Kyiv Calling... going home

14 September 2007

Hotel, Kyiv - 7:55am
The window in my bedroom wasn't properly closed last night and fell open during the night. No wonder I kept waking up cold!

So. Last Kyiv breakfast. I decided to investigate under the silver lides today. So in addition to my usual bread/cheese/meat combinateion I had some omlette (very good) and what appeared to be pancake stuffed wiht cream cheese (very weird). All quite nice.

Thought I should eat well today as the airplane food wasn't up to much on the way out.


Independence Square


Monument in Independence Square


The founders if Kyiv.

Borispol Airport, Kyiv - 11:00am
So a couple of my colleagues took me on a very energetic sightseeing tour of Kyiv. We saw a statue of King Vladimir who converted the city to Christianity... Independence Square (along with it's subterranean shopping centre)... the back of the House of Chimeras, the Presidents office and a lovely old palace, also a 10th Century Monastery. (see photos above)

Back in the queue for passport control!

Schipol Airport, Amsterdam - 2:50pm (local time)
The terrifying Borispol experience is at last behind me. Very few of the signs there seemed to be dual language. I never had any idea where I was or more importantly where I was supposed to be. I was one of the last to board the flight!

Schipol is less terrifying as the boarding card I got in Kyiv actually told me the gate from which my flight would depart here! Yay.

There are some comfy lounge chairs here, which is good as my flight isn't for ages!

Schipol is huge. I went to the main shopping bit and the departures board there gives walking times to the gates... one of which was apparently 22 minutes away!

I did a bit of shopping, never had much of chance in Kyiv. Just a few silly souvenirs. Very bizzarely also saw a Mini Cooper decked out in the Union Jack and a Williams F1 car. The latter
particularly weird as surely it should have been a Spyker as they are Dutch?!

Soon be home now... looking foward to English language and driving on the right side of the road... and seeing Rich at last!

Kyiv Calling... day 4

13th September 2007

Office, Kyiv - 7:41pm
So my Kyiv adventure draws to a close. Could have doiwn without the monster workload - I'm sure that some stuff has fallen through the cracks! But anyway, now me and the boys know each other... and that is an important 1st step!

Hotel, Kyiv - 9:25pm
I had dinner at the hotel tonight. Steak andm chips and a (very) small glass of wine. Equivalent price £10. The steak was a bit over cooked for my taste - either the Ukrainians eat it cooked like the English or they assumed I would want it cooked like the English!

I'm going for a sightseeing tour before my flight tomorrow so I get to see a bit more of Kyiv.

It was quite sad saying goodbye to all my colleagues... they were all after my ICQ address so they could ask questions. I had to explain that we don't use ICQ in the London office!

I've sort of packed my case... it is open on the other bed with stuff all over the bed. I wish I could pack better!

So, my Kyiv adventure has been fun. Busy, but fun... and I've made lots of new friends!

Day 3... Kyiv Calling

12 September 2007

Office, 7:55pm (local time)
It isn't just in London where we work the night shift! Frantically trying to get the bill written so that the measurement can go in it and we can mail it off to London ASAP.

Feeling tired today as I ket waking up last night. My body clock still hasn't quite worked out the time zones.

Still haven't fixed the computer programme and its printing problems. We seem to have run out of ideas.

I had a really good training session with the boys this afternoon. I emphasesed that they can alwasy phone/email if they have problems.

I went for a walk at lunchtime today just around a bit of Kyiv... it really is a lovely old city. Going for a bit to eat with the office director later as we are the only ones left here!

There was great excitement in the office this afternoon when a huge rainbow appeared over the city. A double rainbow and the bottom had a double spectrym. We all took turns going out on the balcony and taking photos!



Hotel, Kyiv - 11:05pm (local time)
Tonight we wen tfor dinner at a French restaurant. I had fish (I forget what type) with pesto sauce and artichoces on a bed of beans accompanied by roast vegetables which were sweet red peppers and aubergine.

We had various random conversations about mobile phones, websites, colleagues etc. The way two people do who've known each other several years but onky in the context of work, so they don't really know each other at all!

More travellers tales, still Kyiv calling!

11 September 2007
Hotel, Kyiv - 7:50am (local time)
I've just been for breakfast. Reassuringly continental. I think maybe there was other stuff... but the cold buffet just looked too good. You could have salad (?!) and a selection of cold meat and chesses, of which I am very fond for breakfast. The bread was a quite different textrue from at home... less fluffy and more holes. The coffee was extremely strong... still, at least it will keep me going nicely! The best thing was the apple yoghurt. I'm not sure that I've ever seen that in the UK but they have it a lot abroad and I think it is great!

I'm an hour early for being picked up to go to the office now though! Oh, well!

