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Category Archives: General
A day around the Thames
So sometimes you have to take the time to explore your own local neighbourhood. London is a pretty big neighbourhood and its been a long time since I’ve walked along the Thames so after a mammoth feast at yum-cha I thought it 
would be a good idea to join my bro for a bit of a walk.
The great thing about London is that you can walk practically anywhere very easily. Its pretty much flat all around and you are guaranteed to see something interesting in your travels, especially around South Bank where there is always something going on.
For example, until Feb next year (2007 – not long to go now!) Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett has a set of amazing murals up on display around the Royal Festival Hall. Jamie actually won the ‘Designer of the Year Award’ for his work in animating and creating the Gorillaz’s alter-egos. I especially liked this mural where in the upper right corner there is the Grim Reaper but he looks like he is just 
hovering in the background or is being seen in a reflection.
Another thing that might take your fancy is the current Unilever Series exhibition by Carsten Höller, titled Test Site, at the Tate Modern which consists of five slides in the Turbine Hall. The work is a “playground for the body and the brain”.
Although tickets for the slides are free they are timed and only available on the day. And as everyone who knows about the slides 
wants to slide down them you aren’t guaranteed a ticket if you arrive late in the day. If you can’t get on to the slides on Levels 3-5 slides I think the one on Level 2 is available on an as comes basis – but who really wants to slide down that when you’ve got gigantic ones you can get on to!
Apparently Höller has undertaken other projects including a machine that hoists the user through the air (Flying Machine) and a room full of Frisbees (imaginatively titled the Frisbee House) so this is not his first attempt at crazy. Just kidding! When I said crazy I really meant fun. We arrived too late to consider trying to get a ticket but to be honest I was more worried about getting to the end of the slide and then flying off to who knows where in my helmet and burlap sack! What a piece of comedy that would have been.
Leaving South Bank we somehow found ourselves near St Paul’s Cathedral where there was a very strange and unexpected Fun Fare happening. It felt a bit eerie to be honest but people seemed to be enjoying themselves!
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Career Fairs
The past couple of days has seen the National Graduate Recruitment Exhibition 2006 being staged at Kensington Olympia. Visiting on both days I’d forgotten just how crazy these types of events can be. Full of students in suits, ready with their CVs, intent on sucking up to the people in the stalls – I don’t think any of them realised that no one was going to actually going to be giving them a job on the spot, and that in fact the people in the stalls were probably not even actually involved in recruiting at all – there just to sell the company. Just to get through the crowds of students was pretty crazy – some of them were darn aggressive!
The fun part of the career fairs such as these are the freebies!
Normally you can pick up some very cool items – such as great stress balls, flasks, t-shirts, plus the usual pens, key rings, chocolate, and even porridge (from HM Prison … Hmmm …) the best freebie was definitely the Audit Commission’s with their Art By Numbers – Paint your own mug. It was definitely the hottest commodity. The last half hour of the two days became a crazy trading frenzy – with everyone running around to various stalls to grab what they could. Hugely hilarious!
Who The Man
Everyone will at one stage or another in their life have their few minutes of fame …. to be a part of Sir Jules’ few minutes follow this link to the Video Interview section.
And for a profile of the man see this.
Pure class …
July Patch Day
So every couple of months or so we will have a group away day for work. We never really go away anywhere very exciting – but it is a day away from work so its better than nothing. Normally its also a pretty stock standard day – some technical updates in the morning, and then quizzes or something after lunch before retiring to the pub mid-afternoon. Not too bad a day. For this patch day, Einstein had the brilliant idea that instead of retiring to the pub (as not all of us are keen 
drinkers … ahem) we should do something fun. Unfortunately since she had the idea that meant she had to organize and think of something to do herself! After much toing and froing and vetoing of various ideas, it was settled that we would all go spend a couple of hours lawn bowling.
Lawn bowls was a great hit. It probably also helped that Einstein had put so much effort into the afternoon to make sure it all went smoothly and also that the weather was just gorgeous, if a touch on the warm side. To make it a little interesting of course we were split into groups to compete against each other – no prizes for guessing who would be the most competitive – though I’m not going to name and shame anyone! My team came a gallant third though I think we were very unlucky with a few shots that swung results the wrong way.
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| 1st place | 2nd place (yes – Einstein is talking to someone off camera) | 3rd place – my team showing everyone how it’s done | The arty photo |
Wind Farm
Because this country doesn’t do air-conditioning very well I need three fans just to keep cool:
After Dinner Walk …
After dinner we went for a walk to try and find somewhere to discuss next week’s trip to Disney. Chicken wanted to play pool so off we went to try and find a pub with pool tables. Surprisingly we couldn’t find anywhere. We headed in the direction of what we thought was Clapham Common but ended up at Wandsworth Common instead! Anyway, it was a very nice evening and here are a couple of shots:
Just Because It Was Funny At The Time
A couple of funny street names
What nice neighbours I have …
A unique moment in time
Is anyone else up to enjoy this unique moment in time: 01:02:03 04/05/06?
That is, to enjoy the first hour of the day, the second minute of the hour, the third second of the minute on the fourth day of the fifth month of the year ’06.