Sun is finally coming up...

... at a decent hour. Was walking to the tube station this week, I think I took this on Monday, and suddenly it dawned on me it was not black as night. I was out walking around and it was almost daylight - well there was the blush of dawn, anyway. Hallelujah - I think the days are getting noticeably shorter. Surely summer is around the corner. But is doesn't matter because tomorrow I'm leaving for a trip to the US; first San Francisco, then Phoenix and finally Madeira Beach to hang out with my family. Yay, sun and the beach.

BedZED

BedZED was VERY interesting. I haven't got all the back story on the development; rumors are rife about over budget and not great urban design, but the two-story home that I saw was very beautiful. Helen and her partner are very happy one month into their ownership.

The development is very serious about zero-emissions. We were there on a cold day and once you were inside you couldn't tell it was cold outside and they hadn't turned on the heat since they had moved in. The details in the houses are great; neat and modern wood window frames and some concrete walls. The glass on the southern side would have given me pause but as was pointed out repeatedly, south facing doesn't necessarily mean hot here in the UK. I will withhold agreement until I visit in July!

Proud owners, in front garden. Note the wind cowls on the roof, they move like ballet dancers swinging around in the wind, drawing out stale air and exchanging it with fresh air.

Better picture of roof cowls and grass roof sections. I should have noticed the station wagon in the foreground; perhaps its electric - probably not.

Note the cat

Just to show you that it is sunny during the day in London, in the winter, on occasion, I opened the window at my posh new office and leaned out to take the picture above. This building across Hatton Garden, is currently going through regeneration. There are still a few folks left in the building; who of whom apparently was bothered by birds and set out a cat on the window. Look closely, third set of windows from the top, third sill from the right. I think its a fake cat since it hasn't moved in the two months we've been here

footprints in the snow

OK its sad tale when all you can say is that yesterday I saw this bird print in the snow and I took a picture. We are working on the twenty-millionth iteration of a document at work and thus going a bit stir crazy, so I don't get out much; except to walk to and from work.

Big news is that this weekend I am going to a house warming in BedZED! All planners will be thrilled at my report. For those of you NOT in the know BedZED is the Beddington Zero Energy Development is the UK's largest carbon-neutral eco-community. Hopefully it will result in better pictures than bird feet in the snow.

Look, it snowed!

Woke up this morning and LOOK it snowed. All of London was grinding to a halt but it sure was pretty. It reminded me of Atlanta, all the northerners would make fun of us because we wouldn't drive in the snow. The city would grind to a halt, here they do have large boxes on street corners labeled "grit" which I presume contains salt (but again reminded me of the ATL - grit/grits get it? get it?. What ever it is is was pretty good at making the sidewalks and roads passable.

Last week it was gale-level winds this week it is snow - flooding and pestilence must be heading this way.

This is an interior shot of the Liverpool Street Station. It is a redeveloped station (I think, I should look that up).

It houses a tube station as well as rail and bus connections. Its right next to a regenerating area. Spitalfield (thanks for the edit, Dad) market is not far away - remember the post about Bubba's Arkasas BBQ? That was in Spitalfields. The market is full of trendy young designer booths. It was fun visiting the market again, still didn't visit Bubba's though. Had Tapas, which was very good. Although there were ham legs drying out above your heads that was a bit disconcerting...

Back to Liverpool Station "Standing at the northern edge of the City, Liverpool Street Station is one of the capital's busiest commuter stations.

Opened in 1874, it was built for the Great Eastern Railway (GER) to serve east London, Essex and East Anglia. There was also a connection to the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway. The building was designed by E. Wilson, chief engineer of the GER, who also designed Gothic-style offices and entrance.

The Great Eastern Hotel, built in 1884, and extended in 1901, was designed by Charles Barry, whose father worked with Pugin on the Houses of Parliament."

OK, so now you know.

Sign 3

What can I say about this sign? I call it the campfire dog - or perhaps the non- campfire dog. It is embedded in the sidewalk on Nuttly Terrance.

Since there are innumerable signs around threatening harsh punishment for "fouling the sidewalk" I assume they don't mean no campfires for dogs...

Sign 4

I swear this is th last in this series (but be warned this topic will be aproached again.) Now these signs apprear where everthere is a road being ripped up - which is a lot of places. I just really have a laugh becasue the company name at the top always changes bu tthe message is always the same.

Why is this so funny? First off, companies are always plural, never sigular, here in the UK. So The Electrical Company are always working and the London Gas Company are always tearing up the streets. Secondly, who has ever heard a construction comapny apologise for anything? And finally, how is it they still manage to seem polite, asking you forgiveness for completely blocking the streets? I don't drive here so I'm not really bothered by it but the traffic jam on my residentail street is monumental ever morning.

So that's my current round up of sign to show you. They are always taken in the dark because - well, I may have already mentioned this but - well, its dark here a lot especially this time of year.

