New Year in London

Ah, new years eve. It brings back fond memories of watching the fireworks, drinking wine and then walking home in the moonlight. In Sydney.

Sadly, its just not the same in London. The weather is probably the main reason.

And prior to this year, so it seems, the fireworks in London were ...... well, pitiful is the best word to describe them. Apparently, this year things are much improved, though we have warnings of wind and rain. The weather, again.

I remember making an effort to get out and enjoy a London new year in 1999/2000. I mean, quite a memorable year to do it if ever I was going to. So there we were, a bunch of us sitting in the dark and cold on the south bank, looking out at .......... nothing. Just the Thames in front of us. In darkness. Along with around 100 other people in the immediate area.

Around midnight someone claimed they saw a flash of light, but it quickly vanished. I think it was wishful thinking on their part.

Apparently, extra effort had been put into the London new year fireworks that year - people say they were quite good but you had to be standing right near the London Eye. I think they fizzled out before they reached the south bank, a mile or so up river. Not sure if it was planned that way.

Where we were, we weren't even sure it had struck midnight. Eventually, figuring it must have, we celebrated - for me, it was as much about being able to finally go home and get warm. We walked home - in the cold and dark.

Right at this moment, the Sydney fireworks have started - see the picture above. Two hours before midnight. The Aussies sure now how to have a fireworks party and to celebrate new year. But its probably due to the weather.

Christmas Shopping

Well, I tried. After doing my best to ignore the fact that christmas was only a matter of weeks away, I decided yesterday to try and get most of my off-line shopping done in one go.

And then I chose to do it at PC World.

For those who don't know PC World in the UK, they currently run a tv advertisement claiming "Internet prices to take with you" or something like that. Internet prices maybe, but products - not always.

I selected a really good camera deal for a friend of mine which was advertised throughout the store, and proceeded to the checkout - and paid for it. Fine. All good so far.

Then the cashier advised me that I needed to find a floor walker to get the product out of the stock room for me. Anyone who has tried to find a floor walker in PC World or their sister stores, Currys and Dixons, will know that its probably easier at this point to give up and simply shop online.

After about 4 laps of the store - where I saw only one floor walker, who was being pursued by about 3 customers - I eventually caught the manager and asked him where they all were. He found me a scraggy looking chap (ok, maybe he was an undercover security guard, who knows) who quickly took my receipt and disappeared into the storeroom.

And I waited. And then waited a bit more. Seemed a long time but was probably about 10 minutes, I guess. Ample time to go to the location in the stockroom where their stocks of the product sat, and bring me one out.

Instead, out he came empty-handed. "I'm sorry, there are none left in stock", he matter-of-factly told me. "So why did you take my money at the checkout for it?" I asked.

"It's not my fault, I just went to look for the product for you and there are none there". At this point, I decided we were getting nowhere and so returned to the cashier and demanded a refund.

"I'm sorry, you will have to go to the Advice and Repairs counter" he told me. Great, another queue.

More time wasted, waiting to unpick PC World's mess. Eventually I proceeded to the counter - only to be told that actually there were only two tills for the three assistants, and a customer was in discussions in front of one. So I would have to wait until they were finished.

And so I lost my temper. He quickly moved the non-buying customer aside and then studied my receipt like it was in ancient Greek. So I lost my temper again.

Eventually I received a "refund" - well, can it be called a refund for a product you never even took delivery of? Don't know - but I do know I won't be going back to PC World again in a hurry.

Icons of England

Yes, the list of English icons has been updated again. Now we have the likes of Winnie the Pooh, the V for Victory hand signal and ............... the English weather. The English weather?? An icon ??

Aussie food

One of the things I missed about "home" when I first moved to London many years ago was Aussie food. For the first few years, I'd plead with my parents to send me parcels containing cherry ripes, milo bars, violet crumbles and more.

Then I discovered the Australia Shop in London. An aladdin's cave of Aussie confectionery, biscuits, snacks and jams. It kept me going for years.

And now I see that TNT magazine has also opened an online shop selling Aussie food. Neither of the shops are cheap but then what do you expect when the stuff has to be air freighted half way around the world.

But at least they are there for when I get homesick moments and crave twisties, cheezles and........ no, I best stop now.

A little Hidden London

There are loads of places in London which tourists would probably love to see - if they knew they existed.

One of my favourites is Postmans Park, at the Barbican. Lots of memorials to civilians who have lost their lives whilst performing heroic acts. Fishing people out of rivers, pushing them out of the way of trams and runaway horses - that sort of thing. Its near the Museum of London, a little hidden away down from Barts' Hospital.

Well worth a visit.

