Monday, January 31, 2011
The Hare and Tortise
Good thing for sure because it was outstanding. (oh and my favorite part....awesome heating!! Nothing worse than having to wear a coat and hat to eat your dinner) While we were waiting for a table we got to watch the juicer mix up some foamy carrot drink that perked my attention, but didn't end up going that route, maybe the more adverturous of you can give it a whirl. From my perspective I would say it was like a mix between pei wei, a sushi place, and the cheap family chinese resturant where you order by number. (I'll take a R3 and an F11, you know the one) Food was excellent, and from a London perspective cheap. Don't think that means cheap, just less than everywhere else.
I guess we have never mentioned this, but food in resturants is outrageous here. Its strange because at the grocery store, I always feel like things are for the most part cheaper than the US, and there are always crazy deals for like half off or 3 for 2 or something. On top of that the fruit and vegatables are awesome! We don't eat as much as we should but in general they taste way better than the in the U.S. Not sure where they are grown, but its probably better I don't know anyway. If you can get over the prospects of buying from what may appear to be a less reputible establishment, i.e. randon convenience store or street market, the deals are even better. Sorry a little bit of a rant there!
Anyway, so we are getting ready to eat and Kristen says, I want to order everything, of course just jokingly. Shortly there after these 3 asian women sit down next to us, and I swear they did order everything on the menu. Let me try to recap from memory, remember 3 women:
Edemame
Eel Sushi Role
Potstickers
Giant bowl of Ramen
Eel and rice bowl
Shrimp Tempura
Noodle bowl (same as mine)
Tea and saki
Not sure where they were putting it all, but had put in a big dent by the time we left. I can only imagine that they finished it all off after we left.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Roads
My plan was to ride for an hour in one direction and see where I ended up. Turned out, a tremendous success, as I ended up in West Byfleet. It didn't mean anything to me so I am sure it won't to anyone else, but nonetheless. Going out was fine, since I didn't have a destination in mind, I couldn't be lost, but the ride home was a tad more deliberate. Only made two wrong turns, so I would call it a success.
It seems funny to me how spread out things are as soon you get out of London. Its almost as if, people had been so constrained that as soon as they got a chance at freedom and space they went crazy. Golf courses, rugby, football, and cricket fields everywhere, even a horse track. Oh and did I mention huge estates, left and right?
The biggest impression of the day was made by the roads. Huge disparity in the quality of roads which all seemed to be equally well traveled. Even from one mile to the next on the same road was quite different. From what I could only imagine was the latest in German engineered super smooth asphalt, to the super rough chip seal. Think Tulsa's worst and then think about it being resurfaced for the last 100 years. Yeah that bad! I was praying for a Tulsa style pot hole just to break the monotony of the vibrations. (bad day for El G) The majority of the day was spent on what I would call 'normal' roads. Pavement is just ok but I can't count the number of road grates, and manholes. Way too many to count.
Saw my first pay on the honor system golf course today. Just a little box on the first tee to drop off your £10. Not sure if you would be getting your money's worth even that cheap. The clubhouse had been completely boarded up, so I hope nobody needed to 'take care of business'.
Even saw two Mustangs and two Cameros, they stuck out like sore thumbs. American cars have to be close to twice as wide as British cars, they barely fit in the lanes
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Race Repot 1/29/11
The race was as per usual, still can't understand how so many people seem to be able to follow wheels with absolute ease, but nobody in the race can make it split. After last Saturday's debacle I decided to take the week off so I actually felt really good today. I did a number of attacks that nobody wanted to follow, and since I didn't want to try to go solo for any length of time I kept pulling the plug on them. One held promise though, I had attacked and a Junior racing for Ralpha Condor Sharp (they are kinda like the Jelly Belly of the UK) came across, and we went about sharing the work for the next couple of laps. Unfortunately for me, the wind was blowing from the opposite direction as previously, which made the back of the course too fast for the Junior I was away with. He was spun out of his restricted gearing so he couldn't really help, and then he would hammer away as the wind changed, wasn't the smoothest working escape in the history of cycling, that is for sure. It was all together with two to go and my last ditch attack was quickly put down by another the Junior who had won two weeks ago. The sprint to the line went as expected, and I coasted in mid pack. 24.9m in 1h:01m:20s. Average speed 24.4mph. I would be really interested to see my HR data from the race but I inadvertantly loosened the strap on my monitor instead of tightening it. Ended up wearing it around my stomach for the entire race. Stangely enough it doesn't quite work there.
