Hello? Anybody there?

Does anyone ever read this?

I suspect not.

Rain

I was in Berlin again this weekend. Now don't get me wrong, Berlin has some really trendy areas and all, but the last 2 times I've been there it's rained pretty much non-stop the whole time. This seems to coincide with it being almost exclusively my German friends who make fun of England for our rain. At least London is still colourful in the rain. We have red bricks, red buses, black cabs, yellow ambulances, silver police cars. Berlin has beige taxis. I don't even remember seeing a bus. They must be rain coloured, or maybe off-white, like the police cars. And all the buildings are grey. Lovely.

So anyway, why was I in Berlin? Well I was supposed to do an inline skating marathon, but it rained so I didn't. Instead I watched people skate in the rain, then went to the after-party and woke up the next morning feeling like I'd raced 2 marathons :)

Oh and in a nice twist of events, the friendly chap in the Omega boutique at Ka De We fixed my watch for free. This restores karma after my previous visit to Berlin resulted in my watch being broken when I crashed into a tree while skating in the wet.

The last 3 times I've travelled anywhere, I've always been really happy to return to London :)

Geneva

So I was in Geneva over the weekend.

The hills are definitely not alive with the sound of music, nor anything else for that matter.
It's very quiet there, and everything is closed on Sundays. Even the local gangsta rappers are afraid to pump up the volume on the stereo in their convertible as they cruise down the street.

There was a nice pizzeria though... Except it turns out it's a chain of pizzerias. http://www.molino.ch/ - so far the only thing worth visiting in Geneva :)

Burrito Fail II

Humbug!

I took the tube to work this morning. For some reason despite loving the Boris Bike system I really didn't feel like riding one this morning. I think it has to do with exhausted legs from wearing my speed skates on the LondonSkate last night, as I didn't feel like skating either. Plus there were no bikes, which made that decision easier.

So I picked up the City AM paper to read on the tube, and there it was on the first page. Free Burritos! Turn to page 23. I naturally turned to page 23 to find Tortilla are opening their 5th branch at Leadenhall Market today, and to celebrate Mexican Independence day they are giving away a free burrito to the first 200 customers.

Why is this a Burrito fail? Well, because I don't work anywhere near Leadenhall Market!

I declare today to be Pizza Thursday. I shall be dining Italian style at Adagio instead. So there :p

Burrito Fail

I have become a bit of a burrito connosieur of late. For some reason there are a lot of burrito places opening up around London.

This is a good thing.

Today however, we went back to El Burrito and it fell short of our expectations. My burrito suffered a catastrophic tortilla containment failure and I had to abandon my attempt to finish eating it.

What does all of this mean, you may ask? Well, a burrito is a delicate meal. It contains several ingredients all wrapped in a tortilla. If the tortilla fails, it all spills out and generally creates a mess everywhere. This is what burrito connosieurs call a critical mess.

So anyway, of the burrito places I have tried so far, this is my ranking:

1. Daddy Donkey. This is the daddy of burritos. Shame there's nowhere to sit.
2. Benito's Hat. Benito and his hat previously held equal second place with El Burrito, however with the recent failure, it now has a secure second place.
3. Chipotle. Chipotle is great. They assemble burritos with clinical precision, and the taste is great every time. The big issue I have with them is that they charge £1.40 for guacamole. £1.40!! It should be illegal to charge so much!
4. Chilango.
5. Tortilla. You have to get Tortilla at the right time. If it's quiet the meat can be dry.
6. Mexicala
6. El Burrito (dropped down from equal 2nd place).
8. Mas Burritos. This place is too tight with their fillings, and their burritos suffer from bad construction problems.
9. 1910 Mexican Kitchen. This place is too posh to be a real burrito place, and they wrap the burritos with the foil inside out. They don't taste particularly great either.

You may be wondering why Burrito Bros, Taqueria or Burro Burrito don't feature in this list. The reason is that I haven't tried them yet. Burrito Bros is in the wrong place. Taqueria is even further away, and although Burro Burrito is next door to my flat, the place is never open!! Grrrr! :)

Speed, or lack thereof...

Why is it that when I cycle to work, riding as fast as my legs can push me it takes me 20 minutes to ride to work, but when I cycle home it doesn't matter whether I am ambling in some random direction or what speed I am going, it only takes 15 minutes?

Could it be that the weight and gearing of the Boris bike is so bad that the slight 1% uphill gradient equates to 12.5% additional journey time?

Well I can't explain it any other way. When I take the tube the evening journey takes longer, and walking takes about the same in either direction!

Holy Calamazoo!

I haven't written anything here for ages.

That's because I couldn't be bothered, but while having a burrito at Benito's Hat this afternoon one of my colleagues told me he has a blog, and because we were talking about it I decided to write another post.
Holy Calamazoo!

So what's happened since the last post? I can't remember when it was, so I'll mention a few trips...

Le Mans 24h Skating race. That rocked. T-shirt fail by Nike but we are all up for going again next year.
Bunk Barn weekend. Also rocked. Cheap as chips too :)
Paris Birthday weekend. I am at a loss for words on that one. Whoa! 50 people showed up in Paris and another 40 in London. Amazing :)

What else?
My employer wants me to be featured in the social club newsletter. W00t!

Oh yeah, Boris bikes. They rock too. Not as good as Ve'lib but close enough. £45 a year gets me unlimited access, free for the first half hour of usage. One or two teething problems but I've been riding to work on them, and back :)

The only thing is, everyone beeps their horn at me. The gearing on them is terrible so they can't go very fast, so taxis and buses beep loudly. The bus this morning was the worst so far. I had to stop the bike in front of him at the ring of steel and let him beep his horn for a bit longer before carrying on. I forgot the number plate, else I'd have reported him. In Paris the buses have a bell so they can politely remind you there is a bus behind you. This guy pulled away from his bus stop into the next lane, I proceeded at my regular slow speed (as fast as I can make the bike go) but the bus realised he shoudl be in the bus lane and started to close in on me. The front of my bike was level with the front of the bus when he started beeping me. He really wanted to crush me.

Oh well, I kind of enjoy holding buses up. Feels like revenge for when I'm driving a car and they hold me up at 20mph :)