January 23, 2008
Update from the Northern Hemisphere
I’ve been slacking on the blogging department in the past few months, especially in the last half of 2007. So a bit of an update for everyone about what’s been happening up here in London.
First, I’ve changed job from CIBC to Credit Suisse since last October. Still doing pretty much the same kind of work (C# development), similar area (credit derivatives) but not that similar (lower in both technology & business stack, which was what I wanted). I’m enjoying this current contract, good team & good piece of software too. And I’ve been learning heaps about the business.
In order to get closer to work, I moved house to Canary Wharf, Yep pretty boring location, or no soul as other have said, but ultra convenient for work. It’s 5 minutes walk to work and I’m not under the mercy of The Tube anymore, well except when I’m going out but that’s somewhat tolerable.
Since arriving back from Indonesia/Australia trip, I’ve been making a lot of weekend trips. Namely to Bremen, Hanover, Wales (to watch the World Rally Championship, UK leg), Amsterdam, Oslo & I just came back from a long weekend in Iceland. Each and every location is unique and fun on their own respective quirky way, that’s including Bremen :)
During Chrissy & New Year, I went to Egypt for 2 weeks with Intrepid. You can tell that I’m loving this company ;) That was my second (or third) trip with Intrepid. While Egypt is very touristy, somehow Intrepid can structure the trip to make it really cool & adventurous. Highlights of the trip are spending 2 days & 2 nights doing nothing in the Felucca and the desert safari. The desert is absolutely stunning. Photos are uploaded here: http://vhadiant.sharpcast.com/ and more here by Hieu: http://hobs.sharpcast.com/albums/image/49035_210603721359401
Iceland was amazing, cold & dark, but stunning. After the hot desert of the Sahara, I went straight to the snowy field of Iceland. Incredible, I’ve been enjoying the past few months here.
Now for the scary part. I’ve made up my mind to do the CFA Level 1 exam this coming June. To help my study I enrolled myself on 7City's CFA preparation weekend course. It’s a full Saturday, 9 – 5, course starting this Saturday, which coincidentally is Australia Day. Doh’
Now that I have received all the materials with me (CFA curriculum & Schweser notes) and as I skim through the mountain of readings, I’m wondering what on earth did I get myself into? CFA Institute reckons on average you need 250 hours of study for the exam, of course the more the better. I definitely need a lot more than 250 hours as I have no backgrounds in neither finance nor accounting. And to make things worse accounting is a big part of level 1 exam.
Tough times ahead.
Posted by vhadiant at 06:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 12, 2007
The Oval
The flatties and I went to the third day of the England vs India test cricket at The Oval, the home of Surrey County Cricket Club. It was a good day out, unlike today, the weather has gone bonkers again. Ah well what can you do, it's London after all.
I have to say I've always wanted to go to a test cricket match in London. Ideally at The Lord's, but The Oval is just as historical. It's a lot smaller than I expected, we sat at the Bedser stand, on the first row. It's really close to the wicket and we can pretty much see everything. The ticket was a bit pricey at £75, but hey that's one of the 'tourist' thing to do in London :) And no I still haven't been to the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, The Big Ben, St. Paul cathedral and so many others. Ahh so many things to do and yet so little time ;)
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July 27, 2007
This Summer of 07
As if we need to be told, but it's good to confirm that this year rainfall is the worst in 200 years.
This summer of '07 will be remembered by many as the worst summer in living memory. Although recently The Independent annoyingly reminded us that there had been at least 3 other summers that had seen less sunlight, colder or wetter. However, to us young'uns, or people who had only been in England in less than a year ... coming from Australia nonetheless, this year summer is the worst summer in living memory.
I have lost count now how many time our skating plan was ruined by temperamental rain. While a large swathe of the country are flooded. To add insult to the injury, Europe is having a heatwave. Unbelievable, it seems that Europe is currently sending all the rain up here to England.
Having said that, I will stop whining about the weather. There is no point, and hopefully come August we will finally have our summer. I just want to put this dismal summer on record here in my blog, so I can always look back and confirm when someone says that it rains all the time in London.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 15, 2007
Assault
Arghh double bad. I just wrote a few paragraph about the mugging that happened to me on the weekend before I lost everything. This really highlight the problem of using a web browser as the main editing tool for your content management system.
