Heading to the 'old country'

Well, the day has finally come - we're heading on our big ole' road trip with the parents up to my dad's homeland - the land of the highlands and whisky - Scotland. We'll finally get to see the plans (aka pages of itinerary in a brown marked envelope) that my dad has meticulously put together for our 8-day trip over the past 9 months. He's very excited (with a little gleam in his eye), and I can't wait to see that excitement grow.

We took the parents to a celidh (scottish folk dance) tonight and they had a very fun and sweaty time getting to know the square dances and tried to avoid stepping on their own (and others') toes. It gave them a good flavour of Scotland prior to embarking.

Off we go! More to report along the way!

Summer in the City - Finally!

I love working in a social company! My company, Synovate, organised a summer party for the whole company (in the UK) of 500 people! It was held at a bar in St. Katharines Docks and started with a 'clue walk' to the secret destination - which happened to be just across the river from our company's building near Tower Bridge. We had such a beautiful day for the event so everyone was in high spirits. Its so funny here in Britain, it tends to rain so much, that people are just over-the-top happy when the sun shines! But on another note, they 'winge' (complain) if its too hot/sticky (if temp goes over 25C!). It's humorous.

When we arrived at the bar and there were some pre-mixed Pimms cocktails ready on hand for everyone. Nothing beats a glass of Pimms on a summer’s day. This British beverage is almost as much a tradition as the cup of tea, and the British down the gin-based drink by the gallon during the summer months. Pimms is a gin-based fruit/herb liquer that is mixed with sprite, citrus fruits, cucumbers (yes, cucumbers), fresh mint and strawberries to make a tasty (and if you drink too many, deadly) concoction.
Once the Pimms hour was done the wait staff passed around beer, wine and spirits as well as some bits of appetisers. Many people just hovered by the kitchen like vultures so those that were out on the patio didn't see much food at all! I felt bad for the wait staff because they kept trying to dodge the vultures for the 2 hours that food was being passed around.

The highlight of the evening was Synovate's in-house band - led by none other than Andrew Wood, who is a member of the HR team!
They played Sweet Home Alabama, Sweet Child of Mine, Seven Nation Army, and even good ole' Canadian Bryan Adams' Summer of 69! About a 1/3 of us danced along with the band, with the HR team right in the front leading the way. Later, we heard musings that HR were the groupies, but I figure, hey, if you're having fun, who cares what you look like?After the band ended we had in-house djs mixing tunes all night. I left at 11:30 to catch the last tube home. I didn't drink too much that night so I felt fine the next day, but gauging from the look of others in the office, they weren't quite so fortunate. Gotta love British social values - they really know how to party any day of the week!

Parents in the UK!

After a gruelling and boring flight across the atlantic in a tiny 737, a fuel stop in Reykjavik, and a transfer in Glasgow, my parents arrived in London. We were able to catch up on how things were going back at home while in the garden for a BBQ. The next morning we put the parents to work and awoke to the glorious smells of bacon and french toast on the stove. mmmm.



For their first full day, we decided to split ways between the ladies and the men -- the men got to explore the perils of war while the women explored the perils of an empty wallet!

Here's Dad on the HMS Belfast, which is a World War II Cruiser with 12 6-inch guns, that is also a floating museum.


Here's Mom thoroughly enjoying her warm scones and clotted cream at the fancy Fortnum & Mason department store near Piccadilly Circus.


We met up at Tower Bridge for traditional english dinner at Butlers Wharf Chophouse with some great picture opps.




It was a shame to leave them to head to work on Monday but they made the most of their first 2 days alone in London by spending the first (almost whole day) at the Tower of London before hopping on the double decker tour bus. We met up to try and do a London walk that night but opted for authentic indian fare on Brick Lane. The parents were especially impressed with the Bangladeshi supermarket we went into, and we bought some interesting coffee with cardamon to enjoy for our mornings here.

The next day the parents got up to watch the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace, and weren't too impressed, before having a pub lunch and bussing about again. That night we DID do a London walk and learned all the gory details of the Jack the Ripper murders in the area of town where the murders happened. Creepy.

As soon as they got here though, they were off again, and rented a car for a few days to visit other parts of South UK. I'll have to provide an update of that once I get it myself!

Tokyo Pictures, finally!

So its been a month since Tokyo but I finally have a chance to put some photos up. There are lots more over in the gallery at: http://picasaweb.google.com/millettuk/Tokyo

Architecture in Tokyo is awesome. Lots of cool buildings such at this one:


I had a tonne of sushi while there. Check out this fat platter James & I sharred, along with some extra maki.


