First week at work in London

Writtem By: SP, 28 Apr 2006

I guess working for someone is the same no matter where you go.....except you own the company, you can turn up anytime you want, do anything you want and no one will give you a look! Monday 24th is my first day working in London, the first impression I get from these Brits are quite formal- every IT guy on this floor wears suit + tie, clothes hanger at the side of their desk. Imagine that in a normal Sydney IT department, people thinks you are going for an interview!!!

People tends to start late in this company - 9:30-10am are seem to be normal for some people. But I think I will opt to start early and leave around 5:30pm (8 hours a day)

There are many optios available for me to get to work. I can catch a 1) bus, tube and then walk 15 mins to office 2) Bus, Bus and walk 3-4 mins to work. Option 2 seems to be a better alternatibes provided that the bus driver does not skip station - yes, for some reason the driver doesn't feel like stopping to pick you up. After talking to my colleagues, it seem to be normal. The tube is OK but wherever you bring up the topic with your colleagues, they will scream and bitch about how unrealiable it is. Mate! I think they should go to Sydney and see how good it is compare to the Tube in UK.

I need to go back and earn some bread now. More work/travel updates later....

Belgium: the land of chocolate

Belgium seems to be very logical travel destination for SP and I.

Beer for him and chocolate for me. It's just perfect.

My life has certainly been 'filled' with top-quality chocolate in the past week. Considering chocolate contains pheryletylanine (which is supposed to make a person feel good)., it has certainly been a joyful week for me :P

When we were in Belgium, the shops are still selling special Easter chocolate. The most common sight is two HUGE chocolate shell 'stuffed' with small chocolate eggs. These shells are then tied together with ribbons. It is a lot of chocolate.

According to 'statistics', Belgians eat on average 20kg of chocolate confectionary every year, and these eggs must be at least 8kg each!

Just to give you an idea of the size of these HUGE chocolate egg:



Another chocolate art:


So, is the chocolate in Belgium REALLY that good?

The following are some of the larger players (chocolatiers) in Belgium:


Wittamer - great praline. I don't like their dark chocolate though.


Neuhaus - the creator of praline. Personally, I think the chocolate is good but it's not THAT special.


Godiva, well-known internationally. It's always packed with tourist, and rumour has it that it is US-owned.

Also Leonidas, which I don't have a photo of. The chocolate is selling at about 1 pound a piece at Selfridges (in London). In Belgium, it's about 0,30 euro a piece! I'm not going to buy chocolate from Selfridges.....for a while :P

Then, there are the less well-known ones like:

]
Filip Martin, which also makes cakes.


Pierre Marcolini, which is always packed with people.

I guess the most important thing is: which chocolatier captured my heart? Well, it's the first chocolatier we visited:


Mary - they make excellent dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Excellent truffles and chocolate ganache. There is a box of it right in front of me now. It is only going to stay 'fresh' for a maximum of two weeks. So I think there is a real need for me to consume it NOW :P

For more information:

Mary Chocolatier
http://www.marychoc.com/

Sneak Preview of our Belgium Trip

    

SP had fun with his camera :)

We're back!

SP and I are back in London.

It has been 9 days of beers, chocolate, mussels and "Waterzooi".

Details coming soon!

After one too many drink in Mechelen...

Why are the beer in Belgium so good? :p

Sorry guys. We are going away for a week

SP and I are off to..... Belgium!

Billingsgate Fish Market

At the entrance of the London fish market

This is an entry about the famous Billingsgate Market in London. It is the oldest indoor fish market in UK and was established by an Act of Parliament in 1698. WAY before I was born. According to their website, "the annual turnover of the Market is estimated to be in the region of £200m."

For those who have been to the Sydney Fish Market, please don't set your expectation too high.

Billingsgate Market mainly deals with wholesale trading, so its trading hours are not exactly consumer-friendly. As you can tell from the photo, the sky was pretty dark when I went. It's not because of bad weather, but it was 5:30am in the morning.

For your information, the opening hours of the fish market are:

Tuesday to Saturday 5.00am - 8.30am
Sunday 6.00am - 8.00am (Shellfish market only)
Closed Monday and it's closed on the Tuesday following a long weekend.

We would love to show you what it's like inside the building. Unfortunately, it is not exactly a tourist-friendly spot and photography is prohibited inside the building.

Here are some photos from the official website:

Inside the building, there are about 40 merchants trading in their allocated stands. Most fish and shellfish are sold by the (form) box or in bulk, e.g. 2kg of prawns costs around £12. You can't get 1kg of prawns. It's whatever on display. The stock of fish is rather limited (by Sydney standard). The selection contains mainly trout, salmon and sole fish.

