Dom has left the building

Off on holiday now.....very excited about it.....will think of you all.....see you soon.

xxxx

Bloomsbury Walk

Theresa and I have decided to explore the city we live in a bit more. So starting with an area in the centre of town this is a 4km tour of an area called Bloomsbury. Some photos and notes of what we discovered...


This is Bedford Square, completed in 1780, and the best surviving example of a Georgian Square in London. In keeping with the areas literary traditions it was home to many publishers until the 1980's.

The back of the British Museum - arguably more impressive then the front even and significantly less well known.

Russell Square and the Russell Hotel. A stunning building built from 1800, with such intricate carvings that it has to be seen up close to be believed.

Brunswick Square with it's traditional red telephone box. These are gradually being replaced by more modern items. The square was home to people such as Virgina Woolf, Leonard Woolf, Duncan Grant and John Maynard Keynes in the 1900's. All were members of the Bloomsbury Group - an association of writers, artists and intelectuals.

This is where Charles Dickens lived for several years in the 1830's and wrote Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. Note the beautifully intact railings and path.

Although now a very decorative house with some stunning blue tiles, this used to where the White Conduit was, which pumped water to the medieval monestary which is now St Pauls cathedral.

Great Ormond Street, location of the world famous childrens hospital.

This is a pub called the Queen's Larder, apparently named after the cellar where Queen Charlotte stored delicacies for her deranged husband George III while he was being treated in the local hospital. This whole area is considered one of the Italian quarters of London as well.

If anyone else would be interested in doing tours of your cities they are incredibly rewarding and maybe you could show the rest of us.

A tagged list from Paul

Thank you to Yossarian for tagging me ... and for giving me the opportunity to talk about myself some more. Lol!! Click on the title for Paul's list.

10 years ago
I was starting my second year of university in North Wales. Not overawed at all and determined to have some fun this year rather than just working. Moved in with some friends who I'm still mates with. Had just come back from a trans-European trip which took in 12 countries in 10 days with my friend Paul (who incidentally tagged me for this).

5 years ago
Moved to London and started my career in Publishing as a journalist covering motorsport. Was having a real struggle in my head trying to decide if that was what I wanted to do or not. Racing was my hobby and my job and I did not have a life outside of the sport. But I wanted one... Found the capital quite overwhelming. (Now consider it my home - how things change.)

1 Year Ago
Bought my second property in London and was hugely happy to be leaving my old flat. It served it's purpose, but it's a measure of how I never settled that I do not really even think about it now. Was travelling to Germany on a weekly basis and getting roundly sick of being anywhere near a plane or airport.

Yesterday
Flew back from Munich. Feltshit, but was upgraded to business class so had a good lunch and some nice champagne. Didn't get rid of my head cold, but made me feel special! Then went to B&Q to buy a coat hook and came back with plants, hooks, compost, fire alarm, food, picture frame, ...

Today
Am back in the prehistoric hell-hole that is my current office. It is 29 Celcius, I am sweating, snivelling and generally unhappy. Finished Harry Potter finally and thoroughly enjoyed it. Am looking forward to going home, sitting in the garden and having a Gin, Coke and Lime as the sun goes down.

Tomorrow
Friday thank goodness. Only one more week until I go to Barcelona and that thought is keeping me going. Have to start prepapring for the annual London to Brighton Smart car run which is this Sunday. Hopefully it will be even better than last year. Want to clean Lolita. Am so old ....

5 songs I know the words to:
1. Have a Nice Day – Bon Jovi
2. Boys of Summer – Don Henley
3. Like a Prayer – Madonna
4. YMCA - (can't remember group)
5. Hysteria - Def Leppard

5 snacks:
1. Apple
2. Belgian chocolate
3. Yoghurts
4. Pork Pie
5. Cheese

5 things I would do with $100 million:
1. Buy several cars
2. Design a house to put them (and me) in
3. Explore the world
4. Make sure my friends were comfortable
5. Launch a magazine company

5 places I would run away to:
1. Australia
2. Fiji
3. Spain
4. Mauritius
5. Masai Mara Game Reserve

