Accidentally in Code

Tag: seattle

  • Seattle, May 2014

    Seattle, May 2014

    People playing chess in downtown Seattle
    People playing chess in downtown Seattle

    I found myself in Seattle for the long weekend, having not known about Memorial day when I booked my flights. Still, there are worse places to be stranded (like NYC in a snowstorm when I’m supposed to be skiing in Italy).

    I’m fond of Seattle, as a city. It’s the city where if I had to live in the US, then I would want to live in Seattle. Firstly, my hair is super manageable there (just the right about of humidity?). Secondly, the overcast grey suits my slightly despondent British nature. Thirdly, it’s a tax haven. What more could one want? Oh, gun control and reasonable public services. But I digress…

    This was at least my 7th time in Seattle, like San Francisco I feel disorientated rather than lost when I’m there. Things look familiar, but I don’t know how to fit the pieces together. I’ve seen the tourist traps (original Starbuck at Pike Place Market), taken the boat, been to the art gallery (I saw an exhibition of Feminist art, which was cool but felt disjointed – feminism is a broad topic, afterall – but that is where I discovered the amazing Guerrilla Girls), and been out to San Juan (so beautiful, terrible food). The nice thing about having been to a place a bunch of time, and knowing I’ll be back again (possibly even next month) is that I feel no need to rush about SEEING ALL THE THINGS but am happy to mosey and hang out.

    Which is good, because I was completely wrecked from giving two talks in a week, a stressful time at work, and jetlag. So in the end, I gave up doing anything tourist-ey, and mostly chilled out.

    I took some long walks across town, and had some amazing breakfasts/brunches at Lola (amazing croissant from the Dahlia Bakery), Coastal Kitchen (pancakes!), Dahlia Lounge, and the Icon Grill. Other than that, I ate sushi at Wann (great happy hour, including Lychee Sake), Momjii (possibly the most delicious sushi I have had), Japonessa (magical) and Wasabi Bistro (such interesting rolls).

    I stayed at the Westin, which has a nice central location and comfortable rooms with rain showers. Also had a reasonable gym and pool, although I was too exhausted to really take advantage of them.

    I was lucky enough to be in town for the Seattle International Film Festival, and got to see the premier of the ENIAC Programmers Project and meet the woman who worked for over 25 years to make this documentary happen. It was absolutely amazing, the story was great and these women were so incredible – I’m so thankful that Kathy captured their stories while they were still alive to tell them. I found it really interesting how sanguine they were about being written out of history, although there was a story about not being invited to a dinner recognising the achievements of the ENIAC project! Feeling passed over is something that still comes up with other technical women I speak to today, so I guess some things don’t change. The coolest thing I learned in the documentary was that the ENIAC ran in parallel. So not only did these women figure out how to program a machine using the wiring diagrams, they ran these programs in parallel. So perhaps that diminishment of their achievements was the first instance of men dismissing women’s technical work because they hadn’t taken the time to understand it. I bought Jean Jennings Bartik’s memoir (Amazon), which I’m really looking forward to reading.

    Got a much needed massage and facial at Penelope and the Beauty Bar, which was great, and picked up new jeans. My preferred way to buy jeans is to go into Nordstrom Rack, pick out every style of Joe’s jeans (Amazon) in my size, try them on, and then buy them all. I also went to Ada’s Technical Book Store which was awesome. Loads of technical books, but also cool little electronics and even Goldiblox. I was so glad it existed, I had to buy something, and ended up opting for an AdaFruit iNecklace (Amazon) with a status light – so now I have an on-switch.

    All in all, a nice and relaxing weekend.

    I bought myself an on switch. I've been needing such a thing all week.
    I bought myself an on switch. I’ve been needing such a thing all week.
  • Seattle and NYC, February 2014

    Seattle and NYC, February 2014

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    Work trip so not much time to myself, I caught up with friends in Seattle but didn’t have time to see anything, really. I stayed at The Woodmark Hotel, Yacht Club and Spa which has a great location right on the water – beautiful views. It was OK, there were a couple of things that bothered me but I mentioned them in my feedback survey and they were very on top of addressing them, so I’ll give it another go next trip. The most annoying thing was the $12 “amenity fee”, which means it’s $12 more a night than advertised. For free internet, and the gym (which I expect anyway) and a local car service (not always available). I also spent a night at the airport Hilton after I decided I was too tired to take the redeye.

    I had sushi at Chiso, where I had been before and they have great sushi, and at Sushi Kappo Tamura, which was fancy, but nice. In Kirkland, we went to Cactus (fine), and Trellis (nice, they sent us out free desert, which was lovely).

    NYC I had a little more time to hang out, caught up with more people, and went to MOMA, which was – as ever – amazing. I love that place. We saw Isa Genzken: Retrospective, There Will Never Be Silence, Designing Modern Women and my favourite, Frank Lloyd Wright and the City which was awesome. We also saw Once The Musical which was great, although is now showing in London so I wonder if we should have seen something else. I guess most things come to London pretty quickly though! Of course when in NYC, I have to take a walk along the High Line which is gorgeous, and longer than it was last time I came.

    Foodwise, I ate brunch at Good Restaurant (amazing), La Bottega (well, breakfast, I like it there – it’s reasonably priced and reasonably portioned), Cookshop (incredible, possibly the best croissant I have ever eaten) and The Grey Dog (good – not table service though). Had an incredible dinners with some girlfriends at Buddakan, sushi at Koi with a girlfriend (incredible decor), other tech-women at Morimoto (amazing as ever), colleagues at Cherry (kobe beef and foie gras gyoza – woah) and solo at Blue Ginger (chill and delicious). Mexican food at Dos Caminos (so tasty, incredible desert featuring salted caramel), tapas at Tia Pol (great sandwich) and Aria with a Sydney friend. Also cupcakes from Eleni’s perked people up during the workshop we were running!

    Stayed at the achingly hip Standard Hotel, and had drinks at the Top Of The Standard – fab views, pricey cocktails, but annoyingly you can’t get the elevator straight down to your room. Thankfully the kind barman sneaked me down the stairs to the floor below (from where I could take the elevator) as it was extremely cold and I didn’t have a coat! I still prefer the Maritime hotel, the conditioner at the Standard is terrible. I kept putting more and more on and my hair just turned more and more into a giant hairball, so I think it might actually be glue. I also find the hotel just too hip. But it’s fun to go there every so often!

    I found this amazing design store called Story, which was inspired by 40 Days of Dating (two designers experimented dating each other, I wrote about it here) to do a Love Story theme. I loved 40 Days, so I bought a print, and a cute necklace by another designer. Also, Royce – the Best Chocolate in the World now have a store in NYC, which was so exciting! So I picked up some amazing chocolate.

    It’s always good to be in NYC, I know quite a few people there and I met some new ones, which is great. But there was too much snow, which meant my flight out got cancelled and I missed my ski trip, which was gutting. Also NYC is rubbish in the snow, the streets aren’t cleared properly, so it was hard to walk about as there were huge puddles of icy water by the sidewalks, and the wasn’t enough grit down, so I was edging over ice a lot. In the end, I decided I was too tired and it was too cold to spend the unexpected weekend in cultural exploration, so I mostly hung out in my hotel room and worked on some stuff instead.