It's getting hard thinking of new titles...
I have been exploring London and getting into the routine of work. In the mornings I catch the Tube to work from Hammersmith on the Hammersmith and City line. As Hammersmith is the last stop before the train turns around and heads back to the city I always manage to get a seat on the train.
Sometimes I walk to Hammersmith Tube station which takes a bit over 10 mins but this is rare because I am lazy :). Most mornings I will catch the bus from the stop that is 1 min from where I am. Especially now that it has got so cold!! The cold is bearable if you have some covering but I have been going a few weeks bare without gloves and only recently got a pair this week! The cold seems to penetrate into your hands and it does start to get numb after a short while. Now that I am all covered it is sooo much better, however, still no walking to the Tube station if I can help it.
I need to get a coat now. I got one last week but had to return it because the buttons were coming off! Bad quality; I only had it for a day! I had to return it but Thanh told me later that if I want I can take stuff to her to get sewed which is quite handy indeed whether it’s for shirts or coats… She doesn’t know what she’s getting into with that offer! If I don’t have to learn how to sew then I won’t hehe
The Tube ride takes about 35 mins if it’s running efficiently to Farringdon. Door to door the whole trip probably takes me 50 mins. There is a free newspaper called Metro that I pick up and read on the way to work. It’s a bit better than MX back in Melbourne, not as trashy but lightweight nevertheless and full of negativity. I sent away for a free copy of Pride and Prejudice and will read that once it arrives. I have been reading my housemates collection of Reader’s Digest books – Dances with Wolves and The Glass Cockpit. However they appear to be abridged versions as it’s pretty short and doesn’t seem to really finish. I haven’t seen the original novels in their original length but I’m pretty sure its shortened.
The work building is somewhat modern and has nice proper furnishings inside as you would expect. New, open plan design, comfortable ergonomic chairs, feature walls, company slogans and plenty of meeting rooms! (We had this one monthly meeting where, seriously, it was a full on hot dinner with alcohol! This does happen back home but not while the meeting is in full swing with status reports and powerpoint presentations! Strange but nice.) There is a free coffee machine that is PwC branded and quite snazzy! It’s about the size of a snack vending machine and you just punch in numbers for your order and it’s instantly delivered with a timer that tells you it will be ready in 9..8...7..6..5..etc seconds! Its times like these that I wish I drank coffee! But the good news is that it also does two versions of hot chocolate so I have been drinking that once or twice a day! It’s great working for a company that has money to spend!! I’d almost forgotten what it was like!! To have pristine toilets and people to call when you run out of toilet paper or the photocopier jams! No waiting for printer cartridges to arrive but getting it delivered immediately!
My first day at work I was mightily impressed as everything was ready to go: the laptop was imaged and waiting for me in IT, my passwords to all the systems were granted, I had an email from telecoms in my inbox telling me what I needed to do if I wanted a new phone extension, we needed a keyboard for the laptop and just had to sign for a brand new one!! The only minor hiccup was the key to my drawers as it had been lost but that was delivered by Assets the next day! It was the most efficient and most organised entry procedure I have ever seen in an organisation! Most well run companies will try and do all of the above but this was the best that I had actually experienced!
It was great getting a laptop and not a desktop as I can take it home with me to do personal tasks and administration. Also, I was planning to buy a laptop as it is potentially required, being a contractor and all, but now that I’ve been given one I don’t need to. I’m planning on buying a laptop here anyway and taking it back to Aust but I wanted to do it as near to my departure as possible in order to get the latest and fastest laptop and not wear the effects of technological obsolescence.
Work is quite near a lot of prominent attractions and I will have to bring a camera into work one day. My colleague and another Aussie usually go out to lunch together and the walk around if it’s not raining. Nearby there is St Paul's Cathedral, the Thames, London Bridge, Tate Modern, Monument (to the great London fire), Holborn market, Spittlefields Market, Old Bailey and other places I can’t remember.