Another place that I never even knew existed until recently is Cross Bones graveyard. This final resting place for Bankside's medieval prostitutes has become a shrine to the nameless poor. Its on Redcross Way, near the corner of Union Street, which runs off Borough High street near Borough tube station.

Life in a post office queue

There is no queue quite like a post office queue.

Go into any post office in London at almost any time of the day and you will see a classic British institution - the queue. You rarely see them anywhere else these days.

A long line of people just standing around, looking at their watches, glancing up at the number of empty counter positions and wishing that one more, just one, would open up.

But no, instead it reaches the "lunchtime" moment - which seems to be anywhere from 11.30 until 3pm. And rather than new counter positions opening, one by one they seem to close.

And the people just wait..... and wait..... and wait.

People trying to pay their car tax, energy bills, collect their pensions, buy travel insurance, make bank deposits, buy lottery tickets - oh, and sometimes, actually trying to post something.

So its delightful to know that the post office is now allowing people to pay for post online. I think you can print out postage "stamps" on a computer to avoid having to queue. The post office trying to encourage people NOT to visit them if they want to post a letter. Bizarre.

I don't know the details as sadly this service seems impossible to find on their website.

Anyway, can't linger. I've got to go and spend my morning in a post office queue as sadly their online service doesn't cover parcel postage.

London on heat

Why is it that it FEELS so hot in London when it is actually not any hotter than places like Thailand, Greece and Sydney that I have visited in summer?

Reasons?

1 - London shops typically have crap air conditioning and refrigeration. I was talking about this with a cabbie yesterday. How come when you go into a corner shop in say a little village in Crete, the drinks are icy cold. Always. Yet, go into similar in London and the drinks are at room temperature, even when in the "fridge" (and I use the term loosely.)

2 - London transport has no air conditioning. Get onto the overground metro in Bangkok and it is like walking into a cool room. In London, I hear the tube resembles a furnace and temperatures are so high it would be illegal to transport livestock in them.

3 - Lack of water to cool off in. Let's not go into the hose pipe ban, but the only places for Londoners to cool off in are probably their showers at home, public swimming pools (yuk, remember - people who swim in these are hot. Hot means they are probably sweaty. Then they get into this body of water - with other people. Yuk.) or the Thames (think cholera, dysentry, anything but safety really.)

Anyway, my poor kittens are suffering in the heat and probably think the end of the world is nigh. This is their first summer. So I have been pouring water on our lawn so they can sit on it to cool down. As for me, keep in the shade and drink loads of cold water - and think of the pounds I am hopefully sweating off :-)

The fans deserved better

It's interesting to read the Guardian's comments about yesterday's failure by the England football team. Suggesting we welcome them back as heroes. For failing, yet again? For progressing no further than they have previously?

As an Aussie living in London, I will always support Australia in any sporting matches. So maybe my comments are a bit biased, but here goes anyway.

Compare the performances of the two teams:

Australia, in only our second world cup appearance, make it to the first round of the knockout stage, only to get beaten via a questionable penalty from a team who have since gone on to the semi finals (Italy).

England, in their umpteenth world cup appearance, struggle to get past a team who were in their first world cup (Ecuador) in the first knock out stage, and then lose yet again to penalties at the next round.

For Australia, football ("soccer") is only our 5th most played sport - behind rugby league, Aussie Rules, rugby union and cricket. To get as far as we did was a big achievement, and the socceroos are deservedly being hailed as heroes back home.

But for England, football is probably its number one sport. The combined value of the England squad is probably more than that of any other team in the competition. And for them to fail yet again to at least get to the semi finals is absolutely nothing to be proud of.

In fact, the England supporters should quite rightly feel cheated and conned. The team should have done better - no excuses. They are overpaid, over rated and hence over here early again.

The great broadband con

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you can't have failed to see every second advert on tv and in the press encouraging you to join the super super information highway.

Promises of up to 24 meg speeds (most people are probably currently either on 1 or 2 meg) simply by joining up. Bulldog, Be, Wanadoo, even BT.

Well, there's a catch.

Apparently, put simply, the various BT exchanges aren't ready for the onslaught. And so there's a huge backlog of orders from people who signed up with various ISPs and are still waiting to be upgraded. To get greater than 8 meg, it seems Tiscali needs to install some equipment in your exchange. If it hasn't been done - or won't be done due to low demand - you're out of luck. No speeds greater than 8 meg.

And if you are one of the lucky ones who is on an exchange that BT have done something to so it can cope with up to 8 meg (and it is "up to" - 8 meg is not guaranteed) you just have to wait for them to then connect you to it, it seems. Join the queue.

