Back in the USA

I made it back on Saturday. It was a very long day but glad to be home.

Except I'm not exactly home. I am in Austin, TX for three days taking an IBM class.

I have a few photos to post as I walked around my London 'hood. Will do when I get back home home on Thursday.

Happy Hour Old Chicago anyone?

Overcoming the allergies

Yowser but haven't felt this bad in ages. I'm doped up on Benadryl to get me through. I decided it best not to go to Paris feeling so dreadful.

My flat is what the call a "serviced-flat" which means it gets cleaned once a week. I figured it best not to be here while the cleaning staff is so headed over to my favorite park - St. Regent's.

Allergies

Mum left this afternoon. We had a leisurely morning taking a walk through Regent's Park where she went her first day. The tulips are really starting to come into show.

And unfortunately for me the trees are also going gangbusters. My allergies kicked in full hilt yesterday. I guess there's nothing like foreign trees to tell your allergies, "guess you haven't seen me before --- aiyeee!"

Packing boxes to send home. I don't want to cart a bunch of luggage back. I think I'm pretty done with touristing. I'm touristed out.

London City

We started this morning at Shakespeare's Globe Tour and Exhibition. We were in the 11:45 group for the tour. It was a rather long walk from the Underground so Mom watched the stage fighters practice while I wandered around the exhibitions.

The exhibitions and stage fighting demo were way underneath the theatre itself.

We had a great guide for the tour. She had lots of stories and was definitely a big supporter of the Globe. The stage you see to the left is how it always appears. There is generally no change to the columns or the back wall.

Our tour guide had great stories about being in the "groundlings" area -- the area in front of the stage where you stand to watch (and participate) in the performance.

Shakespeare's Globe is on the south bank of the Thames River. We walked by the IBM Southbank office building on our way. And the Globe is next to the Tate Modern. The Tate Modern has become the most visited site in London. It is a converted power plant. Probably the biggest attractions are the Unilever Series by Carsten Holler (picture to the right). And no...we didn't slide down them even though you can if you are willing to wait in very long lines. The British seem to love to "queue up" so it is perfect for them.

We then walked across the Millennium Bridge to the other side of the Thames and St. Paul's Cathedral.

The cathedral bells were peeling loud and clear. We couldn't even hear ourselves. Enough of walking and enough of the Underground, we caught a London black cab and headed home.

In the picture below with Mum, you can see the Tate Modern in the background and the Millennium Bridge (she's leaning on it).

Easter

Here are the happy church goers. Got all dressed up. Mom wore a hat and heels. Walked to the Hinde Street Methodist Church a few blocks away. It was a wonderfully casual service. Turns out the hymnals don't have the music -- only the lyrics. Mom said she just sings them all the same and guess what? That worked great!

We met Helene and Nick (the Wisconsin couple that have been stalking me since my niece's wedding party :-) ) and their friend Lou at the little French restaurant on Marylebone High Street.

We came back to the flat where Mom caught up on some correspondence and we planned our activities for tomorrow. Easter Monday is a bank holiday here. These Europeans get tonnes of holidays -- have I mentioned that before?

For dinner we walked all the way across the street to one of the Indian restaurants.

A typical Saturday?

Mom and I kind of slept in - or at least we thought. I cooked up the rest of the streaky bacon and fried eggs. Delicious breakfast.

I thought we would hit the Saturday market at St. Marylebone Parish so we headed over at 10:00am only to find the market doesn't open until 11. The streets and sidewalks were pretty empty. Guess people in this part of town have gone on holiday. I did notice a bilboard for an area website Marylebone Village

So we came back to the flat and relaxed until 11:00am. We made it over to the market but not too much of interest. We dropped off the loaf of bread and trinkets at the flat then headed to the Wallace Collection museum. This was my third trip to the museum which I really love.

We lucked out because a free tour was starting soon after we arrived. There is just so much to see in this collection. The tour guide was wonderful..telling stories of the house and select pieces of the collection of paintings, furniture, sculptures and porcelains. Hearing the back-stories of some of the famous paintings really made the tour.

