Running away...

I may have mentioned previously that I was trying to get in shape and train to run 5K... that plan did a bit of a collapse through the summer when I found that working 12 hour days just really was not conducive to running when I got home at 9pm. Plus it was hot. ;) So unfortunately the plan sort of fizzled and died.

But all is not lost! My new friend AT and I decided to start running on our lunch breaks - we often have an hour or two in the middle of the day with nothing on, and it's nice to get out of the clinic and break up a long day. There's a shower at work so we can hose off if we need to, so no real excuses! So we started a couple of weeks ago with just running down to Wimbledon town and walking back, and each time tried to push it a bit further. We try to go at least twice per week,and a couple of times have also stopped off at the gym where she has a membership and done some weights as well. (I figure the cost of the occasional guest pass is cheaper than a membership!) I am amazed at the results already! I don't know that I look any different or have lost any weight, but in terms of conditioning it is incredible. I just went out for a run by myself tonight and ran 21 minutes without any breaks. I ran about 3.2K. The trick, of course, is keeping it up because it doesn't take long to lose any conditioning, but it's like all the runners say - once you get hooked you actually want to go. It's crazy!

Only one more day of work and then we're off to Ireland! I'm so excited, I can't wait - I've wanted to go to Ireland for so long and now I'm finally going! I don't know if we'll have internet access much while we're gone, so don't panic if there aren't any blog updates next week. I'll get the synopsis posted as soon as I can.

Later!

Money matters

So just how worried should I be about the economy right now? All anyone can talk about is the "current economic environment" and how we're all in trouble. I've even started to wonder how secure my own job is... Not that I've been given any reason to believe that it's in trouble, but you do start to wonder when everywhere you turn there's concern about the economy. I have been fortunate in my chosen profession as it is generally not hard to find work. But I guess all bets are off in a new country. It's kind of too bad, really, because it makes me hesitant to spend any money on traveling, etc, in case I end up needing savings to fall back on. It seems really unfortunate that now as we have embarked on this new adventure, instead we need to save our pennies and not enjoy it. Excellent timing...

And speaking of economic downturns, it was announced today that Zoom airlines have abruptly gone out of business. The major way this affects me is that the Singer and Serdic were booked to fly on Zoom in 2 weeks - but fortunately they were able to rebook with Air Canada, and are assured that they will get a refund from Zoom. If you were reading my blog a few months ago, you will know that Noise, Buggy and I also flew over on Zoom, and I am eternally grateful that they didn't go bankrupt and strand us at the airport with our dog! We've still got a couple of years before we worry about how to get Buggy home again.

And speaking of home, I had a client ask me today which part of Canada I'm from!! She claims that she didn't see my maple leaf pin and that she pegged me from my accent. Yay! I wanted to give her a prize!

I am working this weekend, and have to admit that I am 100% NOT looking forward to it. But then I am off for a week so surely I can survive a couple of days! I wouldn't say that I'm feeling depressed or anything, but I am a bit lonely now that the PetParents have gone home and Noise is out of town, so it will be really nice to head off to Ireland and have a bit of a break. And then it will be time for the next visitors! Also, a good friend from Ottawa told me yesterday that she is coming to London in October, so more to look forward to!

Today I took the vespa to work, so I could come home at lunch and take Buggy out. What a treat to come home, have lunch, and take him for a run in the park in the middle of the day! I am doing the same tomorrow as we don't know for sure how late Noise will be in getting home, but Saturday I will be back on the tube.

That's all for now! Later!

Travel time!

We've been so busy lately with our guests that our first out-of-country trip has snuck up on me! We are actually planning three trips over the next few months, with more to come I'm sure! It's so interesting here how easy it is to travel from country to country. The flight from London Heathrow to Dublin is about the same time as flying from Ottawa to Toronto. And costs significantly less. We are both flying to Dublin for about the same cost as one person flying Ottawa to Toronto. Our plan is to arrive in Dublin and head out right away to drive down around the south and southwest coast. We're spending the first night in Waterford, hoping to get there in time for a tour of the crystal factory. Then we're driving along to a town called Kenmare, with a stop along the way at Ardmore. One of my favourite Nora Roberts triologies is set in Ardmore and I am thrilled at the chance to visit this little seaside village myself. From Kenmare we are driving around the Ring of Kerry, and the next day will have an equally scenic drive around the Dingle Peninsula. The night between we are staying in Dingle Town, and then the next night in Doolin. Along the way there we will also be seeing the Cliffs of Mohr. From Doolin we return to Dublin for two nights to explore the city. I think it will be a jam-packed trip, but there should be time for everything we want to see. I'm so excited! Visiting Ireland has been at the top of my list for so many years, I can't believe I'm finally going!