Have a great weekend.

Signs 1

One of the thigs that I find very interesting about living here is how different the signs and symbols are. So I'm going to show you just a few over the next couple of posts. This one makes every visitor from a non-left hand drve country laugh. "Look right" or "Look Left" is stenciled on the edge of every cross walk I've seen.

Speaking of which they are called zebra crossings here or pelican crossings. The zebra I get becasue of the stripes on the road. However, I've yet to hear a decent explanation for the "pelican."

But I digress, the look warning are great reminders that the dang traffic is coming from the direction you are not expecting.

Sign 2

Now this is a sign. Check out the dragons and the colo(u)rs. Once you get over that you can begin to concentrate on the fact that its directing you to places called "poultry" and "cheapside."

Now, you would think that there would be TONS of jokes about this - but no, I've never even heard a slight titter of laughter. They are deadly serious about Cheapside and Poultry - which happen to be streets in the center of the city.

So I've decided they made the sign so magnificent to prevent any potential snickering by loud Americans who might dare to make a joke. What do you think?

J is the center of the world

Here's my friend J standing astride the 0 meridian in Greenwich. This picture was taken over the hols when J and E were visiting. That's when I got to do some serious tourist things. Getting J to stand here was THE most tourist thing I've done yet!

It was a great day out, though. The Royal Observatory was full of fabulous things - it made me go home and wind up my mantle clock (after J&E left because it rings very loud on the hour) so I could enjoy the ticking and the bonging. Then we went to the Maritime museum (after the obligatory lunch at Trafalgar's pub) which was even cooler than the observatory. Lots and lots of old boats and maritime history - highly recommended.

Fascinated

OK I'll admit it, I'm spending way too much time listening to the radio, since I have moved. But frankly the radio here is good. I don't know how I lived such a long portion of my life without BBC Radio 4. I am completely hooked. You know those weird game shows they do on National Public Radio? Well, now I know where they get the ideas from. There's one Saturday morning show called "just a minute" where the whole premise seems to revolve around someone not hesitating or repeating words but speaking on a randomly assigned topic for 60 seconds. Here's the website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/justaminute.shtml)- you can listen on line.

Now the next terribly fascinating thing is Russell Brand. He's this odd fellow who dresses like a Victorian dandy/goth, with a big ratted pouf on the top of his head. He is currently everywhere on TV and radio. Of course he has his own Radio 2 show. Its Saturday nights so I don't normally catch it due to my hyper active social life (cough) so I have to catch the podcasts - which you can do here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/brand/biography.shtml)

I have no idea why I am so fascinated by this guy with a very high voice and accompanying London accent, but its sort like watching a train wreck you cannot pull your eyes away (except in this case its your ears; but you know what I mean). Its all weirdly compelling.

Lunch with planners

Never a dull moment with planners. Here are some intrepid staffers plotting our next move on a map of London.

Actually, these longer-term Londoners were amazed at my newest pop-up map of London. I've had some trouble getting lost and now I never do becasue I always know where I am.

Cast Away

Sadly, Christmas must be over. The streets of London are filling up with cast off trees. Very little tinsle on the trees; I wonder if that is an American thing?

I really enjoyed my first Christmas here, although the train AND bus both being shut down on Christmas Day could have casued some problems for those like me with no other form of transit.

It was sad to take down all my lovely decorations (I find it hard to believe I just wrote that down - sounds sooooMartha Stewart) but it does mean you have to concetrate on the New Year and getting on with it - now if I can just figure out what "it" is.

Henry and his truck

So Henry (see very first blog entry) is now actually sitting up and smiling and enjoying life. Best of all he really loves the totally-boy truck I got him for Christmas. All my feminist, non-sexist toy-picking went out the window when I saw that great wooden toy truck and Marks and Spenser's. Next year a digger and a front loader...

Loved this; Cactus Christmas

Cannot claim it as my own, its from my friends Jen and Bob from their cross-country trip. Really looks like Christmas doesn't it?

Christmas at Sian's new flat

Oh the joys of being able to access my blog! Yay! I'm back in communication. Blogger is out of beta and I am using Mozilla Firefox and so I can easily log in now, all is right with the world on this lovely January Day.

OK, so its not lovely in fact at 4 its dark and I haven't had the required amount of chocolate that I have been used to over the last week. On the other hand, its warm inside and I get to go home in a couple of hours and watch the (hopefully) recorded version of Torchwood a weird sci-fi program that I have grown to love not only becasue its set in Cardiff - but also becasue its weird and I think comes out of Dr. Who.

Did I mention it gets dark early here? Thus I need to watch more tv in January. Thanks for all those lovely notes at christmas, I'll write y'all back soon. BTW, this is my flat looking out into the back garden with a way-to-big tree stuffed in the dining area. Hope your holidays were grand.