Oxford & Christmas Parties

Let no-one say again that Melbourne weather can exhibit 4 seasons in one day. When we visited Oxford a couple of weeks ago, the day started off clear and cold. As we went on the walking tour, the sun came out, as the tour finished the rain started to fall, after lunch it was pouring and then it cleared to a cloudy sunset.
Oxford is so steeped in history, of great minds (we kept saying, 'Didn't know he/she went to Oxford!') and learning that it was exciting to just wander the streets and listen to the guide tell stories about the place. I hadn't realised that all the colleges offer the same courses with varying specialisations and that the students only really have classes with people from their own college. Therefore, the classes are small and intimate and there are one-on-one tutorials. I think I would have enjoyed uni more if I had been in such an environment than in classes of 500.
Photos of Oxford buildings & me huddled under my umbrella at the Bridge of Sighs at the usual place.
Had 2 Christmas dinner/parties this week - one for the 'Away team' at the project and one for our company. The Away team dinner was at a lovely old restaurant/pub called 3 Acres, which overlooks the area. During the dinner, a brass band came in to play some Christmas carols. It was a average performance from the famous breeding ground of brass bands of Yorkshire. After they left, I was told that one of the guys at the plant worked at the Grimethorpe Colliery, the place that Brassed Off! was modelled on. How fascinating!
The company Christmas Party was at Pembroke Lodge, an old mansion in the middle of Richmond Park in Surrey. 2 turkey dinners in one week. : ) On the way home, the taxi driver and I talked about the varying states of the Australian and sub-continental cricket teams. As a Pakistani, he was very disappointed with the national team, who he likened to the Bangladeshi team - the most unpredictable nation in world cricket. He also went so far as to say that Tendulkar should be knighted(!) He wants the Brits to lay off Murali, which I agree with.
I am now looking forward to the next few weeks. I will be visiting Harry and Jenny tomorrow at their place up in High Wycombe, which featured in the weather report the other day as one of the places with the highest wind speeds last week. I am going to Turkey for Christmas (always makes me laugh), back for New Year fireworks and am then heading to Edinburgh and Stirling for a few days to see Stirling castle.
The tally is now up to 8 colds...

Badminton Club

2 weeks ago, I found a badminton club on the Net that was about 10 minutes walk from my house. I went to check it out last Friday and found it to be quite reasonable: nice people, good range of quality and also usually a coach in residence (who is on holiday at the moment), who could probably help me improve my rather strange technique. As motivation is one of the major stumbling blocks for me, I decided to give this place a go rather than traipsing all the way to Canary Wharf. My first session was on Friday and it was not bad as first sessions after a few months' layoff go. As always, I had trouble seeing the shuttlecock as the lights in multipurpose stadiums tend to be strategically placed up above, just in your line of sight for badminton. I played 4 games, all with the same partner, who is left-handed. Those who have played with me before will know that my partnering and communication skills are pretty poor even with right-handed partners, let alone lefties. We crashed several times (no problem, what I lacked in speed I more than made up with in mass so our momentums were generally equal :-) ) and both left things several times. I now know where all the Asians in London are - in badminton clubs! Almost all of the people there were Chinese (from HK, Malaysia or UK-born) or Indonesian. I woke up on Saturday feeling only slightly sore but got progressively tighter until I woke up this morning with very painful muscles.
As Taffy is rather obsessed with politics, we organised postal votes (he was going to go down to Australia House until he found out that 20,000 people went to vote there at the last election) and he woke up early on Saturday to listen to the commentary online. While it is sad to see the end of an era, it seems to be a similar situation to the Gough Whitlam campaign 'It's Time.'
I'm going to have afternoon tea with Kalika (she of the 'Where does pork come from?' fame) today. I found her through the Old Collegians network. Haven't seen her for years.

6 Colds in 6 Months

Came down with my 6th cold in 6 months on Sunday. This was hot on the heels of my 5th cold, which started shortly after my 4th cold. So, since I have been on my current project, I have not had a full week without the sniffles. The UK is just great. The last time I was like this was when I was 5 years old, when I had colds continuously. I finally made my way through all the germs in Melbourne in late high school and have had about 6 colds in the last 12 years. New country, whole new set of germs...
Last weekend was the start of the fireworks season. It starts on the weekend near Guy Fawkes Day (5/11) and stretches all the way to New Year's. One week in and I am over it already. The Brits are pyromaniacs! There are bangs every night both in London and in Yorkshire. I don't even go to the window to look anymore.
It is starting to get dark very early now. Sunset is around 4.30pm. It is also getting cold. It is already colder than winter in Melbourne and it is still Autumn. 4 more months of worse weather to come...

Children's Movies

It's been 2 weeks since I last wrote. Eppie arrived on the Sunday and I woke nice and early to meet her halfway. 5.30! I took the bus out to the tube as the trains don't start till later on Sundays and so didn't find out that the trains weren't running at all that Sunday until we got back to London Bridge. We finally got back home a couple of hours later where Taffy was wondering where we had gotten to. We later met up with their dad for lunch, went shopping and then had dinner with some more of the Yius - Uncle Sam, Bak Leung and David.
I had another French lesson on the train home and found out that the French for weekend was, wait for it..., 'le weekend'! Cracked me up. : ) I found out this week that the French for sandwich was 'le sandwich'.
I had the Morcoms over for dinner last Saturday. Ellen has grown some more. Jon and Ulis are well and have been in regular contact with Auntie Joy. Auntie May is apparently not doing too well, struggling with her eyesight and health problems.
On Monday after work, Vincent and I went to see Stardust, a kids' movie about a young guy who ventures into a fantasy land. Robert de Niro is in it and is hysterical as a cross-dressing pirate who puts up a tough facade but is really a softie. I love children's movies.
Eppie bought us a rice cooker. I made some curry (not as hot as the first time which almost killed us) and used the rice cooker for the first time on Friday. So much easier than cooking rice in a pot.
Taffy and I went to see Ratatouille on Saturday. Fantastic! The short film before it was soooo funny. I think this is the best combination from Pixar yet. The colours and picture quality are unbelievable, the story is great and the jokes are hilarious. I waited for Jane Yen's name to come up in the credits and found her twice. She has moved up to the middle of the credits instead of at the bottom.
This weekend has been the start of the fireworks season (Guy Fawkes is on 5/11). I am told that it will continue into the new year. I'm over it already. Having a prime position for viewing fireworks from our loungeroom means that we have seen some good ones and some really piddly little ones.

The Magic Flute & Toilets

It was in English! ??? Regardless, it was fantastic! The 2 roles they mentioned in their ads were the 2 that were the best - The Queen of the Night & Papageno. He was very funny and had a very rich voice and she sang her most famous and most difficult aria beautifully. They got the most applause when they came out to take their bows. Pamina and Tamino, on the other hand, were very pretty but had quite weak voices, Tamino in particular. Who cares anyway, they are just there as the romantic leads. : )
It has been a couple of eventful weeks at work. Firstly, I put in a request for a sandwich for lunch. My boss went out to get everyone's lunch and while he was out, I went to talk to one of the local managers. The discussion went on till 5pm. The whole time I was there, I was thinking about my lunch (stomach rumbling). On my return, I find that someone has eaten it! Being the way I am, I carry on like a pork chop, accuse Vincent of eating it during our team meeting (he denies it vigorously) and our boss accuses one of our other people (who also denies it). This, of course, leaves the client team members...The next day, Jean-Pierre came in in the mid afternoon and asked me whether I had eaten before he dared to pick up any of the food from the bench. Poor thing. : )
I was assigned the job of following one of the lab techs during the 12 hour night shift on Wednesday night. I went to work for Wednesday morning, went back to the hotel for a couple of hours nap and then went back to the plant at 6pm. I was there till 7am the next morning, tried to sleep, managed an hour, had a shower and went back to work. I was so tired by late afternoon that my brain couldn't function. We then had a big team dinner that night that I had to struggle through. !!
One of the most annoying things about the setup that we have is that you have to put on all your PPE to go to the bathroom. The toilets are upstairs in the same building but to get there you need to go outside and up some stairs on the outside of the building. Also, I need a key for the women's toilet. Taffy tells me that this is a necessity as if men can get into a women's toilet they will because they know that it is much cleaner than the men's one. Urgh! This reminds me of the toilets at one of the mines in the Hunter Valley. I had been told that there were only men's toilets in the workshop area and had been going there for a few days (disgusting in so many ways) when an old guy bumped into me as he was leaving and I was going in. When I came out, he was waiting for me outside to tell me that there was a ladies' toilet just around the corner! Geez!
Anyway, getting on well with all of the team and have started to get French lessons from the numerous French people on the team. We have started with the key phrases - about eating. : )
I also found out that Jean-Pierre does extreme long distance running. He does a race each year up Mont Blanc. 160km in 37 hours non-stop this year. The winner apparently made it in 32 hours. What the..?! Something to aspire to, Eppie & Chaitanya!
Eppie is arriving tomorrow morning for a conference. Will be going to pick her up half way between our house and Heathrow.

