Signing Off

Quick note to let you know this is my last blog... I'm finding that the Aussies aren't really reading the blog (and that was the main reason for setting it up in the first place)... they prefer their personal emails and phonecalls. I've also started doing the Facebook thing recently too.

But it seems I have have had many other readers from around the world and in the UK. So thanks for reading :) And happy blogging.

Take care,
Beano

July Update

Hey sorry for the delay in posting, things have been so busy here with work etc

Some highlights of the fun stuff (not the work grunge part) are:



July 7 - went to see Elvis Costello at the Tower of London with some friends. We had nibblies and champagne and Pimms and Lemonade at the Wapping pad and walked up to the tower. It was a good show, and we had good seats, but we were all a bit disappointed it only went for an hour and he didn't do an encore. It was £70 a ticket too! So for that kind of money we thought we would get a little more. For me, the best part of the night was catching up with everyone and the drinks before and after. I was too 'merry' to take any photos of this event, so I will have to see if I can get one from my mates to put up on this site.



The following weekend (well actually from Wed/Thurs during the week, I can't remember), P's sister came over from Northern Ireland. P mostly kept her entertained as I was quite busy with work and then a bit sick, so I don't remember everything they did, but I know they did go to see the Star Trek convention on Saturday and quite enjoyed it. P got a signed mouse matt by 'Holly' from Red Dwarf. On the Sunday we went on a speedboat trip up the Thames which was excellent. It was great to feel the wind in my hair as we sped along. The tour guide was hilarious too... he was the typical eccentric englishman with the very very well spoken accent (sounded like he should have been leading a rowing team for an exclusive school up the river instead of a speedboat full of tourists). Here's the photo of P and 'da sista' A before boarding the speedboat.

And last weekend, we went to the 'Toast' festival (the Australian one, not the Kiwi one) and saw Kath and Kim. It was great to see them and hear their accents. But they weren't on the stage very long. Just ad libbing while doing a 'sandwich making competition' and the they also had their alter - ego's on the other stage. The festival was a good excuse to drink some wine and sit in the sun. I even got a bit of sunburn which is nice! I also bought.. are you ready.. cheezels, chicken twisties, cherry ripes, and burger rings. And they were all eaten by Wednesday! mmm I really miss cheezels. The closest thing they have here is cheesy puffs and even the ones from M&S aren't up to scratch..

This weekend I will probably have to work on one of the days, but I am hoping to get hold of one of the bargain £5 tickets to Shakespeares' globe.... if its not raining of course (the globe is open to the elements).

Which reminds me, you have probably heard about the flooding that is happening over here during the wettest summer on record ever! At first it didn't seem too serious, and I remember that when we went to see that comedy show when P's parents were over (must be at least a month ago) he was making jokes about people being 'rescued' by being taken out in dinghys, while the rescuers were only walking in water up to their shins. But the rains have just kept coming and I do feel really sorry for people who thought that the flooding was over, then went back to their homes and cleaned up only for it to happen again not long after! Its also really bad for people who have just bought new homes and not realised that they had bought on a flood plain, they will have alot of trouble selling their homes now. Bizarrely, several people have also died from the floods. On the news tonight they reported that two men died from the fumes of the pump they were using to pump water out. The flooding is mostly in the west and hasn't really affected London except for some parts in the south west.

Sarkozy's jogging

This article in The Times was so funny! The french intellectuals' reaction to the new President's penchant for jogging:

Le jogging, originally known as le footing and now more fashionably as le running, caught on in France, as elsewhere, in the 1980s and eight million claim to indulge. But Mr Sarkozy has rekindled a French suspicion that the habit is for self-centred individualists such as the Americans who popularised it. “Jogging is of course about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the Right,” Odile Baudrier, editor of V02 magazine, a sports publication, told Libération. Patrick Mignon, a sports sociologist, noted that French intellectuals had always held sport in contempt, while totalitarian regimes cultivated physical fitness.

I have even written a comment on this Times article, look for the one of the only positive comments on this article in a sea of defensive American responses...

I met a french guy this week who told me he though it was really embarrassing that Sarkozy only speaks French, apparently he can't speak a word of English.

Big green owl eyes

Apparently I have big green eyes like an Owl (according to P)! Ah, but isn't it cute..

Snowpatrol gig at O2 Arena

Went to see Snowpatrol at the brand new O2 Arena last Thursday. I was lucky to pick up the tickets for only £15! They were special tickets that were made available for the workers who built the new complex and also for people in the local community. It was a good gig... I had forgotten that the band are actually from Northern Island, but quickly noticed their accents once they were chatting away between songs.

The O2 Arena is the old Millenium Dome, which was built at the start of the millenium. From what I understand it cost a lot of money to build, but never really had any visitors in the past so it just sat there as a 'white elephant' in the past. But now it has been redeveloped as massive entertainment centre, with the arena, and also restaurants, bars and cinemas. Its good that we have a venue like this so close to us...only 4 tube stops away in North Greenwich.

Work Summer Party and visit from P's parents

Last Friday night was a work summer party. Really fun night! I managed to aquire the feathers towards the end of the night! Food, dancing, wine and song. They also gave out free massages by professional massuese. The two girls either side of me are both Aussies who work in HR. The guy on the right is J, who is a mate of mine too (we both started our job on the same day). It was so nice to go to a party and have fun after a couple of weeks of messy flat due to the kitchen dust and hayfever.