There was one particular stall that stands out. An Asian family was buying a number of crab from this shop. Our instinct tells that it must be of good value. We were standing in front of the store, evaluating what's on offer. This storeowner come around and ask us whatever we speak Japanese or Korean. We then told him that we speak Cantonese. Then all in a sudden, he starts showcasing all his stock in Cantonese and recommend the fresh stock to us. We thought that was quite impressive. We were even more surprised when he told us the crabs that the Asian family bought were not in good health (not lively).

There are no outlets for beverages and cooked seafood. There is a small old-fashioned cafe that all the fishmongers hang out for morning tea. Sadly, my favourite fishmarket item - sashimi - is completely missing from the scene! SP and I were a little disappointed and we left the market empty-handed in the end :(

For more information:
Website of Billingsgate Market
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/our_services/markets/billingsgate/
 

No-Buy list

Thanks to Schneier. I now know that in addition to the No-Fly list, there is also a No-Buy list!

What is a No-Buy list, you may ask??

Well, if you are lucky enough to make it into the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control's "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List" (aka "No-Buy list"), American citizens are not supposed to conduct business with you. And it means all American citizens, operating any kind of business, be it restaurant, supermarket or publisher etc..

As of the current moment, the name list is only 224-pages long. And of course, a majority of the people whose names are on the list are not even in the US. The list does seems useful for anyone planning to become a professional terr0rist, as it provides the names of their potential "business" partners, advisors and suppliers :P

For more information:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/nobuy_list.html

Confusing traffic lights at the roundabouts

When should I stop? :P

Just to prove that BOTH of us have made it to London...

Here is a photo of SP and I at Big Ben :)

Dragon Boat Racing

I went dragon boat racing yesterday with my department's social club. It was the first time I'm involved in watersports, as I can't swim (I can float, but am not fit enough to swim more than 20m. hahaha). The secretary assured me that there will be lifejackets, so I decided to give it a go. I came to UK to experience the world, so why not?

The race took place at the Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre. The turn-out rate was rather low, but the weather was perfect for rowing and it turned out quite well.


The teams, listening carefully to the instructors

We were put into three teams of 7-8 and two teams race at one time. Our team got to rest for the first match, which co-incide with the creation of the tab at the bar.

Naturally, with some influence of alcohol, we were all hyped-up for our first race and we won the match rather easily. We were so tired though.

The winner from the first race happens to be our next competitor so we convinced the instructors to hold the finals straight away. Lazy us!

The most important thing with dragon boat racing is that the team must be well-coordinated. We didn't have enough people to have a drummer, but luckily, one of my team member has a really loud voice (which could be heard from the bar more than 250m away) and we were able to keep the rhythm.

We won the match quite easily again. It wasn't even a close match. We all rowed really hard and our boat was so fast. I didn't realise that dragon boat could be that fast! Now I'm living the consequence as my whole body is so sore.


The finishing line. The competitor's boat is not even in the photo!

O, did I also mention that one of my team member is the coach of the British rowing team?  :P


The Champions

We had a great barbeque after the races. There were seafood, steaks, really yummy mushrooms etc.. and continuous flow of alcohol. The bar is pretty good and there were lots of choices. We didn't get trashed though, as we still have to go to work today. I'm sure the chance will come. hehe


More information:

The Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre
http://www.dswc.org/

Chop chop Noodle Bar

For the first two weeks of our life in London, we were staying at King's Cross Travelodge for 26 pounds a night (which is considered a bargain for Zone 1 accomodation) and we had to eat out every night.

Eating out is sooo expensive in London. Our first meal of pasta with some unknown sauce costed us around 11 pounds! Luckily, we found "Chop Chop"!

.

Chop Chop Noodle Bar is a Malaysian-Singaporean-Chinese restaurant near King's Cross train station. Everything is under 3.9 pounds and the portion are super BIG. I can barely finish a dish on my own. Although the food is not super delicious, it is certainly cheaper and better than the pasta that we had for lunch on the first day. We had lunch and dinner near every day for 2.5 weeks! Almost a VIP customer :)

Dishes that I would recommend include: Singaporean Laksa (very spicy), Thai style fried vermicelli, Malaysian style fried noodle (spicy) and Kampung fried rice.

British Museum

 

Miss VL and me in front of the museum entrance.

The British Museum (大英博物館) is one of the largest public museum in the world. It was established in 1753 and it is the oldest museum in the world.

The museum collection began with its first bequest from the physician and scientist, Sir Hans Sloane. The collection has grown substantially over the years and the museum now holds approximately 7 million objects in the collections.

With so many items to maintain, you would think that the entrance fee would be really high. Here is a pleasant surprise. Entrance to the British Museum is FREE. There are special exhibitions that would costs you around 10 pounds. However, access to the general collection will cost you absolutely nothing.

You may wonder how the museum is funded. Well, it is funded by "a combination of grant-in-aid allocated by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and income secured through sponsorship and a range of commercial and fundraising activities." There are collection/donation boxes around the halls and visitors are encouraged to make a small contribution.

So, it has been around 2 weeks since my visit. What are my thoughts?

