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Thought I'd write an entry to record the great extended weekend I had. My weekend started on Friday as I had taken it off in advance. Things didn't start well as I had a number of calls from work about various things I had been working on that they needed info on, however with all the work stuff out of the way, I jumped on a train to Woking to meet up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
arakinuk. Spent the evening chilling out, made awesome triple cheese pasta bake and watched Lock Stock while quoting half the script :P
Saturday morning, I decided to try making proper hash browns. The kind you get in an American diner, and not McDonald's. I had found a recipe previously which basically says you just need to grate a potato and squeeze it dry of liquid before frying. The recipe suggests using a device called a potato ricer, in the absence of this, we used a rotatory cheese crater thingy which had a clamp for squeezing the liquid out. The end product wasn't bad and was still rather tasty but didn't look much like the photo on the site. This was probably due to not squeezing all the liquid out... but it's still something I'd like to try to make again as hash browns are awesome :)
After breakfast, we hopped on a train to London and made our way to CyberCandy for some imported goods. I picked up some IBC root beer and some other assorted sweets (including a really tasty cookie dough Kit Kat). Next stop was the National History Museum in South Kensington as neither of us had been in around 15-20 years. Was quite interesting to wander around the exhibits but it did involve a lot of walking! We needed to be at the BFI IMAX for 6pm and were running late but needed to grab something to eat. As we didn't have time to go to a restaurant, we settled for Burger King at Waterloo Station before making our way to the cinema. At the IMAX, we saw the presentation of Speed Racer which I was a bit weary of beforehand, but can say I rather enjoyed it. It was cast really well (John Goodman stood out for me) and was impressively directed, as you'd probably expect of the Wachowskis. Some of the reviews can't get over the visual style, but I think it helped the feel of the movie. Both Arakin and I did make the comparison between the race track scenes and ancient MS-DOS CD-ROM game MegaRace :P
After the film, we caught the next train back and have some the rest of the pasta bake made the day previously before falling asleep. Sunday, I had to get myself to my parents place for Sunday lunch before going to see Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The film seemed to bring togther families like my own who remember seeing the originals together in the cinema before which made it feel like a special event. However having seen the film, I couldn't help but feel disappointed.
( Indy 4 Spoiler Cut )
Today, I've not done a heck of a lot other than buy some new work shoes and watch a bunch of stuff I downloaded. One piece of good news I got however was that my meeting in Manchester for tomorrow has been cancelled due to the trains being screwed due to the weather. Back to work as normal tomorrow, but it was great to have an extended break in good company and get out and do stuff.
arakinuk. Spent the evening chilling out, made awesome triple cheese pasta bake and watched Lock Stock while quoting half the script :PSaturday morning, I decided to try making proper hash browns. The kind you get in an American diner, and not McDonald's. I had found a recipe previously which basically says you just need to grate a potato and squeeze it dry of liquid before frying. The recipe suggests using a device called a potato ricer, in the absence of this, we used a rotatory cheese crater thingy which had a clamp for squeezing the liquid out. The end product wasn't bad and was still rather tasty but didn't look much like the photo on the site. This was probably due to not squeezing all the liquid out... but it's still something I'd like to try to make again as hash browns are awesome :)
After breakfast, we hopped on a train to London and made our way to CyberCandy for some imported goods. I picked up some IBC root beer and some other assorted sweets (including a really tasty cookie dough Kit Kat). Next stop was the National History Museum in South Kensington as neither of us had been in around 15-20 years. Was quite interesting to wander around the exhibits but it did involve a lot of walking! We needed to be at the BFI IMAX for 6pm and were running late but needed to grab something to eat. As we didn't have time to go to a restaurant, we settled for Burger King at Waterloo Station before making our way to the cinema. At the IMAX, we saw the presentation of Speed Racer which I was a bit weary of beforehand, but can say I rather enjoyed it. It was cast really well (John Goodman stood out for me) and was impressively directed, as you'd probably expect of the Wachowskis. Some of the reviews can't get over the visual style, but I think it helped the feel of the movie. Both Arakin and I did make the comparison between the race track scenes and ancient MS-DOS CD-ROM game MegaRace :P
After the film, we caught the next train back and have some the rest of the pasta bake made the day previously before falling asleep. Sunday, I had to get myself to my parents place for Sunday lunch before going to see Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The film seemed to bring togther families like my own who remember seeing the originals together in the cinema before which made it feel like a special event. However having seen the film, I couldn't help but feel disappointed.
( Indy 4 Spoiler Cut )
Today, I've not done a heck of a lot other than buy some new work shoes and watch a bunch of stuff I downloaded. One piece of good news I got however was that my meeting in Manchester for tomorrow has been cancelled due to the trains being screwed due to the weather. Back to work as normal tomorrow, but it was great to have an extended break in good company and get out and do stuff.
