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Urban Golf is something I’ve been wanting to try for a while now and today was the day!
You play in a dark room or bay by hitting balls off a driving range style mat. The balls hit a kind of curtain which registers the balls speed, trajectory and presumably (?) spin. Each bay and simulator costs £40/hr which is pretty good considering five people can play.
The system itself seemed surprisingly accurate. I don’t have the experience to judge exactly how well I was hitting with a driver or long irons but short irons seemed quite accurate. If you hit a bad shot the simulator definitely shows you just how bad! Putting seemed to be the weak point for Urban Golf. I couldn’t work out exactly where the ball should be placed before hitting it, judging distance was particularly difficult and sometimes a delicate putt wouldn’t seem to register at all (though the next bay along didn’t seem to suffer from this).
It’s good fun which loads of golf courses to play and there are a lot of game modes, too. The best one we played involved splitting into teams. Each team member hits a shot and the best shot is then selected, then each player hits from that position. It speeds things up and means that non-golfers don’t get left behind.
All in all I’d say it’s worth the money, particularly in winter when it’s cold outside. Saying that, I was boiling!
I like the fact that where I now work there are a mixture of people, not just people in IT. I’m used to everyone speaking the same techy language because everyone was that way inclined at the software company where I used to work.
When a colleague came over to my desk to discuss the fact that he couldn’t put a two letter code followed by 10 into a field in one of our applications I naturally thought of a temporary work-around:
‘You could use hex for now, I suppose.’ (i.e. xxA instead of xx10)
He looked at me as if to say, ‘What?!’ but was very humourous about the whole thing.
He had no idea what hexadecimal was, which to me, is incredible! Outside of IT, isn’t hexadecimal common knowledge?
There are many expensive restaurants that I normally steer clear of, including Benihana, a pricey teppanyaki restaurant. So it was with great excitement that I went there yesterday when an old family friend invited my family for dinner at the Piccadilly branch.
My first impression was that the staff weren’t Japanese (well, a minority were). Even more surprising was the fact that the non-Japanese staff could speak no Japanese! I guess this isn’t such an issue as there appeared to be practically no Japanese customers besides our friend.
The restaurant itself was large and spacious. Strangely, the decor was bright red and felt more Chinese than Japanese. Apparently the Benihana in Chelsea looks totally different. Each C shaped table has a large hot plate set in the middle of it and after your orders have been taken and soups served, your table’s person chef comes to cook for you.
Our chef for the evening was ‘Andrew’ and I have to say that he gave us a great comedy set whilst he prepared everything from prawns to steak to Mount Fuji made of onions with the most deft knife-work I’ve ever seen.
I remember a friend telling me that watching the chefs cook and entertain you is all part of the fun and he was right. I wasn’t so happy when the chef challenged me to catch some ommlette that he flicked through the air and landed on my nose - poor flick on his part rather than poor coordination on mine!
The food was fantastic. I particularly liked the ‘Black Cod’ which was made me reconsider the definition of ‘melts in the mouth’. My rib-eye steak was lovely, too. If you have really expensive tastes you can go for ‘wagyu’ (expensive Japanese beef) for £60! The only thing I wasn’t sure of was the egg fried rice done on the hot plate which had a subtle but unique flavour I couldn’t put a finger on.
How would you sell more dough nuts? Get lots of good looking Japanese girls with good figures to pose whilst eating doughnuts. Genuis. Don’t forget to appoint a ‘Miss Mister Donut‘. Obviously.
 A Japanese friend of mine organised a Japanese dinner party with a friend of hers and kindly invited me along. As I’m an amateur photographer, I was excited although slightly intimidated to hear that five of the people coming were professional photographers.
I’m not sure where I got the mental image from, but for some reason I expected all these photographers to be a little full of themselves or something. Anyway, I couldn’t have been more wrong. They were all really friendly down to earth people. There was definitely an arty side to them, something I probably left behind at school!
There was a lot of drink flowing, including the likes of sake and even ume-shu! I found it amusing that rather than the wine I’d bought from Fortnum & Mason being complimented, it was the £3 or £4 box of Guylian chocolates that went down a storm amongst the guests! Next time, I’ll just buy two boxes of Guylians and be done with it.
The host was a Finnish guy who’s really into Japanese culture, food and the Japanese language so we had a lot to talk about. As there were a couple of Japanese people present we spoke a little Japanese and in the end, partly because I was too shy to bring up photography much, I ended up teaching more Japanese than I learnt about the world of photography!
One of the guys was wielding a Canon SLR with a lovely Canon 50mm F1.4 lens. All the cameras had black tape over the branding, apparently to avoid inadvertent advertising whilst at work. I’ve thought about doing the same, but only so that potential muggers don’t see that my Camera is a (relatively) expensive 40D! Two different worlds, right there. Also, walking through the very spacious studio I noticed a Canon 1D Mark III digital SLR box on a shelf. The Canon 1D Mark III costs over £3200 and that’s with no lens!
Something I could relate to was the Canon S90 digital compact that the host was using for his dinner snapshots. Though it too had black tape over the ‘Canon’ branding, I recognised it immediately as it’s on my shopping wish list.
Next time I meet these guys, I’ll have to get some tips. 
Although apparently available since last year I’d never noticed Red Bull Shots until I stumbled across this display in a London shop.
Here’s the marketing blurb:
The new non-carbonated Red Bull Energy Shot has been specifically developed to provide a quick blast of energy when on the go, whether on the football pitch or in a business pitch. Sold in a compact size and not requiring chilling before drinking, the shot is perfect for those who need energy whilst on the move. The Energy Shots’ 60 ml plastic bottle is conveniently sized whether kept in a gym-bag or a handbag and whether you are driving a long journey or driving a boardroom meeting.
I wonder how these drinks compare the the tiny energy drinks in Japan? I used to love those things but I’m sure they weren’t the healthiest drinks in the world…
You know, you never know who’s listening to your conversation? I re-learnt this lesson yesterday at a cafe in Central London.
I was having a particularly involved conversation with a friend, not really concentrating on the people who came in and sat down nearby (quite unusual!). Anyway, as soon as my friend went to the toilet a voice I heard a voice from slightly behind me and to the side of my table.
‘Excuse me… excuse me.’ I turned around and a man was looking at me.
‘Were you speaking Japanese?’ he continued
‘Yes.’
‘My friend here is Japanese and she says your Japanese is really good.’
‘Well, I’ve lived in Japan before…’ I explained.
‘Oh right. Where are you from?’
‘London.’
‘Really? My friend here thought you were Greek and I thought that you were Indian.’
I’ve been told I look half Chinese (I am), Japanese, even Spanish, but never Indian!
A friend gave me some Japanese eye drops made by Rohto (Osaka, Japan) called Zi:0. Now, I’ve used ‘cool’ eye drops before, you know that kind of menthol cooling, but this is cooling on a whole new level.
At first, putting these drops in my eyes I’d describe the feeling more as a deep burning than a cooling sensation. It’s so strong you can barely open your eyes at first. Following this, the drops mixed with tears stream out of your eyes! By the time you can actually open your eyes properly the cooling sensation overcomes the burning and like it says on the box, ‘My eyes are purified… like the eyes of a newborn baby’.
Rohto Japan
Rohto (Wikipedia)
Can you work out what this is part of?
Continue reading Zoom Riddle
I’ve seen special menus before but this one is unique: ‘Special Wing in Coca Cola Sauce.’
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