Tuesday, September 27, 2005

This and That

I've not been up to much exciting lately.  I could've told you all about my day at the Oval on Sunday watching cricket.  My boss was going to take me and a couple of others, but he rang on Sunday at 12.10 to say that he'd got the time wrong and it started at 12, not 2pm so by the time we got there we'd have missed half of the match.
 
However, he may be taking us to an "Aussie Rules" football match some time in October by way of making up for it.  Aussie Rules having very few rules that I can make out, it should be an interesting day out if it happens.
 
So instead of Cricket I had to go for a meal with my parents in a small village pub half an hours drive south.  It was a roast dinner that seemed to consist 35% of carrots.  Not being partial to orange vegetables I was left still hungry at the end and the carrots were left on my plate.  On the plus side, the cuter of two barmaids serving smiled at me once or twice.
 
After dinner we went of a walk - visited an old water tower and wondered around the park.  There were literally hundreds of kids in the park and play areas; I've no idea where they came from as it wasn't exactly a big town and there were no large car parks for commuters to use.  I wonder what they'll do when all these children are teenagers, I guess they'll need to replace the play areas with skate parks.
 
Friday night a few of us went out for a meal and to a club near Oxford Street.  We were supposed to be meeting up with a few of our colleagues from our sister company A.UK (SD.P is owned by the french group A.).  However they all stood us up for one reason or another so it was just the four of us.  Went to an Italian restaurant and had lasagna that was cold in the middle.  They forgot to charge us for 2 beers though (and we never pointed it out) so I guess Carma was restored to the Pizzeria Universe.
 
One of the excuses for the A.UK girls (and 1 guy) not coming was that they'd had a heavy night drinking on Thursday.  That didn't cut much ice with us though, having ourselves had a heavy night for P.'s leaving do.  P. was our project manager, although he has jumped ship leaving his job to pretty much the rest of the company.  Another story though.
 
Birthday List:
 
I had a few things on my Birthday List this year.  The ones I've actually told people about are: Music Studio Stripey portable speakers, swimming goggles, a book on London architecture and a 4B Graphite Stick.  I know I'll get the speakers cos I ordered them myself and had them sent to my grandparents house.  Paid the cheap postage and they got there the next day!
 
Best be doing some work now, got the office to myself today it seems.

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Monday, September 05, 2005

In Search of Alice Ayres

Have you seen Closer?  If not I've not got time to tell you what it's about, but it has Natalie Portman in it :o)¬¬ (that's me drawling at the thought of her).  Anyway, in the film there is a park where Portman's and Jude Law's characters go just after they first meet at the start of the film.  This park, I noticed, was in the City of London just(ish) north of the river from where I work.  It's called Postmans Park, and one of the interesting things about this park (aside from the fact that Natalie Portman once stood within it's boundaries) is that there are tiles along one of it's walls that commemorate people who have died whilst saving the lives of others.  One of these tiles is for a girl called Alice Ayres (also the name of Portman's character in the film) who died while saving 3 children from a burning house in "Union Street Borough", which is pretty much the street that my office is (although it's the opposite end to the Borough end).  I thought that this was too much of a coincidence to, so I decided to go on an expedition into The City and find this park and the plaque for Alice Ayres.
 
It was a nice day, and as my dad was off drinking with "The Man from CTU" (he's not really from CTU, it being a fictitious American organisation and all, I think he's in the Navy at the moment but still counter te rr or is m intelligency type stuff) I didn't need to be home in any rush I decided to find Alice Ayres.  I walked past the Tate Modern, over the Millennium Bridge and around St Paul's before picking up signs for "Postmans Park".  The park was sandwiched between several buildings, making it relatively un-sunny and cool.  I found the plaque amongst all of the others, apparently she died in 1886.  I think I knew that already, but it was nice to be there, and nice to think that so long after her death people still remember her for what she did.  Also it's always nice to explore the City.

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