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Colour: David Batchelor

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Shaping London: Sir Terry Farrell

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-12-30T11:08:00.003Z

We are heading off to Brighton, through the rain, today for NYE celebrations. We thought we'd go early and get a bit of coherent conversation in. I haven't been keeping this page up to date much lately as I've been writing bits a bobs for my Posterous blog, where a couple for these lists have already appeared. But in case you weren't looking there, here they are again...
I Spotified, via Twitter, my top 10 artist/tunes/albums of 2009 on Friday/Saturday [18/19th Dec]. The more observant of you, that follow me on Twitter, may have noticed.

I didn't listen to anything like as many new albums this year as I did in 2008. But in the interests of maintaining the list tradition, here they are again. Each artist with a track representing that release. I'm afraid a couple are EPs.

01.Polly Scattergood - I Hate The Way from Polly Scattergood
02. Passion Pit - The Reeling from Manners
03. The XX - Fantasy from XX
04. Antony & The Johnsons - Another World from The Crying Light
05. Bon Iver - Woods from Blood Bank EP
06. Cobblestone Jazz - Traffic Jam from Traffic Jam EP
07. Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat from Hands [Best version is the Alexander Robotinick RMX but isn't on Spotify]
08. Depeche Mode - Jezebel from Sounds Of The Universe
09. Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move from Bitte Orca
10. Moritz Von Oswald - Pattern 1 from Vertical Ascent

What were your top albums/tunes/artists of 2009?
I don't seem to get much time to read generally although I've done quite well this year. As far as I recall, this is what I've read, in no particular order, since January. Having three holidays this year helped enormously of course! It averages out to just over one a month but in truth I think I read 9 or 10 of them whilst on holiday. I'm no book reviewer, so you will have to do your own homework. Colour Music was the only one that disappointed in any way.

Psychogeography - Will Self
The Pearly Gates Of Cyberspace - Margaret Wertheim
Colour In Art - John Gage
Chromophobia - David Batchelor
Colour Music - A. Wallace Rimington
This Is Your Brain On Music - Daniel Levitin
Hey Nostradamus - Douglas Coupland
Diary - Chuck Palahniuk
The Atrocity Exhibition - JG Ballard
Junk Mail - Will Self
Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City - WJ Mitchell
Transition - Iain Banks
Reheated Cabbage - Irvine Welsh

I also dipped into a few of the exhibition catalogues I got this year as well. Namely, Per Kirkeby, Francis Bacon and the Colour Chart exhibition.

If you've read any of these and can suggest something you think I might like then leave me a comment.
I went through the Google Calendar to see where we had been this year with the intention of compiling even more lists, but I'm all Top Tenned Out out, so here is a list, in no particular order. Sorry for the lack of hyperlinks! Happy New Year.

Theatre/Comedy
King Lear - The Young Vic
Shun-Kin - Barbican
The Overcoat - Lyric Hammersmith
Don John - Battersea Arts Centre
Madame De Sade - Donmar @ The Wyndhams
Macbeth: Who Is That Bloodied Man [Teatro Biuro Podrozy] - National Theatre Square 2
Otsoko [Gaitzerdi Teatro] - National Theatre Square 2
Prima Donna - Manchester
Simon Amstell - Pleasance Theatre
England People Very Nice - Olivier Theatre
Mixed Up North - Wilton's Musical Hall
Breakfast At Tiffany's - Theatre Royal
Eddie Izzard - Wembley Arena

Film
Changeling
Notorious [BFI]
Spellbound [BFI]
Choke
Anything For Her
Frozen River
Moon
Vicky Christina Barcelona
Synecdoche New York
The Wrestler
Mesrine: Killer Instinct

Exhibitions
London Art Fair 2009, islington
Annie Liebovitz - National Portrait Gallery
Sean Snyder - ICA
20-21 - Royal College of Art
Affordable Art Fair [Spring] 2009
Affordable Art Fair [Autumn] 2009
Cy Twombly [Roses] - Gagosian
Liminal - Rivington Place
Susan Collins - De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-On-Sea
Royal Academy Print Fair
House Gallery, Camberwell - Live & Lights [John Bently]
Ben Nicholson - Tate St. Ives
Walking In My Mind - Hayward Gallery
Scratching The Surface - Lazarides Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery
Colour Chart - Tate Liverpool [and This Is Sculpture]
Per Kirkeby - Tate Modern
Futurism - Tate Modern
Miroslav Balka - How It Is [and tour of oil tanks] - Tate Modern
Chord [Conrad Shawcross] - Kingsway Tram Subway
Anish Kapoor - Royal Academy
Wild Thing - Royal Academy
Pop Life - Tate Modern

Restaurants & Bars
Zeen - Drummond St.
Tacuba - Balham
Gordons Wine Bar - Villiers Street
The Botanist - Sloane Square
Pulcinella - Old Compton Street
Aqua Brasserie - Vauxhall
The Avenue - St. James' Street
Konstam - Kings Cross
Song Que - Kingsland Road
The Cambria - Loughborough Junction
The Exhibition - Crystal Palace
Ooze - Goodge Street
Jerusalem Bar - Rathbone Place
Lowlander - Drury Lane
Sophie's Steak House - Covent Garden
The Devonshire - Balham
Sugar Cane - Lavender Hill
Hotel Du Vin - Henley-On-Thames
Alba - St. Ives
Porthminster Cafe - St. Ives
Tayyabs - Whitechapel
Trinity - Clapham
Michael Caines @ Adobe - Manchester
Zelig's - Liverpool
Constancia - Bermondsey
Big Fat Panda - Clapham
The Legend Of The Holy Drinker - Clapham
Jamie's Italian - Brighton
The Dorset - Brighton
Polpo - Beak Street
Leon - SE1

Clubs/Gigs
Etienne De Crecy - Matter
The Killers - Hyde Park
Blur - Hyde Park
SW4 - Clapham Common
2 Many DJs - Brixton Academy

Categories: Music, Art, London, Photography, Books, Food & Drink, Film, Theatre

Having My Soul Waxed By 2 Many DJs

2009-12-13T19:20:00.003Z

Wow! That was good. Rob's "Birthday Bash With Banging Belgian's" involved us all convening in SW9 before a surprisingly queue free entrance to the Brixton Academy. And we were right up the front, great lights, so loud my ears are still ringing 14 hours later and some top tunes.

