A Quiet Week....finally!

After the almost constant excitement of the previous weeks here in the UK, this week hailed a welcome reduction in the frequency of planned activities.

Having now spent some time in our new accommodation, we began to explore the area a little, which includes Chinatown. We hurriedly created a new institution, Pork Night. Wednesday night dinner has now become a journey of discovery, an exploration for barbecue pork (which seems to be described here as roast pork, with roast pork being called crispy pork!) that can compare to the wonder that is... BBQ City on Gouger St. Working our way through the alleyways and poorly furnished Asian restaurants that abound, we hope to find such a holy grail of cuisine. Our first venture was reasonably successful, with Canton providing us with tasty pork, both roast and crispy of high quality, and the dumplings were good too! The pork did not, however, match BBQ City's, the champion retains its title.

This Friday night also saw the restitution of a tradition I have missed since I moved to Dubai, after work drinks! Having a couple on the boss before meeting Sally at a local pub meant a pleasant end to a long working week and apparently made me quite..."chatty" on the walk home... Sorry Sal.

Saturday morning saw a trip to Borough Markets to stock up on some essentials, cheese, fruit and veg, some lamb and some sausages! We also purchased a lovely Anthurium to brighten up the apartment.

Our anthurium. Lovely.

Following our market trip, we rested at home before catching a bus over to hob nob at the department stores, Harvey Nicholls and Harrods. On arrival, we decided to use the side door for Harvey Nicholls, and a very pleasant man held the door open for Sally. David Walliams (of Little Britain fame) is a very pleasant man, one who held the door open for Sally. At Harrods we fought our way through the crowds to make it to Ladurée (the Harrods patisserie) for a drink.


Despite our recent venture to fancy department stores, our appetite for shopping was not satiated, so on Sunday we walked to nearby St Christopher's Walk for breakfast at one of Antonio Carluccio's cafés before shopping on Oxford and Carnaby Streets. It was a successful shopping session, I added to my collection of Ben Sherman gear a shirt and a jumper. Sunday afternoon saw us trek across town to Blackfriars, which became not such a good choice of location due to two of the tube lines being out of operation. Meeting Ali and Ash, Justin and Jane there for a beer, made for a pleasant afternoon. I had hot chips with cheese on them. Enough said.

The Blackfriar... at Blackfriars.

The amazing interior of The Blackfriar. It used to be a monastery.

So with our weekend complete, we now faced the horror that is... Monday. Back to work now, we await Pork Night with baited breath.... will BBQ City have a worthy adversary? We shall see, but having the bout in the middle of the week sure makes the week easier to survive.


Here's the link to my updated map. Check it out.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&ll=50.958427,-2.416992&spn=2.602079,7.305908&t=h&z=8&om=1


So that's it for this week, make sure you join us next week, we're going to Bath this weekend!

No Rest for the Wicked...

Yet another marginally late post here, due in part to exhaustion, but mostly in an attempt to hang on to as much of the afterglow of another action packed week of excitement!

With another mundane week at work to get through, the first activity on Wednesday evening was to visit the shop that was used as the location for Black Books, just a few blocks from Sally's work. After a short walk through Bloomsbury, we arrived across the street from the shop.

Black Books.

The following evening saw Sally and I leaving work a touch early to go to the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. A four day festival with a line up the Big Day Out would kill for (as most of the 829 festivals over here have), we had tickets for the first day, predominantly for me to see Queens of the Stone Age and The White Stripes. We managed to get there in time to also see The Thrills, with time for dinner before QOTSA started. Unfortunately QOTSA were a little disappointing, I think this was mainly due to their music requiring quite refined sound levels that a festival just can't provide. Thankfully the rain held off for the redeemers. The White Stripes came on and played a blinding set, showing just how comfortable they are on stage. It was an awesome gig, and as I write this I am excited to have their new album, Icky Thump, playing in the background.

The White Stripes playing at O2.

Friday saw an early start to get me to Paddington train station to meet my work mates. Today was an office trip to the Eden Project in Cornwall. The Eden Project is basically a 'biodome' set up to educate people about plants and stuff. I'm still reasonably vague about the point of it, but it is a pretty amazing thing. Built in a dead china clay quarry, it contains thousands of plants, a big amphiteatre, a visitor centre and the biomes. Yes biomes, not biodomes, I think Pauly Shore must still own the copyright to the word "biodome"...

Anyway, it was very interesting to see, but the tropical biome that we had a tour around, was essentially the same as the conservatory in Adelaide next to the botanic gardens. Also, it was a four and a half hour train ride in each direction to get there, so it was full day of travelling for 3 hours at the place.

