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Rufus Wainwright

Went to see Rufus Wainwright tonight. It was awesome, though, to be honest, not as awesome as I had hoped. I did have VERY high expectations though. I think that it was probably more to do with the venue than the performance itself though. Rufus's music is something that you need to be immersed in (god, that sounds wanky) and there wasnt much of an audience vibe. IMHO. That said it was still great. There was a bizarre moment when two people came out on stage, one with a santa suit and the other with a santa hat. Turned out to be Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. WTF? They talked a bit, hung out on stage for a bit, pushed the backing vocal girls out of the road, sang for a bit with Rufus and then headed off. Quite surreal. All in all a damn fine night. Thanks Rufus (and P for getting the tickets)

Office Towers

Between the Tower and the Egg

Decided to walk back to London Bridge tube station along the south bank of the Thames, rather than play bus roulette direct to Waterloo. That said, I had forgotten how packed the tube gets, so might be back to the bus tomorrow. Anyway, I did get todays pic from the change of route, so not all bad!

'Tis The Season To Be Jolly

At least it is according to all the department store windows which kindly furnished todays pic. The photo actually turned out better than I had expected, considering it was a quick snap. You get some strange looks taking photos of department store windows ...

Hampton Court Palace

Headed down to Hampton Court Palace today, 1/2 an hour train ride from home. It is quite amazing to think that some of the doors you pass through were passed through by King Henry VIII over 450 years ago. As for the todays photo, well it is a photo of something else that belongs to the crown. Strange but true. Some other photos here.

Last Minute

One shouldn't leave the photo of the day until the last minute, otherwise they end up with photos like this. It actually could've been quite interesting with a tripod, but alas there wasn't one to hand.

Eye Spy

Quick on the heels of my bus whinge yesterday, I got to the bus stop to find a 16min delay until the next bus. Started walking up to London Bridge tube station when the RV1 bus crossed my path. I knew that it went to Waterloo so I chased it until it stopped and jumped on. Not quite as fast as the usual, but it did drop me off right near where I got todays shot. So not all bad!

Waiting For The Bus ....

There is something about the bus stop by my work. There will be no buses for 10 minutes, then 3 will arrive within 2 minutes of each other. Oh well. That's buses for ya. Got my wireless router working at home. Those pesky homechoice folk wanted 85 quid to set up a wireless network (including hardware), so I decided to buy a router myself and pocket the 35 quid change. Seems to be working fine. Sweet. I must admit, if you don't know what you're doing, 35 quid would save you dealing with all those crazy acronyms; WPA,DHCP,SSID - yikes.

Broadband Connected

Got my broadband connected this morning. Sweet. Looks like it might snow Friday or Saturday. How exciting! Anyway, off to work now.

Partner In Crime

Left my camera at home today, so I was a little limited in scope. Decided I should introduce you to my partner in crime, my little Sony DSC P100. Most of the photos last week got taken with it, mainly because it is actually pocketable! (A little too pocketable perhaps. "Take anywhere" isn't so handy when "anywhere" ends up being very drunk on Cottesloe beach. I have the repair bill to prove it. Its all good now though ...)

Barges. Thames. Bridge. Gherkin.

Here is a picture of some barges on the Thames with the Tower Bridge and Gherkin in the background. A little bog standard but not overly inspired today. It was a Monday. 'Nuff said.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Today we walked, via the Albert Bridge and Chelsea, to the Natural History Museum to meet E and check out the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. Some very impressive shots. Interestingly, a lot were taken with digital SLRs.
For some reason my shot today has some wierd dark patches in the sky. If it was my SLR then I would expect dust on the CCD, but it was with my compact so not sure what it is (apart from annoying ...). I think I have noticed it before in large areas of sky. Will have to do a few test shots.

Brrrr

Just to prove a point, frost on the roof outside the bathroom window. Right, I swear I will shut up about the cold now.

