Saturday, July 22, 2006
July 22, 2006
Urban Wildlife
It is Saturday morning and I just woke up to the beautiful music of a big thunderstorm. It was really cool. We desperately needed the moisture as it has been very hot and dry in London. The sky is already beginning to clear and it looks like it will be a very pleasant day.
I saw three foxes in the private gardens behind my flat last week. They were having a good time scurrying around in between the all the fences and dividers between the spaces. I think perhaps they were young as they were really very playful. The foxes in the UK seem to have a lower pile coat than the US foxes. They were so cute.
I went to the Isle of Wight a couple weekends ago and spent the night in Ventnor on the south coast of the island. My sister has a house in Ventnor, New Jersey so I had to go to Ventnor. It was a lovely place indeed. Queen Victoria first had a house their in there in the 1850s. Prior to that it was a rough place where people landed or crashed their boats by accident. Ventnor has a small beach and some lovely guest houses and restaurants. You take a ferry from Southampton to Cowes on the North side of the island and then travel over to Ventnor. I took a bus. The town of Cowes has an huge yachting community and the Channel is packed with sailboats on a nice day as it was when I was there.
I finally made it to Paris as well. I took the high speed train from London, the one that goes under the English Channel. The train was very smooth and very fast. I do love train travel, it can be much more relaxing that air travel. I attended a yoga workshop with John Friend, the founder of Anusara Yoga. The workshop was inspirational and physically challenging. I took some time to wander around Paris as well. We were staying quite close to Notre Dame which is an amazing site. The area surrounding it is also very charming with many little shops and cafes.
Things at work are very busy indeed. I am building my team and had 9 interviews in one day and HR will be offering positions to 7 of them. There is talk about Cerner getting the London account as well. That could happen at any time. I really enjoy the work and the people I work with. Some days when it is very hot the commuter train is not very pleasant but thankfully it is a very short ride when the trains are on time. There was big talk of a rail strike that would have grounded me and many of my Cerner associates but it appears it has been called off. It is nice that we have the Cerner office quite close to Paddington Station so we can always work there if we can’t get to Slough.
Another crazy night last Sunday in East London and a good time was had by all. I was wandering through TimeOut and found a listing for the Nine Ton Peanut Stompers playing at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. I had read about the BGWMC in TimeOut several weeks before and was very curious about going there. Working Men’s Clubs go back to the 1850’s when working men wanted a place to go after work to have a pint or two, play pool, darts, cards and whatever. Many of them closed after WWII but there are a few still around. This one is in the heart of east London which is a whole other world anyway. This club has starting having bands and such and developed a following of sorts with a reputation for all kinds of people going there and hanging out. Turns out the Nine Ton Peanut Stompers were an excellent ska band and very fun to dance to on a very nice dance floor. We had a group of five of us and all had a great time. I found out Jeremy is an excellent dancer. He calls me his big sister. He is one of my American associates over here helping me on a six month work permit. We all got pretty silly and missed the last tube and couldn’t figure out the bus so after munching done some killer kebabs, took a taxi back to west London. That was expensive!
I finally had DSL hooked up in my flat this week and I have Broadband talk as well. I haven’t exactly figured out the VOIP yet but will let folks know when I do.
I hope everyone is having an enjoyable and comfortable summer. I know I am. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to know that this is real…I really do live in London and it is FABULOUS!
www.hellokittyinlondon.shutterfly.com
It is Saturday morning and I just woke up to the beautiful music of a big thunderstorm. It was really cool. We desperately needed the moisture as it has been very hot and dry in London. The sky is already beginning to clear and it looks like it will be a very pleasant day.
I saw three foxes in the private gardens behind my flat last week. They were having a good time scurrying around in between the all the fences and dividers between the spaces. I think perhaps they were young as they were really very playful. The foxes in the UK seem to have a lower pile coat than the US foxes. They were so cute.
I went to the Isle of Wight a couple weekends ago and spent the night in Ventnor on the south coast of the island. My sister has a house in Ventnor, New Jersey so I had to go to Ventnor. It was a lovely place indeed. Queen Victoria first had a house their in there in the 1850s. Prior to that it was a rough place where people landed or crashed their boats by accident. Ventnor has a small beach and some lovely guest houses and restaurants. You take a ferry from Southampton to Cowes on the North side of the island and then travel over to Ventnor. I took a bus. The town of Cowes has an huge yachting community and the Channel is packed with sailboats on a nice day as it was when I was there.
I finally made it to Paris as well. I took the high speed train from London, the one that goes under the English Channel. The train was very smooth and very fast. I do love train travel, it can be much more relaxing that air travel. I attended a yoga workshop with John Friend, the founder of Anusara Yoga. The workshop was inspirational and physically challenging. I took some time to wander around Paris as well. We were staying quite close to Notre Dame which is an amazing site. The area surrounding it is also very charming with many little shops and cafes.
Things at work are very busy indeed. I am building my team and had 9 interviews in one day and HR will be offering positions to 7 of them. There is talk about Cerner getting the London account as well. That could happen at any time. I really enjoy the work and the people I work with. Some days when it is very hot the commuter train is not very pleasant but thankfully it is a very short ride when the trains are on time. There was big talk of a rail strike that would have grounded me and many of my Cerner associates but it appears it has been called off. It is nice that we have the Cerner office quite close to Paddington Station so we can always work there if we can’t get to Slough.
Another crazy night last Sunday in East London and a good time was had by all. I was wandering through TimeOut and found a listing for the Nine Ton Peanut Stompers playing at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. I had read about the BGWMC in TimeOut several weeks before and was very curious about going there. Working Men’s Clubs go back to the 1850’s when working men wanted a place to go after work to have a pint or two, play pool, darts, cards and whatever. Many of them closed after WWII but there are a few still around. This one is in the heart of east London which is a whole other world anyway. This club has starting having bands and such and developed a following of sorts with a reputation for all kinds of people going there and hanging out. Turns out the Nine Ton Peanut Stompers were an excellent ska band and very fun to dance to on a very nice dance floor. We had a group of five of us and all had a great time. I found out Jeremy is an excellent dancer. He calls me his big sister. He is one of my American associates over here helping me on a six month work permit. We all got pretty silly and missed the last tube and couldn’t figure out the bus so after munching done some killer kebabs, took a taxi back to west London. That was expensive!
I finally had DSL hooked up in my flat this week and I have Broadband talk as well. I haven’t exactly figured out the VOIP yet but will let folks know when I do.
I hope everyone is having an enjoyable and comfortable summer. I know I am. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to know that this is real…I really do live in London and it is FABULOUS!
www.hellokittyinlondon.shutterfly.com
# posted by Joy and Blues @ 6:31 am 
