Now, Where was I...

From where I left off on Xmas eve, we decided to head out into central London to see the Xmas lights and other displays. Our travels included Piccadilly Circus, Chinatown and Covent Garden, with Leicester Square and the small fairground that had been set up there was the highlight. Here we had a rather interesting dinner where the service was somewhat askew, but at least we didn’t have to pay for one of our mains. A good size they were too, so once again, we rolled out of a restaurant to continue on our way.

This included a bit of entertainment by some of the punters attempting to win at the sideshows and the foolish folks getting on the large ‘windmill-ish’ ride. A brief call from family, and then we entered a tube station in a rather unconventional way to make our way home (see the pic). The Tube was packed too, as we were getting close to 11.30pm which was when the last Tube before Xmas was due.
That’s correct, “the Last Tube before Xmas” is what I said. This is because London basically closes for Xmas day. No public transport is running on Xmas day. Double priced taxis, yes, but nothing else - no tube, no trains, no trams, no riverboats, nothing.
So, this meant that Xmas was a home gig. Our plan of a Xmas lunch in our housemate’s restaurant was scuppered simply because the only way to get there was to walk. A nice lay-in with presents and phone calls home made for a nice day off. The rest of the day we ‘made do’ to create our own unique Xmas day. It may have included shepherd’s pie with a sweet potato mash, Finding Nemo and the Doctor Who Xmas adventure with Kylie, but it won’t be a Xmas day that will be forgotten, and that’s what you want. No offence to families, but ‘family Xmas’s’ do tend to blend into one another over the years unless of course something memorable happens. You know, like half-sloshed ‘uncles’ trying (unsuccessfully) to quietly put together a swing set without waking the young kiddies inside...

Xmas Eve

Last night was a little misty...This morning was a little misty too...

But at least the streets were nearly empty, so the ride to work, whilst chilly at 6C, was the smoothest and quickest by a long way. Navagating the Aldgate/Whitechapel "roundabout" was a breeze!! (normally it's a life in your own hands gig).

Nice to have work finish at 1pm too, not that we were particularly busy today...

Anyway, hope you all have safe, healthy and happy xmas's whatever and wherever you are!!

Winter Wonderland - Hyde Park

It’s funny how you perceive how things should be when in a city that is bigger than the one you’ve come from. I was a little disappointed in Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland. Billed in the media a something spectacular and worth going too, we headed in and met Beale and his mate Adam for what we hoped would be a fun bit of ice skating and the rest.
You’d think that I should have been a little more wary of anything in the English media, as they’re not the most reputable bunch of reporters/journos. Ice Skating in Hyde Park, conjured up images of skating on the lake in Hyde Park, however the reality was something far less. In fact I’m pretty sure that the backyard at my first home was larger than the ice rink. Being sold out aside, it was also absolutely packed, but then I doubt I’d have been up for anything more than just a leisurely cruise on the ice - preferably without any stacks!
The rest of the ‘Wonderland’ seemed just a little small really, or just didn’t have as many things of interest than I thought there’d be. Maybe I was overestimating what would have been there for such a city as London. While the ferris wheel was quite spectacular, the rest of the rides and amusements were rather sparse. The circle of stalls around the rotunda was quite interesting displaying and selling all sorts of crafts and foods. The standouts being the Pimms tent with it’s warm shots of Pimms Winter with a small piece of apple in it, and this we confirmed by trying it several times just to make sure. The German sausage stand was quite popular and eating them in the small hotdog bun was an exercise! Also very popular was the waffle & pancake stand, as well as the hot mulled wine booth. While we refrained from venturing up to Santa in the rotunda for a photo, we did notice that the reindeer hide product stall may have been a little disturbing for the kiddies. And if we thought that was bad, then the shackled Santa’s dangling from the Haunted Mansion ride should have rounded out the nightmares for the little tackers nicely! Most kids seemed happy enough on the other rides or brandishing their £5 lightsabres, which were both tempting and cool at the same time. They all seemed to be enjoying the whole Winter Wonderland, and maybe it was more for them than us, however, I think it would have been quite a different story had there been snow everywhere like the pictures in the papers had shown it. Perhaps a bit of a skate may have improved things as well.
While Matt n Adam ‘braved’ one of the faster rides, a bag of hot donuts rounded out the afternoon’s adventure (yes, afternoon as we were there from about 4.30 til 6pm if you’re a little disbelieving of the pictures), before we retired back to Matt’s for an evening of pizza n movies. I Am Legend is quite an intriguing movie.

We'll save the skating for one of the other outdoor locations and another day.

Back To Work!

