London Hive Meetup
IT WAS RAINING BUT WE HAD A GOOD ONE
It was really nice to attend my first Hive meetup in over a year. It was small but it was time well spent with awesome people. So much so, that I feel like we need to revive these meetups. We used to have them every week at some point back in the golden era of this blockchain :)
I arrived in the area a little early so I took the opportunity to see some of my old work neighbourhood. I used to work around the Liverpool Street area about a decade ago. I had been back there since, of course, but it was interesting to see the massive changes that have occurred in the area in such a short period of time. Some of the streets are now completely unrecognisable, in a good way, since I last was there. In some other ways, it was sad to see some of the soul of the area lost to modernisation.
While the core of Liverpool Street Station itself hasn't changed in probably over a century, the fixtures have. The shops were different with the exception of Costa Coffee and Boots Pharmacy. There is also now a platform where the public can use between certain times while waiting for their journey. It even has USB ports for charging devices. I didn't try it, but I would be surprised if they worked at all. With most things meant for public convenience, the whole area was in a poor cosmetic state.
The biggest change is in the immediate vicinity of the station. The change has been so drastic that, at least from the point of view of someone who doesn't frequent the place daily, most of it is now unrecognisable. I was quite disorientated in an area I could navigate with my eyes closed just a few years ago. The old buildings have now been completely dwarfed by towers of glass and metal. Yes, the towers were there before, but mainly in the Moorgate and Finsbury areas. Now even Shoreditch is in the shadows of these glass giants.
Broadgate, which used to be relatively open spaced, is now completely surrounded by skyscrapers and, judging by all the cranes, there are more coming. It felt more like Manhattan than the City of London.
Mr Fogg's Tavern, where we met, is a very charming and peculiar place. The decoration is like non other that I've ever seen. The walls are covered in vintage paraphernalia and original 18th and 19th century paintings and photographs. The men's toilet is full of very interesting artwork too. The deco is like something from the distant past. In there are the more "adult" versions of the aforementioned vintage and antique paintings. Apparently, the female toilet is even more interesting en deco, if less lewd.
I had a very nice cup of coffee. Even though being mildly allergic to milk, and I don't take sugar, I decided to put both the sugar and the milk into the coffee just because it all looked so good and felt like a shame to let it go to waste. The coffee was actually really good too; rich, full bodied and perfectly roasted.
We had a pretty good chat I'd say. We even tried to onboard the waitress to Hive. That was quite hilarious. She was having trouble understanding where the money would come from but I think she kind of got it in the end, or at least pretend to just to shut me up 馃槃馃槃
Afterwards we decided to have something to eat so I suggested the old Spitalfileds market where, at least as I remembered it, there was always a lot of food kiosks to chose from. We were there a little late and most of them had packed up. I was also surprised to see the place having also modernised quite a bit. I tried to pay with $HBD but, once again, the proprietor had no idea what I was going on about. He did, however, know Bitcoin and Ether 馃槃
Special thanks to 
Peace & Love,
Ade虂