Strong Finish

I've been lazy, but I've also been too busy to post anything recently. I've been to Spain with Glen, had some visitors, finished a few websites, now I have more visitors and I may take trip to Oslo. Pictures will follow when I get around to it, but by then I might be back in Montreal.

The Olympics and Nazis

Apparently the tradition of the Olympic torch was started by Nazis!


Looks like Montreal messed up when it had its chance with the torch. Not as much as Paris did yesterday - it got put out 4 times because of protests.

Snow Invades London

I didn't know it was snowing until someone told me on MSN and I went to the window and looked out.


It had all melted before supper time.

Spider Invades Work

There was a really big spider at work today and by big, I mean it was about the size of a twoonie but it looks pretty menacing in this picture.


It was a pretty bad day for some people. There was a car accident just down the street from our office and the helimedics had to be called in, it landed in the field next to us but I didn't want to take any pictures.

Alex Invades London

Alex came to visit last week. Here are some pictures we took of central London on a bright and sunny day.

Here are some impressive buildings taken from across the Thames.


Here is Tower Bridge from far away.


Here is Tower Bridge from a bit closer.


Here is Tower Bridge from right up close.


Here is a picture of City Hall and a staircase. I thought it looked sort of cool but Alex made me take another one of just the building for him.


Those are all the pictures I have now. You should contact him if you want to see any others. They are mostly night shots from when we went on Jack the Ripper Tour and his last night here when (we went all the way to the pub across the street).

Flight of Fantasy

This was a reader's response to an article they published in one of the free newspapers (Metro) a couple weeks ago. The original article HAS to be fake but I thought this was funny because I had the same reaction. I don't believe the "British Earth and Air Mysteries Society" even exists, much less that it has a member conveniently named like a fictional character.

Flight of Fantasy: The funniest thing I’ve read in Metro was the report that Hilary Porter of the British Earth and Air Mysteries Society (Metro, Wed) knows that the photo of an apparent UFO is unlikely to be fake as it is on a tilt, which is the way they normally fly.

I hope people that post comments on YouTube are banned from pursuing journalism or coming in contact with printing presses. They probably shouldn't be allowed to have blogs either but that would be a little hard to regulate.

Kwak

This is a kwak (Belgian beer) served in "the most absurd glass" (according to the menu). The menu fails to mention, however, that you have to give them a 10 pound deposit for the privileged of being inconvenienced by its awkwardness.


It was worth it though.

A New Hope

Since the news is more interesting than my daily work routine here's an article from the Metro. Again, I've left the full-size image large so you can read it.


It's still better than Scientology in my books.

Night On Brick Lane

I went to a place called "Verge" (on Brick Lane) last weekend. It was pretty nice. He's a picture of their menu.


We opted for taking the scenic route back to Liverpool Street station. On the way we found this building that was set up to flash different colours. It was pretty weird. Unfortunately I was talking into being in the picture and I'm too lazy to crop it.


I had my first experience with a London night but. It was super packed for the first part of the trip but we made pretty good time. I know it's blurry and grainy and horrible but it's the best I could do.


I'm still alive AND I haven't been stabbed yet. I read in the paper today that they are going to start marketing a bulletproof sweatshirt for the urbanites. I don't plan to invest.

News Flash

This was a story on the free newspaper you pick up at tube stations.

I left the image full size so you could read the article if you wanted to.

Red Rooster

One of these things is not like the other. One of these thing just isn't the same. Can you spot it?

Who do they think the are fooling by putting it between the Red Bull and sugarless Red Bull. I admit it could probably fool someone that lacks all 5 senses and is not familiar with energy drinks. Even then I'm sure it would still be a tough call. That doesn't seem like a very profitable demographic to be targeting. They copied Red Bull right down to the last detail and still managed to do a terrible job. As if naming the drink "Red [animal]" wasn't enough they ripped off the tag line too. The original, "Energy Drink," has been swapped for "Stimulation Drink" à la Word-right-click-synonyms. Way to raise the bar!