Now I couldn't be bothered to re-write the whole thing again. Condensing 7 paragraph to 1: I was assaulted last Friday night, three of them, glass bottle smashed on my face, took everything, kicked me again on the face, police came, went to hospital and another detective showed up. Good attention by the police, doctors and the porters. Stupid IE as CMS editor. I'm fine just minor cuts & bruises on my face. Black eyes. Stupid IE as CMS editor.
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July 11, 2007
Worst summer in recent memory?
It's halfway through the summer, and apart from the 2 days on the Big Weekend, we haven't seen much of the sun. People here have been complaining about the 'freak' weather.
BBC tries to explain: "The reason for the recent wet weather has been the Jet Stream. This conveyor belt of strong winds, way up in the atmosphere, has steered a series of low pressure systems unusually far-south for this time of year. So instead of hitting Iceland as it would normally, they have cruised across the UK, depositing plenty of rain.
As a result, the 'Azores High', which often visits our shores at this time of year bringing pleasant summer sunshine, has been kept at bay.
So unless the Jet Stream buckles and heads back north again - we may have to get used to more of the same."
After having amazing May, June has been a complete let down and July is looking like a write off too. Ah well never mind, you just have to take what you get :)
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July 09, 2007
UK Big Weekend
It was a rather big last weekend in UK. Three major events happened at the same time. First there was the Tour de France where Sunny, Cora & I joined the estimated a million crowd to see of the start of Le Tour. We came rather early at Hyde Park and managed to secure a good position on Serpentine Rd.
Next of course was the Wimbledon finals, both on Saturday & Sunday. Then we had the British Formula One on Sunday where the local hopeful, Lewis Hamilton unfortunately lost to Raikkonen although he still managed to get to the podium, his ninth in ninth attempt. This kid is going to be huge.
Plus a huge night out at Clapham on Saturday night, last week was a superb week. Too bad about the weather but ;)
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June 25, 2007
Summer in London
It has been a while since my last blog entry. What can I say, the routine of work and life has taken its toll on my blog post rate. Much has happened between the NYC post and now, a couple of my friends back home had their first born; I was bumming around skating, going out, exploring London for much of the late Spring; organising my HSMP; trying real hard to understand correlation trading; my own 29th birthday early June; and a new revelation about life last week. Life, as it turned out, is great, wonderful, beautiful, amazing and most importantly just as it is :)
I'm sorry, that last one probably didn't make any sense, simply put I'm having a great time (now).
Summer in London has now well under way, but as luck has it, this month the reliable London weather struck. The revellers at Glastonbury will tell you that they were soaked under the heavy rain and muddy field. We went on Sunday for a much more sedate, commercial, but no less fun, Hyde Park Calling. It's a two day festival at London's own Hyde Park, you can choose to buy two days ticket or just one. This year headlines include Crowded House, Peter Gabriel, Jet, Chris Cornell, Joe Satriani and to finish the venerable Aerosmith!
It was raining whole day yesterday, especially at night. On the afternoon, my friend and I bet that the rain will stop so we didn't bring any sort of rain gear. It was raining lightly for most of the afternoon, but at about 6pm the sky opened and it was raining quite heavily until about 9pm. Of course by time we need the poncho, they run out of them in the venue. Luckily a good mate (life saver he is!) nicked a rubbish bag (clean) from Hard Rock Cafe area we made a emergency poncho out of it. I was rescued from the rain. We queued for over an hour for the fried chicken, under the rain, while Chris Cornell is blazing in the background. We then ate the fried chicken under the rain, just on the other side of men's toilet area where guys pissing on the plastic wall and the steam coming out from the urine. Fun ... still it was the best hot damn fried chicken ever.
Despite the horrible rain & mud, everyone was on high spirits and don't really care about anything. Aerosmith put out such an amazing show. The rain miraculously stopped at about 9pm, so we had most of the Aerosmith with some comfort out of the poncho (or rubbish bag for me).
The big surprised was the encore where D.M.C (from Run-D.M.C) showed up to close with "Walk This Way", it was jaw dropping.
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March 14, 2007
Windsor Castle
As one of the official residence of the HM The Queen, Windsor Castle is more of a palace rather than a castle. The castle has ceased to be a fort for a long time. It's still used, and the queen spends most of her weekends there.
Windsor Castle as expected is very opulent, and like the rest of the royal palaces around Europe that I've visited, a constant reminder of why we are so damn lucky to live in this modern era. Not as rich and as extravagant as Versailles, but the experience was definitely better. There was a lot less tourist there, and also this is not really peak tourist season.
It was a big place, took us a full 3 hours to complete the audio guide. The city around the castle is nice and there's a superb ice cream shop just outside the entrance to the castle. It's an easy train ride from London. Best way to get there is to go to Paddington, catch the train to Slough and change at Windsor. Then follow the crowd.
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February 25, 2007
The Killers at Wembley Arena and off to Morocco
Just got back from The Killers gig at Wembley Arena. It was really good, The Killers certainly know how to put on a good show. Expensively staged, a fitting treatment for the full capacity 20,000 crowd at Wembley Arena, The Killers captivated the (mostly) young crowd for over 1 half hour. They played all their big hits and ended (as I guessed) with All These Things That I've Done.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club opened, never heard them before, not bad but not my favourite and from the reaction of the crowd most of them haven't heard about them either.
I'm off to Morocco later on today for a week of surfing (yay!) finally another surfing session, the last one was at San Sebastian months ago. I'm flying direct from Gatwick to Agadir and will stay there for the whole week with a surf camp run by English (fun).
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February 21, 2007
Delays on the Circle Line due to ...
It's becoming a bit of a hobby of mine to document some funny line incident messages on the London Underground. Another great one today:
LONDON UNDERGROUND:
Line Incidents
CIRCLE LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to lack of available trains.
At least they're honest about it.
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February 12, 2007
To Bath and Beyond
Went to a nice weekend trip to Bath and the surrounding area. We left London last Friday night from Europcar Heathrow. From there it's an easy less than 2 hour drive to Bath on the M4 and through really narrow country roads to Bath.
Bath is famous for its reconstructed Roman Bath, a ultra-comprehensive audio guide tour gives you a lot of information about it. It was one of the most amazing Roman site ever built in Britain. The entire city is listed in UNESCO's World Heritage list, it is one of the nicest town in Britain. The University of Bath & the tourists keeps the night life going with a few night clubs and trendy (and dodgy) bars/club dotting the city.
This was my first experience in England's country side. It is beautiful. It may not be as lush as the tropical countries, but there's an odd beauty about England's country side, full fields and paddocks as long as your eyes can see, with a low overhang rain cloud forever in the sky. I think the grey skies and its stark contrast with the green fields gives the strange beauty feel. Somehow I think this is what Tolkien imagination of Middle Earth would have been rather than Peter Jackson interpretation on the movies.
On the Sunday we left Bath to visit the Cheddar Gorge and its cave. On the way home we stopeed to visit the Stonehenge. We just stopped on the side of the road and took photos from the fence. Didn't bother to come in as it was raining and we were running out of light. I have to say I thought the Stonehenge was a lot bigger than it was, but I think you really need to be inside within the complex itself to experience it.
Good trip overall, need to do this more often while I'm still here!
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February 08, 2007
Aus 1 - Denmark 3
Last Tuesday night we went to watch Australia getting trashed by the Danes at Loftus Road Stadium, home of the Queens Park Rangers.
The location couldn't be better (for Australia), in the middle of Shepherd's Bush, it was pretty much a home game for Australia. There are so many Aussies & Kiwis in Shepherd's Bush, you'll be hard pressed to find a local, especially in the Walkabout.
The first goal was so quick I didn't even see it happened. I was checking out the Danish crowd when suddenly they scored. Apparently it was a mix up by our captain Bret Emerton. We had 2 disallowed goals and the Danes made 2 other world class goals. All in all, we were outclassed and outplayed. It was a fun night seeing so many Aussies (and some Kiwis) at the same place, in London.
Posted by vhadiant at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 05, 2007
Where to get Flat White in London
One of the most distressing aspect of living in London is the unavailability of flat white coffee. Now I'm a huge flat white fan, to the point that I don't drink any other coffee but flat white in the past few years, and I do drink a large amount of coffee every day (trying to it down but).
Well a friend said that there is a place in London where you can get flat white, I googled this and found it! (description is wrong though, it is nothing like cappuccino)
Flat White
The large numbers of Aussies and Kiwis who live in London have been known to raise a few grumbles now and again. One of their major grievances has been the lack of a ‘flat white’. No, I didn’t know what they were on about either. The Antipodeans' contribution to caffeine consumption is in fact a very tasty coffee, much like a cappuccino with less froth. Two bright Kiwis have spotted the gap in the market and set up shop in Soho.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Cambridge
We went to Cambridge last Sunday to visit the famous university town. Cambridge is a really nice town, with tiny little Sunday market when we were there.
We took the walking tour which I recommend, our tour guide was extremly knowledgable, if somewhat a bit over enthusiastic about her job. It's a small enough town to walk around and very picturesque. Definitely worth a look for a day trip out from London.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Portobello Road
Made a lot more famous by the movie Notting Hill, I really enjoyed my outing to Portobello Road Market, well after battling the throng of tourists trying to take the same photo that will somehow has the road sign Portobello Road in it. It's a short walk from Notting Hill tube station, you can't possibly miss it, just follow the crowd.
This is one easy market to navigate, it's just one long road. So you can start from one side of the road to the end, and switch across. It was a brilliant mid-January day, thanks for global warming, temperature was incredibly warm for January, it felt like a Sydney winter.
I really love browsing through the 'antiques' ranging from statues claimed from 7th century china, old watches, still working old telephones, old books, old photographs, jewelry (old and new), shirt, the flea markets and almost all knid trinkets that you could possibly think off. It was really awesome, of all the markets in London, I think this is my kind of market. At the end of the road (if coming from Notting Hill station) is the fresh produce. Restaurants, cafes and tiny little pubs dotted the road, no wonder it is one of the most visited tourist site in London. Of course in the movie Notting Hill, you are completely sheltered from us, the tourists.
And no we didn't have time to find Hugh Grant's bookshop and the house with the blue door from the aforementioned movie, but I heard that you can do a special Notting Hill walking tour that will take you to the said places.
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February 01, 2007
Greenwich
Finally went to Greenwich last Sunday and jumped from one side of the world to the other. And I found legit Havaianas at a reasonable price (£10) too at the market - kinda hard to find thongs during winter here in London. Learnt a lot about time and the importance of time during the age of exploration. Come to think about it, without the effort of the early navigators & explorers we won't be where we are now.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 29, 2007
Oz Day Party
We've decided to avoid the Walkabout and host an Australian Day Party at our place. We had 24 people all up, but the place still look damn empty (yeah we're kinda living in a rather large 4 bedrooms + 4 bathrooms flat). Thanks for coming everyone! It was really good to finally have a party at our place. The pub crawl plan didn't materialise but no matter it was good to finally have a party in our pad. Next party will be cocktail party!
Posted by vhadiant at 06:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 24, 2007
White London
It finally snowed in London overnight (and possibly more tonight). I have to admit, the snow is pretty, although most of it has turned into slush. A little park that I walk pass on the way to Limehouse DLR was completely covered in snow, it was pretty if rather dangerous walking through the thin sheet of ice on the footpath.
Public transport on the other hand, was a complete chaos this morning. All but two lines (surprisingly the delay prone Hammersmith & Waterloo lines), have problems. The announcer on the tannoy didn't even bother to say which lines had problems this morning, he simply said "multiple signal failures in multiple lines, your tickets will be valid in London Busses". A colleague said that this country grinds to a halt on the first sign of ice on the road.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 23, 2007
Cold London
Winter has finally arrived. 22nd January was voted as the "Blue Monday" since this is the middle of winter, weather supposedly cold, you're in debt after Christmas & New Year spending spree, your New Year resolutions are probably broken by now, and you have to get back to work. And it's bloody cold.
Temperature has dropped considerably in the past 2 days, and this morning the frost are back. The only other times I saw frost in London was the few days before Christmas and one or two days in November and that's about it. It'll be maximum 4 or 5 degree in the next 5 days with mercury dropping to 0 at night.
I used to think that it doesn't snow in London, I don't know where I got that information from. I was wrong, it can snow in London, but very rarely and often the snow melt as soon as it touches the ground. On average London receives just over 210 cm of snow in winter.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 18, 2007
Warm London
I know this sounds really weird, but we've had amazingly hot summer, non-existent Autumn and inredibly warm winter (so far). Last month the weather people predicted a warm December but then a bone chillingly cold Jan and Feb. As far as I'm concern we're still waiting for a "proper" winter to come in London. I've bought all the gears, but apart from the few odd November/December days (and they're not that cold either) have never really need the fully kitted "Winter gears".
Oh ... it's still wet but (doh')
Posted by vhadiant at 07:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 08, 2007
Leonardo's mind and Volume
The V & A museum ran an immensely popular Leonardo da Vinci exhibition exploring the inner working of Leonardo's mind. Yesterday was the last day of the exhibition, not only tickets were sold out, they had to implement a timed entry to the exhibition. And still, we had to queue for 1.5 hours before we can enter the room, it was that popular.
However, the wait was worth it, especially if you get the audio guide. Inside the small exhibition room, I was impressed on how much material they covered, including three of the most precious Leonardo's codex in Britain, his three little notebooks in the Foster's Codex series. I doubt that anyone who went to this exhibition can deny Leonardo's brilliant mind.
In the courtyard, just outside the entry to Leonardo's exhibition was the Volume temporary exhibition. Similar to a permanent exhibition in Bilbao's Guggenheim but much better. This pillar of lights are delight to see and walk through. A friend mentioned it feels like in a sci-fi movie waiting to board a space ship and another noted that the blend of high tech and the classic surrounding of V & A courtyard added the beauty of the exhibition. Although perhaps a bit commercially motivated (part of the PlayStation promotion, sponsored by Sony) it was still a beautiful artwork. Best to visit after sun down.
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January 03, 2007
Today's Tube Alerts
CIRCLE LINE: Severe delays are occurring clockwise and minor delays are occurring anti clockwise due to non-availability of staff.
HAMMERSMITH & CITY LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to non-availability of staff.
Posted by vhadiant at 05:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 22, 2006
The dangerous central line
Another person under a train today at Central Line (this time Marble Arch). This is one dangerous line I'm telling you. Avoid when you can :)
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December 21, 2006
The Nutcracker
Keeping up with the Christmas tradition, we went to see the English National Ballet's Nutcraker lastnight. I've never seen a ballet before and I really enjoyed the performance. It helped that it was a good one as well, my friend told me. I enjoyed the second act better, that was where most of the dancing happened with none of the boring plot.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Nandos in the UK
Nandos here is aimed toward a bit more 'upmarkety'. I was a bit surprised yesterday when we had our team lunch at Nandos and we were greeted by the maitre d' in a rather expensive looking restaurant. I was told that in South Africa, where Nandos originated from, they're aiming toward the fast food market just like in Australia. It was really funny to see Nandos in that swanky looking place!
Posted by vhadiant at 07:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 20, 2006
Living with the Tube
The Tube is an interesting beast. When it works it works beautifully but when it doesn't work it's really infuriating. I'm not trying to be yet another Londoner who complains and moans about the Tube all the time, but sometime it's really hard not to have the Tube Rage. I have the same view with millions other Londoners, as the life blood of London, the Tube must work at all time. Having seen the complexity of the network, the amount of people it moves everyday, and the amount of people it doesn't move everyday, I have grown to respect and at the same time detest the people who are running it.
Yesterday morning everything worked perfectly. At Limehouse DLR and in less than 1 minute the DLR to Bank arrived. In Bank, the change over took less than 1 minute. From home to work, door to door was less than 25 minute. Fantastic.
In the evening it was totally different. The plan was to go home before ice skating to change into a more comfortable clothes and thicker socks. At London Bridge station I jumped into the train that after a few minutes the driver announced on the tannoy that the train had a "defect" and he was going to "reboot" the train (his word not mine). Shouldn't be more than 2 minutes he hoped. Well 5 minutes later another announcement came, sorry ladies and gents train is not moving please take alternative mode of transport. Of course after wasting 20 minutes I didn't have any chance of going into the Jubilee line and change at Canary Wharf. In the end I went back to work and went straight there rather than home first. On the District line, there was a severe delay and the tube was moving really slow. If I didn't have my newspaper with me I would have gone mad. The irony is, after all that, everyone was late.
On the way home we jumped back into the dreaded District line. We waited for quite a long time (10 minutes+) at South Kensington and after jumping into yet another overcrowded train, believe it or not, the train stopped at Sloan Square and simply ... died. Fortunately there were plenty of buses at Sloan Square, we took one that goes straight to Bank.
This morning at Limehouse DLR, the first train that called was to Tower Gateway. It's alright, I don't understand why we need the Tower Gateway station that is not on the Bank line, but that's cool I don't mind. However, when I looked at the board the next train to Bank is 4 minute away. Four minute! You may think I'm impatient but four minute wait during peak hour on the DLR line to Bank is more or less an eternity. You're wouldn't believe the rate of people piling into the station. Just 1 minute delay means the next train will be overloaded. As expected when the DLR arrived it was jam packed with people on top of each other like sardines. Fine I'll wait for the next one, it's only 1 minute away. Of course the next train arrived was for Tower Gateway. Arghhh ....... by this time, I've reached the point of no line change. Although I could have taken that Tower Gateway train, it would not made any difference, I would have been late anyway. Fortunately the next train was for Bank. I had a slim hope that the changeover at Bank will take less than 1 minute, but I was once again crushed by reality, although this one was only for 3 minute. The only consolation was that by this time it was past 9AM and the usually overcrowded Northern Line was half empty. I arrived at work 15 minutes late, had I taken that first Tower Gateway DLR and walked to work I would have been on time.
Update: I found out that the timetable for Limehouse - Bank does include several 4 minutes gap between trains. Doh' well my bad for slagging off the DLR for having 4 minutes gap between trains. It's actually in the schedule. I still think that 3 minutes gap between two train on this line during peak hour is too long.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Outdoor ice skating
This is something that you could never have in Sydney, an outdoor ice rink. Last night we went to the National History Museum's Christmas Fair & Ice Rink. Well not so much for the Christmas Fair but more for the outdoor ice rink. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about it, I've done ice skating before at Maquarie Centre and wasn't very impressed, but then again like a lot of other thing about London, it was different.
The setup was really pretty, against the backdrop of the museum. The Christmas Fair just behind the ice rink and they have a live carol choir next to the ice rink, plus it was freezing cold last night. I know it's cliche but it finally feels like Christmas how it was meant to be (ie: freezing cold).
We were lucky that Bule Dave (who speaks fluent Indonesian that put my English to shame) knows one of the ice marshall and she took us all in for 2 free skate sessions. In between session I had my first taste of mulled wine. It was awesome! Yet another way to make bad red wine taste astronomically better.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 29, 2006
Tube travel alert ...
Seen on today's travel alert:
CIRCLE LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to an earlier fire alert at South Kensington and non availability of staff.
Emphasis mine.
Posted by vhadiant at 09:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 20, 2006
On the Tube
Seen yesterday on TfL's news alert: "CIRCLE LINE: Severe delays are occurring clockwise due to lack of trains" (emphasis mine).
I doubt that Londoners will find that funny :) Tube rage is on the rise here.
Last Friday night I was on the Central Line on the way home from Bond Street to Bank. At Chancery Lane the train was stopping a bit longer than usual, then at the result of resounding groan from everyone on the tube the engine stopped. I poked my head outside and saw a commotion from the front the train. Someone jumped in front of the train, I heard. Seconds later came the announcement to evacuate the station. Outside we were greeted by the deafening sirens from the fire trucks, police cars, ambulance ... not all stopped for the Chancery Lane incident.
Amazingly almost no one stopped to ask any questions ... just another night in London. Later that night I checked TfL news alert on my brand new mobile phone (you know I'm loving it) it said: "Central Line: No eastbound service between ... and ... due to someone under the train at Chancery Lane". Who writes this news alerts :)
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November 04, 2006
Guy Fawkes Night
It's not Guy Fawkes Night yet, but it is well underway. Last night we went to Wimbledon Park to see one of the many fireworks starting tonight and culminating on the evening of 5th November.
Although as not spectacular as Sydney's fireworks, it was probably my best fireworks experience. It's not ultra crowded for a start, there are plenty of spaces for everyone. The fireworks was decent and one thing that made it different was the music played with fireworks. Sounds tacky, yeah it was, but it was damn fun! And also there's something magical about watching fireworks during winter. It's still autumn, but it might as well be winter, it's bloody freezing in the past few days.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Impressed with Royal Mail service & UK postcode system
A couple of weeks ago my uncle forwarded all my mails from home to London. Accidentally he wrote down the wrong postcode, but fortunately Royal Mail is kind enough to make the correction and delivered the mail. On Saturday no less. The mail arrived a day after reading an article how Royal Mail pride themselves for their record of delivering badly addressed mails.
Those who don't know it, the UK postcode system is deadly accurate, a single character mistake could land your mail in a different area. Just by entering the postcode you can pinpoint the location of a building in UK. This is why directory like MultiMap, Streetmap, or Google Maps is really usefull. Try entering these postcodes: EC3V 0EJ (my recruitment agent) or SE1 2QL (where I work).
Posted by vhadiant at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 18, 2006
Got a job!
Yep, the market is vibrant at the moment for software developers. You are guaranteed to get a job here in London full stop. I was a bit specific on the roles, I told the recruiters that I was looking for front office position in banks, preferably investment banks, hedge funds or other similar organisations. As London is one of the world greatest financial centres, there are lots and lots of investment banks here. Hedge funds are interesting organisations, the most successful ones have tons of money and they pay exceptionally well, or so I've been told by the recruiters. It has been a roller coaster ride, some days I was very busy answering phones, but when the quiet day came, it could be so frustrating waiting for recruiters to call you back.
Well the search has ended, I got a contract position with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) World Markets. This is the investment bank arm of CIBC, one of the "big five" banks in Canada. When Nicoll Curtin rang me about this position, I knew this is what I wanted. Investment bank, not too big and big draw card is the front office system. Awesome! They work very fast and obviously with less than usual banks' red tape. I had the phone interview on Friday morning, called my agent straight away and told him that they want to see me on face to face interview at 4pm. They seem to like me and put the offer on Monday morning. My agent asked me to come in and sign the contract on the same morning. Good stuff, I'm liking this place already.
Posted by vhadiant at 03:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
London
I've been here over two weeks but haven't done much touristy stuff because I have been busy with the job hunting. I don't think I'll enjoy the constant interruption from the recruiters while strolling through museums/art gallery. It will be just as bad trying to receive a call in the middle of Picadilly Circus (not a real circus).
I am currently staying at friends' place in Chiswick, a rather leafy neighbourhood in west London. They've been living here for almost a year and - fortunately for me - they've been a superb localish guide for London. On my first weekend in London they took me to their regular Friday night dinner club. All 13 people in the table were Australian, from Sydney. This is awesome, doesn't matter where you are, a bit of home is always nearby :)
Last weekend was my first London tourist outing. We went to the Borough Market where I had my first taste of the English cider. The hip Leicester Square to watch The Devil Wears Prada which was quite entertaining. That's it, haven't really seen that much of London but I'm liking it already. Coming here I have a bit of a doubt whether I'm going to like it or not, or whether I want to stay longer than a year. We have to see, if I can handle the gloomy winter then I believe London has much to offer.
Posted by vhadiant at 03:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