I can't believe I've not seen Soulwax live before. Augmenting the synth set up with bass and drums they rocked like a proper band but without any guitar solos! Shame they seemed to be over so soon and went straight to Erol Alkan instead of doing an encore[s]. I liked what Erol was playing but his DJing seemed sloppy, trying to do too much with the mixer and generally making a mess of it if you ask me. Maybe he was having a bad [or too good] night.

But it wasn't long before 2 Many DJs were on mashing up classics of all genres with their bizarre animated album covers, just in case you don't know what they are playing. I enjoyed them more than last time,probably for being down the front and sweating it out a bit. it was all good up until "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time". There's no excuse for that, not even Christmas!

I seem to be alone in not really liking Mixhell who came on afterwards and were all a bit "Look At Me" and had some irritating unnecessary drumalongs. I might have liked them more if they were on earlier in the night maybe. I'd seen what I came for and had probably just had enough by then. I have no idea who was playing before Soulwax came on though.

Why can't DJs just find enough good tunes for a whole set? I suspect that they just aren't written now as fewer DJs play tunes in their entirety any more. Since the popularity of mixers with looping abilities and effects and laptop DJ-ing I suspect that less and less of a whole tune has ended up in any DJ mix, unless its on some dire Ministry Of Sound album or something. So, why bother writing them? Personally I'm not really entertained by by someones ability to punch buttons in time! It doesn't necessarily give you the talent to build a decent tune out of the component parts.

Still it was top night out and hopefully Rob had a good birthday and the Brighton crew didn't have to wait to long for their ride back to the sea. Sam and I got back in no time and were tucked up in bed by 5.30 this morning. It was almost dark again by the time we got up though and I have all manner off aches and pains today, so it must have been good. It had been a long day as we had been over to Walton for a Chinese lunch with Viv, Lucy and Mark, before popping back to see Lucy & Mark's new house in the afternoon. So it was a mad dash back to Brixton for the evening.

Other than that it has been a comparatively quiet week. Although we did queue inthe cold on Friday night to get our copy of the new Anish Kapoor monograph signed at the Phaidon pop-up book shop in Piccadilly. I did get a rough mix of a new[ish] tune, Ostranenie up at SoundCloud and write a couple for posts for my Posterous Blog at stevewilde.com and far too many drinks with Kev on Tuesday.

get yourselves over to the SoundCloud page and leave me some comments on the tune before I finish it. There's another tune coming

Categories: Music, Art, London

Eddie Izzard & The Pop Academy

2009-12-07T21:48:00.005Z

Last Friday we headed out to Wembley, via Marylebone, to see Eddie Izzard. I mention the route simply because it avoided the crowds so well and was so quick. Eddie must have been keen because the running order as we went insuggested he would be on stage from 20:00 - 20:50 and again from 21:20 - 10:00... But it after a slightly inconsistent first hour we got, well I don't know how long! The interval wasn't that long and we didn't get out until almost 23:00 and the second half was waaaay better. Loved the giraffe's trying to warn one another about a tiger by coughing and charades!

I wasn't over impressed by the plug for his lovey bio-pic thing beforehand though but the stage set was impressive; rescuing Eddie from a complete dwarfing by using a bloody huge screen. Well, there were three but the two at the side were mainly for tweets and humiliating the audience by catching them unawares and leaving the camera on them for far too long. I didn't see my pre-set tweet go by though.

Saturday we visited three exhibitions. Anish Kapoor and Wild Thing at the Royal Academy and Pop Life at the Tate Modern.

It's hard to believe some of the the sculptures of Eric Gill, Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska are nearing 100 years old. The early part of the last Century produced some extraordinary artwork. Mostly influenced by WW1. Epsteins Rock Drill was violent enough but even more so when you see the repoduced original with tripod and "gun". before we saw those works though we shuffled round the mighty busy Anish Kapoor exhibit downstairs, narrowly avoiding a long queue by becoming friends of the Academy. Those are Kapoor's shiny balls, outside the RA, above.

The £70.00 Annual fee paid for over half of itself by getting us in to shows that would have been £46.00 in total on their own and by the time we have been to the Summer Exhibition and to the Real Van Gogh exhibition next year we'll be quids in. I don't think I've ever seen so many smiling faces at an exhibition as at Anish Kapoor especially around the mirrored pieces. Lord knows how they will ever get all of that red wax off though! I guess we'll find out in January when Van Gogh opens.

As for Pop Life, I don't think the exhibition as a whole really summed up Pop Art completely, but it was close. It's basically in a corner being shafted by Damien Hirst with the ghost of Andy Warhol only admiring his bank balance! It was a very disjointed exhibit with some comical vintage porn thrown in... Oh yeah, that was Cosey Fanni Tutti. Slightly interesting from an historical point of view I guess. The whole thing might have sold itself better as an 80s exhibition really, especially with the YBA's room. Jeff Koons always makes me laugh and the Takashi Murakami room was a blitz of colour. A bit disposable and not overly memorable in all but then maybe that's very apt!

We met up with Kev & Karol and Kev's brother Tony in the pub before the Tate Modern and returned there afterwards. Part of their Santathon, raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital, involved selling shots of hot toffee vodka. Which were incredibly more-ish and may have been what made our meal at Leon afterwards such a blur. Needless to say, I didn't do a a thing on Sunday except write a post for my Posterous blog and almost finished a tune. One of the Me++ tunes I've been dallying over. I'll be sharing a little taster of Ostranenie, a dubby, deep house tune, over at SoundCloud very soon. Hopefully that will kick start me to finalising the other nine tracks.

Must remember to collect our signed copy of the shiny new Anish Kapoor book on Friday. I missed a great opportunity to see the band with the best name I've heard this year tonight. Ringo Deathstarr, who were playing at the Windmill in Brixton. But it's not often I get a night in so I stayed home.

Categories: Music, Art, London, Books, Blogging, Food & Drink, Theatre

That Was Only A Week?

2009-11-28T18:59:00.004Z

Ahhhh! At last. A night in. Apart from Thursday [more of that later] I've been out every night since Sam's 24 Hour Party People In A Disco Dungeon Experience.