This last weekend I went back to Manchester for Gregg’s 30th birthday. I couldn’t find any cheap train tickets so I decided to catch ‘Megabus’ there. It only cost £5 to get there and £7 coming back to London – very cheap! It took about 4 hrs to get to Manchester which isn’t bad as my friends who took the train said it took them 3 hrs (the fastest I’ve done it on the train is 2 hrs 20 mins) and I don’t think a car would have been much faster. So I was quite happy with that bargain. It wasn’t too feral either, a prospect I hadn’t considered until I got on the bus as cheap prices tends to attract the ‘unruly’ element. (Or the new slang word that I have learnt here: "Chavs".)
On the way back into London though it was a nightmare! They closed the M1 so we had to go on the M40 and there was about 15 miles of stop-start congested traffic (the bus driver told us this)! So we got in about 1.5 hrs late and it was 6.5 hrs on the bus with a short 10 min rest stop in between!!! And that wasn’t the end of it! When I got back to Victoria in London, there were major delays on the Picadilly and Victoria tube lines and the District and Circle lines were suspended due to maintenance! Took me ages to get home, didn’t get back until 10:45pm.
Lesson learnt: do not catch motor transportation back into London on a Sunday night.
Still it was a good birthday party and I had fun. It was basically dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and going out afterwards to a bar that Gregg had hired out. Met some new people and caught up with Kristi and Pete from Australia who I hadn’t seen since they arrived.
I bought some salami and black pudding salami as well from the Manchester Christmas market the next day. Can’t wait to try it! Normal black pudding is a Scottish thing and made from congealed blood essentially! It’s meant to taste good, have to try it at least once… Not sure about the salami version but it would be similar.
This weekend Denise and I are catching Eurostar to Brussells and Bruges. I’m catching up with Simone in Cambridge in Dec. Planning on going to New York in February, have got time off for that already just need to book some cheap flights. Also trying to get Geoff to start organising a week of snowboarding in France for Feb soon so we can get good prices.
My two week Christmas trip to visit Andy in Germany and my uncles in Bordeaux, France is practically all booked.
I think I’m basically spending all my money on tripping around…
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=za0rna8.154a5iz0&x=0&y=870avn
(Click on 'View Photos without signing in')
The photos are of Camden, All Souls church, Remembrance Day Sunday and basically new shots of London.
God bless.
Sometimes I walk to Hammersmith Tube station which takes a bit over 10 mins but this is rare because I am lazy :). Most mornings I will catch the bus from the stop that is 1 min from where I am. Especially now that it has got so cold!! The cold is bearable if you have some covering but I have been going a few weeks bare without gloves and only recently got a pair this week! The cold seems to penetrate into your hands and it does start to get numb after a short while. Now that I am all covered it is sooo much better, however, still no walking to the Tube station if I can help it.
I need to get a coat now. I got one last week but had to return it because the buttons were coming off! Bad quality; I only had it for a day! I had to return it but Thanh told me later that if I want I can take stuff to her to get sewed which is quite handy indeed whether it’s for shirts or coats… She doesn’t know what she’s getting into with that offer! If I don’t have to learn how to sew then I won’t hehe
The Tube ride takes about 35 mins if it’s running efficiently to Farringdon. Door to door the whole trip probably takes me 50 mins. There is a free newspaper called Metro that I pick up and read on the way to work. It’s a bit better than MX back in Melbourne, not as trashy but lightweight nevertheless and full of negativity. I sent away for a free copy of Pride and Prejudice and will read that once it arrives. I have been reading my housemates collection of Reader’s Digest books – Dances with Wolves and The Glass Cockpit. However they appear to be abridged versions as it’s pretty short and doesn’t seem to really finish. I haven’t seen the original novels in their original length but I’m pretty sure its shortened.
The work building is somewhat modern and has nice proper furnishings inside as you would expect. New, open plan design, comfortable ergonomic chairs, feature walls, company slogans and plenty of meeting rooms! (We had this one monthly meeting where, seriously, it was a full on hot dinner with alcohol! This does happen back home but not while the meeting is in full swing with status reports and powerpoint presentations! Strange but nice.) There is a free coffee machine that is PwC branded and quite snazzy! It’s about the size of a snack vending machine and you just punch in numbers for your order and it’s instantly delivered with a timer that tells you it will be ready in 9..8...7..6..5..etc seconds! Its times like these that I wish I drank coffee! But the good news is that it also does two versions of hot chocolate so I have been drinking that once or twice a day! It’s great working for a company that has money to spend!! I’d almost forgotten what it was like!! To have pristine toilets and people to call when you run out of toilet paper or the photocopier jams! No waiting for printer cartridges to arrive but getting it delivered immediately!
