Weekend Update...

So, on Saturday (after swimming) we came home, I installed our new Virgin Superhub (looks like they just leave you to it now - everything worked okay apart from my Xbox - and that just seemed to be sulking as when I tried it 4 hours later it popped right up without me actually changing anything), then, to give Mummy a rest (as she is poorly with Bronchitis) I took the kids to Godstone Farm -

- where I let them just do what they wanted - this consisted of ignoring the animal petting completely, 15 minutes in the slide barn (yelling "Dad, look what I can do!" every three seconds), two loops around the Dinosaur Walk (including the creepy crawly cave) insisting on posing for pictures each and every time -


- and then about 30 minutes in the main play barn (where I barely saw them)...followed by 15 minutes driving little tractors outside then *another* walk around the Dinosaur Walk (somewhere along the line Poppy losing her beaker)...this would have been alright (she wasn't that bothered), but Thomas was *devastated* ("It's my favourite lid Dad!") and insisted we walk around everywhere looking for it, so we did the main play barn (again), the tractors (again) and the Dinosaur Walk (again) - unfortunately to no avail (and plenty of wail)...anyway, when we got home Mummy said she would email the farm and ask if they had found it (so that sort of diffused things)...

Sunday morning we woke up early, as the Sky engineers were coming (much excitement) - this is also the reason why we had to install the superhub on Saturday as we ditching Virgin TV for being far too expensive (and I get a great deal on Sky+ HD Ultimate package through work).  They came along, installed a nice small dish on the side of the house and managed to route the cables without making any mess at all and we then spent the rest of the day playing with pausing live TV, queueing up TV shows to record, downloading movies and configuring our telephones and tablets for Sky Go and all the other cool things it does...cannot believe how many channels we have now...Thomas particularly was loving Phineas and Ferb, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Adventure Time, Spongebob Squarepants (and all the other shows that you don't get on Freeview we seem to have been missing out on)...!  The only thing that is a bit annoying is that it simply can't stream anything - everything must be downloaded first (at least a large chunk of it anyway), but thanks to our nice 50Mb broadband that isn't too much of a headache...just need to learn to be a little more patient! ;)

Anyway, a rather busy, but rather cool weekend... ;)

The News Building

...well, eleven weeks to go and goodbye Wapping...

Hello to a whole new world - no fixed desks (i.e. pick your view over London day by day), no fixed hours...the opportunity to meet and work with new people every single day - not just from our business, but across the group...frankly I'm rather excited!

Already practising the clear desk policy which will be required (you get a large locker each to keep your junk in), but I guess I'll have to put the pictures of the kids on my laptop desktop background from now on...!

Wow - NFC Fun!

I'd been wondering when I'd have a chance to play with the NFC on my HTC One...!  Turns out it was on the train on the way home the other day...and guess what?

It did *absolutely* NOTHING... ;p

The Sun meets the Shard...

...looking absolutely epic...well, a bit more epic to the naked eye, but still epic... ;)

Foggy Southwark

...this morning, it felt almost like being on a different planet...

Spring has sprung!

...all of a sudden! Was still flipping cold this morning, but it looks like it really has finally arrived (in Wapping at least)... ;)

WALL-E was here

The worst graffiti in Wapping...

...is now outside Thomas More Square...put there by a bunch of grown men in broad daylight...! ;)  I much prefer the efforts in Swedenborg Gardens by the kids (in chalk) -

Dressing up for World Book Day

Sir Thomas and Lady(?)/Squire(?) Poppy!  We couldn't find his sword anywhere, but that's probably for the best! ;)

Into the TENTH year?

Woah...just noticed that this month marks the start of the TENTH year of this blog...whoever would have thought?

Way back then (when I were young) we had just moved into our Earlswood house from the penthouse flat in Dorking -

- and I had been starting to play around with what gardening was all about (having only grown tomato plants on the balcony before) - the start of domestication - no kids on the scene (of course) -

- I was working in a (fairly nasty) pre-regeneration Kings Cross commuting with Thameslink (no comment), carrying an SPV-C500 in my pocket running (wow) Windows Mobile 2003 (yes, life waaaay before Android - but it could still -just about- play a converted DVD to entertain me on the train) and playing games on an original Xbox console -
 -
- on a huge cathode ray TV - HD TV broadcasts didn't even exist for another YEAR)...the very first episode of the Doctor Who reboot (with Eccleston and Piper was still around the corner)...7/7 wasn't far in the future...Flyingpops and I weren't even *married* yet for goodness sake!

What has it been?  Five(?) different jobs over that time, dragging me all over London (and New York), our perfect wedding day, amazing honeymoon in Mexico and three beautiful children later the amount of ground covered is just staggering!  Even the very act of deciding to blog strongly influenced my life - posting something every day quickly highlighted that I needed a better camera - by December that year I had the Sony Mavica, kick-starting a now almost decade-long love affair with photography (largely thanks to that love affair with my wife who spotted it and got the technology moving)...and without that how many things would have just faded into the "noise" of the past... ;)

It's proof - The human brain is just *terrible* at remembering details...Now, I just need to scrape together a couple of hours to fly my precious time machine back through the last decade to refresh things - I can already see that after the March snow in 2005 it was a rather beautiful summer (although it also looks like I have some picture links to fix that have managed to become obsolete over the years, worse luck)!  Oh well...! :)

I'm the Yum Yum criminal!

Never thought I would say such a thing, but I was a little bit naughty, I must admit - I didn't have enough money for a proper lunch, so I ate 4 soft iced Yum Yums in desperation, which has deprived some (obviously equally hungry) team-mates of their afternoon snack...I must pay back this mistake tomorrow (thankfully it's payday)... ;)

Not sure if it's cooler to be the Yum Yum Criminal or the Yum Yum Gangster...still thinking it over... ;)

Ahem - "I am the hip-hop-a-potamus, my lyrics are bottomless... ;0" :)

Southwark at Twilight

Taken last night when I decided to walk it as the weather was nice (for a huge change)! ;)

Also found out yesterday that we are moving offices in the first week of June - ours will be the very first kit picked up and transported to "The Place" - and after that I really won't have much reason to return to Wapping (bar perhaps a few meetings as the rest of the staff slowly follow us pioneers over the river) nor take the stroll across the Thames via Tower Bridge - so actually not that many more "organic" opportunities to do this sort of thing await me, they will have to be deliberate excursions...I may as well make the most of it...! ;)

No waiting zones at East Croydon...

...spotted this the day before yesterday (while the train was inexplicably stopped at East Croydon) - I imagine it's something to do with all the building work going on but I'm at a bit of a loss as to explain why (or how they go about enforcing it)...these hashed areas are up and down the platform, accompanied by signs telling passengers that they are not to loiter in the marked spots...How odd!  I looked for quite a long time for any sort of reason why you wouldn't be allowed to do so but ended up just shaking my head in confusion...!

Lovely weather today in Wapping...

...really looking forward to my trip back to London Bridge...

Tiny sign at Tower Bridge...

I spotted this the other day, right down at the bottom just beyond the glass back wall of the lift, really, unless you were looking extremely hard (as I guess I do), there is no way you would ever notice it (addressing no-one in particular) tucked away in the corner with no obvious way to reach it -

- here is a view of the space it points towards (from the lift when at the top) - you can see to get to it would require you to basically tip-toe along the wall at the side of the Thames -

- and a shot from the bottom (it's pointing at two square yards of paving slabs - and a few leaves - positioned behind the metal structure of the lift machinery)...so what is so important?  It's basically saying - if - by a grand demonstration of river-side acrobatics - you have managed to actually get to the sign to read it - that you shouldn't have - these 10 paving slabs are not a public right of way...as if you needed telling...completely pointless!

Free public bike pumps!

Spotted this the other day, freshly installed by (Cycle Superhighway) CS3...how very civilised!  I can think of a number of times this would have been extremely useful for push chair tyres had we had a few of them in Surrey bolted to the pavement around the place!

Open air viewing platform at the Shard

A couple of flights of stairs later (as if you actually needed to be any higher up at this point) -

- pushing through a heavy glass door -

- you suddenly (and unexpectedly scarily) find yourself standing back outside...No idea why, just a few feet below I felt perfectly comfortable...now my legs started to wobble (as the wind whistled past my ears)...

...and those little barriers looked just a little bit inadequate for the task of stopping me being blown off the edge...anyway, I overcame my reservations and had a little walk around, managing to get right into the corner to take a (dizzying) shot up to the top of the building -

...which really wasn't that far above where I was standing...!  And then, I had quite honestly had enough, the rain was starting to come down quite heavily, so I took one more spin around the level below just grabbing a few shots of the raindrops with the city beyond-

- and then headed back towards the lifts...absolutely breathtaking...I can't help but look over at the Shard now (from time to time) and reflect on how staggeringly tall it actually is (once you are standing right at the top) the whole of the rest of London is just insignificant in comparison...well worth the trip - but if you are paying to do it, do it on a sunny day! ;)

Top of the Shard in the rain

Welcome to the Shard - (the tourist experience now) - it all starts (and predictably finishes) in the gift shop, all very nice-

- extremely shortly thereafter it all gets terribly serious however, a zig-zag tape lined walk towards "Coats off, empty your pockets please", all your belongings are x rayed (exactly the same as at the airport - except you get to keep your shoes on), you pass through not only a metal detector, but also what I can only assume is a T-Ray scanner (large green screens in the middle, monolithic devices mounted on tripods pointing towards one (make sure you are wearing nice pants) -

- and then into the second of the queues, waiting for lift number one (takes you half way up) being told by the extremely empathic lady lift attendant that "It should be cool up there" (I rather hope they let her up there one day to find out)-

-then a very quick break at the 33rd floor to queue for another lift (honestly, they redefine "express", each trip (once you make it into a lift) is only around 25 seconds in length, climbing something in excess of two floors a second - Canary Wharf could learn something)...

Just a quick shot of the lift roof, which is made of TVs showing a crazy montage of dizzying images (I guess to prepare you for what is to come)...

...and then boom, you are out, just a breath of colder air to greet you as you step out of the lift, the windows on this reception level covered in litho (to prevent people stopping and staring until the proper time, I imagine)...up a short flight of stairs....and...WOW...



...thanks to my training living at extreme Z+ levels at Canary Wharf I didn't feel any irrational/rational(?) terror (did wonder if I would do)...walked around (snapping as quickly as I could, as the clouds were getting threatening)-

- and then spotted another flight of stairs.... ;)