A lap or two to cool down and I started to realize that I was completely frozen. I guess the race kept me focused on other things than how I was feeling but as soon as the Adrenalin was gone, the pain set in. Could barely take off my gloves, and even after I got all my clothes on and had a cup of tea, was still shivering. One of the promoters even came over and offered me a blanket, which I promptly declined, as that would have been admitting I was to stupid to dress myself. I must have looked really awful as she came back and asked if I wanted to go sit in the first aid room by the heater. I scoffed that I was fine and forced back the shivers until she left. Stupid Weather Channel Mobile said it was 36 with a wind chill of 25 after the race was over. Hope everyone in Tulsa enjoyed wearing shorts today! Its been 10 hours now and 9 of 10 of my fingers have feeling back so that is a good sign. I am headed to bed. Good Night.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Bread Sauce
On a brighter note I sat next to this girl Laura White on the train home tonight. She was a finalist on the X Factor (its like American Idol for the UK) in 2008, ended up 8th. Not that I had ever heard of her before or anything but other people kept coming up to her. She said Simon Cowell was really nice but kinda made a face at the same time, so I don't know what that really means. I guess things like that happen in a city like this. Sad to say somebody I don't even know was my first celebrity sighting, but hell the closest I ever got in Tulsa was Julie Chin.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Adventure home
From Slough we jumped on the first train back to London, but I say train loosely. Was more of a glorified subway, or maybe even an airport tram. Not sure how those are differentiated but anyway. Since we were stopping at every town anyway I decided to take a chance a catch the tube in the first town I could. Turned out an awesome move on my part. Had never been to the end of the line before. It was so sad, like a underground ghost town. There were probably only five or so people on the entire tube, and nobody at all in the car I was in. Kept waiting for a tumbleweed to blow by. But like I said great move, ended up from Ealing Broadway to Baron's Court in like 15 minutes and finished it off as the shortest journey home ever. Sadly though still an hour fifteen. Back to normal tomorrow but a break from the monotony for at least one night was nice.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Tate Modern
The entrance to the Tate Modern is through the old Turbine Hall, you can see how this could have been a power station.
Sunflower Seed is made up of over one hundred million seeds, all hand painted ceramic seeds. The say it is to make us question things. 'What does it mean to be an individual in today's society? Are we insignificant or powerless unless we act together? What do our increasing desires, materialism and number mean for society, the environment and the future?' But I just thought it was cool to look at, and the only thing it made me think was 'wow, thats a lot of seeds'. I guess I am not too philosophical.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Race Report 1/22/10 - Debacle!!
Hands down hardest part of the race. I and cycling shoes not made for running
First...rear wheel. Notice how muddy shoe covers are? Ground was super muddy, and wet, feet were soaked for the rest of the race.
And then the front!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Furry Friday
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Belgian Waffles!!
P.S. I don't quite think it was diet friendly.
Also P.S. if you don't know what marscapone gelato is take note..........It is not marzipan, and it is not sweet like icing. Turns out it is a little cheesy, learned that one the hard way.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Race Report 1/16/11
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Busy day
Turned out that there was a Mexican restaurant, Wahaca,right next to the ice sculpting so we of course were obliged to try it out. Could this be the answer to my prayers? Um yeah no! Good food but just not quite what I am looking for. There seems to be a trend here for that the Mexican restaurants try to do some kind of Mexican/Spanish fusion. Instead of what we are used to they keep trying to turn it into tapas. After we had ate a waiter walked past with a giant burrito, that looked so good, I almost cried. So that makes it 0-5, but I am not giving up hope.
We then headed out to the London bike show. They have been advertising this for like 3 months so I thought it had to be good. It was held in connection with the Outdoor show, and the London Boat Show. Turns out that the bike part was the least impressive (size-wise) but still super cool. I was kinda like a kid in a toy store, and Kristen seemed less than impressed so I guess it was good that she had tea planned with some of her sorority sisters. Once she left I spent the next couple of hours just wandering around taking it all in. They had it all, and I could have spent days just staring at bikes. But wait there is more! The whole production was just a bit more than we are used to in Tulsa. Turns out that to boats, are super popular here, understandably so, since we are on an island.
They had constructed a huge pool and had wakeboarding, kayak, and canoe exhibitions, which were a good rest before the 'MAIN ATTRACTION'. The boat show was well more of a yacht show. No pontoons or bass boats, we are talking super yachts, and huge sail boats. Earlier in the week I couldn't help but wonder why the show ran for an entire week. I soon knew why. There were literally 1,000s of boats every shape and size. With 100 ft. plus yachts on hand I wasn't much for spending my time looking at anything under 75ft. Unfortunately you had to be an invited guest to tour the biggest, and visit the VIP lounges. Still I saw enough to conclude that I need to win the lottery.
Cervelo R5 CA Limited Edition. 12lbs, $24,000 Worth it?