From Life in London – December 2008

After a few teething issues with our network (it seems our D-Link DGS-1248T switch was too smart for us and sporadically had trouble talking to our servers – anyone else had this problem), we finally managed to get the office to a running state on Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday, I was called for a meeting with the Director and more or less told I was being made redundant. However, in a follow up meeting on Wednesday, I managed to prove my worth to the bottom line, and saved my neck from the chop. Heavy…

On Friday, to celebrate our first week in the new office, we went to a new local pub (The Mad Hatter in Southwark for those of you playing at home). The Mad Hatter is a Fullers Ale and Pie house and so we had the very British (or at least very Londoner) meal of Pie and Mash. I had the Steak and Ale pie with mashed potatoes and roast veggies. Very nice! All that was missing were the jellied eels, and I’m not sure I’d have eaten those anyway!
 

From Life in London – December 2008

Finally, it was a remarkably nice weekend (clear blue skies all day Saturday and Sunday), so Bibi and I went for a wander through Richmond Park all the way to Richmond and had another British (and Aussie for that matter) staple, the Sunday Roast, overlooking the Thames at Richmond. Beautiful! 
 

	From Life in London – December 2008

The Needles

Over the last weekend, Mum, Dad and I headed to the Isle of Wight for an overnight weekend stay.
And I have to say, I was impressed!

Atmospheric Weather

I think it was the coastal feel that really worked for me. It reminded me a lot of home, with a more relaxed atmosphere than I’m used to in London.

Probably the highlight was driving along the southern coast road from the Needles along to Ventnor.

The road has some fantastic views back to the Needles and we had some pretty atmospheric weather which I think made the pics even better!

So Isle of Wight, well recommended!

First up is an ad for Bogan Bingo at The Slug pub in Fulham. The Slug has a good antipodean feel and for those that don’t know, bogan is Aussie slang for someone who’s a bit rough, dodgy, uneducated and lower class. It’s similar to a chav in the UK or white trash in the US. It’s also usually associated with the mullet hairstyle (long at the back) as it is in the photo.

And second, wandering the grounds of Fulham Palace with mum and dad, we found a gum tree!

Mum and Dad will be over here for about 8 weeks with a couple of weeks in London, a couple travelling around the UK (Land’s End to John O’Groats) and then a couple touring Europe on a Cosmos tour.

But anyway, here’s mum and dad!

And for a little while whilst mum and dad are with us, we’re housesitting in Fulham! Nice!

A few of us headed down for some after work drinks at The Barley Mow.

First up, a fruit machine. This is the english version of a pokie except they generally only have 1 or 2 in the pub instead of the 20, 30, 40 we have. (They also seem to have them in some takeaway shops too. Odd.) They’re also generally older styled with all sorts of strange bits and bobs. I watched Matt play and can honestly say I haven’t got the foggiest idea what he did.. but same result, he lost!

Watch out in a later post for another pub staple, the quiz machine which has computerised trivia games that can win you money.

But anyway, I present, a fruit machine!

Here’s the work crew looking happy having fun!

And a rainbow out our window at home! One of the things I didn’t expect when moving to London was that the rain isn’t really that good. It never really pours that often, but just falls fairly gently (albeit for days or weeks on end). But last night had a really good fall of rain, it really poured but towards the end, just as the sun was about to go down, the rays shone in from the west to create a really bright rainbow. So here it is! (Shame about the scaffolding though)

We live 10 minutes walk from Richmond Park, and it’s like entering another world. Richmond Park is the largest open space in London covering almost 1000 hectares (2500 acres). So it’s like a little trip to the country almost in the centre of London (well not QUITE, but still pretty close)

Without further ado, Richmond Park!

My workmates really got into the Aussie theme and all donned homemade koala masks as well as had a couple of Aussie cork hats. Then we headed out to the Walkabout Aussie pub!

And on the weekend, we had our annual Fiesta Havana Fulham Salsa picnic in the park! We headed to Hyde Park and braved the weather (which held out as overcast but dry) for a go on the pedal boats in the Serpentine (never again, my legs are too long!) and then some soccer in the park.

Well here it is, some crazy looking weather in this, Summer… *shakes head*

And a cool church just near our place.

Interesting aside: Today, July 11 is the day before my birthday, however I was actually born on July 11th in the UK because I was born at 8:32am on July 12th in Australia (which is 11:32pm July 11th in the UK!)

Anyway, enough of that, we’re here for pics!

Sunset over the Thames at Putney Bridge

Open air office in St James’s Park. It was only for 2 days unfortunately.

MI6 (left), home of British Secret Service (and Bond… James Bond) and St George Wharf apartments (right)
I walk across this bridge and past these every day, and only just realised that building is MI6! Explains the overbearing look and police that are always outside it.