To make matters worse, their bulk upgrade tool has been found to have a bug in it so ISPs can't use it at the moment.

So the promise of super fast speeds is just another example of the marketing guys over hyping something and getting carried away before the technical and customer service guys are certain that it can be delivered. Be warned.

I signed up for Plusnet recently. But it wasn't just for the promise of 8 meg at some point, which I have checked with BT that I can get on my line. It was because Pipex were ripping me off - charging me £33.99 for 2 meg broadband. Now I pay only £21.99 and it will remain the same when I eventually get 8 meg.

Pipex were a decent ISP, no complaints. But their price was ridiculous and they seemed to favour new rather than existing customers. So far Plus Net seem ok - reliable connections and a very good set of forums on their web site.

And one day I'll get 8 meg........ one day.

Why I live in London

I might have said this before but one of the main reasons I live in London is for the range of opportunities available on the work front. Jobs that I doubt there would be many, if any, of back home.

This article says it all, really.

And then this link is another example of why I love living in London. An opportunity to work with people in places I doubt I'd ever get to from Australia. And do a job I would probably never get a chance to do if I lived there at the moment.

One day I will definitely go back, that's for certain. So I intend to make the most of the job opportunities that come my way while I am living here - I suspect that once I go back, my work will be very different.

Probably working for my dad , wherever Smeaton Grange is :-)

A great place to work

Last week, I had the pleasure of arranging a forum for around 50 work colleagues. Now, in many places, the options for a venue would probably include the local hall, a breakout room at the office and maybe some place no more than an hour's bus or train ride away.

But in London, the choices are amazing. Last time we held this forum, we were able to hire Shakespeare's Globe. A really nice venue, and it included a back stage tour.

This time, our options included Tate Modern, Vinopolis (a wine museum), the Energy Clinic and the one we chose, HMS Belfast.

HMS Belfast turned out to be a good choice. The day we held the forum happened to be the hottest day in London so far this year. Around 26 degrees. And we had a lovely venue right on the Thames, sunshine on the decks and veterans to conduct guided tours for us.

There are probably not that many cities in the world that offer such venue choices for conferences and meetings. One more great thing about London.

The great north v south debate

Apparently, last Wednesday night the Museum of London hosted a debate on north v south London. Another one of those London topics, like congestion charging and the state of public transport, that everyone seems to have a view on.

Well, here's mine. I don't care. Never did care where in London I lived - north or south, that is. Neither is close to a beach, which would be my absolute preference and was when I lived in Sydney. And neither is close to a beautiful harbour or wonderful, peaceful parks (like Sydney harbour and Centennial Park.)

So as there were none of those things to look forward to when coming to London, my only preference when moving here was to live as close to "central" London as possible. For both practical and social purposes.

Practically, to be near to where I worked. And socially, to be easily able to get in and out late at night, to be able to walk home if necessary and to be able to do some of my London research for my web site at the drop of a hat.

Without relying on public transport too much.

As it happened, I ended up living in a council flat when I first arrived in London. A lovely old roomy and bright one, in a fifties building with lots of settled residents. Not one of those dreaded high rises, thankfully.

And it was in sunny Walworth, slap bang in the middle of "saf Lunden". And south is where I've stayed ever since, no worries.

Is it better or worse than north London? No. Just different.

The peace and quiet of easter in London

I love being in London during public holidays. Easter and xmas are the best.

Loads of local traffic simply dissappears and the stressed out, frantic and often unfriendly London locals are replaced by relaxed, dazed and confused tourists - whose major worry for the day isn't about getting from one side of London to the other to arrive on time at a meeting but about how long the queues might be to the London Eye.

So being in London during these times makes me feel like a tourist again.

Forget standing in queues at airports, boarding packed planes and then worrying about getting home in time for work on Tuesday.

Stay in London and be a tourist in your own city. Much more relaxing!

Finally, I completed it.... and my job search begins

The big news for this week is that after 3 years of coursework, I have finally completed my Open University course in computing.

I received news on Friday that I had passed my final module, which is great as I had no intention of re-doing it if I hadn't. Web Server management, so totally dry and boring.

Soon I will have a nice Certificate in Web Application Development to hang on my wall beside my two accountancy ones and my project management one (or maybe I'll file the accountancy ones away as relics of a previous life!)

So, what to do next? Hmm, maybe I'll take a year off studying and try and sort out my work situation which now desperately needs addressing. And then maybe do a course on London history or genealogy for a change.

I've been studying computing courses with the Open University since 1997 so its probably high time for a break. The great thing about this recent course is that it was all coursework based and involved online studying (I guess e-learning). Added another angle of interest to it.

Anyway, back to my work situation. I love the job I do and I enjoy working with my customers but I feel my opportunities to widen my network and get into new business areas are limited.

I'd like to find something that allows me to broaden my customer base beyond one area and extend my network beyond the confines of London.

So its time to change my job.

But I like my employer and love the sort of work I do - so, it's a no brainer, really, I just need to find another role working for the same employer doing a similar sort of role but for a different area of the business - and I think / hope I discovered it last week.

Fingers crossed, it will be brilliant if it comes off.

They say things happen in life for a reason and maybe what I had to deal with this past week at work was meant to happen as it triggered me to look for something else - and the opportunity I found wouldn't be more ideal had I written the job spec myself.

Let's hope office politics doesn't get in the way and prevent me from being offered this new role.

A Big Decision

yep, after loads of thinking about it, weighing up the pro's and con's, I've decided to sell my car.

It will be an interesting experience to be car-free, having owned a car since I was 17. But the fact of the matter is that I just don't drive it.

Its impossible to park in London even on Sundays and the cost of car tax, insurance, MOT and servicing is getting ridiculous when I only really drive the car short distances on weekends.

I used to need the car for work but not any more. And I don't mind using trains to get to places out of London - I can read and relax rather than getting wound up by all the traffic that seems to be on the roads, no matter what time of day or night.

I guess I'll need to make a couple of adjustments - shopping online for starters.

But the money I'll save I can use for cab fares when I need to. Or maybe for updating my kitchen.

My first "podcast"..... eventually, hopefully, kind of

ABC radio in Australia did an interview with me a few years ago. (You will need to have Real Player installed to listen to it.)

One of my friends in Sydney had "dobbed me in" to them as an expat who they could talk to on air about what it was like living away from home.

It was fun to do and the dj, Angela Catterns, was really friendly. (And living in London, you don't meet many genuinely friendly people, which is sad.)

Since the interview, ABC radio have phoned me a few other times just to get my thoughts as an expat on London and Aussie stuff. And they even phoned me on 7/7 to check I was ok - how sweet.

Anyway, I recently found the link to the interview while tidying up my pc and thought it might be interesting to add it to this blog. Unfortunately the interview itself is in real audio format rather than mp3 and I can't convert it directly as the file sits on ABC's server. (See below).

But on the bright side, its their bandwidth and not mine that you use if you listen to it!

I hope it works ok and is more successful than the boardI added to my family history site this weekend - which seems to crash for Aussie users, as I found to my dismay this morning. Oh well.

This weekend has been nothing but a series of technical problems ............ maybe I oughta stick to reading books.

The best and worst of London

The Sydney Morning Herald web site recently ran an article about The Best and Worst of British.

It was actually about the fun and perils, well mostly perils, facing any young Aussie backpacker who ventures over to London for a working holiday.

The "worst" fell into three areas:

- accommodation and how expensive it is

- employment and the British working culture

- public transport, particularly the tube

No surprises really.

But once you work out ways of dealing with them, London is still a great city and has loads to offer visitors.

Ok, it might also be overcrowded and dirty but tell me a place that isn't these days. I hear even Sydney, god forbid, has started to go downhill and Melbourne is now "the" place to be in when you live in Oz.

Work, work, work

Apparently, last Friday was Work your Proper Hours day.

This is one of those subjects, like smoking and hunting, that everyone seems to have a strong view on. You are either for or against it, you either do it or you don't and having a day to "celebrate it" - like National Non Smoking day - is probably not going to change your attitude or behaviour.

Personally, I can't remember a time when I worked my "proper hours", apart from when they coincided with the hours in which I could actually work. e.g. the hours when the shop was open.

[But retail staff probably can't even do that anymore, unless they do 16 hour shifts or longer, I guess.]

And its never bothered me. Perhaps like a lot of people, I just work to get the job done because I enjoy what I do.

But equally, if I ever feel I need a break from work, I just take it. And this is more likely to do with someone or something that has really annoyed me to the extent that I adopt the "flight not fight" mentality - than with the hours I have worked. I'll just shuffle my commitments around so I can leave work early or go in late until I feel ready to cope with the situation again. No big deal.

What I did find interesting was the article in the Guardian which said that, according to new research, public sector staff work longer hours than their city counterparts.

Having worked in both the public sector (for 8 years) and now a city-type organisation for the past 7 years, I find this laughable.

For a start, most public sector workers I knew then and now get paid overtime. Or if its not overtime, its flexitime. Whereas city businesses, like the one I work for, pay no overtime at all apart from to junior staff. So public sector workers often have an incentive to claim longer hours.

