Greenwich, London, UK
 

I am typing this in my new living room in Greenwich, London. Well, it's new to me anyway - I have moved into the house of my friend of 20+ years, who has very kindly taken me in as a waif and stray (more stray at the moment I admit.)

He is currently only home at the weekends as he's working on a shoot in Wales. This is good news as it means I get to ease into living with another person gradually. Bad news as he takes his laptop with him and I'll only have weekend access to the Cellar until September. But hey, that's better than nothing!

My boys have come with me, and are currently circling the house wide eyed and trying to work out if we're staying this time (we came down for a trial run about 2 months ago). The good news is they have met my HM's cat again and still not tried to fight. She's nine and they're two, so hopefully they will continue to show her respect as an old lady. I just home she doesn't feel too crowded out next week when HM goes back to work - one strange woman and two strange cats in her house, she might feel a little put out.

I'm sat here surrounded by boxes and suitcases. We got here at about 05.30 this morning and I'm waiting for HM to move things out of "my" room so I can properly take possession. I'm not too bothered, I have all next week to get myself settled, but it does feel a little weird to be dallying in the Cellar while all my worldly goods are just lying around.

The reason for our all-night trek is that we've had torrential rain and floods in the UK this weekend. Poor old HM left Cardiff at about 19.45 last night, and tried three motorways before having to travel due East (as opposed North-East) just to find a road that wasn't flooded. He originally said he'd be with me 22.30 and ended up turning up gone 01.30. This is after getting up at 06.00 for a twelve hour day on set.

So we both crashed til lunchtime, and are now chilling. I am deferring to him, because as well as being kind enough to take me in, and drive approx 450 miles in order to pick me up, I also sprang this on him at very short notice. Like Wednesday night. So I'm very aware of the fact he already had his weekend planned out before he knew I'd be here!

Anyway, this is all exposition. Back to geographical location. Greenwich in London is pronounced Grennitch (not sure if that's commonly known). I'm two streets away from the Thames, a 10 minute walk from the Observatory and from the map I reckon about the same from the Dome. I'll link to the Google Earth map when I work out how, and as soon as I'm unpacked and sorted, I'll go out and take some pics. It might be next weekend before I can get on and upload them, but that might give me the time to take some good ones rather than just point and shoot.

Hi SG! Happy landings! Greenwich is a pretty good bit of London to be in. Hope you get settled in OK.

Congratulations Sundae.

At least we will always know what time it is at your place.

Maybe Undertoad will switch the Cellar from Greenwich Mean Time to Sundae Girl Time.

Fun Facts:

Greenwich is 0 longitude.
Greenwich is home to the Greenwich Observatory, a pioneer in accurate timekeeping, which was necessary for navigation.

Here's a good site.

Welcome to the capital SG, don't trip over that meridian line when your out and about! Glad you're settling in OK (or seem to be). Look forward to your photos (should jog my memory cells when I see them). Just heard about the rain (make that deluges) myself having been away from the UK a few days. Blighty seems to be suffering a lot with storms and unsettling weather this year. Fingers crossed for August being more like a summer should be!

Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to live at the prime meridian. The best I could do is ground or chuck.

At least it's not the tenderloin.

There has only been one good day weather-wise since I moved in, so I took the opportunity to jump on a bus into town. I love to travel London by bus, you get heart stopping glimpses of the landmarks when you least expect them, and you also get to see the living, breathing (and in this case sweating) city.

The two below are my tourist shots, because I spent a lot of time in Waterloo as a child and seeing the Houses of Parliament and the South Bank (where the Eye is now, although a relative newcomer) was like greeting old friends.

This is the former Millennium Dome, now the O2 Dome - a concert venue. It's where I'm going to see Prince.

I took the photo from the riverside walk along the Thames, but the factory on the left hand side is at the end of my road. It started chucking it down soon after I took this, and although I don't mind the rain I didn't think it would do the area justice if I took pictures in that weather.

So more to follow, promise.

Forgot to add on the above pictures, the 188 stops just across the end of my road and goes all the way into the centre of London. It comes within spitting distance of Tower Bridge, past the Old Vic (theatre), across Waterloo Bridge and so on. Which delights me - when I'm working I suppose I'll go everywhere by Tube or at least overland train, but for the time being I'll enjoy the view from the top deck of the bus.

I read somewhere the double decker busses were being phased out? Maybe it way somewhere else.
Waterloo is the area around the Waterloo Bridge, or a section of london?

They phased out the old Routemaster buses, which were the ones which were open at the back and you could embark and disembark while they were moving. Not only was this considered dangerous, and the buses not friendly for disabled passengers or prams, but it also meant the driver did not see the passengers so a conductor was necessary. Obviously a bus where the passengers enter past the driver means the staffing can be halved.

