Parties and Visas

A bunch of parties have crowded into the last two weeks of January for us. We had two parties last weekend, and this weekend, two more. In both cases, one was thrown by Grace's friends, and one was thrown by my work. Last Friday night, we went down to Tooting Broadway (yes, it's really called tooting) in South London for a birthday party for one of Grace's friends. Although Tooting Broadway is only about 10 miles from our house as the crow flies, it still took me an hour to get there. And that was on the tube. If we had taken a bus there... just forget about it. Anyway, the party was with some of Grace's friends from her course at UCL, and it was good to see them all again, as its been awhile.

The next day, we had another party, this one for a work colleague of mine, who had gotten engaged. This time we had to trek out to the Isle of Dogs in East London, a 40 minute journey to move 7 miles.

South, North, Central and East London all have a very different feeling, at least the parts we visited this weekend. I haven't been to far west London. Anyway, central London is very recognizable - it's where all the monuments and famous buildings are. It feels very 'nice,' because, in general, it is. It has tons of grand old buildings, expertly kept up. In contrast, where we live in North London has a bit homier feel to it. Things are still very old, but the scale is smaller, with few buildings more than three stories tall. South London - Tooting, in particular - doesn't feel very old, and the buildings are also smaller than in central London. Tooting, I think, feels more like regular towns and cities in Britain.

East London is totally different. It's brand new, and has a completely different aesthetic from the rest of the city. The architecture and building design are all modern, and the layout of the city strongly hints at its planned nature. Walking around, I felt like I was in a modern part of Hong Kong, or maybe Tokyo (though I've never been there). It's also extremely quiet, and there are few people out at night. It's the banking district, where all the wealthy city boys live and work, but it doesn't seem to have grown it's own personality. Maybe it's too new. Maybe it's too expensive for poor students or artists who would otherwise patronise and open interesting shops and pubs.

We had a good time at my work colleague's party also. The next day we pretty much stayed in, as the weather was rainy. We used the time indoors to put the finishing touches on our visa applications. Grace's student visa runs out at the end of the month, and we've been working on getting new visas since last November. It's been a long journey, with lots of hours spent reading the fine print of visa rules, and filling out tons of applications, but we finally mailed in our completed applications today, celebrating this evening by renting a movie and opening a bottle of wine (it's the end of the month, we're cheap). For awhile, it looked like we wouldn't be able to get it done in time, and we would have to come home to make our applications from the USA. Things came together in the last two weeks though, and everything is out of our hands now. Now we wait for the UK visa office to decide our fate. With luck, we'll be allowed to stick around, and we can begin to think about spending some of my holiday. We have a list of places to go, but until we get our passports back, we can't leave the country. So, for the time being, we will remain on this Northern island during the gray and dark month of February.

Photo of the Week

From Photo of the Week

Canary Wharf (East London), as viewed from the Isle of Dogs.

Photo of the Week, plus an Update

From Photo of the Week

Carved monkeys crawling the walls of the Natural History Museum.

Update: It's been a busy week, but we managed to make it over to the Natural History Museum to see my favorite annual show, the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The line was really long this year and we had to wait for a half hour just to get tickets. I was particularly interested to go this year, because I thought it might provide some inspiration for the new camera. Anyway, I didn't like it quite as much as I did last year, but it was still great.

While we were in town, we also stopped into the Royal Albert Hall for the first time and bought two tickets to go see a showing of "The Fellowship of the Ring" movie with a live orchestra. Grace really likes the soundtrack, so she's really looking forward to it. I think it'll be really interesting too - live music, but accompanying a movie. Our seats are pretty bad (you get what you pay for), but I managed to snag an aisle seat, so hopefully it'll at least be comfortable.

Otherwise it's been a pretty quiet week. I've had a bunch of freelance work to do, which means I haven't been doing the dishes and the kitchen is in a real state now. It will take hours to clean the place up.

Other than that, Grace and I both watched the inauguration today, live at work. At my office about twenty people gathered to watch, and the Mayor of London flew the American flag today at City Hall. Everybody is really pleased about Obama, but at my office at least, they're braced for major disappointment.

Photo of the Week, Star Destroyer Edition

From Photo of the Week

St. Paul's cathedral, with the corner of the modernist tourist information centre jutting into the frame.

