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(I’m quite late writing this post as it was meant to be two Sunday ago but better late than never.) Another year and another Good Food Show in London, this time held at Kensington Olympia and although I had already been to one when I first arrived in London, this year’s event had both Heston Blumenthal (of Fat Duck fame) and Nigella Lawson (of various TV shows and cooking book fame).

I couldn’t see Heston as I couldn’t take a day off work, so I went on the Sunday when Nigella was going to be talking. Her session was brief, just over and hour, almost an hour and half where she mixed her Christmas cookies, followed by a Q&A session with the audience. She didn’t actually bake her cookie mixture as she mentioned how boring that would be, instead choosing to relate it to her own personal story with her sons and the role they play in Christmas for her family each year.

I think the thing that I liked about her, besides her striking appearance and gorgeous voice was how humble and chatty she was. Despite the numerous books (her latest being a Christmas book) and TV shows she has, she still attests that she’s not a very good cook and continued to joke about how it was her greed that steered her towards her (second) career path (the first being a journalism one).

The rest of the show wasn’t particularly memorable, especially since after recently visiting the Salone de Gusto however seeing Nigella was definitely worth it.

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I love a lazy brunch on the weekend, and I’m glad that I already had a date booked in to catch up with Gerrod and Kristy because their schedule (and to be fair, most people’s schedules) seem to fill up well in advance most of the time.

We ended up in Roast, a restaurant I’d never been to, though have always wanted to go but just always seems to be heaving with people, particularly with the market open on the Saturday. Pre-booking definitely helps and it didn’t seem to be too much of a problem getting a table a couple of days ahead. With its bright, airy loft space, converted into a dining area, I think we all agreed it was a great choice and combined with tasty food that left me full until dinner was a nice experience overall. I’ll write up a better review at the other blog, when I get a chance.

After brunch, we walked around the market for a while, and though I felt extremely tempted to buy lots of ingredients, my current commute to my client would me too many of them would be wasted and neglected whilst I was away. It didn’t stop me suggesting new ingredients and great produce for Gerrod or Kristy to try (I hope you enjoy those Chorizos!)

With the weather so nice (okay, it wasn’t sunny but at least it wasn’t raining and cold!) we then headed towards the Tate Modern to see the latest installation in the Turbine Hall by Dominque Gonzalez-Foerster. I didn’t quite get it when we were there, but after reading the essay, it does make a little bit more sense.

I thought this one sculpture was particularly good because the pose worked really well with all the prams lined up (they aren’t part of the exhibition). I’d probably react like that too if I had to deal with that many at once!

A fun morning, and even though I wanted to continue on along the southbank, my day in Manchester had left me pretty tired.

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Since I was in the area for Agile North, I took another day off work to hang around in Manchester because my last visit had been less than an afternoon, and I did want to test if there was really any truth to the, “It’s grim up north” comments you hear about all the time. I arrived fairly late on a Thursday evening, shattered from the full on conference day, and ended up on a slow train between Preston (where the conference was) and Manchester.

Unfortunately I didn’t really get much of an impression of what Preston was like – it seemed to be a large University town, and since most people seemed to be travelling in from around the area, instead of from the area, I figure there wasn’t too many IT opportunities around. Anyway, back to Manchester.

I stopped at the Manchester Oxford (Street) train, one of four major train stations in Manchester as it was closer to the hotel I stayed at than any of the other ones. As I found out on Friday, all of the stations aren’t actually too far away from each other, and that Manchester itself is extremely pedestrian-friendly. I grabbed a bite to eat at a non memorable Thai restaurant, before walking around the area and turning in for the night. I noticed several places around town setting up for the Christmas markets, and a gigantic, very rounded Santa perched next to, what I think was, their Town Hall.

Waking up the next morning, I skipped the breakfast since I had dinner so late and proceeded to walk around town. Most people were on their way to work, and it was once again nice to have a day off when everyone else seemed to be a terrible (not quite London pace) rush to get to their office place. Like many English cities, Manchester has it’s fair share of cobblestoned roads that admittedly make it a bit of challenge to walk fast, particularly when they’re covered with a slick from the continuous light drizzle.

I stopped at Katsouris Delicatessen (113 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2BQ) hoping that they would make some great coffee, and they certainly disappoint. That latte kept me going all the way to lunchtime as I walked around. I love the fact that the space invaders also managed to hit up Manchester on their visit to England. Although I enjoyed seeing all that there was to see in Manchester, it definitely had a bit more of a homely feel, and I can understand why people might enjoy living up there.

My highlight of the day was making it out to SportsCity, where I had prebooked a ticket to do the Manchester City Experience, or basically a guided tour around the Manchester City Football Club grounds. As you can see from the picture above, we got to get up very close to all different parts of the stadium, including the different suite rooms they have available, the press room, the home city changing rooms, and the tunnel all the football players come running out of.

I think it definitely helped that our tour guide was an obviously fanatical fan, and recounted many of his own stories about events that happened in the stadium, turning the tour into something much more interesting. I didn’t realise how many different places football stadiums had for watching (with the above, very comfy chairs reserved for the more exclusive suite room season ticket holders). It also helped that there were only three of us on the tour, and so we had plenty of opportunities to ask our own questions and just take in the whole atmosphere. I loved the way they had the sun lamps blasting yellow light down on to the pitch, the fact that we were standing right next to where all the players would come running on, and I can understand the thrill that footballers must experience running into a roaring crowd.

