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Bomb Threat(s)
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| Wednesday, September 13, 2006 |
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For the second day in a row now our building has been evacuated due to a bomb threat. For most people this would mean half a day off work. Not for us, though. Unfortunately we’re too busy to take any time off, so our team took some cabs to another office. PwC works on the basis of “hot desking”, which means you don’t have an assigned seat. Rather, you bring your laptop into your building each morning, sign in at a console and reserve the nearest free desk.
Due to the evacuations to different offices, we’ve received quite the grand tour of PwC London. Today was spent at the head office, a huge building by the Thames, close to the London Eye. To make sure we could all get seats together, we reserved a board room and all sat around a big table. Needless to say it was getting a bit stuffy by the end of the day.
Of course I had to bring my Microsoft ergonomic keyboard with me, only to find there was no room to use it at the crammed boardroom table. If I’d had any sense I would’ve realized that the embarrassment of taking the tube home in rush hour with a big keyboard tucked under your arm, is not worth saving yourself the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome. Five points for spotting the IT geek!! All I needed was a propeller hat to complete the picture.
After such humiliation I hope they catch whoever is making the bomb threats… although I do have my suspicions about a group of rather bored looking interns.
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Cumbria Cottage Country
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| Friday, August 25, 2006 |
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The other weekend we took a couple days off work to head up to cottage country. Well, actually it’s called the “Lake District”, but if you can imagine a mountainous version of Muskoka then you’ve got the idea. All the land in England higher than three thousand feet above sea level lies within the Park. But with a 6 hour drive it’s more like going for a weekend in Timmins than Muskoka. Funny how that drive takes us half way up the length of the country here, whereas in Ontario, man you’re just passing the first moose crossing! (Ontario is 1000 miles long).
The Lake District is renowned for its beautiful scenery, and we did get to see just how lovely England is. The weather was decidedly as English as the countryside, but thankfully it did clear up half way through. Apparently the climate in this region is the wettest and most unpredictable in all of England...
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The Seat of Learning
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| Wednesday, August 02, 2006 |
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After last weekend’s adventure to Eastbourne, we decided this Saturday to skip the trains and take a journey to the heart of England’s brain power: Oxford University. We safely arrived after ignoring all GPS suggestions to go anywhere near a route through central London. Upon arriving we did the typical tourist thing and headed straight for the “Hop-on, Hop-off” bus, which is an excellent way to see the sites and hear some commentary.
Oxford is a very beautiful campus and university town, but what will never cease to amaze me about this country is the history. The university was founded somewhere near the end of the 11th century. It is divided up into 39 colleges, and most of the ones we saw were built in the 1400’s to 1600’s. That is, like, OLD! I mean, while Europe was building castles, advancing in science and education, what on earth was going on in North America?? ...
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The Great Escape
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| Thursday, July 27, 2006 |
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Last Saturday a few of us were sitting down in our coffee morning at Bermondsey, wondering how we could escape the summer heat. It seemed the temperatures were hitting record highs on a daily basis. We had originally planned to go to Hyde Park, but while the Serpentine is a beautiful lake to boat on, it’s a bit murky for swimming. So going there on a sweltering hot day would be a little like going to the Toronto Beaches to escape the heat (lovely sand beach, but swim in Lake Ontario?? Ewww!).
In the end we decided to make a trip to Claire’s hometown of Eastbourne. The train is usually a very efficient and relaxing way to get around almost anywhere in Europe. Or, at least we thought so until Saturday ...
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And Then the Unthinkable Happened
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| Friday, July 21, 2006 |
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Some interesting things in the news this past week. Peace in the Middle East, money growing on trees, a drought in London, and someone claiming to see Elvis alive. Wot?? Did you say a *dought* in London??
Yes, a drought in the Land of Sandwiches and (winter) Drizzle. If anyone was worried we would be missing the hot, muggy Toronto summer, please spare your pity for someone else. British temperatures this week exceeded such holiday destinations as Athens, Bermuda, Rome and the Gaza Strip. Last Wednesday, at 36.6C, the hottest July day ever in England was recorded. As for rain, I dunno, maybe you’ll find it somewhere in Germany still crying over the World Cup.
