Dylan

Morgana's too freaked out to come out from under the bed but Dylan is always up for a walk around. So far so good.

He looks like he's saying, "Where the heck am I now?"

White Spring

OK, I'll stop but boy oh boy am I glad its spring here.

Purple Spring

All three of this weeks photos have been taken on my walk to the tube in the morning. These gates are usually closed so I got a great flowering picture and a view into the little courtyard. The longer I live with out a car, the more amazed I am at how much space they take up in our daily lives. I could have cropped out the car but its just such an interesting juxtaposition quaint little house draped in purple with a car nestled in for the night.

Pink Spring

As this tree loses its blossoms, the ground is covered with tiny pink petals. It looks like a carpet of spring.

Yellow Spring

I know its looks like I've gone all bonkers and garden-y but you cannot imagine the joy to walk around in London right now. Its sunny and everything is blooming. I think for at least a week this blog is gonna be about flowering things. We will get back to the silly signs later.

Polite Notice

This was new to me, the phrase "polite notice." IN the US, I think we would say "Warning" or "Attention" and then go on to say that if you put your bike here we are going to cut off the lock and haul it away. Some how this seems so civilized. The best part is that this sign is on a fence across from St. Paul's Cathedral, so politeness was probably required. I also wondered since the sign is dated, that if you had left your bike there prior to 21 January 2002 it would have remained there unmolested?

British Sandwiches

British Sandwiches, they are nothing to write home about but they are cheap, fast and everywhere. The fact that there is an British Sandwich Industry Award will improve the situation, I'm sure.

Special Greeting on the Celebration of my Birth

I have a history of REALLY celebrating my birthday... for a week. My friend Suz once accused me of making it the whole month. So I'm scaling back to just the week. But its a big week because its my parents wedding anniversary, my birthday, Queen Elizabeth's birthday, then my father's birthday - all in one week! So, of course, there is celebrating and phoning across the Atlantic, and singing into message machines the "Happy Birthday" song as terribly off key as you possibly can. I wonder if the Queen feels left out? Perhaps her relatives do the same thing.

Now that I think of it, I have been know as the queen of the world - QOTW for short - so perhaps I should have a special day all of my own which my subjects will celebrate as they will. Its good to be the queen.

No. No. No. No.

This pub was very sure of itself becasue the sign it has posted on the street says (can you read it?) "No Smoking, No Credit Cards, No Mobile Phones, No Cameras, No Backpackers."

I ignored the no cameras, no phones bit and took a picture of the sign. When I went inside with my friends, I discovered where Bennigans and other US faux pubs get their decor ideas from. This pub was an original, if-you-like-something-hang- it-on-the-wall-pub. It was reputed to be very unfriendly to non-regulars. Hence, the warnings I suppose. But they did serve good drink.

Went to Cornwall for Easter Hols

These Brits do holidays (vacation days) right. At Easter, we take off Good Friday and Easter Monday. I can remember trying to get through the vacation desert beginning of the year in the US with nothing from MLK Day to Memorial Day all the way in May! Not so here, in February and March many folks went skiing and now there's two days holiday at Easter yippee.

So for my first slew of holiday days, I talked a friend of mine into traveling. My companion of the road suggested Cornwall and driving around just to see things. It was excellent and I didn't take one picture. Oh, I'm sure I can dig up some links to pictures and places but the scenery was so great and the driving so perilous that I ignored the pictures and just enjoyed. Rugged cliffs, crashing seas, lambs gamboling across newly green fields, spiky hedgerows, unexpected daffodils, churches and villages; it was like being in an Agatha Christie novel without the dead bodies. I expected Tommy and Tuppence to attempt to pass us on those tight hedgerow roads. It was a visual feast and not one I could be bothered to try and capture.

London Lion Scarf

Lion Scarf - small
Originally uploaded by beagleskin.

Raising money for cancer research, the London stitch n' bitch knitting group knit giant scarves for the 4 lions at Trafalgar Square. Pretty cool, huh?

London certainly is a good place to be a knitter - perhaps because its so chilly or because pubs can be a great place to knit? There is a great Yahoo Group called Handknit UK and more than a few knitting groups. Since I've been here all I've been able to concentrate on is scarves and the occaisional baby sweater. Perhaps its time to get something a little more challenging going.

Remember the knitting in the dark pub headlamps? or what about the knitted Ferrari?

Florida Gators again

Breaking news...reporter-Mum sends an email to SFO-to-LON HQ to report that the University of Florida Gators (one of my Alma Mater Studiorum) have once again achieved some level of sports authority...

...(since you missed out on the Gators winning the football national championship) I'm here to tell you they won the (basketball) Final Four - March Madness - whatever - championship last night, and the strange thing is they beat Ohio State again. I bet there's a serious anti Florida feeling in Columbus today. Can a Waterford basketball be far behind??

