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).

Stockholm, Sweden

I went to Sweden for a couple of days over the Easter weekend. Here is the only picture I took. Apparently this is a theater inside looks even more expensive than the outside.

Southern (Bonus Panoramic)

You'll have to click the picture and wait for it to load, it's very big. It is a 360 shot taken from the middle of the pier. It was bright and sunny on our walk back, we stayed in the cafe until the storm went away.


Warning: It is a pretty big file, so it could take a while to load. You're probably better off to right click the thumbnail and use "Save Target As" or a similar option.

Trip to Southend

I went to Southend to see the longest pier in the world about a month ago with Simon (on of my flatmates). I kept forgetting to get he pictures off my phone and even now, I was too lazy to resize them. In any given picture you should be able to see where the next one is taken from.

This is a picture taken from shore looking out over the amusement park and Southend Pier.


This is me before setting out on the 1.3 mile (~2km) walk to the end of the pier that you can see off in the distance. The track on the left is for a little shuttle train (if you're lazy or smart).


We went on the weekend where there were huge storms and lots of wind. We got about half way out before it started raining sideways. It reminded me of Montreal except the rain wasn't frozen. But we made it to the other end, here is the view from the other end. They used to have shops and more rides but they burned down, twice.


Ok, I guess you can't really see this observation tower in the previous picture unless you now what to look for, it's sort of hidden behind the lamp post on the left side of the pier.


Looking along the shoreline from the observation tower. The statue in the next picture is just off to the left along the top of the grassy hill / ridge.


Here's a statue of Queen Victoria, I think. There's a story behind it about her facing out to sea but I don't know it and I can't be bothered to look it up right now. Try Wikipedia.

This is the inscription on the back of her throne.


And that's the end of the tour.

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.

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.

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.

Mini America

I took this just outside the ASDA near my place. It feels just like home! The reason this picture is bigger (when you click to enlarge) is that it was a test to set up posting directly from my phone. Now I can post pictures of fun things while I'm seeing them. Real-time reality blogging! I probably won't do it very often because it costs money and because it isn't that useful now that I have internet. On the plus side, if I get kidnapped I can still keep you posted.

Neighbourhood Photos

I was finally able to get a real pillow today (two actually - they come in pairs). I'm not sure how they managed to be out of stock on them for two days. Here are some pictures of my neighbourhood.

This is a picture of my building and the store downstairs owned by the landlord's relatives. There are actually several buildings in a row so I'm not actually sharing 1 bathroom and 1 kitchen with 16 people, just 3+me.


Here's a picture of the tavern across the street. I went in there today to see if they would serve me food and I saw a toothless granny and a bunch of elderly men. The waitress was not particularly interested in serving me and needless to say I didn't get any lunch (from here).

A picture of the other houses in my area.


I got take-away from this place yesterday. It was amazing and the price is good too. It's probably awful for me but I'm sure I will be back there quite a bit. Sorry Mom.


The nearest tube station. The trolleys come above-ground here so when you get on it's more like a train than a metro but it dips underground shortly after departing so you don't get to see much of the city while you're traveling.


Here's a picture of the main street, taken from almost the same spot as the picture of Leyton station except looking into town. You can't tell from the photo but I'm standing on an overpass (over a highway) so there's is more town behind me. Just off to the left is what I've come to think of as "mini-America" which is a series of chain stores (ASDA, Pizza Hut, Fitness First, KFC and some place that looked like BureauEnGros) that wouldn't be out of place back home even if the names are slightly different..


I'm going to watch some American TV but I may be posting again later to explain what I want to do and how I plan to do it.

Pictures

I was able to get the pictures off my phone at the internet cafe. I'm going to try to get them in chronological order but if I don't you probably won't be able to tell anyways! So here it goes.

A basketball court with a lot of colourful graffiti.

Some castle-y looking across from the Tower Bridge station.

Slightly different angle of the same thing.

Just a little further down that street there's Tower Bridge.

Here's a sign proving it.

This one is actually out of order but it's a closer view of Tower Bridge.

Looking to the right down the thames.

I wasn't looking at the screen but I thought it gave a better idea of how much detail was put into the stone work.

Looking right down the thames again. I thougt the glass building looked cool.

I took a creative route to the design museum and passed this event poster. I thought Alex would like the style the DJ was going to be playing.

Pictures from the Design Museum will follow in the next post. This last one is walking from the museum back to the underground to meet the guy about my new flat.

I Hate Banks

Today wasn't very fun. By the end I couldn't even enjoy getting lost. Ironically I got lost trying to find a place to buy a London A-Z (map book). Thankfully, the weather was great.

Courtesy of the banks I'm spending another night at a hostel. Tomorrow I'm supposed to move into my apartment but I won't have internet there, at least not right away. I'll still be able to get free internet at the BUNAC building but I don't think they have any open power plugs so I'll have to use my laptop sparingly. I'll try to be online (Skype and MSN) in the late morning - Montreal time.

I hope tomorrow is better. I'll finish on a happier note: the pictures I took earlier in the day.

A shot of the street (also gives a little bit of context to the next two pictures).


An old looking building.


A statue and a nice rounded glass building.