I mentioned previously that we were considering a weekend in Stockholm, but that has been revised now. The reason for going to Stockholm was to see a hockey game between the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburgh Penguins. But the tickets we were hoping to get on ebay went for more than we wanted to spend, and we don't really want to plan a whole weekend around the hopes of getting tickets on the street when we get there. So instead we've decided to use the long weekend to scratch Paris off our list! No actual plans yet, but we're thinking we'll take the train across, and I still need to figure out exactly what part of the city we'd like to stay in. Any suggestions?

And finally we have a 4-day weekend planned in Berlin in December to visit the Christmas markets. Our friends P&K suggested this as a nice weekend away, so we decided to check it out! We got a cheap flight to Berlin (£116 return for both of us!) but we still need to decide on a hotel. This should be a relaxing weekend away with nothing more to do than wander the markets and have hot chocolate! I bought a new coat today (shhh, Noise doesn't know about it yet, but he can't be too upset, it was only £13!) and am already envisioning myself wandering Berlin in it!

The Singer and Serdic will be winging their way towards us in 2 weeks! Noise showed me an ad in the paper for a birthday concert in Hyde Park for Andrew Lloyd Webber, and it happens to be on the weekend that they will be here! For those of you who don't know the Singer, she is the biggest musical theatre fan there is, so I was not surprised when she jumped at the chance to go. So I've ordered us 4 tickets and am really looking forward to it! Lots of musical theatre stars will be performing ALW's music, and then the show is capped off by fireworks. Sounds like fun, eh?

Noise is out of town for a few days, so it's just me and Buggy. Tomorrow I am planning to take the vespa to work, which will be a first for me! That way I can come home on my lunch break and take Buggy for a walk, so he doesn't have to hold it for the whole day while I'm at work (usually Noise takes him out in the morning after I've left). Driving the vespa doesn't worry me, it's a lot of fun! But I have this fear of not being able to get it started!

I started mapping out our Ireland route today on AutoRoute until I discovered that half the roads in Ireland are missing from the map - even roads that look pretty major! So I'm not sure that we'll take the GPS after all, as it won't be much use to us if it just shows us as a dot in the middle of nowhere with no roads. We'll have to do it the old fashioned way, I guess, with a paper map!

Anyhow, I'd best be off! I'll keep you posted with plans and reports from Ireland! Later!

On our own again...

Well you may have noticed that I haven't been keeping my blog updated very well lately. No excuses, but the fact is we've had houseguests for the past 4 weeks and haven't had a lot of time to spend on the computer. I am trying to catch up on uploading photos to get caught up again.

The PetParents just left today after 11 days here in London. It was a great visit, and I think they got a nice mix of sightseeing and visiting. See their blog for their side of things! PetDad posted descriptions of everything they did while they were here along with photos. It was great having them here and I have been a bit worried about whether I would get depressed once they left - but I think I will be ok because we're planning lots of trips through the fall and also the Singer and Serdic are coming in 2 weeks! And we're spending one of those weeks in Ireland! So still lots to look forward to. But it was hard to hang back and watch them walk away through security at Heathrow today...