This time a week ago we had been in Brighton for a few hours and had started "preparations" for the party at Paul and Sarah's, decorated by Kerry & Rob... and attended by sundry party animals. And it really was a 24 hour party people experience. I cut out mid afternoon on Sunday, with Kev, to see Tony's new band play [Sorry, the band name has completely escaped me now!] at the Hobgoblin. Which was pretty hardcore [in a punk sense]. We saw a couple of other bands as well and hung around for a bit of a chat before braving the cold to head for the relative security of Paul & Sarah's. Don't ask me to recall any of the party now it's a distant blur in the fun bank.

Monday was booked as a day of recovery but after a couple of Bloody Mary's at Kev & Karol's we had Paul round to join us and were heading for the Dorset for "lunch", then it was back to Kev & Karol's before a far later train than we had anticipated back to London.

We had already arranged to catch up with a former work colleague on Tuesday so it was another night in the pub, followed by a night out watching football at Fulham on Wednesday and finally a night in on Thursday. Except that was the day that Chris was due to visit us from Leicester and there was catching up to be done. We met Chris at about seven-ish, headed back to ours and finally hit the hay around 2.00am.

Yesterday was a bit of a struggle due to the the red wine hangover but by the time we got to the Wilton's Music Hall for Mixed Up North and I had a couple of Guinness's I was back on track, if a little tired. Chris had wanted to visit the venue for ages and bought us all tickets for the play as an excuse to check the place out. The theatre, behind the marvellous Mahogany Bar, is in a beautiful state of disrepair and was quite a distraction during the play just thinking how it must have looked during its former lives up to 150 years ago...

A sun-burner chandelier with 300 gas jets and 27,000 cut crystals originally dominated a mirrored hall where "Champagne Charlie" was first sung and rumour has it that the first ever Can-Can was performed and promptly banned. The original cast iron 'barley sugar' pillars still support a papier-mâché balcony under paper roses set in a vaulted roof.

1,500 people used to cram into the venue in its day. Today the hall has a licence to seat 300 people. In 1888 the hall became the East End Mission of the Methodist Church serving 2000 meals a day to strikers in the first dockers' strike of 1889. It also served as the HQ for the people of the East End who gathered to stop Mosley's fascists in the Battle of Cable Street [1936].

Its worth a visit to see the bar if nothing else and to sample Jane's food or look in awe as the Guinness Surger does its thing. These may be quiet common actually but I've never seen one before! If you go before December 5th you may get tickets for Mixed Up North too. Written by Robin Soans. It's based on real events surrounding the difficulties of uniting divided racial communities in the Lancashire mill town of Burnley and is both funny and moving. The Out of Joint company is famed for this style of verbatim theatre. We enjoyed it a lot, there were a lot of excellent performances, so thanks Chris.

Now I'm back from football again and dried and thawed out I don't intend to do anything tomorrow... Well, we may go for a walk, weather permitting, to check out the new Herne Hill Bookshop. But that's it!

Categories: Music, London, Books, Theatre

Happy Birthday Sam

2009-11-19T19:39:00.004Z

Yesterday was Sam's birthday so it was champagne and Pastéis de Nata in bed for breakfast, with cards and presents. Then venturing out for a late lunch at Polpo in Beak Street.

What a lunch. The menu consists of cicheti and crostini, small Venetian equivalents of Tapas.
I'd booked a late lunch to ensure we were humgry, but it kind of backfired in as much as the kitchen was closing its lunch service at 3:00pm and all our food arrived together instead of spread over, well, however long it takes. Meaning a] It barely fitted on the table and b] We had to eat it pretty quick before it got cold. Still, we'll know better next time. We'll also know not to eat for a couple of days beforehand as well. They may be small plates but it was very filling. We ordered...

Grilled bread with olive oil
Chopped chicken liver
Potato & Parmesan crocchetta
Pork belly, radicchio, hazelnuts
Slow roast duck, green peppercorns, black olives, tomatoes
Spinach, chilli, garlic
Grilled zucchini
Polpette
Braciola [I have to verify what this was as I think it was cured meat rather than lightly fried - Carpaccio like but not raw anyway, but served on rocket with parmesan].

Somehow, after quite a break, finishing our bottle of Primitivo, Fiori 2008 [from Puglia?], we squeezed in a shared plate of Pear and Gorgonzola. All for £68.00 including service [which was good and no one batted an eyelid when Sam knocked a glass of wine over... me, mostly!]

It was all excellent and a very pleasant change.

After a machiato and an espresso I had dried off enough to head to Selfridges and surprisingly there was no staining or smell from the spilt wine. I thought I might have to nip home or buy new clothes before the theatre later on. But I decided I'd be OK and lurked in Gordon's Bar while Sam shopped.

Next we trotted down to the Haymarket for Breakfast At Tiffany's at the Theatre Royal. This adaptation is closer to Truman Capote's novella than the film ever was but the exclusion, in the film, of the scenes in the bar was probably a good idea. They made it all seem a bit disjointed but it was very good nontheless, even without the Hollywod ending.

You certainly couldn't fault Anna Friel as Holly Golightly. I was hugely surprised; the Southern twang, the guitar playing, the singing, getting her kit off! working with a real live [albeit suspiciously docile] cat. I've read some awful reviews of this but they are pretty wide of the mark. Overall the performances were good although all were outshone by Friel. I wasn't so sure about the stage set, which seemed to be permanently on the move to little effect. I just wish I knew what the songs that Holly sung were. I though I recognised the first one, but it may just have been derivative of something else. Were they Kurt Weill? Cole Porter? or from Oklahoma, as in the book? There was certainly no Moon River.

When we came out we were surprised to find ourselves in Algiers! Or so it seemed. Thousands of Algerian football fans had descended on Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square tocelebrate qualifying for the World Cup. They weren't any trouble, just hanging out cars, blaring horns, waving flags, chanting and setting off flares. Odd!

To round off the evening we popped into Freggo for ice cream.

Categories: Music, London, Books, Food & Drink, Film, Theatre

Is That An Osprey?

2009-11-09T01:00:00.000Z

There are blue skies again this morning but cloud starts to build up and it gets muggy. Bookless, I divide my time between trying to beat my Android at draughts and watching a huge bird of prey circling over the nearest mountain. I wonder what it is, it's enormous. Might be an Osprey, as it had plenty of white on it and the six foot wing span would be about right. But the wings look wrong.

It must be mighty windy high up as the cloud is all blown away again in no time so we can get our last day of sunshine.