Update: No excitement this weekend. Grace was down with a nasty cold and I had to do freelance.

Don't You Worry About Us

The heat is back on. At last.

Looking on the Bright Side

The heat is still out!

Two days ago we bought a space heater, and that has let us live pretty normal. We can wear normal layers of clothing, for instance. But we have to stay in one room pretty much all night to stay warm. The living room is probably close to room temperature. The rest of the flat, you can see your breath. We move the heater into the bedroom when we go to sleep, and by the morning, its actually a bit toasty.

But hey, we're looking on the bright side!

-You don't have to be so prompt in putting away food, because the whole kitchen is basically a walk-in refrigerator.
-We're no longer swatting at big black flies all the time. I think they used to come in to our flat to stay warm. Not anymore!
-Actually, that's about all I can think of for now. Other than the fact that it could be worse. England is still pretty temperate compared to, say, Iowa, though its been well below freezing all week. But apparently in the late 1970s there was a massive coal strike and there were massive power cuts across the country. Lots of elderly people died from the winter cold. It was known as Britain's Winter of Discontent and ushered in the era of Thatcher.

Photo of the Week

From Photo of the Week

The Millenium Bridge.

I should add, this is the first photo of the week taken with the new camera.

The Heat Is Broken

Welcome back to Britain. The boiler for our flat broke yesterday. Apparently it had been acting up while we were away. Now we have hot water and electricity, but no heating. As you can see, we have adapted as best we can. I'm wearing a hooded jacket over a sweater over a waffle shirt over a long sleeve T-shirt. And a hat. Grace is wearing her new flannel pajamas over a turtleneck sweater over a thermal long sleeve shirt and pants. And a hat. Our feet are resting on a funny polka dotted hot water bottle. That, friends, is a rubber bladder filled with very hot water (from the electric kettle, typically used to heat water for tea). It stays hot for hours and hours. We've also been closing all the doors to 'lock in' the heat generated by our bodies. And we added another down comforter to the bed, so now we've got sheets, a flannel blanket, two down comforters and a quilt.

It seems like a lot to us, but my Grandma Marge, from Canada, would probably not be impressed.

Meanwhile it's -2 degrees Celsius outside. That's not bad, but when you have no heat and live in a drafty flat...

How long will it last? We're not sure. The landlords live below us and are suffering the same fate, so I expect they'll be in just as much of a hurry to get it fixed as we are. But a friend of mine from work said he was without heat for 6 weeks last winter...

In other news, we're back in the UK after spending nearly two weeks in the US. Probably visiting with most of the people who read this blog. We had a great time, and we were sad to go. But, I was also a bit glad to be back in the UK before long. When we got in, I popped round the corner for milk and bread at the corner shop, and felt positively European, or at least a 'big city' dweller. Also, getting back on the buses was not as depressing as I thought it would be, after having a car for two weeks (maybe because its warmer on the buses than in our flat though...)

The day we got back, I shelled out for a new camera, so hopefully the quality of our picture of the week - already pretty exceptional, I would say - will improve even further. We also had fun doing a little more shopping with leftover Christmas money.

Now we're a bit jetlagged (we slept more than 12 hours on Saturday night), but hopefully the work routine will force us to adapt back. I plan to start the running at lunch routine again tomorrow, and Grace is planning to go to the gym. Settling back in then.

Next Two Weeks

The next two weeks or so we will not be posting much because we're leaving tomorrow to go home for Christmas. And we will actually be seeing most of the people who read this blog, so if you are one of the lucky ones, you will get the real deal, instead of mere words on a screen--enjoy!!!

We forgot to mention that my sister came through London again on her way back from Greece. She was only here one full day, as a long layover, but we managed to see a museum (Wallace Collection), eat some Asian fusion (Wagamama--no Adrian Lukis aka Mr. Wickham this time), and my sister got to see a show by herself, while Matt and I were both at our respective office parties. She saw Avenue Q which Matt and I saw a long while back when we were living in Cambridge, and we liked it.

When Matt and I get home we have a long list of movies we want to see in the theatre, that we couldn't afford to see when they came through London. Hope they're still on in one of the multi-plex theatres in Iowa!

