Weekend plans?

All tentative, drop me a line if you're around :)

• June 13/14: flat hunting; Valkyrie and Jeff in London
• June 20/21: London sightseeing, drinks with Monique and company; visited Greenwich with flatmates; Father's Day (Dad passing through London...)
• June 27/28: Wimbledon; Oxford/Cambridge
• July 4/5: Family visiting London; day trip to Canterbury?
• July 11/12: castles in Wales
• July 18/19: Edinburgh, Scotland
• July 24/25/26: south of France through to Barcelona
• August 1/2/3: Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland
• August 8/9: Manchester / Liverpool
• August 13/14/15/16/17: work at Google Zürich? visit family in Switzerland, train to Germany, visit Valkyrie?
• August 22/23: Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bath
• August 29/30/31: Dublin, Ireland
• September 4/5/6/7: Greece, Turkey (finished work)
• September 8: London to San Francisco via Vancouver!

Time off is pretty generous in the UK ... I have about one day off every two weeks, plus bank holidays.

Cheers!

Greenwich!

I visited Greenwich (of Greenwich Mean Time fame) in south-east London recently. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to the National Martime Museum and Royal Observatory, two of London's free museums, along with Greenwich Park and Market.

Highlights include some great architecture...

The Royal Naval College

... a fantastic view from the observatory ...

The City of London, Canary Wharf, and the Millenium Dome—click for full

...and the chance to put a foot in both hemispheres!

The Prime Meridian

Speaking of expensive...

If renting a room in central London is mighty expensive, how much is it to buy?

Well, if the house prices are any indication:

£4,000,000? All yours!

Then it's no big deal to park your Ferrari on the street outside!

Notice the Rolls-Royce whizzing by behind...

My Flat in Bloomsbury

Right between the British Museum and University College London, one would be pressed to find a better spot in London:

WC1E 6DP—8 Gower Street, Bloomsbury, Central London

At such a location, £700 a month buys only a room (shared kitchen and bath...), but it's a room with a view, looking into one of Bloombury's garden squares. In London, it's a luxury to see trees out the window...

a pan out my balcony window (using autostitch)

The house is old (like 1770's old) and five stories of brick and mortar. Georgian houses are packed together in this area, but my room is spacious ... perhaps three or four times larger than others I've seen in central London!

...and nearly twice the price of any other place I've rented!

Many notable British luminaries have called Bloomsbury home ... blue placards mark buildings where famous people have lived ... Charles Darwin's house is just down the street!

more colourful than the other houses ... a red door and a green vine!

I sublet for the summer from a University of London student and have a great flatmate—a friendly LSE student.

Finding a place in London was tough. For anyone who may need a summer rental in the city: try the University of London student short lets. After 7 years of summer internships, I've learned that student sublets are the way to go ... furnished, short term, great locations, student flatmates, and no randoms from Craigslist or Gumtree to contend with! But in London, be quick—the rentals will be snapped up before you can say Bob's your uncle!

The finest of English cuisine...

First meal in England? classic bangers and mash

(yes, they really make it look like this)

Second? a hearty English breakfast

(I didn't really like the black pudding, even before I knew what it was)

Third? good ol' fish 'n' chips

My conclusion: English food is pretty much like German food—heavy, bland, and vegetable-less (steamed carrots are not real vegetables). There is some redemption, though...

This week's best meal was Greek: I joined some friends from last summer and dined on the south bank (they visited London for the weekend and saw Romeo and Juliet—standing for three hours—at the Globe next door):

At The Real Greek with Mathieu (from Québec), Sara (from Spain), Valkyrie, and Jeff

Food at Google has some nice variety with an English flavour … more on that later!

Flying in Style

On my way to London, I sat next to an Emirates Airbus A340 captain (he wasn’t flying the plane at the time...), a fascinating guy from Vancouver who flew aircraft in the Canadian Forces for 20 years before becoming a commercial jet pilot. Over his career, he's visited the entire world and had insight on many things, from life in Dubai and 18 hour flights around the world to the decline of the pilots’ profession and his view of Canada as an expat. Emirates is an airline in a class entirely apart from North American and European airlines; he noted Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines as perhaps the only comparable in terms of quality and service … first class on an Emirates jet is really something to behold (complete with a shower!). (I certainly didn’t fly first class to London, but I did get an exit row seat, woohoo!)

This fellow's ability to hold a conversation after spending 20 hours travelling around the world was particularly impressive. I'm still not quite over jetlag … I think it's time for a nap.

Landing at Heathrow in merry old England!

Travelling with two l's.

1 summer job

1 UK visa

4 months to get said visa (grrr...)

2 suitcases

1 backpack

2 trips to SFO (thanks for driving, Vicky!)

1 missed connection

1 trip back to Stanford

1 extra day in California (thank goodness...wasn't really packed)

10 moving boxes (thanks for storing, Kevin)

45 minute stopover in Canada

5000 miles over the sea

3 hours of sleep on a bumpy plane

1 bad roast beef aeroplane dinner

1 good yogurt / muffin aeroplane breakfast

2 hours in the Heathrow UK border line

4 pounds sterling for a tube ride (ouch!)

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1 Steven in London for the summer!

Jolly Good.