There are articulated buses in London, but they are unpopular with drivers (slower and taking up twice the amount of road) and not really suitable for the tighter streets of central London. Certainly 75% of the buses I've seen between here and town have been fairly new double deckers, the remainder have been single deckers on the local routes. The only articulated buses I've seen were 5 years ago, in Ealing (West London). I doubt double deckers will be completely phased out here.

Waterloo is the area around Waterloo Station and Waterloo Bridge. Away from the river it's a residential area, but it does have quite a few things to see and it's a 5-10 minute walk to most of the other sights from there. My Grandparents lived there until I was 12, and I still mentally navigate most routes from either Waterloo or Westminster Bridge.

Old habits die hard. My mother still frets that I take the back(dirt) roads to her house instead of the paved way 'round.

Hi SG - a few places to consider visiting. Try the back streets around Borough Market - that's next to Southwark Cathedral on the south and wets side of London Bridge. The area has become a bit trendy these days, but there's still some original spots, like Clink Street which was the site of London's oldest prison. Walk a little further around the lanes and back twoards the Thames and you'll cone across the very old Anchor pub, and just along from there is the reconstructed Globe Theatre. Trace your steps back to London Bridge Road and heading south about 100 yards on the left is The George Tavern (can't find a picture) an old coaching inn in a private yard.

Another pub worth visiting is the Blackfriar on the north side of Blackfriar's Bridge - it's pure English Arts and Crafts Movement design with plenty of beaten copper murals and original features inside. Move into Fleet street and there's the Cheshire Cheese pub (a haunt of Charles Dickens) and also Dr Samuel Johnson's house (just behind Fleet street in an old cobbled courtyard).

Lastly, on a Sunday, try Spittalfields Market - close by Liverpool Street Station and off Bishopsgate in London EC3 - it has lots of intersting shops and resaturants - and probably the best Tapas bar/restaurant in the city!

Shame on you cf, tempting our sweet innocent Sundae Girl into unwittingly traipsing into those dens of iniquity that serve the devils spirits.

That tapas bar (damn, what's it called, I can see it now ...) is where I've spent some fine lunches and evenings way back when I was something in the city ... You brought back some (of the very few) good memories of those times for me CF ...

I hope it's this one... - I used to go there quite regularly myself in the 90's when I worked for Reuters and handled their shipping service (I used to be a tanker broker prior to joining Reuters - the Reuters service was a high speed messaging facility for the tanker market way before the Internet and Yahoo and MSN messaging). I had some great lunches there too, with fellow brokers, who had by then become customers!

That's the one. Prolly saw you there ... :3_eyes:

CF - I've actually been to those places already, but I do agree they are worth seeing. Last time I lived in London I didn't get on with my housemates and would try to get out of the house before they got up at the weekends. I'd often get the Tube to London Bridge and walk up to Westminster - always past Clink Street Museum, always thinking about going in but being too scared (over-active imagination coupled with mild claustrophobia).

Even further back, when I worked for a marketing company in Thame (Oxon) one of the accounts I worked on was the Post Office, and any time we visited them, they'd drag us to the Blackfriar. Being a lowly assistant, I didn't take much dragging, but it used to irritate the Account Manager, who was actually there to work and didn't appreciate a three hour round trip to spend two hours in the pub.

We have to set up a meeting at some point - I'm not sure how far I can come out on my Oyster Card, but if you can suggest something I'll sure I can find some way of getting there.

Okay, two pictures of Canary Wharf - for those not familiar with London this is an area of regeneration in the old docklands. It dominates the skyline in East London - when I used to drive from Aylesbury back to London it would be my first sign that I was getting close to home, from about 15 miles away (due to the lie of the land it disappeared closer to).

The distance picture is my walk to North Greenwich tube station. It shows you how undeveloped this area is at present. There is literally just the Dome and the tube station surrounded by wasteland and industrial sites at the moment. And looming improbably over all this, a beacon of tertiary industry is Canary Wharf (offices, restaurants, shops etc). If I go into Greenwich proper - which I will take pictures of soon - the outlook is very different. It's a proper town, with historic buildings etc.

The second picture is taken from North Greenwich tube station - again just to show how Canary Wharf stands alone, waiting for the tide of development to rise to meet it.

And this is my street and house.
The commentary is quite faint - it's been so long since I used the video function I'd forgotten I need to keep it quite close to my mouth. You can just mute it pretty much anyway - it's self explanatory.