Hopefully we'll be seeing you soon!

Photo of the Week, plus Christmas Work Parties

From Photo of the Week

A Christmas tree in Trafalgar square. The tree is donated from Norway every year, in recognition of the assistance Britain gave the country during World War II.

Office Christmas Parties: Grace and I both had our office Christmas parties on Tuesday night, which is why our photo of the week - which has evolved into a Tuesday affair - is going up today, instead of last night. Office Christmas parties in the UK are not exactly like the ones you might have in the states, though it probably depends on the organization.

First off, our party was held off-site, at a lobby in the Science museum and no partners are permitted. I think the idea is to keep it limited to familiar faces, so everyone is in on the same work jokes and thinking more about having a good time than meeting new people. The theme was Spirit of Havana, so the place was decorated with palm tree type plants and some women dressed as Marilyn Monroe (?). We were to show up at 7:00 for drinks, with dinner starting at 8:00. We were to be kicked out at 12:30 (we were allowed to come into work an hour late the next day!).

We weren't the only company at this event though. I think lots of places around London host Christmas parties in December, taking care of all the planning so companies just have to choose a package and say how many people are coming. It must be a good way to raise money, if you're a museum or concert hall or church. Anyway, there were maybe five companies at this thing.

Also, there's a dress code, which is not that surprising (I mean, you have a dress code at work too). Jeans and sneakers were barred (you will be turned away at the door, we were warned). Most of us men wore suits, but some people in my office wore tuxedos, and not just as a joke. And all the women wore ball gowns!

In some ways, this all reminded me of Cambridge, where they had formal dinners in the cafeteria (buttery) that required you to wear a tie to get in. At Cambridge and Oxford too, they have enormous lavish balls after finals that you must wear a tuxedo to get into. And so, most kids who go to University in the UK own tuxedos. And so, they use them whenever they get the opportunity. (I missed the end of year ball at Cambridge, as Grace and I were in India. Plus, I don't own a tux!). One of my co-workers did his master's degree in the states, and he complained that (jokingly) 'the worst part about school in America was that people had no taste. You would go to an end-of-year dinner, expecting everyone to dress up nice, but it would just be delivered pizza in an empty classroom.'

At the actual event, we had an open bar and seated dinner with assigned places. The company mixed everyone up, so that you were forced to interact with people from different departments. And there was a live band, and after dinner everyone went dancing. And that's how they do it!

Hamlet II

It turns out that we got incredibly lucky with seeing Hamlet! The lead actor is called David Tennant and he's hugely popular here, much MUCH more popular than even Patrick Stewart, though Americans won't know him for the most part. He played Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We went and saw Hamlet on the second night, less than a week ago, and it's only here for a six week run. Yesterday, it was splashed all over the papers that David Tennant has hurt his back and won't be back in the roll until after Christmas! The tickets for the full run of this show sold out in under three hours here. People who want to see Tennant now have to settle for the UNDERSTUDY!

Luckily, as the director said in a statement, this is the Royal Shakespeare Company and the understudy is apparently doing very well, getting standing ovations. You've got to be pretty gutsy to step into that roll on short notice.

As for Patrick Stewart, he may be less popular here, but he is definitely known as one of the best Shakespearean actors. Matt and I agreed that his Ghost (he played the Ghost and Claudius, for those that remember, how cool is that? they put a wig on him for the Ghost) was the best part of the whole production, notwithstanding Tennant.

By the way, this is was the photo on the programme cover. It's a pretty awesome picture, even if Tennant isn't actually playing the roll.




P.S. This is a new layout for a new, more austere time.

Picture of the Week, Plus Hamlet

From Photo of the Week

A slightly blurry vision of Regent Street, decked out for Christmas and closed to cars for shopping. They do it once a year.

Hamlet: On Thursday night, Grace and I went to see the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet. We were very excited, primarily because the show featured these two:

David Tennant, a.k.a the Doctor in Doctor Who (a famous sci-fi show in Britain that Grace briefly watched) and...

Patrick Stewart, a.k.a Captain Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation (a famous sci-fi show everywhere).

Apparently they had to ban all sci-fi memorabilia from the show, because people brought so much stuff for these two to sign.