We then headed to Oxford Street to catch the bus to Picadilly Circus. It appears most of humanity is back in London. Oxford Street was jam-packed. The bus stops are quite spread out and we ended up walking quite a way before getting to a stop. We were actually walking faster than the buses were traveling down the street.

We did catch a bus quickly though once we got to the stop. There are great views from the top of a double decker. We ended up just short of Trafalgar Square because the buses don't stop in Picadilly Circus. It was a quick walk to our destination the Comedy Theatre to see Boeing, Boeing.

I had seen this play when Chris and Jill were here. If you recall, this is the play that had has laughing almost falling out of our seats. It was still just as funny the second time seeing it. So so funny and the cast is great.

We walked over to Picadilly Circus to catch the Underground. Passed a street performer who was performing the robot. We stopped at The Apollo Pub after getting out at Baker Street for a pint (Mom had a half pint).

Been catching up on the Masters golf tournament on BBC.

Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum

Mum and I had a leisurely Good Friday morning. Got out around 11:00am to Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. We headed down Whitehall where the government offices are located.

We got coffee and hot chocolate and a coissant to share. Passed Downing Street and the mounted guards. Good views of Big Ben and the London Eye.

Went straight away to Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. The Cabinet War Rooms is where Winston Churchill, his staff, and British Ministers directed the war during World War II. The rooms have been restored to the condition they were in at the end of the war in 1945. It is really well put together and intersting.

I'm reading a book on the worst night of the blitz, 10 May 1941, and it rather brought it all together. The Churchill Museum is also part of the Cabinet War Rooms. A highly interactive museum with tonnes of information, videos, memorabilia, etc. on Winston Churchill. It was actually bit overwhelming.
We had a lovely lunch at the canteen in the Cabinet War Rooms mid-way through.

Once we were out we headed over to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament.

Westminster was not open for touristing as it was Good Friday. Mom was tired (jet lag finally catching up with her I think). We jumped on a double-decker bus for home.

Mom wanted to let Aunt Donna know what she was doing so we called from the bus. Good laugh.

Our bus let us off at Oxford Circus where we switched to another bus that took us back to my flat.

A day at Windsor (part 2)

Windsor is also the home of one of the gentleman from the project I was working on. I rang up Colin Macleod to see if he could meet us for a pint.

Mom and I stopped in The King and Castle pub. By this time we were starving and tired. We had a late lunch/early dinner. Colin joined us. He called his wife, Magdelaina, who brought their 8 month old girl, Valerie, both of whom I heard so much about and was glad to meet.

We had desserts and were entertained by Valerie. It was a lovely time.

Mom and I walked back to the train and got back to Paddington Street tired but happy we had had such a cracking day.

A day at Windsor

For Mom's first full day in England we went to Windsor. Took the Underground to Paddington Station to catch the train. We had to make a run down platform 10 to jump on the train. We were the last one's on before the doors closed and off we went. We hoped it was really the right one.

When we asked our seat mate if this was the train to Windsor, she didn't know. We were a bit nervous. The train conductor came by to check our tickets. He said something about platform 1 and the next stop. Neither of us understood.

Turns out we were to get off at the first stop and walk to platform 1 to catch another train to Windsor. It all work perfectly.

As you might have guessed, Windsor is known for Windsor Castle the residence of the Queen of England and Great Britain, Elizabeth.

So here are the two tourist outside the walls of this huge castle. And it really looks like a castle.

We toured the State Apartments which is where the Queen conducts formal occasions and events. Lots of armour and weaponry.

Also the reconstructed St. George's Hall after the terrible fire of 1992. The rebuilt it using the techniques from the 16th century.

There are famous paintings, beautiful wall coverings and chandaliers, solid silver furniture and more stuff to look at than you can. But you are not allowed to take photos.


The round tower is in the location of the original castle and has a moat part way round. The moat is now this lovely garden.

We stopped in the gift shop (one of many on the site) and had a well-deserved seat down. As you can see, it was a beautiful sunny day.

On the grounds of the castle is St. George's Chapel. A brilliant gothic church. Again you aren't allowed to take photos so you'll have to visit the website.