Greenwich

Today A and I caught a boat from Waterloo Pier, just by the London Eye, down to Greenwich, through which the Prime Meridian passes. The weather was stunning, if a little bracing (yes, I will stop moaning about the cold soon!). Trip down the river took about an hour. Great to see the sights of London from the Thames. Once in Greenwich we headed up to the Greenwich Observatory, site of the Prime Meridian where you can stand with one foot in the Eastern hemisphere and the other in the Western. If you can fight passed the other tourists that is. After that we headed down to check out the local markets, buying a few second hand books to stock the bookshelves in the new house. Rounded out the after noon with a pint in a local. Caught the boat back up river a bit after five. Awesome nighttime views as the boat headed back up the river. A great day. Maybe off to Brighton tomorrow, depending on how keen we are in the morning!

Counting the Street

Mysterious numbers on the footpath outside Waterloo station. I am sure it is something completely dull like tiles to replace, but hey, it looks cool.

I am taking a bit of liberty with this post and back dating it to yesterday. Bending the rules already.

Richard II

Just got back from seeing Richard II at the Old Vic theatre. A picked up the tickets on ebay this morning, so it was a bit of a last minute decision. Paid less than cost which is pretty good for a sold out show!
To be honest, I don't think I have actually been to the theatre since I left school (shame on me), so my opinion probably can't be taken too seriously, but I thought it was amazing. The acting was great. The lighting was spectacular. And the minimalist modern setting was very cool. I am just glad we read a one page crib sheet off the internet before we went to get clued up on the plot. That pesky Shakespeare can be a bit hard to follow at times. Especially after a day at work!

It is starting to get very cold in the mornings. Frost on the windscreens. Time to dig the gloves and scarf out. Was one degree walking home tonight. Brrrr.

On The Way To Work

It is quite strange, catching the overland rail to Waterloo station each morning, seeing Big Ben and the London Eye peeking between the buildings on the south bank of the Thames. Iconic structures in rather mundane settings always seem a little other worldly.

Outside

View down the street outside the new house. I think this one a day photo thing could be a little difficult ...


... we shall see.

In An Attempt To Make Things Interesting

From now on I am going to try and post a photo day, taken that day. Starting tomorrow. Hmmmm. Not a good start huh ....

Skype

After surfing around the net for about 1/2 hour Sunday morning looking to buy an international phone card online (yes, it would've been quicker to walk to the corner store) I decided to check out skype. For those who don't know, Skype is software that lets you make phone calls over the internet, free from one computer to another. Yes, I know that I am years behind the times, but hey. It is actually pretty damn cool, even on dialup there was only a slight lag every now and then. And the really cool thing is you can ring a normal landline phone in Oz for less than 3c a minute. Hmmm. Perhaps I shouldn't have told you that. Please stop staring at the phone mum and dad ....

Damned To Dial

Finally got the existing broadband kicked off our phoneline so we could go with homechoice. Now have to wait another week and a half before they can install it. Aaaargh. In the meantime its dialup. Using dialup again has made me realise that this blog is actually probably quite painful for people with slow connections. Sorry.

Fireworks Photos. Enough Already.

Last Saturday was Guy Fawkes night, so I headed off to Battersea Park to watch the fireworks with a couple of friends. Now, I have this thing with taking photos of fireworks. I nearly always do it, and they are nearly always crap. So why bother? Have you ever seen a fireworks photo and thought "wow, that is really cool. That would look great blown up and framed." No, me neither. Yet still I do it. A couple of years ago I even went to the effort of dragging a tripod along to the Australia Day fireworks in Kings Park. Still crap. This year I settled with just my little digicam. Once again they were, well, in a word, crap. But anywhy, why have a blog if you can't share the pain of a failed photo every now and then. Sorry, but here they are .... the best of the worst.

Text Only Please

After moving house I am back on dialup internet, so no mass photo uploading for me in the near future. (don't look so relieved.) Am looking at getting 8Mb broadband via homechoice, which also gets us video on demand and about 55 channels of tv. Homechoice delivers television over ADSL which is kinda cool and it isnt much more expensive than broadband alone. I am sure 80% of the channels are crap, but hey. Downside is that it is going to take 2 weeks to get put on.
Went to Guy Fawkes Night ( = fireworks) in Battersea Park Saturday night. Wasn't bad. Not quite up to the King's Park fireworks standard but impressive nonetheless. There have been fireworks going off all week as you can buy them just about everywhere this time of year.
Anyway, off to bed. Have got Tuesday off to do some more moving. Have only moved the bare essentials at this stage. The new house is great. And hopefully my first commute from here should be a fair bit shorter. Cross fingers. The other commute was starting to wear a bit thing as the mornings got colder and the evenings got darker.