For our last dinner out we head back down to the Las Vistas beach to a bar/restaurant called Chill Out. It's a misnomer as the place is boiling and doesn't have much outside seating. We ahve very retro starters, prawn cocktail's and Serrano and melon. Followed by pork fillets and chickens satay skewers. It's all too big and we are too hot to really enjoy it, tasty though it is.

So we head off for a cab up what we assume is one flight of stairs. It turns out to be three, very long flights. And we are knackered after. It's far to warm for that sort of thing. Just time for a Canaries size measure of brandy or three before bed. then we'll try to get a couple of hours on the roof before we set off for the airport tomorrow, back to the cold.

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

Going Dutch

2009-11-08T23:48:00.002Z

I only had one book left to read today and it's only just over 100 pages long. I'm not going to have anything to read for the last day or the journey home.

David Batchelor's Chromophobia is an unusual take on colour theory, with references to the Wizard Of Oz, Huysman's Against Nature, Pleasantville, Huxley, Pop and Minimalist art amongst others. And as I suspected... not long enough.

I manage to squeeze in Chelsea v Man Utd today as well, back at Taylor's Bar. It's the first day we have had without any cloud cover at all and it must be 30 degrees.

Tonight we head back to La Costa for more tapas and Spanish guitars. As well as being very talented these guys are very funny, stoppping to mimic calling their agant when doing any obvious crowd pleasers. The guy running the place interrupts them the moment they get too cheesy too, running up with trays of shots to distract them and even joining in on the spoons. the little verandah is packed and its a great atmosphere.

The flambeed prawns get torched in front of us again with little room to spare as the flame whooshes up a couple of feet! Then we have chicken skewers, Costa style [not sure what that meant!], bread and alioli, a three chees plate, chorizo, Serrano and olives.

But this time I ask for a dish I saw a couple [who are at the next table to us tonight] of other Dutch people having for lunch on our previous visit. I have no ide what its called but they soon work it out and the couple cheer when they see I'm having an "off menu" traditional Dutch dish. Turns out these little meatballs are called Bitterballen. They come with either mayo or curry sauce, so I opt for the curry sauce and they are fantastic. I think I shared one but the rest were all mine! After some crazy shots on the house we stagger off in search of a cab.

Categories: Art, Books, Food & Drink, Travel

Tapas... Again!

2009-11-07T23:35:00.002Z

For a break from the lounging on the roof we adjourn to Taylor's Bar, where I find three live Premiership games on, table service and cheap beer. Watching three games of football at once is a lot harder than I imagined!

The football ends just in time for us to get back and get ready for a return visit to Tasca De Mi Abuelo. It's difficult not to just order the same thing as the other day and we do start with the Serrano ham. But after that we move onto manchego with saffron, then mushrooms with bacon and chorizo in red wine. I have to have the black pudding and fois gras combo again and the only additional dish is whietbait. Good wine and coffee too but no room for desserts.

Back to the hotel bar and then bed.

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

Going French In Spain

2009-11-06T23:11:00.000Z

More lounging on the roof terrace today, reading, with the odd beer or pina colada. Mostly waiting for the evening's meal. Yesterday by the harbour we located a French restaurant listed in this years Michelin guide that we wanted to try.

Le Bistrot D'Alain is unashamedly French and as soon as the complimentary Kir Royale's hit the table we almost forgot we weren't in Paris. We were very lucky to get a table as we hadn't booked. The dishes included chicken livers, fish soup, beef fillet with truffles, sole and rabbit. Followed by cherries in amaretto with ice cream. Awesome. Excellent service, menu and staff and not over expensive either.

One of the problems of being near the sea front is running the gamut of people trying to lure you into their bar. One guy stopped us to see if we would be interested in the tribute night in his... I only caught one of the tribute acts names. or should I say I only recognised one and that was Billy Idol! But as we wandered off the guy was saying something about Gary, "who only came out of a coma four days ago, but he's OK now"!

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

Harbouring A Lunch

2009-11-05T22:28:00.002Z

It's odd to be soaking up the heat on a day I usually associate with being in someones garden freezing while fireworks are lit!

It's still cloudy but still a bit warm for walking around Los Cristianos harbour. Which is why, by 1:00pm we are waiting for another tapas bar to open. This one is a "Dutch" tapas bar! La Costa. Well, the guy running it is Dutch, even if the food isn't. Very good chorizo in red wine, sweet grilled peppers, flambeed prawns, anchovies and a salad with feta and bread and alioli. Great atmosphere too on a little balcony over looking Las Vistas beach. Excellent service and the guy was all on his own, no kitchen staff or anything. Apparently his wife was at the beach.

That was enough adventure for the day so we head back to the rooftop pool at the hotel and I start on Chuck Palahniuk's Diary. Which had me making notes to read up on Stanislavski and method acting, Pavlov, IM Sachanov, Edgar Allan Poe, Stendhal's syndrome and graphology when we get home.

Categories: Books, Food & Drink, Travel

Hey! Too

2009-11-04T22:12:00.003Z

Nothing much to report from Day Two. I finished Douglas Coupland's Hey Nostradamus. A nice cheery read for the sunshine which follows the stories of victims of a fictional [Columbine like] school shooting in North Vancouver in 1988 told in four parts, each with a different narrator.

Quite a lot of cloud around, but plenty hot enough to venture out in shorts after dark. Italian food tonight. But nothing to get over exited about. Good but way too much.

Think I should compile a list of books read this year, when I get back, instead of the end of year best albums. I've barely listened to any music the past few months.

Categories: Books, Travel

Tulse Hill To Tenerife For Tapas

2009-11-03T20:41:00.002Z

The problem with breaks in November is you feel so bloody cold and damp when you get back. But all the same what we needed was a lovely week in Los Cristianos, at an average temperature of 25 degrees, lying in the sun, reading, eating and drinking.

We were up at 5:00am today and headed off to Tulse Hill Station for a train to Gatwick. Where we were befriended by some guy who had no idea where he was, how he got there or where his phone was. He'd obviously had a very good night, if only he could remember it. All he kept saying was "What fucker has got my fucking iPhone" and "Where the fuck is Touse Hill"? Weird! We had his company as far as East Croydon.

