So, I finally found a reasonable quality live recording of Thing Well Made, and there is even a hi def option (in youtube, possibly not in the embedded file below). Shake and bake baby, shake and bake.
And for someone a little less musical but who always makes me smile:
I bought a bike a couple of months back, and have been cycling from canonbury to victoria - about half an hour each way, with a slight incline down in the morning. The route I follow sweeps past Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall and the pelican pond in St James Park, so there is always something nice to look at.
Plus, there is a coffee cart en route with arguably the best coffee in London, which breaks up the morning commute nicely.
Thus far I have achieved the following milestones:
Had my bike stolen from within the communal area of our apartment block 36 hours after purchasing,
Had Marie find it on gumtree,
Popped round to check it was mine, called the cops and got the guy arrested, and got my bike back,
Had a minor crash trying to jump a deceptively high curb, injuring only my pride,
Yelled at numerous pedestrians for stepping out in front of my road,
Worked out exactly how long an emergency stop takes to avoid hitting said pedestrians, and
Worked out the hierarchy of London rush hour traffic. Bigger = right of way, but buses are polite.
It is surprisingly easy to commute in the summer, and interacting with traffic is not actually as bad as it looks from the pavement. The real test will be whether I can continue biking in winter, when it is dark both to and from work. Marie has started biking as well, which is nice.
I have a perfectly functional Trek hybrid, which does exactly what it says on the tin. By North London standards this is not a particularly fashionable bike, as it has multiple gears and multiple brakes. Since starting cycling I have started coveting various bikes of a more fashionable persuasion, but I can't really justify having two bikes. Yet.
Lunch in sunny London Fields, watching the local denizens on parade.
A sublime gruyere, and a brie with enviable viscosity. No cutlery, so finger licking good.
Then home to watch the penultimate leg of the Tour de France.
One of the best musical experiences of my life, I am such a bogan. Skip to the last 30 seconds for some serious pyrotechnical action.
They didn't play Engel or Amerika, but they did play Du Reichst So Gut (my favourite) and Du Hast.
Still buzzing days later.
Brief thoughts:
1) Michaelangelo's David is really really impressive. Alone this was worth the trip.
2) Italians really know how to cook steak, up there with the French. I never realised this before. Unlike the British, they aren't paranoid about Mad Cow so my roast beef at the central market was marinated in oil and rosemary and then lightly seared around the edges.
3) Fillet ala florentine is a kilo hunk of beef, minimum. I was yelled at for chewing the bone - photo to come shortly. Apparently I was only meant to pose with the bone, not actually gnaw on it.
3) You can get a martini with 42 Below vodka in Florence. It was everything a martini should be - ice cold and lethal, extremely large, and from New Zealand. When I got excited about the origin of the vodka, the bartender poured shots for me, him, the other bartender, and one of the regulars at the bar.
4) Coffee in Italy is consistently good, no matter where you get it. However, we didn't quite stumble over anywhere at the level of Dose or Flat Cap. Mind you, it took Marie and I a while to find excellent coffee in London, so accidentally finding it in a weekend in Florence was always going to be unlikely.