Hotel, Kyiv - 10:10pm (local time)
Exhausted! Went out after work with some of the guys from the office. We walked all the way up Andriyivsky Uzviz, which is very steep! I was very glad when we got to the top. My Ukrainian colleagues told me a tale about a king who forced an army to march up this hill and was killed for his pains! The bar was 'rustic'. We were sat in what I can only describe as a 'winter garden'. It sure did turn chilly. We had beer which is from Lviv, which is in Western Ukraine. We had some snacks; some pork fat cooked in garlic which the english menu described as lard but it was more like fatty ham rind. Quite nice, especially with the garlic. Also there were cheese and olives.

It was quite a traumatic experience when I got back to the hotel as they wanted the bill paying which was 4,600UAH I tried explaining that the company was paying... phone calls to everyone I could think of ensued before I finally got hold of the office Director (whose phone number I had stupidly left in the hotel room). Finally everyone ageed that it could wait until tomorrow morning.

We had pizza for lunch today in the office... and coca-cola. Cool! I noticed that the beer in the bar was really cheap... about a tenth of the cost of what the room service bar is charging, but isn't that always the way with room service.

Of course the computer installation didn't go smoothly (like it was ever going to). Lucky their computer guy was there as all the operating systems etc. speak Russian! It did almost work apart from the fact that the programme won't print which is annoying. Much communication with the helpdesk in the UK but still not resolved! It really was hard to get the computers to do anyting at all what with all the menus being in Russian... have to rely on my memory of what commands/buttons come where... much to the amusement of my Ukrainian colleagues!

Travellers Tales... Kyiv calling!

10th September
London City Airport - 8:40am
Early for my flight as normal. Always over estimate exactly how long it takes to get a bus to North Greenwich, go one stop on the Jubilee Line to Canning Town and take the DLR to City Airport. Ah well, better early than late.

So, it turns out that my flight is delayed. Excellent start! It seems that my boss's unfortunate travel experience propensity is spreading! Could be worse. We are only 20 minutes late (at the moment!). I'm feeling quite calm about the whole flight prospect as I already took the tranquiliser!
Mind you, alll the flights seem to be delayed this morning... must be the weather?!

London City Aiport - 9:10am
It suddenly occured to me that I remember seeing "wait in lounge" on the Departures Board on previous occaisions that I have been here, and I don't need the gate to have been assigned to go through security!! D'oh! At least there are more seats up here in the Departures Lounge! Downstairs is a bit chaotic as they are rebuilding the coffee bar!

Schipol Airport, Amsterdam - 12:34pm (local time)
I had to walk about a mile from where we landed to where I needed to board the next flight to Kyiv. I don't think that I'm the only one having troubles. There have already been about 10 calls for passengers 'delaying the flight' and threats to 'offload your luggage'. The place isn't very well signposted (especially if you don't know where you are going!). It took me a good few minutes to find the departures board!

I definitely don't recommend the Fokker 50 which flew me here from City. Definitely the smallest plane that I have ever been on! Only two seats each side of the aisle. Very bumpy too... awful turbulence. Kudos to the Captain for the smoothest landing ever though!

Borispol Airport, Kyiv - 5:10pm (local time)
Finally landed (a wee bit late) in Kyiv. The airplane had no immigration forms so we've had to pick them up here. Lucky that my boss had told me all about them and how to fill them in! The queue for passport control is equalled only (in my very limited experience) by that at JFK in NYC. My boss just rang to see where I was as they had told the driver who came to pick me up that the flight landed an hour and a half ago. If only!

There definitely isn't the British concept of queueing here!

Hotel, Kyiv - 10:47pm (local time)
Finally enconsed in my hotel room. It's very nice except for having a shower instead of a bath... I do like a bath! Sadly the TV is being dubbed rather than subtitled.

The driver picked me up from the airport to take me to the office... he doesn't speadk much English, but enough to give me some sightseeing tips as we drove to the office.

Kyiv is reassuringly foreign. I'm always dissapointed if I go places and they are hardly different from home!

The driving experience was quite scary... I always find that when I'm abroad and everything is on the wrong side of the road. We finally made it through rush-hour Kyiv to the office. It seems much nicer than ours in London. Newer... more spacious... tidier? They even have a balcony! I managed to get a bit of work done before we went out for dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant called 'Da Vinci'. We sat in sight of the lobster tank. Happily nobody seemed to be eating them. They were quite amusing to watch... almost like they were dancing!

Food was great... if a little different. I had salmon with a green frothy (literally) sauce... also some vegetable. Very fragrant and herby. Nice though. Then I indulged myslef and had some chocolate cake! Yum. It cam with some little pears and some raspberries and a scoop of ice cream on a slice of pistachio biscuit. There were also some panes of brittle see through something which appeared to be pure sugar!

The office have lent me a Ukrainian mobile so I got to talk to Rich, this was good as I'm very lonely without him! Only a few nights though... and we always have email!

