Earlswood sewage leak

Mmmm...what an interesting smell this morning along Asylum Road!  Luckily Southern Water were already on site to investigate as I walked by, pretty much the entire road was covered in murky, stinking puddles though (which I carefully worked my way around - while holding my nose)...yuk! ;p

Views from the Terrace...

...the very posh terrace, at the end of our floor in the News Building -

- are just absolutely staggering...

- looks like it's going to be a (pretty much) private space for the Execs once it is finished (still a bit of work going on), so it was a treat to be able to take a cheeky look around...the main terrace, one floor higher up(!) is still a work in progress too, but I'll post some pics when we are allowed up there... ;)

View from the News Building...

The view out of my window (towards the South and St Thomas' hospital) -

- and slightly to the right over towards the London Eye -

- down towards London Bridge Street (where I used to queue for the Number 17 bus) -

- and down towards London Bridge station...

Then river-side, the view this direction slightly marred by the number of vertical supports, not sure why we need them on that side of the building and not on the other, but there we go!  Once the observation deck opens we'll see what the real view is like... ;)

Welcome to the News Building...

...(or "Return to Southwark!")...tried to get my head around a better journey into town today (now having absolutely no onward journey to worry about from London Bridge), discovered that my later train is an express train (and thus was full and standing - *groan*)...so that is still a work in progress...anyway, had a nice cup of tea in St Thomas Street waiting for my free breakfast time to arrive - as I was quite early -

- when I got there we were already being asked to gather our things ready for our induction(!), so I grabbed a slightly warm (but very tasty) bacon sandwich (and a glug of water), and then we were on our way to reception...

- and up in the lifts after we had been pass upgraded (there are 6 lifts serving the core of the building, all with no buttons inside, so you choose your destination before you get in and the lifts tell you which letter you want to join - same as the last office, actually) -

- as you can see, there isn't a huge amount of choice at the moment, most of the office is still a building site, after all...

Anyway, up on the 13th floor (which is almost finished) - we have lots and lots of hot desks -

- collaborative spaces -

- (of all sorts of shapes and sizes) -

- and beautiful new kitchens (intermittently topped up with fresh fruit and pastries) -

- and a (somehow rather familiar) lighting decoration above one of the newspaper carousels (thank goodness it isn't right in front of any of the desks, or they might be a bit unpopular with migraine sufferers)...!

All in all - Amazing so far!  Guess I'll post some of the views from the windows later on (when the sun comes out)...but the office itself is very swish and everything smells, well, new! ;)

Last day in Wapping...

...so it's goodbye Shuttle bus and thanks for all the lifts!  I've managed just over one year working in Wapping, some of my colleagues have been here almost 30 years(!), so while it's a bit odd (and exciting) for me, it's as nothing to the feeling of upheaval some others are going through!  Once we leave the building this afternoon (things are starting to shut down around 3pm) our door entry cards will stop working...next stop "The Place" (or "The News Building" as it will be known) on Monday morning (for a free breakfast, to find my locker, have a tour of the facilities - and then find somewhere to sit)!  Just got to pack the last few things into my crate, ready for my new (flexible) working life!

St Dunstan in the East Garden

Wow...a year on and I'm *still* finding amazing little gems like this, strictly speaking this is in the City, not Wapping, as it's too far West, but it marks about the half-way point if I'm walking between Thomas More Square and London Bridge...wish I had stumbled across it before!