Well, alright I’ve already skipped a couple of weeks. How the time does fly..
I’m not going to even try to completely catch-up. A valuable lesson a lady called Maria once taught me was that when you’ve failed to meet your own targets, draw a line and make another – rather than internalising anger / self loathing for minor – human – failings. Maria was a good egg. Moving on…
Highlights so far this month:
- A very over-due visit to the Clockmakers’ Museum at the Science Museum with L1 on Saturday 9th January.
- Joining Bernard to see Hangmen at Wyndham’s Theatre on Friday 16th January. David Morrisy was amazing in it. Such a totally different role for him but he suited it well. The Telegraph called it the best new play of the year (2015) and I think that’s well deserved.
- Hosting a small Sunday roast dinner at 202 with L1, Nobu and Colm which consisted of a leg of New Zealand (would have bought Welsh if I could have found some!) lamb stuffed with anchovies.
- An epic asian shopping spree with L1 in the West End of London and my first attempt at cooking Japanese food. Partly from a mercifully simple recipe for 鮭の西京焼き Salmon Saikyouyaki which a kindly colleague, Shinji, prepared for me before his return to Japan earlier in the month and also a salmon teriyaki recipe I lifted from a newly-acquired Japanese recipe book. Another colleague of mine, Kazu, tells me that to have salmon with teriyaki was not thought of by the Japanese but by foreigners’ and that they only ever have chicken with it in Japan traditionally but have seen the sense in the dish and adopted it. Every day is a learning day…
- Before dinner Nobu kindly showed me the ropes on my new Shogi board (I customised the pieces a little with dry-wipe markers to help me out until I’m better acquainted with what is a so far a very enjoyable game). After dinner we entered into a game of Perudo – first time playing this in a while and two new players (L1 and Nobu) so it took a little longer to get used to but I’m reacquainted with just how enjoyable this game is and resolve to play it more this year.
Now, back to the week in hand.
Last Monday and Tuesday were decidedly domestic days save for a brief visit to Ku on Tuesday. Wednesday was my fist ever day off from Ricoh.
I had so many little chores planned after a trip to the hospital in the morning. I ended up heading to my beloved National Liberal Club where I lunched and read my book by the fire. In many respects I wish I’d spent more time at the NLC last year when I was in-between jobs since there really are few more enjoyable ways to pass the time. 
Currently I’m braving A History of Japan by RHP Mason and JG Caiger having realised with some shame on my part that I really had no clue whatsoever when it came to even the most basic details of the history of that country.
Later on Wednesday evening I ran into A&T as well as L1 and Mlle at Ku. After a bit of merriment there we headed for dinner at what turned out to be a fabulously lovely Japanese restaurant: Dozo, Soho. Like all of the best restaurants they were gracious enough to respond to my tweet praising them.
@ScottWestron very welcome, we're glad you enjoyed it! Hope to see you again soon.
— Dozo (@DozoLondon) January 21, 2016
Suffice to say, they can be sure they’ll see us all again!
Later we embarked on an ill-advised foray to G-A-Y Bar. I have very rarely been there. I’m not fond of drinking out of plastic cups nor of crowds, cramped and unhygienic environments. Thankfully that visit was brief and having rendezvoused with my lovely brother AP we all headed to The Ivy Club, c/o A where A and I enjoyed four games of chess while the others in our party played a game scrabble.
Thursday was a delightfully quiet day and Friday saw one of our team members return briefly from his work in the Czech Republic to join us for a pint or two at the Queen’s Head & Artichoke in Regent’s Park. After the after-work drinks I headed down to an old favourite, The Lobster Pot in Kennington for dinner. I made an almighty mess of eating a lobster, getting greasy butter and garlic all down my trousers, despite my adorning one of their splendidly silly signature lobster bibs.
On Saturday 23rd I held my first brunch club of 2016 at Kopapa, Seven Dials – Covent Garden. I’d recommend it for the black pudding alone but the cocktails rocked too. Only minor grumbles were that they were a little disorganised (forgetting sides, delaying one of the meals and adding a meal to the bill in error) and their service speed needed improving – particularly on the bar which was painfully slow to watch. The food and drink when they came however were superb.
As well as a regular and friend, Simon, I enjoyed meeting some new friends: Dan from Australia who explained a physics / mechanics problem to me, Jonathan with whom I later had a minor spat about the nature of the NHS and its apparent infallibility in peoples’ minds but who was absolutely lovely company. Two other newbies completed the table: Tom (from Sweden, if memory serves?) and the very nice Stephen were both very good company indeed.
Simon, Tom and Stephen joined not only for post brunch drinks but even accompanied me to dinner in the delightful Cellar Bar at Great Queen Street, Covent Garden that evening where I again indulged in a leg of lamb (or rather we three did) – it was a mighty piece of superb Welsh meat, slow cooked perfectly for seven hours. Absolutely first-rate and the staff there ensured it was a real treat. Later on my way home I enjoyed playing along to Radio 4’s Brain of Britain – I was thrilled to have scored 5 points!
On Sunday 24th Sleepy, L1 and I made our way up to Broadway Market. We enjoyed a very reasonably-priced Sunday roast (choosing pork, beef and chicken respectively) at the famous Cat and Mutton which I had only once before visited in about 2008/9. It’s a great bar with friendly staff but no pepper mill. So I got one since this would frankly have ruined L1’s lunch – he’s the world’s biggest pepper fan. No exaggeration.
Onwards from there we joined Chris, Mlle and Alex at The London Field’s Pub to finally trying play William’s new Risk-style board game, London’s Fight for the City which William had received in return for helping to crowd-fund the game on Kickstarter last year.
He also has his name on the top right of the map!
The game worked really well – far better than I’d expected. I actually think the game-play is better than Risk in which a losing streak is notoriously hard to recover from and similarly a position of strength is rarely usurped.
Additionally, the fun poked at the various caricature Londoners was a master-class in self-deprecation which will surely be appreciated by any and all Londoners who one day indulge in a game for themselves.
Mlle and Alex kindly invited us to join them for drinks at their place around the corner and so concluded a very lovely weekend.