Blogging 101

I noticed as I arrvied at the dashboard today that yesterday's post was the 100th in my blog! So this is by extension blogging 101! Wikipedia has the following to say about 101 "At universities in the United States, and South Africa, often the course number of basic or entry-level courses. By extension, it is informally used elsewhere to indicate things that are meant for beginners". So today, by extension, is blogging for beginners!

I noticed on my short-cut through the hotel car park on the way to fetch my lunch to extremely high-end sports cars. One was a Ferrari... I know this not because I know anything about sports cars (I don't) but for three other reasons 1) it had 'Ferrari' on the back (!) large enough for me to read without my glasses... 2) it was 'Ferrari red' - much redder than any other red car I've seen (including two I owned) and 3) it had a stencil of the Ferrari horse about two foot high on the boot.

I'm glad our offices are in the front of the building today. Every time I've been in the stairwell I've noticed the amazing noise from the building being demolished at the end of the street. It isn't actually even being demolished... it's only a 'soft' strip. They were going at it so hard earlier in the week that the building was vibrating and we thought that maybe an earthquake was happening!

I'm now frantically trying to get ready to go away next week. I'm going to Ukraine on business. The problem is that I've not left the country since 1999... that is last century!!! I've never been much of a traveller, so I'm a bit daunted by it all (understatement). It only occured to me just now that I probably needed some sort of foreign currency (doh!).

So next week I shan't be London Calling... I shall be Kyiv Calling!

Waiting time for medical appointments

I had a day of appointments yesterday, but more than that a day of waiting! My first appointment was with the nurse. This one wasn't too bad as it was only her 2nd or 3rd of the day so she hadn't the time to get behind yet! However, after that I had to fill out an ENORMOUS 'internal audit' form... which took a good five minutes.

I then toddled off to get my blood tests. A 15 minute waiting time was being advertised. Yeah, right. There appeared to be only one (and occaisonally another) room operating... when I arrived they were seeing number 180 and my number was 210. It took over an hour before my number was called. I then disgraced myself by almost passing out. I'm fine with the whole thing as long as I don't realise that they are doing it. Yesterday she couldn't find a vein... then she couldn't get enough blood to fill all the vials... at which point my head started swimming and she had to tip the chair back so I could lie down, and I was given a glass of water! Luckily I didn't even notice the other arm being done I was feeling so light-headed! People like me that hold up the queue! It's just a good thing that the Blood Service don't want my bood... until they work out what causes MS and rule out anything pathogenic they don't want my blood or my organs.

So... I finally got home from the hospital about 3 hours after I'd left home (this is bad, as it is only a mile from my house!). I got down to work... which lasted happily until about twenty past four when I had to toddle off to the doctor. More waiting. As this is now the end of the afternoon appointments the surgery had plenty of time in which to start running late!

When I got out of the Doctor's there was a message on my answer phone telling me that my new computer is arriving Friday. This is noteable only because the last message that I had, by email only a few hours before was to tell me that the delivery was being delayed by 10 days. Let's hope it does actually turn up on Friday then!

Tube strike continues...

The Jubilee Line continues to be one of only two lines unaffected by the tube strike this morning. The Northern Line is also running 'normally' but the Piccadilly Line has been part suspended (much to the annoyance of about a quarter of our office which use it!).

The Jubilee Line was unreasonably crowded (for the time of night) on my way home yesterday, so I decided to get the bus in this morning. I left early enough that it wasn't at all crowded, and then I walked up through St James's Park to Piccadilly and the office. All quite pleasant. There were many geese roosting in the park. They all looked quite impossible with their beaks tucked under their wings and standing on one leg!

Just has to be Monday…

I arrived at work this morning to find the kitchen in chaos and the kettle boiling in reception! Apparently the electrical circuits had tripped out… again. I thought we’d fixed the problem on Friday… but no, it would seem not! This time the Boardroom circuit seemed OK… reception was partly out and the whole of the kitchen back wall was gone. No logic at all! The fridge was in the process of defrosting the ice box all over the kitchen floor… and of course we couldn’t mop it up as the cleaner’s have taken all the tea towels and the mop and bucket (why?!).

Only upon further examination did it transpire that the fridge was not the only appliance in the kitchen that we leaking water. The water-cooler was also leaking. So… we took off the bottle (recently replaced) and mopped up the flood. A phone call was then placed to the water-cooler people to tell them that their cooler was flooding our kitchen and could they please send an engineer. Thursday they told me. I told them that it was quite urgent as the power was shorting out and it was causing a hazard. Had I unplugged the cooler the man asked? No, I thought I’d leave it in and see if I could start and electrical fire! What a silly question. Thursday he reiterated was the earliest that they could get anyone out to us. What are we supposed to do for water in the interim I asked him? Apparently we will get free bottles to cover the cost of any water we have to buy. We will, I told him, we’re not drinking the tap water!

