Boog's Blog

The previous post left out the fine dinner Bobby prepared.  Had neglected to take a photo as I was too busy looking and eating.

Bobby, forturnately, had a photo, and sent to me, herin provided.

Hainanese Chicken Rice, with 3 sauces.Heritage Cherry Tomato Salad with Prosciutto di Parma.

    I will not fail this evening in the photo department.

Visit to Shoreditch. Been gentrified over the past ten years. Not fully there. Like soho NYC many years ago.

Beigels,see the price. They are decent. Chocolate from Ghana.

St.martins choral concert

Absolutely outstanding.

Both QB and I did the same test.  We closed our eyes and tried to guess the number of singers.  Could not.  Sounded like a large group.

Friday.

QB at members lounge of the RA. Asked if we could use as no exhibits and museum empty.

Above is dinner on hotel room. Naturally the power went out where we went for ramen so got a fine picnic of cheeses, prosciutto, salads, wine, good bread. Of course some gazpacho.

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Saturday, field trip to Cambridge. Andy and Sonia as guides.

Andy is an expert on British ales and possibly president of the organisation of Britain British ales. Sonia a Cambridge biochemist now retired from the field.

Trip to cambridge.   Many photos.   Andy, Sonia, Bobby and the Boogs.   Visited Fitzwilliam museum, Kings College and the fab fan vaulted ceiling (largest of course), pub, the Eagle, where Watson and Crick did their dirty, Cavendish and Lord Raleigh plaques, Trinity college, Pimms  gelatin.

Too many pics, several quite good, so made them public on Flickr, date of September 8.  Open link and go to that date.

Just one for the flavor.

Thursday.

Wandering, eating, socializing.

Walked to Bourough Market via Carnaby Street and Soho. Outstanding lunch at XU teahouse and restaurant – char sui, large pan fried soup dumplings, and more. Dinner was at a Beer Hall where we socialized with a number of Bobby’s friends. Might have been a far more interesting evening if the noise level was not at 90dB. Overall good but could have been far better.

On the way along the embankment, the obligitory shot. Nice, from a Cali perspective, to see some clouds. Never rained, maybe got a sprinkle of .01 inches if you use a ruler on a warm day.

The famous market

Finally dinner

Saturday: Trip to cambridge. Many 4. Andy, Sonia, Bobby and the Boogs. Visited Fitzwilliam museum, Kings College and the fab barrel vaulted ceiling (largest of course), pub, the Eagle, where Watson and Crick did their dirty, Cavendish and Lord Raleigh plaques, Trinity college, Pimms gelatin.

Too many pics, several quite good, so made them public on Flickr, date of September 8. Open link and go to that date.

Where we do some touristing and find a very large ball of string – lake side attraction. Other good stuff too.

Sunday. A shopping and entertaining day.

QB with shoes. Not the ones acquired.

We ended up doing diner in our hotel room. Bobby and JD came to share the fare. The Camenbert we got at the fancy cheese shop was over ripe and had no crema. Tasted OK but a complaint will be lodged. “Did you offer this to us sight unseen as we are foreign? “. The Italian fontina was excellent. Marks and Sparks supplied the Mis in Bouteille Bordeaux and Bobby pronounced it good. Bob brought over a very good chorizo or imberico ham. All food consumed and enjoyed.

Monday, start of touristing.

Walked to the Starbucks Reserve place near Marble Arch out of nosiness. Not up to the standards of Redwood city Cali. Not by a long shot. Then a longer walk over to London Eye and the boat to Greenwich and the Royal Observatory.The Clipper boat takes about 30 minutes, nice ride on the Thames.

First a stop at Greenwich Market, an old one.

Managed to NOT eat the 7 inch sausages which looked so good. Waited and we

found a Vietnamese place. Roast Duck Banh Mi along with papaya salad.

Walked up to the Observatory. Great views including one from the Camera Obscura.

From my camera

From the camera obscura, with people walking.

And, of course, the obligitory Meridian line picture. Apparently required.

Tuesday, a shopping and wandering day.

One of very many in the city. Rhino time, but not rino time.

Wednesday, a tourist day.

A very large, both metaphorially and physically ball of string. Christo put up oil cans, 75000 of them in the Hyde Park Serpentine. The art piece is clearly in the water. No signage, nothing. Ends Sept 9. Got there just in time.

Off to the V&A museum. Overwhelming amount of “stuff”. We enjoyed the silver, Turner’s, Constable’s, library, and the tapastries and finally had enough.

QB in there at a table.

Amazing set of tapastries.