At least they went with an appropriate animal, roosters do wake up and can be red. Although, to be honest I would probably buy a drink named Red Platypus just for the amazingness-factor.

Also: Note the slightly larger cans of Red Bull on the left self. That isn't an optical illusion those are bigger and therefore packed with more energy. But still not quite as much as Power Thirst.

NIN

Over here that stands for National Insurance Number. It's a number I need to give my employer so that the government can take money from me more efficiently. I'll barely have a chance to use it as it takes about 8 weeks to arrive but I shouldn't have to apply for it again.

On my way to the government office where I applied for it, I saw a building that looked like it had exactly the same style as the Palais de Congrès in Montreal. On my way back, I had to fight for sidewalk space with a bunch of pigeons. This picture doesn't do them justice because some of them waddled off before I got my phone out but here they are.

The Grand Tour

One of the people I'm sharing my flat with had some free time last weekend and took me on a walking tour of Central London. Get your Tube maps out, pay attention and try to keep up!

I'm going to start it off with a picture of me, because I love myself so much and not because I promised my parents I would. I'm standing outside a high street store on Oxford street. Now I know where to bring people shopping when they come.


Wait what's this! The same picture again? Double the pleasure double the fun! Can you spot the difference? (Excuse the lazy Photoshop work please, I didn't feel like putting too much effort into it.)


You probably spotted something by now - and you're right. That is what I would look like if my neck wasn't 13 feet long. No time to pat yourself on the back though, we're moving right along to Covent Garden. I'm not sure how to explain what this place is. It is a permanent market with a roof, but it's also like a shopping mall without heating. The safest thing is probably to shift the job of describing it onto someone else by linking you to the most factual source of information to ever exist, ever. Ever.


We found a fair in Leicester Square. This is a full-on ultra-cheesy, Yuletide, carni-run, hypen-ated, barf-fest of rides and stalls. Conveniently that makes it the sort if thing I'd be embarrassed about if anyone back home knew I walked through. Thankfully no one bothers to read my blogs so the secret is safe with my trusty friend: The Internet (or to Alex: Interwebz).


I present the saving grace of Leicester Square: An actual Hägen-Dazs store. I didn't notice the creepy guy in the window above the take out sign until I went to post this. I hope you enjoy the fruits of his (slave?) labour designing delicious ice creams.


Can you tell what 'town' of London this is? On an unrelated note, no one seems to own any dogs. Seriously though, those chickens (I hope) creep me out.


You may be asking yourself why I took a trip to Time Square part way through my walking tour. If you are, please re-evaluate your ability to recognize giant advertisements on buildings. This is actually Piccadilly Circus and it wants me to buy lots of stuff.


This is in Trafalgar Square. I specifically chose the photo where I was the least visible. You're welcome. In the background you can see a nice fountain and behind that you can see a giant Christmas tree. It's Norway's way of saying "thank you" to the British for being on the winning side of WWII. It is a pretty huge tree. It's hard to tell in the picture but it's almost twice my height (or roughly three times the length of my neck).


I had to postpone my audience with the Queen because it was getting dark and I wasn't interested in being swept away by the ghost of Christmas past. I'll go back with Dr. Egon some time and sort things out. We made our way to North Greenwich to go to the O2, which (apparently) suffered from problems similar to the Big O. It has a suspended, soft-shell (read: paper) roof and was a huge waste of tax payer's money (until it was sold to private owners).


This is another picture from the O2. There's some text that snakes around the inside of those bubbles. Attractions at the O2 include a skating rink inside that looks like a dusty carpet, a movie theater that has some claim to fame which I've forgotten, a bunch of restaurants with ridiculous queues and a King Tut exhibit which I'll be seeing about 5 months and 10 days from now.


And that's the kind of day it was Saturday, December 22nd, 2007. For some of you, your local CTV News is coming up next. I'm Scot Murray. For all of us here in the National Newsroom, goodnight.

Private Party for a Dead Frenchman

I became a member of the design museum the last time I was there and they sent me an invitation for this 'private event' via email. Congratulations, Design Museum: The black on yellow got my attention. You win this round.

