Roast

We went into town last night, meeting up with a friend of SJ and his girlfriend. He used to live in Oz and moved back to the UK a couple of months ago. They're an interesting couple as they essentially made a pact when they were (much) younger that if they were both unmarried later in life, they would marry each other!

They're renting a flat near to Borough Market and they have some amazing views...

We went for a drink in The Southwark Tavern, before heading to Roast for a meal. I'd not been to Roast before but SJ goes regularly with work as its just down the road from LTSB. I had soup and then pork, everyone else had lamb. It was good but not worth the money I don't think...

We then went for some more drinks in The Southwark Tavern before heading home....

Golf...

I went down Radlett Golf Centre on Thursday...its just down the road and they have a driving range and shop etc...I bought a new bag and a couple of clubs to make up the set that my Grandad gave me. I had a few balls down the range as well...

On Friday I booked in for a round at Elstree Golf Club. I'd not played there before but its only 5 minutes away. I mentioned it to our next door neighbour and he joined me for the first 6 holes. Its quite a nice course, the first nine being wide, open fairways and the back nine being a more demanding. Its actually not that much money to join compared to some of the clubs around here - about £795 pa...

On a seasonal note, its interesting to see the leaves changing colour once again...this tree seemed to have all the autumn colours in one!

Holiday

I've taken the last few days as holiday...nothing special, just fancied a few days off. On Tuesday evening, I went up to Rugeley to catch up with a few things. I had tea with my parents and then had a drink with Mark - the guy renting one of the rooms in the Rugeley house...

Wendesday morning was spent removing a plant from my parents pond, transplanting it into a different (more wind-resistant) pot, then putting the now much heavier plant, back in to the pond. I then went to see my Grandad who is still not home. he's moved from the Manor though, he's now in Parklands, in Bloxwich. Still not great but a bit better all the same. I also picked up his golf clubs and trolley whilst I was there. He doesn't use them any more and so said I could have them. There's virtually a full set but I'll still need to buy a new bag and some bits and pieces.

Wednesday night, it was back down to Radlett. We went to The Round Bush with SJ's parents. Strange...the car park was packed but there was hardly anyone inside? Still, I had the fishcakes and very nice they were too...

Heroes Series 3

So, the new series of Heroes is starting tonight in the US...it'll then be shown a couple of weeks behind in the UK. I don't understand why they don't just do simultaneous launches? It would solve a lot of the download "issues"...anyway, I'll be tuning in when it airs...!

Zizzi

We went into St Albans again on Saturday. Unbeknown to us it was market day and quite a substantial market day it was as well. We had a wander round the stalls, picking up some cheap fruit, veg and meat. We then had lunch in an Italian restaurant called Zizzi. I had the Caesar Salad and SJ had the House Salad - they were both fantastic! We're going to go one of the evening's as its worth the trip...it's only £3 return on the train! I didn't realise until writing this entry that Zizzi is a chain...there's a few reviews of the St Albans restaurant and some of the other ones dotted around the country on various blogs...

Does my bum look big in this?

For some reason, Indi has taken to lying in Chief's basket and vice versa...that's quite a result for Indi as Chief's is substantially larger. Problem for Chief is that he doesn't really fit in Indi's...

Wherever I lay my head...

There must be nicer places for a Malamute to lay his head?

Redbourn Golf Club

Friday was a nice days work of playing golf in the sun. This was "technically" a work do although I must admit there was an element of a "jolly" in the air. I have played at this club before but it was about 4 years ago - actually at the same event...

The weather was amazing, really warm and sunny. We were playing in a foursome and it was good company. I didn't win any prizes, although I did enjoy myself. I'm going to try and play a bit more if I can...

Edinburgh...just Edinburgh

On Wednesday I flew from Heathrow on a BMI flight to Edinburgh. The intention was that my colleague would pick me up at the airport and we would drive to Aberdeen where I was due to give a presentation in the evening. It was a bit of a busy day already as the Lloyds TSB and HBOS thing was going on, I had a load of work to do and I could have done with being back in the office later in the week, which due to this trip meant I couldn't be. Anyway, I landed in Edinburgh and SK picked me up. We got as far as two islands out of the airport and the car died...it would turn over but not fire. We called the RAC and two hours later, the guy turned up. He pronounced it dead on the scene, thinking it was a timing belt failure. As the hotel we were due to be staying at were in Aberdeen, I had no choice but to head back to the airport (about 200 yds) and try and get another flight back. I managed to get on the 18:25 BMI flight back to Heathrow so I had a couple of hours to kill, but what a waste of a day...The flight eventually left at 19:00, so I arrived back home at 10:30pm, having achieved precisely nothing for my days work. To top it all off, the hotel had a cut off at 12:00 which meant we also lost the money on the rooms! Terrible day all round really...

I did manage to register for the new IRIS scan at Heathrow though. This is the new system of immigration which scans your retina when entering the UK at Heathrow (and some other airports). I should now be able to get through customs much quicker than previously.

Accelerometer

Been playing around with my iPod Touch and downloaded some games for it. Well, the ones that make us of the accelerometer feature are just brilliant. Crash Kart is so addictive! The graphics are actually really quite good considering it's such a small device.

I was recommended to download an album by Black Kids. It's called Partie Traumatic and (early days) but it sounds fantastic...

Over the weekend we took the doggies for a couple of walks, had a pretty lazy day on Saturday and then some of SJ's friends came over yesterday for Sunday lunch. This week is pretty quiet - just the one trip up to Scotland on Wednesday/Thursday.

Travelling

I've added a new label to the blog - "travelling". This is to try and keep track of all the countries I'm visiting both for fun and for business. In the last 12 months, I have been to:

Norway - Oslo

New Zealand - Various

Australia - Various

Israel - Haifa, Tel Aviv

Belgium - Brussels

Cuba - Varadero, Havana

Germany - Munich

Holland x 2 - Amsterdam, Arnhem

UAE - Abu Dhabi, Jebel Ali

By the end of this year, I should also be able to add Hungary and another trip to UAE to this list as well...

Dutch Renaissance

On Sunday evening, I caught the train up to Luton Airport and caught a flight to Amsterdam. Another work trip, this time I was attending a conference on cyber security. The hotel was the Renaissance Amsterdam and was nice but undergoing a lot of refurbishment - so much so they had no entrance! The conference was organised by SANS. It was quite interesting...lot's of practical examples of security incidents and will be very helpful with my job. The place itself was weird though...the conference was given in a converted church! Very nice all the same...



I stayed until Tuesday evening and then caught a BA flight back to Gatwick. I then got a train to Blackwater and eventual taxi to Camberley, Surrey. I was staying at the Burwood House Hotel for a night as I was presenting locally the following day. I found this place on Google and it was really, really nice - very welcoming and homely. I would recommend wholeheartedly.

St Albans

This weekend we had a wander round St Albans...its the next town along from Radlett and is quite a bit larger. We'd briefly looked at it when SJ was looking for her house but dismissed it all too readily it seems. It's very, very nice. The town centre has quite a cafe culture with some nice-looking restaurants - Loch Fyne, Zizzii and a nice looking Japanese one although I've forgotten the name. St Albans is founded on an old Roman city called Verulamium. We were going to take a look at the ruins but it was too wet. We ended up going round the cathedral...very impressive.

We're going to try it out in a few weeks time to see what it's like of a night. It's only one stop up on the train so it should be worth it.