Music and New Project

On the weekend after we came back from France, we attended 2 musical events - the musical, Chicago and Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Evensong was fantastic, I finally heard a resident choir singing in its own church and it was sublime. There was also lots to entertain us: one of the choir boys did not sing - he stood slightly behind one of the other boys, kept his mouth shut for most of the time and occasionally moved his mouth a little in an attempt to pretend to sing (we think he got in trouble with the choirmaster afterwards) and the officiant behaved in a very strange and casual manner - he would bounce up ready to lead the singing and then slouch in his chair almost with one foot resting on the bench.
I started a new project last week. During the week before, I met with the Project Manager (PM), Vincent, a French guy living in London. The team is very multicultural - on the Celerant side: the lead analyst is from the US, the analyst is Dutch, the PM is French and me, on the client side, of the people I have met so far: the manager is French, as is one of the team, another is from Italy and another is from Spain. The only people who are British are the people on site. We have had some three way translations - one of the French said a word that I didn't understand, the Italian overheard and provided the English translation as Italians use the same root word.
Vincent and I had quite a funny experience on the train on Monday. We were to get off at Wakefield but when we got to the station, we couldn't open the door. By the time we found someone to ask, the train was leaving the station and we had to get off at the next station, Leeds. It turns out that on the old trains, you have to open the window, lean out and open the door with the handle on the outside. How are a Frenchman and an Australian supposed to know this?
On Friday, Taffy, his cousin David, one of David's housemates and I went to Brick Lane for some curry. We didn't know you are supposed to haggle for discounts and freebies so we got sucked in by the first restaurant, which offered us a free round of drinks and 25% off the bill. Turns out that 25% is pretty standard along the entire street. We were happy with the food we ate and the price we paid anyway.
I am off to see my first opera next weekend - The Magic Flute. Looking forward to it.

Monaco, Cote d'Azur & Provence

Spending a week in the south of France is something I recommend to everyone. Particularly around this time of the year when it is still good weather but there are less crowds.
We arrived in Monaco on Friday evening and decided to take it easy after the excitement of the trip from Nice (as discussed in the previous entry). On Saturday morning, we walked down (or up) to Monaco-Ville, where the Prince's Palace sits in the citadel. Francesco (or Francois, depending on where you look) Grimaldi dressed up as a monk, sneaked into Monaco and took the fortress, thereby becoming the first Prince of Monaco. As far as palaces go, this one is pretty boring. The changing of the guard was also unspectacular. The cathedral is more interesting, with a relic encased in glass. It was a bone belonging to Sainte Devote, a patron saint of Monaco. The graves of Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace are also in the cathedral.
We went to check out the casino in anticipation of attendance in the evening and found crowds of people admiring the cars parked out the front. Of particular interest were a couple of Ferraris, with guys taking pictures of the engines and girls sprawling themselves over the bonnets.
In the evening, we picked out our favourite boat from all of the ones moored in the port, had dinner in a restaurant overlooking the port as well as a narrow street which expensive cars cruised down and then took ourselves off to the casino.
It cost €10 to get in and they scanned our passports. We thought that this may be a security measure for easy identification in case you are trying to scam the casino or launder money. After watching people play roulette and some high rollers play blackjack at a minimum of €50/hand, we found a pokie machine with nice colours and pictures and won ourselves a grand total of, wait for it, drum roll please, €2.60! Wow!
The drive down from Monaco along the coast was beautiful - rocky cliffs, stone walls and waves rolling in. The beaches of Nice and Cannes, however, were not so pleasant. Both the pebbly beaches of Nice and the yellow sandy beaches of Cannes were filled with old, sunburnt, half-naked people trying to get more skin cancer. Not like the movies at all.
Our B&B hosts in Avignon were a lovely couple who recommended a whole host of restaurants serving Provencale food to try. We went to all but one of them and were not disappointed by any. The funny thing was that even though we ate a lot every night, we did not feel bloated at the end of the evening. We had: duck & salmon cooked in cheeses, rabbit, lamb shanks, duck curry, calamari, squid, escargots, tuna, Avignon beef, lemon tart, praline meringue, pannacotta...
Avignon is an old city with its city wall still intact. It was the home of the Popes for 100 years in the 14th and 15th centuries when they were shoved out of Rome. Villeneuve lez Avignon is the 'new town' of Avignon, across the Rhone and was established in the 14th century. Pope Innocent VI owned some land there, which he donated to the church and a Carthusian monastery was built on the site. Never let it be said that Popes are poor.
On Tuesday we went to my favourite place - Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct, my first. Taffy reckons I liked it because I'm an engineer but I can't understand how anyone could fail to be impressed by such a magnificent structure. A 12.7m drop over >50km from the source near Uzes to the city of Nimes at an average of 25cm per kilometre! Such accuracy! Roman engineering at its best! Still standing after 2000 years, built over a 3-5 year period, a 48m high structure over a raging river. A footbridge was built next to it in the 19th C so that people could get across the river. To their credit, it matches perfectly with the aqueduct and it is difficult to tell that one is almost 2000 years older than the other. We will see which one stands the test of time...
We also visited the Arena in Nimes, apparently the best preserved Roman amphitheatre. The audio guide provided there was soooo boring. They went on and on. They talked about the gladiatorial battles and the executions from Roman times and the bullfights that are held today. At one point, they went through the various types of gladiators and their fighting styles one by one...yawn...until I came across the gladiator with the net and trident from Asterix! Had to listen to that one. : )
On Wednesday we visited my second favourite place, Gordes. Situated on the top of a cliff, it was an amazing view as we came around the bend. We also visited the Abbaye de Senanque, a working abbey with some very old monks. I wonder whether there will be younger ones taking over in the future. They grow lavender there but the flowers had been harvested in August so we just saw stubbly bushes. Rousillon, a town nearby, is famous for its ochre-coloured dirt and, therefore, walls. However, for an Aussie who has visited the lighter orange-coloured landscapes of the Northern Territory and had the deep red-coloured dirt of northern Western Australia embedded in my clothes and shoes, this was no big deal. Les Baux de Provence was also nothing much. It was not possible to see the town as we drove up to it so it was not spectacular like Gordes.
On Thursday we finally visited the Pope's Palace in Avignon. Boring, boring. Much of it has been ravaged by fire over the years and there is hardly anything left inside. Grey walls with no furniture does not make an interesting tourist attraction.
On Friday we took our final flustered drive back to Nice to catch the plane for London.
Photos in the usual place.

The Car

Before I talk in general about my trip to the south of France I think the car and my use of it deserves a separate entry all on its own.
I decided to hire a car for the trip, firstly, because it seemed like the prices of the train rides would be just as, if not more, expensive as hiring a car (this was later proven when we chatted to fellow travellers and poked around on the ticket machines) and secondly, because a car seemed like a more flexible option for visiting little towns. As I had driven several times in the US in various sized cars, I figured that driving on the wrong side of the road would pose no real issues (this ended up being the least of my problems).
What I had not factored in was the stress levels involved with driving on unfamiliar roads with unfamiliar signs in a different language and only having stupid Google maps (printed in black and white!) to guide me.
My second trip-up occurred at Nice airport. Reservation? Hmmm, chat rapidly on the phone in French, talk to the person next-door then ask, 'Would a Cruiser convertible be ok?' 'Sure', I say, once she points out what the Cruiser is. Mumble, mumble, search, search. 'How about a VW Passat station wagon?' 'O-kkk...', I say. 'We won't charge you extra for it.' I should hope not as it wasn't my fault they didn't have my car ready for me. So, instead of a nice little Toyota Yaris to zip around the streets in, I got a lumbering Passat station wagon. No offence to Lye Seng but a Passat station wagon is only a good car if you live in Australia or the US with their wide, straight lanes.
First challenge, to get to Monaco from Nice airport. This leisurely 1/2 hour drive ended up taking over an hour. After several circuits of the airport and a drive down both ways of the esplanade in peak hour, we abandoned the Google map directions and followed the signs to Monaco on the road. Once arriving in Monaco (no border to speak of), there were conveniently placed signs to Beausoleil (the suburb) and the Forum Hotel noticeable just after you had driven past them. Several U-turns later, we arrived at the hotel.
Where to park? 'There is a public car park at the train station just down the road - just follow the signs.' While mum checked us in, I went for a drive down the curvy streets. I went up a one lane road, turned 2 corners to find a car parked at the end. Being the world's greatest reverser, I managed to negotiate the first 90 degree turn in reverse before getting stuck in the second 90 degree turn. There, I did an Austin Powers, back, forth, back, forth on the spot for a while before a lovely gentleman came to my aid and offered to drive my car out of trouble. His problem? He had never driven an automatic car (and a fancy one at that which had a button on the dash instead of a handbrake!). 'How do you go forwards and backwards?' Anyway, he got it out for me and also drove it to the car park, which was really close (30m away) but ridiculously complicated to get to (go right 20m, do a u-turn, go 50m, turn left and left again...)
Having taken 1/2 hour to park the car, I walked back to the hotel, which took all of 5 minutes.
My next traumatic experience occurred 2 days later when we attempted to get to Avignon via Nice and Cannes. We bumbled our way to the tourist information centres in Cannes and Avignon to get directions and maps. Even after getting directions in Avignon, I ended up in a tunnel that took me out to the road that we came in on instead of continuing around the city wall.
We got lost on every new venture, be it circling the city of Nimes only the take the wrong lane at the last moment or driving around and around the local roads in the Luberon or u-turning on the streets of Nice to get back to the airport but, in the immortal words of Rob Evans, Australian Cat dealer, when we arrived at Chicago's O'Hare airport after a hair-raising drive from the Cat Aurora plant, 'A few hysterics but we got there in the end.'
A word on the French and their tolerance of crazy drivers who u-turn at any moment, can't make the turn in one go and have to back up and try again - they are an amazing nation of people. Not once did I hear a horn toot or anyone yell at me. Truly, they are a misrepresented country.
A final word on Google maps. Almost completely useless. Even when I knew where I was going, I still couldn't follow the directions. Fix this, Gor!