I got to see a lot of 1950s chairs, desks and prefab houses. The best parts were a house that was built into a mountain and a conversation that went from Tin Tin, to a model house, to Stargate SG1, to Richard Dean Anderson, to MacGyver, to making fun of the cultured, artsy scarf-wearing brigade of scenesters that stood around drinking wine next to the museum shop.

Catching Up to Myself

Two weekends ago I did a few touristy things but I was too lazy to get the pictures off my phone when I got home and then I forgot about them. The pictures are pretty awful and blurry but they're all I have. The first two are from the Design Museum, I got a membership so I (hopefully) will be going back more often. I have access to 'special events' and I have free entry for myself and someone else for a year.

This was from an exhibit of some British fashion designer's work. The rectangles on the wall are different patterns he created or used, I'm not sure which.


This taken from the other side of the wall with patterns on it. You can see some of his dresses and behind them is a collage of more patterns, pictures, and ... etc.


This is the famous crack in the Tate Modern. I don't get modern art. I can make up excuses for my mistakes after-the-fact too. You see how I took the picture? It was intentionally bad. I WANTED it to be crooked, pixelated and poorly lit. You can play along now too, help me finish this sentence: I [thing we're making an excuse for] to symbolize the [current event|social movement] and to [reflect|reinforce] the [characteristic of the subject].


I don't think I was supposed to take photos in this area but I only figured that out afterwards. Oops, oh well. 80's twist: I rebelled and took pictures where I wasn't supposed to to symbolize the struggle and oppression in North Korea and to reflect the free, expressive nature of this sculpture.

Obviously I don't have the capacity to appreciate real* art. I really prefer place like the Design Museum because generally the work they show will have to have a purpose - like architecture, fashion, ads ... typography even.

* The kind of art that you have to stare at for anywhere between 10 minutes to several hours (depending on how dedicated you are and how little a life you have) making humming noises** to score scene points with the respectable connoisseurs around you that are doing the same thing.

** "Hmm, now with more pulp!"

Working Life

Work is good. It has kept me busy these past few days. I don't have any real news, maybe once I get settled in I'll have some interesting stories to tell, or at least something to complain about. Until then, here are some pictures from a few weeks ago.

This is a pretty cool sink in some restaurant/bar near Covent Garden station. The basin is make of some sort of waxy fake-wood (maybe coated, real wood but I doubt it).

This is a hand dryer in the same bathroom. It took me a while to figure out how I was supposed to use it (read: I didn't read the very obvious, clear instructions). You put your hands straight down inside of it triggering what seemed like a modified jet engine, then you lift them up slowly. It works suspiciously well. It pushes action pushes the water down your hand towards your fingertips then off. Much faster than standard dryers.

Job Search: Phase 3.0F

I start full-time on Monday.

Revenge of Toad in the Hole

As promised, I present to you the sequel to yesterday's post. I let it cook longer today and it is significantly better. The parts that look burnt taste like pancakes. On the plus side, my baking tray will definitely be non-stick for life.

Here's the "nutritional" information you (probably only my mom) have all been waiting for:

Food Facts/Average Values:
Energy: 835kJ/200Calories (~54% from fat)
Protein: 9g
Carbohydrate: 14g (2.6g of of which are sugars)
Fat: 12g (3.2g of which are saturates)
Fiber: 2.0g
Sodium: 0.48g
Salt: ~1.2g

Ingredients:
Pork Sausage (43%) [Pork, Water, Rusk [Wheat Flour, Water], Pork Rind, Pork Fat, Soya Protein, Salt, Dextrose, Emulsified (Diphosphates), Flavouring (contains Yeast), Spice Extracts, Sage Extract], Water, Wheat Flour, Egg White, Skimmed Milk, Whole Egg, Rapeseed Oil, Salt. NO COLOURS OF PRESERVATIVES. NO ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURINGS

Contains:
Gluten, Milk, Wheat, Egg and Soya. May contain traces of nuts and/or seeds.