House Update

Well we got the house. Got the keys Monday evening. (Yes, have been a bit slack with the blog.) Have moved a little bit of stuff in but havent slept there yet. A is working nights so I would be there on my own. Wasnt keen to stay there alone on the first night which was Halloween. Trick or treat ! Will probably move in some time in the next couple of nights. After 6 months on the road I have a permanent (well for a year at least) residence again. Strange feeling. Be great once we get settled into the place though.

Six Feet Under Six Feet Under

Can't believe I am just about to watch the last ever episode of 6FU. There goes another television staple.

Happy Halloween

Okay, a day or two late, but hey ....





A couple more here.

Yaha Praha

At last, the Prague photos are up. It's funny, at the time I wasn't that swept away by Prague. I think i was suffering from a severe case of Old Town overdose. However, looking back now at the photos, it was probably one of the highlights of the trip. Well, it is where i took the most photos anyway. All 94 of them. Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home (Maybe)

After spending a few weekends looking at flats north of the river (Islington, Sheperds Bush etc) and realising that we were going to be spending $$$ for a tiny flat, we decided to check out south of the river. The places south of the river were a lot more affordable (although affordable rent in London is a bit of an oxymoron) and a lot bigger for the money.

Last weekend we got dropped off in Chelsea and walked down through Battersea Park, down to Clapham and Lavender Hill. Seemed like a pretty decent area. Last Thursday night we met a couple of Real Estate agents and they showed us around a few places. One of which was actually a house (!) rather than a flat - complete with a little garden. We put in an application (at a rather cheeky discount) on the place on Friday. Later that day the real estate agent got back to us to say our offer had been rejected as the landlord wanted more money. We were at our limit and decided to stick to it. However we did say that if our first offer was accepted we could move in pretty much immediately. Fortunately for us, the agent rang back later Friday and said that the landlord would accept our offer this time. Sweet!
Friday evening we headed down to the real estate agent and signed the rental agreement. Now it is all down to references. If all goes well the keys are ours on Monday.
Google Maps is once again our friend. The place is on Afghan Road near Clapham Junction. i.e. here. The area isn't exactly Mayfair, but it's not too bad. About 5 mins walk to Clapham Junction train station which has British rail trains every 5 minutes or so to Victoria and Waterloo stations. My commute should be down to about 30-40 minutes. Can get into the centre of town in about 20 minutes. Can't wait to move in.

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More Of The Same

Autumn Nights

Where Does Time Go ?

You arrive in London, late July. It is warm and sunny and you start looking for work. Eventually you get a job. Not far from the Thames as it happens. Cool. Quite close to Tower Bridge even. Each evening you pass Tower Bridge as you head for the tube station (London Bridge) on the way home. . Before you know it, the leaves are turning yellow and falling off the trees . It is starting to get cold in the mornings. Nearly three months has passed. Time flies huh ?

It is just over 6 months since I left my job in Australia. Scary thought. Am slowly settling in to life and work over here. Both of which are very different to Perth. I have nearly been at work a month already. (Thank God because I joined two days before the last pay day, which means I have had to wait a whole month to get paid. Ouch).
Anyway, just a quick entry to let you know I am alive. Hope all is well with you all. Email me and fill me in how you are all doing.