Eleven hours later we were in our hotel and desperate to get out for beer and sun. Sam had checked out some restaurants online before we left and we tried the first, a Tapas place, for dinner that night. Tasca De Mi Abuelo had, quite possibly, the most amazing thing I've eaten. black pudding, stuffed with fois gras, sultanas, pine nuts and rice. Then they coat it with brown sugar and take a blow torch to it, leaving the top caramelised and crunchy. Healthy it isn't. We also had some fantastic Serrano ham [with bread coated with olive oil and tomato], garlic prawns and cheese stuffed mushrooms. It was so gooded we booked a table for Saturday night before we left!

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

Affordable Autumn

2009-10-26T21:05:00.004Z

We were all very tired, with the after effects of last weekends parties and the labours of the week that followed but we headed over to Battersea Park last Thursday for the AAF. I'm not sure the tiredness and free wine did my concentration levels much good but I took a few notes as we wandered around.

For some reason, to me and Sam anyway, this year seemed to be predominantly print orientated. Maybe there are always that many print stands and we haven't really noticed them before.

There was Artichoke, Greenwich Printmakers and Brighton Print Workshop, who all had outstanding works.

Stephen Wassall's Pyrographics on the New British Artists stand impressed me, although we were distracted by the bar opposite!

Panter & Hall had a couple of artists I liked Chris Bushe and Colin Brown

Stephen Walter's Island London Maps on the TAG Fine Arts stand are something that I've seen before but are always a joy to see again.

There were a couple of artists on the Hayloft Gallery stand that caught my eye. Sally Stafford and Jane Dearden

These watercolours by MJForster remind me, a little bit, of those 20's or 30's transport posters for the Great Western Railway. Good though, I like the screen print effect. And I liked Angela Charles' abstracts on the Liberty Gallery stand. Well, I think it was those. I took a card from the stand and they are the most likely to have caught my eye looking at their website!

There were a few overseas galleries that offered a bit of variety too as you do tend to see a lot of work re-appearing every visit. Le Minotaure Gallery - Tel Aviv and Art Master Gallery - Prague

I like the idea of the Open Gallery but I didn't actually see any work there that struck me as a convincing argument for "video painting" but again, it was quite near the bar and I may have been distracted!

Categories: Art, London

Back Underground

2009-10-25T19:24:00.001Z

After spending Friday afternoon beneath Holborn, Saturday afternoon was to be spent in the oil tanks of the Tate Modern. A far more enjoyable experience. The space is vast, the three tanks once held a million gallons of oil and with the spaces around them knocked through the place is a darkened labyrinth.

To coincide with the, Members Only, tour there was a John Baldessari installation spread amongst the various spaces. One screen, divided into quarters, showed parts of The Green Berets, Rosemary's Baby, The Thomas Crown Affair and Planet Of The Apes. The other four showed those four films in their entirety [well, we were only in there 30 minutes but they were full screen]. I think the premise was that all of these films were showing in cinema's in Prague on the night of 20th August 1968, when armies from the Warsaw Pact countries invaded.

The screens seemed to float in the darkness of these big spaces and the soundtracks bounced around the cavernous "rooms" bleeding from one to the other and "remixing" themselves as we walked around to great effect. I sincerely hope the tanks retain their acoustic properties when they open as new gallery spaces in 2013. The space[s] will be devoted to time based media.

We were a bit earlier for this event than yesterdays subterranean quest in Holborn. So we filled in the time by taking a peek at Miroslaw Balka's How It Is; the black steel monolith currently residing in the Turbine Hall. It's impressive in its scale but the impact of walking into a black void is somewhat diluted by the fact there are hundreds of other folk milling around you. Not exactly condusive to any conptemplative thought on its meaning.

The members bar looked chock full so we went for a drink on the 7th floor to watch the river buses buzzing up and down the Thames. In fact the Tate was incredibly busy, no wonder they need to expand. After that we jumped on a number 45 and headed to Loughborough Junction to catch Synecdoche New York at Whirled Cinema.

We had been warned by the Ginger DJ that we'd be bored, but, even though its two hours long [and I find all films way too long] I thought it was justified in this case to stress Caden's seeming inability to discern the passage of time.

Sitting with bottle of Rioja in Whirled is probably more condusive than a hot stuffy cinema mind. Neuroses, psychosis, alternate realities, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton and music by Jon Brion... What's to be bored with?

As the film didn't start nutil 8:30 we decided to eat at The Cambria and had a decidely unspicy, albeit nice, Beef Madras! Luckily the Cambria's Got Talent show that had filled the pub with many folk in dodgy wigs wasn't due to start until 8:30 either, so we escaped that.

Categories: Art, London, Food & Drink, Film

Meanwhile....

2009-10-23T22:56:00.008Z

We spent last two weekends in Lichfield and Brighton, in what appear to be mostly alcohol related activities. Lichfield involved a lot more eating than Brighton! And we looked in at the Book Barge, whilst in Staffordshire. Which is vaguely cultural. Th eBook barge is in Barton under Needwood not far from Anslow where we had a nice lunch at the Burnt Gate.

Just before we left I was frustrated by the refusal of our shit Tiscali DSL connection to, well... connect. So on our return I thought I best buy a new cable before wasting my breath telling Tiscali how crap they are again. I couldn't find one long enough to go round the room so placed the router inconveniently in the middle of the hall and it still wouldn't work. I picked the phone up to waste my breath on what they laughingly call Customer Services to be informed by the recorded voice that I should call from a phone that I am a able to sit in front of the PC and speak from [makes sense]... During which a series of modem like noises whirred through the phone and by the time I was ringing them again from my mobile, in front of the PC, the bloody DSL was working again. So I decided to save my breath. I have no idea how the phone can affect the DSL, surely things are separated at the filter? But I have called them before to say that our TV and internet fucks up every time the phone rings... And what did they say? Try a different phone! Yeah, thanks for that.

Anyway, less of my bleating on about that. Last weekend, well Friday [16th] to be precise, we trained it down to Brighton to visit Kev & Karol etc. But before being sociable we sloped off to the Laines to buy an engagement ring and I did the one-knee-thing on the beach, betwixt piers, as the sun set. Cue much hysteria everywhere we went as a sparkly Art Deco ring was flashed! And much champagne was popped open in return! Our first port of call was Kerry & Rob's [very loosely] Spaced themed cocktails evening. I think I made a very good go of trying every single drink considering we had started early with Kev & Karol but by the time we got to bed at 5:00am I was grateful for a bit of a lie down!

