Photo: A small slice of meat sitting in my Yasai Yaki Udon.
So I went to Wagamama in Reading the other night. I’d just spent far too long in a large USian coffeehouse (with my laptop, for the wifi) and was debating whether to go see yet another film as I had the night before (don’t under any circumstances see Red Eye if you don’t happen to have a free ticket going) when I decided to fill a void in time with the way of the noodle. Unfortunately for Wagamama, it turned out that my vegetarian noodles were anything but that in name and I discovered a piece of meat sitting in the midst. I’ve complained but I won’t settle for anything less than a reasonable recompense for this – they claim to have separate food preparation areas so this doesn’t happen and yet it did happen. My sister would have been very upset if it had been her and I wasn’t best pleased – they need to really want to try not to do that again.
The time spent drinking burned coffee (yes, Starbucks coffee does taste burned) wasn’t all wasted as I got to catch up on various reading material – LWN, various other websites, etc. I think I might signup to a data package when/if I get around to sorting out my mobile (cell) phones and their costs. Clearly there’s some benefit in having cheaper roaming and a certain level of remote access cost covered in one bill – that’s what the network providers are counting on when you signup. I know the game, but it’s the cheapest option in town even if it’s supporting big business. I ended up encoding more Runrig, having bought their 30 years celebration album – 30 Year Journey. I’m thinking about going to see them perform later in the year. While I’m vaguely mentioning shopping experiences it’s worth noting that Whittard don’t keep Maple Tea in stock in their stores – a shame since it’s fantastic and I’m quite sure I’d buy it. It’s probably going to be like trying to find a store around here that sells Jolt.
The other other night, I went into London to see The Woman In Black with a friend – except he cancelled out so I ended up going on my own. Unfortunately the play also was lacking in any real plot whatsoever (though the acting was very good) and I had to deal with the sounds and annoyances of the hoards of people exhibiting signs of “football, innit, wot?” syndrome. Why can’t they just learn not to try going to a theatre if they’re going to just be annoying. Bah. On a related note, I saw a few gun toting maniacs roaming the streets (along the south bank) while I was in town. In the following photo, you can perhaps make out the fairly sizeable weapon one officer is carrying in an effort to protect us from evil terrorists – except I feel more threatened by unidentified people parading around in uniforms with any kind of gun. There is no reason for them to carry such dangerous weapons (they just feel left out because the US can’t learn a lesson) since there are many non-lethal means which are just as effective in practice but can’t be used to shoot innocent people on the streets or on the underground. But they won’t learn.
Photo: London is protected from evil terrorists by burly men parading leathal weapons as they “patrol” the south bank.
Looks like I might be in Germany next week. Would be quite fun. There’s also a need to go to at least three embassies this week for various things, but it has to be on Thursday as that is the magic embassy day – and before noon too.
Jon.