Dinner at Hawksmoor, London

Dinner at Hawksmoor
Originally uploaded by adrianhind

Awesome dinner at the Hawksmoor Guildhall

Dinner at Sitaaray, London

Unlimited Indian kebabs and curries in a Bollywood themed restaurant.
Starve yourself beforehand.  It's well worth it.

Dinner at Fishworks, Richmond

Whole seabream with garlic, thyme and white wine, cooked in paper.
Yum!!

La traviata @ Royal Opera House, London

Dinner at Wright Bros Soho Oyster House, London

9.5 / 10
Will definitely go again ... and again.

Dinner at Dinner by Heston, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London

A modern take on age-old English recipes, Heston is a genius.
I recommend the "Meat Fruit", "Powdered Duck", "Cod in Cider", and the "Tipsy Cake"
10/10

Dinner at Bacco, Richmond

A fun Italian restaurant in Richmond, with great food, good service, and a nice deck out front for a pre-dinner drink.

Britain exits longest recession on record – just

Dim Sum at Lotus Floating Chinese Restaurant, Inner Millwall Dock, London

Dinner at The Kiwi Kitchen, Fulham, London

Hiking the South Downs Way

South Downs Way - 54
Originally uploaded by adrianhind

Over the weekend, I hiked a 38km segment of the South Downs Way, one of the classic UK National Trails.

Day 1: train from London Victoria to Lewes Station; walk from Lewes to Alfriston across farming fields, through cute little country towns, and a grueling 10km segment across the top of the downs, 20km walking in total

Overnight in a hostel on the outskirts of Alfriston, amusing full of 18 and 19 year olds on a University of Brighton freshman orientation group hug weekend of some form

Day 2: walk through more farming fields, Westdean Forest, then along the gorgeous rolling chalk cliffs from Cuckmere Haven, Birling Gap (pictured), Beachy Head, and into the coastal town of Eastbourne for dinner, before train/bus/train back to London, 18km walking in total

Royal Mail national strike looms for Christmas

[The Times] "Royal Mail was on last night reported to have lost a £25 million contract with Amazon, its second largest customer, as a national strike looms over the crucial Christmas period."

I've been experiencing mail delays of around 1 - 2 weeks over the past month. The unions have been putting a stranglehold on the company, with workers repeatedly going to strike all over the UK, and now Royal Mail is starting to lose some of its big commercial contracts. Sort it out, get over it, you should all consider yourselves lucky to have a job in this tough economic environment.

Glastonbury Festival 2010 sells out in less than a day

The Glastonbury Festival turns 40 next year, and the line-up is predicted to be absolutely awesome. Tickets went on sale at 9:00am on Sunday and were sold out before the end of the day.

Anthony & Lisa: many thanks for booking my ticket while I was on the phone back to Australia.

Dinner at Brasserie Blanc, Oxford

Visit to Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace - 19
Originally uploaded by adrianhind

Day out at Blenheim Palace with Margaret, Ian & Kath.

Check out the full set of photos on Flickr

Ashes at Lord's

Ashes at Lord's
Originally uploaded by adrianhind

I was fortunate enough to get tickets to the first day of the second Ashes test at Lord's.

England won the toss and elected to bat, getting off to a good start with a fantastic opening partnership between Strauss and Cook. Australia fought back after lunch, with England ending the day at 6 for 364.

England went on to win the test, their first against Australia at Lord's since 1934.

Full set of photos in the Ashes at Lord's set on Flickr.

Dinner at The Marquis at Alkham, UK

Glastonbury 2009 - Recovery Day

Glastonbury Highlights - 14
Originally uploaded by adrianhind

Sunday was very much recovery day at Glastonbury. Lots of exhausted festival go-ers sprawled out on the few remaining patches of grass. The smell from the toilets, the trash, and all the people who had gone five days without a shower, permeated throughout the campsite.

We slept in, then packed up our campsite in preparation for a middle of the night departure to avoid the massive queues on the Monday.

We finished the festival with an inspired performance by Nick Cave and Bad Seeds on the Pyramid stage, then raved to The Prodigy for a short, but incredibly energetic performance on the Other Stage, before making our way back to London.

I arrived home at 5:55am on Monday morning, had a long shower, and then pretty much slept for the entire day.

Full set of photos are in the Glastonbury 2009 set on Flickr.

Glastonbury 2009 - Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen - 02
Originally uploaded by adrianhind

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band was the headline act on the Saturday night, performing a two and a half hour set, including a six song encore.

So much energy, barely a rest between songs, and lots of involvement with the crowd.

It was great to see Steven van Zandt (a.k.a. Silvio Dante from The Sopranos) back in his original role lead guitar role for the E Street Band.

Glastonbury 2009 - Kasabian

Kasabian
Originally uploaded by adrianhind

To be honest, I didn't know much about Kasabian prior to going to Glastonbury. From what I understand, they're much bigger in the UK than they are in Australia.

Their set on the Pyramid Stage on the Saturday evening was awesome. Great live sound, and a very involved and passionate crowd. Definitely worth seeing again.