Well, not quite as it was before... Funnily enough, I still remember most of the folk I met at the xmas party last week. As mentioned before, they’re a pretty good bunch.
The work is a bit slow, as they’re still to get me logged into their system, but I’m happy enough to be paddling in the shallow end for now to ease back into the working life after over 3 months off. Far better conditions to work under than what life was like at CGU, however whilst we were always trying to get the Melbourne office to cool down, here in London, we’re trying to get the office to heat up!!
All up it’s pretty much just smooth sailing for now... And the fact that we live close enough for me to run home in just over an hour is pretty cool! Let’s just ignore that I took a wrong turn and added a couple of K’s to my run. I don’t think the folks at AXA expected me to run home on the first day...

Ahh... the joys of riding the Tube, and what a marvel it is!! In three days it has taken me just over an hour (Mon.), less than 45mins (Tues) and then just over an hour and a half!!! The sooner I start riding the better! It only takes me just on 30mins to get to AXA on the bike - healthier for me as that black soot in the Tube isn’t a concern, as well as the other benefits of physical activity, and best of all riding is FREE!! And even in 4C it’s fine once I’ve warmed up on the bike. Stuff trudging to the Tube in the cold! Or, for that matter, walking through the streets to make it to a bus stop that you're sort of aware of how to find, only to end up spending half an hour finding something that should have been a 15min walk...

After riding into work today (Thursday) we discovered that we had no heating for the day as the building’s boiler had packed up!! What a day to leave the gloves and scarf at home - it didn’t fit in the backpack... However, at least the work has improved in terms of things to do. Seems they’re discovering quite quickly that they’ve underestimated me as I’m now doing something they deem to be quite difficult (if not a little dull). Let’s just say that I haven’t had to review changes to policy wordings for a bit, and certainly not in English Legalese! Last time I saw wordings like these was back in the early nineties!! One paragraph took five lines just to basically say that ‘we won’t be paying more than the sum insured on the schedule’. They seemed surprised that I could interpret it as well as sum it up so easily.
Anyway, the two best times of the day were the ride to and from work - I certainly got a blast by being amongst a bunch of other riders along the roads home! Didn’t take long before a couple of us were upping the pace a little. Playing with people’s egos can be rather entertaining!

Friday - casual day, festive food put on for lunch, finally logged into their system, a pint in the neighbouring pub, and 3 extra kilometres for my ride in thanks to a wrong turn!! At least I took the short (see: correct) way home! Riding home in the streetlights shining through the cold evening mist, while erie, is somewhat cool.

Portsmouth

Another Saturday and another early morning ride. A little earlier this week as we were aiming for the 9.30am train to Portsmouth. Same route as last week, with the ‘hill’ before reaching the M25 crossover. That’s it in the above pic - however, you can’t really get an idea of how long or steep it is in the dark!
Once home, showered n dressed (and someone else getting up a bit late) we were on our way to meet Sue n Graeme at Waterloo for the 10.30am train to Portsmouth and Fratton Park for the Spurs v Portsmouth game. Oh, and a weekend away on the south coast...
Upon arrival at Fratton station (right), Charity and I headed off to our accommodation and checked in before making our way back to the Portsmouth ground. ‘Lunch’ on the way, was in a small (dodgy) cafe where we basically had a breakfast (eggs bacon etc...) - fat n greasy to completely ruin what I did on the bike in the morning.
Fratton Park has been around since 1889, but doesn’t seem to have changed much since then! While waiting for Sue n Graeme, we got quite an eyeful of all sorts of fans, and they were a rather diverse bunch, including one rather confused ‘fellow’ (pictured). Brave would be a good word for ‘him’ as it was a very cold and windy 5C!
A far more entertaining game this time round, with Spurs winning 1-0, which is a very low score for Spurs considering the amount of goals both scored and conceded this season! Not completely sure of what Charity made of all the singing and carry-on, but I do know she enjoyed the hot Bovril (probably more than I enjoyed my hot chocolate) that we got at half time.

After this, the fun began in trying to find somewhere to go to get some dinner and have a relaxing few drinks for the evening. We discovered very quickly that there wasn’t too much on offer on a Saturday night in Southsea. There were some nice pubs about (as you can see), however not much on offer in the way of food beyond standard English pub food. Eventually, we settled on one pub that did have a little bit more than the others - not that it was much better. At least the locals provided some entertainment with their interesting behaviour. Definitely a different world in Portsmouth & Southsea! It was then just a small matter of re-braving the cold to walk back to our room at the Southsea Backpackers.

