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And I mean, hot. Like summer in Australia type of hot. Today it hit 32 degrees. 32! Now, I know what all you Australian’s are thinking – 32 degrees isn’t really that hot; and I agree, it’s actually really nice sitting outside in the shade! But London just isn’t equipped to cope with temperatures like these.

I’m lucky enough to have air-conditioning in my building at work – lots of people don’t though, and boy am I feeling sorry for them this week! Last week our office a/c broke down, and it rapidly hit 29 degrees inside. And, since all the windows are locked as a matter of policy, there’s also no air movement, which makes it hard to concentrate, but easy to fall asleep!

Thankfully, the a/c is back on this week, and at the moment it’s cranked up to it’s maximum. This has somehow caused it to leak water, and since we’re on the top floor, it’s been dripping through the roof. One of the business analysts that I work with had a leak above her desk that was so bad, that it destroyed one of her monitors. And those bad boys aren’t cheap (think £1,000+)!

On the upside, it’s been absolutely gorgeous outside these last few days, with nothing but beautiful blue, sunny skies to be seen. Perfect sunglasses weather! And, since we’re in daylight savings, it stays light until around 9:45 PM! All this beautiful summer is totally making me forget about the miserable winter!

gerrod weather

Kristy and I ate at Valentina at East Putney last night. It’s a rustic Italian restaurant, and Julian had told us that it “looked like a place where we would eat”. Well, we didin’t want to let him down!

My immediate impression of the place was that it was Carluccio’s, just going by a different name. Kristy disagrees, but:

• They have the same blue and white coloured banner out the front of the shop;
• They have various foods for sale as soon as you walk in, including a fresh food deli;
• Just beyond the food section is the restaurant section; and
• They serve illy coffee.

Sound familiar? I’ll admit that I’m not sure which brand of coffee they sell at Carluccio’s, but I’m willing to make a (small) bet that it’s illy!

Anyway, on to the food. Neither of us could decipher the wine menu, as everything was listed by region, and none of the bottles were described. Fail! We had to ask one of the waitresses for a recommendation, and ended up with a bottle of one of the house whites. It was actually really nice – not too sweet or dry, fresh, fruity – really easy to drink. Should have got the name of it!

We shared an entrée of scallops wrapped in bacon, served on a salad. I’m sure it was described more nicely than that, but that’s effectively what it was. It was tasty enough, however we were a little disappointed to only find two scallops on the plate – at £7.50 for the dish, it seemed a little pricey.

My main was a whole sea bass with olives, capers and potatoes. The sauce was nice enough but the fish had so many tiny little bones in it that it really ruined the experience.
Kristy had a pasta dish of sorts – a giant parcel containing pork meatballs and tagliatelle, wrapped up in ham, and served with a tomato sauce. It was delicious! I had definite food envy!

Overall the bill was about £50 including tip – not exactly the cheapest night out, and having been disappointed by the size of the entree, and all the bones in my fish, I don’t think I’d rush back. Though if I did, I’d definitely be getting the meatball thing, it was really quite good. gerrod.com rating: 6/10.

gerrod restaurants, reviews, uk

There’s a towpath near our place that’s bordered by the Thames on one side and a long line of rowing clubs on the other. It’s funny to walk along there early on weekend mornings and see everybody running around in their wellies, getting the boats ready. At the end of the towpath there’s a sign that’s always intrigued me, promising that if I go down this shady path I’ll end up in Richmond Park. Eventually.

So on Sunday Ariella and Paul came around for coffee and cupcakes then we set off together on the walk. It was unseasonably warm for London, with temps in the very high 20s, but on we trekked walking for about 2.5 hours. The walk wasn’t terribly well signed, so we stopped at many a junction to scratch our heads. A combination of iphone GPS and old-fashioned logic (”it’s called the Beverley Brook Walk, so we should probably stay next to the water”) got us there eventually. 

