Tate Modern

Today, David and I went to the Tate Modern. I've been wanting to go since I got here, but I haven't had a chance until now. The Tate Modern is a museum of modern art that has seen adaptive reuse from its former use as a powerplant.



The Kandinsky exhibit is happening at the moment, but we didn't go because there's a charge to enter. I don't DO paying for museums [most museums in London are free]. Maybe once the pay cheques start rolling in.



I love this photo because I took it in manually and the colours and lighting are pretty accurate. This is the turbine room. It's massive. It's not really used for much other than circulation on the ground floor. We didn't get to see as much of the collection as I would have liked just because there's so much to see. We spent about 4 hours there and we made it through two galleries. It was amazing. It might be my new favourite museum in London [more so than the National Gallery]. I saw some Pollock [who inspired that massive painting I did in SKYLAB], Mondrian [who inspired the triptych I did in SKYLAB, actually produced in the BOG Mansion] and Lichtenstein [who inspired the portraits I did of Anna and myself last summer]. It was funny because David asked me where the inspiration for the triptych came from. I told him I couldn't remember, then we walked into one room and I remembered when I saw Modrian's 'Composition # whatever'. I love the Modern movement! There was one room dedicated to 3 Dan Flavin pieces: 'Untitled [for Donna]', 'Diagonal' and 'Monument for Tatlin'. For those of you who don't have degrees in art history, Flavin did large light installation work. In school, I wasn't really feeling the love for his work, but seeing / experiencing it today was amazing. There was also an abstract expressionist painting called 'Gothic Landscape' by Lee Krasner. I've never seen this painting before and I didn't care for it at first glance, but after reading just the title, I looked again and you could see abstracted Gothic facades in the composition. There was ribbed vaulting across the top and a west facade with a rose window. It was fantastic! It was like a 'magic eye of gothic architecture'. Anna, I wanted to buy you a post card of it, but they didn't have it in their massive collection. I'm probably the only person who actually likes the painting. The was also a film by Anri Sala [who I'm not familiar with], but it showed simple urban design alterations to an unknown post-communist town, to eliminate former political associations. All the facades were painted bright colours. Not just one colour, but several colours on a single building. It was so interesting I had to watch it all and that's when I lost David.



After a few hours of wandering, we stopped at the restaurant for coffee. I actually drank coffee. I feel so European. This is the view from our seats of St. Paul Cathedral.

In other news, I'm writing this at home on a Saturday night. I didn't go out tonight because David and I went to Camp Attack last night. It was so much fun. They played 'Murder on the Dancefloor' and I went crazy. I'm pretty sure the entire Delta Bev crew would LOVE Camp Attack. Come visit, guys! It's 70s/80s/90s... so much fun!

I had such a great time in Berlin last weekend. I have about 150 photos and I have to do a big post for that, but I'm too tired to do it tonight.

Last Tuesday, I had a planning job interview for working on some reports in Slough. Slough is a borough outside London. It's a good 1.5 hour commute from Poplar! It sounded interesting and paid well. I got the interview through my agency. It went very well but I didn't get the job because I lived too far. The policy director was well aware of where I lived before the interview because he asked Quiton to ask me if it was too far. Therefore, it would have been nice if he hadn't wasted my time by inviting me for an interview and not hiring me based on geography. It was the day after I got home from Berlin, so I was quite tired and could have been sleeping instead. So I did what I always do when people jerk me around: I sent him a nice email thanking him for his time and I asked for people I could contact about potential work opportunities.

My new job is... ok. It's better now that I have a better understanding of what I'm doing. It's definitely better money too. But I haven't filled out any paperwork or anything, which is dodgy. I feel like there should have definitely been some 'confidentiality' papers to sign, since part of my job is editing one of the websites and also using the company paypal account. It's actually a private company, which I didn't know. They're sort of a visa consulting firm. They help people get visas. It's kind of a funny service to pay for when national governments post everything you need to know on their websites, for free.

Next weekend, I've had offers to go to Brighton AND Nottingham. Au secours! Why must everything happen at the same time?! I really want to go to both cities. South or north? Beach or Robin Hood? These are difficult decisions!

Covert Garden - Hyde Park - Vengaboys - Job!

The first four photos are from last weekend [as always, click to enlarge, right-click to save, OPTION KEY ON THE MAC. SketchUp Tutorial anyone?]:



This is an insane footbridge near Covent Garden Market. I would like to walk across it. Also, if you're ever planning a trip to Covent Garden, use any other tube stop. The only way out of the Covent Garden tube is by a talking lift [everything talks in London: lifts, trains, supermarket queues...]. That means cramming in with all the damn tourists with their damn cameras! :)



The market in all its glory. There are a multitude of little kiosks and vendors and gift-type items. I liked the tshirts with names of London neighbourhoods. I thought about buying 'Soho' but it would only be cool in another context, ie: Toronto. If they had 'Docklands' or 'Eastender', I probably would have given in.



At UofT, I studied architecture with two very cool girls: Mel Copping and Kristine Joyce. Naturally, when I saw this letting office, I had to take a photo.



We were out of eggs for Sunday brunch so I went to the store down the street and bought the world's biggest package of eggs. I got THIRTY eggs for 1.79. For those of you who shop at big box stores, this might not be shocking, but I come from the Annex! This is HUGE!



I spent a couple of days last week in Hyde Park lounging, tanning and reading The DaVinci Code [Thanks Bren!]. The park really is the Brit's beach. There were so many people there in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. There were lounge chairs, row boats and paddle boats for hire, a horseback riding track, restaurants and food stalls. It was stunning. I'm thinking about checking out Hampsted Heath this week. It's a large park in the north end with swimming ponds!



This photo explains the demographics of my neighbourhood: Where 'poverty' meets 'bling'! There is so much social housing in Poplar [and in London in general] and it's immediately adjacent to the lavish Canary Wharf. However, I suspect Bren and I are much poorer than those living in social housing. We don't drive a BMW or Mercedes, which are common sights on Poplar High Street.



Everyone already thinks my mom is cool. But this photo represents more evidence: Model Doug Stiles, Cut by Eleanor, Style by Nik, Wardrobe by Top Man, Funded by MOMMA STILES! I was feeling frustrated by life and my job situation so my mom bought me a haircut and a new outfit. This was the result.



On Saturday Night, Bren, Nik and I [above in the kitchen of the 'Canadian Embassy'] met some deaf girls and their non-deaf [what's the opposite of deaf?] friends on the Central Line. My sign language lessons from grade six finally served a practical purpose! They were fun. We drank, exchanged names and chatted as best we could. Since I don't feel as though I've seen enough live performances, we all went to see the VENGABOYS at the Astoria on Saturday Night. What is this, 1998?! No, it's 2006 but I can't explain how they ended up playing in London. It was a fun show. Everyone got really into it. 'Spice World' was playing on the big projection screens [that's the Spice Girls Movie]. Girl Power! Wow, talk about camp! Copy and paste the link below into your browser to see a Vengaboys clip courtesy of Nik's mobile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aeHFNvnu6Q&search=vengaboys%20g-a-y

We think it was a late night because while we were at McDonalds, Nik asked the time. We realised it was 4:10 and his day pass was only good until 4:30. We ran to the bus stop and assumed our positions on the upper level of the double-decker night bus. After a few stops, who should appear, but the deaf girls and their friends! We chatted for a bit. They were from Romford and Chelmsford. But this doesn't mean much to me. Apparently that's in Essex, just outside of London. They invited us to Romford to party on Tuesday. I don't think I'll be going. Then all of a sudden I thought I smelled ganj [marijuana]. I looked around and the deaf girl lit up a big, fat joint on the bus! It was too funny.

With respect to my job situation, the Research People never called today so at 4:45 I called the Aussie to accept the job. It was a little awkward because he thought I was supposed to call on Friday [but I definitely told him Friday OR Monday... twice. I have been stressing about if all weekend, after all]. Anyway, the job is mine and I start on Wednesday the 26th. Tomorrow I'll have to quit the library and break their hearts. I emailed IBI on Friday night at 10pm just saying 'I assume there's been no change in your staffing needs, but do you have any contacts who might be able to use my skills?' Shockingly, I got a reply FIVE MINUTES later. He said he had no change in staffing needs and he'd think about contacts and get back to me today [Monday]. I'm pretty sure I'll never hear from him again. What a bizarre experience! Tonight, I made a delicious dinner for Bren and I consisting of salmon with green onion, tomatoes and lemon, and a garden salad with celery, cucumber, cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms. It was delicious. Afterwards, we enjoyed an ice cold vodka and malibu 'dessert' on the terrasse as the sun went down.

Too Many Jobs + City News

My life got a little more complicated today.

I got an email from Adam Challis today with a post for a research assistant position looking into prices of new housing in London. In sounds really cool. It sounds like what I do in my spare time on mls.ca and various developers' website. I'm a huge geek, ok? The job is part time and would be easy to combine with my library job to create full-time work and enough money to live. However, the library job does end on Sept 14.

I went for an interview for a data entry position with the Australian Visa office. He decided I was over-qualified but he offered me another job doing search engine optimisation. Are you familiar with that? I certainly am not, but he seems to think I can pick it up. The job is full time and it will pay the bills. He offered me a 3-month contract. There was a really cool Toronto girl I met who worked there and everyone else seemed pretty young / cool. I told him I wanted to think about it but I'd let him know on Monday. Naturally, finding a planning job will still be my priority. I feel that if nothing comes up by Monday [which I don't see happening], this job will at least solve my financial problems [it would pay a bit more than combining the two part time jobs] and buy some time to continue to look for planning work. I would have to quit my library job if I took this one.

I've exhausted myself stressing over the sitation. I need to calm down. But when I got Chris' email, I was furious:

So, in sad Canadian news, Bell-Globe Media (CTV/The Globe and Mail/Bell
Canada) bought out CHUM (City-TV, Much Music, Star TV, etc.) They have
fired 350 people already and are replacing 6 and 11 news casts with
magazine style programming. More programming changes are to come. I am
SO upset and I thought you would be too. I loved City-TV's news, it wa
the only Toronto-centric news program :( Doesn't CTV control enough of
Canadian programming? It's sad to think that they will most likely give
City-TV some class, as it's trashiness was what I enjoyed most.

I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT ABOUT CITY TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love, love, love City News. I don't care what any of you MESers have to say about my passion! :) What about Laura DiBattista!? Is she out of work!? I can't believe 350 people got fired. That is tragic. Those poor people...

No Update!?

I've had a couple of complaints lately [Mom, Dad, Derek] that I haven't updated my blog in a while! The reason I haven't updated lately is because I haven't done too many interesting things since Ronnie left! I've mostly just been going to work and applying for jobs after work. At least it hasn't all been in vain. I have a job interview tomorrow [not planning] but rather data entry work with the Australian Visa office [again, very, very random]. The man I spoke to basically said, 'You have a master's degree. This is boring work. Why did you apply?' [Finally, someone is impressed!] I told him that I was here to work and travel. He thinks that I'm over-qualified [he's right] but he offered me an interview. The job is full-time and pays 18000-20000 quid annually so it would solve my worries about money for now.

There are problems:

1. I like my library job and I'd want to keep it if they'd let me work evenings. I would also be filthy rich, just working 60 hours / week [no weekends!]

2. If a planning job interview or meeting came up, how would I deal with getting out of the day job? Fake sick? Fake an appointment? Chris, you should be good at this one! This problem applies whether or not I keep the library job.

3. I just planned a trip to Berlin from Friday, July 21 to Monday, July 24. We located affordable flights and I got the time off from my library job!

Any thoughts? Please leave a comment!

In other news, I met up with Adam Challis for a pint of hand-crafted beers made in local brewaries! Adam is a friend of the family who is also a very successful planner workng in the private sector for a property company located near St. Paul's Cathedral. We had a great chat. He suggested some reading for me and asked for my CV to see if he knows anyone with whom I might benefit from talking.

David Wong [the newest SKYLAB resident] will be in London for two weeks and he'll be staying with us from July 18 - 25, which means he'll be flying to Berlin with me! We just booked our tickets tonight! I'm so excited for my first European travel adventure. We'll be staying with Steve so we'll be doing it on the cheap.

I had a great weekend! I hung out with a friend on Saturday who showed me Covent Garden Market. Even tho he's lived in London, I felt as though I was playing 'tour guide' at times. :) This seems to be a common occurance with these so-called 'Londoners' and I. We met a 43-year old grandmother on the tube. She liked my teeth. I get ridiculous amounts of compliments on my smile in London [Yes, there is a bit of truth behind the stereotype.] Or maybe the problem is that Torontonians are vain / HIGH MAINTENACE [There's that phrase again!]. Perhaps a little bit of column 'A' and a little bit of column 'B'? We had hoped to party at Ghetto that night but the queue was ridiculous and we were waiting in the rain. By 1am, we gave up and went to The Astoria for 'Camp Attack'. It was amazing. Anna, Chris, 2-4-1, Audgag, you guys would love the music. It's sort of retro / cheese / former pop hits. We met a number of interesting characters that night.

This week I've spent some time tanning and reading in Hyde Park. Hyde Park is STUNNING [photos to follow when I have more time]. It has the Serpentine pond, restaurants, food stands, horse-back riding, row/paddle boat rentals, lounge chairs and lots of people soaking up the sun. I was surprised how busy it was in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle of the week. It must be THE place to be on a sunny weekend. I definitely want to go back for some boat rental action. But that's more of a group activity.

This weekend, Brennon, Nik and I are going to try to catch a last minute [ie: CHEAP] matinee of Avenue Q! It will be my first London musical. It's about puppets, people and sex. Later on, we may or may not catch the Vengaboys show at The Astoria! What is this!? 1998?! Ahhh.. remember the 90s?

Ten Brown Days

For the past ten days, my very good friend Ronak, aka Ronnie, aka 'Brown, from the Fab Five' has been visiting Brennon and I. We had an amazing time! There was plenty of sight seeing and debacherous nights to fill a month or two, I'm sure. In this first photo, Ronnie, Bren [aka The Polish Midget, aka Midge] and I [Tall Giant] were preparing for a night out in Soho. Brown was underdressed and it was horribly embrassing. He wore... shorts. This isn't TORONTO, you know... Geeez. I'm kidding, it was fine. He didn't look like too big of a tourist. I think I found my new British hairstyle. Straight hair on guys in HUGE here. So with Ronnie's help, I bought a hair straightener to achieve the Brit look. I love it. I just need to get it cut into a proper style now.



Ronnie and I spent the day out at West India Quay while Canary Wharf Pride was happening. London seems to be a very proud city. This is exciting because this is very close to where I live. West India Quay is an old warehouse building that has seen adapative reuse into a row of restaurants and a museum with flats above. On any given day, the enormous terraces are packed full of people socialising and drinking. This photo doesn't capture the beauty or massive scale of the area, but it's fantastic, I promise.



Ronnie's Art History friend Heather [aka Switz] came down from Coventry [She goes to your school, Dave The Brit] and spent a couple days with us. The photo is her [with her owl necklace] and I. I took this photo for my good friend Chris who has an intense fear of owls after he was brutally attacked by one at his Beverley Street flat in Toronto. It was a full house with two guests but we managed to have a good time. While Heather wasn't off researching in the library, she was partying it up with us at Heaven. Heaven is Heaven. There are different rooms playing different styles of music. The main room is generally the harder, euro beats. There is a smaller Buddies-esque room and a hip hop room. We went on a Wednesday [hip hop night] so the main room played hip hop. It was fantastic. Ronnie befriended the bartender who gave us all free drinks. At one point, I was walking through the bar when I heard my name. Nik randomly happened to be there. What are the odds that in a city where I have 1.5 friends, I would run into one at a club on a Wednesday night? Pretty good, I guess.



Nki, Gareth and I at Heaven.. others are MIA.



Ronnie and I played tourist on Thursday and we really wanted to see Westminster Abbey. I met him after work at 2pm and we had to meet Switz at 5. The abbey isn't far from my work, but we really took our sweet time stopping in Trafalger Square, Dorothy Perkins and the National Portrait Gallery. We got to Westminster Abbey at about 4:25. I had time to snap this photo of the Parliament Buildings....



...and this photo of the apse of Westminster Abbey. Remember Gothic Cathedral, Anna? It was taught by the woman who wore clothes that were contemporary to the Gothic Era. Why were you so mean, Anna? :)



This past weekend, London hosted EuroPride [hence the proud city comment earlier]. It's a Europe-wide pride event. It was massive! It seemed like the entire city closed down first for the parade and then for the thousands of people afterward who were drinking in streets and public squares all over the city. I love that we were able to drink while we watched the parade and then wandered the streets with beers in our hand.



We spent the afternoon in Soho. Soho streets are narrow to begin with, but most of the parade-goers ended up here after. This photo shows just how packed the streets were. There were beer tents everywhere and the occasional sound stage set up.



We danced at 'Candy Bar' in the street for a while. It's hard to look this fierce among thousands of drunk people in 10-foot wide streets... but we pulled it off nicely. We went to Soho Square for a while where we talked with many a random people and learned about 'couch surfing', where you can sign on to a website and stay on people's couches for free. Crazy!

In the evening, Ronnie and I ran home to take a quick break. When we returned, Brennon was no where to be found and we couldn't reach him on his mobile. We feared the worst: he was passed out in a bar toilet with his pants around his ankles. We thought we never should have left him alone. But as it turned out, he did some window shopping on Oxford Street and when we found him and told him how worried we were, he pointed out that *I* am that one we need to be worried about [just kidding mom and dad]! Brennon, Ronnie, Nik and I spent the night at 'Ghetto'. Nik taught us how to say 'I come from the ghetto' in a British accent. My accent is getting better, but it's 'too posh' apparently. I need to ghettoise it. Geez, baby steps! Ghetto is a little like Buddies but it's smaller and about 40 degrees inside. I don't understand how these Brits party and travel in such overheated spaces. That reminds me, at the portrait gallery, I pointed to a picture of the 1851 exhibition at Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace [an exhibition to celebrate industrial and engineering techonolgies] and I told Ronnie that was the last time the UK advanced technologically [a la Erandi DaSilva].

Ronnie, THANK YOU so much for coming. We had so much fun. I won't ever forget Lurky Dan, Retarded Sally or our kilted friends. The soundtrack of his visit includes Steps - Stomp, Nelly Furtado - Maneater, THE BAYWATCH THEME SONG [which is HUGE here], Sugarbabes - Push The Button.. these are good people, check them out.