Cold n Windy was the order of the day for Sunday, as we set out to the coastline and to make our way along it to the Portsmouth train station. First port of call was to navigate our way through the new ‘rock garden’ (which contained more garden than rock) that had been created near the esplanade at Southsea. It was version 2 for the Southseaians as the first attempt was flooded when a freak storm brought the sea up the day after it was finished, but was still interesting to make your way through. Once we made the esplanade, or boardwalk, we proceeded onto the ‘beach’ and I use that term rather loosely!! I’ve seen gravel driveways that have smaller and less sharp rocks through it!

Anyway, we made our way away through the ice cold wind from the Southsea Pier and along the coast to Henry VIII’s Southsea Castle, the D-Day Museum, and the Aquarium before discovering the Queen’s Hotel (pictured) for lunch.
Somehow we weren’t quite up to their standard in terms of dress sense, but at least we still managed to get a very decent lunch in their restaurant while we thawed out. We will both recommend the Portobello mushrooms should you every find yourself there in the future.
From here, we rolled...erm... walked back to the coastline and the fairground. Unfortunately, most of it was closed for winter, but we did have a few giggles in the penny arcade on some of the side shows. With prizes in hand, or more appropriately ‘in-bag’, we continued on our way by watching the hovercraft ferry launch itself out to sea, before strolling further along Portsmouth’s coastal walkway while the sun set across the harbour.
It was then a leisurely walk through the old battlements, through the marina suburbs to Gunwharf Quays. Here we discovered a massive shopping district full of factory outlets, and, well, we just couldn’t pass up grabbing some bargains - a £15 Spurs shirt at the Puma outlet being the highlight (for me). It was then a matter of a short walk past the Spinnaker Tower to the train station for the trip home. Or so we thought. Maintenance to the lines meant that no trains were running, so it was onto a regular domestic bus for a half hour to the first station that the trains were running from.
Finally onto a train and it was several games of gin using one of our prizes - a tiny set of cards!!

AXA Xmas Do

Survived the AXA xmas party fairly well, despite going arse-up on an icey footpath before I'd even got there!
Massive night, amazing venue - even had dodgem cars! The kick-on afterwards was a little 'interesting'. Karaoke bar of all places... Anyway, throughout the evening and the murdered music I got to know most of the staff I'll be working with. All seem to be a pretty good bunch. And I'm told that our little team is under the spotlight of head office due to the size of risks we'll be working on. Not to mention that the next few months will be extremely busy as their calendar of operations is very different to ours (Australia's).

I also found out that London's streets after 2am are almost deserted, but that could have had something to do with the fact that it was about 2C!! I got to experience this by having to walk a couple of kilometres to a 24hr bus stop that leads past home.
Photos?? Hardly, even if there was a chance for a blackmail stylee photo...

No Snow Yet

As you can see from this morning's pic above, it's a little frosty, not to mention icey! (you can see the ice on the top of the fence and on my bike 'garage')
So, this morning's run was not only chilly, and although I'm getting the hang of that bit, it was also a tad treacherous due to the icey nature of the footpaths. It looked rather impressive with all the ice over the ground, trees and bushes! I managed to stay upright despite going fro a brief slide on the ice - the heart-rate monitor rather humourously where my speed drops dramatically and is accompanied by a sharp rise in my heartbeat! Funnily enough, I wasn't the only runner silly enough to be running on the ice and through the mist/fog this morning. I still haven't had my marathon entry confirmed through the ballot process, but the Spinal Injury Association has guaranteed me a place if the ballot entry comes through as a 'nay'.

It has been a rather quiet week so far, as it's been taken up mostly by trapsing around the area to places like the Citizen's Advice Bureau after our landlord let himself into our house on sunday. It seems to have sorted itself out now, but we're not 100% convinced by this fellow's words... Time will tell I guess.

Last night was a trip into High Holborn to meet two of Charity's relatives that her mother has only recently discovered while tracing their family history. Both guys were a few years older than us, but were good to meet, and we ended up learning a few new spots (okay, pubs) in central London.

Off to the AXA xmas party tonight...

Ride the Santa Borough

No sooner had I dismounted my bike from dropping some paperwork off at AXA, than I find I have 2 missed calls from them! I rang back immediately to find out that I am included in this thursday night's xmas show. My first duty at this company is to have a free night out on the plonk! Okay, so it's also a great way to meet the people I'll be working with, but you get the jist...