5 things I would never wear:
1. Stilletos
2. Socks with sandals
3. Bling jewelery
4. Ties unless I have to
5. Football shirt

5 favourite tv shows (I don’t watch much TV, but . . .)
1. Battlestar Galactica
2. Lost
3. A place in the Sun
4. Have I Got News For you
5. V8 Supercar racing from Oz

5 joys:
1. Sunrise
2. Sunset
3. Dining with friends
4. Exploring with my girlfriend
5. Chilling on the sofa in the evenings

5 bad habits:
1. Being short tempered when I'm tired
2. Giving people silent treatment when I'm annoyed
3. Low bullshit tolerance
4. Like to keep things (too) neat
5. Sarcasm

5 things I like doing:
1. Walking in countryside
2. Playing on computer
3. Driving
4. Exploring
5. Sitting on beach listening to the sea

5 Movies I like:
1. Lord of the Rings trilogy
2. 10 Things I Hate About You
3. Taxi (French version)
4. Battlestar Galactica
5. Love Actually

5 famous people Id like to meet:
1. Ayrton Senna
2. Bill Hicks
3. Julia Stiles
4. Ludovico Einaudi
5. Jerry Bruckheimer

5 favourite toys
1. My car
2. My computer
3. Sky + satelite system
4. I-pod
5. Playstation

I tag Dale, C, Pep and Jerzee to pick this up and run with it.

I am now a landlord

My apologies for being away for a week. Totally unacceptable and I grovel mercifully. But it has been a pretty manic few days, and it's tough (still) not having the Internet at work. It means that any posting I do must be done at home, and I've been so whacked for the past few days that I just couldn't face it. But I figure I'd better get something down now.

The big news is that I now have a couple of people living with me which is very strange. I've lived alone for the best part of the last 5 years so having others around is going to be interesting I think. There will be a period of adjustment for all of us I guess. And we'll have our good days and bad days, but on the whole I'm very positive about them being there. Their names are Theresa and Dale, and you can see what they're about from links on the left of my blog. They moved up on Saturday and are both taking a few days to adjust to London and get over the shock of leaving the sea behind. It also gives them a chance to get themselves and the house organised while I'm at work. So far they've done a pretty cracking job and they've transformed the house from being a utalitarian bachelor pad (lots of gadgets, not too full cupboards, not too muh lying around to gather dust) to a homely environment (lots of pictures on walls, overflowing cupboards, washing hanging everywhere, garden furniture).

They are both very creative people and it's been lovely coming home and all sitting round the TV and chatting. This is probably very normal to everyone else, but I am finding it hugely stimulating. And we all look at things from different angles so we could be watching the same show, but reading three interpretations from it. Fascinating. I am also being exposed to new foods, and have been threatened with a curry night on an irregular basis (not a huge fan of food that hurts me).

So that's the latest from Chez Dom. We have dial-up internet access at work, but that is driving me more insane each time I use it. I think I might post about how we used to work without e-mail and internet. (How did we do it?).

England win The Ashes

For the first time in 20 years England have won the Ashes Test Cricket Series. The Ashes is one of the oldest Cricket competitions in the world and is a series of games between England and Australia. The Ashes name refers to the trophy which is an urn with something or someone’s ashes in it. (Have probably been told who/what they are in the past but have forgotten. And have too much of a life to look subject up.) The Test series was over 5 games and was incredibly hard fought, and the series wasn’t decided until very late in the day of the final game, last night. But England triumphed 2-1 with 2 draws as well.



Cricket is supposedly our national sport (or is it Football/Soccer?) and like many sports we invented, we’re not that good at them. In a very English way we wallow in being the defeated underdog, and get on with our lives reasonably happily. Whereas the Australians are very competitive and have that killer instinct in sport. And Cricket is probably more their national sport than ours. So beating them in this series was fantastic. Cricket has long been seen as a minor and fading sport in the UK, but the whole country has been getting behind the team over the last few weeks. And the country pretty much stopped yesterday to try and catch some of the final day of the series. Everyone is talking about the team at the moment and they did a parade through central London today, which drew crowds in the tens of thousands. National pride is running high and I think people are feeling good about themselves as well. I think this is great, particularly in London given recent events. It is very pertinent for me as half of my office are Australians and it’s nice to put one over them (in a nice way).