I really wanted to spend a weekend in Manchester and the surrounding area, but due to prior commitments ended up having to return late on Friday. Fortunately I had prebooked an advance first class ticket on Trainline, that made the very long journey home less unpleasant.

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Don’t you hate it when you get off at the wrong train station. Like Wigan instead of Preston… for example.

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On Saturday night, I went out to see Warlords with Kath Dob, the latest Jet Li film showing at the cinemas. Here I was, thinking it would be another action packed kung fu extravaganza. Instead it told the sad and tragic tale of the end of a blood oath between a set of bandits and a madly driven general of the Ching army.

We saw it at the Covent Garden Odean theatre and although I can’t remember the last time I’ve been the cinemas, it really struck me how many console game advertisements they played as it seemed like they had more game advertisements than they had trailers for other films.

Before seeing this movie, I’d read about people comparing it to other well known films like Hero and the House of Flying Daggers. Don’t expect the same richness in colour, the same vibrancy, and the same emphasis on close up hand to hand combat. In fact, this movie really doesn’t deserved to be compared to all of them because I found it so different. Most of the movie seemed to focus on the estranged relationships between the main characters, and the struggle between the bandits needs to feed their families and the need to please their new general.

I’m not sure if I would recommend this movie for other people, though I’d suggest watching it at home. Sure there are some magnificent battle scenes and a complex, constantly interweaving storyline even including some elements of Romeo and Juliet.

TheKua.com Rating: 5 out of 10

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They’ve gone and plastered the bookstore Foyles. It looks pretty neat too.

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Luca had another spare ticket to see yet another Italian artist, although warned me that he wouldn’t be like any of the artists that we’d seen recently. Looking up Franco Battiato, it’s no wonder since he’s a 63 year old singer who’s been wowing Italians for several generations and continues to publish albums without any visible end in sight.

Held at Koko on Tuesday night (the night it snowed across the country), I stood in line with, what seemed like, only Italians around me. Even the ticketing people spoke Italian rather than English! Inside it was quite the mix of different ages yet the common thing that bound them together was their appreciation for Battiato’s music as made evident from how many songs everyone seemed to sing along to.

I find it hard, even now, after listening to him perform how to describe his music. It’s surprisingly contemporary mixing together elements from many different styles with his vocals. He sang alongside a fairly large band with a number of string instruments, a pianist, and a few guitarists (two of whom were extremely attractive dread-locked ladies) and had a phenomenal amount of energy for such an elderly performer.

Despite not knowing any of his songs, and only understanding the one or two songs he sang in English, Battiato impressed me by simply putting on a great performance. I can’t say that I’m going to listen to his songs anytime soon, but it was a enjoyable night experiencing something I wouldn’t go out of my way to do myself. All the Italians present seemed to enjoy it and it clearly obvious he enjoyed performing for them, so what more do you need?

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When I first arrived in the UK, a friend, referring to himself as “He who knows” challenged me to complete a series of tasks. I never really got around to finishing it, so with a day off in London I tried doing a few of those that proved too difficult to do during the weekend when the whole city pretty much shuts down.

The new Baltic Exchange

I have to admit that this part of the challenge was the shortest of them all, with the old Baltic Exchange being replaced with the Gherkin, and the new Baltic Exchange inaccessible to the public. You can’t say that I didn’t try though as I went into the building, and quizzed the security guard about what was really possible – asking about London Open House days, private tours, public tours, any way of obtaining membership in order to get access to the rest of the building. The best I ended up with was a photo of the outside.

The G&T at the Finsbury Circus Lawn Bowls club

Firstly it’s easy to get the lawn bowls club found in Finsbury Circus confused with the Finsbury Bowls Club located only several blocks away. After all, they’ve got almost the same name. After doing some research, I now understand the lawn bowls located in Finsbury Circus actually belongs to the City of London Bowling Club, and has no association with the former one.

Unfortunately none of the pictures I took that day really did much justice to the beauty that is the Finsbury Circus Gardens. I also can’t believe that I had never found this green treasure trove in the middle of the city, especially since I’ve walked around it only a few blocks away when walking between Farringdon and Liverpool Street. The actual lawn bowls green is a small part of the entire gardens, and they have a tiny restaurant and bar on one side looking back out on the green. This is where I sat down to have my Gin and Tonic.

In many ways, it was strange to be here on a day when everyone else seemed dressed up to the nines in suits and all I ever heard was business talk. Even amidst the credit crunch, I couldn’t but help and smile when I heard people taking about certain companies being overvalued, or the request for a certain amount of equity being too high.

I’m glad He Who Knows recommended this place. Compared to the grey stone facades on the buildings surrounding it, the bright green gardens literally stand out as a true oasis from the rest of the city’s hustle and bustle. You can find the Finsbury Circus Gardens in the heart of Finsbury Circus, EC2M 7AB with the closest tube station Moorgate.

Only one more on the list to finish the challenge!

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