Affichage des articles dont le libellé est beer. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est beer. Afficher tous les articles

10/03/2017

Friday Afternoon in London

My working trip to Cambridge has been postponed meaning no stop-by by London, I thought. But a week before I also thought whatever, let's fly to London for the weekend and meet my friend Janiv as it was planed. Flights Berlin-London are so cheap it will be a shame to not use them, so I did!

Thanks to a so rare strike in Berlin airport I had to take off from Hamburg airport, giving me the chance to visit this city - shortly - for the first time. First time if I don't count the crossing of Hamburg by car on my numerous trips France - Scandinavia in the past years.

The trip
Wake up early, run to catch the tram, jump into the train in Berlin to Hamburg and S-Bahn to the airport, shitty croissant, tasteless sandwich and bad coffee I'm in the plane. Almost empty I fall asleep as soon as we take off. Arrival in London, buy a transport card, take the train, change at Victoria, take the tube, leave at Highbury and Islington Station and wait for my friend facing the well named Islington Cock Tavern.

First things come first, we have a coffee and delicious toast at Maison d'Etre then direction South Bank with the idea to visit an exhibition about light and color in a place I forgot the name while just briefly remembering a poster in the subway I may have seen an hour before... We reach the possible place which obviously was closed with reopening announced for 2018... A beautiful failure.

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So we keep walking and talking. Tate Modern in our back we bravely take the Millennium bridge and continue our exploration in the direction we came from but from the other side of the Thames. At Saint Paul's Cathedral we turn left, pass King's College London, then Wellington street, Covent Garden, aiming for Soho and the Photographer's Gallery which is ok but not crazy neither.

Tea time passed beer time arrives
Museum done, time for a pint and it will be the Blue Post. It's 6pm-ish, we found place to seat on the banquette and two ales. We talk and talk and we bring our neighbor into out discussion while searching for the name of the place. Time flies, two more ales, peanuts, local stories about the place, David Bowie, tailors in London versus tailors in Italy later and out stomachs scream for more. Goodby to our new friend and direction a not too far sushi place, later followed by ice cream. Always good to have local friends with similar food interest or obsession.

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12/11/2016

Friday evening in LA

in approximated English below

La conférence finissant en milieu d'après-midi et n'ayant pas de logement à San Diego ce soir je me décide spontanément de rallier LA quelques heures plus tôt que prévu. Valise fermée, sac sur l'épaule, au revoir aux collègues de la couleur, je file au terminal Greyhound de San Diego.

2h30 de bus en soirée après que le soleil se soit couché, un arrêt à Long Beach et j’arrive dans mon hotel Standard booké à l'arrache avant mon airbnb. Mon voisin de greyhound est méxicain et s’en va à SF parti de Tijuana en début de journée, on parle politique américaine - c’est rapide - et européenne mais surtout football. Ce qui confirme une chose, Merkel est connue jusqu'au Mexique, par contre Hollande c'est pas encore ca.

Cette arrivée plus tôt à LA me permet de rencontrer une locale - nous l'appellerons Betsy - amie d’un ami à Paris. On se retrouve vers 10:00pm sur le rooftop bar de mon hotel pour à priori un drink de bienvenue, il y en aura plusieurs. Dans le ciel les hélicoptères patrouillent, les manifestants manifestent et la police veille - pas une impression de fin du monde mais un peu quand même.

On redescend, direction un autre rooftop bar. Queue à l’entrée, nous bougeons parce que trop bougie, quelques mètres plus loin un autre bouge, pas de queue, des lumières rouges, bonne musique, un jardin en arrière. La musique se mêle aux sirènes ou le contraire, avant d'arriver ici on a du attendre que la fin d’un cortège passe suivi de voitures remplies de robocops, ambiance - pas l'impression d'être dans un film de zombis mais un peu quand même.

Ma guide n’est pas complètement fatiguée et moi non plus, ca tombe bien, autre endroit deux blocks plus loin au bar du Regent theatre The Love Song. Bar à l'atmosphère cosy old school - cocktail délicieux, bar woman à l'accent australien, tête rasée, robe couleur peau et énorme tatouage dans le dos elle se fond dans le décor - et discussion toujours intéressante sur LA qui dévie sur Bukowski et autres.

Pretty cool - l'impression que chaque phrase est ponctuée d'un it’s so bougie! ou quelque soit le propos d'un as a fuck mais toujours dans une tonalité charmante - pretty cool disais-je.

Le über de ma nouvelle amie arrive, je file vers mon hotel et ce sans me perdre, un miracle.

A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on

a google-ified translated English version

The conference ended up middle of the afternoon and having no place to stay in San Diego tonight I decided spontaneously to hit the road to LA. Suitcase ready, goodbye to the colleagues, direction the Greyhound bus terminal of San Diego.

