United Kingdom

Did you watch the Beijing opening ceremonies? I did, one of the few pleasures of living in the most expensive city in the world with no job is the ability to watch stupid stuff on TV in the middle of the day.

I absolutely loved the footprints walking from Tiananmen Square to the Olympic site. I was absolutely gutted to learn later that what we saw on TV was just some CGI hocus-pocus. Damn computers! At least this video shows that the fireworks did appear in real life, and were probably worth seeing in real life. Too bad we at home didn't get the chance.

It's a little bitter sweet watching the 2008 Olympics, as this was the second Olympics in the past 12 years where Toronto lost to the winning city. We also lost a the 1996 Games to Atlanta (coming third behind Athens, who got 2004's games). Of course, given the poor showing so far of Canada's Olympic team, perhaps it's best that we didn't win. It would be quite embarrassing to not win at home, as Canada did during the 1976 in Montreal, when we earned the distinction of being the only host country to never win a gold medal.

Anyway, all this Olympic talk had be wondering how London is doing getting ready for their shot at the games in 4 years time. I know that they are doing something, as the DLR (which runs between Olympic sites in Greenwich and Stratford) and Jubilee lines (which runs between central London and Stratford) seem to be constantly under construction, so something is going on.

But I was a little more curious than that, and took the tube up to Stratford to see what I could of the main Olympic site.

Here's what it looks like!

Umm, okay. Not quite. That's a picture of what it will look like, hopefully, in 4 years time. What it really looks like today is this...

...mounds of dirt, earth movers and construction cranes. At least, that's what it looks like at the few places you can actually see inside the site. Mostly, you just get a view of blue hoarding covered up with Olympic posters...

They are pretty posters though, and the inspiring pictures can't help but put a bit of excitement about the event in 2012 in your step.

I walked all around the site. Mostly it's highway, hoarding and big trucks. The very west side is bounded by the River Lee (navigation channel), and so you get a bit of a different view of the area.

It's not always grand, as it seems a lot of the area has been left to seed, so you get a fair bit of graffiti and run down buildings.

That being said, though, there are some very nice and wild parts of the channel, and it's quite quiet, natural and peaceful for most of it. The geese seemed to like it.

So, with 4 years to go, I guess there is still lots of time to turn the blue hoarding, dirt piles and graffiti'd buildings into something spectacular. I'm not getting too excited just yet...

...but still, I think 2012 is probably going to be pretty cool.

My photo of the day.

It was taken at Mudchute Farm, which is just down the street from my flat. Mudchute is kind of an odd name, I will admit. The area is named such because much of it is land fill from the creation of the docks to the north and west of the area. Silt from the channels and basins dug for nearby Millwall Dock were dumped on the area using a conveyor system - the mud chute.

The area, with the rich soil from the river bottom and marsh quickly blossomed (literally) and became both a park and a farm. The park, just south of the farm, was the original field where Millwall FC played their games in the late 1800s. They then bounced around to a few different locations before landing on the south side of the river in an area that definitely isn't Millwall, but the Lions still kept the Millwall name.

The farm today provides allotment gardens for those that want to grow their own fruits and vegetables.

In addition, they have pigs, chickens, llamas and donkeys on display for the kids.

But the coolest thing is the sheep and cow pasture, where you can wander around and get right up close and personal with the animals. The sheep and cows are pretty used to humans, and you can go right up and pet them, if you so wish.

Right after I took this picture, the black cow came up and took a good, long sniff at my camera, trying to figure out if it was edible. Luckily, she figured out it wasn't, and moved on. Saves me from having to buy a new camera!

I watched a very interesting program last weekend called "Britain From Above." It's a BBC series that looks at the landscape of the island from the air. The first episode shown last Sunday was on London. The BBC website has a number of clips from the show on their website. Hopefully those outside the UK can see the videos. I have included a few links within the text to the site with videos from the show.

The program was able to provide an interesting contrast of present London to the past. In the late 1940s, at the end of World War II, the RAF flew a number of missions over London to record the damage to the city. Given the amount of damage to the city from the Blitz, plans were drawn up to rebuild the city completely anew. Lord Abercrombie came up with a vision of a London organized with wide streets, lots of parks, high rise apartments and highways to move cars quickly into and around the city.

Now, if you've ever been to London, you will know that London is none of those things. It is narrow streets at odd angles, very few high rises, a smattering of parks but not a lot of green space and bad congestion and few highways. Not surprisingly, Lord Abercrombie's grand vision of a completely planned city never got any political traction, and thus few if any of his plans were built.