- Mum

Please note that even my Mum knows that I have trouble with the seasons in sport and clearly points out that they have just one a basketball tournament. Pretty important distinction for someone like me who is still trying to figure out why they call it cricket anyway.

Coffee tardis and Porridge bar

I'm not sure how to explain this to y'all. But for a country where its bloody freezing most of the time' there are an awful lot of outside food vendors in the UK. These two happen to be from my recent farmers market collection.

Picture number one is a red tardis from the science fiction series on BBC, Dr. Who. It stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space and its shape is based on some sort of police box. I have no idea what the tie-in with coffee is but it seems to be workingbecasue I saw more than one of these. My Dad (AKA Male Parental Unit) has been a huge Dr. Who fan for years. So this food distribution access point is published for him.

The second picture is of Stoats' Porridge Bar. Another oddity, people in the UK (or in this case specifically Scotland) will stand in line to buy porridge with various toppings. I haven't discovered the difference between porridge (UK) and oatmeal (US); I think it may be the same thing. Its just that in the US, we eat oatmeal ONLY at home and only when its super cold out; here it seems to be considered a tasty treat to be enjoyed by the whole family.

Saturday in Edinburgh

In addition to the Orange walk, I quite a day in Edinburgh. I started by just wandering around and found the Edinburgh Saturday Farmers' Market - I must have farmers' market radar. Then I went up to the castle to check it out. Just adjacent to the castle is a Patrick Geddes (planner's take note) designed flats called 14 Ramsay Gardens. They have great views and must be right on top of the Tattoo. Its a weird location for such a fairy tale looking place. especially when you compare it to the castle. In the pictures I'm standing on that tarmac parking lot and just swinging around facing west to the castle and east to Ramsay Gardens.

Post Castle gawk, I visited the Whisky Heritage Centre - who could pass that up? It was that or the Wool Heritage Centre and Whiskey won out. You kind of have to see that for yourself. So I'll leave it at that.

Topography of Edinburgh

To give you an idea of the prominence of the castle, here's a (admittedly bad)picture of a sculpture of the city. That huge lump in the fore ground is the promontory on which the castle sits. To the immediate north is the New Town, with Princes Street and Princes Street Gardens between the castle and the gird of New Town.

Princes Garden and Scot Monument

As I may have mentioned the weather was amazing on Saturday in Edinburgh. Apparently it is rarely sunny and as you can see it was a clear and sunny day. All the benches in Princes Park were filled with folks soaking up the sun. I had to show this picture because this is a bustling downtown shopping area that was packed with residents and tourists. The park was a welcome respite from hustle and bustle.

Plus, I had to show the monument. Scot (born 1771) was sort of a professional Scotsman, he reinvigorated Scottish nationalism/historicism. After his death, a design competition was held, and won by George Kemp. John Steell carved the statue of Scott but its the Neo-Gothic monument above the statue that really sets it apart. The monument, inaugurated in 1846, stands 200 feet high. There are 287 steps to the top -- I did not climb it.

Just goes to show you that planning and design are really really cool.

Oh, goody, it is a parade...

I had an interesting day in Edinburgh on Saturday. The highlight of which was getting caught up in an "Orange Walk" which was not quite as friendly as I had thought it would be.

Coming from Florida I assumed there would be citrus involved . Anyway, after touring the new Scottish Parliament Building (short review: hugely over budget but absolutely fabulous building) all traffic on the Royal Mile was diverted so I had to walk back up the hill. That's when I started to see the worrying signs: huge police vans with riot shields, horses wearing riot gear, many many many police and a crowd of really really white people - a bit like stumbling across a KKK march in the South, I expect. But then there were the women and children divisions...

Weirdly, they were wearing band uniforms like high school bands in the Macy's Christmas Parade, playing drums and piccolos, and carrying signs saying "Defenders of the faith", "No Papacy" etc. Except for the signs, I expected the bands to suddenly stop and do a breakdown; you know like FAMU does when they are in a parade, but no they only just kept on marching - endlessly.

Basically, it was very surreal.

I never found out what the LOL on there insignia meant but a history of Orange Order can be found here.

Did I mention the women's accordian division?

Most of the drummers had tatoos

Train to Scotland

I've headed up to Scotland; Edinburgh to be specific. I have a peer review to participate in on Thursday and a talk to give on Friday then I am staying through Sunday just to soak up the city. It is a planner's dream.

There's the old town: the castle and south--all crazy shapes on hilly forms about a mile long and 400 yards wide according to my guidebook and then there is the new town: a rational planned 18th Century construction north of the castle.

