Outstanding Views from One New Change

Patrick UK Life

One New Change is the colossal shopping centre in the heart of the city trying to change the way that people shop. Knowing their audience during the week (bankers) the prices and the stores tend to reflect it. Jamie Oliver’s BBQ Joint Venture with renown US BBQ Chef Adam Lang Perry, Barbecoa sits proudly although the reviews that I read give me the impression it’s a place you really want to be expenses on, and even then you have better choices elsewhere.

Fortunately One New Change has a number of other alternatives with probably the cheapest and most “fast-food” style being Nando’s and the Byron chain of burgers. I didn’t realise this too but a riverview terrace sits atop and is a great place to watch the sunset. All for free too.

Celebrating Becoming British

Patrick UK Life

On the day that I sat the British citizenship ceremony, I had a few people around for some celebratory drinks and food. Of course, there was a heavy, mostly British theme including some scones that I made the day before, and a platter of plougman’s sandwiches I prepared on the day. Jaffa cakes also made their obligatory presence as small snacks.

Clare was kind enough to bring a wide range of very appropriately named ales. Naturally warm 🙂

A few of my friends including Michael (from Germany) and Stef in his classic skeleton cycling gear.

A circle of people including Clare, Amanda, Catherine, Darci, Luca and Toni.

A nicer close up of Luca and Cathering together.

Funnily enough I had a few cans of Fosters lying around and seeing as some people wanted to drink cold beer, that was one option I had in the fridge. Tom, James and Luca later on in the evening paying me out about it.

Darci and me just before she headed out.

Carli helping me fly the British flag.

I couldn’t think of any traditional drink other than a classical Pimms. We’ve had sightings of a spring on its way, so what better way to celebrate than some summery Pimms and Lemonade. Apparently I got the ratio of Pimms wrong, though did well on all the fruit you place into it including apple and orange slices, strawberries, cucumber and then somme sprigs of mint. I’m pretty sure the ratio got stronger as the evening went on.

And thanks to all those who brought some presents for me. I hadn’t expected it, but was very appreciative of it. Look at all those British colours!

A small handful of us rounded off the evening tapping into the several bottles of scottish and Japanese whisky I have at home, including drams of some of my favourites from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

I’m British

Patrick General, UK Life

After over six and a half years in the UK, I can now call myself British after sitting the ceremony this Wednesday past. I sent my application in last year and waited to hear back from the Home Office and only recently received the letter asking me to book a citizenship ceremony as soon as possible. It was a very nervous three month wait hoping to hear back the result. Fortunately it was all approved.

I took the ceremony at Camden Town Hall, the same place I had the Nationality Checking Service (NCS) appointment. Talking to a human instead of waiting on a queue, or talking to an automated machine is a much better experience, so they encouraged me to return.

The ceremony started at 10am sharp. Approximately 50 or more people turned up for the ceremony, including their guests. We were divided into two groups – those undertaking the final oath to become a citizenship, and guests who sat in the viewing areas around the council chambers. We all stood as the mayor, adorned in all of his finery and bling entered the room. They talked about what the proceedings were going to be before the mayor opened up with a speech of his own, welcoming us in as British citizens.

We were then asked to take one of two oaths to cement the role before being handed certificates, a token of appreciation from the borough, and a picture with the mayor and a picture of the Queen.

Fortunately for me, Australia dropped its single citizenship rule only as recently as 2002 where I’m allowed to basically be guaranteed to win (and lose) The Ashes. It’s a bit of a relief to finally stop worrying about counting days in and out of the country, and I look forward to returning from trips overseas and entering without queueing for extremely large amounts of time at British Immigration.

Meeting Stace in London

Patrick Farringdon, General, UK Life

A small reprieve from Berlin this week due to some Clojure training, meant an opportunity that serendipitously overlapped with Stace’s last visit to London for work. Stace and her husband, Wes, are expecting a newborn very soon, hence her last trip to London. I caught up with her on a trip last year, and we couldn’t believe that almost a year had already passed.

I met her at the wonderful Fox and Anchor where we enjoyed a delicious meal in the cosy and atmospheric abode. With the little one expected to pop in the next month, I appreciated the awesome time we had over a meal.

Madrid after XP2011

Patrick UK Life

I was back in Madrid just recently, this time at least when the weather was much warmer to present at the XP2011 conference. It was a busy time for me, where I had two presentations, a tutorial and a workshop to run in the four day conference. Fortunately I had prepared them all in advance and felt really comfortable with the material that all of the sessions ran rather smoothly.

I was expecting Spain and Madrid to be much warmer than it was the last time I visited, though not quite as warm as I still had hoped. The conference hotel was yet to open their pool. In fact, they were yet to fill their pool. Apparently it’s a local legislation thing. However the weather was pretty much perfect for casual walking around. It reminded me very much of a Brisbane winter. Perfect for a conference go-er and tourist.

2010 A Personal Retrospective

Patrick Travel, UK Life

Time to put together the yearly review, first inspired by the great posts Ben and Gerrod posted on their own websites many a year ago.

To put last year into a single word: “Quick”. No doubt you can tell that from the lack of updates, for which I’m terribly sorry for. I can’t say that this year will be any different, but at least it hasn’t been all the same. On to the more detailed version.

Travel
Although it didn’t feel like I travelled as much as I had in previous years, looking back at my calendar, it surprised me just how much I had done. I started the year off mainly in London as I commuted back and forth between Cambridge.

My first “trip” was out to Oxford where I was presenting at a work conference. The whole ash cloud occurred, stranding many of the International presenters and participants and got me a bit worried for my next overseas trip.