While Noise and I had to work while they were here, we did manage to get some outings in. Most notably we spent a 3-day weekend in Cornwall. Although the weather was not fantastic (it could have been worse and rained the whole time...) we still had a great time and will have many good memories from this trip. We saw some beautiful scenery and some interesting places. We rented a car for the trip and a lot of the fun came from the driving. Some of the roads we were on were barely wide enough for our car, let alone the traffic coming the other way! But with only a few screams and just once when PetMom had to hide her eyes, we made our destinations. The PetParents brought their GPS and we loaded the European version of Streets and Trips onto our laptop so getting lost was never an option! I have uploaded the Cornwall photos here. We spent the first night in Penzance (the only pirates we saw seemed to be drunk, so we steered clear...), then the second night in a fantastic little village called Boscastle. This was near Tintagel where we visited the castle purported to be the birthplace of King Arthur. It was gorgeous there, but a lot of work to climb all the steps! We also visited St Ives, where we also had to climb down a mountain and back up again to our car. On the last day we stopped in Devon to visit Clovelly, an amazing little town built onto the side of a cliff. No cars are allowed in the town and it is a steep hike down a slippery cobbled lane to the town. It was raining while we walked down (and also while we walked back up!) but while we were down at the harbour the clouds cleared and the sun came out. Clovelly was one of my grandmother's favourite places, so we particularly wanted to visit there in her memory.

This weekend we made a day trip down to Bognor Regis on the southern coast. Close friends of our family (my grandparents' very good friends) live in the village of Felpham. We spent the afternoon there with J and his daughters and had a lovely lunch, then a walk down to the seaside. J has an amazing garden which hasn't changed much from when we last visited in 1995. In fact the whole house felt exactly the same. It was lovely to see them. I have posted some photos here.

Yesterday Noise had to work, but the PetParents and I went down to Trafalgar Square to watch the Olympic Closing Ceremonies on the big screen there. Of course the Olympic Flag was handed over to London to host the next Summer Games in 2012, so it was a bit of a party! It was a really neat experience to be part of the London crowd celebrating the beginning of their turn as hosts. We were glad we decided to go!

And now we're on our own again. The PetParents should be arriving home in just under 2 hours and then their trip will be complete. We are flying to Dublin a week today,and then a few days after we come back The Singer and Serdic will arrive! So much to look forward to! But for now I really must go finish the laundry! Until later!

Do I Make Too Much Money...?

Today I paid to use the 'loo.

I have done many things in my life in order to get myself to a toilet, with varying degrees of success. No, I have never not made it and messed myself...I just may have had to use whatever facilities were available (that's just one of many benefits of being a boy). But I have never had to pay to use a washroom. For those who have been to London, or any major European city, the thought of paying for a pee won't be too foreign. And I have seen many pay toilets in my two months here...it's just I have never had to use one.

But this story isn't about my toilet needs...(thankfully for both the reader and me...). Nor is it really about how much money I make - I just thought that would grab your attention, and would be nicer than titling this post as "My 50pee pee" (although that's pretty funny...LMAO). But isn't it a bit pretentious to pay $1 CAD to...well, I have said it already...pee?

Speaking of pretentious, let me tell you why I had to pay 50p for my toilet use. Not the biological reason, because I don't understand the human body very well. I do know that if I drink water, I have to go. But really, the pretentious bit is about me living in London (reader, please read: "ha ha I live in London and you don't" this time)...

It not being too busy at work right now, I took off at the appointed time. It's a treat to leave at 17:30 because, when work's on, I am lucky to get out much before 20:00 or even 23:00!!! So with the extra time in my schedule tonight, and it not raining at the moment, I took the opportunity to walk a bit towards home instead of just getting on the tube.

My office is located just on the West end of the City of London (we'll have to provide details at another point for those who are not familiar with the boroughs of London, but "the City" is just one of many boroughs), which means it's quite near some of the major attractions of London in Westminster (another borough), including - Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Westminster Abbey.... So I headed down Fleet Street toward all these great sites. Fleet Street is actually another famous attraction in that it's the historic home of the British press until the 1980's. Now it's synonymous with the Law as it's home to the Temples and all the lawyer's chambers. On the way I passed the Olde Cheshire Cheese - which is London's oldest pub, dating to 1667 (the year after the great fire of London in 1666).

I eventually made it to my mini destination, which was Trafalgar Square. Apart from a site of various momuments to England's history, the National Gallery and of course, Canada House (the embassy), it's a centre for all sorts of public events. I knew that for the Olympics they are showing the BBC coverage on a giant screen, so I thought I would check out the crowds. With my unintentional, yet impeccible, timing I arrived just as they were showing the recap (but new to me) of the women's 400m freestlye race where Britons won the gold and the bronze. Now, London being full of tourists and ex-pats, you are more likely to bump into someone not from London than you are someone who actually was born and raised even in England. But when the race was over, there was quite a loud cheer from the crowd. I don't think it was because someone from Great Britain won, but because she beat the American!!!