In recent times there has been a change in attitude towards sport in this country, probably directly linked to the fact that we are having some success internationally. At the end of 1993 England won the Rugby World Cup (again, rather pleasingly, beating the Australians) in an epic match. Then earlier this year London got the Olympics for 2012, and then yesterday England won the Ashes. On each occasion there have been huge celebrations in the centre of London and the city has really come together to celebrate. And a lot of the rest of the country has been joining in. Hopefully this will mean that resources will be put into developing future sports people. Whether you are into sport or not, I think it’s a good thing to have some success and everyone feels better when Britain wins. It lightens the mood across the country, and often brings groups and communities together.

But for the moment congratulations to the England Cricket players and lets build on this.

(I’ve realised this post contains some factual grey areas for which I apologise.)

9/11

It has been 4 years since the terrorist attacks that changed the world. Now that London has also been attacked by these nutters I feel an even greater empathy with New York and Washington DC. I hope as a world we will continue to stand firm and I believe this will end one day.

Office update - getting there

We have progress. Maybe. We now have phone lines. And I have hooked up 3 dial up modems to these lines, which means we have limited/slow internet access. Hoorah! Only about a month after we moved in. We should hear about the ADSL in a couple of weeks.

A big fat Greek wedding in Eastbourne

It's been a pretty hectic week. most of the week was spent in a coastal town in Southern england called Eastbourne, at the wedding of one of my best friends. She's called Matina, is Greek and a good mate, and decided to have her wedding in traditional Greek style. Due to various reasons which are beyond me she (we) ended up in Eastbourne.

Eastbourne is like a retirement town and has a distinctly grey and dying feel to it. Not in a morbid sense, but more like where people come to spend the remaining days of their lives. Everything moves slower (or on small motorised mobility scooters) and everyone seems to have grey or white hair. Despite this though it turned into three days of utter relaxation mixed in with a Greek Orthodox service and some dancing and partying. A lot of her family came over from Athens and much fun and consternation was had with the food and dancing in particular.

We were blessed with fantastic weather and a friend and I spent many happy hours walking round, eating and taking photos. Some of the results of the latter you can see on the photoblog linked on the right. Many of us at the wedding were pretty dog tired and for some reason the peace and slow pace of Eastbourne got us all completely chilled. Leaving to go to work on Friday was so so tough!!



I'm sorry if this post is a bit nothing to some of you, but I just want to post a couple of pics of the happy couple and to wish them all the best for the future.

Office update - joke continues ...

I thought British Gas were pretty dire, and there was no way any other company could sink as deep in terms of customer service. I was wrong. British Telecom plumb new depths!!

Two things happenend today to make me cringe and smile through gritted teeth. Followed by a bit bit of gnashing of said teeth and then that despairing smile you see on people who are losing the will to live. Did my daily call to BT to enquire where we were at with getting ADSL for the office. Was told that there was a problme and we couldn't have ADSL because the local telephone exchange is too full and there is no more room for anyone to get broadband. We have to wait for someone to give up their broadband before we can have it. which is insane and I'm sure not correct. Unless my particular part of London is the busiest broadband user district in the UK (unlikely). Added to the fact that the business park my office is built on is above the biggest telephone exchange in South East england (I've discovered). But BT were most insistent that we couldn't have ADSl and would have to wait in a queue for it. So I've started searching around other providers who do not use the BT cabling, and moght have found a couple of options. Both of which will take between two and four weeks to get sorted. But hopefully this is progress. And it will have meant that my company will have been operating without any connection to the outside world for up to eight weeks!!!

The other cringe worthy moment came when we received a letter from BT saying that unless we paid the set up fee immediately for ADSL they would disconnect us. Am thinking salt/rubbing/wounds/owwww!