Anyway, Tennant was Hamlet and Stewart was his evil step-father Claudius. Everybody was great, and it was a very good show. David Tennant played Hamlet as kind of manic, not depressed and gloomy. We were really lucky to get tickets, because it's been sold out for months. But they have a deal for under-25s to get in on the night of the show for cheap. Excellent.

Also, I have previously read Hamlet, which meant I enjoyed the show more than King Lear, where I had no idea what was going on for the majority of the show. Alas, it wasn't perfect for me. I decided to skip dinner and eat after the show, but it didn't finish till 11, by which time I was in a rough state. Also the seats were built for people with thighs six inches shorter than mine, so I was contorted into a ball the whole night to watch the show. This seems to be happening more often to me.

But, Grace was in no physical discomfort and she assures me the show was really good.

Photo of the Week

From Photo of the Week

Matt and Gareth hanging out at the new shopping centre in Cambridge.

Sorry this is another photo from our trip to Cambridge, but we haven't been up to a lot of exciting things. We went shopping last weekend, and the weather was cold (for Britain) and rainy. Not photogenic anyway. But, we found some amazing deals at a shop called Woolworth's, which has declared bankruptcy. I guess I have the Great Recession to thank.

Photo of the Week, plus a Thanksgiving post

From Photo of the Week

Photo Caption: This is a new clock in Cambridge. The grasshopper on top pulls the outer wheel around with his legs, blinking and pausing from time to time. You read the time by looking at the blue lights, which sit where the numbers would normally be on a clock. In the glass you can see the reflections of buildings on King's College.

The Thanksgiving Post: Grace and I went up to Cambridge this weekend to have Thanksgiving dinner (a bit early, but the only time our friends could make it), with some of our old friends from Cambridge. The last two years Grace and I have hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, but this year our friend, Gareth, who is British, wanted to have a crack at it. We weren't sure what to expect, but he and his girlfriend really got it right. They must have done research ahead of time, because all the American staples were there - turkey, stuffing, cornbread, cranberry sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, pumpkin pie (made from Butternut squash, as no pumpkins were to be found), apple pie and more. Grace and I took the train up around noon, and we started eating around 2 for a few hours. We didn't leave the house all day, and we just kept going back for more leftovers. Excellent thanksgiving.

The next day we headed into town for a walk. The weather was cold (there had been freezing rain overnight), so it wasn't particularly cold. Grace and I were reminded how pleasant it is to go Christmas shopping in Cambridge, with all the nice shops down in the old town centre.

It was a really relaxing weekend, bookended by some idyllic train rides. I had been looking forward to getting on the train, as we were travelling midday, when it's not very crowded and drunk people are nowhere to be seen. I bought a paper, and felt like a real European, reading on the train, with a four seater all to Grace and me.

Other than that, I've been very busy with work. But, I'm on my last freelance assignment for 2008, so soon, hopefully, I'll be able to relax in the evenings. We're thinking of taking a weekend trip up to Leeds in December, where some of our other Cambridge friends live...

Photo of the Week

From Photo of the Week

Here we are visiting a new art installation at the Tate Modern Museum.

Update: I should add though, that Grace is not pictured. That's me and our friend Nicole.

To what we have been up.

Busy few weeks past. Here's the blow-by-blow:

Wed 29th--the day I went to the House of Lords hearing.

Thurs 30th--tried for the third time to open a joint checking account, banks in Britain being notoriously finicky. Apparently they don't want our money. Failed for the third time, prompting me to desire to make a blog post entitled 'Things I HATE', but decided this would be too pessimistic.

Fri 31st--massive disgusting eczema explosion on my right hand ring finger, went to the doctor, got a cream and antibiotics. All is now well.

Sat 1st--old, old friend from Cambridge, we'll call him 'Philosopher Gareth' (as opposed to 'Geologist Gareth') came to visit London with his girlfriend Deb. Haven't seen him in literally a year and a half since he left Cambridge. Met for lunch and drinks, had a great time.

Sun 2nd--Natural History museum with Gaz and Deb. Good times.

Mon 3rd--my uncle who lives in Bournemouth (south coast of England) was in London for a conference, met him for dinner. Haven't seen him since India.