Somehow, we were up again at about 10:00 or 11:00 on Saturday morning. Bloody Mary's and bacon sandwiches seem to set us straight and as Sam went off to the shops with Kerry , Me and Kev got to grips with his newly acquired APC40. But not without his PC putting up a fight. When I left home on the Friday I was despairing at the fact that I had no time to rebuild my own PC, which had gone into a sulk earlier in the week, just after the DSL line had remedied itself. I had started trying to repair it but it was in an eternal reboot loop when we left... Within minutes of looking at Kev's PC it was doing exactly the same thing! But, luckily for us, his played ball within a couple of hours and let us get to work on a tune.

At around 11:00pm, I think, we braved the cold to wander round to Paul & Sarah's Disco Dungeon for a bit of a party. None of us feeling over lively but determined not to miss out. Kev broke first and wandered home to bed around 3:00am while I sat on the sofa upstairs talking crap to anyone who would sit still long enough. DJ's came and went, seemingly between club engagements; sets were played , drinks were drunk and time slid by. I have no idea what time it was by the time I headed downstairs for a bit of a boogie. I also have no idea how long I was down there but eventually the place petered out and we adjourned back upstairs. At some point Kev returned, more supplies were sent out for and daylight came and went.

Come 9:00pm we had to find some food and a bed. Within an hour we were eating an Indian back at Kev & Karol's before crashing until midday on Monday. The Bloody Mary's weren't quite as effective that morning so we wandered out in to the cold and had drinks at the Hop Poles before popping into Jamie's Italian for a late lunch. We picked a good time as it was between lunch and dinner services so got a table easy and some hearty portions... Unfortunately for me. As the Wild mushroom ravioli I had for a starter was probably enough but it was followed by a monster porcetta, to which I couldn't do justice. After all the olives, bread and chickpea popcorn we had to start it was all too much. It didn't help that Kev ordered a portion of each of the three different types of chips between us, of which the polenata chips were the most fantastical. It was all good though and the staff were very attentive and informative. We need to go back with better appetites.

After popping back to Kev & Karol's for a couple of hours "recuperation" we managed to get ourselves back to London. After which it has been non-stop but my PC is finally rebuilt, although the DSL still works when it feels like it!

Last night was the Affordable Art Fair drinks reception, which meant meeting up the Kev & Karol again as well as catching up with Marianne from Gallery One and talking weddings and anniversaries. Today's is Kev & Karol's tenth. Lawks is it ten years since that Best Man experience? Strange AAF this year. Mostly because it was prints rather than paintings that caught our eyes. More of that in a separate post.

Suffice to say today was a serious lie in before making it to the Chord installation at the Kingsway tram subway, by the skin of our teeth... Mostly thanks to the roadworks around Brockwell Park delaying the 68 bus. I can't understand the thinking behind Conrad Shawcross not wanting anyone to photograph the installation. Without the appropriate lighting and adequate camera, surely no one is ever going to capture anything worth reproducing commercially. Most of the group we were in weren't that interested in the work anyway. It was the fact that we were able to look around the tram subway that drew us all there. I just have to see how my pictures of the tunnel itself came out now. It was one of those to flash or not to flash scenarios. I should have taken a tripod!

On the way home we stopped off at Lowlander for some seriously strong lager [Chimay, A festive Kriek called Glubier and De Graal] followed by a visit to Sophie's Steak House, which was surprisingly good for somewhere so huge, but did require a walk over Waterloo Bridge to wake us up. We thought we might make ourselves comfy in the Terrace Bar at the National Theatre, but it seems to have resorted to closing at 8:00pm rather than the 1:00am of our last couple of visits.

Categories: Art, London, Photography, Food & Drink

Anyone Seen The Lid?

2009-10-05T13:31:00.005Z

Should I be concerned that I am beginning to be followed by bars on Twitter? First it was Plan B, in Brixton, then The Loft in Clapham and now The Legion Bar in Shoerditch. Actually they are all owned by the same people, so it's not that weird I guess. I'm not sure that they always were though and I suspect that Plan B might be a recent addition to the fold as it has only just re-opened after being closed for some time.

We're still recovering from Steve & Jess' wedding reception on Saturday. I remember the cab journey from Westminster to Victoria and have a vague recollection of the hotel bar, then the next thing I know we are back at ours and picking random post punk tunes from Spotify. We must have got a cab back and stopped at an off license too! I think Jake was pretty surprised to roll in at 8:00am to find us in a worse state than him and still going!

Suffice to say that not much happened yesterday. A very late breakfast, bloody mary's and a few futile attempts at coding pages for my new website. I bought the stevewilde.com domain name last week, so I will be migrating some stuff from here to there before the end of the year. I was surprised that we had any vodka left actually... No lid on the bottle but at least it wasn't empty.

Today hasn't been much more productive but at least I'm dressed today! Still can't find the lid of the vodka bottle though...

Categories: Blogging, Food & Drink

Blogger Still

2009-09-27T09:24:00.006Z

Finally getting used to the reality of not getting up to go to the beach every day. At least the sun has shown its face this weekend. It was fair scorching in SW2 yesterday. Someone has given me some nasty germs though. Woke up with a sore throat and cough on Wednesday after meeting Kev for a few beers in Victoria the night before. Not that I suspect that the two events are connected in any way.

We discovered a couple of new places [well to us anyway] in Clapham on Friday. Big Fat Panda is a cheap Chinese. And very good too. Not huge portions but fair and although its a relatively small menu for a Chinese there are a few variations that make a pleasant change. I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food so it must be pretty good if I liked it! After that we had a mosey down Northcote Road and popped into the Holy Drinker [presumably after the Joseph Roth book, The Legend of the Holy Drinker] for a couple, which is a nice little bar with a selection of weird and wonderful beers and was showing a B&W compilation of dance movies. Well, not movies but home movies and documentary pieces spliced together and projected on a curtain in the window. No soundtrack to it but highly entertaining.

Knocked up a great breakfast yesterday, even if I do say so myself... Scrambled egg, sun-dried tomatoes and basil pesto on toast.

Plenty to do coming up. Central Perk pop-up and NYC shops round Carnaby Street. The London Restaurant Festival, Anish Kapoor and the Affordable Art Fair. Photography Book Now London Meet Up... And of course the Ice-Creamists at Selfridge's... By which time it'll be time to piss off for another week of sunshine in Tenerife. Woohoo!