Doombar with Bobby. An ale named after the bar of Doom where ships were directed to get stranded and looted. Located in Cornwall. Our favorite by far.

Dinner, ragu,venison,eggplant parmesan with fine soup noodles, handmade by Bob. Quite fine noodles and filling they were. The final few steamed batches were soupy.

Well enjoyed.

Friday: We slept late and missed breakfast but had a fine lunch at Le Fromagerie,  pictures below,

Hotel story:   The hotel is a mess, only in the wing that we are in.   The lobby and other areas are being upgraded.  Our favorite room, renovated last year, is in the messed up wing.  We were not told when we booked.   Wrote a note to the Guest Manager and got the proper response:  20% discount for room rate and complementary breakfast.   He remembers that I write reviews :-).  We will stay.

 Cheese board at La Fromagerie

A nice brunch after a late morning sleep in.

At a pharmacy, a very good one, we saw high end mobilty chairs, very Elvis.

As we wandered by the RA museum we noticed that there were no exhibitions.  Stopped in to check on when and why and ended up with a tour of the new expansion.  There are now four places to eat, including a garden spot and full menu dining.  A lovely members lounge.  There will be an exhibit late in September on the art of Oceana.

Saturday, another jet lag day of just wandering in Regents Park (rose garden) and hanging out with Bob and, for a bit, Muru.

  There are 12500 or so roses in this park.  Apparantly the big Rose Test garden in Portland has a mere 10000.  Both are spectacular.   Surprised today to see the large number still in full bloom.

Musu was in full bloom saying hello to many park visitors, engaging some in his very cheerful non-threatening way.

Dinner, pizza, new place, was terrible.  Never to return there.  Fine Piel de Sapo melon in the room.   We are slowly redecorating the room.   Added some bowls from Emma Bridgewater, had the hotel provide an empty fridge, added wine and today got anther table for eating on.

See this link for the original post, updated.

http://blog.boogs.net/2018/08/26/boogs-escape-midterm-politics-bemp/

• Yes, it is true. The Boogs are off again after a long hiatus. This time, however, it is not a Sacking adventure.

This will be a recovery trip, avoidance of the electioneering, as well as another of our usual adventures. Naturally we will be back in time to vote,. Be sure to vote.

First we are off to see the “boys” pictured below. Muru too we hope; his whereabouts are unclear at this writing. Maybe trying to convert the Catalonians to a world with more and more vaired spices.

Blogging will be infrequent and more summary style except for events of note. Our gentle readers are likely overloaded with our earlier pics of London. Several and hopefully interesting side trips are planned.

Above, one of the “boys”, the chef. He has committed to feed us well. I have been collecting Allo shots of his preparations over the past several months. Selected items will be featured.

Another of the “boys”. This one specializes in singing, acting and eating. All three are worthy of note as is his 32 inch waist.

Travels should take us to London and points nearby, then and amble in the South of France and with a bit of luck to a truffle festival in Alba Italy.

Thursday.

Coffee and muffins at the fine Kofi place in Palm Springs. Unfortunately we left the purchased muffins on the table and discovered it when we wanted to have them with tea last night

Off to hotel in Santa Monica. Excellent Fairmont hotel. Not a bad Beach either.

Good food at the restaurant.

And a fine tree.

Friday.

Getty center for Nile and Egypt exhibit. Then to Santa Barbara. But first a stop at the Malibu Lagoon which is now finished and was not the last time we went through here.

76000 plants were planted. Beautifully restored area. Snowy plovers here but we did not see them.

The beach in the background.

Wednesday.

Got up with no plans other than to head West. After passing Las Vegas we had to decide whether to head towards Barstow or Palm Springs chose the latter.

Palm Springs via kelso dunes

Very excellent drive through the Mojave National Preserve. Joshua trees sand dunes lovely road with no traffic and no trucks beautiful small mountains nothing like Zion or Bryce.

Then on route 66 to Amboy.

Needs cropping.

Vast emptiness

Pile of dunes with train

Favorite hotel in Palm springs. Arrive. Strange name for hotel.

pre-dinner drinks were quite strong at least one of them. I have been following two bicyclists and their blog as they bicycle from northern Alaska to the southern tip of South America. Along the way they tested mezcal. It is made from a agave plant. Unlike tequila which is made from only one agave plant Mezcal can be made from most any agave plant.

Never had the stuff but here in this Hotel restaurant they offered me a smoky Paloma which is mezcal with grapefruit juice and lime. The other picture drink is a margarita. Soon QB will be drunk.

Eggplant