Naples

Just after I found out I had got one of the jobs I applied for, my recruiter rang me back and informed me that the company I was joining was having a company weekend away at Naples the week after I joined. A brief summary .... Photos here
Getting up way too early Friday morning I took a minicab to Liverpool St station, Stansted Express to Stansted and then the 0725 EasyJet flight to Naples, arriving Naples just after 11. The fun started with getting a taxi to the hotel. Bargaining was required and a price of 20 Euro was settled on (Fares over the weekend to/from the airport of other members of our group ranged from 18 Euros to 40). Driving in Naples is really something you have to experience to truly appreciate the level of chaos involved. Random lane changes, shortcuts, congestion, incessant honking. If evolution applied to cars in Naples, their indicators would have disappeared long ago.
The hotel was pretty sweet, but unfortunately we were too early to check into our rooms so we dumped our bags in the luggage room and made plans.
The others on my flight wanted to go to Capri, but I was keen to go to Pompeii, so we headed our separate ways. The streets of Naples seem to be laid out especially to confuse. After a couple of attempts at shortcuts through the backstreets I gave up and headed to the main street (Corso Umberto) and followed it up to the train station. Bought my train ticket (about 2 Euro) to Pompeii Scavi on the Sorrento Line and headed for the platform. Fortunately didnt have long to wait for the next train. The train ride to Pompeii isn't exactly what I would call scenic, but there are some nice views over the bay. Train journey took about 40 mins from downtown Naples.
Getting off the train at Pompeii, it started raining. I think Mother Nature had probably struck a deal with the poncho/umbrella touts. As the rain began they seemed to appear from nowhere, selling whatever rain protection they had on offer. I was safe in the knowledge that I had been clever enough to bring my umbrella. After a minute of searching for it, I realised I wasnt quite so clever after all, it was back at the hotel. 4 Euros later I was armed with a new umbrella, bringing my total number of umbrella purchases for the year to three (Beijing, St Petersburg and Naples!). Bet you're glad you waste time reading this.
Ticket to get in was about 10 Euro. Had foregone the free maps on offer, on the left as you walk up to the ticket office, as I had a Naples guidebook with one in. Unfortunately, this meant I also missed out on the rather substantial info guide, with information on each numbered location, that they were also handing out. Too bad I only noticed this on the way back out.
Pompeii was amazing. I wasn't expecting it to be so large. The rain was a bit of a dampener (I crack myself up) but it probably did mean it was less crowded that it could have been. Spent about three hours there wandering about at random. Was kind of cool not to have a decent map, exploring at random instead. It is quite strange wandering around the ruined town, looking up at Vesuvius in the distance, thinking, "This will probably happen again some day .....".
Caught the train back to Central Naples and walked back to hotel (which went quite well until I left the main road and got completely lost after about 2 turns !). In the early evening we all met up in the Hotel Lobby, had a few drinks and headed out for dinner (Pizza of course!). The rest of the night involved, well, drinking. Lots and lots of drinking.
Saturday we had a meeting at two. There were a few sorry looking people. What did I do Saturday morning, you ask. Ummm. I slept. It had been a late one. Saturday evening was Company dinner and then, hmmm, more drinking. Fade out.
Fade in Sunday morning 9am. Waking up. Hungover. Again. Packed and headed down to the hotel lobby. Checked out and caught a taxi to the airport with some other folks from work. Arrived at the airport to find out plane delayed 2 hours. Aaaargh. What better place to spend 2 hours - not. Finally we caught our plane and got back in to Stansted around 4 in the afternoon.
It had been a long weekend. Didn't really get to see that much of Naples, but did get to know most of the people I will be working with at my new work. Wouldn't mind going back to Naples some day and having a proper look around. One day ..... Photos here

I Promise

I promise I will update this properly soon. The commute/work is taking a bit of getting of used to, so very tired by the time I get home again. Currently the trip in takes about 1.5 hours, but hopefully that will change soon when we move somewhere a little more central.
Caught up with a friend I met in Toronto 5 years ago tonight. Haven't seen each other for about 4 years. Was great to catch up, reminiscing about old times.
Anyway, gotta go sleep. Hope you are all well.

Naples Recovery Mode

The trip to Naples was awesome, but I am now paying the price of a couple of late & drunken evenings. Didn't have that much time to explore Naples but I did make it out to Pompeii which was incredible. Most of my photos are from Pompeii and I will post them soon.
The other major news is that I got a phone call from my folks while I was in the Naples airport (waiting for my 2 hour delayed easyjet departure) to say that my sister had a baby girl this morning. Very exciting news. Congrats Sis !
Anyway thats it for now. I need some sleep. Probably more than I am going to get!
Some satellite maps to check out.
Pompeii Vesuvius & Pompeii (Pompeii is bottom right corner)