Spiderman, Goya and Leaves of Glass

It has been a busy few weeks since my last post. Sadly my trusty Mazda 323 badly failed its MOT and had to be scrapped. It was a good old workhorse, so it's a bit sad. Still, everything dies in the end, so we should not mourn!

Over the Bank Holiday weekend we went to Dizzy's birthday party. It was nice to catch-up with people again, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. There were lots of familiar faces, and it's always nice to meet new unfamiliar ones. Photos on Flickr, as usual.

Last week we went to see Spider-Man 3. It was... ok. Much too long, and not nearly as good as the last two. In retrospect I'm not sure it's worth seeing, although it did have its moments.

Last weekend I was in London to visit Dave, and we managed to fit quite a lot in despite the Circle and District lines rather irritatingly taking the weekend off. On Saturday afternoon we caught 28 Weeks Later at the Odeon on Tottenham Court Road. It was pretty good, although not as great as the first one. We had a few pints in random Soho pubs, then met-up with Helen for dinner at an 'smokehouse' place called Bodean's on Poland Street, Soho. They do some great barbecue-style food, including 'pulled pork', which is a bit like how you get duck when you order duck and pancakes at the Chinese. It's really good, and the prices are pretty good too. After that we went to see Leaves of Glass at the Soho Theatre. Not really an uplifting play, but it was well done. To cheer ourselves up we headed off to Sloane Square for Gerry's sister's 21st, which was good fun - lots of drinking and dancing, and everyone had a great time.

On Sunday the rain was appalling, so we sat it out and had a leisurely start watching DVDs and recovering from hangovers. After that we headed to the Science Museum, and we actually got to see quite a lot of it! In fact I don't think I've managed to see quite so much of the place in one day before - I usually get there only to find it's about to close! We met Frances for some cake in the cafe and then wandered around looking at science-y things. When we'd had enough of that we walked back through Hyde Park and grabbed a bit of food at Gourmet Burger in Bayswater before I headed home on the train. A rather busy weekend, all in!

On Monday I was hosting a CouchSurfer called Chris from California. We met in the pub after work and went for some food at The Salamander before heading back to mine for some geeky gaming on the PS3. On Tuesday I was hosting again, this time a student from Indiana called Emma. She 'enjoyed' a rather random evening of helping to push-start cars and going on a random trip to the cinema to see Goya's Ghosts, which was pretty good. The cinema was almost empty, but then it was a late showing and a bit of an 'arthouse' film. It was well done, but don't expect a happy story!

It Is Considered Disgusting To Blow Your Nose In Public

I had a weekend of poking around slightly less cultural sights. On Saturday I went and had a poke around Akihabara to see the shops etc. It certainly has a good range of electronics and manga porn. Being unable to appreciate Manga porn I stuck to the electronics shops though. There are some great gadgets and the Japanese seem to have a large number of options for really lightweight laptops which I liked the look of, but they're not cheap. I also looked at buying a camera since they are a bit cheaper here, but the Japan-only warranty didn't sound like a good idea, plus the possible duty to pay if I keep hold of the box. VAT in Japan is only 5% so even being a tourist doesn't save you much money.

Akihabara is of course teeming with thousands of people looking for a bargain. They also have large numbers of women hanging around outside the station in strange French maid outfits handing out stuff. Not sure what they're advertising, but the Japanese don't bat an eyelid at such things. Most odd. Other than that, and the strange placing of sex shops between computer shops, it's all quite tame really. For shopping it's great as you don't get pushy salesmen grabbing you as soon as you stop to look at something. They do stand around and shout stuff, but it's to no-one in particular.

After Akihabara I had a quick kip before heading out to Roppongi, an area known for its nightlife. I went there early evening as I wanted to just have a look around before it got too crowded. There's certainly lots to do though, even at that time of day - a lot of the bars seem to optimistically open all day. I went for a drink in some 'British pub' to check out the local take on what British pubs are like, and from all of the St Patricks Day flags it felt a bit more Irish than British, but never mind! I then had a drink at the Gaspanic Cafe, which was empty, then a burger at the New Zealand Centre (oddly), which promised many NZ beers but only had one. After that I headed to Geronimo's which was highly recommended in my Lonely Planet. There I met a bunch of expats and went for a Chinese with them, which was all highly random and entertaining, but I was back in time for the last train home!

On Sunday I went for a drink and a bite to eat with someone from CouchSurfing not far from Roppongi again. We chatted and watched the water from the pier and had a most pleasant evening. I caught the last train back to the hotel and arrived there to find all of the electricity off. The hotel had decided to rewire something, so I had an entertaining time preparing for bed and generally getting around the hotel. It's easy to forget how much you depend on electricity. It's not so bad at home, but believe me, it has its uses when you're staying on the 22nd floor of a hotel!