We reached the park in about 1.5 hours, then spent another hour walking across it. While checking out a park map we were amazed at the oddly named features: King Henry’s Mound, Spankers Hill, and Leg-of-Mutton Pond. The English are definitely odd. We finally emerged out the other side where a friendly pub and half pint of cider awaited. And boy were we thirsty!

My favourite moment of the walk was passing a family of humans relaxing in the grass, about 3 metres away from a family of deer doing exactly the same thing. And the daddy deer (known to his friends as Buck) had the biggest antlers I’ve ever seen. Meanwhile, Ariella was mocking him for having the tiniest ears on earth, but I think they just looked small by comparison.

The official walk continued out the far side of the Park and on to New Malden station, but we were tired. So we took a bus home.

And that’s the end of my story.

kristy uk

For about as long as I can remember, or at the very least, since a few weeks ago, I’ve been wanting to build a Media Centre PC. It’s not the easiest thing to research – there’s a few places where you can buy something “out of the box”, but I couldn’t find any that would put a machine together out of the pieces I wanted. So, I finally bit the bullet, bought all the bits, and put it together myself!

I’ve never actually put a computer together from scratch before, so I was a little intimidated. The thing I was most worried about was the CPU, as there’s so many things that can go wrong with it. For example, if you don’t have enough thermal paste between the CPU and the heatsync, and it can overheat, burn out, and potentially damage the motherboard as well. Ironically, if you have too much thermal paste, the same thing can happen!

There were a few other gotchas as well, like just trying to get everything to fit. It’s a fairly large case, but due to the way it’s “zoned” (which helps with cooling), there’s not a lot of space for all the cables to fit in. Plus, I made a few n00b mistakes, such as not attaching both power connectors to the motherboard, and then wondering why nothing happened when I powered on.

But after a few false starts, I finally had everything up and running! Here’s the final product – as you can see, the machine fits perfectly into our existing TV cabinet:

The only thing that I couldn’t get working properly was the sound. I was relying on the sound from the motherboard, but as it turns out there’s no optical output. So after a number of frustrating hours trying to get that working, I’ve given up and ordered a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio card instead. Awesome!

Update: The new audio card has arrived, and has been installed. Just wish I got this one in the first place, it would have saved a lot of headaches!

gerrod gadgets, geek, new stuff

A couple of weeks ago, Al and I went out to Brixton to catch Faith No More playing at the academy. I must admit, I’m not the worlds biggest Faith No More fan, however there are a lot of their songs I consider to be a classic, and given this – along with the fact that Brixton has to be one of the best venues ever, due mainly to the sloping floor – I was happy to tag along.

The warm-up act was easily one of the most forgettable bands I have ever seen. At one point, Al said to me, “What’s with that chick?” referring to the lead singer; unfortunately though, it was, in fact, a bloke. But I had to let him off the hook – the way he was dancing and the clothes he was wearing made it rather ambiguous. It was also the first time I’ve ever seen a band actually booed off the stage – it was harsh, but fair!

Faith No More came on to an eruption of applause. It was their first gig in something like 10 years, and judging by the reaction from the crowd, they had been sorely missed.

If I had to summarise the gig in one word, it would be “loud”. I was wearing earplugs, yet at times I still had to cover my ears to dampen the noise. I think this was mainly when Mike Paton (the lead singer) was yelling into a microphone – through a megaphone.

As you can see, the noise meter on my iPhone tops out at 120 dB. Each time I took a reading, the needle went straight to the end of the display, and didn’t move. I’ve never seen it do that before, it usually bounces around a bit before finally reporting the “average”. Yes, this was definitely the loudest gig that I’ve ever been to, and I felt extremely sorry for all the hardcore fans who are still convinced that earplugs ruin the sound.

But, credit where credit is due – it was an excellent concert. With such a plethora of hits at their disposal, they could have played practically anything and the crowd would have loved it. Definite favourites for me were Midlife Crisis, Stripsearch, and Be Aggressive.