So. The kitchen is now dry and kettle and fridge are working again. The water-cooler is sitting there in disgrace without a bottle attached… and we all await Thursday.

Large parts of the London Underground have gone on strike this evening. This is all fallout from the demise of Metronet. The lines that fell under the control of Metronet were the Bakerloo, Central, and the sub-surface Lines. For once it is a good time to be on the Jubilee line! It may well be unusually busy as it takes up the strain from the other lines… but at least it will still be running. In fact the Jubilee and the Northern are the only ones still going as even parts of the Piccadilly Line have been affected. Journey home tonight may not be pleasant.

Delightfully the new office printer is now up and running. It is very swish... it has card readers and an integral keyboard. I love the keyboard, you lightly push a panel in the front of the printer and out pops the keyboard. You know what they say... little things, little minds.

Feels like Monday

Even though I was at work yesterday and therefore am not starting the week on Tuesday, it STILL feels like Monday today! Go figure.

Another journey blighted this morning by the bad manners of fellow travellers. First there was the man who didn't have any money on his Oyster, but ignored the bus driver calling him back to pay cash. Why should he get a free ride? Sadly the driver was not one of the sterner ones... I've come across some who would turn off their engine and refuse to move until the miscreant either paid a fare or left the bus! Then there were all the people at Green Park who decided to shove onto the train as soon as the doors opened instead of waiting for passengers to disembark. Sadly it is too early in the day for the platform staff to ask people to "let passengers off the train first". I don't understand why people can't have a few manners... it costs nothing!

I was getting my juice for breakfast this morning when I heard a hullabaloo from the other side of the back door. It was the feline equivalent of shouting. Molly telling me that she was hungry and would like breakfast now please. Why she couldn't have come in through the cat flap and told me this instead of insisting I open the back door I really don't know!

Total chaos in Charlton this morning as the Monday refuse collections (and the recycling collections) took place a day late. There was gridlock on Littleheath as there was the refuse lorry, the recycling lorry, the 486, the 53 and the 422 going one way and the 53 going the other... all trying to navigate the parked cars. They managed in the end... just in time for me to get on a bus and catch up with the two refuse lorries!

We cleaned out the Frog Pond at the weekend (again). The frogs certainly seem to approve! King Frog is back with a whole heap of family. There seem to be at least half a dozen in various shapes, sizes and colours who inhabit the pond. I went into the kitchen last night to find one of their number sitting in the middle of the floor contemplating me. So, I scooped him up and took him back to the pond... I then halted one of his brethren who was making his way to the kitchen and returned him also to the pond. I don't know why frogs like our kitchen so much, but we get a good few every summer who take a wrong turn at the back door and end up sitting on the carpet looking perplexed!

Journey home

It might be the most environmentally friendly way to travel, by bus, but I could do without all the other passengers!

Tonight there have been screaming children (old enough to have learnt better) and their screaming parents (definitely old enough to know better), people yet to discover anti-perspirant deoderant, and some of the worst dressed articles of humanity ever.

What is it about the British and summer clothes? Not a clue! Woman in boob-tube three sizes too small... Not a good look! Teens in skimpy vest tops which need on bra or at least a backless bra, certainly they do not need nearly the entire under garment on display! If you must show your bra girls, make sure it is pretty and lacy, not old grey and tired!

Busy night at the O2 again!

I am beginning to hate the O2!

I have been taking the same journey home from work pretty much continuously for the last six or seven years (with a few exceptions when I've been seconded to other sites etc.). I know where to stand on the platform at Green Park to make sure I get on the right doors, to make sure I am in the right bit of the carriage, to make sure I get off at the right spot when I get to North Greenwich... exactly opposite the up escalator. This even works when the train terminates at North Greenwich now, ever since they changed the polarity of the escalators on platforms 1 & 2!

However, recently I have discovered that there is an optimum time NOT to arrive at North Greenwich. This used to be at the peak rush hour which lasts until about 6:30. No longer. Not since the Dome. 7pm used to be pretty safe... quite quiet even. Not anymore. Now on platform three at the bottom of the escalator there are two platform staff and a length of tensa barrier... you now have to walk all the way to the end of the platform and round the tensa barrier to get to the escalator. I see what they are trying to do. I applaud their logic. What happens is that there is always a scrum at the bottom of the escalator as people try and filter into two lines. Well, one and a half really as most people prefer not to walk up. This leads to massive congestion. When it is busy, directing people along and back gives enough space for them to naturally filter into single file. However... not always are there TWO platform guards, sometimes only one. He then has to try and prevent people from ducking under the barrier and saving the walk... which he can't do as there is probably a good 20ft of barrier! This makes even worse chaos than the congestion which would have ensued at the bottom of the escalator!

In the long term I think it would be more cost effective to save the wages of the platform staff (and the cost of the barriers, which must need replacing quite often given the treatment they get) to put a more permanent solid solution in place. If a balustrade were erected with solid panels there would be no more ducking under, and everyone would soon get used to it and the exit from the platform would be as slick as ever!

