London Marathon

Our friend D ran in the London Marathon today. It is about 26 miles long and runs from Greenwich, through the Docklands and ends up near Buckingham Palace. D did the marathon in about 6 hours and raised money for Shelter (a homeless charity) which is fantastic!

P and I went up with Mrs D to watch him run past. Wapping has a great vantage point as the runners go along Wapping Highway in both directions.

A training course in Chicago

When I first arrived on Saturday I had an interesting journey from Chicago airport to central. I caught a train (only $10 for a two day pass to use on the trains). When I got on my train though it was a bit yucky. There were two really big black women sitting opposite me eating fried chicken and dunking it in some kind of mayonnaise. They were dropping bits on the seat and I was it was so gross. Some poor person ended up sitting on one of those seats as the train got closer to central chicago too, bet they didn't know they were sitting in chicken bits. Ewww so grotty.

I wasn't sure of the closest station to my hotel. So I was planning to get of at the most central station in the city and get a cab from there (I knew my hotel was somewhere pretty central). I asked this guy sitting next to me and he started pulling out map after map out of his backpack, as he tried to explain exactly where to get off and then how to walk several blocks to my hotel. He ended up getting off at the same stop as me, then helping me to carry my bags up the steps and then walking me to the hotel. All the time I was trying to decide if he was a weirdo or not - but when he started encouraging me to go to church on my visit, I realised it was because he was a Christian! He told me that Chicago was much better than New York, because people in NY were 'snabby'. I was like, 'what is 'snabby'' and then I realised he was saying 'snobby'....

I was a bit too jet-lagged to head out on Saturday night (Chicago is 6 hours behind UK -so at 8pm it was 2am UK time!) The following are some snaps from out and about Chicago Saturday afternoon and Sunday, before I headed out to the training facility.

Macy's department store on State St. I ended up chatting to one of the sales assistants there who was quite helpful. She recommended I go and check out millenium park, and the cultural centre which were close by.

At the cultural centre I was really pleased to discover that a free session of the symphony orchestra was about to start - so I got to see some of this. They were doing Dvork.

'The Bean', Millenium Park.

Stage at Millenium Park. They hold big music concerts here in the summer.

The 'L' railway makes a loop around the central part of Chicago. It is an elevated railway, going right through the heart of the skyscaper centre. I liked the wooden platforms.

View from Sears Tower. Sears Tower was once the tallest building in the world, it has now been slightly overtaken by ones in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Korea. It is still very impressive as you travel in the lift for 60 seconds to get to the top, and get off at the 106 floor. P and I went to the building in KL last year and I prefer this one. The views over Lake Michigan are spectactular, as I realised just how big the lake is - it is almost like an ocean it is so big. You can only faintly make out buildings on the other side of the lake.

A sign I spotted in the training complex where I stayed. Definately haven't seen one of these before! The weather in the states was quite crazy. Tornadoes in the south. Heavy snows in the north (I loved the description that the weatherman gave: thick, wet messy snow). A risk of major coastal flooding in the North East with winds of 60-70 mph

A bus we caught from the training complex to a local shopping mall. I just loved these buses they are so chunky and wide and look exactly like you expect American school buses to look like.

On the way to the shopping malls, and on the way back to the airport I got to see some of the suburban sprawl outside of Chicago. There are really large retail parks with drive through ATM's and drive through fast food. The thing that really struck me was the availability of land - most of the homes are quite large and on big blocks . In the wealthy areas, some of the homes are made to look like castles, complete with turrets and have 7-8 bedrooms!

Also the Virginia Tech massacre happened while I was there, which was quite awful and very shocking. It really bought home the tragedy as Indiana is a state on just the other side of Lake Michigan. I noticed that all the flags at the front of people's houses and at the towns were all flying half mast.

I have to say, I was really pleased to return back to London and get back home after this trip. Chicago itself was interesting, but it was quite a tiring trip as the training course was quite intense, and also involved 'networking' activities after class - so the days were quite long.

Chicago

ARRrrrr.. .. still at work on Friday afternoon madly trying to get the all the pre-work done. I'm going to Chicago in the morning for a week-long training course! The course is supposed to be quite intense and its actually in a conference centre about 20 miles outside of Chicago.