The commute home was a bit of a nightmare due to all tube lines being down (tube strike), so I missed the last couple of songs in order to save myself having to get a taxi. But I walked out extremely satisfied, so no real complaints! gerrod.com rating: 8.5/10.

gerrod live music, uk

The flagship store for clothing brand Abercrombie and Fitch is on 5th Avenue in New York. One of the tactics they use to lure in the youngsters (and unfortunately, some not-so-youngsters) is to put a shirtless model out the front, who happily poses with passers by for a photo. I had to twist Sami and Dani’s arms pretty hard, but they finally agreed to let me take their photo with our shirtless friend.

Seemingly, the tactic works, as every time I’ve been to A&F, it’s packed to the clappers.

Another company that I’m quite fond of also has their flagship store on 5th Avenue, and seemingly they’ve noticed that putting a typical model of their customer base out the front is a great advertising tactic. I had to twist Kristy’s arm pretty hard, but finally she agreed to take a photo of me with my – thankfully, non-shirtless – genius friend.

Given that the Apple Store is always chaotic with customers, no matter what time of day you visit, it would seem as though copying Abercrombie’s tactic is working wonderfully for them. Well, it’s either that or the free internet access; but I’m fairly certain it’s the genius out the front.

gerrod humour, new york shopping

Mom and Dad were in New York over the weekend, and so at the very last minute (literally: we booked on Monday night to fly on Thursday), Kristy and I decided that we’d go over to see them. After all, we couldn’t let them wander around alone – they’re not trustworthy!

Turns out we weren’t the only ones gate-crashing the party – Mom’s two brothers came up, as did Martyn’s girlfriend Jenni Lopez (yes, really, but not like you’re thinking), and an eccentric old friend of all of theirs, Maria. To be fair, M&D knew that all of those folks would be there – but as a surprise, Natalie, Philip, Sami and Dani came along for the ride as well! That’s 12 people! Aged from 16, to 74!

On reflection, it would have been good to have arranged everyone in age order, but instead, it’s an exercise for the reader to figure it out. And yes, I realise that there’s only 10 people in that photo, but I was behind the camera, and Kristy was out drinking cocktails with Claire.

Anyway – though it was awesome to see Mom’s extended family all in one place, I have to admit it was pretty tough at times trying to come up with activities that would appease the entire crowd. We had some winners though – walking around in Greenwich Village, Dim Sum and ice-cream in Chinatown, the UN and our old neighbourhood, Ray’s Pizza, and of course the absolute, second-to-none highlight of the trip – Chipotle.

There were a few occasions where our group fragmented into sub-groups of similar interests, such that everyone got to do what they wanted to do. On one such occasion, Dad, Philip and I walked from Chinatown to the Brooklyn Bridge, as the bridge was very high on Dad’s list of “things to see in New York”.

We took a slightly wrong turn somewhere and ended up more under the bridge than we wanted to be. A cop directed us down a path which initially took us right next to the bridge, where a bunch of young folks were tricking it up on their bikes and skateboards. Some of them were absolutely sensational! We stopped and admired them for a while, taking a few photos for posterity’s sake.

Figuring that we’d only be in our room to sleep and get changed, we decided to save some money by staying at the YMCA. It’s a good thing we didn’t host any parties there, because the room was very basic – two bunk beds, and very little else!

But, at only USD$306 for four night’s accommodation in midtown east, we were hardly in a position to complain. Also, we got to use the gym for free, and being former members, we knew just how good it was! I really enjoyed waking up each morning and going for a run – all the while watching cable TV!

It was awesome being back in Manhattan, especially so with Mom and Dad and the rest of the troops. Four days was barely enough to give everyone a taste of how great the city is, but I think it was just about the right amount of time to allow such a large group to leave on amicable terms; if there’s another group holiday, I’m going to suggest we all just go and sit on a beach!

gerrod new york family

When we were in Camden, we ventured in to a somewhat out-of-place store called Cyberdog. Mainly they sold clothing, though it was nothing that you’d catch me wearing; except perhaps if I needed a high-visibility outfit for cycling, or for picking up in Soho.