I still hate the O2 though. All these concert goers are as bad as tourists on Piccadilly. My problem with both? They dawdle. They stop suddenly (so you walk into them). They hover in inappropriate places so that you can't get past them... and increasingly at North Greenwich they are loud and chaotic and everywhere! At that time of night all I want to do is get home after a long day... and I can't be doing with anything that makes that harder!

Talking of anti-social behaviour. The neighbours with the drums are still drumming. Pretty lucky that the weather has been so miserable so that neither our house or theirs needs the windows open. I can still hear them though sitting in my living room or bedroom with the windows shut! I feel that very soon I am going to have to write to them and ask them to soundproof their practice room or similar. When I get home after a 14 hour day the last thing that I want to hear is thud thud thud thud.

Trains, Busses and Taxis at the 02

Last night my journey home took me to North Greenwich later than usual. Considerably later than usual. Heading towards the end of the evening later than usual. I think it was probably sometime after 11pm, heading towards the last tubes etc. And, boy, was North Greenwich busy!

I quite often get a taxi back from North Greenwich if it is after 10pm. It gets a bit lonely and empty, and a girl on her own doesn't want to be standing around too much. Not so anymore. Chucking out time at the Dome (sorry, 02) leads to another wave of rush hour. Dissapointingly the licensed cab rank had a queue back to the station - probably around 30 people waiting. Fortunately I found a bus (even if it was the 422 rather than the 486) pretty quickly. So I saved myself a tenner and took the bus. For speed and comfort I'd rather have had the cab though!

Rainy days and tube journeys

I had a very peculiar experience on the London Underground last week. I was travelling home after a long day travelling and quietly reading my book. The tube wasn't too busy as it was around 7pm. Now... if you have never travelled on the London Underground you probably don't know the rules. Oh yes, there are rules! The most important rule (probably the only rule really) is that you NEVER look at your fellow passengers, and you most certainly never talk to them... unless of course you are travelling with them... but if they are strangers, certainly no communication! That is the way it has always been. Pretty much this is what happens. Occasionally a few angry words will be exchanged on a very crowded tube, or somebody might request a discarded newspaper.

This makes what happened on Thursday night even more strange. So, there I was... quietly reading my book (chick lit I'm afraid) when the guy sitting next to me suddenly spoke to me.
"Excuse me," he said "could you tell me what this word means?" and he pointed to a word on the page of the book he was reading ameliorate it said.
"Improve," I said "make better" and I assumed that would be the end of the conversation, but no!
"Can you tell me the root of the word?" he asked. I apologised that I could not... and shortly after he got up and left the train at the next station. Very strange.
The only other spontaneous conversation that I have ever had on the Underground was late at night when a rather drunk man was moving around the carriage attempting to engage everyone reading books in conversation about the books they were reading!

My bus went on walkabout this morning. I'm not quite sure why. I'd got on the 422 as most of the roadworks which were causing chaos around the old hospital seem to be finished now. Also, the bus information system at the bus stop wasn't working... it was raining... who knows how long away the 486 might have been! So, we got to East Greenwich and the bus driver suddenly left his seat and went around the bus telling everyone that he was going 'the back way' and wouldn't be going via Tunnel Avenue, so get off here if that is where you wanted to go. And lo, the bus turned around the block behind East Greenwich Library and zoomed off past Sainsbury's and through the Peninsula. No idea why as I had my iPod on, so didn't here any radio chatter from bus driver control! It might have been bad traffic, when we crossed the Tunnel Approach at the Standard there was a queue that was dissapearing back to (and maybe beyond) Sun-in-Sands which is quite bad, even for that time of day!

I noticed as we were going past Sainsbury's that they are changing their opening times. I assume that there is some kind of refurbishment going on as the sign said something about "making your store better". No more 24 hour opening, I think it is 7am to 10pm or similar. Good thing, I say. I think that 24 hour supermarket opening is the most pointless thing ever. Number 1, they have licencing laws (none I have visited have taken advantage of the much touted 24 hour licencing). Number 2, there is never anything you want to buy on the shelves 'out of hours'. Number 3, there are hardly any tills open; indeed once at 4am in Asda (I was driving to work) I had to wait for someone to come and operate a single check-out!

A cheerful moment (in this endless rain that has constituted pretty much the whole of the last two months) came the other morning when I was opening my post. A very dull printed envelope, which had type that is similar to a new cheque book cover arrived for me. I opened it without much excitement only to find that one of my Premium Bonds had finally come up! Only the second time ever I've won a prize. Ever, I've had them since I was born! What are Premium Bonds? They are a very quaint way of 'saving' money. You buy bonds (currently between £100 and £30,000 I think) and these bonds are entered into a prize draw every month. That is that, in lieu of receiving interest. I think I have about £50 worth or something... and over the last 30-odd years they have won me £150. Pretty rubbish return really! You need to own a lot more to win prizes... my parents and grandmother quite often win.