The Wedding

The day went off almost with a hitch! : ) The celebrant forgot to come! What?! How does this happen? 15 minutes before the appointed hour, Gor rang him to hear him say, 'Uh-oh.' Not the best thing to hear from a celebrant on your wedding day. As he lived in San Jose, it took him about an hour to get up to Walnut Creek. After some quick thinking, the photo ops and hors d'oeuvres were moved forward so everyone well and truly saw the bride before the wedding.
The wedding itself was quite amusing. Kelly's dad was so nervous one of their relatives called out for him to smile as they walked up the aisle. He then almost tripped over her train as he went back to his seat. Kelly had trouble putting the ring on Gor's fat finger and muttered to herself quite audibly that it wasn't going on.
They did the signing privately inside after the ceremony (apparently this is the norm in the US). The celebrant thought Gor was the best man and told him to sign under Witness. Not all there, it seems...
The reception started quite strangely with the entrees being served before the bridal party had actually arrived in the room. After this initial hiccup, things went smoothly. The speeches were mostly good & short and mine went well, eliciting enough laughs and embarrassing Gor sufficiently. There were speeches in both English and Cantonese so that everyone could understand at least part of the program.
I came down with my 3rd cold in 5 months the day after I arrived and it was a close call as to whether I would be sniffling (which was dying down) and/or coughing (which was escalating) on Sunday. Luckily, I hit a lull for both that evening.
I was able to catch up with many relatives over the week through several dinners, afternoon teas and outings. It was good to see several of my cousins again and spend some time with them.
Photos are in the usual place.
Ma and I arrived back in London this morning, the plane landed at 7.15am but we did not leave the airport till after 9.30. There were massive queues at the immigration hall, even worse than normal. We are off to the south of France tomorrow.

Friends, Birthdays, Bath & Shoplifting

In a last minute change of plans, Sandra and I decided to catch up at the start of her trip rather than the end so the day after she arrived in London, we went for lunch at Harvey Nichols and then did some window shopping at Harrods. We found a pair of boots for £1050 and also an opera singer entertaining shoppers in the escalator well.
I received 2 great birthday cards from Ma and Lawrence the day before my birthday (good timing) and Taffy cooked me dinner.
In chatting to Vera about catching up, I found out that Harry and Jenny had arrived the week before and didn't tell me! They will be here for 3 years while Harry does a degree in furniture making. We all went out for a lovely dinner and I got 2 more birthday cards. :-)
Fiona had her baby 2 weeks early the day after my birthday. She only stayed in hospital for a couple of days. Apparently Sarah is being a doting big sister so far. Fiona is waiting for the novelty to wear off.
Taffy and I headed for Bath on Saturday. We went for a drive up through the Cotswolds first and were disappointed by the dullness of it all. We had both heard how beautiful the scenery was and how interesting the small towns were but both found the scenery pretty but boring after a while and the towns were mostly closed.
Stonehenge, on the other hand, was very good. I had expected it to be rather unexciting but they have done a good job with the audio guide and I learnt some fascinating facts (& myths). I also found the fact that it is next to some sheep paddocks and right up against the highway hysterical. They are planning to dig a tunnel so that the highway will be hidden in the future.
At Salisbury, we visited the Salisbury Cathedral, which has the tallest spire in Britain. Taffy also had his first British Pub Sunday roast. Yum! It is one of the only meals that is consistently good in the UK. We also visited Old Sarum, site of castle foundations (the good stone was taken from the site to be used elsewhere when it was no longer used).
On Monday morning, we had breakfast in Bath. We gave the waitress more money than she counted and she missed one of our orders. This resulted in an argument with the staff and the manager counting the till to find that there was even more money than the extra that we had given them. I wonder how many people they are ripping off.
The Roman Baths are a wonderful example of Roman engineering. The drains, pools, saunas and baths are still in fairly good condition. There are statues of Roman generals and gods on the upper terrace, which are not Roman at all but date back to the late 19th century, when the authorities decided that having Roman statues would make the tourist experience more realistic.
Photos from Bath and Cardiff are in the usual place.
Saw something interesting yesterday at the supermarket. I was daydreamingly wandering into the store when I noticed a man with a basket full of meat hanging around the entrance. As soon as the people had all entered, he sauntered out the door with his goods. It only registered in my mind after the fact what he was doing. Hopefully it is to feed a family.
Will be on my way to the US in a week for Lawrence's wedding.

Gringotts, Clubs & Cardiff

It's been >2 weeks since my last post and I've had some interesting experiences. First, I visited Gringotts, aka the Australian High Commission in London, which was the location chosen to double as the goblin-run bank in the Harry Potter movies. Unfortunately, I did not get to go into the exciting, high-ceilinged marble hall but rather a small, cream-coloured office area around the side of the building. I did peek into the hall, though. Very nice.
That evening, I managed another first - my first visit to a prestigious London members only club. I was invited to dinner by Kong Suk Por's sister and her husband, who were down from Stratford-Upon-Avon to attend the Proms. Very posh, very elegant, very stylish indeed. There was a ballroom and lounge decorated in 19th century style, an art deco lounge, a library with a full size snooker table, a 25m indoor swimming pool, squash courts and a fencing salle! All in the heart of Mayfair! Cool. Dinner was fantastic, too.
From having the whole flat to himself most days, it must have been quite a shock to the system for Taffy when his cousin David arrived that night to stay while house-hunting before term starts and then Vicki arrived on Saturday. I must say that the flat was up to the task. We gave ourselves a pat on the back. Good choice. : )
On Sunday, Taffy, Vicki and I visited Greenwich to see the prime meridian. It was an incredibly hot day (mid 30s & humid) and many others had the same idea. We felt very sorry for the employees who were dressed in 19th century clothing and standing in the sun.
On Monday morning I took myself off to Aberdeen for my last week on the project. It was sad to finish up after 2 months. I can't imagine what it would be like for the people who are on projects for 9+ months, as is usually the case.
Got home on Friday evening and up again bright and early on Saturday to go to Cardiff with Vicki and Taffy (David found a place during the week and returned home to Leeds). Cardiff is a small city (pop 305,000) with a very small, easily walkable city centre, which suited us well. We accidentally found half of the landmarks on our way to the visitor's centre, where a strange old man kept responding to our questions on what to see with 'come with me' and walking us over to stands full of brochures.
Cardiff Castle is a peculiar castle. It looks like a well preserved old castle but is actually mostly quite new. There are some reminants of a Roman wall at the base of its wall and a keep in the middle of it that dates back to the 12th or 13th centuries, but the rest of it was built by the 3rd Marquess of Bute, a rather eccentric recluse (reputedly the richest man in the world at the time), who employed William Burges to design a medieval-looking castle in the late 19th century. It was gifted to the city of Cardiff by the 5th Marquess of Bute in 1947.
We had dinner at Mermaid Quay in Cardiff Bay, which looks like what the Docklands in Melbourne tried and failed to be. It is very lively with bars and restaurants and lots of people out on the street.
On Sunday we took a bus to the small town of Tongwynlais to see Castell Coch (the Red Castle). This was also owned by the Marquess of Bute and designed by Burges and looks like a fairytale castle nestled in a forest on the side of a hill. The castle is completely impractical for living in - narrow spiral staircases up to the family's bedrooms, corridors open to the elements, no guest bedrooms but it does have a working drawbridge and portcullis.
The 3 of us had dinner in Chinatown on Wednesday before Vicki went to see Les Mis. The meal was reasonable but expensive (paid £30 for something that would have cost $30 in Melbourne).
On Thursday night, we had dinner in Waterloo to celebrate my birthday early as Vicki is leaving today. Afterwards, we went on the London Eye, which I found strangely boring and disappointing. Halfway through I worked out why - the London Eye is not well placed. There are only a handful of pretty landmarks that can be seen from it at night: Westminster, Charing Cross station, St Paul's cathedral, the Gherkin and Canary Wharf. On my frequent flights back to London, the planes have invariably been told to fly in holding patterns before coming in to land. Consequently, they have swung out to the east of London and I have had bird's eye views of the whole of London, both day and night, from Woolwich (being able to identify my building and desperately wanting a parachute so that I don't have to make the trip all the way from Heathrow back to the flat) to Heathrow. The London Eye just can't compare.
Anyway, have been terribly popular at work with different people requesting my services and have been given internal projects to work on all of this week and next. The task next week involves going into the office, which, at 1 1/2 hours each way, I am not looking forward to.
The last weekend of August is a bank holiday and Taffy and I will be heading over to Bath and its surrounds.

Lovely Weekend Followed By More Trauma

Had a lovely Saturday - met up with Charlie and Celia, neither of whom I have seen for years. Celia is living in Darwin now and sees Steve and Kerryn quite often. Charlie is soon to join the workforce as an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon. How exciting!
We saw a play called The Last Confession, which stars David Suchet and is about the events surrounding the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I. Taffy also came along. It started off quite slowly, which is not good after lunch for the nap reflex. Several people around us did not come back after the intermission. It picked up, though, and I was on the edge of my seat by the end even though I had a general idea of what was going to happen. The portrayal of politics in the Vatican was intriguing. One thing that none of us knew was that Pope John Paul II was a compromise candidate.
I was to fly up to Aberdeen on Sunday evening to attend offshore safety & survival training on Monday to Wednesday. However, due to my miscalculation of time, the taxi driver taking a bad route and crazy traffic, I arrived at Heathrow 1.50hrs after I left home (usually takes 1hr-1.15hrs) and missed my check-in time by 5 mins. What made it worse was the the flight was actually delayed by an hour but they still wouldn't let me on. :-( So, rebooked my flight for the next morning and went home again (which took 1 1/2 hours) to annoy Taffy, who thought he had the house to himself for the night. Up again at 4.15am and back to the airport. Got to the training centre in Aberdeen at 9.45am to be told that I had missed 1.45hrs of training and it was not possible for me to join the group as the training was structured as theory, practical, theory, practical. Come back another time. (!!) They eventually put me in another group that had theory all day on Monday and I had a make-up session on Monday evening to catch up on what I had missed in the morning.
Perhaps because of all the running around, I came down with a cold on Monday night (second one since I have come over - have been averaging 1 every 2 years or so for the last 10 years), just in time to do the lifeboat/raft sessions on Tuesday and the helicopter crash simulations on Wednesday in the pool. Great. Despite that, the training was great fun, especially the fire fighting and the helicopter crash simulations. I had to struggle to keep my mouth shut and not say anything when people were complaining that their suits were filling up with water even though they are supposed to be waterproof. When I finished, my entire torso was still dry. :-)
Having a chat with Vera, Steve K & Sandra on Thursday, potentially having dinner with Kong Suk Por's sister on Friday (she is coming down to London for the weekend) and Vicki is coming to stay with us from Saturday.

Photos from the funeral

As requested by Vera, here is the link to my photos...
http://picasaweb.google.com/frances.ip

I have posted photos of some of the flowers from Por's funeral (only the ones that mattered to me, of course!). Thank you so much to everyone for their support this week.

Funny story told by Kong Suk Por: she received a call at 12.45am on Tuesday morning at home, picked up the receiver, no-one on the other end. She asked Sai Suk whether he had picked up the phone and he had not. Must have been Por calling her to tell her that she had passed on (at 12.20am), knowing that she would be awake at that time of night. :-)

57 Hours Later...

57 hours after leaving the office in Aberdeen I arrived home to Melbourne this afternoon. I flew down from Aberdeen to London Heathrow on Thursday night, spent 8 hours at a hotel next to the runway, flew to LAX, sat around the airport for the day, sat in the plane on the tarmac for some time while they fixed a problem with one of the engines (!), flew to Sydney and then to Melbourne. Mum arrived home last night, having run around Italy in a bid to catch planes home, depending on the kindness of strangers to help her navigate through Prato, Milan and Rome. Lawrence is yet to arrive, having tried to travel by standby for 3 nights now. It looks like he will probably miss the funeral on Tuesday as tomorrow's flight also looks full.
The week started off with a very exciting Sunday. We found out that having moved into our flat the previous weekend, the Tour de France would come through our complex in its first stage! We could actually see part of the route from our balcony but we wandered the extra 100m down the street to get some roadside action. It started quite slowly with a few cars and motorbikes cruising past, a couple of gendarmes actually chatting loudly to each other as they rode by. All of a sudden, cars and motorbikes sped down the street, coming very close to the spectators. I wondered why they were going so fast until the cyclists came just as quickly. Within 20 seconds, it was all over and all that were left were the support vehicles. Photos of those 20s are posted on my photo page.
After the Tour de France, I settled in to watch the men's final of Wimbledon. What a match! What competitiveness and class! The right man won in the end (in my opinion). Records are made to be matched and broken and Federer deserved to get match Borg's 5 in a row.
After Wimbledon, Taffy's Uncle Sam and Gu Jie came to visit us (to make sure we weren't living in squalor) and to bring us lots of Chinese goodies (instant noodles, Lee Kum Kee sauces, crackers, lap cheung & instant meals) and a coffee table. They took us out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant where I ordered Ging Dou Pai Gwut (sweet and sour pork), my very 'unChinese-like' favourite dish.
I have a week off on compassionate leave before heading back to the UK on Saturday afternoon (will be going back via Singapore, the normal route, rather than the US).

Grandma Passed Away

Grandma passed away a few hours ago after a short battle with lung cancer, which spread to her brain. She contracted pneumonia in the last couple of days.

Shutting The Gate After The Horse Has Bolted

Having gotten home at 2.30am on Thursday morning, I proceeded to get up at 2.30am on Monday morning to get to the airport. 2 root causes (6 Sigma analysis!): I had just moved to Woolwich and was not sure how long it would take to get to the airport & the Glasgow airport bombing had resulted in UK police shutting the gate after the horse had bolted – searching cars as they came to the airport and increasing passenger security inspection measures. The car company told me that I should leave home at 3am so I dutifully got up early and was picked up at 3.05. The driver stopped at a petrol station along the way and we still managed to sail into the drop-off bays at Heathrow at 4am! It turns out that the check-in counters don’t open until 5am, at which time I sailed through them as well and into a queue of about 10 people for the security check (usually about 5 lines of 50 people deep) to find that the BA lounge doesn’t open until 5.30am. When it did open, I found myself a nice armchair with a high back and had a nap until the plane was ready for boarding. Needless to say, I was not in a good condition that day and struggled to be productive. My manager told me off when I told him about it the next day and said that I should never leave home that early. If I miss the flight, then I miss the flight, I should not get up at such ungodly hours again. That was nice.
My phone troubles are persisting. Rang up 3 on Monday afternoon to say that their efforts had been useless and they responded by saying that they could get my phone repaired. It was picked up from the office on Tuesday morning at 8.30am (despite 3 text messages saying that they would come between 12 & 6pm) and was dropped back on Thursday afternoon. The reception has improved but I am still having problems. Rang them again and they agreed to look into it and potentially send me out a new SIM card. Hope this will all be resolved soon.
Preparing for my Stirling trip, which is quite difficult for 2 reasons: 1) I work in a project room and sit next to the only phone so that everyone who needs the phone can see my screen, 2) the only computer which can access a printer is connected to the projector so everyone can see what you are doing if you want to print non-work related things!
Will be quite busy with people visiting in July/August/September. Charlie is first (at the end of July), then Vicki, then Vera, then the wedding and then Sandra. Will be great to catch up with everyone.

Another Crazy Week

Has been another crazy week. Went up to Aberdeen for 3 days to work on the project and then came back on Wednesday night to attend a conference on Thursday & Friday. The plane was supposed to leave at 8.30pm but was delayed for 2 hours due to a gas leak in London, which shut down Heathrow for a while. When we landed at 11.45pm, the pilot told us that there was no dispatcher to operate the airbridge to let us off the plane! We waited another 15 minutes for someone to come. When we finally got to the baggage carousels, there were 100s of people there from 3 flights earlier. Turned out that when they shut Heathrow, they sent all the baggage handlers home and didn't get anyone to come back. Eventually, they go a few handlers in to do each plane one after another. Got my bags at 2am. Fantastic.
The conference on Thursday & Friday was great. Got to meet more people from the company, many of whom are French, Italian, German etc living in the UK. I have found that my accent neutralises when I talk to people over here - not the Aussie twang that my grandfather can't understand.
I am beginning to appreciate how good we have it in Australia. The financial system here is crap. It takes 3-4 days for money to be transferred from 1 bank to another. 3-4 days! What are they doing, walking it over from one city to another? Also can't get nice bank statements online. Tried the Help function on the website and got - go to statement and then go to File and Print. No letterhead, no nice formatting, nothing. I have to pay my rent 3 days earlier than the due date to ensure that it will arrive on time or I get hit with a fee. What rubbish!
Anyway, have half moved and will move the rest today. No access to Internet from now on at home until we get it set up. : (

House-hunting & Work Week 3

Another eventful week has passed. More work, a little more admin resolved, badminton, an offer submitted for a flat and some language humour.
Spent long hours at work with little to show. If I thought it was hard getting people to do work on my projects at Cat, it is even harder when you just have to get one person to do stuff and he doesn't want to. He got pissed off with me (for being on his back all the time) and I got pissed off with him (for not doing anything and walking out on me - in his office!) It all culminated in us having it out on Thursday and the most productive 2 hours of the week. Hopefully, we have cleared the air and we can get things done more quickly from now on.
Finally got to talk to my Development Manager to get my leave approved (and talk about other things like training, development, admin etc but my main concern was to get my Sept leave in the system). She sounds very nice and we hope to meet each other soon.
Played badminton with a couple of the girls working on other projects in Aberdeen. One is my 'buddy' (assigned person to be available to answer any questions - she just happens to be working in the same city as me at the moment, coincidence!). She is incredibly tall & blonde (Swedish mother and Scottish father) and is a sports nut (was a triathlete but now just works out in the gym, runs and plays volleyball). I restrained myself admirably during the session and was happy to feel no lingering effects the next day.
Taffy and I went looking for flats again on Saturday. We finally made up our minds and put in an offer on a 2 bed flat in Woolwich Arsenal. It is a lovely flat with views of the Thames. The paperwork is going to be an interesting process as I'm not sure that we have everything exactly as they want it.
Taffy got a job during the week and starts on Monday. Well done, Taffy! We had a laugh about the both of us doing 2 of the most stressful things in life at the same time (starting a new job and moving house). We concluded that we are both idiots. : )
As we were putting together a list of things that we would need to buy for our new flat, we discovered that we have the same problem - we don't know the English words for some household items. The problem is that most objects inside the house have always been referred to by their names in Cantonese at home and never in English. This makes things difficult when you are trying to make a list and can't write the words in Chinese. English spellings of the Cantonese words will have to do. I think this is the real definition of Chinglish.
Will be up in Aberdeen from Mon to Wed and then down in Surrey for Thurs & Fri for a networking/training conference with some of the other people at work.
I'm planning to stay up in Scotland one weekend and take a drive down to Stirling to see 'my' castle.

Afternoon Tea At A Mansion

I attended the PLC Old Collegians afternoon tea yesterday down in Weybridge, Surrey. The youngest person there after me graduated from PLC in 1960. The oldest was the host who graduated in 1940 (I guessed her age to be ~84). She would have to be one of the most tremendously eccentric people I have met. All of the attendees met on the train at Waterloo and then took a couple of taxis to Shirley's place. The house just had a name (Beech Hill House), no number, so I was expecting a mansion. And it was. Sweeping drive up to a fountain in front of the house with beautiful gardens. I heard later that a couple of the others found a wood on the property. A wood?! Shirley was married to the president of Shell. He passed away a couple of years ago and she has been spending her time in Surrey (3 months of the year) and Geneva (9 months of the year) since. She spends much of her time managing their estates and money.
When we arrived, she came down the stairs to greet us in red high heels and a Singapore Girl outfit. It later transpired that she had talked to a Singapore Girl during one of her trips in Asia and had been given the name of the tailor who makes the uniforms. She had a couple made for herself (aside: there is no way any normal person would fit into one of the actual uniforms of the Singapore Girls - average size 2). She was heavily made up with black eyeliner, aqua eyeshadow and red lipstick. To complete the picture, she had on a red headband.
She showed us some videos of her skiing, hang-gliding and parasetting (spelling? Same as hang-gliding but with a parachute). The videos were of her in her late 70s. Phenomenal.
The other ladies were not quite so glamorous. All had worked through their lives but only the youngest was still working part-time. Some pioneering women as you would expect from PLC Old Collegians, even such a small sample.
They had incredible memories. Put me to shame. They reminisced about teachers they had for geography, gym and the like from 50+ years ago! I can't even remember 12 years back. : (
I found out that Kalika (what is pork from?) is in the UK. Must catch up with her.
More on work. I was called on Monday evening to get in contact with the Senior Project Manager on a project in Aberdeen. Went up on Tuesday morning and will be travelling back and forth until the end of July. Have been pulled in to the end of the project to help get tasks completed. This apparently means that I will be babysitting one of the module leaders to make sure he gets things done. Things are better now that I know what I am doing for the next 5 weeks but very tired because of a cold, the long hours and the travel.
Still looking for a house. Taffy and I went to see a place in East Acton. We almost made an offer but it was too expensive. If we had got it, all three of the Yiu kids would have been living near a prison, which I thought would have been quite amusing. Went down to see Woolwich Arsenal, which is looking like a good option at this stage. Cheap but beautiful and new and not too far from central London.
Back to Aberdeen tomorrow morning. May get a chance to play some badminton on Thursday or they may decide to go drinking instead. I know which option I would prefer but it is probably the minority opinion...

First Week At Work

The first week at work was very traumatic for me and I handled it disappointingly poorly. The actual work sounds very interesting and challenging when I finally get to do it but the admin left a lot to be desired. Perhaps it was because there were so many of us starting at the same time. Perhaps not.
I feel, as I head into my second week, that I should be more appreciative of the admin at Cat, especially the induction week. I distinctly recall Don giving us all mobile phones and packs of forms to fill out for credit cards, frequent flyers, rental car etc etc. Once we returned the forms, the cards came quite quickly. Here, no forms, no mobile, no credit card (they are in transition between cards but the new one will be Amex, which is not recognised everywhere). Pay using your own credit card and we reimburse you. Use your own mobile phone, print out your bill and charge back the relevant bits. This is all well and good if you have a credit card and a contracted mobile phone, which I don't. As I said during the week, I don't like the idea of having to pay for the pleasure of working.
The other area of disappointment was the lack of organisation of projects. We were all to go on project visits on Thursday but most did not find out where to go until late Tuesday afternoon. Then there was a mad rush to book tickets & hotels. There were no breaks in the program and people were told off for not being present at the forums because they were busy organising their trips. We were told during the week that we would know where we were going in our second week by Thursday or Friday. On Friday morning, we were told that we didn't have projects assigned yet so we were to wait for a call on Monday to tell us what training we were to attend for the rest of the week. On Friday afternoon, we were told, no, we were going to be assigned projects but we would be told where on Monday so show up at the office with our bags packed for the rest of the week. Could be anywhere in Western Europe. What the...?!
Anyway, I ended up going to Dublin with my colleague, Rolf (like the 17 going on 18 kid in Sound of Music), who is Norwegian, going to be based in Sweden and speaks English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Spanish and a bit of Italian. Used to speak French but has forgotten most of it. :) The content of the trip was great. We visited a project at a pharmaceutical company. Things started to fall into place and make sense. It was a long day, though, waking up at 4am and getting to bed at 11.30 that night.
I am not a 'fly by the seat of your pants' type of person (unlike Michael). I am naturally organised and like things controlled so that I don't get stressed. Perhaps this has made me less able to cope with others being completely disorganised. I can see that there will be lots of deep breaths at least in the next week or two.
Met up with Taffy on Saturday for a house-hunting expedition. We wandered through neighbourhoods that ranged from lovely all the way to downright dodgy. We ended up at the burnt out shell of the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. The house-hunting will continue...
Bought a phone on contract today online. Will have to switch my number over to it when it comes.
Going to a PLC Old Collegians afternoon tea next Saturday down in Surrey. The house of the lady who is hosting it has no number, just a name and has 'ample parking space' out front. Looking forward to seeing whether it is a mansion. :)
Grandma had brain surgery on Thursday to remove the tumour. It went well but she got a lung infection yesterday. My aunt and cousin from the US were visiting last week and my aunt is still there.

