thekua.com@rest

A couple of days ago, I caught up with my mates Gerrod and Kristy who are both based in New York. I’ve done most of the tourist attractions in New York on previous trips before and the crowds between Christmas and New Year are just crazy, so it was nice to actually chill out and hang out with them for a while. Better yet, Gerrod makes some great coffee (and you can see the awesome little leaf design he has mastered in the

After a little bit of X-Boxing, we still headed out for a afternoon walk, braving the crowds via 5th Avenue and walked down to Columbus Circle and the Lincoln Centre, before leisurely making our way back through Central Park before heading home and out for dinner. For dinner we headed out to the East Village that looks like it’s a little less manic than uptown and a little bit more bohemian than other neighbourhoods I’ve seen. We settled for some great Italian food at Gasparino’s, feasting and drinking before finally settling at a bar nearby. Definitely a fun night out.

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New York’s Broadway is well known for its entertainment, so my sister and I lined up at the TKTS booth to get some discount tickets to watch a show. The queue was massive and by the time we got there, they did not have any great seats for well known Broadway shows left, so we ended up getting tickets for something off Broadway downtown called Slava’s Snowshow.

Slava’s Snowshow is unlike anything that I’ve seen before. I had no idea what to expect and had I known I would have definitely avoided it. The best description for the show is to call it a clown show set in a winter landscape. Probably most suited for a small theatre and for an audience full of kids, this short show (think an hour and a half already including the twenty minute intermission) failed to really capture any real excitement and laughter from much of the audience.

Most of the clown tricks were extremely dull and barely any of them innovative. The clowns’ costumes were at least bright and colourful and that was probably the brightest thing in the show, with the music very cliché or boring and the props not very exciting.

I unfortunately don’t have much good to say about this show, because frankly there’s not much in there, and I don’t think you get any value for your money whatsoever. My only consolation is that we didn’t pay at least full price for our tickets.

TheKua.com Rating: 2 out of 10

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I arrived in New York just before Christmas and spent a lovely couple of days with family. I’ll be here at least until the New Year doing a few more of the touristy things that I’ve missed and catching up with some old friends. Living in London brings a very different perspective of what visiting New York City is like, especially since I’ve been to New York so many times in the past.

I’ll try to blog where I can but since I’m on holidays, expect more updates to follow a little bit later.

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I’m yet to blog about the year gone by, so I thought it’d be useful to reflect upon the year like many other people have. It’s been a very busy year and I’m surprised to see it go already. I’ve met many new people and had many great experiences and it will be interesting to see how the next year turns out.

Read on for even more detail… (more…)

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It’s quite normal for some of my post to go to the office since someone is always there to sign for things, but imagine my surprise this week when I walked in to find a small little package for me. I hadn’t ordered anything myself recently and I was so puzzled as to what was in it that I had to open it when I got home. Imagine my surprise when I found a nice Ciak journal. I’m almost at the end of my Moleskin one so it works out really well for me. This one is also great portable size too so whoever got it for me it’s most ideal.

Thanks to whoever sent it and I hope you will let me know soon. I really appreciate the gesture and I’m extremely keen to find out who it is. Please contact me (send an email to me on emailpat [at] thekua.com).

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Earlier this week I finally managed to eat at Ran, a Korean restaurant I always walk past on the way to work but I had never had a chance to eat their yet. I’ve been intrigued in this place for a while namely because I haven’t had much Korean food in London yet and this restaurant has a large LCD facing the street cycling through all the delicious looking platters of food they serve. I made a booking for six of us and although two of the six were half an hour late I thankfully never felt hurried or rushed to order by the staff, even though tables seemed limited in number.

I like Korean food the most for the delicious charred food you get from the gas grill that sits in the middle of the table. All of the Korean restaurants I ate at back home had a very homey feel, with most of the grilled done by yourself. At Ran though, they go to the supreme effort of cooking all of it for you (with the gas grill still in the middle of the table) and then distributing it out amongst the diners. It is extremely demanding on the waiters and waitresses and they certainly deserve the 12.5% service for all the preparation they did for us.

We tried a great selection of many dishes including Korean pancakes, assorted tempura, assorted kim chi, gyoza, a variety of grilled meats and the Dolsot Bibimbap. It was a supreme feast and I think we were all surprised that even though collectively we’d all had some shoju, warm sake and some Korean beers, and service included it only ended up at £25 a head for such a fine meal.

Details: Ran
Found on: 58-59 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1F 7JY
Contactable on: 020 7434 1650
Highlights: Fantastic atmosphere, great service and great quality Korean food at decent prices. Booking over the Internet was extremely easy and a great all round experience.
Room for improvement: The chair and table arrangements make it hard for the waiters and waitresses to cook and serve food. They don’t open for lunch on weekends.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10

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Even though it’s Christmas, I find it strange that they’ve turned Leicester Square into, what looks like, a sideshow alley, instead of something perhaps a little bit more relevant to the season such as a Christmas market.

(Ed: I admittedly took this picture last week with my new camera and I think it turned out rather well.)

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I had my room packed up, my bills redirected, my flight booked, had someone almost moving into my flat and was already trying to get through the round of (short term) farewells, but contrary to my recent post, it looks like I’m staying in London for a bit longer. Earlier today I got the ominous phone call telling me that my current opportunity to be a trainer in India will not be available as planned for the start of next year.

To say I’m disappointed is quite understated but at least I will no longer be as anxious as I have been this last week building up to Christmas and I know an opportunity will open up sometime in the future. Better yet I’m glad that it’s been easy enough to cancel the cancellation request on my ISP (they rock!) and I still get to go on my skiing trip already booked and paid for next year. I apologise to all the people who I sincerely told that I was leaving London, and I thank all of you who contacted me to wish me the best.

The picture above are the characters for the Toaist principle, Wu-Wei, and I find relevant in dealing with the recent news

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