I got up at 4:45am the last Saturday to check out the world famous Tokyo Fish Market. Below are all the Tuna on the floor, flash frozen on the boats and ready for auction. Everything in Tokyo is massively electronics (see my post about toilets!), however the fish market is entirely manual, completely chaotic, and incredibly amazing.


Here's a pic of the lit up buildings at night:


In Harajuku, an area known for its culture and fashion, we saw someone walking this dog with a wicked haircut.


And here's a couple of Harajuku girls posing for our picture. They are quite flattered to have tourists take pictures and enjoy it.


When we checked out the Meiji Shrine just inside Yoyogi Park, there was a few Japanese weddings going on. (I got the sense that this place is popular and is a little wedding-factory-ish given how the weddings seemed to be back to back.)


And some guests were dressed up in traditional Japanese dress outfits... checkout how cute the kids are!


Here's a shot of the elevator I rode each day for work. It was on the outside of the building and completely glass. Very fun to ride in, and very huge. It had 4 doors on the front that opened and was probably 15 feet square. Its capacity was 76 people.


And before we left I made sure to snag a shot of a typical Tokyo garbage can... really it should be called a recycling station!

Flight Booking Bonanza

Last week Astrid and I went on a bit of a tear and over the span of a few days we ended up booking 4 separate trips. A serious dent was made in the bank account to pay the airline carriers, but I'm feeling good to have all of this sorted out. In addition to a couple trips back to Canada for weddings, we booked up our next couple of holidays in Europe. Here's a quick summary:

* I'm flying back for Jay's wedding -- short trip, fly out on Wed Aug 6 and back on the late flight Friday Aug 8. Luftanza via Frankfurt (new airport, yay!) on the way there, Air Canada direct on way back.

* We booked ourselves a long weekend in Barcelona for the August bank holiday weekend. Fly out on Fri Aug 22 and get back Tue Aug 26. BA / Iberia direct.

* We finally got our trip home to Canada in October sorted. Flying back on Sat Oct 11, landing at 3:30pm in Toronto. Flying to the UK on the 8:30pm on Sunday Oct 19th (my birthday present to myself is a redeye flight in economy... yummy!). BA direct -- they had a long haul seat sale which was timely!

* We decided to make a go of Oktoberfest this year -- likely a group of Astrid's friends including Astrid's best work friend who is also named Astrid (crazy!) and since she's from Switzerland, she speaks German. Nice! Flying out Sat Sep 20 AM (opening day!) to Munich and back Tuesday Sep 23 AM to make a half day of work in London. BA direct.

But -- no time to relax just yet -- Sam & Becky are over in late September and we still need to book the Ireland flights for the 4 of us for the weekend. Fortunately Ireland is the cheapest place to fly (often less than 50 pounds), so this should be easy.

Happy flying,

Syd.

Winey nights in London

So there have been a few nights now in London where I have hung out with my first British contact upon crossing the ocean. I was referred by a recruitment advertising client in Toronto to meet with a true brit here by the name of Peter Phillips to show me the ropes of how to find a job in this recruitment market and get to know the ways and customs of Londoners. While Peter and I have only managed to get together a handful of times, they have been enriched with educating experiences about Britain and lots of great food and wine. I soon realised that we are both lovers of wine, such that every time we meet up we order 2 bottles...and that's just for the 2 of us! I know, it seems excessive, but this is Britain and you need to multiply socially acceptable alcohol consumption by two.

Last night was no exception. During the most rainy day we have seen all year where a months worth of rain dumped on the country in the span of 12 hours, we met up a place in the borough market near my work at none other than - Vinopolis. They have this crazy expensive and touristy wine tour thing (where they make you spit out the wine you taste - oh the horror!), but we decided to share a nice bottle of South African pinotage in the bar area instead. He likes to hear about all my random trips to places in Europe, and I like to hear about his family life, British style - to which he talked about a recent client event where he and his wife went with a number of others up to Glen Eagles golf course in Scotland for the weekend to golf and dance in a celidh. How posh! I guess I'm not one to talk when I explained my Henley experience.

We then had an amazing pizza (european style with knives and forks mind you) with another bottle of wine of course, at a cute italian cafe near the market. At the end of the meal our bill came with mints that made Peter nostalgic and we had a good laugh over the 'old time' jingle of murray mints (no need to hurry mints).

So, another winey night down...we'll probably get together again in September...once we've had time to detox!

The High-Life at Henley

On Friday July 4th I was invited by work clients to attend the Henley Royal Regatta in the Steward's Enclosure. This is one of the most quintessential British events - likened to the Royal Ascot in its aristocracy. This regatta is a rowing event held every year on the river Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames. It is organised by the Stewards, who are mostly all previous rowers themselves. You can only attend the Steward's Enclosure if you are invited as a guest by a 'member', and tickets are very difficult to obtain. The waiting list for membership of the Stewards Enclosure is several years long, although preference is given to people who have previously competed at the regatta (as our member was). As a long-established rowing event with head-to-head knockout races of rowing teams from 2-8, the races were timed to a tee. There was a new race every ten minutes. Canada didn't do well, but hey, that's okay! I missed the race anyway! I did grab a picture of this English college.
The Stewards Enclosure also has very strict 'traditional' dress rules - men in blazers and ties, and women in skirts below the knee with hats encouraged. My skirt hem came just to my knee, so when I entered the enclosure at first, the stewards gave me a once-over. I was scared that they weren't going to let me in, but thankfully I think I was saved by my fancy hat! Here is an example of the clothing worn by both men and women.
Of course, I had to represent, and found a great 'my fair lady' type hat that I felt very posh in. I got many compliments on my hat so I was well chuffed. ;o)
There are three Grandstands as well as many rows of deckchairs along the river frontage within the stewards enclosure. I particularly liked these chairs along the river as you still got to see all of the great hats that ladies wore.
We had a very fancy luncheon at 2pm within the luncheon tent - and the food was wonderful. It started with pancetta on crostada followed by salmon or beef (I had salmon) with tomato and caesar salads. They even upheld the tradition of wear inside the tent, because even though it was really hot inside the tent, the men were asked to keep their blazers on! We enjoyed some lovely New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with our lunch, and marvelled at how efficient and organised the staff were to move us through our lunch, so that they could set up immediately afterwards for afternoon tea!

The entire event is based around drinking, and most people don't even watch the rowing. Pimms and Lemonade is the drink of choice, so much that one bar even had a sign saying 'only Pimms sold here'! We drank all day and basked in the English sunshine before grabbing a long train ride home. A bonny time had by all!

Putting the 'eh' in the UK

We celebrated Canada Day over a series of days here in London. It started off with a boat cruise on Sunday June 29th run as part of an event called HoserPalooza. We brought Kat along with use as an 'honorary Canuck' where she met a nice Canadian chap.

It was great to see people all decked out in the maple leaf (and yes, even hockey jerseys), and to hear familiar accents all around us! The boat had 2 huge flags waving out back, and fun CA tunes blaring from the speakers. I even had a chance to join a good ole' drinkin' game. The 2.5 hour boat cruise went so fast!
After that we went to a Canadian bar called the "Maple Leaf" where we had Sleeman on draft. That night we went to a bar in covent garden called "the Roadhouse" where some UK bands played cover tunes of Canadian songs. I went crazy when they played Spirit of the West. It was so wicked!

On July 1st, in the hottest day of the year in London (at 28C), a group of us went to Trafalgar square where we had nostalgic moments with canadian beers, jolly rancher candy and tim hortons coffee. The music was a little strange, but the crowd was civilised. We got so hungry and didn't want to wait in a huge line for bison burgers (the only food stand) that we ended up missing the canadian anthem finale at 10:15...boo! Ah well, it was a good time for all and the Canadian pride was great!! ;o)

Japanese Toilets

Its been busy since I returned from Japan, but there are a couple more posts I wanted to get up before getting back to normal UK stuff :)

In Japan, everything is pretty advanced. However, I was still surprised when checking out the bathroom in my hotel room to find a toilet that looked like this:


Notice the 'dashboard' on the left which has several electronic controls. The toilet seat itself is heated so its never cold. When you sit down, the toilet 'turns on' and begins to fill the bowl with water -- an event that was a little surprising the first time! The controls include a button to turn water on (ie like a bidet), a water pressure dial, and a stop button. Flush is also a push button rather than a traditional crank handle.

The other neat thing about the bathroom is that it had its own clock built into the wall, complete with alarm clock. I wonder if that is so you can set an alarm for how long you are in the bathroom for? I didn't use it, but could see that feature being useful for Astrid getting ready!