Our office in Edinburgh is at the base of the castle in an old church building, oddly over looking the cemetery where Burke and Hare did their body snatching. Can't wait to see more of the city; but as far as offices go this one is quite scenic!

I decided to take the train which was the right thing to do. It takes about 4 hours but its comfortable, has a table and wireless internet. You can get a lot done in the quiet car of a train! Plus then after three hours the scenery starts to become amazing. It was green green green. and then as you get closer to Edinburgh you start seeing glimpses of water, I assume the Firth. There are some great views of really large estates (too big to be houses - I guess you could call them country houses in the British sense) not castles but BIG brick piles...

Pilates number 3

In my continuing effort to get outta the house, I signed up for 10 Pilates lessons. The first was two weeks ago and I could barely sit up for at least three days after that session. Last night, I had my third lesson; this time I didn't feel like I worked hard enough. Hmmm, does that make me a masochist or am I just getting a little bit better every time?

The funny thing about Pilates is that the movements are so small, my theory is you really have to pay attention or you can just fake the whole thing. Of course my "core" can be as strong as I like it but I need to start swimming again to really get the physical fitness level up. Its just that swimming isn't really social; and right now I need social.

On an unrelated note, I have become obsessed with Nina Simone - isn't (wasn't) she the most interesting, amazing vocalist? A couple of years ago I went to see Shirley Horn at the Masonic Hall in SF; amazing free tickets given to me by a friend. It was all about Shirley Horn after that. Nina and Shirley have completely unrelated style but yet somehow remind me of each other.

Bookclub - back in session

Much to my relief, Jenifer and Shannon have hooked me up with their old London book club. So on a blustery St. Pat's Saturday, I headed over to Muswell Hill to go to my second session of my latest book club. I was invited and attended in January - I'm just so stoked they invited me back! We read On Beauty by Zadie Smith, I really enjoyed it but thought that the whole north-east US collegiate setting was difficult to translate to non-US-ers. Not that they didn't understand it and I'm sure that the North London setting also had things in it that I didn't get. But most of all, I'm just happy to have folks to see on on evening who aren't work related.

We are going to be picture free for a while, same old technical difficulties. I'm hoping to get the photo-thing sorted before next weeks trip to Edinburgh. talk later.

My new favoraite place

This is a seat in the Reading Room of the British Library. Actually its at the British Museum, which used to surround the British Museum. It is a circular temple of knowledge inscribed within the square of the Museum. Of course the Library holdings completely outgrew the circular space so the Library itself moved up the road to the Kings Cross-St. Pancras neighborhood.

But the Reading Room remains at the center of the British Museum. It now has a beautiful glass dome connecting what I presume used to be a courtyard to the Museum itself. The dome is beautiful--lacy, airy and inviting. Plus the whole thing is FREE! Crikey, it is FREE to walk into that museum and stroll around through the amazing collection. OK, it is plundered from all around the world but, whatever, its astounding to just see all that stuff in one place. And then in the middle there is this library. I love libraries. Particularly old ones, with books. I could and do spend hours just wandering around looking at the books, thinking, "Maybe I really should read this volume on Textiles of Abyssinia?"

The point is this is my new favorite place in London; Seat E5, just near the little bit of a history section that the British Library has thoughtfully left there.

Who knew rhubarb was red?

More pictures from the market day. Proving once again that I don't eat enough vegetables, I took this picture because I didn't know rhubarb was red - or, frankly, that it looked so much like celery.

My only experience of rhubarb is reading about its poisonous leaves and as an ingredient in pies. Its the pie thing that makes it so confusing. A) Isn't it a vegetable? so B) why is it in fruit pies? and C) since its usually with a red fruit I always though it was being dyed in the pie. Not that it was actually red itself.

the things you learn by moving to another country. My mother reads this blog and she's going to be upset that I told the world I didn't know rhubarbs are red. It is really fine, Mum, I know a lot of other really important stuff!

Street signs

Gotta love the signs that spring up; this graffiti was sprayed on the wall of a picturesque house (in a run down and surely expensive) in an alley near Borough Market. I can imagine that the folks who lived there got sick of tourists taking pictures of the front so they gave us something to take a picture of.

P.S. I figured out how to get photos off my camera so now I don't have to worry about the silly camera and batteries issue, so look forward to more posts.

Cheese!

This weekend I went back to the neighborhood were I stayed when I was first in London and explored a bit deeper. This shot is from the interior of the Neal's Yard cheese shop at Burough Market. You walk in and the ceiling goes up 15 feet and its cheese stacked all the way up.

Its like walking into a Wallace and Grommit store; you can almost see Wallace twiddling his fingers saying "Wenselydale." They had two kinds of cheese for tasting. One of which I bopught a hunk of to go with the apples I bought at the market proper.

One small problem, my bag smelled like smelly cheese all day as I wandered around.

