2016 - A Year in Review
2016 Country of Living: England in LONDON!
Mel completed her Dog Grooming course and found a job at a local grooming salon while I continue working for Smartlogic in the city. We have been once again very busy with events but travel has been limited to Europe this time around…
Travel
A bit of travelling…
- February - A trip to Dallas for work…not much to say other than I had a quick shopping trip to Walmart, a visit to Stokyards Rodeo in Fort Worth and Billy Bob's Texas, the world's biggest Honky Tonk…
- May - A return to Newcastle upon Tyne for Sweet Adelines' Convention where Mel's quartet performed
- June - A weekend trip to south Wales to visit The Royal Mint Experience
- August - A weekend trip to Brecon Beacons - A nice, secluded farmhouse…wonderful.
- October - A trip to Crete in Greece where we stayed at Daios Cover Luxury Resorts & Villas then off to Harrogate for the LABBS Convention where Mel's quartet performed again
Visitors
Mel's mother came to visit in the summer for a few weeks but otherwise we have been largely left alone…
Reviews of the Year
Events
January
- 17th - The Railway Children (Play) London
- 29th - Sadler's Wells Sampled (General Event) London
February
- 11th - Magical Lantern Festival (General Event) London
- 12th - Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age (Exhibit) London
March
- 20th - Big Bang Data (Exhibit) London
April
- 14th - Drive In Film Club: Mad Max Fury Road (General Event) London
- 18th - Sunset Boulevard (Musical) London
June
- 10th - Sunset Safari at ZSL (General Event) London
- 11th - Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone (Musical) London
- 12th - Whose Line is it Anyway? (General Event) London
July
- 22nd - Just for Laughs London - Champions of Magic (General Event) London
- 24th - André Rieu's 2016 Maastricht Concert (Concert) London
- 28th - The Cunning Little Vixen (Concert) Lewes
August
- 6th - Countryfile Live 2016 (General Event) Woodstock
- 8th - Groundhog Day: A New Musical (Musical) London
September
- 1st - The Hive Lates (General Event) London
- 7th - Great Fire Forensics (Talk) London
- 10th - Billy Joel (Concert) London
- 25th - An Afternoon with Alexander McCall Smith (Talk) London
- 25th - Tony Robinson - No Cunning Plan (Talk) London
Films
- 10,000 BC (2008)
- 21 Jump Street (2012)
- Battle Royale (2000)
- Che: Part Two (2008)
- Deadpool (2016)
- Doctor Strange (2016)
- Eddie the Eagle (2016)
- Ex Machina (2015)
- Fight Club (1999)
- Finding Dory (2016)
- Ghost Ship (2002)
- Ghostbusters (2016)
- Inside Out (2015)
- Jason Bourne (2016)
- Labyrinth (1986)
Restaurants
- Annie's (American/British) London Chiswick
- Barbecoa (American/British) London Bank NOW CLOSED
- Burger & Shake (American/British) London Holborn
- Caco & Co. (Portuguese) London Shepherd's Bush NOW CLOSED
- dim t (Chinese) London Southwark
- El Nacional - "La Taperia" (Spanish) Barcelona Eixample
- Inamo (Japanese) London Covent Garden
- Kaiku (Spanish) Barcelona Barceloneta
- Kanada-Ya London (Japanese (Noodle Bar)) London Soho
- MEATliquor W1 (Old Location) (American/British) London Marylebone NOW CLOSED
- Monkey Temple (Indian) London Shepherd's Bush
- On the Bab (Korean) London Covent Garden
- Paco Meralgo (Spanish) Barcelona Eixample
- Patio Restaurant (Polish) London Shepherd's Bush NOW CLOSED
- Rustiko (Italian) London Soho NOW CLOSED
- Shawa Haymarket (Lebanese) London Covent Garden
- Sticks N Sushi (Japanese) London Covent Garden
- Sushi Bar Makoto (Japanese) London Chiswick
- Tapas & Beer (Spanish) Barcelona Eixample
- Txapela (Spanish) Barcelona Eixample
Books
- A Mad World, My Masters: Tales from a Traveller's Life by John Simpson (2000)
- Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith (2006)
- Doctor Whom: E.T. shoots and leaves by Adam Roberts (2006)
- Emperor by Stephen Baxter (2006)
- Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card (2008)
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1994)
- Let's Just Say it Wasn't Pretty by Daine Keaton (2014)
- London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd (2001)
- Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang, and Jon Halliday (2007)
- More Fool Me: A Memoir by Stephen Fry (2014)
- Release 2.1 by Esther Dyson (1998)
- Robert Silverberg (Gateway Omnibus) by Robert Silverberg (2013)
- Rules of the NET by Thomas Mandel, and Gerard Van der Leun (1996)
- Star Trek Memories by William Shatner, and Chris Kreski (1993)
- Star Trek Movie Memories by William Shatner, and Chris Kreski (1994)
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (2011)
- The Broker by John Grisham (2005)
- The Business by Iain Banks (1999)
- The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography by Stephen Fry (2010)
- The Good, the Bad, and the Multiplex by Mark Kermode (2012)
Next Year
With Mel putting aside singing next year we hope to do a bit more travel together than we have been doing with trips planned so far to Venice and to the Austrian Grand Prix in July.
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Visit here for my review of 2015.