...and a few days in the UK

After a break of about 2 months, it was once more time to visit that grand island of Great Britain. Since Mathilde had sneaked off to Angers with Alix for a week, I decided to head out there a bit early; on Saturday, to be able to participate in Adrian’s birthday BBQ.

Not sure whether it was a good idea to have a rather long night out in Nice with Pete, Mikko, Marianne and a friend of hers the night before the flight... So one could say I wasn’t on the best of form as I boarded the flight – but I had but myself to blame. But the main thing is; I made it without incident to London Heathrow - and amazingly enough, on time! Perhaps it was due to the magic of terminal 5 – my first flight there. I decided to brave British public transport and take a bus (it’s either that or pay an arm and a leg for a taxi) – and eventually arrived in Richmond about 1 ½ hours later.

The BBQ was great fun, met a bunch of new people, and also saw a few people I’ve not seen for ages; like Gilad, Anita, Gareth, Russell and Martha. And I met a bunch of new people, of course. As always, I was impressed by how international the proceedings were, there were people from all sorts of weird countries (Peru, Israel, South Africa, Poland, Rumania, etc. – being a Finn doesn’t even feel very exotic). The weather was of course typical British BBQ weather – ie. it rained for a lot of the time. But hey, who cares as long as people are having a blast? The rain did get to us eventually, and eventually even the hardiest of us finished up in Adrian’s comfy & intimate flat. Even Nick joined us eventually, about 2 hours late of course.

After a good night’s sleep on Adrian’s most comfortable sofa, it was time for me to head out for the rendez-vous I had made for the day. My first stop was at Kensington, where I had a coffee with Amal. Good to catch up with her – it’s been a while now. After that, I quickly sped on to Leicester square, for a lunch at a Moroccan restaurant not very originally named “the Souk” with Nick and Chie (Nick was only 45 minutes late this time). Unoriginally named or not; the place itself was great; really felt authentic (almost to the point where one might suspect more tourists than Moroccans go there). And the food was great, and not too expensive at all...

Anyway, after the lunch, I had to speed back to Richmond, where I had a hot movie data with Adrian and Yda, to watch the latest work of “art” from Sacha Baron Cohen, Brüno. I have to say, I was actually a bit disappointed with the film. It just didn’t quite work for me. In parts,. It was hilarious, in other parts, it just somehow didn’t work. It kind of had the same problems as Borat; which I thought was funnier than this one. At the end of the day, I still reckon Ali G is Cohen’s best character, hands down. Having done with the weekend’s dose of cinema, it was time to jump on the train down to Guildford. After dropping of my bags at Phil’s, it was time to head off for the final redez-vous on this rather busy Sunday, which was dinner with Manue at Chez Gerard. Nice to catch up with her again, especially since we didn’t get much of a chance last time (it was after all her big party, with a lot of people attending)... On the way back to Phil’s (who was unfortunately unavailable for merrymaking, having to get up 4 o'clock in the morning for work!), I made the philosophical observation that I still hadn’t been to the pub??

That inconsistency was taken care of the next evening in Fleet at the Oatsheaf, where I met up with Rob & Lisa for a couple of well-deserved pints after a hard day at the office. Good to catch up with them – every time I’m in the UK I’m supposed to meet up with them but it never seems to happen (possibly since I usually give them about 2 hours notice?). Juha joined as well – he’s family was away so he had “a free night”. After the well-deserved pints we met up at the Blue Tiger for a curry with Sinhung & Arthur (one of Sinhung;’s badminton buddies). So on that night I did manage to scratch off the two mandatory experiences on a UK trip – beer in the pub and a curry.

So another good trip to old Blighty then, all in all ;-)