The difference here, is that a scorching day like this simply means “an unbearably hot day”, whereas in Toronto it would mean “an unbearably hot day with rolling brownouts”. The reason of course, is that the only places here with air conditioning are offices, shopping malls, and somewhere at the bottom of an iced caramel macchiatto...
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Remembering 7/7
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| Friday, July 07, 2006 |
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One year ago today, 4 suicide bombers killed 52 people in the London Underground system and on a double-decker bus. At noon today, the city observed two minutes of silence. Even the people and traffic outside stopped to think and show respect to the victims.
July 7, 2005 is a day that will forever be etched into my memory. Mel and I were quite excited in the days leading up to it. We hadn’t told anyone except for family, but it looked pretty certain that we were going to be moving to London later that year.
Even before we moved, we were beginning to feel like we were part of the city. We’d been reading up on areas to live in, I was getting Mel’s settlement visa and my British passport organized. It was neat to think we were going to move to the land where my family came from.
When we woke to the news that morning, it wasn’t to the familiar voice of Andy Barry on CBC. It was to the sound of sirens, and the announcement of terrorist bombs going off in London just hours earlier. My heart started pounding and my eyes were wide open. I felt such a mix of emotions. Like when you first heard about the 9/11 attacks, or the Challenger disaster way back when, it’s a moment I’ll never forget.
This city has withstood scores of IRA bombs and German air raids, something we know nothing of in Canada. Its people don’t give up easily, but there are many suffering the wounds even a year later.
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To Scotland. Och!
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| Thursday, July 06, 2006 |
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This past weekend we took a train up to Scotland to attend Byrne and Lois’s wedding. Glad to report that the hitching ceremony went off without a glitch! The train journey from King’s Cross to Inverness took 8-9 hours, and the flight back 1.5 hours. The train was very relaxing, and we enjoyed some lovely scenery along the way.
At one point during the reception, the lights dimmed and the main door opened to a shadowy figure obscured by dry ice and silhouetted by flood lights. Who was this strange figure? Could it be a horse-riding mounty? Bryne’s local Tim Horton’s employee in all his grandeur?? ...
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Football Hooligans
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| Thursday, June 22, 2006 |
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Well two things are certain: summer has arrived… and so has the World Cup! Believe it or not, in Mel’s plant they have setup tele’s at various locations so that workers can watch when a game is on. Otherwise, the company will be faced with huge productivity losses due to people calling in sick. Even in my office there is a cordoned off area for watching the match.
The BBC has also setup giant screens at various locations across London to televise the games. There is one at Canary Wharf just a few minutes from our flat. Early on the morning of the first game (England vs. Paraguay) people were already saving seats on the grass, and 6,000 had turned out to watch by the time the game started. If we were around we too would have braved the sun and heat to get a little taste of football fever. Instead we attended the Family Missions Day conference in south London. For more than one reason it turns out it was a good thing we did...
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Cheats and Thieves at the Vatican
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| Saturday, June 17, 2006 |
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Mark is flat on his back recovering from an operation to fix a slipped disc (ouch!). In his new found spare time he put together this clip of a funny video we took when we were in Rome. Read on for some background info.
While in Rome we visited Vatican City to see St. Peter’s Basilica. It was most amusing how people tried to butt into the entrance line for the Basilica. The line up was about an hour long, and only the last bit was barricaded. We witnessed a few different tactics, so get out your pen and paper as this may be of interest ...
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To the Land of My Forefathers
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| Tuesday, June 06, 2006 |
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This weekend we made a long overdue trip up to Yorkshire to visit my aunt and uncle, cousins, and other extended family and friends. My aunt and uncle live in a 200 year old farm house in the countryside of the Yorkshire Dales. It is a very beautiful part of the country – an area of rolling hills, stone walled pastures, and plenty of cows and sheep. I have many happy childhood memories of the farmhouse, where my grandma would bake us pies and big roast beef dinners with yummy Yorkshire puddings.
It was a lovely sunny day, so Mel and I took a drive to Brimham Rocks, a national park with fascinating rock formations carved by glaciers. My brother and I used to run and climb all over the rocks, while my grandma of course would stay petrified down below. I didn’t need to relive the not-so-happy childhood memory of getting stung by nettles though: Mel relived it for me. But as they say, you really haven’t had the full English experience until you’ve had a good frolic in a patch of nettles! ...
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