Tues 4th--jittery and nervous all day.

Wed 5th, around 5AM--can't sleep, check the news, crawl back into bed and tell Matt the news.

Wed 5th, evening--celebratory Thai curry and Wednesday free movie night--Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais. If you've ever seen him in anything else, it's hard to see him as the 'nice guy'.

Thur 6th--interview with Amnesty International International Secretariat for volunteer position--it didn't go that well. They have a backlog of email enquiries in their inbox. Turns out the job is to clear the backlog. No thanks.

Fri 7th--another doctor's appointment, stupid finger.

Sat 8th--Nicole Novak, friend from Iowa City, is in town. She and two of her friends stayed with us, in our new improved apartment that permits overnight guests! She is a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford for the next two years, so we hope she visits often. Spend the day walking around--doing 'the Westminster walk' on which we were taken by Micky and Julia when we were new to London. UPDATE: In the evening we went to a ballet at the Barbican cultural centre/50s utopian concrete jungle. It was Romeo and Juliet, by a modern ballet company--THEY CHANGED THE ENDING SO THAT ROMEO AND JULIET LIVE, AND RUN AWAY TOGETHER. WHAT?!?!?!?

Sun 9th--massive city-wide search for cream tea in the pouring rain. Once we finally found it, it was totally worth it. Goodbye to Nicole.

Mon 10-Tues 11--boring old work!

Wed 12th--lecture at LSE by Navanethem Pillay, formerly one of the few women judges in the International Criminal Court, hugely influential in her work at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, particularly to its treatment of crimes of sexual violence against women. She is a huge hero of mine. Sadly she has left the ICC to be the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She was speaking in that capacity. She's a South African of Indian decent, was the first woman and minority in apartheid South Africa to open her own practice.

Thur 13--ETHIOPIAN dinner with our friends from Matt's work Martin and his wife Naheed! We used to eat a lot of Ethiopian in D.C. which has the largest concentration of Ethiopians and Eritreans outside of Ethiopia and Eritrea. You might have heard there is some really bad stuff going down in nearby Somolia right now and the UN has decided it cannot intervene, I think for justifiable reasons. Matt and I had a long discussion about it--look, the UN are not miracle workers, okay?

Fri 14th--WORK, BORING!

Sat 15th (today)--lazy Saturday. We're getting excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year, our friends Gar and Kirst, ie 'Geology Gareth' and his girlfriend Kirsten, are having Xgiving at their place in Cambridge! We're really looking forward to it, and are happy to have passed the love for an American holiday on to the Brits.

Photo of the Week

From Photo of the Week

This is a photo of me in a hedge tunnel at Kenwood house. Clearly the tunnel was built for people of mid-nineteenth century height.

Thanks to Mike for the gentle nudge to get this done.

Photo of the Week

From Photo of the Week

This is the famous escalator through a planet at the Natural History Museum.

From now on we are going to try to do a Photo of the Week, so that we use our camera more and take more nice pictures. All the photos will go into the public album, with the link above, so you can see all at once. Obviously this is just the first one.

The Election From Across The Pond

It's a cliche, but the rest of the world probably cares about the US election as much as Americans do and as much as they care about their own elections. Grace's work told her she could take the day off tomorrow, if she was too tired to come in from staying up all night to watch the election. Two people from my work (neither American) actually are taking the day off tomorrow so they can watch the election tonight. Because of the time difference this is a big commitment. The first exit polls from the East coast will begin to roll in here at midnight and the West coast will come in around 4 in the morning. These people will literally spend the entire night in a pub, watching the results come in. They've even booked a table and sent an invitation around the office (one of two all-night election parties we've been invited to).

Both of London's biggest free newspapers have extensive (multi-page) viewing guides for the election tonight. The London Paper gives you a quick background on 'how the electoral college works' and a full-page map about all the swing states. There's a viewing guide in the corner. The London Lite is my favourite though. It has a feature on American food to eat, to help you get into the spirit. They recommend Hamburgers, BLTs and Nachos and say 'don't forget the obligatory crate of Budweiser, or try a bottle of Californian pinot noir from Medocino County, California.' They also have this very brief description of the Republican and Democratic parties:

'Republicans are essentially the US version of our conservatives - they are Right-wing and want to reduce government spending and lower taxes, even for the rich. The Democrats stand to the Left, want higher taxes for the rich, a cut in taxes for the middle classes and for US troops to withdraw from Iraq eventually.'

