So many visitors!

Last weekend, Steve came back to London. On Saturday, we went to the National Gallery, which I absolutely loved. We primarily looked at renaissance paintings and a bit of medieval. My favourite find was Bronzino's Allegory of Love. I had to sit down and admire it for a while. To my art history masters, Anna/Nicole: What is going on in Veronese's Adoration of the Magi? It looks like Chewbacca [sp?] makes an appearance... seriously. It's very strange. We saw Mantagna's Agony in the Garden but not Bellini's. It was being restored. I once confused the two of them on a slide test at UofT. We also saw some Titian and Botticelli. It was stunning.


Steve + I outside the National Gallery

Afterwards, we tried to identify all of the provincial flags at the Canadian Embassy. We failed. Then we had a picnic and drank wine in Soho Square. I love how accessible and socially acceptable alcohol is here. Everyone in the square was drinking. It was just so relaxed and made for a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.


London drinks in Soho Square.

That night, we went back to The Astoria to see the Pussycat Dolls. I'm not a huge fan, but it was a good show for only 12 quid and you certainly can't see them that cheap in North America. Later, Steve demonstrated an unprecedented display of insensitivity, but it was generally a good time. We met some fun Irish people who invited us to Dublin sometime!

On Monday, Brennon and I went to the British Museum where we saw plenty of Egyptian, Greek and Roman artefacts and sculpture. I didn't recognise too many specific pieces [unlike the National Gallery] but there were sooo many red-figure Greek amphoras and the mixing bowls and other vases.


The obligatory Great Court photo.


The seated goddesses from the Parthenon.

I made a new friend on Tuesday: Nik. He and I were hanging out at Starbucks on Tuesday when Adam Morrison called my mobile. I met Adam while I was living, working and partying in Kingston, Ontario last summer. He was passing through London from Greece on his way back to Canada and he was hoping I could give him a place to stay [naturally, I had lots of space for him!] The three of us had dinner at Wagamamas in Leicester Square. It kind of reminded me of Salad King / Spring Rolls in Toronto. Then Adam and I went back to my flat, I gave him a tour of Canary Wharf and he gave Brennon and I a bottle of Ouzo from the Isle of Lesbos [hehe]. It's a liquor that tastes like Sambuca [black liqorice] but it's much stronger and had to be diluted with ice water. We had a pretty late night of drinking and photo sharing.

Yesterday, I met up with Erandi DaSilva. Erandi and I did our undergrads together at UofT and she's continuing to study architecture here in London. It was nice to see her. For you other archi-kids, she's been very busy at school and she's in a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend who lives in Toronto, despite the fact that she's in a 5+ year program here. Good for them! We went to the John Soane Museum. I was appalled to learn that she'd never been there during the 2 years she's lived in London. I went during my first 2 weeks. She loved it. I accidently stood on his wife's grave while I was trying to get a view upward to a skylight. Soane buried his wife and son in the basement. Kinda weird. Then we went to Harrod's and walked around for a while. I am in love... with Duchamp ties. Then we went to the Spitalfields / Old Street area where we went to the El Paso Pub and shared nachos and beer. The El Paso is SO Toronto. I love it. It's sort of Green Room-esque.


Erandi + I at John Soane's crib.

Today, I started my library job. It's fine. It's very low-key. Ronnie arrived from Toronto with contact solution, eye drops and Kraft Dinner for meeee! I'm very excited to have him here. I'm sure he'll make the next 10 days very interesting.

Update + A Few Photos

British Telecom is REALLY jerking us around with our internet access [because we're immigrants, I bet]. Fortunately, today a new wireless network appeared in the general area of our flat [which we're thinking of naming 'The Canadian Embassy'] and so I'm mooching free wireless off a neighbour!

I've accepted a part time job helping to catalogue books in the library of Florida State University's London campus. It's near Tottenham Court Road / Soho / The British Museum. It'll give me a little more money while I continue to look, pray and wait for a planning job to happen. I also signed up with another planning employment agency that found a job for Chris' friend while she was in London.

A funny thing happened on the way to get Pussycat Dolls tickets... There was a delay on the central line and since it was 900 degrees centigrade on the tube, Brennon and I decided to walk from Bank to Tottenham Court Road. We got a little lost and we ended up in Trafalger Square where a couple dozen people were frolicking in the enormous stone fountain there [it's about 20 feet tall]. It's also built on several flat tiers, so you can really climb it and get quite high. They were wearing British flags and cheering for the football [soccer] team. Crowds of people just stood around, watching, taking photos. It was quite the sight. People are die-hard for their football. I took a photo on my mobile phone and downloaded it with bluetooth [Click on it to enlarge it, this goes for all photos].



Some other people were kicking around a football and it went into the secure area that divides the restoration of Nelson's Column from the square. They tried to climb the construction fence to retrieve it and an alarm was triggered. Brennon and I decided it was time to leave. The party's always over when the alarm bell rings. No exceptions. It reminds me of a night at Lee's Palace in Toronto with Steve + Moma...

We got the Pussycat Dolls tickets - a mere $24 Canadian. It'll sound like even less money when I have a pay cheque. Steve will be joining us for the concert on Saturday night. It should be a good time. Brennon and I grabbed some cheap Thai food and had a picnic in Soho Square, where we were the only ones who weren't drinking! Next time...

Thank you to Lia, Linda and Dave who have commented on my blog. It makes me smile and it's nice to know people are following my life. If you want to comment, just click where it says the number of comments below each entry. That's actually a link to add a comment. There will be a form to enter your comment and your name. I set the blog so you don't need to log in / create an account to comment, because that's just annoying.

Also, I want to congratulate a few of my fabulously successful friends:

Lia - Got the CIP scholarship in Ghana, the only country she hasn't been to yet.
Anna - Printed and submitted 5 copies of her thesis, to defend later this month
Chris - Who is now employed as a Planner I with the City of Calgary and moves at the beginning of July... what ever happened to our pact to start our careers in Toronto? Oh right, I messed up that one...

And now, I have a few of my earlier photos:



The view out of our ghetto-fabulous hostel room. You can see the London Eye in the background [the ferris wheel]



When Brennon locked his keys in his locker, I never thought he'd actually know how to use a lock cutter...



The empty tube. This is a rare site. It's very hot down there and I have to duck to get on. I'm the tallest person in this country, apparently.



There's a farm in Vauxhall. Vauxhall is an area just to the south of 'downtown'. It's very urban, but there's a farm with horses...



...and goats and a llama. We also have a farm in our neighbourhood, near mudchute. The urban farm phenomenon seems to be huge in London.



The Parliament Building and Big Ben! I once misidentified the floor plan of this building as Westminster Cathedral on a slide identifcation test during my undergrad. That will never happen again.



For the planners, this is a creative solution to parking lots. Above the lot is an elevated park with a rotating fountain. People were quite content to use this public space in their free time.

Meeting @ IBI

I believe I did impress IBI today. Mario Bozzo met with me. He's a fellow Canadian from Hamilton and educated in planning from Waterloo. In London, IBI focuses more on (the aesthetics of) transportation technology. It's very interesting. It's by no means a traditional planning job but it would involve the application of my planning and design skills into a slightly different realm. They do work with traffic cameras and try to unify them between boroughs and minimise their visual impact on the streetscape. They're working on creating a new transportation hub [for Euro Star?] at King's Cross station. In the long term, they're hoping these projects will lead to regeneration work of transportation hub areas... like the Union Station work in Toronto. It sounds pretty interesting, even though it's not what I expected.

Mario was impressed by my thesis project and thinks that my skills would be great for IBI. However, he's waiting to see if a couple of clients come on board or not. If they do, I should have a job. Unfortunately, he won't know for a couple of weeks. So in the meantime, I will continue looking and perhaps pick up a job for which I am over-qualified to get some cash.

More contact Information...

I grabbed this information off Brennon's blog as it's worth having [ie: it was written by him, not me]:

Now, if the mail that you are sending is in the form of a package (and they are greatly encouraged!!) that is thicker than about an inch, you'll have to send it to the following address (we don't know where/how pkg delivery works here yet... and our mail box slot is only about an inch wide... soooo...):

Brennon Zwingli (or Doug Stiles)
BUNAC
Incoming Programmes Dept.
16 Bowling Green Lane
London EC1R 0QH
United Kingdom

**NOTE: BUNAC does not accept FedEx pkgs b/c they get charged, so it will be returned to you!!**

Now for the phone numbers:

Brennon's Mobile: 079 5508 6595
(if calling from Canada dial as follows: 011 44 79 5508 6595)
Bren & Dougs Flat Landline: 020 7537 9052
(if calling from Canada dial as follows: 011 44 20 7537 9052)

ADDRESS + Weekend fun.

Our new address is:

14 Caraway Heights
240 Poplar High Street
London, E14 0BG
United Kingdom

So now y'all can mail fun things.

The weekend was pretty amazing. Steve stopped by on his way to Berlin and he and Brennon and I went out to The Astoria where we saw some amazing live performances. The girl who sings the lyrics to Armand Van Heldan's 'My My My' sang that song, which was a surprise. Sharon Osborne came out to introduce the UK idol who sang 'Ironic' by Alanis Morrissette. It was nice to have some Canadian Content. Then Inferno came out to sing a few songs including... my favourite... the infamous... 'FROM PARIS TO BERLIN'!!!



That was the reason we went. It was amazing. And it only cost £6 to see all this. It was definitely worth it. Next week Danni Manogue [sp? Kylie's sister!] performs and then the Pussycat Dolls will be there the week after that!

I found out my meeting with IBI is actually on Thursday. June 8th is not Wednesday.

We were sad to see Steve leave the next day. It was nice to have a visit from home. But Ronnie will be here soon! I'm feeling a little homesick at the moment, but hoping to feel better soon.

'There's only us, only tonight, we must let go, to know what's right, no other course, no other way, no day but today...'

PHONE NUMBER + A long week.

We got the flat. We paid a large desposit and we take possession tomorrow! It's stunning. Steve will be here tomorrow to help Brennon and I move in. Hoorah! :)

I have a British bank account. I deposited a substantial bank draft into the account that will be held for an entire month. Mom and Dad: Send money.

I also got a mobile phone! The number is 077 5693 9394. It is free for me to receive all incoming calls while I'm in the UK. So feel free to drop me a line. From Canada, dial: 011 44 77 5693 9394. I got a great international calling card from BUNAC that's 4 pence / minute for outgoing calls to Canada.

And I finalised the meeting with Mario, a director at IBI. IBI is a huge, global, inter-diciplinary consulting firm [architecture, landscape architecture, planning, urban design, engineering, etc.]. They did Liberty Village and City Place in Toronto among many other projects. I feel as though this will be an AMAZING opportunity / a great start to my career, providing they like me. But, who doesn't? :)

It's finally happening for me! [a la Jlo South Park]

Our flat [which is not officially ours yet] is in Zone 2. It is situated very close to Canary Wharf, E14, Docklands. It's on the 3rd floor [4th floor in Canada] of a 6 floor building. It has an alarm system and video surveillance of the front entrance from within our unit. The kitchen it stunningly beautiful with a washing machine. The living room has a view of the Canary Wharf skyline [it's reminicent of the Toronto skyline]. There are two bedrooms with enormous closets with mirrored sliding doors. Overall, the size is very comparable to SKYLAB [750 sq ft]. It might even be a little larger. It's about $1000/month CAD each or £425/month each. There is a communal south-facing terrace on the 1st floor. Needless to say, I'm not so sad about leaving SKYLAB anymore [no offence Gerg].

I received an email from a director at IBI yesterday. He wants to speak with me on the telephone. My dad's friend gave a my CV to an IBI Toronto employee who passed it on to London. I didn't expect anything to come from it. But he emailed my York account, which means he had to have emailed me from my website! I'm meeting him on Wednesday, June 8th at 3pm!

I still don't have a mobile because I'm so busy all day, every day that I can't make it to a phone store during business hours. I did however make it to H&M for a private party. Brennon and I walked into H&M and scored free passes to an invitation-only party on the men's floor. The woman told us it was a big deal that she just gave us the passes. Oh, those Brits! Does she know who were are?! There was a DJ, free beer and servers offering free sushi. Brennon dropped £50 on seven polos and two tees. I got two polos for less than a tenner [£10]! I think I'm going to be very happy in this town.