Within the "Square Mile," as the old city of London which is the heart of the financial centre, large buildings are being designed and built to fit into the irregular street scape of London, including a planning restriction that requires that sight-lines to St. Paul's Cathedral not be interfered with.

To counter this restriction and still build the tallest building in the City of London at 122 Leadenhall Street. The building has become known as the Cheese Grater given it's sloping side, sloped to ensure that the sight-lines to St. Paul's are not blocked.

122 Leadenhall had a building standing at that location, which is currently being demolished. Because of the way that building was created, the building was demolished from the bottom up.

You read that right. They removed the lower floors first, and worked upwards. Here is a picture I took of the building when I was in London last year in August of 2007.

All the floors have been removed now, and the core is now being demolished in the more traditional way of top-down.

Bad news today for the future of London, though. Turns out that because of the economy going soft and demand for commercial space falling, British Land (the developers) are discussing delaying construction of the tower. This also comes upon news that the Pound Sterling is at it's lowest level in 2 years, and an economic forecast of stagnation and recession for the UK.

Hmmm, probably not the best time to be looking for work in London...

I have felt quite recently like a maniac-despressive, my mood bouncing up and down. (Apologies to any one actually suffering from the very serious illness of mania-depression for trivializing it).

I had a vision in my head of what it would be like moving to London, and I must admit that it was a lot smoother in my imagination than it has turned out to be in real life. There seems to be a lot to bring stress into my life. Delayed interviews, hiring freezes, getting lost, tube delays and getting caught in the rain are all enough to make you retreat to your bedroom and crawl under the covers.

It isn't so much that lots of bad stuff is happening, it is just normal life, especially normal life for those looking for a new job. In my imagination prior to coming over, though, I imagined me getting a new job, making a bunch of new friends and finding an amazing place to live in a couple weeks. Of course that wasn't going to happen, but that didn't stop me from dreaming it.

For ever bad day and foul mood though, there are times of happiness and awe. The other day I was walking down the street and suddenly found myself giggling as I realized I was walking down the streets of the city I LIVE IN, and that city is LONDON! Awesome!

I recently was reading an article in the Toronto Star (online version, obviously) that mentioned that Forbes magazine ranked Toronto the 10th most economically powerful city. Cool for Toronto, I thought. I scanned the rest of the top 10, and there at the top was my newly adopted home of London. The most economically powerful city in the world, growing faster than any other cities in the G7.

"I live there, the most economically powerful city in the world." I thought. "How cool is that?" I was smiling for the next half a day at the thought. I'm in a place where stuff... really important stuff... happens. I may not be doing the real important stuff, but at least I am close to it.

A few days later, I was down again. I could feel the sweat pooling on my brow as the woman said, "I need your passport, proof of address and a urine sample."

Not exactly your average first date. No, I was making an appointment for a physical to register with a doctor and the National Health.

I don't like doctors and hospitals. They make me squeamish at best, and often downright nervous. That being said, I don't like paying for health care when it's needed either, so off to get a GP, a requirement for health coverage here in the United Kingdom.

That being done, now I am a legitimate member of the National Health, and don't have to worry about being covered in the event that I break a leg, get run through with a javelin by a practicing future Olympian or get fed through a woodchipper by angry Thais after a disparaging remark about their classical music in my last blog entry, but the day and a half leading up to the visit was quite nerve-racking. Even though I am entitled under the rules of my visa to be covered by the National Health, I was really concerned that I had missed some small administrivia point and they would send me away with no coverage. My heart was beating, my blood pressure was elevated and I was covered by a film of sweat throughout the entire appointment, which just lead to the nurse scolding me for being out of shape, which just made me more nervous, and raised my heart rate even more. Ugh.

That evening, though, knowing that I was covered and don't have to worry about it, I was up again. I had gotten an email about a job interview schedule for Friday and I had just met up with an old friend from high school back in Canada who now lives in London. Despite the nerve-racking doctor's appointment, the day turned out to be a good one.

I was walking home along Westferry, close to the Thames River. A fox darted out and crossed the road in front of me. It was a clear and cool night, stars and the moon lighting up the sky above the apartment flats lining the Thames River.

Ever since I was a kid, every night I have looked up and at the sight of the first star I see, repeat the same thing.

"Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. Wish I may, wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight."

What I have wished for over the years has changed, depending on where I was in life. Lately, I've mostly been wishing for a job.

But that night, smiling and happy, I couldn't think of anything to wish for. I am living in an amazing city. I have a nice place to live. I am starting to make friends. I am making progress (albeit slow progress) on finding a job. That evening, I figured I had everything I needed.

"Give my wish to someone else tonight," I said, and whistled happy tunes to myself as I walked home.

I woke up to a sunny day, so decided to head across the river to Greenwich and catch a bit of the Thai @ Zero Longitude Festival. It's called such because it takes place in Greenwich Park, and thus is at 0 degree Longitude.

As these types of events are meant for cultural learnings, here's what I learned (or in some cases, had re-enforced).

Thai food is good food.

Thai women are very pretty...

...even if sometimes you aren't quite sure about their origins.

Thailand makes wine. Monsoon Valley Winery and Vineyards produces three wines from 3 different wine growing regions in Thailand. The wines have won awards at events in London and France. I had a glass of the red and can say it is fruity.

Thai boxing in London seems a very popular pursuit with people who are not native Thai, like the young boy inside the Thai ring today.

Thailand's classical music sounds, to my ears, much like the sound of a harp being fed through a wood chipper.

If it's a sunny day, it's good to just crash out on the grass and relax.

- - -

After a while sitting on the grass, I started to feel a little sluggish. Probably a combination of the food settling in my stomach, the wine going to my head (which was already a little fuzzy from a Saturday night drink-up) and the sun beating down on me, so I figured it was best to move.

I decided to complete a journey that I had contemplated the first time I was in Greenwich, and headed out to see the Thames Barrier. I took a short-cut, skipping over much of the industrial lands I went through last time, and picked up the Thames Path on the other side of the O2 arena.

Less industrial than the Thames Path between central Greenwich and the O2, the Thames Path from the O2 towards the Thames Barrier still has a somewhat rundown feel to it, mostly due to the fact that the tide was low and thus a good portion of the river bottom was exposed, leaving boats stranded in the mud and revealing the garbage of human contact with the river.

There was still some industry along the way, but mostly it was hidden behind large retaining walls. Every once and and while, though, you'd find a place where the industry had leaked out onto the recreational walkway of the Thames Path.

I can only assume this was a beach manufacturing plant, otherwise what would they use that sand for?

- - -

In my last entry, I talked about the Great Fire of London. Keeping up with the theme of disasters befalling London, there has been a number of floods to have damaged the city, mostly storm surges and high tides coming up the River Thames.

On 7 December 1663, Samuel Pepys (who we read some of in my last blog entry) recorded in his diary "There was last night the greatest tide that ever was remembered in England to have been in this river all Whitehall having been drowned". In 1236 the river is reported as overflowing "and in the great Palace of Westminster men did row with wherries in the midst of the hall".

The worst flood is perhaps the 1953 North Sea Flood, which killed over 2,100 people, including 307 in England. So it was that the Thames Barrier in Greenwich was constructed, completed in 1984.

The Thames Barrier is a flood control mechanism downstream of London that is meant to block storm surges and unusually high tides from flooding the city. That's good news for me, leaving as I do on the flood plain / reclaimed marsh of Isle of Dogs.

For something with such an important function, it sure is pretty, with its Art Deco-ish, shiny silver hoods poking up out of concrete pilings.

The barrier works by having a gate lying flat along the river bottom, allowing boats to pass through the barrier. If a surge is predicted, however, the gates swing up from the river bottom and rise up 5 stories in the air to block the oncoming surge. The gates have been raised over 100 times since opening in 1984.

(If you can't quite picture how the thing works, check out this webpage, which has a diagram of the gates and how they work about half way down).

So the 9 pillars and 10 gates of the Thames Barrier stand guard, like sentries, ready to protect their upstream charges, the city of London.

- - -

My walk wasn't quite over, but the portion on the Thames Path was. The Thames Barrier is the terminus of the Thames Path, that runs 108 miles from the start of the Thames in the Cotswolds down into London.

From the Thames Barrier, I headed towards Woolwich, picking up bits along the river when I could, but having to do a good portion of the walk along the side of rather busy roads.

I eventually arrived at the Woolwich Pier, and having walked somewhere around the equivalent of 10 kilometres, I was ready for an easy ride back.

There was a few different options. On the north bank of the River, the Docklands Light Rail runs back to Isle of Dogs, or I could grab a Thames Clipper boat and take a water ride back to my home. I choose the DLR, mostly because I wasn't sure where the pier for the Thames Clipper was.

As for getting across the river, I had two choices - the free Woolwich Ferry or the Woolwich Foot Tunnel. Another pedestrian tunnel under the Thames? Sign me up!

And so after another kilometre added to my walk for the day, I found a seat on the DLR, leaned against the window and watched the miles of Thames River I'd walked along today rewind. It's good to now that the Thames Barrier is there to ensure that all that water doesn't spill over its banks and wash away my new home.