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!