The museum is HUGE. Although not everything from the collection is on display, it can easily take you 3 whole days to see all the displayed items. Miss VL, SP and I were simply exhausted after our short visit.  We spent most of our time in the 15th-20th Century Britain and Europe gallery. There were some impressive glassware and jewelry. We had the opportunity to handle real objects from ancient time (let's say it's BC... my memory is also as bad as a goldfish these days), which was interesting. We also saw the famous collection of mummies in the gallery, which is a rather eerie exhibit. It is the first time I see Egyptian mummies, a whole room-full of it!

Short guided tours are offered on each section of the museum and it was interesting to  ‘hear’, instead of ‘read’, about the items in the exhibits.

If you have ever been to the Palace Museum of China (故宮博物院), they will tell you that treasures were plundered or unfairly acquired by and other imperial nations during and after the opium war in the 19th century. Whether this is true of not, over 1.64 million Chinese artifacts are now scattered in 47 museums around the world and the best places to see Chinese antiques are in overseas museums, such as the British Museum. Naturally, we were very eager to visit the Chinese gallery.

The gallery is much smaller than our expectation. It includes jades, bronzes, ceramics, prints and drawings and other decorative objects. There are around 2,000 objects on permanent display in the gallery.

We saw a number of Tang stoneware, which were glazed in the colours of the sancai (three-colour) palette of the Tang dynasty (AD 618-906). There were also a collection of Ding, Ru, Jun, Guan and Gefrom wares from the Song dynasty (produced on between AD 1086-1127). These items are all very simple and elegant. I find them quite beautiful, however, nothing out of the extraordinary. Apart from these, there were also a large collection of the porcelain.

The Chinese enjoyed a monopoly on the manufacturing of porcelain from the late sixth century until the early 19th century. Porcelain was so rare and expensive in Europe and it was nicknamed "white gold" at some point, which reflects its high price-tag. The "white gold" was given as diplomatic gifts and collected by monarchs and aristocrats who created rooms in their palaces specifically designed to display what were often immense collections. It reminds me of the Chinese Luncheon Room in Buckingham Palace, the Great Corridor or Long Gallery at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, the Chinese room at Russia's the Peterhof (or Petrodvorets) Palace and the Chinese room in Schloss Schönbrunn (Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna).

Blue and white wares were the mainstay of the European exports. They were made popular in in the 14th century. Items were occasionally commissioned and customise drawings are included on the porcelain items. One of the most interesting piece was a drawing on porcelain depicting the story behind The Cross of Jesus Christ. The Chinese worker must have been very confused at some stage since he/she drew Jesus as a woman! That was certainly one of the highlight of the guided tour!

We have seen only a small part of the museum as our visit was relatively short. I hope we can visit the museum again in the near future. If you are ever visiting London, I would recommend you to make a visit to the museum, it was really an eye-opener!

For more information:

British Museum
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

One suggestion at how some of the Oriental collection finds its way to the British Museum
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3190360.stm

Rotherhithe

The name "Rotherhithe" derives from the Old English hryther hyth, meaning "Landing-place for cattle".

Rotherhithe is in the extreme north east of the London Borough of Southwark.

In the early 12th century, King Henry I gave approximately half of Rotherhithe to the Bermondsey Abbey. The abbey later went on and acquired must of the rest. However, everything was lost to King Henry VIII when he took over the churches. Kind Edward III also had some input into this area, where he built a manor house in the mid-14th century.

Due to its proximity to the wider section of the Thames, shipbuilding has become a traditional industry in the area. At one point during King James I's reign, the shipwrights of Rotherhithe has a royal charter that allows them to control the industry within the region. After over 70 years of disputes, the charter was cancelled.

Rotherhithe was then turned into a number of docks, which eventually was consolidated by the Surrey Commercial Dock Company. There are an attempt in building a canal all the way to Portsmouth. But in the end, they only went as far as Peckham.

The entire area was destroyed in the London Blitz (1940) and was literally flattened by the end of World World II. Trade resumed after the war. However, it was short lived as the growing size of ships, London traffic congestion as well as the move to pallets and containerisation lead to the decline. The docks were eventually shut down in 1970.

As part of the Greater London Development Plan of 1976, the land were transferred to the London Dockland Development Corporation in 1981. Originally, a number of local-authority buildings were erected around the Canada Waters and Rotherhithe area. Later on, the project was deemed to be a failure and slowly, private development began to take place.

Properties in Rotherhithe, especially waterfront ones, have turned into modern (and sometimes luxury) accomodations. Although the Southwark Council has taken back the control of the area in 1996-1998, private property developments continue to be the driving force behind the population growth in Rotherhithe.

Rotherhithe is now serviced by a number of bus service. It has access to the East London line on the Rotherhithe tube station. With a 10 minute walk, you can also get to Canada Water station for the quick and new Jubilee line underground service.