I had a superb evening out last night. I met up with a bunch of friends from school, pretty much thanks to the wonder of FaceBook that we all go in touch after so many years (well for some of us)! We went to a pub 'near London Bridge'. Turned out in the even that it was nearer to Tower Bridge than to London Bridge, but there you go! Cracking evening out... makes me determinded to try and keep in better touch with all my friends. Should be easy really, what with the wonders of modern technology and all!

Seems that Summer is over

I'm sitting looking out of the window at people sucrrying around Mayfair under umbrellas. It is raining again. It rained yesterday too. In fact it rained althrough July and most of August so far (except for last week). Good old British Summer.

My office has been mad busy recently... so I've not had much time to think and to write. Not much of note has been happening.

Had a good movie night on Saturday. We started with "Perfect Stranger" starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis. It was pretty good, especially as it had a very clever ending. I can't say more as it would spoil the movie if you haven't seen it... but totally worth watching.

We also watched "Number 23" with Jim Carrey. I've been waiting for ages to see it - and to be honest, I was a bit dissapointed. It wasn't a bad movie... but it wasn't anything special either... I was expecting more actual info on the conspiracy of "23" - but there you go.

We flooded out the Frog Pond at the weekend to try and improve the quality of water... it had got a bit green and toxic looking... by the time we were done you could see the ornament that had fallen in and settled on the bottom! The frogs seem to approve, as there are about 4 a night on average floating about. The toads still seem to prefer the ground level bird bath or the shrubbery though!

The latest exciting thing out of our office window is the Household Cavalry (or whoever they are in fancy uniforms) exercising their horses round Mayfair. They come up the road with police motorbikes in front and behind, and vanish off in the direction of Berkley Square. Somebody was rude enough to sound their horn at them the other day!

Delight of delights - the bus stops at North Greenwich have finally been re-organised. As of this week the 486 now leaves from the same stop as the 422 and 108. This leaves the scrum of the Thamesmead busses (472 and 161) to themselves, and means that I no longer have to hover between stops. Excellent!

Flying and other annoying things

So. My trip to Edinburgh this week. Everytime I haven't been on a plane for a while (which is pretty much every time I do fly, as I don't fly places much) I think that I must be mis-remembering how much I hate to fly. I think that it can't be as bad as I remember. But it always is. I hate flying. I am an extremely bad flier. Every pocket of turbulence... every change in tone of the engine has me convinced we are about to drop out of the sky. That is why I like a window seat... at least I can still see the ground is plenty distance away!

I flew BA from City Airport. Why schlep out to Gatwick or Heathrow when City is on your doorstep?! City Airport is great... nice and small and efficient. The plane going up took off on time and managed to arrive in Edinburgh early! Even though I've done the flight before it still freaks me out when, as you approach Edinburgh the plane flies out over the North Sea (presumably to get the angle right for landing at Edinburgh). I want to ask the pilot why we are going to Belgium?!

I had a worthwhile day in Edinburgh... and then it was time to come home. I got to the airport well over an hour before my flight... so I made a few phonecalls and decided to have a glass of wine (well, why not). This turned out to be not such a good idea. I went off through Security when the sign direct "go to gate"... and sat and waited, and waited and waited. Turned out that the plane we were supposed to have had broken down (or whatever) so obviously they had unloaded all the luggage etc. and moved it to a new plane. Finally took off... only to discover about 10 minutes in that the ovens had broken down on the new plane and there was no food! Too awful. I was starving! To make up for this (and probably to make sure that nobody was with it enough to be annoyed) the cabin crew served up double portions from the bar (well the tin trolley that goes up and down the aisle). So... that was two mini-bottles of wine to add to the glass I'd already had. Made for a very pleasant flight, I must say. As we arrived in London we went round to the south and came in over central London. Normally I'd have been worrying that we were very low, why was it taking so long, why was it bumpy, why were the engines changing sound... but on this occasion my thoughts were limited to... oh look, there's the Gherkin, there's Tower 42... can I see my office, no too slow... oh, there's Piccadilly Circus.

My journey onward was sadly blighted by the Jubilee Line (suspended due to a fire alert at Bermondsey). If I had not been slightly drunk I would probably have thought to have gotten a cab instead of waiting for an indeterminate time at Canning Town!

