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Intrigued to note that Google Street View now covers most of Ireland and a fair-sized chunk of South Africa's major cities and the roads between, and similar coverage for Taiwan. Kind of cool to virtual-potter around some of the more modernised townships around Cape Town (though I notice they don't send the car much into the corrugated-iron expanse of Cape Flats or Khayelitsha). Given that I still don't know how I feel about township tourism, I suspect it's probably a good thing really that there are limits to the voyeurism possible - better really if people want to see townships to go on a tour that's run by people living there, who will benefit from the revenue it brings in. Also went for a pleasant virtual-wander around the country lanes of Ireland, and looked at elegant little cottages, narrow winding roads and green, green fields! Need to find out what other countries are now available that I haven't seen yet...
Last night there was a biodiversity lecture in London so CRI and I went, and met up with some of my old buddies from London (former flatmate, and another close friend). We learned lots about how bad mice and rats are when they end up places they shouldn't be, like Gough Island in the Atlantic (mice, it turns out, are little bastards when given access to albatross nests - if it's a species where the chicks haven't evolved to deal with mouse attacks, the chick will just sit there like a dope whilst the mice eat it alive, and chew out its eyes. *shudders* He spared us the video. I am glad).
Then we went for dinner. Friday night in London: as might be expected, most places were very busy. Wahaca (our first choice) had an enormous queue; the Vietnamese we tried next likewise had a 45 minute wait for a table. Fortunately, one of my friends had once been taken to a rather cool Chinese place in Chinatown which was near where we ended up. We went there, were served enormous portions for not too much cash at all (I had stuffed tofu - still not totally clear on what the tofu was stuffed with, but it tasted nice and there was 3 times as much rice as I could have eaten in one sitting!). We then walked one friend back home as she lived pretty locally, I ogled her flat (hadn't seen it before; it's nice!), and then CRI and I headed back Kentwards for a good night's sleep as he's got a nasty cough from somewhere and it was starting to take its toll.
I now am munching rice pudding and fresh strawberries. One of the PhD students at my work is doing research on shelf life and other characteristics of different strawberry types and keeps getting sent samples by collaborators in Spain. He's currently drowning in excess fruit, so distributed unused punnets amongst us! For strawberries that are grown in a southern-European glasshouse rather than a northern-European field, woefully out of season, they really do have quite a nice flavour (and are enormous!). Fun all around.
Last night there was a biodiversity lecture in London so CRI and I went, and met up with some of my old buddies from London (former flatmate, and another close friend). We learned lots about how bad mice and rats are when they end up places they shouldn't be, like Gough Island in the Atlantic (mice, it turns out, are little bastards when given access to albatross nests - if it's a species where the chicks haven't evolved to deal with mouse attacks, the chick will just sit there like a dope whilst the mice eat it alive, and chew out its eyes. *shudders* He spared us the video. I am glad).
Then we went for dinner. Friday night in London: as might be expected, most places were very busy. Wahaca (our first choice) had an enormous queue; the Vietnamese we tried next likewise had a 45 minute wait for a table. Fortunately, one of my friends had once been taken to a rather cool Chinese place in Chinatown which was near where we ended up. We went there, were served enormous portions for not too much cash at all (I had stuffed tofu - still not totally clear on what the tofu was stuffed with, but it tasted nice and there was 3 times as much rice as I could have eaten in one sitting!). We then walked one friend back home as she lived pretty locally, I ogled her flat (hadn't seen it before; it's nice!), and then CRI and I headed back Kentwards for a good night's sleep as he's got a nasty cough from somewhere and it was starting to take its toll.
I now am munching rice pudding and fresh strawberries. One of the PhD students at my work is doing research on shelf life and other characteristics of different strawberry types and keeps getting sent samples by collaborators in Spain. He's currently drowning in excess fruit, so distributed unused punnets amongst us! For strawberries that are grown in a southern-European glasshouse rather than a northern-European field, woefully out of season, they really do have quite a nice flavour (and are enormous!). Fun all around.