Truth be told, it was actually more like a nightclub than a store, with extremely loud dance music pumping out from massive speakers, and a light show to rival Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. The basement level had a gigantic, colourful spectrum analyzer on the back wall, which I must admit was pretty cool, and definitely warranted a photo. I un-subtly pulled out my iPhone and framed up the shot.

As it turns out, photos were not allowed in the store. I’m still at a loss to explain precisely why this is, as I think their market is so niche that the threat of being copied by anyone is pretty remote. Anyway – a camp young lad with a yellow mohawk and a rather unnecessary muscle shirt (just visible on the left of the shot) caught my photo taking antics, and promptly marched over to tell me off.

It took him at least three attempts for me to hear what he actually said over the music, and even though I knew precisely the gist of what he was saying, I made him repeat himself over and over for the fun of it. Finally, exasperated, he “threw” us out, exclaiming, “You can’t take photos in here! Get out of my store!”. It was a win-win situation, really – there was no chance we were going to be buying anything, and I left with the photo intact.

And so, for whatever reason makes it so treacherously illegal, feast your eyes on the glory that is the photo from Cyberdog. Take that, hippies!

gerrod uk

Pearl Jam are coming to London, and you’d better believe that I was snapping up some tickets the moment they were available. Somehow though, within about four minutes (yes, literally four minutes) of the tickets going on sale to the public, all 23,000 seats had sold out!

Anyway, amidst all the panic, I managed to snare four tickets for Kristy, me, Nick, and Pat. Once the confirmation mail arrived in my inbox, I promptly mailed all involved to let them know the good news, and to not-so-subtly pass on my bank account details.

So about two weeks later, I was cleaning out my inbox when I once again came across the confirmation mail for the tickets. Feeling a bit nostalgic, I clicked on the mail to admire my handiwork in doing what millions could not, when out of the blue, disaster struck.

The tickets were for the Manchester show.

Suddenly, everything fell into place! When I was trying to buy the tickets, one moment I was being told that everything was sold out, and the next minute the four tickets were allocated to me! I had thought it was due to my clever tactic of trying with a different browser, but as it turns out it was my accidental tactic of trying for a concert in a different city!

*sigh*

So how does the sordid tale end? Well, I managed to sell my tickets on Ticketmaster’s ticket resale site, and for the privilege of doing so, I got to pay them a another processing fee – 10% of the resale value. Cheeky buggers! Worse still, the only way to get tickets for the London show was to buy them in the exact same fashion; I managed to pick up a couple of tickets off eBay for slightly less than double their face value.

Sad for me.

So the lessons from all of this?

• Join the 10 Club and get tickets in the pre-sale
• Double check the venue
• If possible, get someone else to organise the tickets!

Sorry once again to Nick and Pat for the run-around!

gerrod uk

There’s often people touting their goods to the public at Victoria train station, which makes it a great place to pick up a small sample of a random product that you never knew you needed. Previous items I’ve scored include a bullet pack of Nivea Silver protect deodorant, a pocket-pack of Kleenex anti-viral tissues, and various other small products clearly didn’t make too much of an impact on me or I’d surely remember them better now.

Today’s offering was Pepsi Raw, which they were pushing on my way to work this morning. I decided to skip the calories and walk straight on by; however as it turns out they were still there on my way home, and I had no such luck skipping out a second time. The promoter guy really deserves a raise, as he seamlessly thrust a can into my hand as I was walking past, absent mindedly looking up at the train timetable.

I took it as a sign – clearly this can contained nectar from the gods! And it certainly billed itself that way (or just about, anyway) – “a delicious new cola made with sparkling water and naturally sourced ingredients.”

So how was it? Well, either the gods have pretty low expectations, or this was not the divine drink that I thought it would be. To be fair, it was actually pretty good – sweet, but not too sweet, and lacking that signature caramel flavour that usually puts me right off Pepsi after one mouthful.

I’d have it again, but on a menu next to Coke Zero, it probably wouldn’t get my vote.

gerrod uk