Londinium
June 16th, 2008 James
Before I start this, I know my theme keeps changing. It seems that the kick ass themes that I choose are almost always guaranteed to throw a wobbly as soon as a new version of the fantastic Wordpress is released. Also following feedback from my review group (well I think it was Matt H and Andrew) it has been a bit confusing about which time frame I am referring to in my posts. So to clarify this it following off where the last post ended (yes we’re still roughly in September 2007, where I went into work on Monday in London as opposed to Birmingham.
Ok so I did slightly miss out of the last post the fact that I did go out after work on the Friday for drinks. It was a weird and surreal experience for me, having a small birthday celebration in London which I wasn’t used to at all. By no means am I a country bumpkin with webbed feet or anything, but for someone that isn’t really used to living in the city, it was strange being in the middle of a bunch of tall buildings and a lot of people and thinking to myself “I now live here”. I sort of purposefully don’t tell people about birthdays because I don’t like a big deal made anyway.
On Monday I met up with the 2 guys who I would be working with for the next few weeks and we walked to our new home from 9-6 weekdays, which happened to be in Monument, just north of London Bridge. As I was still quite wide eyed and new to the city (I still am really) having been only there for a week, I spent a lot of the time getting used to thinking in the morning, on the train and tube, how lucky sardines are being dead and packed in a steel can. It was also novel for me to look out over the Thames as I walked across London Bridge every morning and evening, which as I looked around me, I was the only one doing it as the robotic suits were staring forward determinedly hurrying to work. I was quite pleased at being slightly compensated by the incredibly high living costs in comparison to what I was used to by the free stuff that I was getting. Free papers, free tissues, soup, curry sauce, coffee, tea etc. they all came in handy at some point.
Work was work and in the months to come I saw a bit more of London, even though I am now living here I still manage to feel like a tourist. I was slightly puzzled at why there was a different camera in similar positions on London Bridge filming people walking to work. I think there may well be more than enough stock footage of sped up people walking across bridges for news reports or whatever, but I could be wrong. I managed to see a few things that I’d not seen before such as Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. I even watched 3:10 to Yuma in the Premiere Odeon place although the £15 or so for a single ticket only went a very short way to compensate me that my bum cheeks could be occupying the same seat that has been graced with the likes of Tom Hanks or John Travolta. The film itself was rather good, albeit absolutely no different to seeing it at any other cinema. Actually I’ll rephrase that, it was no different to seeing it at any other cinema apart from the Futurist.
In the months to come I was also able to increase my exposure to London a bit more. The irony of being shown round London by Jonathan from Cork, Ireland was not lost on me. We went to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum which are now free. I guess a lot of things may change in the space of about 18 years which is the last time I visited these. We spent most of the time in the History variant and didn’t have much time for the Science one which did seem a lot more interesting in my opinion but we have since revisited it to give it a fair chance.
After word got out about my enthusiasm for Lord of the Rings with my work colleagues (or perhaps come to think of it, it was the random Rings quotes in normal conversation…) me and a couple of the inductees went to see the Lord of the Rings musical down Drury Lane. It was great being able to feed my obsession a bit more; the sets and costumes were fantastic and I’m still trying to work out how they made Frodo disappear in front of my eyes (and no, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a trapdoor).
Other than the above, I don’t have much to say about the months September-November 2007 or rather I’m betting there is loads but I can’t remember. Oh yes that does mean that you can hear the faint jingle of bells, see the green of holly and hear “Holidays are coming, holidays are coming…” for the next post.