The church has many kings and queens entombed in various places. It's like walking through all of Shakespeare's plays -- Edward III, John IV, John V, and so many more.

Winchester Cathedral

After Hursley, Lakshmi dropped me off back in Winchester and I was bound and determined to find the cathedral. And I did and it was so worth it.

To be honest the cathedarl doesn't look like much from the outside. Rather squat and really old.

There are a few steps down to enter and once inside you see the amazing expanse of the entire building. It is the longest Gothic church in England at 556 feet. And you can see the full length of it. Brilliant!

There are medieval tiles completely through the east end. Near and under the altar are these amazing 12th century Norman murals that were discovered during renovations of newer 16th century murals.

You can even go to the crypt under the church where you see a modern sculpture surrounded by water which floods the crypt.

Walking outside and to the other side is a peaceful landscaped garden where the monastery used to be. From here you can see where the entire east end of the cathedral has subsided. A diver (never found out why a diver) rescued the building in the early 1900's by installing concrete under the entire eastern section to keep it from sinking and falling off.

Oh, and Jane Austen is buried here.

Hursley - IBM Facility

IBM has a very large (huge) facility in Hursley which is near Winchester - southeast of London. One of the chaps from the project needed to go to Hursley to pick up his repaired laptop and I asked if I could tag along.

I took the train from Waterloo station to Winchester. The SouthWest trains are much nicer than the First Capital Connect trains I took to Welwyn Garden City. The ride to Winchester was about an hour. I enjoyed looking at the country side and even saw the canal which I walked along my first weeks here.

I arrived in Winchester earlier than the agreed to meeting time and so headed into town. I was following the signs to the cathedral - Winchester Cathedral -- everyone sing along. As is typical, the signs stopped pointing the way to the cathedral and I still couldn't see it. I headed in one direction and, of course, it wasn't the correct one. That was okay. I ended up at the Great Hall and some old Norman castle ruins right in the town.

I headed back to the train station to meet Lakshmi Shankar, my guide for Hursley. I hopped in his car and off we went. Hursley is a tiny little village. Besides a wonderful pub is the IBM facility. It is a campus really. There is a main manor house that is mostly used for offices and meeting rooms.

Some three thousand people work there. Almost all in software design and development and research.

Lakshmi did a great job showing me around and introduced me to IBMers that could be of help in my job.

Almost over

Well, a decision has been reached. I'm finished. Done. Thank you, buh-bye. Cherrio. Tata.

The feeling is that the project is not going on and there is nothing else for me to work on over here so I am to go back to the United States. And this after they finally got the accounting stuff figured out!

To be honest I'm ready. I miss my Frankie and Uno. And I miss my friends.

I just switched my return flight from May 17 to April 15. In the meantime I don't have much to do work-wise (I still get paid don't worry) but my Mom is coming on Wednesday for almost a week so will have freetime to do more siteseeing with her. And maybe I'll go to Paris next week for a couple of days.

It has been quite the experience. Three months alone though has been tough. There's a whole 'nother story there.

Equus

Well, I did it. I went to see Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) in the 1970's play, Equus. I had seen the play before way back in the early 1980's at a small theatre in Washington DC - Source Theatre for those who remember it.

It is not an easy play to watch at times. Richard Griffiths was fantastic as the psychiatrist. And Daniel Radcliffe, who is only 17 years old, was very good. It has been widely publicised that he has a nude scene. I don't think American Equity would allow a 17 year old to be naked on stage. It is integral to the play though.

I figured it would be selling out every performance but it isn't and was quite easy to get a ticket. Chris, I didn't get a concession on this one.

Quite a crowd gathers at the stage door after the performance. The stage door lets out behind the theatre on a pedestrian street in the heart of the gay district. I grabbed a pint in Rupert St. Bar and watch the stage door activities.

streaky bacon

Bacon here is more what I would call Canadian Bacon. Almost ham steak like. Thick and if pan fried, usually burnt.

Today, there was a vendor at my market that had streaky bacon. The kind of bacon we are used to in the United States. I'm frying it up now. Can't wait.

And speaking of my market, it has become very popular...getting more and more people each Sunday.