March 2012

Tuesday 27th

A picture speaks a thousand words. View of Nine Elms Pier at dusk as seen from Grosvenor Road in Pimlico.

Sunday 18th - Radiator Key

Due to a rip in the space-time continuum it's actually now possible to win a 100% real and genuinely authentic and functioning original, highly fashionable and sought-after RADIATOR KEY!!!!! Impress your friends and be 'hip' with your very own keyring or bracelet ornament, necklace pendant, hair or general fashion accessory! It's so with it.

Mother's Day Flowers

It's Mother's Day here in the UK and everywhere people are doing things with flowers. I decided not to buck the trend and had a flower-related afternoon taking pictures of various growing things in my mum's garden. It'll be great for posterity, and for comparison the next time I am back in Easter.

16th March - Earls Court

A couple of pints in a trendy wine bar in Earls Court, and a advert that rather reeks of trendiness.

15th March - New location in Earls Court

Do I continue with the pub-theme or do I switch to another subject? Do I do both?

14th March - Grand Trine

Aparently, this is the Grand Trine. Quite a major astrological event, signifying the personal transformations of many. Glad to hear of it too, because I've not only been building up to it for far too long. I've become fat and drunk. Benefits of becoming a responsible adult will include weight loss, better physique and a general all round improvements in personal finances, health, and social life. Nice.

11th March - A Wander Around Central

I went for a walk around central, and actually found an egg I previously had not. Above are a handful of things that caught my eye.

10th March - Multivitamin tablets and cod liver oil!

I decided to start taking vitamins as I reckon my diet's not quite up to scratch.

9th March - Stupid graffitti on Earls Court Road

Somebody wants the truth to get out there... or something... and so clearly decided to take his message to Earls Court Road and shout it from the rooftops with a megaphone, beating his chest to rally the crows. Although in the end I believe he went for 2nd best and scrawled in a bus stop.

7th March - Business cards arrived!

Today I was pleased to find when I returned home my business cards.

February 2012...

There's so much to do, so much to see, so many things to experience to enjoy, so much potential to explore. These are your best years. Save now and you'll live your dreams yet. Change while you're young, before it's too late.

Thursday 23rd - The Big Egg Hunt!

Today I learned of a treasure hunt organised by Fabergé. There are 209 large Fabergé eggs dotted around London, and the idea is to find as many as possible! There will be a winner, collecting a limited edition golden egg valued at a cool £100,000!

Sunday 19th - Swans & Geese!

Got back really late last night after having done a bar shift. Still, I was more than glad to get paid. When I eventually got up (post mid-day), I took this video when I met the swans and geese (and coots) outside. It also shows the sketchy steps of doom.

London is leaky

St. Giles In The Fields church in Covent Garden, a silhouette.

The district of St Giles is mentioned in Gin Lane, by William Hogarth. The spire of the church in the background is actually of St. George's chruch, Bloomsbury.

After an enjoyable Chinese buffet, I decided to check out Chinatown.

Products that are alien ot a Westerner's eyes fill the shelves. They are wonderful.

Ah! Proper dried mushrooms! That's great actually! So handy when you need a handful of mushrooms to simply rehydrate them. Genius. Must get a bag one of these days.

Buy Orion brand custard soft cakes. after all, it is now.

Root beer! Aha! Where have you been? I'll be visiting Chinatown more often I think.

Couldn't resist. I had to! I didn't buy any crazy sunglasses but I did buy some lucky Chinese coins instead. It took me about half an hour to tie them together.

Thursday 16th February - Low Tide

Low tide on the Thames, and the steps leading to the mooring of Reiger G. The high tide mark can be seen from the algae growth at the top of the image above. The height difference is approximately 6 to 7 metres.

Tuesday 14th - Come dine with me?

Really nice walk to work this morning (just) and an equally pleasant walk home. Glad to have earned myself a new interview:

- MVP Global - Thursday 16th at 15:00

The company appears to be an agency of the lead generation variety. Interestingly, they are interviewing now for a content manager to build and develop a TEFL and cross border training arm of their business. Sounds great to me, especially since I've previously experiemented with an English grammar video, and a series of training videos for freelancers creating SEO content. It seems that my experiences make me suitable for the position, which to be honest, I'm quite happy about because the role includes filming and creating all kinds of relevant content, whereas the position at CommercialGasBoilers might be less multichannle in nature. They're also offering more, so I'm going to go the interview for sure and see what it's all about. Must do some research into the background of MVP. There was a slightly awkward moment on the phone with Mike Belcher about what they actually did, because essentially, the company got back to me regarding a role different to the one applied for.

But hey - it's actually a far more interesting role by the sounds of things so I'm not complaining in the slightest. It also helped to remind me of my dreams, which provided a much needed boost.

Browsing through a donated copy of Private Eye a certain advert caught my eye. It's an Aussie trying to get home.

Build it and they will come? Perhaps this is worth a follow up.

Later in the evening we hade a thoroughly enjoyable home cooked meal courtesy of Kim. Nice to meet her friends Joe, Gregory and Dana. Pea and ham soup (with garlic and chilli) combined with some home-made bread and a chocolate and banana cake for dessert. Yum! Managed to get the stove working, and finished the evening with a round of 20 questions. The time flew by and before we knew it - it was eleven.

Lovely evening.

Monday 13th - Not valid during peak times

Delighted to find a job offer in my inbox this morning. It's for the CommercialGasBoiler company, which would be quite different to my current position not just in the sense that I'll have made the switch from agency to client side, which I'm all for, but that the business has an interesting location based angle to it. I have a few ideas for potentially interesting directions to take the company, such as with a heavy empahsis on video content. It would be a great candidate for a series of webisodes. I'm getting imaged of Doreen shivering on her doorstep - cat-in-hand - being saved by a team of plumbers. Great viewing if it's done right, I'm sure.

Pleased to finally place my hands on my ticket to the upcoming Katzenjammer gig in Scala's Hurricane Room virtually next door to Kings Cross underground station. Perhaps it's worth making a video guide, like a video map or something? Would be cool to find out.

My super off-peak return wasn't valid after the 15:33 from Crewe, like on the weekend. I should remember these restrictions for the future, so I don't get caught short. One the way home I finished reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, which was pretty good. It helps to give structure to the process of launching a product to market, which of course I'm trying to do with NameThatPlace.co.uk

For my next read I have selected English Passengers by Matthew Kneale on the advice of my mother. A bit of fiction should do me good. Too many cold hard facts for too long, it seems.

Late in the evening I took this panorama of my room.

Sunday 12th - First meal on a new table

Woke up on a sofa in South Manchester. Saturday is a complete blur. hghnyGlad to see the new house of a couple of old friends. Glad to finally make it back finally to Sandbach for the first family meal around my sister's new table. Touching.

Saturday 11th - Packed train

Caught an earlier than normal train, the 9:46 from Euston to Crewe, but I along with likely all of the other travellers were surprised to see a train far shorter than was expected. It turned out that somewhat ridiculous health and saftery guidelines meant that my train which I had expected to consist of eight coaches now consisted of four carriages packed with frustrated travellers.

Friday 10th - Roll on the weekend!

It's Friday and today I made the trip to Earls Court to find the people from CommericalGasBoilers.co.uk. I'm glad I did. It seemed to go down well and it's quite convenient for travel. Just a matter of hopping on the tube at Vauxhall and changing at Victoria onto the District line.

On the way home I thought I'd take a couple of snaps of one of the most photographed objects in the world. Everyone else seemed to be doing it. Here's Westminster Bridge, as seen from the usual position.

Here's Westminster Palace.

Thursday 9th - C'est Baltique!

Minus 2 last night and now heating! Luckily, I was smothered in duvets and curled up inside a coccoon of my own making, so I was actually relatively. However, getting up in the night was no joke! Baltic!

View on my new walk to work.

Some roadworks currently underway on Whitehall. What a mess of pipes!

Have secured an interview for Friday at 13:00 in Earls Court for a role maintaining and developing a series of heating and plumbing sites for a local business. Looking forward to that. During my lunch hour I'm going to the Freemason's Arms and the Prince of Wales in Covent Garden to chase up my applications there for evening and weekend work.

Interviews lined up:

- CommercialGasBoilers.co.uk - 13:00 Thursday 9th
- eWaterways - maybe interview during week 7

Going to make the most of not having the Interwebs at home right now to hopefully stitch together my panoramas from last year - or should I say re-stitch (as I did them all once before my laptop was stolen in September last year! Stay tuned for those, plus the video footage!

Just got back and the heating's fixed, which is great news! Also, had my first hot shower on board, which felt amazing! It's also snowing which has made it an extra special evening.

Eating scotch eggs.

Gaping hole

Have covered the gaping hole with a plastic bag. We'll see how that goes. Yes that's snow.

Late in the evening I actually started to restitch my panoramas from last year's bicycle trip. It's a bit of a pain considering that:

a. I'd stitched them all together before somebody stole my laptop
b. the programme I use has been re-released and doesn't seem as stable as before.

Here's Barnaby Rudge in Margate.

Here's The Dolphin in Margate.

Wednesday 8th - 2nd night on the boat

Remainder of my stuff now present on the boat. Met Leah and Nicki. Still freezing. No heating. Must call landlady in the morning.

Tuesday 7th - Moving onto the boat

Spent my first night on the boat this evening. Freezing!