The Shard seen from One Canada Square

Wow, check it out, that is the early morning winter sun striking the Shard building by London Bridge station (as seen from the office) - it's the big bright thing near the middle, zoom in if you like by clicking it - sorry it's only a mobile phone shot, but you should get an idea of quite what a landmark this building is going to be when it's finished...and they still have about the top fifth of the building left to glaze! It looks like something the ancient Egyptians would have dreamed up! ;)

Office Lights update...

Well...isn't this nice?

They have multiplied (and by multiplied I mean more than tripled in number)...I'm starting to get a serious headache now...and I thought it was bad beforehand! People walk sadly and aimlessly round and around the office pleading (to anyone that will listen) for alternative places to sit and have their meetings rather than brave the neon nightmare... >;P

Still, it will be *perfect* at Christmas time... ;)

Urm...really office?

I go away for a few days and *this* happens *right* in front of my desk?

So now I don't work in Little Chef, I seem to now work in a fair ground...or maybe anti-grav Lightsaber storage...or how about 2001 Odyssey...?

I even went and asked the guys who (so far) have taken 6 hours installing the 8 lights if there was going to be a bit of frosted glass or anything put up to moderate the display, the answer - shrugs and apologies... :S

Hurray... :(

Double take and Office decor...

Got to the Wharf this morning, enjoying the bright sunshine (although not the wind-chill, my ears almost frozen off twice on the way in), beep my RFID enabled ID card at the tiny perspex security barriers in reception at One Canada Square, waited patiently for one of the lifts to come and get me, crowded in with a bunch of other skyscrape-o-naughts and prepared for takeoff (16 floors of Express Zone - a literally ear-popping journey)...when the doors opened I took one step outside and decided I must have (daftly) got off on completely the wrong floor (and *almost* got straight back in again, until I confusedly noted the number 22 on the wall - basically when I left on Friday night, this hall was completely devoid of subtle squares), the second thing my brain did is decide that all the pillar-box red I could see through the doors (at each end) was some variation on that plastic netting you see erected around roadside excavations and there had been some sort of construction incident I was being protected from (it used to be an elegant clear glass curved wall beyond the doors)...

As it turned out, our area (as it had been since the move) was not complete after all and the decorators had been busy over the weekend finishing everything off...I'm not sure I'm terribly fond of it (not that I'm pretending to be any sort of Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen figure, it's just that) when it comes to decorating choices at *home* (at any least) I tend to shy away from massive blocks of primary colours, preferring a simple white (or off white)...anyway, that was not all, we now have a functioning hot desk next to us (only used so far for cake storage) -

- complete with chairs and giant plasma screens (which show Sky Sports/News all day long), and also a tiny little meeting area with banks of brightly coloured chairs and glass tables, which I haven't seen anyone use yet, but I'm sure will be very useful when important visitors are being kept waiting by people... ;)

I guess you could say we've gone sort of "Popham Little Chef"-themed... ;)

Very Important Milk update...

Well, it looks like the 22nd floor isn't full of milk robbers! Although it could be something to do with the fact that the fridge up here (yes, just one fridge, rather than two in our last little kitchen) instead of being filled with a higgledy-piggledy avalanche of half empty milk bottles and hundreds of ready meals/floppy sandwiches, just contains about five half-drunk bottles of wine, several interesting looking pork pies and a packet of Tesco finest nectarines...So I know what the existing residents of this floor drink (the important bit being -not my milk-), I wonder what they eat? ;)

Anyway, for now at least, it seems my hot beverages are safe from plunder... ;)

Hello 22nd Floor!

Well here we are! Some higher resolution pictures as promised (of *course* it had to be the foggiest day of the year today, didn't it), anyway, this is a quick peek across the Editorial floor towards the "Big Screen" (more on that, perhaps, another day)...

...and a glimpse straight down at the roof of the Canary Wharf DLR station...

...and finally a "portrait" look at Cabot Square (and the whole of London behind)...

...and a "landscape" look...I'll try again on a lovely sunny day, but it gives you an idea anyway...only two bad things so far, the new desks are about a third smaller than our old ones (even the pedestals are about half the size), but thanks to my huge spring clean on Friday I've just about squeezed everything in...second bad thing is that we now have two more stops in the way trying to get in and out of the building (before the express zone), but I guess the way the lifts work around here is really a post in it's own right for another day... ;)

Bye bye 20th Floor...

That's it, all packed up, threw away about 40000000 bits of paper (things like holiday booking sheets dating back to 2008), and now only my PC (pretty much) is left sat on my desk -

- next stop, floor 22 (well, after the weekend anyway)! Things I won't miss? The stupid sun blinding me reflecting off the Bank of America in the morning, my super wobbly chair and the noisy binding machine that sits right behind my head...

Who wants to bet I hit the wrong button in the lift on Monday...? ;)

Canary Wharf under construction

...woah, bit spooky...! This was One Canada Square (where I work) under construction in 1990, as seen from the (already finished) DLR platform at Heron Quays (which is now located inside a huge building which was obviously built around it! I guess one day someone's going to look at my pictures of the Crossrail station being built and feel similarly!

Foggy day today...

...London is lost in the clouds...

White Bowl Amnesty - Update

This is just getting more and more bizarre... ;) Yesterday's messages have all vanished, only to be slowly superseded today...very amusing... :)

White Bowl Amnesty...

...a very serious matter is being discussed via anonymous post-it notes in our office kitchen today...zoom in at your peril... ;)

You know you are working in Canary Wharf... #1

...when there are Dyson Airblade hand driers in the toilet down the hall... ;)

Peter Randall-Page - One Canada Square

Well, that's my best guess anyway, it's appearance certainly seems to have coincided with the start of his exhibition of sculpture, and the "new, temporary work made especially for Canary Wharf" could well be what we are looking at...while they were installing it though, a number of theories were heard in the lift up from reception, including that someone was drawing a giant poo or that perhaps One Canada Square was going to be transformed into a giant model giraffe...I'm still not entirely sure what we're looking it (even now it is finished), but it's much better having these random installations than not, just to keep things interesting... ;)

Sneaky Way to Canary Wharf

Well, that was an interesting experiment anyway, I decided to try out my new, super sneaky, alternative means of getting into the office this morning...no particular reason other than getting into London bridge perfectly on time (for once) so I knew I had plenty of leeway if things didn't go according to plan... ;)

It's quite simply a reverse of my lucky escape last week when the Jubilee Line was closed (for some reason), for the dry run (no idea how many other people use this route when things are bad) it was actually an extremely pleasant change...The train to Greenwich from Platform 1 was completely empty, getting to the DLR (which involved actually leaving the station and walking through an underpass from that platform) did involve quite a few steps, but certainly not the end of the world (and there is even a disablist slope for difficult knee days and lifts to the platform - very civilised)...

The DLR train (to Bank) came in pretty busy, but there was certainly no question of not being able to get on (unlike the Jubilee Line most mornings), and it's progression was punctuated by a lot more bumps and sharp jerks (if you can believe that), but just not having to venture underground was a total delight, and £10 cheaper a day than getting the boat, plus the bonus of being delivered straight into reception at One Canada Square...took about ten minutes longer than usual, but certainly another (very welcome) option...

Work Christmas Decorations

There we go...I've done my part! I know it's a little early...but hey... ;)

Free Wet Umbrella Cover - Canary Wharf

Well, well, well...looks like something has come out of the slip testing they were conducting in reception of One Canada Square earlier on in the year...I've commented before on how terrifyingly treacherous walking can get on some of the highly polished stone walkways after a shower, and now it seems that something has been done to try and combat it...Next to the doorways into the lower ground floor of our office these little dispensing machines have appeared, the idea being that instead of walking along with your wet umbrella dripping water all over the slippery marble floor, you pause, and tuck it into one of these little plastic bags (for free) to save everyone from slipping over in the little trail you have left...

Quite how successful this will be in practice, when there is a queue of busy commuters debating with themselves whether to continue standing patiently in the rain until their turn to wrap their umbrella up arrives, of course, remains to be seen... ;)

Art Exhibition Canary Wharf - UEL Fine Art Students

Just had to share this...spotted it this morning pasted to one of the windows in reception in One Canada Square...really made me smile - "I'm late! I'm late!"... ;)

Will have to have a proper nose around at lunchtime, there seem to be little works of art peppered all over the place by these fine art students, like another person has stuck lithographic lettering just by our security barrier reading "Just passing by"...

Actually some of the more interesting and amusing pieces to have been exhibited here (IMHO... ;)

Swine Flu - Canary Wharf

Goodness me, just heard that one corner of the FSA (a couple of floors down from me in One Canada Square - we share the same lifts) has been quarantined thanks to a case of Swine Flu! That's rather closer to home than I would have liked... :S

*sneeze*

Slip testing in Canary Wharf

Saw this lot the other day in the cavernous space that is ground floor reception for One Canada Square (one floor above the actual ground where all the shops are and the tube station entrance lurks)...they were building a complicated mechano set designed to hold aloft (at a 45 degree angle to the floor) something that resembled a cobblers "last" (there, you learned something today already and I haven't even got to the point of my post yet!)...turns out, the building was undergoing some "slip testing", whereby they use this contraption to perform the so-called "pendulum slip test" to guage the resistence levels present in the floor surfaces (so if anyone falls over they can show them a bit of paper saying it's unlikely to be the fault of the building's owners)...perhaps they could pick up their kit and take it 200 yards to the entrance to the Jubilee line, where at the first sign of rain (as I noted previously) all resistance seems to completely dissapear!

Still, it shows that they *do* care in my office (at least... ;)

Christmas arrives at Canary Wharf

Sometimes I forget quite how tall this building is - you know, it's funny, but when I first started to work here I would be ever-so cautious when I would get near the window (just in case)...where I sit now, my printer is right up against one and I think nothing whatsoever of walking right up to it and peering down at the ants below..quite enjoy the view actually... ;) It seems that one can get used to anything, given time...

Anyway, coming into work yesterday it being distinctly cold and rainy, I decided to take the route in through the shopping centre, and behold -

- absolutely hundreds of Christmas trees have materialised (like this one) over the weekend! They are various different colours, variations on red around Cabot Square-

- and purple around Canada Square...and yes, they've done it again...Be Festive (By Order)...any Christmas spirit is tempered by the reminder that your every jolly move will be monitored on CCTV (as if anyone needed reminding)...we are, after all, home to one of Englands few T-Ray cameras (capable of peering right through your clothing)...so more than any other collective public body we are aware not much is going to happen around here without someone knowing about it... ;)