Once that was over, I decided to head down to the Westminster tube station to catch a ride home. This meant I walked down Whitehall - covering numerous historic government buildings and then No. 10 Downing Street - all with the sites of Parliament and Big Ben in the near distance. (Side note - does anyone know what Big Ben is...? Nope - it's not the clock tower! It's the largest bell inside the clock that chimes the hour. And another useless gem of information, Big Ben is actually cracked and therefore has an imperfect sound...thought you'd like to know). I soon arrived at the tube station, and after paying my 50p (see above), I headed home.

Now why am I telling you all this...because how cool was it that I was able to just pass all these sites on my way home for the night?! Not just as part of a trip but as part of my routine of living and working in London. I thought how nice it would have been to have my camera with me...but then, hey, I can go tomorrow...

Catching up

It's been a long time since I wrote on my blog! Life has just been so busy, but not in a way that I think would be interesting to my readers, so I haven't taken the time to post anything... Anyway, I'll catch you up now!

The major reason I've been busy is that J and S have been here and on all my days off I've been hanging with them. The day they arrived I went and met them at Victoria (and the whole "meeting place" is not so effective if it's hard to find...) and helped them back here to drop off their luggage. We did a bit of a London overview that day - seeing the major sights without any depth. We did a bit of a walking tour from Big Ben up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, then over to Picadilly Circus and Leicester Square, then down to Tower Bridge. From there we wandered along the South Bank to London Bridge and then home again. On the weekend we went to Covent Garden for dinner, and Saturday night we decided on a whim while at Leicester Square to go see Chicago! It was great, we really enjoyed it. I think for the next show I want a big sweeping musical though - J and S are talking about seeing Les Miserables tomorrow night, which I think would be high up on my list to see as well. Sunday we visited Camden Lock market and spent several happy hours there perusing the stalls. Another place on the list to take other visitors!

On Tuesday we did some more touristy things - including finally seeing St. Paul's! I love St. Paul's, it is so beautiful inside. Unfortunately we arrived near to closing time and ended up having to rush a bit. We did climb up to the whispering gallery, though - all 257 steps, and then from there another 350 steps to the next two levels to see the view over London. J only had one asthma attack along the way... The steps were so narrow and curving, I was surprised that they actually let people climb them, at least without a waiver form! We also visited the British library, which I enjoyed. The notable items for me there were all the Beatles memorabilia (ie the original scribbled lyrics to Yesterday, lyrics written on envelopes and greeting cards, and so on), the original Shakespeare publications, handwritten music by Beethoven, complete with notes scratched out and corrected, and Da Vinci's notebooks. Our other stop was the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone and the Egyptian mummies, but unfortunately the crowds were out in force by the time we got there so it was a bit busy.

Yesterday J and I went shopping on Oxford St. It took us all day to walk the length of Oxford St and visit all the shops. We both bought a few things, but didn't go too crazy.

More big news is that we bought a barbeque last weekend! We just bought a small one, but one that runs on propane rather than charcoal as it's more efficient that way. We got the biggest propane tank so that hopefully we won't need to refill it too often, as the only way to do that is really to take a cab.

We're in the midst of planning some trips as well - besides the week in Ireland that I'm sure I've already mentioned, which we are now booking hotels for, we're also looking at a weekend in Stockholm in October and a long weekend in Berlin in December to visit the Christmas markets! This is what we wanted to be able to do while we were here - jet off to other countries inexpensively and experience other cities. So here we go!

I'm working 7 days straight now, with my next day off not until Thursday - which is the day the PetParents arrive! So although it will be a long haul through the 7 days (1 down, 6 to go!) that will be my reward at the end of it. Of course, on my first day off after 7 in a row I am planning to get up at 5am to go meet them at Heathrow! But that's my own choice.

Well I'd best be off to help make some dinner! I'll try to be better at keeping the blog updated! Until later!