Coffee to go with the Cheese?

Next to the Neals Yard cheese shop is the Monmouth Coffee shop. Doesn't it look cosy? The line snaked out the door into the rainy street. It was still pretty early when I got there, and they told me that it really got a lot busier when its sunny and a bit later in the day.

I really think that this kind of food/veggie/coffee retail is not a flash in the pan. The Ferry Building in San Francisco, I just wrote off to the crazy food-culture of the Bay area. I am very interested to see how this kind of retail is doing in cities that are NOT London or San Francisco.

Another vending machine

This machine sells paperback books. I think its great, running through a train station - "oh damn, I need something to read. Look here's a machine selling books." Really cool.

Have I mentioned how much they read here in UK? Its very interesting to see everybody with their heads bent reading on trains; even if they are reading horrible crap newspapers.

My Tennessee Street neighbors hit the road...

day four sunset
Originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

and sent me pictures of their tour of northern California. The best part of this is that they now own my lovely red Cabrio. And they take pictures of it in wonderful locations. I don't miss the car but I enjoy seeing her out and about, doesn't she look lovely for eight years old?

cemetery near the office

Old Calton Cemetery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Originally uploaded by Doctor Beef.

Amazing Painted Hall - updated

Went to a very fancy dinner last Thursday night at the Painted Hall at the Naval College in Greenwich. It was an amazing room, luckily my camera is still acting up so I didn't even try and take a picture of its loveliness, so click on the above link to a 360 degree view of the room from BBC.

From a guide book here's a little background - Situated within the Old Royal Naval College, the Painted Hall was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1694 and was originally built to serve as the dining hall of Greenwich Hospital. The hospital was established for the relief and support of seamen and their dependants and for the improvement of navigation. It became the Royal Naval College in 1869, and recently the University of Greenwich has moved in.

It was here in January 1806 that the body of Lord Nelson lay in state after the Battle of Trafalgar as thousands came to pay their last respects to one of England’s finest Seamen. The paintings on the wall all represent a story or an event that happened, and took Sir James Thornhill 19 years to complete.

Dinner was to hear speakers from the British Antarctic Society, they have just design and will soon start building the next version of their research station called Halley VI. Full disclosure, a sister company of my employer did th engineering, which is why I was invited. The speakers were excellent and th eroom really was lovely.

Walking in Florida

So far behind, I haven't even posted the scary gator picture from my too-short visit to the 'rents in FLA. Picture was taken by my male parental unit while Mum and I were safely up on the overlook high up thing. To be honest, he was all the way across the lake-ette when he took the picture - but still brave.

I swear I'll go back to blogging about the UK and London soon.

Driving with Mum and Sis

My sister (who turned 40 this week! haha) lives in a little beach town near to St. Petersburg, Florida. The town is called Gulfport and its sort of an art/beach/sleepy/small town. Lots of colorful painted houses and its cool. This is a picture of the dragon of Gulfport, protecting one of the apartment houses. It has a sign which says, "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons; for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

Who would buy this?

How's this for being out of touch; on this trip I discovered that one of my alma maters - the University of Florida (go gators) - has won the national football championship. Now, even I would have know this had I been in the country but it didn't cross my radar screen in the UK. Imagine my shock at the closing dinner for the conference on Wednesday night when the conversation turned to football (and here I am required to say American football) and what school did you go to and national champions. I'm shocked I didn't even have a clue they were in the running; especially since I only left the US in November.

But this entry is really about this commemorative Waterford crystal football, advertised at the Macy's in Tyrone Square Mall. I hope I am not offending any gentle readers - but who would buy this!? and why is it in crystal? there are really so many questions that this brings up, what are your questions?

Moms and babies

Completely off topic--just to remind you the topic is me moving to London and the delights I find there--I was in San Francisco visiting Henry and his parents and another new baby joined in the party, the one NOT in blue is the newest addition to my ever-growing cadre of under-one friends, Riley.

As you can see San Francisco was bright and sunny. Now I am in Phoenix headed to Florida; where it is completely possible I will get too much sun and begin to look forward to grey London. Oh, and the camera batteries died so no pictures of this portion of the trip - so imagine the lovely Arizona Biltmore Hotel in all its FLW-inspired beauty on gorgeous winter days in the 70s during the day and 40s at night. Then imagine me writhing in pain from some sort of food poisoning. Shout outs to friend BF who decided to call a doctor and get those so important drugs! Sigh, you would think I would be a good traveler by now.

House of Booze

This is a shop near my tube station on Finchley Road. One thing I love about the UK is how they name things. As my friend Marcia just said their Environment Protection Agency is called British Nature; it just is what it is. So this shop; which sells all sorts of liquor is called "House of Booze." They just call it what it is.

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.