My first day at work I was mightily impressed as everything was ready to go: the laptop was imaged and waiting for me in IT, my passwords to all the systems were granted, I had an email from telecoms in my inbox telling me what I needed to do if I wanted a new phone extension, we needed a keyboard for the laptop and just had to sign for a brand new one!! The only minor hiccup was the key to my drawers as it had been lost but that was delivered by Assets the next day! It was the most efficient and most organised entry procedure I have ever seen in an organisation! Most well run companies will try and do all of the above but this was the best that I had actually experienced!
It was great getting a laptop and not a desktop as I can take it home with me to do personal tasks and administration. Also, I was planning to buy a laptop as it is potentially required, being a contractor and all, but now that I’ve been given one I don’t need to. I’m planning on buying a laptop here anyway and taking it back to Aust but I wanted to do it as near to my departure as possible in order to get the latest and fastest laptop and not wear the effects of technological obsolescence.
Work is quite near a lot of prominent attractions and I will have to bring a camera into work one day. My colleague and another Aussie usually go out to lunch together and the walk around if it’s not raining. Nearby there is St Paul's Cathedral, the Thames, London Bridge, Tate Modern, Monument (to the great London fire), Holborn market, Spittlefields Market, Old Bailey and other places I can’t remember.
This last weekend I went back to Manchester for Gregg’s 30th birthday. I couldn’t find any cheap train tickets so I decided to catch ‘Megabus’ there. It only cost £5 to get there and £7 coming back to London – very cheap! It took about 4 hrs to get to Manchester which isn’t bad as my friends who took the train said it took them 3 hrs (the fastest I’ve done it on the train is 2 hrs 20 mins) and I don’t think a car would have been much faster. So I was quite happy with that bargain. It wasn’t too feral either, a prospect I hadn’t considered until I got on the bus as cheap prices tends to attract the ‘unruly’ element. (Or the new slang word that I have learnt here: "Chavs".)
On the way back into London though it was a nightmare! They closed the M1 so we had to go on the M40 and there was about 15 miles of stop-start congested traffic (the bus driver told us this)! So we got in about 1.5 hrs late and it was 6.5 hrs on the bus with a short 10 min rest stop in between!!! And that wasn’t the end of it! When I got back to Victoria in London, there were major delays on the Picadilly and Victoria tube lines and the District and Circle lines were suspended due to maintenance! Took me ages to get home, didn’t get back until 10:45pm.
Lesson learnt: do not catch motor transportation back into London on a Sunday night.
Still it was a good birthday party and I had fun. It was basically dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and going out afterwards to a bar that Gregg had hired out. Met some new people and caught up with Kristi and Pete from Australia who I hadn’t seen since they arrived.
I bought some salami and black pudding salami as well from the Manchester Christmas market the next day. Can’t wait to try it! Normal black pudding is a Scottish thing and made from congealed blood essentially! It’s meant to taste good, have to try it at least once… Not sure about the salami version but it would be similar.
This weekend Denise and I are catching Eurostar to Brussells and Bruges. I’m catching up with Simone in Cambridge in Dec. Planning on going to New York in February, have got time off for that already just need to book some cheap flights. Also trying to get Geoff to start organising a week of snowboarding in France for Feb soon so we can get good prices.
My two week Christmas trip to visit Andy in Germany and my uncles in Bordeaux, France is practically all booked.
I think I’m basically spending all my money on tripping around…
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=za0rna8.154a5iz0&x=0&y=870avn
(Click on 'View Photos without signing in')
The photos are of Camden, All Souls church, Remembrance Day Sunday and basically new shots of London.
God bless.
posted by boarderbob at
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