Star Trek - no spoilers :-)

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I was lucky enough to have a day off work this week - on Thursday. Nathan and I went to London for the day. His friend Martin was over from Azerbaijan. Remember Martin? He was the one who got married in Slovenia last year. It was the fairy-tale wedding we attended just after my treatment was finished. It was wonderful!



Pitt Cue Co.

Well, he was over for a stag weekend - and had a spare day so we thought we'd go down and spend the day with him. Nathan managed to take a short break from his coding - he deserved a treat after working constantly over the last few months. We don't get to see Martin very often as he lives so far away!  Then in the evening we all met up with Si (of Si and Heidi fame) to go and watch the new Star Trek film in Islington.

We met him at Euston and we decided that instead of going everywhere by tube, we'd walk everywhere! It was a bit of a windy rainy day - but every time there was a shower threatening we just ducked into a pub until it passed! Martin spent a few years living in London so knows lots of interesting places. The first one was a very tiny restaurant called the Pitt Cue Co. It doesn't take bookings so it was first come first served. As it was so popular we found ourselves outside just before 12 noon before it even opened. I took it as a good sign that we weren't the first.

Mmmm cider...

There are only 30 seats, so we had a drink by the bar while we waited to be taken down to the room downstairs, where the few tables were. They just have one beer on - called "Whatever" - so it covers whatever they happen to have that day. N and M declared it to be good. I had the cider and it came in its own little glass flagon and was delicious!

The menu is quite small and consists of unusual cuts of meat. There was the choice of pig's head sausage, pig's cheek burger and pulled pork. All served with bone marrow mash.

It as a bit of a trendy place with various hipsters in there (you can spot them by their red trousers!) But we thought we'd try new things. N and M went for the pig cheek and I had a Bun Meal - the pulled pork on a toasted bun, with vinegar slaw and pickles. It was actually delicious! I loved the bone marrow mash too - very tasty!



Carnaby Street!

While we ate Martin told us that he'd opened a Mexican Restaurant in Baku and wanted to find some Mexican-themed decorations to go in it. We had a wander down Carnaby Street, down to Soho, China Town and Covent Garden. We didn't succeed in finding any - but we did find a few interesting pubs on the way. Including The French House - where they did not allow the use of mobile phones - preferring customers to converse with each other! We saw one unfortunate chap being told off by the barmaid when he got his out. It was a refreshing change! We chatted to Martin and asked him about his honeymoon. They'd been on an Antarctic Cruise and particularly enjoyed seeing the Falkland Islands - very British down to the red phone boxes and the island of Georgia. They saw lots of wildlife too including literally millions of penguins. Sounded amazing!

Legendary Choccywoccydoodah.

Before we left this area we went into Choccywoccydoodah - the famous chocolate shop that has featured on TV. It was very tempting - huge sculptures made entirely of chocolate.

They specialise in cakes for all occasions, especially weddings. There were some beautiful cats and dogs made from white and milk chocolate - but I didn't buy one as they would have been too nice to eat!

I did get some dark chocolate and cinnamon biscuits to give to Heidi - to thank her for letting us stay at theirs overnight.












Nathan and Martin feeling mellow :-)

We also went to the Porterhouse - an Irish pub with a vast array of bottled beers. I foolishly went for a cider - before I noticed that they actually had the one beer I love - Floris Honey Beer. Darn!! N went for some traditional dark porter and Martin thought he'd sample a beer from Thailand. He likes to travel :-)

Millions of bottles from all over the world.

We also visited The Harp, which had a very nice lounge upstairs with extremely comfy chairs. Felt a bit like a gentleman's club :-) The York - where we had some steak and frites and then the Steam Passage Tavern before going to the huge VUE cinema with the big screen to see Star Trek Into Darkness in 3D. I used to watch Star Trek - the original series - but never watched any since. I love Captain Kirk and Spock and Bones and Scotty. I love what J J Abrams has done with these remakes. The film was excellent and Benedict Cumberbatch makes a great villain!

I won't say anymore in case you want to see it for yourself.


After the film we had a couple more drinks at The Angelic and went with Si back to Stoke Newington to see Heidi. Sadly she had a design deadline and couldn't see the film with us. It was nice to catch up with them though - and then stay over. I had to be at work by 12.30pm the next day though - so we got an early bus back to Euston the next morning - and I did make it to work in time!