Languages & Palaces

A peculiar thing happened to me when I was in France. Well, not so peculiar as it has happened before but not to such an extent. When I was trying to remember my French, I just kept coming up with Japanese phrases. There was an almost overwhelming desire to spout out Japanese, which is not all that useful in France. I believe that this problem arises when you learn languages in your teenage years or later. Your brain gets confused, can only deal with one language and so produces the one that you are most familiar with. Not that I'm all that familiar with Japanese as I have forgotten a lot since I stopped learning it 12 years ago. I remember a lot more now, though! : ) This doesn't happen with the languages I learnt when I was little. It is quite strange and requires a lot of concentration not to use the wrong language.

Went to play badminton again on Friday night. The people there were of varying ability. I was surprised at how bad some of them were. Played only 3 games spread over 75 minutes so was in much better condition on Saturday morning. : )

On Saturday, I followed Jean's advice and caught a bus from Richmond to Hampton Court Palace. It dates back to Tudor times. I prefer the French palaces to the small red/brown brickwork of Hampton Court. The brickwork is somehow not as majestic and grand. The Great Vine was oddly disappointing. I don't know what I was expecting but the oldest surviving grape vine in the world looked a little small and boring. A couple got married in the Chapel Royal and then drifted out into the garden with their guests for photos. When I later visited the Chapel, I overheard a little girl saying that she wanted to get married there (it is very lovely) and a lady telling her that it cost £5000 just for the Chapel and grounds before the reception. Little girls don't care about the money! They just dream about the fairytale. [I've posted photos of Hampton Court.]

Have heard bad news about my grandma. She had numbness and loss of power in her hand so they performed an MRI. The cancer has apparently spread to her brain.

Badminton, Paris & Derby

After my last posting, I played badminton on the Saturday. Having only an on/off switch when I play sport, I went all out, as usual, and played for 1 1/2 hours non-stop with 3 Indian guys. Didn't disgrace myself and was invited to come back. As always, I felt great afterwards and continued to feel great for the rest of the day. Sunday morning, woke up still feeling great until I tried to move...Result: spent the day on the couch trying to remain as immobile as possible. I couldn't even sneeze as my poor stomach muscles complained so much that only a tiny little hiss would come out. Monday wasn't much better but as I had booked to go to Paris, up I got and on my way.
I am now sure that there is a God and He is laughing at me. I got to my hotel in Paris and, not being able to climb 1 step without pain, was delighted to find out that I had been allocated a room on the top floor. 6 flights of steps, agony all the way.
I was nicely situated near Sacre Coeur and the Montmartre area so headed out for a look. 200 more steps later, I found myself overlooking the city from the base of Sacre Coeur. It is a lovely structure but I like my churches older (it is less than 100 years old).
Wandered down towards the Moulin Rouge and was struck by how seedy the neighbourhood is. All the men on the street were approached in hopes that they could be lured into the sex shops & peep shows. Moulin Rouge itself was a disappointment. Very tired and run down. Not like in the movies at all!
Whisked myself off to see the Eiffel Tower instead and managed to get some fabulous photos of it (if I do say so myself!) No climbing for me!
Tuesday saw a trip to Versailles and a day spent in the palace and gardens. What a beautiful place full of history, elegance and scaffolding. Interesting points: the palace survived the revolution pretty much intact, a lot of the furniture also survived (including the king's desk, which has spring loaded compartments where the servants can fill up the inkwells and restock the stationery from without accessing the main part of the desk. Cool!), Louis XV & XVI didn't use the official bed for sleeping in - they would go to bed (observed by courtiers), wait for everyone to leave and then get up and go to bed in another, less ostentatious room. In the morning they would get up and go back to the official bed for the Rising. What a pain in the bum! Duty is a dirty word. Also, the queens had to give birth in public so that people could be sure that babies were not swapped and the heirs were really the heirs. Modern women should be thankful that they were not royalty of the past.
Wednesday was spent at the Louvre. My strategy was to race up to the popular 'stuff' and then spend the rest of the day strolling through the rest. The museum has a Da Vinci Code audio guide that is twice as expensive as the normal audio guide. I wonder how many people actually go for it. I found the Virgin on the Rocks, which is actually not opposite the Mona Lisa (it is in another room near the Mona Lisa). I had seen the Madonna on the Rocks at the National Gallery in London and was interested to see the differences between the two. The Mona Lisa was a bit of a disappointment. It is difficult to appreciate why the painting is so revered. I liked the Venus de Milo. She's very elegant. Some of the rooms were more spectacular than the artwork displayed in them. Their ceilings and walls were decorated with paintings, gold leaf & beautiful woodwork. When going through other parts of the museum, it was like being in the place by myself. There were very few people. When I came back into the popular sections and in the hall under the pyramid, the place was packed. Most people are just there to say that they had been there, I think.
I used the same strategy I used for the Louvre at the Musee d'Orsay. Straight up to the 5th floor and the Impressionists before heading down for the rest. Whistler's Mother was there. Thought of Mr Bean. Many of the famous works were on loan to other galleries. Starry Starry Night was missing. Lucky I'd seen it in Melbourne when they came.
I got back to London on Thursday night and headed up to Derby on Friday morning. Rosey came to pick me up from the train station. We went to Melbourne in the late afternoon! It is about 10 miles from Derby and is a very small town. It's 2 features of interest are the airport (it is the airport that Rosey and Mick use to get to Europe) and Melbourne Hall (which was not open).
On Saturday we visited Kedleston Hall (an old estate with some of the family still living in one of the wings). Mick was determined to have a picnic in its park come rain hail or shine and luckily the rain held off until after we finished lunch. It rained for the rest of the long weekend. We also visited Ashborne, which is famous for its gingerbread but there was no local gingerbread to be found.
On Sunday, we visited York. What a lovely old town centre with narrow cobblestone streets and old buildings housing shops selling lollies, tea, chocolates, fudge, books & clothes. We got to York Minster in time for Evensong which was a great disappointment. The choir performed a modern piece which, as Mick put it, sounded like their batteries were running flat. Churches should stick to performing the classics. The sermon was terrible. The 3 of us emerged confused as to what the message was, each having a different interpretation.
As we had lunch at the 'Most Haunted Pub in Yorkshire' on Sunday, Rosey and Mick took me to the 'Most Haunted Pub in Derbyshire' on Monday. Didn't see a ghost in either establishment. : (
Spent Monday afternoon watching a soccer match between Derby and West Bromley. Derby won, which means that they will go up into the Premiere League next season. So much carrying on!
Went to see Cabaret yesterday afternoon. Apart from the gratuitous nudity, it was great. Very moving. It is the first time I was watched it. Haven't even seen the movie version.
Fun is almost over. I start work on Monday. Have a week of induction.
Taffy (Eppie's brother) arrives on Tuesday. We will see whether we can get a place together.
Photos from my expeditions in the last 2 weeks are posted at the usual place.

Jobless no longer

I have a job! In the words of our old high school chemistry teacher, Yay! It is with a consulting company called Celerant so I could potentially be working anywhere around the UK or Europe, depending on the client.
So, events of the last week:
Got up at the ungodly hour of 5.30am last Tuesday to get to Heathrow for my flight to Brussels. Was in business class because the travel agent couldn't get a seat for me in economy. Bonus! Ate my second breakfast on the plane. (A-la Pippin) Had to sit around waiting at the office for 1 1/2 hours before my session started (with lunch). The session went well: group exercise, role-play, case study and interview. I had almost 2 hours to kill before my flight back so I took myself down to the old town centre (photos are on my website). The lovely narrow cobblestone streets are so full of character. The Grand Place is stunning and the Manneken Pis (the little statue of the pissing boy) is hysterical. He is on the corner of a couple of lanes and he is tiny. I overheard some people saying that he was one of the most photographed statues in the world. Bought myself some Belgian chocolate. Mmmm... Was very restrained and only bought a little bag. : )
They said that they would make a decision within a week but on Wednesday afternoon, the recruitment agent called to say they were offering me a position.
Had another assessment centre on Friday (in London but my tube line went down and was almost late in arriving). No food offered. : ) Told them I had another offer on the table so needed to know asap whether they wanted me or not. Got notification today that they didn't so full steam ahead with Celerant.
In other news, I went to a strange BBQ on Saturday with Yvette and her friend. It was a dress-up party where everyone was dressed up except us. There were nurses, soldiers, police, Fred Flintstone, cats and Smurfs. The Smurfs kept multiplying. Everytime I turned around there were more of them. Their blue paint kept coming off their hands and bodies too - onto clothing and their food (overheard one of them asking his friend whether the paint was edible...) During the BBQ, Suzi, Yvette's friend, told me that a colleague of hers plays badminton and might let me play with him and his friends. Got in contact with him today and will head down to Canary Wharf to play next weekend. Will probably get smashed. He's Indian.
Went to watch Spiderman 3 yesterday. After the previews, I am now dying to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Ocean's Thirteen and Harry Potter (all sequels!). Spiderman was ok. Not as good as 2 and definitely not as good as 1 but still good entertainment. I like the Spiderman series because it is more emotional than just comic book action. For the same reason, I loved the first X-Men, liked the second and hated the third (changed director and lost all of its soul). Same problem here (except no change of director).
Need to plan what I want to do for the next 2 1/2 weeks now as I don't start till June 4. Let the fun continue!

More drama & a nice weekend

Following on from the near-miss break-in on Tuesday, I locked myself out of the house on Friday evening. My landlady had just left for the long weekend and I went to collect my washing from the backyard when the backdoor slammed shut behind me. Crap. No shoes, no key, no phone... I climbed over the fence to get out to the front of the house and went door knocking on all the neighbours doors looking for a ladder to borrow as I had left a window open on the first floor. In the process, I almost locked a woman out of her house when she came to answer the door & almost caused a heart attack in an old guy who came to help me (he wheezed and huffed and puffed when he climbed over the fence after me to see the back door). After about 75 minutes of stress, found a guy down the road with a ladder. Got a case of the 'sewing machine legs' (as our rock climbing instructor, Simon, called them at Year 10 camp - remember him, Eppie?) near the top of the ladder before successfully breaking into the house. Not an eyelid battered in the street. Trauma over.
Took the train to Stratford-Upon-Avon on Saturday morning to visit my great-aunt Kong Suk Por's sister. Stratford is beautiful. Full of old houses and buildings. Took a hop-on hop-off bus tour around to all the Shakespearean sites. Only went into the Anne Hathaway house, which is a lot bigger than it was when she lived in it. A little bit of false advertising at many sites as to the exact historical timing, I think. The funniest things I learnt was that she was 26 (old maid!) and he was 18 when they married and that she gave birth to their first daughter 6 months after they got married! Hmmm...
Auntie Margaret and Uncle Bob took me to a pub for dinner, where I had the nicest fish and chips I have had since I arrived. Couldn't move afterwards!
On Sunday morning, I went to church with them. All this church-going - first evensong at Westminster and now mass in Stratford. Haven't been to so much religious ceremony in the last 5 years. I don't discriminate between denominations. : ) Had my first Sunday roast (roast pork with yummy crackling) and bread & butter pudding (got to try all the traditional British dishes).
After lunch, we visited Coughton Court, a 15th century and onwards house belonging to the Throckmorton family (a wealthy Catholic family). The house is famous for being central to the Gun Powder plot of 1605 (the one Guy Fawkes was involved in), when the wives of the men involved waited at the house for news of the success or failure of the plot to blow up the House of Lords. Of course, it failed and they all got executed. The house is huge! Lots of historical objects are on display here - a cope believed to be embroidered by Catherine of Aragon, a chemise worn by Mary Queen of Scots when she was executed and my favourite - the Throckmorton coat, which was made from sunrise to sunset in one day from the shearing of the sheep through spinning, dying and weaving to tailoring as a result of a bet. What wealthy people do (or have people do) in their spare time.
I have updated my album with the latest photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/frances.ip
Off to Brussels tomorrow for an assessment centre. Will have to get up at 5.30am and probably will be back home at ~10.30-11pm. Maybe I can get some Belgian chocolate. : )

Hair Raising Experience

Came across the nastier side of life today. Came home from an interview at around lunchtime and heard noises at the back of the house. Saw a shadow of a person at the bathroom window and then heard scuffling sounds at the back door. Went upstairs and peered out of one of the windows to see 2 youths leaping over the fence into next-door's backyard. There were scuff marks on the back door, the wheelie bin had been moved and there was a dint in the lid like someone had jumped on top of it to try to get up over the fence or onto the roof.
About 10 minutes later, I saw about 6 very similarly dressed youths wandering around the street and into the block of flats next door.
The police came and had a look around but just took a couple of notes and that was it. I made a terrible witness, not being able to describe them well at all. They had 'hoodies' (as the Brits call them) on and their faces were in shadow.
Have been jumping at noises & shadows all afternoon. The adrenalin surge from the incident left me very tired and I crawled into bed for an afternoon nap.

I was going to write about Australia's World Cup Cricket win before this happened. What a great knock from Gilly to guide the Aussies to victory! I have often been harsh on the team as they come across as being very arrogant (as do many of their fans) and it is good to see them go down every now and then if not just to make things more interesting but you cannot deny the warm happy feeling when they win something big like this. [What a long sentence!]
I have a great desire to comment on the pros and cons of the Duckworth Lewis system but will refrain from it and keep this nice. The farcical ending of the match highlighted one of the issues - mathematics can be used to model and calculate many things but it can't compensate for the human factor.

Head Spinning Week

What a crazy week it has been. Things have moved very quickly and I am now up to the final round on 3 jobs with another couple in the pipeline. There were phone interviews, face-to-face interviews, skills tests on the phone and an online Fluid Intelligence (read IQ) test.

The IQ test was of note. Scored very highly on speed and accuracy on 3 of the tests and very average on the other 2. The worst was the spatial test - how many of the pairs are of the same figure? I don't know. I freely admit to being a girl on this and being bad at judging shapes, distances, reading maps etc. : ) The insights they were able to glean from me doing 5 sets of tests were amazing. They said that I can process information quickly, may find it easy to hold information in my short-term memory (hey, Tee Yiap!), like my work to be challenging & fast-paced or can get bored easily & can manipulate numbers quickly. The one thing they weren't able to determine from the test was my gender. Got that wrong on the report! : P

Arrived 45 minutes early for an interview on Thursday morning, so, instead of loitering around like the suspicious character I know I appear to be from my airport experiences, I went for a wander in the rain down to the London Eye. I must say, it looks a lot better at night with the lights than on an overcast morning.

Something else to report - drum roll, please...I overtook my first couple of fellow pedestrians the other day who weren't octogenarians with walking frames! Londoners walk tremendously quickly, especially the ones with stilettos. I, in my jeans and sneakers walking at 1m/s, am swept/bumped/jostled past wherever I go. What a boost to the ego that was!

Anyway, a quiet weekend planned, perhaps a stroll along Southbank before 2 interviews next week and 2 assessment centres (one of them is in Brussels! Cool!) the week after.

Job Hunting

Ellemarie remarked the other day that I didn't seem to be doing much job hunting and was just talking about what places I had been to and seen...

So, let me begin by telling you about my outings on the weekend! : )

Finally met up with Phaik on Saturday. We went to yum cha in Bayswater with some of her Aussie friends (all ABCs except for her BF). They don't have trolleys here! You have to order from a menu. What sort of yum cha place doesn't have trolleys? The food is all right but I still think Melbourne yum cha is pretty good. Afterwards, we went back to her place and played Wii - virtual games like Play Station but you actually stand and swing. I suck. Lost a tennis game against one of the guys and then had the mercy rule inflicted on me in baseball against the system - the other side scored 5 runs to my nothing and they ended the game so as I wouldn't be subject to further humiliation.

Was to move to my new place in the afternoon on Sunday. However, my landlady didn't get back till 7.30pm so I had to wait. Spent the day at the British Museum and participated in 3 of their free tours - Ancient Greece, India & Ancient Egypt. As a relative idiot who doesn't know what she is looking at, the guided tours are a great way to get all the cool stuff pointed out to you. The overwhelming theme is that almost all art was created for religious purposes be it Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam or Christianity.

Anyway, something on the job front. Crashed a Six Sigma conference on Thursday and got a bunch of contacts there. Cool. Have received calls from several recruitment agencies interested in me and have an interview tomorrow. Only frustration at the moment is that several people have been very interested and we talk for a while until they find out I have a working holiday visa. Oh, they say. Even when I explain that I can get a Highly Skilled Migrant Programme visa once I have worked for a couple of months they still say it is a no-go as there is no guarantee I would be hanging around longer than 12 months. When is there ever a guarantee that a person will be hanging around for longer than 12 months? : (

On a lower note, my grandma is going to have palliative radiotherapy for her cancer. The tumour to too large and close to the aortic arch to operate and due to her age, they are reluctant to do more aggressive things.

To end on a brighter note, I made contact with Kong Suk Por's sister and she has invited me up to her place in Stratford-Upon-Avon for a weekend visit. We are determining a suitable weekend at the moment and then I will visit Shakespeare's hometown.

Homeless no longer

Have found a place to stay for the next few weeks in Cricklewood (NW London)! Load off the mind for the timebeing. Nice 2 bedroom house sharing with the owner. Moving on Sunday.

