So it begins

Go you big red fire engine!

Published Date : August 2, 2004

A very enjoyable weekend.  The jazz concert in Ealing was a good night out.  It was in Walpole Park, and it was actually a bit of a festival.  They had two bandstands set up, along with a beer tent, a few cheesy carnival-type tents and a lot of open space to just sit and enjoy.  With no rain at all over the last couple of weeks, the ground was really dry, so there was a lot of dust being kicked around, but we managed to put up with it for a couple of hours before it finally drove us out.  Overall it was just a really great atmosphere.  Good music, great people watching opportunities, interesting conversation, and free beer courtesy of the bar every twenty minutes or so.  For future reference, Belgian organic honey beer is really good.

Kensington Mews

Saturday night was another good night out.  We brought Jake and Joe along to a comedy show out in Hammersmith.  It was two standup comedians, John Bishop and Adam Hill.  Both great performances, and it turns out we went at a good time. It was the last week before they headed up to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, so it was their last chance to test out their material.  Well worth the £7.50 ticket price.  John Bishop is a Scouser (that’s a person from Liverpool for those who don’t speak Brit-slang) who travelled home from Australia by bicycle.  As far as his routine goes, he kept getting sidetracked and never made it out of Australia, but it was a really funny show.  Adam Hill is an Aussie doing a tour called Go You Big Red Fire Engine II: Judgement Day.  There’s a mouthful for you.  He was absolutely hilarious.  Loads of energy, very topical, very funny show.  We were all in a fantastic mood when we left.

Taking advantage of the great summer weather, Gray, Joe and I went on a London Walks tour around South Kensington.  It was pretty good. We went briefly through the Natural History Museum before heading up to Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall before completing the circuit back at the Victoria & Albert Museum.  Our guide told us there was an excellent collection of Indian art in the V&A so we figured we might as well have a look since we were already there.  There really wasn’t that much on display, so it was a bit of a letdown, but still interesting to see.  All in all, a very fun weekend.

Dive! Dive!

Published Date : August 6, 2004

Gray and I went for our first scuba class tonight in Streatham.  We learned how to assemble our gear, then it was straight into the water to learn our first set of skills: fin pivots, mask clearing and regulator recovery.  The class was way too short though – time flies when you’re having fun!  We got our crew pack with the manuals and log book so we’ll have lots to read before our next lesson.  Definitely enjoying this breathing underwater thing!

Moving again

Published Date : August 8, 2004

Yup, we’re moving again.  Not too far though, just to a different room in the same house.  Guilia (Italy) moved out so we’re taking her room.  It’s quite a bit smaller, but it’s facing the garden, so no more traffic noise.  Plus since it’s in the basement, it’s much cooler.  It hasn’t been exceptionally hot – high 20s low 30s – but it has been unbelievably humid, so it’ll be a nice change being able to sleep at night.

So today was an unexciting day of shifting all our stuff downstairs.  It gave me a pretty good indication of just how much I’m going to have to get rid of before I leave in October.  I didn’t think I had collected that much stuff, but all the little things have added up!

And speaking of leaving – only 9 weeks of work left.  Wahoo!  I’m definitely ready to move on!

Passport problems

Published Date : August 12, 2004

So I sent my Canadian passport off last month to get my surname changed and have some extra visa pages added (I’m going to run out somewhere in Africa or South East Asia).  It came back yesterday with the name change completed and a note saying they don’t add visa pages to passports anymore.  I’m not sure what’s up with that, because as of a month ago they still did.

I’m trying to get in touch the High Commission and figure out what my options are.  I have a feeling they’re going to tell me to apply for a “frequent traveller” passport (exactly the same as a normal passport just double the number of pages) but that’s pretty much an impossibility.  I haven’t got a guarantor in London, it takes at least a month to process, and I refuse to pay £50+ that I can’t afford to spend to replace a perfectly good passport and pay extra to have the application rushed.

If I really can’t get the extra pages I’m just going to have to harass the border officials everywhere I go.  For some reason, every country likes to have their own page, so I’ll just have to hound them and, heaven forbid, make them stamp the same page as another country.

Same same

Published Date : August 16, 2004

Pretending to be a fish. Scuba lessons

More scuba diving last Friday.  I’m really enjoying it.  I got to test out a new underwater housing for my camera.  After a lot of searching, I ended up buying it from the US for £50 cheaper than I could get it here – including shipping!  I had a brief moment of anxiety when I first submerged it, but it was all good – no leaks and the camera is still intact.  I’m going to have to learn how to take photos all over again though.  It’s quite a bit different underwater.  My dive instructor gave me some tips though, so I’ll just have to keep on practicing.  I’m planning on uploading some photos later this week, so I’ll get a couple of my first attempts up.

Saturday night was another show.  We saw A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Royal National Theatre.  It was a comedy set in ancient Rome and it was great!  It’s always fun to watch live performances when the actors are cracking up with a case of the giggles on stage.  It was a bit of an interesting start to the night though.  Gray had to work, so he ended up getting there late.  Luckily they let him in after the show had started, but before that he got lost and called me about 5 times, so I had to keep running out to answer my phone (don’t worry – it was on silent!).  The people sitting beside me must have thought I was nuts, but at least we were on an aisle right next to the door, so I wasn’t disturbing too many people.  We finished the night off with a stroll along the Thames and a bite to eat at an outdoor cafe.

We were planning on heading out to Colchester for the day yesterday.  It’s the former capital of England, and it’s supposed to be quite interesting.  But it didn’t end up happening.  Dunno if we’re going to make it out this weekend either because Gray’s friend Tim is flying in from Oz on Friday, and Gray is supposed to be working all weekend.  We should get out there sometime before I leave though.

As for the passport problems, hopefully I’ll be getting that sorted out today.  I finally got through to someone at the Canadian High Commission, and apparently they do actually add visa pages to passports here in London – they just don’t add them in Canada.  Anyway, I’m going to head over the Commission during my lunch break today and get that over and done with.  Fingers crossed that there are no more problems!