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.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
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.
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.
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