In general, I think this election has really elevated the US in people's minds. As the British magazine The Economist says in its most recent edition, "the best thing that can be said for the [American presidential] system is that it is so democratic. In most countries party leaders are chosen by political insiders. In America rank-and-file party members (and some independents) get to choose—and this year they upset all political calculations by rejecting the inevitable Mrs Clinton on the left and choosing the maverick Mr McCain on the right." Consider that, in Britain, Gordon Brown is Prime Minister, despite never facing a national election. Here, everyone votes for their representative to Parliament, and the leader of whichever party has the majority becomes Prime Minister. Regular people have about as much control over who their national leader is as Americans have over who is elected speaker of the house or Senate majority leader.

Of course, this election is not just any election. People are a bit shocked I think at the fact that Barack Obama is the probable president of the US. It upsets so many notions about our country - mostly that we are a racist land ruled by corporate overlords. In my office, some people are, I think, a bit flummoxed by Obama's success. They note that it is difficult for them to imagine an Asian becoming Prime Minister here (people of Asian descent are the largest ethnic minority in Britain). I think of the British singer Morrissey, who released a song just five years ago called "America is not the world." It had these lyrics:

In America, the land of the free, they say
The Land of opportunity, in a just and peaceful way.
But where the president is never black, female or gay,
And until that day,
You've got nothing to say to me,
To help me believe.

Finally, for my job, I naturally read tons of local African newspapers - they are filled with columns praising our system. In Africa, it's hard to imagine an ethnic minority reaching leadership of the country. There is a joke going around in Kenya - Obama's father is from the Luo tribe in Kenya, an ethnic minority that has been subjected to some persecution. The joke is 'a person from the Luo tribe has a better chance of becoming president of the United States than president of Kenya.'

We're not going to any all-night election parties by the way - I have to go to a conference on Nigeria tomorrow, and I don't want to be sleep deprived or hung over while sitting all day in a room listening to people give presentations on financial markets. But, if the election ends up going to Obama, I can't help but be curious about whether the main topic of conversation during breaks will still be Nigeria.

House of Lords Judicial Hearing

When Matt and I lived in Washington D.C. we tried to see a Supreme Court case. We had to wake up very early, take the metro in and stand for 6 hours on cold hard marble, only to realise we weren't going to get in and leave. It was not a good experience.

Also while we were in D.C., we took a tour of the Capital Building. We went through a rigorous security clearance, then taken into the rotunda and told we could be in there, one other room full of statues, or go see the House chamber, the House unfortunately being out of session. It was also distinctly underwhelming.

Today, as part of my general education for my internship, I went to see a case before the highest judicial body in the UK, called the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords. So I went to Westminster, to the Houses of Parliament. It was a very different experience from D.C. There was a security check, but after that, you were pretty much free to wander around--and it's quite a big building!


Eventually I found the hearing rooms and watched the judges and the barristers for a few hours. It was quite dry stuff, but the case was interesting and important for my internship anyway.

The cool things were the actual rooms, which were paneled in beautifully carved wood, brightly polished, and burnt velvet silk wallpapers in jewel-like blue and crimson, and carved bookshelves and old carved wood and marble fireplaces (the Houses of Parliament date to 1840!) It was really a very small room but with a great sense of history and decorum as well. It could also have been a museum, because on the walls were two really wonderful and famous paintings that I read about recently. I had no idea they would be there, but there they were, with plaques underneath reading 'On loan from Her Majesty The Queen'. The other cool thing was that the Barristers were wearing their wigs and robes. The robes are like Cambridge robes Matt wore to formal halls; the wigs are a bit silly, but who knows about these strange British traditions. They are very, very old traditions.


I was supposed to be there to see a hearing on deportation cases, but was misdirected and spent half an hour listening to a proceeding on the eviction of elderly people from care homes! Other than that, it was an interesting experience.

Here's a picture of Matt outside the Houses of Parliament at night, from across the river. They are quite gothic and beautiful from this angle: