Weekend o' Wonder

How was your bank holiday weekend? Mine was fun. On Friday I was out for a work leaving do, at the end of which I managed to end up eating a curry in the same place as the night before!

On Saturday I was over in North Clapham at The Falcon for a friend's birthday. It was a bit of a trek to get there (train to Clapham Junction [30 mins], then a number 345 bus from opposite another "The Falcon" [15 mins]) but worth it just to go somewhere different, even if we did only stay for 2 hours. The atmosphere was pretty good, although it was very noisy (people drowning out the music) inside; there were tables out the front and back which would no doubt have been quieter. Despite a hefty cost for a Sol and a Malibu & Coke (okay, I admit I'm still not used to London prices) I thought that the food (Thai menu) was reasonably priced, was served quickly, and tasted delicious. I think I'd like to go back again in better weather and sit out in the beer garden next time. And take my own beer.

On Sunday I headed up to London with Lisa and her housemates to London Zoo, a trip we'd been talking about doing for a while and recently decided to actually get off our asses and do. Taking advantage of a 2 for 1 offer it was only £6.50 each, on top of £8.05 for a Day Travelcard from Guildford with a Young Person's Railcard. We got the tube to Camden Town (passing the legendary Mornington Crescent), then jumped the first bus from the signposted stop. Jumping off at the first sight of a sign for the zoo, we followed the groups of people round to the main entrance and queued for about 20 mins, although it felt like hours with little shits kids directly behind around us in the queue.

Once in, we followed the recommended route which is basically a green painted line running clockwise around the zoo.

There were no mainstream fast-food brands there, and we settled for the café / restaurant instead of the chips and fried stuff option for lunch. The food was rather expensive (as expected) but was pretty good with generous portions, with a decent selection to choose from.

As a whole it was good fun, and despite the stereotypical absence of animals / activity in some parts, there was still plenty to keep us interested. My comedy moment was in "Moonlight World" (for nocturnal animals), looking for the armadillo where it was supposed to be. The glass-fronted room was empty, and so there were, understandably, very few people looking as most took a quick peek, saw nothing, then moved on. A crowd did begin to form when a zoo worker appeared through a door to bring food, and proceeded to search around for the hidden armadillo. "Hidden" slowly changed to "missing" as the guy gradually exhausted the number of places left to search. By the time he was digging into the mound of sand in the front corner there were many bemused people watching and the giggles and muttered comments increased. Zoo man punctuated his fruitless search with a hands-on-hips cursory glance around the enclosure, before disapearing back through the door from whence he came, uneaten food in hand. Ha-ha.

On the way home I passed some time playing the rather odd iForest via my mobile. I'm not entirely convinced I'm going to give up on Battlefield 1942 as my online multiplayer game of choice just yet.