Apparantly it can get better than last week's sunrise (as you can see above). Early morning English countryside, your thoughts and your music in your ears, and almost NO cars around - Brilliant!
This saturday I chose a different set of roads to ride, although whilst I spent some time on the A10, I left it long before it became a busy highway! Instead I headed up to Potters Bar, which is a smallish township where I'm told many cyclists gather before heading off into the surrounding countryside. During the week I picked up some extra gear to keep my feet and ears warm, and at 1-4C I was very happy to have it!!
A far more challenging ride with some of the hills both on the way to and beyond Potters Bar, and one to definately do again! At 6.30am, there weren't too many others around (in fact, I only saw 4). One of which rode with me for the 20mins I spent travelling north of Potters Bar. A fountain of information to do with the local area he was! The idea that by the end of February I'll be seeing deer and other wildlife in this area is quite appealling. We were both out early to avoid the day's rain, and this I did for the near 2hrs I spent out on the bike.

Borough Market
A little later, I joined Charity when we met Karen n Martin at London Bridge station in the pouring rain - yep, it was in full swing by 10am. Thankfully, nearly all of Borough Market is sheltered.
A fantastic market too. Very much like I recall the Adelaide Central Market, although I don't recall being able to get an osterich burger in Adelaide! And yes, we both tried one. Pretty good too, and not as gamey as Emu.
Every stall had samples to try, ranging from anchovy or garlic filled olives to chocolate brownies (which you can see in the pic of their stack - the bowl to the left contained the samples) to cheeses, chutneys, mustards n meats of all styles.
Unfortunately, the beer stall didn't allow any samples of their 650+ beer varieties on offer!! But I'll give them credit for having four of the Coopers range (Sparkles, Dark, Stout & Vintage).
While Karen n Martin proceeded to do some of their weekly shopping, we managed to try many of the samples on offer (including those two olive options), but just had to have one of the large fresh oysters sold by one stall (see pic). Nice stuff! Along with the previously mentioned osterich burger, we can highly recommend the coffee available as well as the banana cake. These were happily consumed while the salvation army band played (they were in another section of the market by the giant xmas tree).
This will be one place that we will definately be returning to - most likely after a payday!

Ho Ho Ho!
4.30pm and we again caught up with Karen n Martin, but this time with Row as well, and at Victoria station, not London Bridge. In the entrance to the station, we then changed out of our secret identities to become Santas! (right)

Once in full Santa outfits, we headed off to the Jugged Hare, where we became immersed in Santas. Santa Crawl 2007 was on!
Several hundred Santas, raising money for the Red Cross, then proceeded to enjoy ourselves as we went on a pub crawl throughout London. A great night out with all the variations of Santas, including a "Chopper Reed" Santa, a "Bah Humbug Black" Santa, some "sumo" (inflatable) Santas, as well as a few other sorts.
The numbers may not have been as many as the last one I did in Melbourne, but it was still very well attended as we basically filled each pub comfortably. And our 3 santa suits held up very well as they survived the night. Running into a mate from back in Melbourne was a surprise too, and after a brief chat continued with our respective groups.
Speaking of "our" group, we strayed briefly between the 3rd and 4th pub by dropping into a Pizza Express for some much needed food. Quite a sight for those already there as 5 Santas stroll in and take up a table...
Charity and myself also had our fair share of looks when we rode the tube home later on, still in full santa costume. A top night out all round really. Bring on 2008's!

Martin, Row, Charity & Karen

What's an AXA?

Well, there you have it!

I interviewed with AXA this morning and this afternoon I accepted their offer to become their next Delegation Authority Underwriter. Sounds impressive, no? Basically I'll be looking after several of their brokers schemes - similar to what I was doing with my last job, but only dealing with scheme business and not the regular or general business.

This time, however, will include managing the whole scheme, which is far more involved than just quoting and underwriting, and will include varying the rates and policy wordings.

"In English please!", I hear you request - tough, I have 5mins left at this internet cafe, so that's all you're going to get for now.

Either way, I start on the 17th - just in time for some xmas income!! along with one last week of unemployment and freetime!!

Meanwhile, Charity will also be starting work on the 10th with a Physiotherapy firm in their branch by St Pauls Cathederal, and with their Fulham branch on the 17th as well.

The pic above was taken on the walk back to the tube after her successful interview at the Fulham branch yesterday evening...

The Start of the Day

Does it get much better than this?

Okay, so, yes it does. It would have been far nicer if it was a bit more than 6 degrees celsius and no wind was blowing!

Either way, this is the view that I got to watch this morning after riding for an hour up the A10 to Hertford. Nice to watch the sun come up, even if I couldn't feel my feet. At least I'm learning which pieces of winter riding gear to get next!!! (something to keep the feet and ears warmer, coming up!!) Thankfully, I do have a massge therapist on hand, who's happy for a subject to practice on before she starts working here - I also discovered that the lower back doesn't have quite the same stamina that it used to have...