Better get some work done before then I suppose. I've decided to leave this blog where it is as Blogger seem to have bucked their ideas up since I got back from Turkey. think I'll just post any art/music related posts to Posterous in future, as I do like the look of it. Someone needs to clear this flat up now though and I fear one of those people is going to be me!

Categories: London, Food & Drink, Art, Photography

Catch A Tortoise

2009-09-14T23:59:00.004Z

Our flight isn’t until the early evening so after we pack, check out and leave our bags somewhere we buy a few souvenirs and catch a dolmus up to Gokbel to look at the views over Iztuzu. I instruct Sam to look out for a tortoise to photograph as she spotted one from the bus the previous day. And she does indeed spot one down the road. We walk quite a bit, stopping at one of the pancake places to buy a jar of honey before hailing down the dolmus back into Dalyan for lunch.

We have yet to see Beyaz Gul in daylight so head back there for a seat by the river and try their “Wine Plate”. I’m not sure why they call it that as it is a plate of cheese, but it is served with a glass of wine. Most of the cheese is some sort of goats cheese and its all pretty salty but very nice. The bits we can’t eat are fed to the fish in the river, where we also spot a walk snake swimming past. Despite being full I have to have one last piece of Baklava with my coffee before we ask to waiter to take our photo...

Unfortunately I don’t check his handiwork until we get home and discover a bloody great finger obscuring the top of our heads. Ah well!

One last glass of Raki and it’s off to the airport. It all goes smoothly at Dalaman, apart from the bar being extortionate. A pint of Efes is 13TL., which is 200% dearer than in town! Back at Gatwick though, “airport improvements” mean that we have to queue for an hour to get through passport control. Luckily we aren’t pulled over by Customs, who are having a field day with quite a few peoples suitcases and Sam hears mention of the dreaded rubber gloves as we walk by!

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

See my flickr set: Turkey 2009

Time To Go Home

2009-09-13T23:55:00.001Z

Our last full day today and we had originally intended to get the rowing boat across the river and walk back up to Caunos. But as the weather looks like its back to normal we decide to go back to Iztuzu for more sunshine and reading. We had been warned that the beach would be busy with locals on Sunday but it seems no busier than usual to us and we manage to get 5 hours reading in before a little walk along the beach and ice cream and the dolmus back.

For our last dinner it can only be Kosk. Couscous salad again, yoghurt, bread, cheese and olives. Sam has a spicy stir fry and I have cheese and aubergine, which is kind of moussaka like, but not quite, served up with bulghar wheat. We are the last two there with our free fruit and Turkish coffees watching the kids playing in the street late into the night.

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

See my flickr set: Turkey 2009

Hot Foot

2009-09-12T23:51:00.000Z

It’s still partly cloudy this morning, with a few spots of rain. We had intended to go back to the beach today as it’s market day on Saturday’s and the town will be busy but I’m not too sure as I’m still in some pain. We skip the hotel breakfast and have a lie in and decide to take a walk along the road to Gokbel that we had cycled before to photograph some of the intriguing flowers and vegetation.

We have a late breakfast at Atay Dustlar Sufrasi, next to the market and opposite the dolmus stop, where we can watch the tractors full of melons etc coming into town for market. By the time we are finished it’s sunny again and consequently our walk is scorching. I don’t think we had realised how hot it has been all the time we have been here as the beach has a breeze to take the edge off it and we’ve been lying around mostly!

On our way back into town we find a little Art Gallery/Café that wouldn’t look out of place in a little English seaside town. So we stop for mint tea under the shade of a large rubber tree.

The rest of the day we read by the pool until it clouds over again so we pop next door for kebabs, which for some reason are more full than on our previous visit, which is unfortunate as it means we can’t finish our evening meal back at Beyuz Gul. Although Sam just has a salad and I have chicken skewers, which gets shared with “Vodka” the dog. We have coffee and liqueurs and head back to bed.

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

See my flickr set: Turkey 2009

Come Rain Come Shi*e

2009-09-11T23:46:00.001Z

It looks cloudy out of the window again this morning and I can’t face an omelette for breakfast, so Sam brings me some bread up to the room, which I eat before we head out to catch the dolmus to the beach. It’s nice with bright blue skies at the beach and before long I’ve dozed off catching up on the sleep I missed last night, only to wake up a couple of hours later to find it’s completely clouded over and is starting to rain. That combined with my stomach hurting again sends us scurrying back to the hotel to continue reading on the balcony.

I can’t fathom out why about a dozen full water taxis pass by heading to the beach. About an hour later as thunder rattles overhead they all come back again along with a couple of low flying army helicopters and a water ambulance. With that excitement over the rain stops and by 5.00 its all calm again. No sign of the cloud lifting though but its still plenty warm. I decide to take some Immodium, just in case, followed by three medicinal Raki’s before we head back to Saki for dinner.

We are lucky to get a table. Many of the restaurants only have outdoor seating so anywhere with any slightly covered areas are busy tonight. White beans in sauce and hummus to start, followed by spicy chicken and chicken skewers. Excellent food again and we feel quite smug watching people being turned away once it is full.

There is more heavy rain in the night, so loud it wakes us up.

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

See my flickr set: Turkey 2009

How Many Islands?

2009-09-10T23:38:00.002Z

We are sailing from Gocek around the 12 islands today. There are more than 12 islands apparently but 12 is a lucky number or something… Or, depending on who you believe, there are only 4 islands!

Gocek is like another Turkey altogether. There are luxury yachts everywhere! God knows how much money is floating in these marina’s! Ataturk's former yacht is moored in the bay but there are far more modern one’s that look to be in the Russian oligarch league to me.

We are aboard a Gulit which stops at various bays and coves for snorkelling and swimming during the day and come the hour we drop anchor for a meal aboard the boat. Somebody landed a couple of small tuna on the way out but they don’t materialise at lunch time! At the various stops enterprising chaps appear in small boats selling cakes, ice cream or water sport based excitement; in the form of banana boats, water ski-ing and parascending. One chap has a crack at water ski-ing and an 84 year old woman who has recently had a heart op does the 200m high parascending experience! Sam tags along on the parascending trip to experience the speed boat. I just sit in the sun on the yacht with a cold beer.

On the way back we stop at a restaurant called Ley Ley, which is a bit of a way outside of Dalyan and has a bizarre bird gimmick. Supposedly you can feed tame storks that walk from table to table, although we only see one in the distance and a massive nest up a tree. But there are quails and ducks and some ostriches as well. It all smells a bit bird poo-ish and we only have a drink before leaving as the lady tries to press gang us all into returning for a meal.