2h30 of bus ride after the sunset, a long stop in Long Beach and I reach my Standard hotel booked in emergency a few hours ago, I only have an airbnb from tomorrow. My bus neighbor is Mexican and traveling from Tijuana to San Francisco. We talk about American politic - it's quick - and European but mostly about soccer. This confirms one thing, Merkel is known until Mexico, for Hollande it's another story.

This earlier arrival in LA allows me to meet a local - we will call her Betsy - friend of a friend in Paris. We meet at 10:00pm on the rooftop bar of my hotel for in theory one welcome drink, there will be many. In the sky the helicopters patrol, the demonstrators protest and the police monitors - not an impression of end of the world but not far from it.

We go down, aiming for another rooftop bar. Queue at the entrance, we don't wait because it's too bougie, a few meters away we dive into another dive, no queue, red lights, good music, garden in the back and beer in our hand. The music is mixing with the sound of the police, before reaching this place we let a cortege of policemen dressed like robocops following demonstrators passing before crossing the road, spooky - not the impression to be part of a zombie movie but not too far neither.

My local guide isn't totally tired and me neither, good for us, next stop is two blocks further away in another place, the bar of Regent theatre called The Love Song. Atmosphere is cosy old school, the cocktail delicious, the Australian bar woman fits with the scenery, shaved head, white dress skin color and a huge tattoo on her back. Ongoing discussion with my partner in crime still interesting about LA, Bukowski and many more.

Pretty cool - I have the impression that each sentence is punctuated with a it's so bougie! or whatever the topic is by as a fuck but always in a lovely key - pretty cool did I say.

The uber of my new friend arrives, I left to my hotel without loosing my way, a miracle.


11/11/2016

Vision de San Diego

in lost English below

CIC se termine sur un rythme connu, éprouvant mais toujours réjouissant, discussions et présentations intéressantes entre autres à propos de display, l’arrivée d’outils d’optimisation, l’extension des CMFs [mes quelques notes sur la conférence CIC 2016 ici] et bien sûr la fatigue due à la distortion journalière du temps grace aux inévitables et indispensables bières d'après les sessions officielles.

16 ans après avoir suivi les élections américaines de Montréal - donc presque localement - je renouvelle l'expérience, cette fois ci de la Californie et dans le dernier fuseau horaire des résultats où l'issue fait peu de doutes. Chaque soirée à partir du mardi soir était animée de manifs anti nouveau président dans centre ville  de San Diego - où se déroule ma conférence couleur cette année - avec l'impression depuis de se réveiller chaque matin dans la mauvaise time line de Retour vers le Futur.

and now in lost English

CIC is getting over soon under its usual rhythm,  demanding but always gratifying, discussions and presentations were interesting on various topics such as display, new optimisation tools, the extension of CMFs [you can read here my few notes about the conference CIC 2016] and of course your body getting more tired every day because of the time distortion... time distortion mainly due to the inevitable and vital evening beer sessions after the official sessions.

16 years after having followed the US election from Montréal - so almost as a local - I renew the experience this time from California. The local time zone makes the doubts about the final results. Each evening from Tuesday demonstrations were happening in downtown San Diego - where my conference is taking place - with the sensitive impression to wake up each following morning in the wrong time line of Back to the Future.



03/04/2016

First feet bath of the year

First real weekend announcing the spring. Yesterday I could not stay on my sofa, one look outside, blue sky, jumped on my bike in order to go checking how it was in altitude, aimed for Muggelturm located in  Muggelwald near Muggelsee. It's a short bike trip, 50km, one line to go and the same to go back, crossing East-Berlin, Ostkreuz, passing the FC-Union stadium, Köpenick, entering the forest and climbing. Once on the top I got the offer to join friends for talco in SO36. The pause was short and I return home, concert start in two hours. Long story short it was good.

Sunday morning, struggle to leave my bed, I did promise in the middle of the night to join the apocalypse riders for another bike tour, the goal being Liepnitzsee. So here we are, Sunday lunch time, ready to go and direction the North of Berlin with on the roadmap Pankow, Bernau, Buch, Lanke and finally, maybe the lake. Before reaching half of our trip - the full loop being to be able to come back in Berlin - we stop at a gas station, put some air in our tires, acquire a beer each, ready.



Weather is nice, not too cold and the beer on the side of the lake very pleasant. In the summer the place can be crowded, today it is only for the braves. I put my feet in the water, loose one or two toes, left my beer in the natural fridge and try to warm up what's left from my feet.


A photo posted by jeremie Gerhardt (@mrbonsoir) on

Taking the direction back to the city we make another stop about 1km later. The view of the imbiss wakes up some food memory, we are hungry. It's what we call the bockwurst pause. The owner of the place is so old and slow that I worry about my order, will he past away before bringing me my meal?


Having our stomach full we keep going on our tour. We just have to go South, crossing forest and getting slowly closer to the civilisation. 80km later we are seating on the side of the Spree facing Treptower Park, enjoying the last rays of light and last deserved beer.

A lot of fun.