Saturday brought much busyness and excitement, firstly packing in the morning, then rushing across town to arrive at our new home! Work is providing accomodation for me here, and they've done very well for me. Sally and I are staying in a one bedroom semi-serviced apartment just off of Piccadilly Circus. So basically we're living in the absolute heart of London. As we were walking to check the place out, we wandered through Leicester Square and saw that it was the Shrek 3 premiere, there was a crowd who started screaming, and then we heard over the loudspeaker "Mr Antonio Banderas"! Of course with us moving into Piccadilly, the question you're all asking is "But what about Sally's place in Paddington?" Fortuitously, one of Sally's friends needs somewhere to stay for a few months before moving to Shanghai, so Lisa is looking after Sally's place while we make the most of all that Piccadilly has to offer.


After a brief couple of hours setting the place up, we had to start getting ready for one of the best birthday presents I've ever received. Sally had gotten tickets for us to go and see Muse play the newly completed Wembley Stadium. It was sold out. 90 000 people. Huge. With enough support acts to make it a mini festival (Rodriguez Y Gabriella, Dirty Pretty Things and The Streets), it was the first concert to sell out the stadium. And they were doing it all again the following night, the second concert to sell out the stadium... Needless to say, it was absoutely amazing. Muse are possibly the best live band in the world, and this was easily the best concert I've ever been to. From the incredible lighting, the pyrotechnics, the acrobats hanging from balloons to the undeniable talent of the band, this was a show for the ages. We took something like 100 photos and I videoed two full songs, unfortunately the vids are quite large, so I don't know how I can show you them! Anyway, here are some pics;

You know it's a good show when there's a beer tanker!

Obviously with 90 000 people packed into a stadium, a concert finishing at 11 and the last tubes running at midnight, getting home was a bit of an effort. Eventually though, we squeezed onto the last tube to the city and made it home safe and sound.


Sunday was slightly more sedate, although no less good. After a relaxed morning, collecting some remaining items from Paddington, we made our way to The Wolseley to take part in the great English tradtion of afternoon tea. The Wolseley is a beautiful restaurant in a restored Wolseley car showroom just by the Ritz. Scones with jam and clotted cream, little sandwiches and wonderful pastries made our afternoon an absolute delight, a wonderful sojourn on a Sunday.

The Wolseley.

So that rounds up another week here in London. All that is left to do is to give you the link to my wonderful map of things.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&z=13&om=1

So that's it! Hope everyone's well and enjoying themselves, I know I am!!

London!

Hello all! Sorry for the slightly belated post, but since my last one from Dubai, I've been a little busy!

I arrived on time a week ago now, at about 9pm on Tuesday the 5th at Heathrow, and following a quick customs/passport control wait, I was joyously reunited with Sally. The following day I diligently got up and went to work, which ended up almost being wasted time, as most of the people who I am working with, were either away or otherwise occupied when I arrived. Eventually though I was taken to the site, so the day wasn't a complete waste. I'm currently working on the Grosvenor House Apartments, renovating and constructing new apartments in an existing building. Grosvenour House is actually two buildings on Park Lane, facing Hyde Park. Following work that day, Sally took me out for dinner for my birthday to the Oxo Brasserie on level 8 of Oxo Tower on the southbank of the Thames, it has a spectacular view of the city, and the food was fantastic! After dinner we wandered over to St Paul's Cathedral and I rediscovered a pub I remember having a beer at when I was last in London in 2002.

Thursday brought yet another work day, followed by a quick tube ride home to get ready for that night's treat, Caberet Casbah at the Cafe de Paris. Caberet Casbah is a burlesque show produced by a group called the Flash Monkey and the Cafe de Paris is a beautiful venue set just off of Piccadilly Circus. The night was amazing, with an incredible atmosphere and a great show, despite being beset by wardrobe malfunctions! I suggest you check out http://www.theflashmonkey.biz/ and http://www.cafedeparis.com/ to see just what sort of place and show it was! Unfortunately, the tiredness set in and Sally and I left to catch the last tube before the show ended.

The final day of the working week had finally arrived, and the exciting London plans continued unabated. Sally had been able to procure tickets to see a Stephen Fry TV Show being filmed, QI. So, rushing from work (ever so slightly early) to the London Studios we joined the end of the rather long looking queue. After a short wait we were disappointingly informed that the queue contained more people than the studio could. So the risky plan of the 561 people in front of us to skip out on work just that little bit earlier had paid dividends, and we began to make our way back home.