The walk down the street is pretty uneventful, but bear with it if you want to see the house - I have no way of editing. I don't show the house from the outside out of courtesy to my housemate - I'm pretty casual about people knowing my details but it's not my house after all.

Thank you, SG, for your hospitality. That does indeed look like a very nice home and I hope it is a happy one for you. Seeing this quick tour and your boys was quite a pleasant surprise. Oh, and please allow me to say what a lovely voice you have; I am a sucker for an accent, but this goes beyond that and it is simply delightful to listen to you.

Been missing you SG. Congradulations on your new home!

Need to get back to my office to watch the video; I'm on a wireless laptop right now and it is slow. Great pics. Oh, I must travel!

V. nice, thanks SG!

Your bedroom looks like heaven for kitty cats... so much stuff to poke into and tip over. Thanks for the tour.

You're quite right of course. I fit a flats-worth of knicknacks into a room and then wonder why the cats are mean enough to try and wreck it. That's why my two ceramic clocks are on the side rather than on top of the wardrobe where they'd look better - I'm waiting to see if the boys get done exploring after a few weeks.

This morning Dylan decided that he would see if he could get through the skylight. He wasn't bothered about the fact the blind was drawn - he knew it was open and he went for it. I was woken to the crashbangwallop of the blind coming down and Dylan's furry hindquarters disappearing over the edge of the window. Luckily, finding himself at roof height made him pause for thought and I managed to grab the base of his tail and tow him back far enough to grab him by the scruff back to safety.

Thanks Dylan, now I have to sleep in a bedroom over 80 degrees.

That was wonderful! How neat to get a glimpse into your life. I loved how your kitties followed you around filming. And I also loved the under the breath "child. can't talk."
Thanks for sharing that! :)

Good grief, SG, was that the blind we saw at the end of the clip - a blue blind hanging over the head of your bed? It's lucky the blind didn't land right on you. I can certainly see just how curious (and acrobatic) Dylan is now.

Yes, it's a temporary blind, which just hangs down when it's not drawn. The futon is temporary as well - my fault for moving in with 3 days noticce when my housemate is on a 3 month job in Wales.

Dylan tried it again later in the day when I had the window closed. Bonk. Made me laugh anyway.

The silly thing is, HM warned me that the cats might be able to get out of the skylight and I scoffed. Famous last scoff of course.

:lol:

Nice accommodation SG - looks like a fairly recent refurb and I hink I spotted a few examples of IKEA extravagance around the place as well... and the pussy-cats seem to have made themselves at home already!

I'm in town shortly and in a couple of month's time running training courses - always gasping for a drink after 8 hours of talking and teaching, so one of these may be a good opportunity to grab a drink and have a chat - I'll PM you details.

"Child, can't talk."
I swear I saw that movie. Thank you Sundae!

You need to hear her sing, she is all that and a bag of chips.

(bag of crisps.)

:lol: Touché, UT.

I must admit, even though I know that 'chips' means 'crisps', I did automatically think of chips, as in fish'n'chips.

As long as they're potatoes, call 'em chips or call 'em crisps, deep fry 'em or French fry 'em, I'll take a double order......... Ah, not that I'd eat them all by myself. No, I was uh.....going to share them with Dana and SG. Yeah, that's it.

Did you really think they were that impressed with your zucchini?

Everyone knows a girl likes a bit of zucchini

*makes note to write in English next time*

Okay, I've kept some of these fairly large because I think it's justified. I hope I'm not taking up too much space in doing so. When I have more access to this laptop I'll start linking them via a hosted site rather than attaching them.

These are from the top of Observation Hill - where the Greenwich Observatory is and through which the meridian runs.

First picture shows the Naval College, with Canary Wharf (see previous photos) behind it. The water you can see is the River Thames. I kept the grass in the foreground to give it proper depth and to show how popular it is on a sunny day.

Second picture is the view if you turn slightly further left (anti-clockwise). Roughly centre is the dome of St Pauls, to the right is The Gherkin - a recent addition to the skyline - and on the left you can just see the top of Telecom Tower (formerly the Post Office Tower) poking above the white building.

Another one from the hill, this time with some tourists to give it a proper sense of location.

And the Old Observatory.

Self explanatory tourist pictures

Prince Phillip's concern with new buildings being too generic is well founded, in my opinion. The picture with the Korean girls in the foreground could very well be in the Orient. The observatory, however, is unique. Thank you, SG.

Not taken in Greenwich, but not worth starting a new thread for.
Some pics taken out and about with Teri in London on Tues & Weds.

I have learned that I need to stabilise the camera when taking pictures in low light. Ahem.

Teri on Hungerford Bridge and the same view further along the bridge.