I can't recall any public sector colleagues, apart from some schoolteachers I know, ever working weekends doing unpaid overtime. However, I have known loads of city workmates who have spent Sundays travelling to get to their place of work for the next week - unpaid of course.

And when I think back to my public sector days, I probably worked just as many hours as I do now. Except that I got credit for the extra hours in the form of flexitime, which equated to around 6 extra weeks, yes weeks, a year holiday!

Which meant 6 weeks of not working - as opposed to 6 weeks' of extra hours simply given to my city employer.

Public sector workers work longer hours? Next, they will be saying that chocolate doesn't actually make you fat.

Free tours on International Tourist Guide Day

According to the BBC London web site, this weekend is International Tourist Guide Day.

Just like guides around the world, London's Blue Badge guides will be kicking off free walks around London on the hour every hour from 10am to 3pm on Saturday and Sunday. Their walks usually cost around £5 per person, I think.

Walks will mainly start from mainline train stations such as Kings Cross, Waterloo, Liverpool Street and Victoria.

For more information, check out the Blue Badge Guides web site.

Sounds like fun. Might even have a break from my family history research and do one of these walks myself.

The family records centre

I have recently started documenting and digging further into my family history (10 convicts and counting).

Many of my ancestors came from England and so when I read that the Family Records Centre in Islington, north London was holding a free family history talk, I took the opportunity to go along to it.

After encountering the modern day Dick Turpin (in the form of Westminster parking inspectors), I found my way into the centre. - Tip 1: if you are going, either go by public transport or be prepared to pay £6.50 to park in the NCP parking centre near Bowling Green Alley.

So what does the centre hold? Basically, the ground floor contains shelves and shelves of big books listing births, deaths and marriages that have been registered in England and Wales from 1837. And loads of people pouring over them.

And the first floor contains things like census records, held either in microfilm, microfiche or on computers. And loads of people peering into them.

Its a place where time has been documented yet also stands still. You can lose yourself for hours among all the records. Tip 2: before you go there, have a bit of an idea of what you are looking for and take some basic information with you. Great grandmother's possible birth years, the names of the people who once lived in your house 100 years ago, whatever. This helps you to make the most of your visit, in my view.

I didn't manage to find any specific records to help fill in the gaps in my family history, but I did eliminate some possibilities. I now know that poor Emily May, whose husband James Wall died when she was only 25 years old, didn't die in the ten years that followed his death in 1904.

So I guess she got remarried - sigh, time to go back to the Family Records Centre again, when I have more information.

Leaving London - when and why?

Every year - usually between January and March, when the weather in London is grim - I think about heading back to Oz.

And so it happened today. There I was, sitting at my laptop at 7 am on a cold and drizzly "day" (still pitch black, really, outside.)

In accordance with my usual work morning routine, I browse the Sydney Morning Herald web site over coffee, just to check the place is still there and the natives haven't been too restless while I've been sleeping. And on the home page this morning is an advert for new waterside apartments at Twin Waters, on the Sunshine Coast.

Any place with such a happy name deserves a look - and besides, I already happen to own an apartment in that area so it sort of feels like my second home anyway (even though I've never seen it - long story.)

So, looking at the photos, it got me thinking (again) about why I would want to leave London.

• crowds
• rubbish on streets
• the general cost of living
• has to be, the weather
• rude or unfriendly people

Now, I would probably also get most of the above if I moved back to Sydney - so I'm not. But somewhere with loads of sunshine, brilliant, clean, uncrowded beaches, plentiful tropical fruit and not too many people sounds just ideal to me, sitting here in London at this time of year.

The question is, when will I bite the bullet and make the move. After living in London for nearly 17 years, it will be tricky. I mean, there's 17 years of accumulated crap, for starters. Maybe I'll do what I did when I left Oz to come here all those years ago - bring over what I could carry in a backpack and sell the rest.

Maybe next year.......... or the year after.......... or maybe after that...................

English icons

http://www.icons.org.uk/

The Government has launched a web site to allow people to nominate their favourite English icons. Among those listed include the routemaster bus, stone henge, a cup of tea and the FA Cup.

You can also vote for them at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4594660.stm

Personally, my favourites are stone henge, the red phone box, the traditional circular red post box, routemaster buses and Tower Bridge. Sadly, only two really exist anymore.

I'm surprised that Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and Big Ben didn't make it onto the BBC's list. Friends from Australia often have these at the top of their lists to see.

Rail fares

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Passenger groups condemn rail fare rises

another great reason for working from home as much as possible.

Its incredible to think that people pay thousands of pounds a year to commute into London in cramped, smelly, unreliable trains.

Give me buses anytime - and its one more reason for living close to where I work, in London.