Well, that was enlightening. Here's the fun part, that's for 1/4 of a pack. Sorry Mom. Don't worry though, I had partly skimmed milk with it so that should balance it out. Right? Right...?

Night of the Living Dead

Tonight I ordered Chinese food. I was hungry and was craving General Tao/Tso chicken. They don't have that here but I wanted to try the closest thing I could get. I'll start the story off with a bit of an interactive writer-reader challenge. Can you guess what's in this mystery bag?

To be fair a lot of things came in those mystery bags. Things I didn't even order. I still have no idea what this stuff is. If someone knows, please leave a comment. It tastes sort of fishy and looks like large Styrofoam chips/crisps. This is not the thing in the mystery bag mentioned above, though. Keep guessing!

I was too hungry to take picture then so this is what was left over from my feast last night. I had eight mini-spring rolls, which didn't last for the photo. They were really good. Also, the chicken is missing but it used to be in that plastic container filled with orange sauce and some mystery vegetable. If you know what that vegetable is please let me know. Fun fact:It's a nice plastic container, I think I'll be able to reuse it. Last chance to guess before I reveal the mystery item.

Finally, the answer you've all be waiting for! (Except those that just scrolled down here right away, way to not play along and cheat the system.) This is my crowning achievement for food purchases in London. Half a liter of delicious Belgian chocolate Häagen-Dazs ice cream. I'm saving it for tonight. Unless, of course, I get hungry before then. But since it's already mid-afternoon I don't think that will be a problem.

Despite my diet I am still alive. I watched Sicko last night, so I'm feeling pretty good about our health care. Then I watched 28 Weeks Later and that balanced it out. I don't recommend wasting your time with 28 Week Later unless you would have otherwise had to spend that hour and a half of your life watching anime.

Death by Breakfast

If there's one thing that's been wrong with the UK so far it is the food hands down. Two days ago I was feeling adventurous and decided to try a new kind of peanut butter. Bad idea. It is the kind you have to mix up before you eat it, which is disgusting enough if you aren't expecting it. So I started my sandwich off by almost spilling peanut grease onto my laptop. I hoped it wasn't normal peanut butter gone-bad and set to work mixing it. It made the more horrible sound. Something between the sound of a cat working out a hairball and a dead octopus being repeatedly smashed onto a rocky beach by waves. It felt like I was eating tasteless peanut butter mixed with sweat and tears. To add to that, my loaf of bread got mangled by the slicer so I ended up with these deformed crusts. One end was super thick (2-3 slices wide) and the other was the normal size but had triangular pieces missing. In case you're wondering why I chose the retarded loaf, that company's bag is not see-through so I had no way of knowing. It wasn't my fault that time.

On my next trip to the store I found this abomination.


Who needs canned hot dogs. And what's with naming your company "Ye Olde Oak." They shouldn't be pretending to be old English, this is like selling canned America it just has to come with a baseball cap, a gun and a some processed cheese. To be honest, I almost bought it because it looked so heinous but then I realized I had no can opener and I'm really not interested in keeping it as a decoration.

At that point I stumbled across "Toad in the Hole" as I was looking through the frozen meals. It was so greasy I felt like I was eating a Gino's hair. It tastes amazing but I'm sure I'll be dead by supper time. I felt I wouldn't be able to describe it well enough so I took pictures. Get ready!

This is how it looks out of the box. Of the 6-for-4 meals it has the biggest package and comes with a foil tray. Hint: This may end horribly.


It's a little hard to tell in the other picture, but it looks like they dissolved a pig with some sort of special chemical and all that was left were eight sausages and a tray full of liquid hog. Then they froze it and sold it to the idiot from overseas that thought it looked like a traditional British meal.


Here it is cooked! Success? I don't think so. The middle of it looks sort of uncooked and there is a film of fat covering the top. Saying film is pretty generous given that it's about half a centimeter thick at some points.


I took a break from eating to write this blog. Like everything else, it tastes fairly good.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the nutritional information! I still have another one to eat so I don't want to think about that yet.