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Got a text message from bethanthepurple earlier today who happened to be visiting London, so we met up wandered the streets for a bit, had a bite to eat and then headined into town.

En route we met alienfox so I prodded him for details of the then-forthcoming gathering chez lui.

In town I we wandered up to cybercandy going via
a junction called Seven Dials. I'd taken a few photos of it before over recent days, but it had been raining and the photos weren't as good as I'd like.

The junction istself is near Leicester Square and consists of 7 one way streets (4 in, 3 out) meeting at a mini roundabout with a tall monument in the centre. This monument has 7 sundials on it (one on each face), hence the name.



Later we wandered to south towards Westminster and wandered through St James Park. We found a guy hand feeding squirrels - it was fantastic - I got loads of photos and a few videos. One of a squirrel running up the guy's leg, taking a nut and scurrying off.


Shortly after 5 we went to head the quarter hour chimes but annoyingly a noisy bus and a police car went past and masked the sound. Such a small thing to do, and still I've not yet heard the bells up front in person. I shall have to stand next to the tower next time I'm in the area :-)

Then we went our separate ways and I headed up to Islington to have dinner with zapruder. Rar. We finally met up after 2 previous failed attempts. We ate at a place called La Porchetta and they served huge portions. So big, in fact, that even I with my huge appetite was unable to finish. Never mind - I took it home with me and finished it off the following day.

I had previously thought about writing up my tumour story in book form, but don't quite know how I'd pad it out into a reasonable length. Conversation over dinner gave me a few ideas, including adding some stories about how Nf affected me as a child, some stories from school and those medics to whom I've been a patient.
So, thanks for re-kindling my interest
I shall start looking for publishers at some stage.

All in all, it was an awesome and yet tiring day.

On Monday 27th I met Kay at Euston station. We got a few photos of a monument in Leicester square called Seven Dials, but it was raining. See my later post on that.

Tuesday we met squigfried and then went to the Sigur Ros gig. I've been wanting to see them for a long time - I even considerd going to see them in Berlin (I think it was) in their 2003 tour.

Words cannot describe how awesome it was. Much of it was moving to the point of tears and it will remain etched in my memory for time to come. If you like Sigur Ros, then do absolutely anything you can to see them live. You will not be disapointed.

( Set list )

The support band had an awful start, but they quickly improved with their second song, sounding rather like Mogwai on their Kids Will Be Skeletons album. I wish I could remember their name - I'd like to dig out more of their stuff.

I took a few photos, but they're nothing special. For long distance work I really need an SLR rather than a compact.

Major annoyance of the night was losing 15 quid somewhere (though oddly I still could account for 10 quid of the 25 I was expecting to find), meaning also that I couldn't get a t-shirt. I'll probably end up getting one on ebay. Hopefully they won't be too extortionate.

Another couple of tasks from my 101 in 1001 list.

I wrote about it, but forgot to mark it as one of the items.
Meeting lost_sincerity on Friday completes item 84. Meet in person someone I know online but not f2f

42. Go on the London Eye
Last Sunday I went on the London Eye with stephmog, poggs and alexmog. I was initially a bit apprehensive but whatever trace of vertigo I had seems to have gone. This one is taken at almost the peak:
( cut for those who have vertigo )

My next trick is to convince my sister to come along, though I dubt that will happen for a while :-)
We also wandered around the south bank and I got photos of some of the performers there.


Being the fool that I am, I forgot to charge the battery on my camera and it died part way up, though I got a photo of Parliament and St Stephen's tower (the one that houses Big Ben). I made a userpic out of it which I'll be using for political rants - there's one of those coming up, as it happens.

A fun, but exhausting delay finishing off with a slow journey home due to tube delays and closures.

The pics link to the gallery of the day out

29. Upload photos from old CF cards
I uploaded most of these yesterday - you can see them at [http://pics.livejournal.com/matthewp]. I've not put captions on them yet, but will be doing that as and when I can be bothered. Some of the photos date back to 2004 - they were quite overdue :-)

There's one CF card still to find; it's in a box somewhere but now that I'm in a small flat there isn't the room to have everything out.

* * *

Late last night, as hunger was creeping up on me, I had cravings for tabouleh. My cupboards were getting bare so I took a trip to the Sainsbury's in Camden at 2330 ish. Reminds me of when I lived near the Portwood Tesco which was open 24 hours. Late night shopping is so much more preferable. The morrisons near me is far too small for the amount of people that seem to want to try to use it. SHopping there is such an unpleasant experience, especially between 1700 and 1830.

Strange music courtesy of markslut.