There will be no more food for me today though as I start to experience some nasty stomach cramps on the way home which will keep me awake all night. Damn, I never get “holiday tummy”, must have been the salad at lunchtime. Whatever it is it keeps me awake all night.

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

See my flickr set: Turkey 2009

What???

2009-09-09T23:27:00.002Z

Blimey, didn’t even realise it was 999 day today until we got back! What were we doing at 09:09 this morning? Probably still in bed or eating an omelette! Or somewhere in the shit, shower, shave procedure in between the bed and the omelette! Not very auspicious is it?

Blue skies again this morning. So we head back to the beach for some more reading on sunbed action. There are some clouds over the mountains still but they’re in the opposite direction to that which we’re headed. There a few spots of rain again in the evening when we get back to Dalyan but 30 minutes later its sunny again.

Tonight we decide to try Safrum, which is the “posh” restaurant in town, inasmuch as it looks as though an Interior Designer may have been consulted and they have white tablecloths! No doubt that will be reflected in the price though, as it is also opposite the tombs and on the riverside.

Service is a bit slow but the place is full before long and its not a small place. We some huge puffy bread thing with very garlicky butter along with our samphire [also incredibly garlicky] to start. I order something nigh on unpronounceable. Coketme Kebab. There are accents on the "C" and the"O" which I can't reproduce here. The waiter tells me how to say it properly and we think nothing more of it… Until it arrives at the table and another waiter asks “who ordered this”? Then informs me that I can’t have it until I say what it is. Cheeky blighter!

It’s a plate of meat and onions [crunchy] with potato and yoghurt and it’s fantastic but way too much. One of the cats gets to share a bit with me. Sam had the lamb chops.

We don’t hang about for dessert as I want to find a bar showing England v Croatia, which we do. I get chatting to a chap from Manchester, who it turns out is staying 3 doors along from us in our hotel! It’s straight to bed after the match though as we are sailing from Gocek tomorrow and its an early start.

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

See my flickr set: Turkey 2009

Kingfisher Alert

2009-09-08T23:19:00.001Z

Last nights steak needs some working off today so we set about looking for some push bikes to rent. The first place that we try, as suggested by the guide book, no longer does them. But the shop next door does; and 5 minutes later we are cycling off to Gokbel. No deposit, just our names, hotel name and our room number… And all for 10TL/day per bike.

We christened the bikes “Turkey” and “Lurky”. Mind you, within about a mile I realise that the brakes don’t work on my bike and as I crash in to the back of Sam a spoke snaps and shoots into the gears. I wind it round the other spokes, Sam patches her leg up the best she can and we carry on.

We went to see the Sulungar Lake, which we have passed in the dolmus to the beach. It’s about 6 or 7km from Dalyan, just before the road climbs up the mountain to the little village of Gokbel. There is an interesting riverside restaurant en route as well, called Golbasi, which we later find out is Turkish for riverside.

It's a lovely quiet spot and I suspect doesn’t get much passing trade. Here I satisfy all my Kingfisher photography requirements, taking about 40 shots. There are also loads of terrapins in the river that you can feed bread to. As well as ducks, peacocks, cats, dogs and rabbits. And the food is good too, but we are bit hot and bothered to eat what we order from the cycling. I blame the potholes. You have to grip tightly to stay in the saddle and are pretty tensed up when you get off the bikes. Their fresh pomegranate juice is amazing though. We get through a couple of those each and 2 litres of water before setting off again. Most of the road from Dalyan to the beach is pomegranate orchards.

As we cycled back we are amazed to hear distant thunder and over the mountains a very large cloud formation is building up. The TV in the hotel reception had been showing scenes of flash floods in Istanbul for the previous two days and when we get back to the hotel there is some concern that we will get the same amount of rain fall in Dalyan. I’m more concerned that we will get any rain at all. I can stay at home to get rained on! We needn’t fear [today] as there is a small shower when we get back to the hotel and in an hour it has all blown over.

Tonight’s meal is at Metin Pide, where we are greeting by one of the “cheeky chappy” waiters who insists on saying stuff like “Alwight” to us. He actually sounds more Australian than the cockney accent I assume he is trying to affect and after a while it gets a bit grating. But when he decides to sit down and chat to us at the end of that night it becomes apparent that he genuinely thought we were another couple that he had seen a couple of nights previously and thought he was continuing a joke with. He must have thought we were incredibly rude or stupid until then!

Other than most of the staff being slightly arse-ish the food was good. But the dishes were way too big. We just had garlic mushrooms and bread to start and Sam had what I think was called Daner Kebab, which was a very spicy oven dish. I had a lamb dish in a clay pot that would have been more than adequate for two. It was similar to a casserole really and bloody lovely… So much so that I managed to eat it all somehow. Must have been all that cycling!

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

See my flickr set: Turkey 2009

Life's A Beach

2009-09-07T23:14:00.000Z

Today we feel the call of Iztuzu beach again. 11TL return for two on the dolmus and 6TL for 2 sunbeds and an umbrella for the day, with cold Efes and very hot pancakes on hand. What’s not to like?

The pancakes are made in an incredibly hot hut by one woman sitting on the floor rolling out wafer thin bits of pastry [these aren’t Dutch pancakes] and filling them with mince, cheese, spinach or sweet fillings. The filled pancakes are folded and slapped on a hot griddle. The place would never get past any sort of Health and Safety in this country but the resulting pancakes are delicious.

More reading on the sunbeds and I am almost two books down out of my over ambitious supply of seven. More about books later. Suffice to say, I didn’t really need to buy two more at Gatwick on the way out here!

Tonight we feel we should pop into Ali Baba’s and see if we can fathom out which of them is our rep Alison’s husband. We don’t. But, once again, we are prevented from over-ordering from a chilled cabinet. Mainly because any sort of starter isn’t going to leave any room for the massive “Chateau Briande” that we are talked into having. And are we glad that we are. Never have we had a better piece of steak, even if it was enormous. We are both very pleasantly surprised. A couple of free Turkish coffee’s and liqueurs later we stagger back home to bed. Too full to sleep... So we manage to polish off the bottle of Raki that we had snuck back to our room earlier.

Categories: Food & Drink, Travel

See my flickr set: Turkey 2009