It's hot hot hot in London at the moment, but by the evening the streets are at a very pleasant temperature for a spot of mapping. So that's what we did last night over in Bow East London. The tube journey over there was sweaty as hell though. I think the central line was at about gas mark 7 (yes I know... I should get a bike)

I mapped an interesting little patch of new cafes and pubs in a canal criss-crossed area sandwiched between Mile End park and Victoria Park, before heading into some grotty concreteness which Tower Hamlets is more known for. Just as I decided to head to the pub I discovered my cake slice was flanked with a road full of crappy little shops. I'm getting quite into my crappy little shop mapping now though.

The Morgan Arms was in a little oasis of swankiness. Very nice. A big table was no problem, although it was only just big enough. Another good turn out. Very good considering we were a bit out of the centre. Good to see Mike along again, and we had one or two other new faces. Most of us were boring and ordered burgers (the official mapping party dish) We wondered what the oddly described prawn dish would look like, and we wondered when Jenny had got to. We also talked about...

SOTM! It's SOTM fever at the moment. We're all excited about the big trip to Amsterdam. It's going to be great. Really looking forward to it, although it's creeping up fast. I need more time to prepare!

Other server admin talk. LightHTTPd conf and all that malarkey, and how ipv6 is the most important thing for OpenStreetMap right now (not)

Finally Jenny arrived, and confirmed our suspicion that she'd been out doing a very thorough job of mapping until it got dark. She also ordered the oddly described prawn dish. All the important questions answered!

'Bow Mapping Party' photos

Next London meet-up will be on Thursday 16th July in Kings Road are (near South Kensington). That's just after State Of The Map. In August we'll have a big anniversary party, but still need to figure out the timings for that.