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Published: August 6th 2007
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OK, sorry for taking so long with an update, from now on I’ll be keeping it pretty brief as; a) I don’t have all day sitting down the café twiddling my thumbs anymore and, b) you hearing about our hum drum days at work probably won’t interest you much. However, rest assured that we will still try to keep you updated on all the good (and occasionally, bad) bits.
Monday 12th March Hit the Pavement again for a nice big breaky and scoot over to Sainburys for a spot of shopping. Emma is abused on the phone by “The ****head” (formerly known as our landlord) after inquiring how our extra FOBs were going. FOBs let us into the building by the way, so without one for each of us, someone has to let the other in the main door or be let in by another tenant. From now on, the ****head will only talk to Cambo on the phone, as we aren’t even on the lease agreement. *!%!$(MISSING)£*!@!
Tuesday 13th March Once again, I pack me bag and head down to the Common to see if any of the 10 or so jobs I’ve applied
for the previous day have bore fruit. Today, is my lucky day though as whilst down there I receive a call from Chris, my recruiting legend and am informed that I have made it through to the 2nd interview (3rd interview if you count the phone quiz) with SMBC!! The hitman I paid to knock off the other candidates was well worth the money. However he must have forgotten to pack his hollow points one day as I’m told it’s down to me and one other guy.
With new enthusiasm I trot out of The Pavement (which started out as a cool place to hang out, but was now getting almost depressing) to get some supplies to clean the Pug. I know underneath all the pigeon poop there is a glossy red duco waiting to be exposed.
Wednesday 14th March Today I just studied for my MCP accreditation some more and later on went for a 2 hour ride to and through Battersea Park. The squirrels were in a playful mood (cough) and it’s funny where people will throw a fishing rod around here, I don’t know what sort of fish the guy below was chasing
but he wasn’t getting much action while I was there.
Emma had a good day’s teaching and later that night when Cam and Nat came home we all decided on which Croatian sailing tour we would go on. Top Deck came out on top after speaking with the General Manager at the travel show. Crystal clear blue seas, here we come! Well, in September anyway…
Thursday 15th March Today was a busy, logistical affair. I managed to - Book a hotel in Calais for a night for our upcoming Brugge weekender; book a ferry from Dover to take us and the Pug over in and book the Croatian sailing tour with Top Deck. I also squeezed in a meeting to arrange for obtaining a NI number (National Insurance - it’s needed for working over here) in Tooting which is about 5kms straight down the Clapham High St. Lastly, I rode a bit further down the same road, about another 5 kms to Wimbledon (I’m sure you’ve all heard of this place) to pick up a 400GB external hard drive me and Cam had ordered to store our photos and other miscellaneous files.
Friday 16th March
Today couldn’t have started any better after receiving the awesome news that my best mate Matt had been given the all clear and was in remission. No more chemo!! I knew he would kick its ass. A few ales would have to be had tonight.
(**Edit** He won this round and I'm sure he'll win the next)
But not before I had my final interview at SMBC. The guys seemed pretty easygoing and it was half casual chat, half drilling me with more “what would you do in this situation” type questions. After that they took me up to the 2nd floor where I might be working to show me around. It was a fairly big office with about 40 guys spread out, most of them had 4-5 LCD monitors but I counted one with 9! All with constantly updating currency figures, news and office applications running. I was told I would find out early next week if I’d got the job or not.
While I was in the area I decided to check out St Paul’s Cathedral which was just up the road about 0.5kms away. A part of it is being restored at the
moment but it still looks very impressive from the outside. No time to go inside as I have to meet Cambo at the local Irish Pub, O’Neils for a few quieties with him and a few of his workmates. We rocked up on a good night as it was the day before St Patrick’s Day and they were giving out freebie Guinness hats, badges and shooters. We got pretty plastered sampling the new Red Guinness and stagger home about midnight. As you can see, Cambo’s not very good at popping wheelies whilst blotto.
Saturday 17th March Em and I rode down past Vauxhall and stop at the London Eye on the south bank of the Thames. Being a weekend and not horrible weather it was fairly packed down there and the line for the Eye was huge but I imagine it will get a lot worse in the months to come. A few street performers were doing there thing and the surrounding café’s were full of diners. It was about a 15km round trip all up, not too torturous.
Sunday 18th March Today was very cold and windy so we pottered around for most
of the day. After a bit of blogging down at Starbucks we decided to check out the Science Museum in South Kensington. As usual we got there with only a few hours before they close (we’ve got to get better organised!) so it’s a bit of a whirlwind tour. It was very interesting though, the main entrance housed a massive 5 storey ring which had electronic messages (entered by people on the 2nd floor we were to find out) zooming around the inside of it.
The first room was full of space paraphernalia including actual rockets that were sent into space, new and old. Another section had an old lunar capsule that (somehow) carried 3 astronauts around the moon. They must have needed a good stretch after being in that for a few days (and I thought the Qantas seating plan was a bit cramped!). Other rooms had old planes, trains and automobiles strewn everywhere, some hanging from the ceiling. I even spotted the legendary steam train “Rocket”, which almost single-handedly inspired the public interest in trains and the creation of rail networks. It was built around 1829 and won the Rainhill Trials. The "Rocket" travelled at 46 kph,
not bad for an old timer.
We quickly went on a 3D Spongebob Squarepants ride which moved and shook us as well as spraying my camera with water (that’ll teach me for trying to film a bit of it). It was a bit overpriced but hey, you’ve gotta try these things. There was so much more to see here but we’d run out of time, only having explored 1 of the 5 floors. Guess we’ll be coming back.
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