You Know It's Not Good, When *I'm* An Expert

On Sunday, a friend from work had us over to his flat for celebrate his and his wife's birthdays, as well as to watch the London Marathon pass by underneath us as they crossed the Tower Bridge.
He's American, his wife is Australian. So the brunch was full of ex-pats of various stripes as well as many locals.

One of the women that I chatted with was from Boston (okay, Winchester). I think the funniest thing was when we were commiserating about what we miss from home. We waxed poetic about Dunkies.

I also got to share some of the knowledge that I picked up about getting local credit cards as well as sending money home via PayPal. I guess I'm getting settled here.

Homeland Security Wants TRON

Just when I thought the Bush administration couldn't do anything more stupid, I'm surprised anew.

Homeland Security Classified The 1982 Movie Tron 'Sensitive'.

Reports are emerging from members of the movie industry that the Department of Homeland Security has designated the 1982 film TRON as "sensitive", and ordered Walt Disney Studios to turn over all copies of the film in its posession. Retailers are also receiving notices to remove all copies of the film from stock shelves and turn them over to Federal officials. The reports have industry insiders bewildered and outraged.

What the hell?

WTF?!

For the second night in a row, I was awakened by a dream (I think) a couple of hours after I went to bed. And once again, I can't get back to sleep.

I vaguely remember someone shouting and then when I woke up, the flat was silent. Last night, may have been the same, but I'm not sure.

Oh well, I futzed around for an hour. Back to bed to try and wrestle Morpheus into submission.

It's Started

Woo.

Update: That blurry image is Kevin Smith. Sorry for the quality from the upper deck. It was an irreverent, foul-mouthed blast. We learned far more than I really wanted to know about a variety of subjects. As always, Smith was entertaining and hilarious in a four-plus hour Q&A with his fans.

The Line to See Kevin Smith

Just shoot me. But after a few minutes, I wasn't at the end anymore.

Bad Tech Week - Week Three Redux

As much as I hate doing it, I guess yelling at the poor sales person in India actually did some good. They sent me the part next day air. I got it this afternoon and six minutes later, I had a working laptop again. Go Dell.

Now I just need Palm to be working.

Dans Le Noir — Post-Dinner

Last night, a couple of co-workers and I went to go to Dans Le Noir for dinner.

To our left, you see one co-worker and her boyfriend and to the right, another.

The four of us settled in at a convenient pub for libations before dinner — it's London, they're on every corner. I, for one, am looking forward to July when London's smoking ban kicks in. Soon, the UK will be smoke free in public buildings.

In time for our reservations, we walked to the restaurant. We found a nearly empty lobby with a maitre de, a bar and a bank of lockers. We were asked to put any of our light creating devices in the lockers: cell phones, blackberries, etc... After a quick toddle to the loo, we were ready to head to our table.

First, we chose which surprise menu we wanted: Red - the full surprise; White - the meat surprise; Blue - the meatless surprise; Green - the vegetarian surprise. Then they asked if we had any allergies. Once that was sorted, a few minutes later we were introduced to our blind waiter. (All the servers at Dans Le Noir are all blind.) He had each of us put our right hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us and then led us down a dark hallway through thick curtains, under a blast of hot air, and into a dark room.

It was pitch black. The only light was a luminous watch face that one of us had forgotten. At this point, I felt more than a little silly wearing my glasses in the dark.

Our server was very solicitious to make sure that all of us weren't too badly discomfited by the transition. Then he led us to our table. The women on one side, the men on the other. It was a long table, though narrow and we sat close to one another. The table settings was utilitarian: a tall blocky glass, a shorter blocky glass, a heavy fork, a heavy knife, and a napkin.

It was very disconcerting. I couldn't tell what the others were doing, but myself, I was busy familiarizing myself with what was there. Almost as soon as I had explored my little area, the server was back with our glasses of champagne (again, in small blocky glasses), a bottle of water and two bottles of wine, as well as the bread. There was no butter, which I was kind of glad for because with the bottles and glasses that I, at least, was feeling a little overwhelmed.

The bread was fantastic. Crusty, warm and flavorful.

The others were talking about a musty smell in the room, but with my allergies I could barely smell the bread. We chatted to try to keep everyone relaxed in the dark. Those of us on the ends stretched our arms to see how far the table went. My side stretched at least two seats farther, but the gentleman on my right was at the corner of his part of the table. There was another couple (or group) in the dark with us — they weren't at our table, but often when we were chatting among ourselves we couldn't hear them.

The starters were interesting. Some of our party chose to eat with their fingers, trusting that things would be easier that way. I used my fork that often it would come to my mouth empty. Our table was punctuated by surprised exclamations of taste and texture. "Ooh, I had bits of sausage." "There's hummus in mine." "Rocket." (We call it arugula.)

Mine had a big piece of fish that I later found out was herring. (Proving that their definition of no meat is much like mine, as expected.)

Nerd that I am, I was careful to put my fork on the left and the knife on my right, so that I could find everything with a minimum of fumbling.

Our server came by to collect our starter plates, which I am proud to say I got mine to him without a problem. I was also able to pour my water without splashing it all over the table (granted, I only poured a couple of glug glugs into the glass and I had my finger in there to make sure I had a gap at the top of the glass).

Then came out entrees. Again, we played the I wonder what we're eating game. The food was fantastic. My meal had bits of prawn, potatoes and veg in a sauce. The chef was able to do something interesting with presentation, so that it was all small and bite sized. I would have loved to see what it looked like.

Around this point, I had my big faux pas of the evening. I poured myself some water and was surprised to find that I'd accidentally poured wine. I finished my glass and wasn't too thrilled about it. I explained what happened to the table to chuckles. This was quickly followed by the co-worker sitting across the table wondering where her wine glass was. Happily, I read enough mystery fiction to jump in and figure that one out by myself.

When the server came back, we all decided to add dessert. It was some sort of creamy, cold and warm dessert with bananas and a crispy shell. Very good.

For me, the main shock was when we got outside and found the price. For four people, a three-course meal, two bottles of wine, one bottle of still water, and four glasses of champagne was £240 (without gratuity). I thought that was a little excessive. I think the three course meal without drinks was £37 or so, so clearly the wine and champagne picked was better than a non-drinker is used to.

Even with price as a consideration, I definitely recommend it as an interesting dining option.

Celebrity Spotting In London

I saw about one a month when I was in New York.

In London, I've seen two:

Dexter Fletcher from a few of my favorite UK flicks: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Layer Cake.

Last night, I saw Kevin Smith, who was in town for a couple of shows. He's shorter than I thought and personally, I think it was way too cold to be wearing shorts beneath his long "Silent Bob" coat.

Bad Tech - Week Three

Gotta love Dell. I was told again that my delivery date is going to slide.

So instead of getting my new internal keyboard (that I was told was in stock, when I bought it) on Mar 28. I'm now going to get it on Apr 12 (maybe).

Still waiting on my new LifeDrive stylus.

At least I have a long weekend.

Woo! Bank Holiday Weekend

I didn't realize it, but this weekend is a bank holiday weekend. We have both Friday and Monday off.

Not sure what I'm going to do, but I'm hoping to embrace one of the seven deadly sins and sloth out for at least one of the days.

Leading up to it should be a lot of fun: Tue, going to see 300 with a friend; Wed, going to Dans le Noir with some co-workers; and Thu, going to see Kevin Smith.

Fri, will probably be slugging out in a big way.

I'm all excited this week.