This is why I'm arriving early so I will have the whole weekend in Chicago before the course starts. In hindsight I wish I had the weekend after the course in Chicago as it would have given me some time to do the 14 hours (!) of pre-work that I started at 4-30 this afternoon. Yes, this will be interesting to see how I cope!

Nevertheless, I will be able to tell you if it really is 'the windy city' when I get back. And at the very least I will be able to tell you how well the pound does when shopping over there!

Wapping links with Australia

The grip of international brotherhood.
© National Maritime Museum, London

At the risk of going on and on about Wapping here is some other info for the Aussie readers..




The crisis of the 1889 dock strike was reached at the beginning of September and without more money it seemed that the strike could not continue. Then, out of the blue, money began to pour in from Australia. Donations were sent by the wharf labourers of BRISBANE and then by almost every Australian trade union. About £30,000 in all was sent. The money ensured that the dockers could hold out and made the dock companies more disposed to negotiate. Thanks to the Australian donation, the dock strike ended in victory after both sides agreed a settlement at the Mansion House talks.
Source: http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.77/chapterId/1863/The-Great-Dock-Strike-of-1889.html

Captain Cook lived down the road! He was originally sacked from his job as an assistant in a haberdashers shop in Whitby (North Yorkshire), and signed up as an apprentice on the merchant ship of Captain John Walker. He was set to work on the regular runs of the merchantman Freelove as it hauled coal from Whitby to Wapping. http://www.eastlondonhistory.com/cook.htm

• he is believed to have had lodgings at the Bell Alehouse near Execution Dock in Wapping see http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/jcr/~cookbio1.html



• he married a girl from Wapping (Elizabeth Batts) http://www.captaincooksociety.com/ccsu418.htm



• he is belived to have learnt his humanitarian approach (no beatings and preventing scruvy) from the Quakers in Wapping http://www.eastlondonhistory.com/cook.htm

Also, in 1986, Rupert Murdoch moved to introduce electronic production processes to his newspapers in Australia, Britain and United States, placing a greater workload on journalists and reducing staff overall. In England, the move aroused the anger of the print unions resulting in a long and often violent dispute fought in London's docklands area of Wapping, where Murdoch had secretly installed the very latest electronic newspaper publishing factory in an old warehouse. 5000 people lost their jobs in this bitter dispute that was played out in Wapping. Union opposition in Australia caved in after the Wapping battle and now most newspapers around the world are produced by this method.

Technically, Rupert Murdoch is actually no longer an Australian, as he surrendered his Australian citizenship and became an American citizen in order to further his business interests in the US.

CTV Cameras - Science Museum

P and I went to see the Science of Spying exhibition at the Science Museum over Easter. I found these signs about CCTV amusing.

Goodnight Irene

I'm not a huge fan of football, but as Club Songs go, you can't do better than the one the Rovers have:



Its not only a great song (!) but the crowd is so fantastic. I went to a match at Twickenham when I first arrived over here with my cousin Neil, and was surprised to see all the footie fans singing. It really is the nicest part of football.

New babies

P has a new baby called 'Betty' - its a Porche Boxter S 3.2! Here is info from the add for those who like the technical details:

Porsche Boxster S 3.2, metallic black paintwork, 6 disc cd player and iPod connection, facelift with Porsche sports pack, competition wheels, sports suspension brakes, exhaust and slightly more bhp. It has a full Porsche service history and last service 17/2/07. Has had new brake disks and pads at 65000 miles. Is fitted with a tracker, full leather seats and half leather dash. All round a very clean car in great condition. Selling due to baby on the way.

P is completely enraptured with it. I have had to get him to confirm that he will still love me more than his car! He is still saying that he will. But the car isn't here yet so lets see :) We should pick it up next week.

The other little delight is that some friends of ours just bought the most gorgeous puppy. Check it out in this photo. It is a Springle, which is a special type of gun dog when they cross a Beagle with an English Springer Spaniel. Isn't it the most gorgeous thing? C & S are away over Easter but I can't wait to go and visit so we can meet little Jessie. Interestingly we met C & S when P sold them his old MX5. It turned out they were lovely and also live just across the river so we have stayed in contact. They have just bought a house in Dorset though so unfortunately we'll see less of them when they move.