When I got back home it was about 1am, and P's parents had arrived for their weekend vist (is was Father's day here in the UK) , it was nice to see them again. We took them to see the Borough markets and bought loads of yummy food: plum tomatoes, cheese, olives, organic lettuce, fresh pumkin and feta ravioli, some flan/quiche things AND a slice of cake each. this was much easier than cooking when I had a sliiiight hangover.

In the evening we went to the Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green, which was excellent. P insisted on sitting in the first row. And I was feeling tired so wasn't feeling up to being challenged by a comedian, so of course every comedian had to direct their questions to me!

The next day P's parents took turns to try out the porsche. In the evening we went for dinner at our local Italian.

Here you can see the all the parts of the new kitchen sitting in our old dining area....

Then by the end of the week we have this lovely new kitchen, complete with replastered walls.

And also the old carpet in the lounge room was replaced too. Much nicer. Although it did create quite alot of dust and I have had really really bad hayfever ever since.

You can't quite make it out, but that is P's Dad, lying on the lounge. It is Father's Day and P's Mum and Dad are over visiting from Northern Ireland.

The company we used is 'Kitchens Direct'. They were great.. no issues. We are having trouble deciding which new appliance is the best. The washing machine, because it is so quiet and the last one sounded like a helicopter was taking off. Or the fridge as its big, not one of those silly English under the bench ones where you have to bend over to find stuff. Or the dishwasher, because we didn't have one before at all! Has to be the dishwasher I think!

The scary swimming centre

This is the outside to the St George's swimming pool in my local borough of Tower Hamlets. Scary isnt' it? They seemed to have closed the original entrance and now use one at the back of the building. No-one seemed to have thought that putting a sign up to alert people to this might be a good idea. Therefore new people to the area wander past what looks like a deserted building, when there is acutually a fully functional swimming pool inside. Its quite dated inside and the diving board is cordoned off as the structure looks unsafe. But hey, the water appears clean and its at least 50m, so great to have a pool close-by.

Tim Flannery- The Weather Makers

The 5th of June was World Environment day and Advance (an association for professional Australians) held a free event where Tim Flannery gave a presentation. He is Australian of the Year and has a new book out called 'The Weather Makers'.

I took a few notes at his presentation and thought I would share them with you as it's such an important topic.

• A 19th century scientist, Wallace, said that the atmosphere was a 'great aerial ocean', because we are as dependent on the atmosphere as a fish is to the sea


• if you shrunk the atmosphere into a liquid, it would be 1/500th the size of the ocean


• since in the industrial revolution, 80 parts per million (ppm) of CO (carbon monoxide) has been added.


• since 1997, and the general dithering of governments at Kyoto, 20 ppm of CO has been added


• it is generally accepted that we need to keep below 2 degrees of warming to stop very extreme climate changes from occuring. This is is 450 ppm and we are already at 420 -430 ppm


• key message: climate change is a fast-moving threat


• an inter-governmental panel on climate change set a conservative projection that there would be a 3% rise in temperature over the century... this is proving too conservative considering that they predicted that there would be a 8% melt of ice caps over decade and in 2006 there was a 5-fold increase in melting. The ice-caps could be gone completely in 30 years.


• the next 'Kyoto' type summit will be held in 2009, in Copenhagen


• things that Tim Flannery would like to see agreed for the sake of humanity are 1) agree a threshold that greenhouse gases cannot go past, 2) agree on a carbon price, 3) forestry price


• The top two things we can do to help to reduce greenhouse gases are 1) introduce a regulatory environment that recognises the true cost of energy, and make businesses/people pay on a user-pays basis, and 2) make use of technology


• He believes that efficiency gains of 50% are possible in houses


• Someone asked if population control should be addressed as strategy to manage, and his response was that there was not enough time for this to make an impact. Any population initiatives would take decades to come into effect, and this is too late


• Another person asked about people's high level of consumption patterns, and pointed out the need to change this. Again he agreed, but said that change would take too long.


• One more question about developing countries and that as they become more industrialised, are contributing large amounts of greenhouse gases. He said that in his view he saw that we have an 'historic debt': since the 1800's onwards, industrial countries have pumped 100ppm into the atmosphere, making us rich. Therefore we have a debt to pay


• trees have a mechanism for drawing out carbon dioxide. Growing tropical trees is a great way to reduce carbon dioxide. There could be a role here for developing countries to be paid for growing trees. Maybe people in developing countries could use of the $85 computers that are being developed at MIT to monitor logging.


• Some interesting points about Australia:


• the impacts of global warming on Australia will be catastrophic. There has been a 10-20% reduction in rainfall in the past 20 years. Streamflow has reduced 60-70% over 30 years.


• rainfall is predicted to decline by 90% due to global warming. As the soil gets hotter, it soaks up the rain faster. There is also more evapotranspiration from the plants.


• soon the Murray River in Australia will not be able to be used for commercial purposes and this will affect a major food region in Australia - olives, citrus fruit is grown here among other things. He knows people who are shooting their dairy cattle there because they think there won't be any pasture for them later this year


• Adelaide is reliant on the rivers from up North, and soon the water will be too salty to be drinkable


• Brisbane's dam is already at 20% capacity and people are on water rationing. There has been some rain lately, enough to make the country look green, but not enough to reverse the trend


• the price of electricity is set to double next year as there is not enough water to run the power stations. Every MW (mega watt) produced, consumes 2 tonnes of water

It was a good talk as he is a scientist who 'tells it like it is'. A not all a tale of woe either as he does point to some constructive things that can be done to make changes. I liked it when he said 'why is it when ever you see a cartoon and to indicate that someone has had a good idea, they show an 18century incandescent lightbulb above their head. It should be an energy saving one!'