Bike kit; London outing; keeling woodcocks

Only been searching for jobs intermittently lately, but my keywords on indeed would appear to need some tailoring. Recently got this job ad included among a list of supposedly information-related jobs in the Reading area.

Ray came up for a visit last Thursday evening, partly to equip me with some apparently essential stuff for my bicycle as a Christmas present. We emerged from Halfords with a neat little ‘essential bike tools’ kit and a pouchy-bag thing (may not be the technical term) which apparently gets attached under my saddle and carries essentials like tools and a spare inner tube. Or, am thinking, my phone and a bar of chocolate. Then went for a bite to eat at Nando’s at the Kingston Centre – hadn’t been to Nando’s for years but their chicken is really not bad. Took a while for either of us to remember that you have to go to the counter to place your order though – for a while we looked around for a waitress in crabby middle-aged fashion.

Pre-Christmas day in London on Saturday with Ruth. Started with a visit to the ‘Christmas Past’ exhibition at the Geffrye Museum in Hoxton – we had been looking around for something Christmassy and Mum has been to the Geffrye and recommended it. Lovely setting in some 18th-century former almshouses set around lawns – apparently there are gardens behind the museum as well but these are only open April to October. The museum was busy, perhaps inevitably, but its room displays were very interesting and were peppered with tidbits about changes in Christmas traditions from the 1630s onwards. The ‘Christmas Past’ exhibition is subtitled ‘400 Years of Seasonal Traditions in English Homes’ and is evidently an annual thing.

Bought a card in the Geffrye's shop showing 'Woodcock by Frozen Lake', by Angela Harding. Amused by angle of woodcock's feet and its listing dangerously to the right. But then, who am I to assess art.

After leaving the Geffrye we attempted to go for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant Ruth has been to recently with the HCT crowd, but it was closed, as are many venues in that neck of the woods at weekends. As Hoxton seems to have a plethora of Vietnamese restaurants, we went to the Viet Hoa Café on Kingsland Road instead. Very nice interior with cunningly concealed door to toilets - in fact the two older gents who were sitting right by the door were probably surprised to see Ruth walk straight towards the wall next to their table. Food was nice enough - I had a beef 'pho' which is evidently a typical noodle soup dish.

Got bus back west to Tottenham Court Road for our inevitable visit to Heal’s and Habitat. Ruth bought a furry throw in Habitat, to drape over sofa to cunningly conceal bunny damage. I think I resisted raining on parade by pointing out that the bunny will probably just shred the throw. Stopped at Patisserie Valerie on Torrington Place to ponder what to do next – Ruth was keen to see a film and I reluctantly allowed myself to be forced to choose between ‘Paddington’ and ‘Penguins of Madagascar’ – plumped for the latter as the penguins do look quite cute, though I’ve not seen any of the rest of the ‘Madagascar’ series. Got another bus down Charing Cross Road and fought our way to Leicester Square, me gritting my teeth against the Saturday early evening hordes. On arrival at cinema, Ruth had second thoughts given the price of the tickets, and we ended up getting yet another bus (maximum use wrung out of Travelcard) back to Paddington. We thought about going out to dinner, but ended up buying some stuff in M&S and going home to try out the furry throw.

Got Christmas decorations down from attic on Sunday and dug out the little desktop tree I've had for years, which is now installed on office desk in attempt to create a festive atmosphere.