Pub Lunch Friday - The Search

My office has a tradition, well, kind of a tradition. Not everyone takes part in it, so I'm not entirely sure its a true tradition as a result. Usually Ben, Shibs and I take part, so a trio tradition?

Anyhoo, I refer to the "Friday = Pub Lunch" tradition. A tradition I wholeheartedly support, considering that for the rest of the week the majority of lunches are taken at my desk, either still thinking about code, or spending a few minutes browsing random interweb articles for a little relief (hey, you gotta have breaks sometime!)

There was the one pub we would always go to when I first started work here - the Porterhouse in Surry Hills. However, as mentioned here, we moved offices recently. While we did not move very far (we're still in Surry Hills, and moved a matter of streets away), we are far enough away that the Porterhouse is not within easy enough reach to have lunch. Considering that walking all the way across the suburb is way too much effort for lunch and a drink or two, we needed to find a new local.

The new office has a multitude of pubs nearby. To be completely honest, I have no idea how many there are around here. On our lunch trips, we have visited three different pubs, trying to find our groove. I assume we will be trying all of the nearby ones and making a decision once we try them all.

The first one had a name which I promptly forgot. This was, by far, the failure of the three we've tried so far. The steak there was quite thin, apparently the chicken schnitzel wasn't particularly amazing, and Ben's steak sandwich smelt like fish. This greatly worried everyone involved - particularly Ben, who spent the afternoon carrying about it.

The second one was called the Shakespeare, and makes the hefty claim that none of their meals (the food portion anyway) costs over $10. Turns out this was quite accurate. The place itself looked rather dingy, but the steak was good. Well, except for the part where the sauce on it utterly destroyed me as a result of unexpected gluten, but that was likely my own messup rather than theirs. I'll blame them next time :P

Today, we tried yet another pub. A closer one, which again I cannot recall the name of (its a pub dammit. I know where it is, and I know they sell food and alcoholic beverages, and that's enough information for me). This one is, by far, my favourite of the three, for a single reason.

They sell WAGYU steaks. Sure, its more expensive than regular steak (Wagyu being a specific breed of cattle - and Japanese style, and damn delicious), but it great. Even better - the sauce that came with it seems to be gluten-free. Well, as far as I can tell anyway, since I ate it over 2 hours ago and my stomach hasn't threatened to implode (which is the more fun and less...messy part of my gluten symptom), I take that as a good sign.

The other advantage, is that returning to the office from that particular pub take s quite close to 7-11. Most people know what I'm thinking here - SLURPIES! WHEEEEEEEE SUGAR HIGH!

So if we get to vote, rather than just follow Ben to whatever pub takes his fancy, then my vote lies there, and Friday becomes Wagyu lunch day :)

Working from Home - not as easy as it sounds

So, today I work from home, due to some failures in the office that render their phone and internet connection nonexistent.

This doesn't seem to be a huge issue since we're moving offices tomorrow, but it does making coding in an unfamiliar language hard enough to warrant taking the laptop home and working on it.

I never realised how difficult it would be to work from home! I have family members bugging me (thankfully gone shopping at the moment but due back in an hour or so), pets running around barking me as if to ask what I'm doing home, and if they could have some food, and the other major distractions of home.

I refer, of course, to the Internet, and games.

Yes, the Internet, which I need for work, is more of a distraction than a help when I am at home. I believe this may be because I'm sitting at my desk at home, on which more often than not I'm flipping through Facebook, blogs and gaming sites, and playing games!

And restarting on WoW last night doesn't particularly help matters.

I've managed to keep gaming out of the equation. Well, apart from testing the game I'm working on, but that counts as work anyway. However, the Internet has been a tougher cookie to crack.

I did find an article about RESTful development, which explains it to me in a manner I understand better, and I believe my future Rails code will improve for it.

So, if I ever have the choice to work from home or the office, then the office it is, for the sheer value of being out of my home, and thus removing most of the distractions/comforts of home :)