Well it’s been a while since my last work/pub trip to good old England, so it was about time... Which meant an inhumanely early Monday warning wakeup call, quick breakfast and off to the airport! 4 hours later, ahead of schedule (miracles still exist, obviously), I found myself in the country of warm beer and cold food (as somebody French once so eloquently put it) once more. A taxi drive through the English rain (doh, just as the weather on the Riviera was getting warm & sunny again after an uncharacteristically windy and rainy week).
After a typical day at the office, I headed back to Guildford, where I was staying as usual. This time I decided to go for style and went for the Manderley hotel instead of the normal Guildford hotel (which is well-located within stumbling distance of most pubs, has decent-ish rooms, and is reasonably priced for the UK anyway). To be quite honest, even though the place is a tad nicer than the Guildford hotel, I expected a bit more for £130 – oh well.... Anyway, the necessary practicalities out of the way, I headed down the high street for my first rendez-vous of the evening – dinner with Manue in La Scala. It was a nice enough Italian place, and the food was pretty good. Maxime decided to join us – much to our amazement wearing a suit (yes, there was an explanation thankfully – he’d just had an interview). My appetite sated, I headed down to the King’s head for a couple of beers. The usual gang was there – Phil, Stephane, Steve and Kartsa. Stephane dropped a bit of a bombshell on us – apparently he has decided to leave his cozy if apparently somewhat underpaid job at the University and move to San Diego to work for Qualcomp! Shocking news – one of my most reliable drinking buddies gone! To mark this sad event we headed off to Farenheit, as always, and spent all our spare change playing the quiz machine. How sad...
Tuesday night the plan was to head off to London. Participation was a bit sparse, as only Nick, Chie and Stephane showed up (even Sinhung disappointed – something about being too old for 2 nights out in a row...!). We met up in the Arch one bar just next doors to Waterloo, for a couple of pre-dinner drinks and catching up. We then had to catch a taxi to make our dinner reservation, at a very nice Japanese restaurant overlooking the Thames – nice idea, Chie. Our taste buds were truly in for a treat – the food was very nice indeed, and something I’d never tried before (a bit like Japanese tapas or something – a collection of nibbles and small dishes).
All washed down with some proper Japanese beer. And the dinner didn’t even set us back more than about 20 pounds, not bad considering the location and variety of dishes we tried. Then it was time to head back to Guildford – sadly enough Stephane convinced me to have a quick night cap at Fahrenheit’s – again.
Wednesday – fortunately (for my wallet and liver) my last evening in the UK this time around – was team building day (along with some colleagues of ours from Tampere). We started in the afternoon with some go-carting in Camberley – great fun. After a few practice laps, we split up into teams of three and race on! I ended up with 2 other Finns as team mates, and figured we’d do pretty will (what with Finnish racing genes ‘n all) – but alas our performance left much to be desired. I blame it on the weight, on the basis that me and Juha are “made of sturdy stuff” whereas Timo, the skinny lad, clocked consistently better times than us (unfortunately Timo’s blistering speed meant we couldn’t blame the car...). Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up 2nd last, but had great fun (that’s the main point, right?). After the racing we headed down to Fleet for some beers and of course a curry! As there were no handy train connection to Guildford, Mohammed was kind enough to drive me all the way to Guildford! Actually, I was back early enough to go for a quick one in – yes you guessed it, Fahrenheit (this time with Stephane and his mate from Paris, Nicholas). Somehow an appropriate end for the trip though?
After a typical day at the office, I headed back to Guildford, where I was staying as usual. This time I decided to go for style and went for the Manderley hotel instead of the normal Guildford hotel (which is well-located within stumbling distance of most pubs, has decent-ish rooms, and is reasonably priced for the UK anyway). To be quite honest, even though the place is a tad nicer than the Guildford hotel, I expected a bit more for £130 – oh well.... Anyway, the necessary practicalities out of the way, I headed down the high street for my first rendez-vous of the evening – dinner with Manue in La Scala. It was a nice enough Italian place, and the food was pretty good. Maxime decided to join us – much to our amazement wearing a suit (yes, there was an explanation thankfully – he’d just had an interview). My appetite sated, I headed down to the King’s head for a couple of beers. The usual gang was there – Phil, Stephane, Steve and Kartsa. Stephane dropped a bit of a bombshell on us – apparently he has decided to leave his cozy if apparently somewhat underpaid job at the University and move to San Diego to work for Qualcomp! Shocking news – one of my most reliable drinking buddies gone! To mark this sad event we headed off to Farenheit, as always, and spent all our spare change playing the quiz machine. How sad...
Tuesday night the plan was to head off to London. Participation was a bit sparse, as only Nick, Chie and Stephane showed up (even Sinhung disappointed – something about being too old for 2 nights out in a row...!). We met up in the Arch one bar just next doors to Waterloo, for a couple of pre-dinner drinks and catching up. We then had to catch a taxi to make our dinner reservation, at a very nice Japanese restaurant overlooking the Thames – nice idea, Chie. Our taste buds were truly in for a treat – the food was very nice indeed, and something I’d never tried before (a bit like Japanese tapas or something – a collection of nibbles and small dishes). 
All washed down with some proper Japanese beer. And the dinner didn’t even set us back more than about 20 pounds, not bad considering the location and variety of dishes we tried. Then it was time to head back to Guildford – sadly enough Stephane convinced me to have a quick night cap at Fahrenheit’s – again. 
Wednesday – fortunately (for my wallet and liver) my last evening in the UK this time around – was team building day (along with some colleagues of ours from Tampere). We started in the afternoon with some go-carting in Camberley – great fun. After a few practice laps, we split up into teams of three and race on! I ended up with 2 other Finns as team mates, and figured we’d do pretty will (what with Finnish racing genes ‘n all) – but alas our performance left much to be desired. I blame it on the weight, on the basis that me and Juha are “made of sturdy stuff” whereas Timo, the skinny lad, clocked consistently better times than us (unfortunately Timo’s blistering speed meant we couldn’t blame the car...). Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up 2nd last, but had great fun (that’s the main point, right?). After the racing we headed down to Fleet for some beers and of course a curry! As there were no handy train connection to Guildford, Mohammed was kind enough to drive me all the way to Guildford! Actually, I was back early enough to go for a quick one in – yes you guessed it, Fahrenheit (this time with Stephane and his mate from Paris, Nicholas). Somehow an appropriate end for the trip though?
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