{"id":4230,"date":"2019-09-17T05:59:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T05:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=4230"},"modified":"2019-09-20T02:26:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T02:26:21","slug":"retina-society-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2019\/09\/17\/retina-society-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Retina Society in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Last week, I attended Retina Society’s<\/a> annual meeting in London as a new member. It’s been 12 years since I last visited the city with my wife and covered nearly every tourist attraction to maximize the value of our London Pass<\/a>, so I had minimal expectations for this visit. I left Tuesday morning for my connection in Chicago, where the scheduled 5-hour layover turned to 9 hours due to equipment-related delays. My belated arrival almost made me miss my first talk, if not for an Uber<\/a> ride and quick change of clothes in the hotel<\/a> bathroom. After the first session, I settled into my studio apartment<\/a>, but soon realized that I had forgotten my UK power adapter. As a result, I was tethered to the compatible power strips at the conference room for the rest of the meeting. On Thursday, we dined at iconic Guildhall<\/a>, where the long tables reminded us of Hogwarts<\/a>. The lengthy speeches and underwhelming meal of duck, quail, and guinea fowl, prompted us to leave early for drinks at a local pub near Sherlock Holmes’ home<\/a>. Friday was a half-day, which gave me a chance to savor crispy fried haddock and chips at the Golden Hind<\/a>, followed by a visit to the Postal Museum<\/a>, complete with a subterranean tour of London’s Mail Rail<\/a>. My cousin Paula managed to score bar seats for two at Yottan Ottolenghi’s ROVI<\/a> for dinner, which included a mind-blowing grilled halibut for two with roti and curry sauce incorporating Middle-eastern flavors into a sort of fish tacos. On Saturday, I skipped out early to visit the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit<\/a> at the Queen’s Gallery<\/a> at Buckingham Palace<\/a>. The fine chalk and metalpoint sketches provided a glimpse into the genius’ mind, and compelled me to purchase a souvenir book of his drawings. Lunch at Michelin-starred Trishna<\/a> was highlighted by their wild boar biryani, which I had to walk off on the way to Anya Hindmarch’s<\/a> Post Box Maze<\/a> installation as part of London Fashion Week<\/a>. I accepted my new member certificate at the dinner gala in the hotel ballroom on Saturday, after which I joined my colleagues to dance the night away. I decided to skip the conference on my last day in favor of breakfast at the Wolseley<\/a>, where I enjoyed scrumptious eggs benedict, kedgeree, and a hot chocolate gourmand of epic richness amidst grand art deco glamour. My return flight and ORD connection were uneventful, and I was able to dine<\/a> with Melody before returning home. Despite the specter of Brexit<\/a> and minimal planning for my London trip, I nevertheless savored some memorable moments and enjoyed my time abroad before returning to grant-writing mode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I attended Retina Society’s annual meeting in London as a new member. It’s been 12 years since I last visited the city with my wife and covered nearly every tourist attraction to maximize the value of our London … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4230"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4243,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions\/4243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}