Boats on the canal in an area of London called Little Venice.
And Camden Lock (hippy/goth/emo market area, but still a working lock) Teri is part of the Narrow Boat Trust who still have working boats, so we went there for her.

Okay - some pictures I'm finally getting the chance to show you - taken with you in mind.

I went for a walk at the end of last year on a perfect British Winter day - a little bright for me eyes (which leaked) but still and cold and clear. Again, I have kept them fairly large as the gods are in the details. Well, the putti anyway.

The route: across Hungerford Bridge, as in the photo with Teri above, up through Trafalgar Square and through Leicester Square to Piccadilly Circus, then up Piccadilly to Green Park. Across Green Park to Buckingham Palace at the top of The Mall.

First pic - Buckingham Palace from the gates of Green Park
Second pic - The gates of Green Park with Buckingham Palace behind me

The Victoria Memorial, which stands aloof from the traffic in front of Buckingham Palace

This is the bridleway connecting Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park (along the side of Green Park) and Rotten Row. Rotten Row is the Hyde Park bridleway where the aristocracy used to (and the upper classes still) exercise their horses. It's a corruption of Route du Roi or King's route.

It leads up to Constitution Arch (or Wellington Arch). And the next photo is taken from the top of that.

The next picture is from the top of Constitution Arch, looking back towards the river.
You can see firstly how the day is beginning to draw in.
And then see the Eye Wheel and Parliament's clock tower (aka Big Ben) in the near distance. I took this really to show where I'd walked from.

I wanted to go to Apsley House, just across the traffic from the Arch, but maybe I'll go back another day - by then it was getting towards their closing time, and although I really wanted to see the HUGE nude statue of Napoleon, I figured the House would repay a longer visit.

I took some pics in Hyde Park (across to Speakers' Corner then Marble Arch, Oxford Street and home) but from then on the lighting was too poor to keep them.

Great additions SG. All I could say to myself was,'oh''oh''oh' at everyone. I wish I was there :)
thanks for sharing * sigh*

Cool, thanks for doing all that walking for us.

I just have to know where you were in reference to the railing when shooting this photo.:)

JK Sundae! I'm glad to see a little of what's going on in SG's world! Nice. It would be so nice to be there!

But wait, what is that painful.....lol!! 'Tis beautiful m'dear!

This is the picture I couldn't upload last night (turns out I was trying to upload the original, which is huge).

Cic, I rested the camera on the railing, I wasn't straddled myself! I was trying to avoid the camera shake I evidenced in the previous set of London pics :)

London looks so...stately...in those pictures.

Just in passing, I think I heard from somewhere another meaning, that 'Rotten Row' comes from the French 'route en rue' which means a route alongside a street, the 'route' being the bridle track for the horse-riders.

How fabulous! Great photos!
This kind of inspires me to do a bit of the same with NM now that I have some time off! I'm not so sure about the capabilities of my camera and being able to get such great shots, but I will see if I can record some of my area too. (isn't as prestigious but still has it's beauty)

I am also working on a scrapbook so it might come in handy there as well.

Just beautiful SG! I might have to create a file combining the photos of DanaC's Valley and your photos so I can visually take a trip to England.
:)

For the record (and for those in chat) this is the workshop at night!

First shot shows work on the Phoenix - it may not look like it's in a de-sanctified chapel, but it is - I'll do a video walk-through at some point. Second is a closer shot of the phoenix head.

Crazy cool there SG! Very well done!

is that Mylar ?? or silk ??

The head is punched aluminium (aluminum)
the feathers are wrapped fabric on aluminium frames

the head & body are mounted on a driven device
the head is manipulated by one artist sitting on the body
the body is driven along by a driver beneath

will get pics of the whole thing

I've just uploaded a video of the place to youtube - waiting for it to load.
If you want to hear the commentary (not necessary) you'll have to turn up it up LOUD - I was whispering because other people were in the building.

Apologies for the mis-information - what was being built in the above photos was a Garuda, not a Phoenix. It ended up with big flashing eyes - I'll see if I can upload some footage.

What is being built now is a phoenix and is in the construction stage. You will see if the vid ever uploads. And that is covered in natural silk. You know your stuff Zip!

In the mean time, here is a pic of the ivy covered windows with sun coming through - which the video doesn't show as I filmed it while it was raining.

Here 'tis!
(check the times of the posts, I am SO impatient!)

As said before, whack the sound up if you want to hear me, but be prepared when I walk past the stage and open the next door - the creak with blow your eardrums.

I wish I had any talent at this - it's an amazing place. Let me know if you want any more pictures. Or come & take them yourself :)