The Jubilee Line struck again on Friday morning when, for several hours, it was suspended from Finchley Road to Waterloo due to a signal failure at North Greenwich. Fortunately I was at a site visit so nowhere near the tube until much later by which time the delays were only 'minor'. My journey was blighted by the M25... which was amazing as I wasn't even on the M25!!! Going down I had the usual chaos at Darenth Interchange (or whatever it calls itself) where you leave the A2 for the M25 or the Dartford Crossing (at that time of day, big queue for the crossing). I got to site and amusingly had to park 'on site'. This wouldn't be amazing unless you know that the site has no external area... which means that parking on site involves driving through the empty shopfronts (awaiting fitting) and parking in the ground floor of the building! Coming back I got stuck in traffic. I'd heard on the way down about an accident on the M25... two lorries - one had overturned and the other had shed it's load. Plasterboard all over the carriageway! This was still shutting the motorway at nearly lunchtime... and the queue at the Darenth Interchange was quite unreasonable and at least doubled the length of my journey.

I knew the morning must have been bad when I saw a sign at Green Park in the evening apologising for your Jubilee Line Service this morning. London Underground... can't live with it, can't go anywhere without it (or sometimes with it!).

Away Day

So tomorrow I'm off to Scotland. A 'wee visit' to Head Office (Edinburgh). Basically have to get up at the normal time to go and get a plane (happily from City Airport) which means I should get to the office in Scotland around 3 hours before my 2pm meeting. Then have a plane back around 7-something in the evening... back home in time for bed!!! Exhausting. Nice change of pace none-the-less (not withstanding horrid flights).

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss sustainability issues - which is quite ironic that I am, thefore, massively increasing my normal carbon footprint... what with the flying to Scotland and all!

Have had very little chance to do much but study sustainability this week. The office internet security system still has taken against Social Networking sites... which leaves me with pretty much blogging and email in my lunch break/evening tea break!

Good news for my evening journey home. The 486 is moving from bus stop A at North Greenwich Station to bus stop B. This means that instead of having to stand between the stops and decide which way to jump when the 422 or 486 turns up I can get either bus from the same place! It also means that all the ignorant travellers who wait for the 472 and 161 and then refuse to move out of the way of the queue when the 486 arrives instead can now just impede each other instead of users of the Bexleyheath bus! All good.

The tube hasn't been too terrible since I arrived back from holiday. I was surprised to find that the escalator refurbishment at Green Park up from the Jubilee Line to the middle concourse was complete. They'll probably start on another one soon though!

Argh! The spam!

Like a lot of people, I have several email accounts. Set up at different times for different purposes, and maintained because, well, sometimes it is useful to have different addresses for different things!

The email account that came attached to my domain name for a long time I used only for communication on my website and other website related matters. I never had a single spam email in all that time. Bear in mind that the domain name hasn't any catch-all forwarding, so in order to receive an email it MUST be addressed to that exact mail address.

For some reason, when I signed up to a certain social networking site I used that address. Since that time I appear to be receiving 3-5 spam emails a day!

Here's my proposal for a brave spam free world. When I press the "mark as spam" button, or the "block sender" button, or whichever a 'ping' should be sent to the ISP of the spammer. If enough complaints are received the ISP should then dump the spammer and refuse to supply them with a service.

I am heartily sick of unsoliticed email. My email addresses can't be picked up from my websites as they are written in via Javascipt which means that 'bots' don't pick them up. Therefore, anyone who has my email address for nefarious purposes has somehow obtained it from a supposedly reputable source. Hmm. Give it another 10 years and we'll have abandoned email for a system that works better!

Wet race at Nürburgring

Finally! The race I've been waiting for all season. The one where it rained. Although it would seem that there can be such a thing as too much rain.

The problem with F1 today is that (like a lot of sport) there are three levels... the really good, the truly awful and those who are in between. The gulf between them is pretty often insurmountable. Sometimes the races get a bit dull when the only people who do any overtaking are in the middle of the pack, and the only way the lead changes is by leap-frogging in the pit-stops or by accident. This is why I love races where it rains! It makes everything so much more unpredictable. So, I was delighted in the build up to the race when rain was forecast... imminently.

All the cars on the grid were sitting there with dry tyres on... the only car not on the grid was Spyker's Winkelhock, who was starting from the pit. It turned out that his car had wet tyres on... an unexpected advantage for the oragne team! It started raining on the first lap... by the second lap the track had turned into a river... all the driver were diving for the pits and for wet tyres - Raikonnen made for the pit, and then did a swift exit - it looked like he missed but Rich and I maintain that they were ready for Massa and told him to go round again.

There is a mass exit at turn one as cars autoplane off the track... on after each other, almost in synchronised formation! Six cars go off all in all, it turns out that Hamilton keeps the engine going and gets lifted back onto the track under the "unsafe position" rule. I thought it was dubious a few years back when Shumacher used it... and this time I thought it was even more dubious, but rules are rules. Unsurprisingly this mass exodous from the track leads to the deployment of the safety car (which almost is hit by an auto-planing car itself). Winkelhock in the Spyker leads the race (to the audible disbelief of the commentary team). The torrential rain persists, and even less suprinsingly the race is red flagged after one lap behind the safety car. The pack lines up for a restart behind the safety car, and ITV take the chance to fit in as many advert breaks as possible whilst nothing much is happening.