Went to see Les Miserables yesterday afternoon. My favourite musical. What a gorgeous Marius they had! I could never really work out why Cosette and Eponine both liked Marius as he came across as being quite wimpy in the show I watched 9 years ago. This one on the other hand was like Orlando Bloom but can sing and act... : )
I got the seat on the end in the front row. The guy at the box office suggested it and said that all I would miss out on was some of the actors' feet. Well, maybe for a tall person but for this short-arse here, everytime someone knelt down, died (quite often as almost everyone dies) or stood at the back of the stage, I couldn't see them. Sat on my jumper after the intermission but it only helped a little bit. Still loved it, though.
The couple next to me were from Scotland and in London for a holiday. This was the 5th of 8 shows they are seeing in 1 week! The tremendous stamina! She said that their record is 12 shows in a week! Ridiculous! That's about 6 hours a day everyday for a week. I can barely cope with 1 show. Work isn't that tough.

Photos at last!

Yay! Finally able to post some of my photos. Please see link...

http://picasaweb.google.com/frances.ip/

Unfortunately, due to my crappy posting skills and an attack of the 'can't be bothereds' to fix them, some of the photos are not in order so they don't make too much sense. Will endeavour to do better next time.

I must recommend the verger led tours of the Westminster Abbey to anyone who is thinking of visiting London. Expensive but soooo worth it! Go to the 2pm session & then stay for Evensong afterwards. We had a psycho guide taking us around, which made the whole thing so much more entertaining. Holy place of worship? I think not. He ran around, waving his arms, waving an English flag & pulling photos, sticks and artifacts from his cassock. He saved us some seats for Evensong so we got to sit in the front row of the Quire, next to the choir. BTW, the vergers assist the priests at the Abbey with all the odds and ends - putting out chairs in the right places, organising rehearsals for the choirs, leading the processions into and out of the church and, of course, taking tours around.

I must also give a big thank you to Steve Cousland at this point. I've been meaning to mention that his idea of getting me an Oyster Card was the best idea ever. It has been most handy and has saved me a lot of hassle.

Roast Duck & Rice Noodle Soup

Well, the last few days have been an emotional rollercoaster to say the least.

Looks like grandma has lung cancer. I am the only naughty grandchild who hasn't called her yet. Seems that grandsons are reliable and granddaughters are not.

Have visited St Paul's (went on a short talk that lasted for almost an hour! Beautiful.), Tate Modern (oh my God, I don't understand modern art! How do several lumps of bronze represent a goat and his journey?!), Covent Garden (hustle, bustle), Regent's Park (completely lost my sense of direction and missed key areas of the garden), Lord's (only looked at the outside as the tour timing wasn't right for me), Leceister Square (how many 'official' half price ticket agencies can there be?), Oxford St (lots of bookstores, which are more interesting to me than the clothing etc.) & Chinatown.

It was in Chinatown that I had my best meal of my time here - roast duck & rice noodle soup. It seems that such meals cost the same regardless of which country or currency you are in - £5 in London, A$5 in Australia, HK$5 in Hong Kong... : )

Lye Seng rang me yesterday, which was a pleasant surprise. I think the loneliness is my biggest problem. Not having the usual emotional support around me.

Submitted applications for 2 jobs this morning and am now off to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace & Westminster Abbey.

Spending Saturday with Yvette Barrett (Kevin's daughter) for lunch at Clapham Common and then a bbq at her place in the evening. Visiting with Jon Morcom (Auntie Joy's son) and his family on Sunday, probably going to Richmond Park for the afternoon. 24 degrees forecast for both days!

Still not able to load my photos. Between the internet going down at the B&B and my card reader not being acknowledged by the computer at the Quaker house (yes, I'm back there), my photos are staying resolutely in my camera for the timebeing. Bugger.

Cymru visit

Back in London after visiting Rosey and Mick for Easter. Went up to Derby on Thursday. Had some trauma with getting my tickets for the train from the self service terminal as my credit card is not rectangular. Apparently, a card with a curve cut out of it is not cool, it is not a credit card. Crap!
Anyway, at last update, we were to head up to the Lake District. Well, like Elizabeth Bennett, I made it to Derby but not the Lake District. We ended up in Northern Wales (Cymru is Welsh for Wales). We stayed in Cemaes, the northern most town in Wales on the Isle of Anglesey.
My first castle visit of this trip was to Caernarfon Castle, the one that Prince Charles was invested in as the Prince of Wales. Much more impressive on the inside than the out. Also visited the lighthouse at Holyhead, Beaumaris Castle (the most technically perfect medieval castle - this means that it's design was the best for defence with moat, outer wall, offset gates and inner walls with perfectly circular towers), the town with the longest name in Britain (it is just a huge bunch of consonants!) and the smallest house in Britain in Conwy (6 feet x 6 feet).
Met up with Lye Seng's brother today. He has been really great. I've been able to leave one of my bags at his hotel for the timebeing so I only have to lug around one heavy thing.
Will need to post some photos soon when I get my act together...

Quaker Conversion

Forgot to mention yesterday that I found this free internet place in a Quaker bookstore near where I am staying. Maybe I'll get converted. : )

Was very hot last night! I don't know what they use to heat the place but it was way too much for me.

Visited the British Library today, which is down the road. Saw the Magna Carta and some original manuscripts, prints & letters by people such as Mozart, Chopin, Handel, Newton, da Vinci, Jane Austen, Shakespeare's 'maybe real' signature, Gutenberg's bible etc. Very interesting.

Will be going to the Lake District over the Easter break now.

Hoping to visit the British museum tomorrow.

Suspicious Character

Well, the suspicious character has shown through again. I was bomb tested at San Francisco airport, the whole deal: the machine you stand in that blows air at you, x-ray, two people searching and sampling my bags inside and out. Why am I such a suspicious character in Australia and the US that I get 'randomly chosen' for testing almost every time I travel alone? One time, one guy had the audacity to say that it wasn't how I looked. Yeah, right.

Anyway, got through the test, as usual, got an empty seat next to me on the plane and have arrived in London. Have lost about 1 litre in sweat over the last few hours hauling my luggage up stairs (only some London stations have full wheelchair access). At least I have an opportunity to get fit with all the walking and dragging. : )

Hoping to catch up with Judy and Steve Spence in the next couple of days as they are here for a few days and then I'm off to visit Rosey in Derby and onto Scotland with her and Mick for Easter.

My First Post - Sojourn in California

My first posting after Warren got me to set this up! So lazy...

Tomorrow I fly to London. The big unknown...

I have spent the last 10 days in California.

My plane was delayed before we even left Melbourne. The pilot took us down the runway and then stopped and announced that they were aborting the take-off due to unusual responses on the nose controls. Some engineers drove out to have a look and after about half an hour, they decided that it was ok to fly. Very comforting. Reminds me of a flight I took in the US several years ago when they had the cover off one of the engines and a bunch of people standing around on the tarmac staring and pointing in full view of the passengers waiting at the gate. Inspires you with confidence.

Anyway, we arrived late into Auckland, then left late from Auckland and were told that they would try to make up time. Don't you love it when they say that? Well, their efforts to make up time had the reverse effect and we ended up getting into LA 20 minutes after their ETA at the start of that leg! All in all, we were an hour later than scheduled, which resulted in many unhappy people who had to reschedule connecting flights. I had lots of time in between my flights so I didn't have to worry but I still got a buzz when my luggage came out 1st and 3rd. Cool! This has only happened to me once before.

I got up to San Jose in the mid-afternoon and my brother came to pick me up. Gor took several days leave to spend time with me. : ) The first order of business on Saturday morning was to go wedding cake tasting. I slept in the car all the way and woke up just in time to get out of the car and stumble into the cake shop. We viewed different cake designs (I found one that I would like to have - not the reason we were there but who cares! : ) and then got to taste a bunch of cakes (tiny slivers of each flavour - enough for 3 of us to get an inkling of preferences but not much more).

Lunch on Sunday was a bbq at my aunt's place in Redwood City. Mmmm, bbq spare ribs and chicken drumsticks.

Went to visit Chaitanya in LA on Tuesday. He has almost finished his PhD and will be home in Melbourne in a few weeks. We did nothing - wandered around Fry's (the big electronics store), Barnes & Noble (book store) & Caltech. Ate lunch at a Thai/Italian place (yes, they decided that that would be a good combination of cuisines!) It wasn't too bad.

We also went to have a look at Kelly's wedding dress on Sunday. I have been wedding consultant extraordinaire this week, consulting on everything from wedding dress design & alteration possibilities to designing the wedding invitations and associated stationery to flower arrangements to cake and dinner tastings. The last was held at the location on Friday night. They gave us full size tastings of a selection of hors d'oeuvres, entrees, salads & mains. We were so full we could barely move. Slept all the way home. Seems to have been a theme of the week - napping.

We found out during the week that my grandma in Melbourne was hospitalised to do some tests. She had had a CT scan that found a huge mass in her lung. She had had a scan 2 years ago that was clean. There is the small possibility that it may be TB (she was in HK and China September/October last year) but more likely it is cancer. The mass is enveloping the aortic arch so surgery is probably out of the question. At the moment she is most worried that she won't be able to make Gor's wedding. : ) Good that her spirits are up.