And my sister A has a new kitty of her own called Peppi. Its 3-4 months old in this photo. Another cutie!

A view of Tower Hill and Wapping (snaps on my way home from work)

It was the magnolia's that did it. I haven't seen these trees before, and when I saw these amazing flowers in St Olave's churchyard, I just had to wander in. Its a lovely churchyard too, although it has three skulls at the entrance to the courtyard!

Samuel Pepys and Mother Goose (!) are buried here according to Wikipedia.

Anyway so I decided to keep going and the following are some snapshots of my walk home from work through Tower Hill and Wapping.

Tower of London

Tower Gateway. And the daffodils are out...

Here's a busy intersection leading onto Tower bridge. Tower of London is on the right. Wapping is to the left of the bridge.

Just to the left of Tower Bridge is St Katherine's Dock. The old docks area is now filled with shops and restaurants and you can see the Charles Dickens pub here on the left.

Yachts in St Katherine Docks

This could be a Turner painting, but I actually took this on my camera-phone... Its about 7pm by now and the sun is setting over Tower Bridge.

Now, heading into Wapping. There are some new developments along the river, these all have amazing views of Tower Bridge.

Further along, here are my favourite apartments in Wapping - Pier Head Wharf. These would be over a million pounds each so the closest ever get to them is taking some photos through the fence unfortunately! There are some beautiful sketches and info on the history of this place here. Apparently there are a couple of celebrities living here now (I won't say who!).

Close by, you have the Town of Ramsgate pub, one of the oldest riverside pubs in London and located near where captured pirates were hanged then left in the river to let three tides pass over them!

A little further along Wapping High St is Olivers Wharf. I like this one too as apparently this was one of the first warehouses to be converted into units by a group of artists.

Across the road, and just in one of the side streets is an old school. Maybe a boys school on the right, and a girls on the left?

A park on the left of Wapping High St. The daffodils were recently out but have just died off. Some council homes in the background.

















And a little further along Wapping High St. This is just before you reach the Tube station. I love this part too. It is so narrow, and tall. Walking along here at night can be quite spooky, especially if there is alot of fog. You can also feel like you are walking along in a movie set for some reason!











And then not too much further and I am home. At a good pace it takes me about 45 mins to walk home. Cheaper and better than the Tube and some lovely scenery too!

The Weekend

A couple of fun things on the weekend - P and I went to see '300' at the BFI IMAX theatre. There is a good preview of the film you can see if you click here. It was P's idea and it turned out to be quite a good one for a Friday night (as not too heavy). Action movies with lots of blood and splatter aren't something I would usually go for but somehow in the IMAX it seemed far more attention-grabbing.

Today we finally had some lovely weather - 15 degrees and sunny - so we decided to make the most of it and get out and aobut. We walked along the Thames from Wapping to Greenwich, then saw a play at the Greenwich Playhouse. It took us about two hours to walk there, at a quite a leisurely pace. I have only walked as far as Canarf Wharf before so it was great to walk further along and see a new area. Here are some photos so you can check it out too.

This is one of the many canals in the docklands area.

P outside Greenwich Tunnel

Entrance to the tunnel.

There is a descent about 85 steps down to the Greenwich tunnel. It's a pedestrian tunnel that goes right under the river. I had heard it was wet and damp but I am glad to confirm it wasn't leaking! I was surprised to see how many people were using it - it was quite busy.

Once in Greenwich we went to see Noel Cowards' 'Relative Values'. I booked it this morning on lastminute.com and we paid £10 for the ticket, not much of a saving since they were normally £11. When we arrived we were surprised to see that the theatre is really just a room upstairs in a pub. A very intimate space, all the chairs were crowded around stage, and there were maybe only 100 people in the room (this photo is a bit dark but I wanted to show you how cute it was). The play was fantastic - great dialogue -and really well performed. Especially Brigid Lohrey who played the Countess of Marshwood. Her vowels were so crisp that when I looked up her bio, I was surprised to see that she is actually Australian :) Really good fun!