In one of the advert breaks there was a very funny car advert by Mercedes featuring Hamilton, Alonso and Raikonnen... I found it on YouTube and it is totally worth watching for pure comedy value!

Twenty minutes after it stopped the race restarts (amongst not a little confusion). Hamilton who was a lap down after his spin off is allowed to overtake the pack under the safety car and un-lap himself. He might have made the points but before the end of the lap with the safety car he pits and goes for dry tyres... maybe a bit early it turns out.

The race starts again and the whole pack (well, most of them) pass Winkelhock. In the end his car conks out on lap 22. When interviewed he is delighted to have led his first Grand Prix, in his own country as well.

Despite the threat of further rain it doesn't really happen again... a bit of light rain about half a dozen laps before the end... but the race is pretty much done. Just before the end of the race Alonso passes Massa (which has been threatening for several laps) and wins the Grand Prix. What an exciting race it was with all that rain!

Harry Potter and the Noisy Neighbours.

It was a busy day yesterday. Somehow, the time, as usual, just went “poof”. Rich was off in the evening to go and see OMD as the Indigo2… part of my birthday present to him. He was thrilled, as somehow (by total fluke) I’d ended up getting him ‘VIP’ tickets… well – he ordered them himself… but that was all that was left. As I said… aren’t I nice?! So… I dropped him off at the Dome about quarter to eight and my nearly-mother-in-law and I went to Asda. Friday night shopping? Big mistake, huge! It was mental – reminded me totally of why I prefer to shop in Sainsbury’s. As we were going round the tannoy announced “The Harry Potter books have arrived in the store. They will be going on sale at 12:01 for the amazing price of £5”. Amazing price indeed. As far as I was aware the pre-order I’d paid £3 for a WH Smith was still going to cost me a further £7 or so. Bummer. Eventually we made it out of Asda. Just in time for me to get home… cook dinner, take my injection, wrap Rich’s birthday presents and wash up. By which time it was time to go and fetch Rich from the Dome. We popped into Sainsbury’s to pick up a few forgotten items… and then it was time to go and join the queue for Harry Potter. I decided to pick up my pre-sale (even though financially it would have made more sense to write off the £3 and buy it for a fiver in Asda). Good decision. We were about a dozen back in the queue at Smith’s which only went just past Boots at the shopping park… Asda’s came out of the store and round the side and then some. About 10 to 12 the manager came out the store to set out the procedure. “We have lots of books” he said “Enough to sell them to that queue when they run out over there”. About 2 minutes before the doors opened and we were allowed to pick up our books from the table and join the queue for the cash register… which started ringing at exactly 12:01. Finally – the long anticipated moment. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. All 607 pages! On the way out I noticed the balloons in the window… could I have one I asked the security guard… and started a trend! Wonder how many they had left this morning!?!

So by 12:15 we were home… Harry burning a hole in my bag. Rich was disappointed because the Red Sox game he’d been planning to watch had been bumped in favour of Barry Bonds and the chase for the home run record. Don’t know if he did it last night. Doubtful as I think he needed 3 to equal the record and four to beat it, from one game.

At 12:30 I finally settled down with my book. I’m not going to discuss anything of the book here… I’d hate to let anything slip to those who haven’t read it yet! Let’s just say than after an hour and a half I’d read 115 pages. An hour after that I’d read 220 pages. By 4:15 (when I decided to try and go to sleep) I’d reached page 286. After half an hour I gave up and went back downstairs to read, where I managed another five chapters before falling asleep with my face in the book!

Progress was slower today. I didn’t wake up until midday (oops), and then there was Rich’s birthday presents, and cake, and other celebratory things. I settled down to read again, only to be distracted beyond belief by our noisy neighbours (well, one set). Drums… and music. VERY loud. I rang the council to complain, who told me – if I gave them the number of the house they’d write a letter. Superb. Not actually do anything to stop the noise. In the end I shouted over the garden fence to them and asked if they could keep it down a little. Not 10 minutes later an apologetic young man was on the doorstep apologising. Lucky for him my nearly-mother-in-law answered (I had my foam earplugs back in and didn’t hear the door). I’d have given him a much harder time. Believe me, I shall take a note of their door number, and if they so much as think of doing it again I’ll be straight onto the useless Council.

Finally I got back to Harry. And by 5pm I’d reached page 607. The end… no more Harry. I’m not giving anything away if I say that the book was superb… action, adventure… beautifully spun tales. I think though, I wouldn’t let a child younger than about 12 or 13 read it… maybe older than that… maybe they should get ratings for books like they do in the Cinema?!

Now I’m sad… and I’m not really sure what to do. This happens every time I finish a book I’ve been looking forward to. It’s the problem of being able to read fast… you get to the end and find out what happens, but then there is no more book to read!