The week in which i-just-hide ate salmon flavoured ice cream and saw a very mediocre play...

I spent last Saturday on Streatham Common celebrating my friend's 31st birthday.  We had a picnic and then spent some time at the Streatham Festival which was taking place at the back of the common.  The Streatham festival is a very inclusive local event which takes place over a week in July each year.  It involves various art events such as poetry readings and film screenings.  The event we attended on Saturday was like a kind of fete with activities laid on.  There were bands playing different types of music, stalls selling craft items, stalls informing people about community stuff and loads of activities for kids.  It was one of those occasions when I really wished I had a kid to borrow so I had someone to do the activities with.  There were dance classes, storytelling, clay model making and the list goes on.  My friends ended up buying lots of finger puppets which were made in Bolivia.  They were pretty amazing tiny knitted version of pretty much any animal you can imagine: turtles, elephants, snakes, vultures, toucans etc. etc.  I gave it a miss because I've been trying to curtail my purchasing of not at all useful stuff since moving in to the flat.  After roasting ourselves on the common for a few hours we decamped to a local pub for pizza and 2 for 1 cocktails.  The birthday girl is pregnant so she gave the cocktails a miss but the rest of us enjoyed them lots.  It was a lovely day and great to catch up with friends after a long time not seeing them.  I guess that next time I see some of them the baby will be born which is a very strange thought.  I can't imagine the group with a baby in it.

On Tuesday evening I went to a talk called The Science of Ice Cream at the Dana Centre which is part of the Science Museum with some friends from work.  Each month the Dana Centre holds a Dinner@Dana event where you listen to (and watch) a pop science talk whilst eating dinner.  My colleague had been tempted by the fact an ice cream tasting menu was on offer.  She didn't know what she was getting us in to!  We started off eating pizza whilst an 'Ice cream scientist' from Lever Brothers (they own Walls and Ben and Jerrys don't you know) talked to us about the science of industrial ice cream production.  I learnt that there is an awful lot of air in ice cream and that the amout of air is a vital component of how it tastes.  He also demonstrated how to make ice cream using liquid nitrogen which was pretty impressive.  After he had finished speaking we had a break and then a guy from a local gelati talked to us about the difference between industrial ice cream manufacture and small scale gelati manufacture.  Whilst he was talking we were served samples of gelati made by his company in these flavours: salmon; mustard; banana, paremesan & garlic; chilli chocolate; honey and lavender; and green tea.  It is possible that the banana, parmesan & garlic one has scarred me for life.  I keep having very unpleasant taste flashbacks.  The guy explained that the savoury flavours were all made for specific occasions (the salmon one for a fish event at Selfridges) and aren't commercially available.  I'm not really suprised.  I enjoyed the chilli chocolate and green tea flavoured ones though.  All in all it was a very different and enjoyable evening.

Yesterday evening I went to see an amateur production of 'A Voyage Round my Father' at Hampton Hill Playhouse.  I thought it was a bit slow and got very fidgetty towards the end of the second act.  The theatre was less than half full so clearly word had got out that it wasn't a very good production.  We're going to Richmond Theatre next week and then to an open air production of 'A Midsummernights Dream' in Twickenham the week after.  At least I'm balancing out drinking evenings with cultural and educational ones at the moment!

Finally, there a ducklings on the pond at work.  There is a crested duck family of seven ducklings and a mallard family of five ducklings.  They're ridiculously cute as ducklings tend to be.  The baby coots and goslings are nearly grown up now.  I also spotted a tern flying around today.  I love watching them as they're so graceful.

The weather forecast predicts that the temperature will be 31 degrees tomorrow afternoon.  I wish I could hibernate but I have lots of chores to complete, including buying a tent to sleep in next weekend.  I haven't owned a tent and I'm trying to find one that's easy to put up on my own.  Wish me luck!

The one in which i-just-hide has a fairly productive (and very hot) Saturday...

The weather forecast didn't lie.  It is certainly extremely hot today.  I don't know how hot because I smashed my thermometer earlier this year and haven't replaced it yet (if the person who gave it to me as a gift is reading this - I'm sorry, it was an accident and I intend to replace it) but it must be around the 30 degree mark.  My balcony door is wide open so it's relatively cool in here but the minute I go in to the hall or bathroom the heat hits me hard. 

Despite the heat I've had a fairly productive day.  I went to Specsavers and arranged to start getting my contact lenses through them insted of the optician I've been going to for years.  I always used to support my old optician because it was a local business but it was taken over by a chain a while back and as a result stopped doing the monthly contact lenses I'd used for more than 10 years.  I started using daily disposables as I wasn't wearing my lenses as often so it was cheaper.  Now I'm wearing my lenses more and it's more expensive and wasteful to use daily disposables.  Out of interest I Googled my old brand and found that they're stocked at Specsavers.  There's a branch round the corner so I popped in this afternoon and they saw me straight away.  I should have my lenses by next weekend and it'll only cost £15 per month including solutions which is less than I've ever paid, even when I first started getting them back when I was 17.  Result!

I also went to Argos and got a tent, sleeping bag and self inflating camping mat for next weekend.  Unfortunately, I'm going to have to take the tent and sleeping bag back as they're much too big to carry on the train but I've sourced alternatives.  Asda are selling a two man tent in a carry case for £7.50 at the moment.  I probably wouldn't rely on it high up a mountain in heavy rain but for one night camping on a farm in the middle of a hot, dry July I think it'll be fine.

After all that, I went to Asda and then to Tesco to buy ingredients for the Hummingbird Bakery cupcakes I'm going to make for the work picnic next Wednesday.  I'm making two different recipies: pineapple & coconut and lemon.  Hopefully, they'll work OK.  I tend to stick to the same few recipies which I know will be sucessfull but I've not made these before so it's a bit of a risk.  I have a reputation to maintain!

Tomorrow I'll be going to my parents to practice putting up my tent.  Hopefully, my dad won't mind helping. 

This evening I watched 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist' which Lovefilm sent me about two months ago.  I thought it was OK but I won't be rushing to watch it again.  I'd quite like to read the book though as I get the feeling this could be a mediocre adaptation of something much better.  

Now is the time to start ensuring that I have a DVD to watch if I'm not going out on a Saturday night.  There's never anything decent to watch in between seasons of Dr Who.  Fortunately, I'm not going to be around for three of the next four weekends so my 2 monthly Lovefilm DVDs should fill the gap nicely.