The Month of May

Here I am, at work on a Saturday, munching into my first ever Cornish pasty (from Sainsbury's no less) and reflecting on the past few months. I'm also engaging in a little bit of detective work to figure out the exact dates that I went various places. I do this by a) Google Latitude, which uploaded my phone's location wherever I am and b) the date stamps placed on all the photos that have been taken from Kristen's camera. Perhaps it is entirely fair to say that I rely far too heavily on the trappings of modern technology to cover up for the frailties of my flesh and blood. After all, the main reason for this blog is for me to keep a record of my travels so I don't forget them. The secondary and no less important reason being to share my activities with anyone who cares to read, which if I am to be abjectly frank is probably only Kristen's mum and my mum. Holla.

Anyway, my Sherlock style powers of deductions (I'm reading Sherlock at the moment on my kindle. It's great!) have lead me to the events of the 6th of May, in which Kristen and I headed up to Kilburn to attend a local foodie event in a back yard. The lady who organised it put on a really nice event and converted her house and garden into a food show for the evening, with attractions such as live cooking demonstrations and street food vendors.

The next day, the 7th of May, we made an ill advised trip down towards Greenwich, with the intention of taking the Docklands Light Rail over the Canary Wharf district.  Of course, we forgot to check the planned engineering works which cripple the London transport network every weekend, which cause inconvenience to multitudes of tourists, I'm sure. We found Greenwich to be effectively cut off from us just as if an impassible chasm had opened between us and it. Still, we did have a chance to explore the very modern area around Canary Wharf which is home to the new financial heart of the city.

Then on the 12th I note that after work, Kristen and I went into town to do some shopping, but we ended up getting the tube to North London to have dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, Anteplilar. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but they really never fail to impress with their amazing selection of Turkish food. It's on par with a Thai place just down the road from our place that serves up the best and most authentic Thai food I've ever had.

The following night, I see that after work I stayed around for a couple of drinks with colleagues at the office, which ended up with about 5 or 6 of us sitting out on the lawn in front of the office drinking beers from the local Sainsbury (mentioned earlier). Good times, thanks to the liberal drinking laws in this country.

On the 16th, we had tickets to see Okkervil River at Heaven bar that evening. It was an incredible gig that was full of amazing energy. You could feel the happiness of the band as they played an electric set that just didn't want to end. Unforunately they were forced to cut their encore short as the venue threatened to switch them off, which was a bit of a bitter way to end a set. They're still one of my favourite bands and one of the best live acts I've seen to date.

I lose track of where I was up until the 25th as I think my phone ran out of credit and stopped reporting my location, so I'll have to investigate what I got up to in that missing weekend. I seem to have seen Tallest Man on Earth at Shepherd's Bush Empire on the 20th, which Kristen was sick to attend. That means that weekend we made another attempt to visit Greenwich, but had to return home after seeing the Maritime Museum briefly as Kristen was feeling too weak to go on. The 25th was the night of the Mountain Goats gig in Camden at a really amazing bar called KOKO. The place is basically an old music hall with a three tiered seating arrangement facing the stage, all painted red and exquisitely detailed.

That brings me to the final day of May, the 31st, on which we went to see the Fleet Foxes play at the Hammersmith Apollo. It was a truly exceptional show and the way their voices blended together was incredible. I was most pleasantly surprised at how such a mellow seeming band could absolutely captivate the audience.

And that completes the month of May. Next up, June and a return to the continent.

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Bonus Okkervil River video: