Winter strikes

The RBS building, along with the rest of London, is currently being battered by weather which is somewhat apocalyptic! We can't see the building opposite which should just be 50 yards away, and is instead now hiding behind a wall of tumult... the windows on the 11th floor are actually shaking!

And just last Saturday I was thinking how mild and generally sunny London had been this January! Spoke too soon....

the Stars at Koko

Canadian indie band the Stars play at Koko; a great place to spend my birthday eve! We were surprised that they managed to pack out the venue, but given it was the first I've heard of them, they left a great impression. And the ever-regal Koko venue is surely one of the greatest places to watch live music in London...

Patriotic

Aussie Day

Not sure what song had come on, but 10 hours after our first Australia Day VB, V and I are belting out the words!

Office views

11 storeys above Liverpool Street Station

Belfast

I wasn't aware a wall still cuts through Belfast separating the two idealogical factions of northern Ireland; the predominant british-aligned protestants, and the patriotic Irish catholics. The four gates are locked at nights; only two stay open on Saturdays and just one on Sunday. And so Belfast leaves a curious impression. The city is an open-air museum to the aftermath of centuries of civil conflict.

Party on the Thames

Already pumped from Thiago's Caipirinas at the LSE dorm, we had a great night at a club on a boat right by Temple station... and was slightly late to work on Friday!

The way to Holloway

This is a different bus, one that winds through the backstreets of Islington and is heading to Holloway. It’s not even a big red double-decker; it’s far more modest with just one door at the front. It’s jolting on the smallest bumps and it makes it difficult to read. I’m reading Cosa Nostra, which is a history of the mafia from its origins in the lemon and olive groves of 1860’s Sicily. It’s now 1896 and PM Francesco Crispi has disastrously just sent the country’s soldiers to colonise Ethiopia in order to recover Italy’s falling prosperity…. The bus rattles around the corner and I am jolted back to reality: here I am back in Holloway. The streets are messy with people, rubbish, stalls. The same.

Inside the gym it’s the same too. A very different clientele from the City gyms. I think I’m being glared at for lifting such light weights. Or I might be imagining things. Anyway, these people are ridiculous. There’s the same guy with the disproportionately large arms who was there when I used to go with former Holloway housemates Pickles and McCloskey. A muscular black guy is convincing his girlfriend she needs to do more work on her gluteal muscles, as I pull down the lat bar.

I still haven’t convinced the Fitness First staff to transfer my membership to one of their other, closer gyms without paying an extortionate number of pounds, so I might be making my way back up to Holloway again soon, I guess. Not tonight though – I’ll be catching up with a friend who is now studying at LSE at a student Colombian party down by the Thames. Fiesta time!

Clear skies, clear mind

Saturday morning after my first week of work at RBS, it's sunny albeit cold: winter but not wintry. Two nights ago, I went swimming (in line with NY goal 1) and over the course of 1000 metres, made some decisions in line with NY goals 2 and 3 and 4. So this Saturday morning, I woke up happy, and look forward to all of the finite time remaining here in London with renewed spirit!

Islington Green on a sunny winter Saturday

New Year Goals

I don't know how this year - 2008 - will pan out. I have no foresight of what stories will unfold. It would be nice to have some idea of course.

I'd like to have some idea not least because others also want to know. My parents, grandparents would love me to come home. Others tell me to make the most of the opportunity - that wonderful thing called time - that I have on my side.

It's time to set some 2008 goals, such that whatever I choose to do this year, I can say I have progressed forwards on the windy road of life!

1. Regular exercise! Get fit again! Regular means actually going to the gym, considering I'm paying for it. It will require routine, and not staying in bed just because the European sun did.

2. Achieve something that will help my career, since I won't be starting work in Melbourne in March as originally planned. This involves gaining experience that will make me more employable, and will either be a new skill, or advancing my current skills.

3. Experience life in a new city. Non-english speaking, different. Immerse myself in a new culture. I have now spent more time in London than any other place apart from Melbourne. And yet, I have always found myself happier in the places I have been other than London. Because of the lifestyle differences, because of the so-clearly different priorities and attitudes which I perceive between London and continental Europe, not to mention between London and less developed countries. It is easy to be assailed by the overzealous prioritisation of work over life; and you can only acquiesce to the low quality of food, the artificial ingredients, the lack of sun. You can be beaten down by the selfish masses if you let yourself be. I remember when I first arrived, i wrote that I felt like I walked faster just being here. It was a shock after the leisurely cycling around Copenhagen. It was a shock after the laid-back lifestyle of Firenze. It was a shock after the familiar lifestyle and surroundings of Melbourne. And it's still a shock to me today, this rushed life. So, while I'm not quite ready to resume living in Melbourne, I am ready for new experiences...

and so number 4. I need to save!

So this is Bristol

As invaded by continentals. Anna was convinced the steps were too narrow, dangerously so, and thus we have Davide in the background demonstrating a safe 'zigzag' way to descend....

Welcome ´08

Having arrived at the club with about 2 minutes remaining in 2007, we had enough time to follow Anna's Spanish grape-eating NYE countdown before hitting the dance floor. I've no idea where the hats came from, except that we may have stolen them from some parochial but not-too-sober English heads.

That's Parisian Michael on the left, Catalan Anna next to him, Italian Simone in the front and the idiots with the hats are myself and Davide, also Italian. Missing from the photo, but just as much part of our party are our host in Bristol Syann and more Italians, Davide and Sami. Thanks for a great start to the New Year!!
Davide serves up some Bruschetta alla Ben