What I did in November 2017

I listened to a narrator talk about visiting where they grew up for one last time, and thought they were talking about the world ending, but it was actually from a chatroom for Asheron's Call, an MMORPG that closed after 17 years. This was at The end of the world exhibition by David Blandy at the Seventeen Gallery.

I visited Margate and lost at air hockey in the arcade, ate (vegan) cake at the Seaside Cake Parlour, stared at Tracey Emin’s bed in the Turner Contemporary, and work by Turner and Arp. I saw a Gormley that was earlier entirely submerged in the sea. As the sun was setting, I wandered along the deserted beach and watched the waves lapping gently at the shore.

I bravely made my way past a polar bear, a dolphin, a squirrel, large puddles and a lot of holly, to triumphantly reach the middle of the maze at Crystal Palace.

I attended friends’ lovely wedding and handfasting, which managed to incorporate Buffy, Bowie, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, wearing wings, a tunnel of lightsabers, and dancing to the Memepunks!

I wandered around Stratford-upon-Avon, drank mistletoe tea at the Anne Hathaway Tea Rooms with friends, visited Shakespeare's grave, peered at complex marble runs at the Mechanical Art and Design Museum.

I stared at my reflection in a rotating mirror ball, in the remains of a mythical night club named Ruin.

I visited the Glassroom exhibition and the computer seemed to be able to tell if I was thinking about online shopping or contemplating death. I also sniffed t-shirts to see who I found attractive and flicked through books of passwords.

I had a fantastic time at Marioke (karaoke where the lyrics are changed to be about video games) and ended up singing about how I don't play Pokémon. There was much singing and dancing and conga over the stage, and and chatting to friends and to random people, and still dancing even after Marioke had ended. I love Marioke.

Tube walk 133 was from Royal Victoria to Canning Town, so I took the cable car to get there. We saw some glorious mud, which was supposedly the best bit. After the walk, we visited City Island, which was a curious place. “Dystopian,” said miss_newham, “like in a sci-fi movie after the world has flooded,” said Time Out.

Monika and I ate burritos one lunch time and it was excellent to catch up with her!

I caught up with Stranger Things and noticed the Barbelith graffiti.

hikerspal and I visited the Noodle Lab and I tried coconut ice cream with katsu curry sauce. (I wouldn't recommend it.)

verlaine and I continued with designing a game!

I went to the monthly drinks for web folk, known as Pub Standards and quite a few people turned up. Leeky and I went to the Chin Chin Dessert Club and I ate coconut sticky rice nitro ice cream.

I saw a Collection of Paintings by Charles Mozley at the Riverside Gallery, and Eternal Sunshine by Katie Sollohub at the Stables Gallery.

I bumped into two people I knew one night in Richmond.

I played Doki Doki Literature Club.

I visited the Temple of Seitan and ate hot wings.

I saw long exposure photos of abandoned theatres by Hiroshi Sugimoto.

I ate pumpkin harvest nitro ice-cream at Four Winters.

I went to Bubbledogs to celebrate gnommi's birthday. Hotdogs and champagne!

the_elyan and I ate Sunday roasts in the Betjeman Arms.

I stared at mesmerising patterns: Ryoji Ikeda’s Test Pattern on the floor, which made it look like the floor itself was moving.

In Brussels, large flakes of snow began to fall and that felt magical. From the train to Bruges I could see snow covered fields. Ahh.

Ingress:

I visited Bruges! More details about that in December. (Spoiler: The Enlightened won the Anomaly in Bruges!)