Sunday, April 16, 2006
HK in London #2
Thanks to all of you that responded to my initial blog. The comments were quite heartwarming and encouraging. So…you’ve all encouraged me to keep at it. On a housekeeping note, to my knowledge, you can only comment on my blog via the site. I think you have to register to be able to do that. I don’t expect this to take the place of personal interaction (email or voice), my hope is that it will give many people at once a chance to read about what I am up to in London. If you send me a personal email, I will do my best to respond personally on a timely basis. My CRS is getting worse as I age, so I didn’t want to risk repeating my London adventures…hence the blog.
Work…many have asked…my work enables me to live in London and get paid the “differential” which pretty much makes the British pound equal to an American dollar. That alone makes it completely worthwhile. The Cerner project in the UK is currently dedicated to the Southern Cluster. This does not include London but is the entire south of the country including some 142 trusts. A trust is one hospital and can be many associated smaller healthcare venues. It is a massive project and the entire country is undertaking the process of moving towards electronic records. The country wide project is called Connecting for Health (CfH) and regularly takes a merciless beating in the newspapers here as much of the project to date has cost more than expected and achieved less than the desired result. Sounds like an IT project to me. It is bit strange when you read about it in the papers since it is really many projects in one and Cerner is only involved in the Southern Cluster and two other hospitals in the greater London area. The contract is held by Fujitsu, a huge global IT consulting firm. It is up to them to deliver on the contract with the National Health Service (NHS) and I am quite confident Cerner is up to the task and may have an opportunity to provide our services to the entire country.
My personal situation at work involves a short train trip to a suburban Fujitsu office in Slough. Cerner has a fabulous new office near Paddington Station but the office is so full already that I am quite happy to be in the Fujitsu office where we have lots of space. I do find myself in the Paddington office for certain meetings and such. It is quite impressive, lots of glass and it overlooks Little Venice, called such because of the canal that runs through it. I am the team leader for 5 workstreams designing our Cerner solutions to meet the requirements of the NHS. The detailed work is still building up as are the team compositions but I find myself extremely busy with learning about all the details of the project as well as the design decisions to date. The NHS requirements are quite detailed and a fair amount of project time will be spent on determining how to best meet those requirements via current and future solution capabilities. Enough about that…a bunch of you asked.
My work associates are just great! I was having a most difficult time understanding one lady on my Clinical team. Her accent is really thick and she talks really fast. These Brits constantly make fun of each other with their accents and where they are from…it is so funny. “Ahhhh…she must be from the north…but we forgive her,” and stuff like that goes on all the time. Anyway, I told Catherine I was having a little trouble understanding her and wondered where she was from to which she replied…”Ah…I am Scottish but my accent is nothing…if you go to Glasgow, you won’t understand a word they say.” I am actually starting to notice subtle differences in accents as well. Later that day another lady I work with said…”so Ellie, what is your accent?” To which I proudly responded, “I don’t have an accent.” The entire room erupted in laughter and I was teased the rest of the week. “This is Ellie…she doesn’t have an accent”…followed by hysterical laughter. Open mouth…insert foot. Yes, I tried to explain that I don’t have an American accent like NY, Boston, or the deep south. Of course, too little too late on that one.
Lots of music to talk about. I started this blog after this show, but cannot go without mention of Leela James, a lovely young Rhythm and Blues singer I saw in Camden (North London) at Koko. She was great! So full of energy and she has a great sound. That was my first live performance here in London. The venue was really nice, I expect to go there again. I just saw that Toots and the Maytals are playing there in June. I might have to go check that out.
On Friday of this week, I went to the famous Apollo Hammersmith to see Bonnie Raitt. I love Bonnie. She looks fabulous and I imagine she is likely close to sixty. I think sixty is the new forty, at least to see Bonnie you would think so. She had a great band and played lots of my favorite songs. What a cool theatre…pretty big…it holds 5000 people. It is just a couple tube stops from where I live so very convenient. Bonnie did “Bad Case of Loving You” as an encore which I thought was so poignant as it is a song written and performed by the late, great British rocker, Robert Palmer. I saw Robert Palmer at the Starting Gate in 4 Corners (MD) with my late sister, Sally…that was 1975.
The concert ended just before 11 p.m. which gave me an opportunity to send positive vibrations to my little sister, Rach, as she performed her opera recital as part of the completion of her Master of Arts in Voice at Boston University. Her performance at 6 p.m. was 11 p.m. here in London. I was so sorry not to be there in attendance so I dedicated a traditional Buddhist chant used in my Anusara yoga class to her from across the pond. The power of positive thinking…indeed.
Easter Sunday today and I went to the Sunday Morning Coffee Concert at Wigmore Hall. Florilegium (ensemble of flute, harpsichord, cello, and violin) with a soprano, Gillian Keith. They played a lovely selection of baroque pieces including two versions of St. John Passion, one by Bach and one by Handel. It was in a lovely hall with amazing acoustics.
