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When you think "British", you think...
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| Sunday, February 19, 2006 |
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No, bad weather does not count, and wouldn't (quite) be true anyway. BBC and the Design Museum are asking the public to choose their favourite example of British design since 1900. So what do you think of when you think of "British design"? Red telephone booths, Doc Martens, the Mini, the Underground, or maybe the Concorde? How about the Word Wide Web? Or... Tomb Raider?? We put our vote in for the double decker Routemaster bus. London without double decker buses would be like a Canadian city without Tim Horton's (on every corner).
Speaking of Timmy's, is there a better example of Canadiana? The CN Tower? The hockey rink? Poutine? What's your vote??
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T'ain't Modern
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| Saturday, February 11, 2006 |
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We decided a while ago to make sure we visited at least one site in London each week. On today's itinerary was the Tate Modern gallery of modern art. The location is pretty cool. It's housed in a huge converted power generating station on the bank of the Thames, just across from St. Paul's cathedral.
Well, we have never been much into artsy things. The idea of appreciating art is neat I suppose, but this was a gallery of "modern art", and I think the contemplations required were a little too deep for me at least! Take the exhibit labelled, "Self Portrait of a Business Man". This was an actual guy's suit, wallet, cell phone, briefcase and other office items basically dumped onto the floor in a pile. The viewer was told to consider the exhibit and think about where the individual was now. Well I think he was the guy snickering in the corner watching everyone trying to contemplate his pile of dirty laundry! The exhibits ranged from the usual weird paint stuff...
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Point A to Point B
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| Wednesday, February 01, 2006 |
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Upon arriving here last October, Mel found her "commute" was actually a 1.5 hour (each way) tube-rail-bus-walk marathon. So it turned out that a car was necessary after all. Well we now officially do have "wheels". The aforementioned test drive turned into a purchase, and today I picked 'er up! We're now the owners of a 2002 Hyundai Coupe. But no, you didn't pronounce it right. It's "coupe" pronounced with a French accent aigu on the end. So for francaphones it's properly said, "Coupé", or for anglophones, "Coupe, eh?" Well actually in Canada it's called a Tiburon, and I have no idea what that translates to.
After comparing it to similarly priced cars, picking it *out* was relatively easy compared to picking it *up*...
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Stay off the roads!!
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| Tuesday, January 17, 2006 |
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Or maybe the sidewalks. Or at least start driving on the wrong side of the road. That's right, I test drove a car today! This day was looked forward to with much dread (and I'm not just talking about my fellow Londoners -- I was pretty nervous as well).
The sales guy picked me up at the tube station (an hour northbound from our flat), shook my hand and met me with a smile. But that smile soon faded. "I've just recently come over from Canada, and this is my first time driving on the left side of the road," I announced. "Well that scares me," sales guy replies. "You had to pick me didn't you?" My nightmares didn't come true though...
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Drop them snowballs and come out with yer hands up!
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| Saturday, January 07, 2006 |
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Apparently while we were away, the Northern UK and even Kent (southeast of London) were blanketed in a few centimetres of the white stuff! The temperature was to drop to -8°C in some parts of England, as the UK braced itself for more freezing weather and snow. Travellers were advised to re-route or postpone their journeys, but as it turns out, slippery roads were to be the least of their worries.
In 24 hours, more than 100 calls about snowball incidents were reported to police in south east Kent. Police reminded the public, that people throwing snowballs could be prosecuted for assualt in cases where they are used to attack people causing injury...
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Home again, home again, jiggity jig
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| Sunday, January 01, 2006 |
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Back "home" safe and sound. Survived a true red-eye, surrounded by people from a corner of the globe where they understand neither queues nor carry-on baggage requirements. Chaos reigned supreme, and didn’t sleep a wink. Thankfully the transit strike back in London didn’t seem to affect anything, and just a few stations were closed. We had a nap and went out to catch some fireworks. Happy New Year!!
This evening we went to a sing at some friends of friends and were made very welcome. Jason and Elizabeth gave us a ride home, which was rather interesting because we really don’t have any idea where we live! It made for a nice site-seeing tour of London. Thank you to our two very generous taxi drivers!
A safe and happy new year to all.
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plus européen (and have a Happy Christmas)
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| Monday, December 19, 2005 |
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Well here we are back in The Great White North. It felt like planes, trains and automobiles, after a 1.5 hour Tube ride to Heathrow, a 2 hour flight to Milan, a 2 hour stopover, a 9 hour flight to Toronto, then a cab ride to my mom’s. At least there was snow to greet us at the airport.
HG said it was nice to see that we hadn’t changed, but that eventually we’d start looking more “European”. I was wondering exactly what constitutes looking “more European”. At all the sun spots we’ve visited we’ve always been surrounded by a number of Germans, French and Italians, and the two things we’ve noticed to be in common are cigarettes and Speedos. Well if that's what it takes I suppose I'll have to remain proudly Canadian! ...
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All Canadians Can Skate, Right?
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| Friday, December 09, 2005 |
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I went skating at lunch time today. There is an outdoor rink that opened near our flat, and I could no longer resist. The concept of paying £10 for an hour of skating is quite foreign, but in a land where it never dips below freezing they do have to work a little magic to get things working.
The good thing about skating here, is that even if you're a terrible skater who is on their rear half the time and can only stop by slamming into the boards, you will still look like the next Wayne Gretzky. So, since I am a half decent skater by Canadian standards, quite a crowd gathered as I sped around the rink. I was going round and round, eyeing the pools of water and feeling the ice soften with every lap. And finally the inevitable happened: kadoosh! Flat on my back. A huge applause and cheer errupted from the onlookers...
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Christmas Lights
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| Saturday, December 03, 2005 |
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This evening Mel and I went on a Christmas lights walking tour with our friends from Bermondsey. Wow! I must say I have never seen Christmas lights like this before. It really was quite amazing. London is very beautiful at this time of year. We were just following the crowds, but I think we went along Regent St., Oxford St., and definitely to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus.
At Trafalgar Square they have an enormous pine tree decorated in Christmas lights. Apparently it has become custom for Norway to send a huge Christmas tree as a token of gratitude for Britain's help during the Second World War. Anyway, it was big! Check out our photos here.
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Fake Snow
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| Saturday, November 26, 2005 |
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G'day everyone,
Hope you are enjoying your first snow fall of the year. You may have heard that London doesn't get any snow, but today I found out that this is actually not the case. I was walking to the gym this afternoon when an amazing sight met my eyes in front of the mall. The street was covered in snow! Jumping cornish pasties!
All the pedestrians had smiles on their faces at this unusual winter scene, but I was not to be fooled. I'm Canadian! There were a few things I immediately picked up on that that the average bloke would surely have missed:
1) It was sunny and 5 degrees outside.
2) There was only one part of the street that had snow on it.
3) There were two men spreading the snow from bags out of the back of a truck.
I picked up a handful and it wasn't even cold to the touch...
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