First visit for 2010 to my favourite rainy island coming up! It’s been quite a winter on the ol’ British isles so far this year (like everywhere in Europe, I suppose); with even worse chaos than usually (when I used to live there, we often had one or two days of snow, during which the country would effectively grind to a halt). I was actually kind of secretly hoping to experience a bit of proper winter weather during my visit – but alas it was not to be. By the time I travelled, the weather was back to its normal grey; windy, rainy self…
Not to be deterred by this though; I took the taxi straight from the airport down to Farnborough, where I joined my team for the weekly beer ‘n curry evening in Zaffron. In spite of arriving fashionably late; I had plenty of time to enjoy “a traditional English meal”. The turn-up was pretty good; Steve, Tasha, Dave, Pragati, Mohammed and even Cliff made it. Frank, at whose place I was staying during my trip; also joined us. All in all, we had a good curry, me catching up with the latest office gossip.
Our stomachs filled, we jumped into Frank’s Merc and sped down to Guildford. After we dumped my luggage at “Hotel Lundqvist”, we headed off to our next rendez-vous – pints at the Keystones pub. It’s not a place I go to very often, so it made a nice change from the usual establishments (the King’s head, the Drummond, the Guildford Tup etc.). Dependable Phil was already there with a couple of ex-colleagues. Later, we were joined by the equally trustworthy Nick. It was all a typically nerdy engineering night out; although the subject matter was satellites and space rockets instead of mobile phones, for once (Phil and his mates are working in the satellite business). After a few pints to settle our stomachs after the curry (?), we stumbled back to Frank’s flat for some well-deserved sleep….
After a hard Thursday at the office, it was time for the customary night out to London. Unfortunately, Frank couldn’t join me this time, due to having to finish off a report at work… As usually, I took a train down to Waterloo station, from where I made my way to the Arch One bar, just across the road from the train station (like last time, Adrian picked the place – being a student these days I suppose he’s got time to plan nights out ;-) ). The turn-up was pretty good again, with Ed, Adrian, Emilie and Sinhung showing up. After a couple of pints for “aperitif”, Chie and French David joined us in our search for a restaurant.
The original plan had been to go to a Cuban restaurant near Waterloo, which Chie had been trying to book (without success). Unfortunately, the place was fully booked - a pity since I’d been looking forward to a couple of Mojitos! In the, we found ourselves in a sort of French-Italian restaurant not far away; where we were also joined by Geoff. It was a pretty good choice; though. The food was decent, the wine list extensive, and we all had a great time. The French waitress was a good laugh as well (unfortunately we weren’t able to convince Sinhung to try his “rude French expressions taught by Christian” on her – I suppose he just wasn’t drunk enough). But anyway, we had a really great time!
After surviving another day at the office, it was time to leave the British islands for some real winter – yep that’s right, Helsinki calling!
Not to be deterred by this though; I took the taxi straight from the airport down to Farnborough, where I joined my team for the weekly beer ‘n curry evening in Zaffron. In spite of arriving fashionably late; I had plenty of time to enjoy “a traditional English meal”. The turn-up was pretty good; Steve, Tasha, Dave, Pragati, Mohammed and even Cliff made it. Frank, at whose place I was staying during my trip; also joined us. All in all, we had a good curry, me catching up with the latest office gossip. 
Our stomachs filled, we jumped into Frank’s Merc and sped down to Guildford. After we dumped my luggage at “Hotel Lundqvist”, we headed off to our next rendez-vous – pints at the Keystones pub. It’s not a place I go to very often, so it made a nice change from the usual establishments (the King’s head, the Drummond, the Guildford Tup etc.). Dependable Phil was already there with a couple of ex-colleagues. Later, we were joined by the equally trustworthy Nick. It was all a typically nerdy engineering night out; although the subject matter was satellites and space rockets instead of mobile phones, for once (Phil and his mates are working in the satellite business). After a few pints to settle our stomachs after the curry (?), we stumbled back to Frank’s flat for some well-deserved sleep….
After a hard Thursday at the office, it was time for the customary night out to London. Unfortunately, Frank couldn’t join me this time, due to having to finish off a report at work… As usually, I took a train down to Waterloo station, from where I made my way to the Arch One bar, just across the road from the train station (like last time, Adrian picked the place – being a student these days I suppose he’s got time to plan nights out ;-) ). The turn-up was pretty good again, with Ed, Adrian, Emilie and Sinhung showing up. After a couple of pints for “aperitif”, Chie and French David joined us in our search for a restaurant.
The original plan had been to go to a Cuban restaurant near Waterloo, which Chie had been trying to book (without success). Unfortunately, the place was fully booked - a pity since I’d been looking forward to a couple of Mojitos! In the, we found ourselves in a sort of French-Italian restaurant not far away; where we were also joined by Geoff. It was a pretty good choice; though. The food was decent, the wine list extensive, and we all had a great time. The French waitress was a good laugh as well (unfortunately we weren’t able to convince Sinhung to try his “rude French expressions taught by Christian” on her – I suppose he just wasn’t drunk enough). But anyway, we had a really great time!After surviving another day at the office, it was time to leave the British islands for some real winter – yep that’s right, Helsinki calling!
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