This trip, my first big trip saw me head back home to Australia for the first time in several years. Like I had on many previous trips, I stopped over in a country, this time in Thailand, Bangkok where I enjoyed the hot and humid environment. Despite slopping on plenty of sunscreen, my paltry pale skinned, primed by the (lack of) British sun lead to me sunburn by the time I got back to Australia where I spent some time in Brisbane, the Gold Coast before heading to a week of work in Melbourne. The main reason for going back was actually Marc and Amanda’s wedding and it was great to see the lovely couple I’ve known since University finally tie the knot.

Although time wise, three and a bit years seems like a long time, I’m still comforted by how familiar all of Australia is. I think I enjoyed Melbourne the best, lifestyle wise and should I return to Australia permanently, that’d be one place I’d first consider moving.

Dually affected by someone’s kidney bursting on the plane and the second eruption of ash, my return journey took a detour to Dubai where I got to see how fast things had changed in just five years since I first visited.

Just after getting back I was soon off to Trondheim to spend a lovely 24 hours of sunlight in summer with plenty of Norwegians at XP2010 and kick back for a weekend to relax. Thanks to another conference invite, I found myself in Paris in June where the extreme heat took some getting used to whilst being clothed in much more formal attire (these French people take conferences quite seriously!)

July saw me head to Liverpool where I needed to change my visa to Indefinite Leave to Remain (i.e. permanent residency) in the UK. I hadn’t planned much other travel until after that because I didn’t want any complications if I had troubles with the application. Fortunately it went through with no problems.

August saw a celebratory last-minute trip organised to Cologne as well as returning to Marlow for a long country walk with Kath before she departed the UK. I returned to Copenhagen in September when my sister managed to finally get a reservation with the World’s Number 1 Restaurant according to San Pellegrino, Noma before my parents arrived in London. I took another short trip to Amsterdam whilst they visited Paris and then met up with them in Rome. I visited Manchester for a gig in October before another unplanned trip with a friend to Paris.

November saw me return to Copenhagen where my real destination was Malmo for Oredev although I spent another weekend in Copenhagen to hit a few more of their fine-dining venues. The year rounded off with a trip to New York for Christmas and New Year.

Music
My rate of seeing bands seemed to slightly decrease, and this year I ended up seeing Canadian band, The Japandroids, Ben Harper & Pearl Jam at Hyde Park Calling, Aussie band Eskimo Joe, chilled out singer, Jack Johnson and Interpol towards the end of the year.

Health
Most of my work this year centred on being in London and it meant that I could take care of myself just that little bit better. I kept pretty well to my resolution to eat two full days vegetarian. In fact, I started an almost monthly vegetarian outing with a number of friends to explore the vegetarian delights of London (of which there are many).

I spent about the same amount of the time in the gym this year, but my newest activity for the year was running. Most people will know I have very flat feet. In fact, I still remember a Brisbane podiatrist’s comment about my feet along the lines of, “You’ve got the flattest feet I’ve ever seen.” Flattering! Remembering Suzanne’s advice about building up running, I started trying to build it up during the much warmer summer months and even kept a simple paper log of each of those runs.

In 2009 we had some very nice green parklands in Copenhagen to run around and unfortunately Clerkenwell doesn’t have easy access to a green park long enough to run around. My regular running route is therefore, literally pounding the pavement, along the Thames. I attempted running mostly in the mornings to watch the run gloriously rise around the famous London landmarks like Big Ben and the London Eye however I think most of my runs ended up being evening ones because of the timing with work. Nevertheless, I’m pretty happy with where I got to regularly running 16k per run several times a week. My running log from July tracks me running approximately 600km for the year!

This helped me also lose a fair amount of weight (some of which all the fine dining in New York has reversed) and I’ve been the lightest I’ve ever been. I feel better for it too.

Food
Although I believe I ate out less this year, this was certainly the year of fine dining eating out. Mostly out of opportunity than seeking it, I dined at the following San Pellegrino’s Top 50 restaurants in the world (numbers following according to their 2010 list). #1 Noma (Copenhagen), #26 Momofuku Ssam (New York), #45 WD-50 (New York), and #49 Hibiscus (London) out of San Pellegrino’s Top 50 restaurants in the world. In addition to these, I ate at many other Michelin-starred restaurants including Era Ora (Copenhagen), Tom Aikens (London) twice, Gramercy Tavern (New York), Midsummer House (Cambridge), Chez Bruce (London) and the Hand and Flowers (Marlow).

I found myself cooking more, going to buy groceries from the market and supporting local and British producers of food.

Work
Work kept me much closer to London this year which I was very grateful for. Most long travel centred around conferences which I’m more than happy to do as it’s a great place to share and take on new ideas, both feeling energised and drained by new ideas and through refining existing ones. I’ll post more of this in greater detail when I do my working anniversary blog in April.

Stephen Hawking at the Royal Albert Hall

Patrick Entertainment, UK Life

One thing I appreciate about London the most is the diverse range of activities you can do. For instance, I was lucky enough to get a couple of tickets to see Stephen Hawkins speak at Royal Albert Hall. He spoke about his brief history and he told the story about where he came from, his family life and upbringing all the way to talking about his theories about life.

Pleasantly he was very modest about his achievements and his humour shone throughout his speech. People filled the entire auditorium, where Hawkings kept everyone captivated throughout. At the evening we even got a copy of his latest book, The Grand Design though I haven’t started reading it yet. Instead, the book has joined my ever growing pile of books to get through.