I’ve written more than I intended as I sit in my flat looking out on the twilight. It is 8:15 and still quite light out. As I have been fighting a bit of a cold so I expect to keep a low profile tonight. Tomorrow is a holiday with more opportunity to explore and enjoy.
Today I saw a huge Saucer Magnolia in full bloom…just like in Kansas City. They are FABULOUS!!!
Namaste.
Work…many have asked…my work enables me to live in London and get paid the “differential” which pretty much makes the British pound equal to an American dollar. That alone makes it completely worthwhile. The Cerner project in the UK is currently dedicated to the Southern Cluster. This does not include London but is the entire south of the country including some 142 trusts. A trust is one hospital and can be many associated smaller healthcare venues. It is a massive project and the entire country is undertaking the process of moving towards electronic records. The country wide project is called Connecting for Health (CfH) and regularly takes a merciless beating in the newspapers here as much of the project to date has cost more than expected and achieved less than the desired result. Sounds like an IT project to me. It is bit strange when you read about it in the papers since it is really many projects in one and Cerner is only involved in the Southern Cluster and two other hospitals in the greater London area. The contract is held by Fujitsu, a huge global IT consulting firm. It is up to them to deliver on the contract with the National Health Service (NHS) and I am quite confident Cerner is up to the task and may have an opportunity to provide our services to the entire country.
My personal situation at work involves a short train trip to a suburban Fujitsu office in Slough. Cerner has a fabulous new office near Paddington Station but the office is so full already that I am quite happy to be in the Fujitsu office where we have lots of space. I do find myself in the Paddington office for certain meetings and such. It is quite impressive, lots of glass and it overlooks Little Venice, called such because of the canal that runs through it. I am the team leader for 5 workstreams designing our Cerner solutions to meet the requirements of the NHS. The detailed work is still building up as are the team compositions but I find myself extremely busy with learning about all the details of the project as well as the design decisions to date. The NHS requirements are quite detailed and a fair amount of project time will be spent on determining how to best meet those requirements via current and future solution capabilities. Enough about that…a bunch of you asked.
My work associates are just great! I was having a most difficult time understanding one lady on my Clinical team. Her accent is really thick and she talks really fast. These Brits constantly make fun of each other with their accents and where they are from…it is so funny. “Ahhhh…she must be from the north…but we forgive her,” and stuff like that goes on all the time. Anyway, I told Catherine I was having a little trouble understanding her and wondered where she was from to which she replied…”Ah…I am Scottish but my accent is nothing…if you go to Glasgow, you won’t understand a word they say.” I am actually starting to notice subtle differences in accents as well. Later that day another lady I work with said…”so Ellie, what is your accent?” To which I proudly responded, “I don’t have an accent.” The entire room erupted in laughter and I was teased the rest of the week. “This is Ellie…she doesn’t have an accent”…followed by hysterical laughter. Open mouth…insert foot. Yes, I tried to explain that I don’t have an American accent like NY, Boston, or the deep south. Of course, too little too late on that one.
Lots of music to talk about. I started this blog after this show, but cannot go without mention of Leela James, a lovely young Rhythm and Blues singer I saw in Camden (North London) at Koko. She was great! So full of energy and she has a great sound. That was my first live performance here in London. The venue was really nice, I expect to go there again. I just saw that Toots and the Maytals are playing there in June. I might have to go check that out.
On Friday of this week, I went to the famous Apollo Hammersmith to see Bonnie Raitt. I love Bonnie. She looks fabulous and I imagine she is likely close to sixty. I think sixty is the new forty, at least to see Bonnie you would think so. She had a great band and played lots of my favorite songs. What a cool theatre…pretty big…it holds 5000 people. It is just a couple tube stops from where I live so very convenient. Bonnie did “Bad Case of Loving You” as an encore which I thought was so poignant as it is a song written and performed by the late, great British rocker, Robert Palmer. I saw Robert Palmer at the Starting Gate in 4 Corners (MD) with my late sister, Sally…that was 1975.
The concert ended just before 11 p.m. which gave me an opportunity to send positive vibrations to my little sister, Rach, as she performed her opera recital as part of the completion of her Master of Arts in Voice at Boston University. Her performance at 6 p.m. was 11 p.m. here in London. I was so sorry not to be there in attendance so I dedicated a traditional Buddhist chant used in my Anusara yoga class to her from across the pond. The power of positive thinking…indeed.
Easter Sunday today and I went to the Sunday Morning Coffee Concert at Wigmore Hall. Florilegium (ensemble of flute, harpsichord, cello, and violin) with a soprano, Gillian Keith. They played a lovely selection of baroque pieces including two versions of St. John Passion, one by Bach and one by Handel. It was in a lovely hall with amazing acoustics.
I’ve written more than I intended as I sit in my flat looking out on the twilight. It is 8:15 and still quite light out. As I have been fighting a bit of a cold so I expect to keep a low profile tonight. Tomorrow is a holiday with more opportunity to explore and enjoy.
Today I saw a huge Saucer Magnolia in full bloom…just like in Kansas City. They are FABULOUS!!!
Namaste.
# posted by Joy and Blues @ 7:23 pm 
