves… ANOTHER duck haha, this time I went into a restaurant and ordered one cut up for din dins, it came to £14 which was amazing! We went to picadilly circus to so Alice could take the ubiquitous shot of the lights (not as epic as times square though).
Sunday we had a lovely meal with my dad and then spent the rest of the day watching Harry Potter (we managed to watch Sliding doors at one of the days too, it was a must!). We also watched Kill Bill and had a lovely meal at home. The next day Alice went back up north and I went to work again, it was a lovely day but it was always a bummer going to work and ONLY just departing with Alice. Ah well