The Playlist
I haven't done a post on music yet, so I figure it was time to write something up, even if it is small.
It just goes on and on
The thing about London which I've recently discovered in the last week or so is that the more effort you put into it, the more you get out of it.
For starters, London is a ridiculously large city. The transport as I know you are aware of, is very vast and extensive but even still, getting around the entire city takes a fairly long time - and that what makes London so interesting as a city. The more effort you put into getting around, taking the time to explore every inch of the city, the more you get from it - from nice places to eat, drink or club, to relaxing areas to sit around and waste time. The city is so diverse, it's very much like Sydney but on a much larger scale - and like Sydney, everywhere you go is like a new story, a new chapter to a book.
Just the other day we went and visited Hyde Park - something I wanted to do since I wanted to compare it to Sydney's Hyde Park. To be perfectly honest, the London Hyde Park makes Sydney's look like a dirt hole. It's not that Sydney's isn't nice - because we all know that it is quite a nice place, but the London version (well.. original version anyway) was just incredible. Firstly it was absolutely MASSIVE - I swear the park was about the size of Penrith, you could almost spend a day just walking through the park and not reach the other side. There's also a lake in the middle of the park which has paddle boats and dinghies for rent which I imagine would be a very nice ride on a nice day. The second and most important point about Hyde Park is that once you step into it, and walk for a bit, you would never imagine that you were in London. The park is lined with so many large trees and greens that you can't see the city at all. There's a few buildings that you can see the top of, but other than that it's hard to distinguish where you are.
But it takes effort to get into it. It would be hard to stroll into Hyde Park by accident - it's out of the way (to an extent) and there's really not much to do, other than to chill. It's the perfect place to waste a day reading, or sleeping on the grass, but it's not really accessible unless you walk for a while to begin with, or end up at Hyde Park Corner station. It's worth it though, it really is.
And that's what London is all about really - a big city with many little areas to explore, all hidden away in their little corners, waiting for people to come by and find them. I haven't really seen much of the city though, despite how long I've been here. What I've seen so far has been the regular areas people go, but it's the smaller, more unknown areas which I really want to find. Small markets, friendly pubs and quiet streets, I know they're out there just waiting.
The meal that changed my life
It's indescribable. I had it at lunch and I still don't know how to describe the taste, the texture and the overall delight that was today's lunch. Here's what it was: (in the order that it was served on the plate)
1. Turkish flatbread
2. Layer of couscous
3. Grilled free range chicken
4. Mediterranean style fried eggplant
5. Sweet lettuce and cucumber salad
6. Beetroot boroboni (?)
I'm not too sure about the last one - I know it was something similar but I'll check again tomorrow to see exactly how to spell it. But yes, it was an extravagant meal - probably one of the most flamboyant I've ever had in my life. The colours, as you can see are just out of this world - the Beetroot boroboni looked like paint, but tasted incredible. I can't think of anything similar to compare it too - even Peter who was with me having the same meal was in awe of the sheer taste.
The chicken was cooked to perfection, soft and subtle in flavour by itself but when mixed in with a spoonful of everything else, sensational. The sweet lettuce and cucumber was refreshing and added the balancing touch to the meal - it wasn't anything crazy but it brought the whole meal back down to earth. If it was something as outrageous as the sauce, then I can imagine the meal would've just been too overwhelming. The couscous added a lot of texture to the meal, which is exactly what it needed - it filled in the gaps and added feeling to the sauce. Last but not least, and probably my favourite part was the eggplant. It was SENSATIONAL. Sweet, soft and extremely juicy - I had to leave a few pieces last because I knew I wanted that taste to stay in my mouth when I finished the rest of the meal.
So.. how much did it cost?
£5.00.
I bought it at a street market in Farringdon, which to my knowledge is a daily thing during weekdays. I'll be going back tomorrow to try another dish that peaked my interest. Something like a Grilled Salmon with Mediterranean Rice, I'll post again if it's as good as this one.
-Niku
For you iPhone users
I've installed a new plugin which automatically formats the site for the iPhone/Touch/Blackberry and other smart phones.
I've tried it out myself on my phone and it's BLOODY GOOD. Saves a lot of time loading, and makes everything fit nicely portrait OR landscape. You can also switch between the original site and the mobile site with a single flick. The pictures remain and scale with the phone, and you can do all the usual stuff (like make comments).
Let me know what you think, and if it's all running smoothly on your end.
I buckled
Yeah I didn't expect to, but I couldn't resist. The offer was just too good to pass up. It was also the last one available so, at that time I weighed the pros and cons and went with it. You're obviously wondering what I'm talking about, since I haven't really mentioned anything about it yet.
I bought a PSP.
Sexy lounge? Check.
I didn't know about this until tonight, but the lounge in my place is pimped out and awesome. Stuart turned them on for the first time, and from now on I'll definitely keep them lit up. Here's a pic:
Below the lounge is 2 large, flat Ultraviolet lights hooked up to a power board on the floor. To my knowledge they only have 1 setting (on/off) though I haven't really seen the lights by themselves. They could have some sort of pulse/beat setting, I'll have to check it out later on.
Either way, it turns the lounge from being awesomely large and comfortable, to awesomely large, comfortable and sexy. Whip on some rockin beats, turn up the bass and this nice, modern lounge becomes a party pad.
Sweet!
How does it look?
So now that the site has been up for a good 2-3 weeks, I'd like some feedback on it. Just general things really, I don't plan to change a lot of it, but I would like to know what people think.
1. How are the colours? Is anything too bright, or too dull?
2. How is the font sizes? Is everything easy to read?
3. How is the spacing? Is everything clear and spread out enough?
The header and the background colours are pretty much the only thing I want to change consistently, so I'd like to make sure these things don't mess up anything else. The headers I've already done (about 7 or so) and I'll match each header with an appropriate background colour. I'm really loving this pink though (the one at the moment) and it matches with the header which is a bonus.
I'll do a post when I decide to change the header/colours so you can hit refresh, in case your cache decides it doesn't want to recheck for changes.
Oh, I forgot to mention
Whilst I was in Barcelona, I got to try something I've always wanted to try.
Stuart took me and Maier through the back alleys of Barcelona, and into the semi-rough areas to find a bar. But not just any bar, this bar hadn't been cleaned in about 300 years. You could tell this by the amount of dust piled up on the old scotch and wine bottles displayed along the ceiling of the bar. The floor was swept regularly, but that was about it. Now, this bar was special in that it was famous for serving 1 type of drink as it's specialty, and this drink is what I tried.