With the weekend upon us, I finally had a day with no specific plans! After a leisurely breakfast at Borough Markets and a pleasant perusal and purchase of choice cheeses, Sal and I headed into Oxford St to look for shoes for me. We battled the crowds valiantly up and down half of Oxford St, but to no avail, the holy grail of footwear that I searched for could not be found. So we hopped on a big, red, double decker London bus to Portobello Rd. Following a short walk through a picturesque London neighbourhood, we arrived at the top of Portobello Rd, the markets in full swing. Wandering along the busy street, ducking into shops, it was easy to relish the vibrant amosphere all around us.

Having had my birthday just before leaving Dubai, I decided that Sunday was the perfect opporuntity to both catch up with the handful of people I know in London and have a beer in a real London pub for my birthday. So with the help of my trusty and beautiful assistant, a location was picked that turned out to be just perfect. The Charles Lamb Pub is "everything the Queen's Head wishes it could be" (S. Hart, 2007). It was a wonderful little pub with amazing food and a relaxed, local feel. I couldn't have asked for a better place to spend an afternoon. That evening Sally and I headed to the Open Air Theatre at Regents Park to see Daniel Kitson perform. The incredibly picturesque location, pleasant weather and picnic dinner was an amazing setting to see a brilliant performance of both stand up comedy and poignant story-telling.

So basically that's my first week in London. For both my records and for your viewing pleasure, I've begun a map of London with all sorts of exciting things on it, mainly the places I've been, things I've seen and any other pertinent points I feel warrant inclusion.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108781270355512035411.000001130555522820954&om=1&ll=51.517396,-0.151062&spn=0.039524,0.114155&z=14

I'll continue to add things to this map and relink it as I go, so I hope you like it!

Now that my first week has successfully been completed, I've got my second week to look forward to! With plans such as seeing The White Stripes and Queens of the Stone Age play at the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park on Thursday to visiting the Eden Project with work on Friday to (along with 90 000 other people) seeing Muse play at Wembley Stadium on Saturday to having afternoon tea at The Wolseley on Sunday, I'm sure the coming week will live up to the high standards set by the previous. This coming weekend should also see the move into my work provided accomodation, but I shall wax lyrical about that next week, with photos!

So, there you go, a bumper blog post to round up my first week in London!

Happy Birthday to me!

This will be my last post from Dubai.

I've had an interesting couple of months here in the middle east, I've seen some incredible sights and some ludicrous driving. This past weekend was kept very quiet, mainly concerned with packing all my stuff up again and preparing for tomorrow's journey to London. It's probably a good thing that I've had such a quiet time of late, as my first week in London is shaping up to be busier than the past two months here!

Tuesday June 5th, 8:40pm - Arrive London

Wednesday June 6th - First day at WB London, followed by birthday dinner with Sally

Thursday June 7th - Burlesque show at Cafe de Paris with Sally

Friday June 8th - QI. QI (Quite Interesting) is a TV show hosted by Stephen Fry and we're going to see it being filmed.

Saturday June 9th - Sleep. Possible start to sightseeing/shopping.

Sunday June 10th - Birthday drinks at the Charles Lamb with all my London friends, followed by Daniel Kitson in an open air theatre in Regent's Park (I think).

After that, I've just got tickets to the 02 Wireless Festival on the following Thursday. Amongst the acts performing are The White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, Air and Modest Mouse.

So with all that going on, I was glad to have a quiet weekend. However, for the sake of this blog, I did manage to take an interesting picture for you. To the untrained observer, it seems that Dubai has little or no heritage limitations. This is not the case, there are heritage and environmental requirements strictly observed by the Dubai Municipality. The discovery of protected lizard habitat on the Al Kaheel site meant that they had to be relocated by professional lizard relocators, significant Ghaff trees usually have to be retained on site, or relocated. This can sometimes lead to quite unique situations...

Obviously this tree has special significance (I'm not sure if it's a Ghaff tree or not) and is either awaiting relocation or for the rains to fill the lake again! It's actually in the middle of what will soon be a community area, but at least it's not lonely, there's another one just around the corner, but it has a view of the luxurious mall soon to be built...

To complete my last post from Dubai, I think I'll stick with the traditional (although irregular) update on Burj Dubai.

Burj Dubai is currently standing at 129 stories tall, according to the billboard, and has been for a week or so, so I'm expecting it to crack the 130 mark any day now... pity I won't be here to see it.

Anyway, that is all from the land of sand, hope everyone is well and happy. My next post will be from Ye Olde Londone Towne!