The End (of this chapter)

Dear Reader,

Ok so not the worlds most interesting blog, but thanks for reading anyway. Not particularly well edited, updated, maintained, presented, expressed, written, or even conceived. I don't think I said anything tremendously interesting about London at all. All you may have gathered is that London is over-crowded, rather polluted and filled with aggressive drivers and even more aggressive cyclists.

In fact London is actually an amazing city. You can walk for 5 minutes in any direction from my offices near the bank of England and visit 3 different cities from 3 different eras, a bazillion different architectural styles and meet people from probably all of the 196 countries that attended the Brokenhagen Accord.

And that's all very nice and great and everything but then, when you, say, try and get home, for instance, or travel somewhere more than walking distance away the city degenerates into something more readily imagined by M.C Esher with a bad aural migraine.

And unfortunately pretty architecture and multicultural people don't count for much when you've watched 3 packed sardine trains go past you before you get the central line to Oxford Circus and encounter signs saying that you will have to queue to get out of the station because there's too many pedestrians on the pavement already!

For this and a few other reasons, we have therefore decided to try an Alternative Lifestyle.

I very very sadly have left the fine offices of the worlds best software company (youDevise.com) and am now, well, technically unemployed! Hurray for poverty! On the 4th of Janvier I start a new contract for JP Morgan Private Bank in Geneve, Suisse.

So that's it for now for Londian. Once again, I am going to have to ask you to retune.

The Score

So i did try running to work and Scarlett did take her Grade One gundog test. In no particular order, Scarlett did amazingly well in her test and passed with merit. What does this mean?

Well, it means that she walks to heel (on the lead), can fetch a dummy (like a bird but made out of a canvas bag), and will sit and wait (i think indefinitely) while we are 30m away. We lost points on the quartering where she had to demonstrate her ability to sniff things out and show a desire to hunt.

Well, basically, she just ran around the field and did her own think while i marched on regardless. We weren't really working as a cohesive unit at all. In fact, she went off to go and play with the instructor while i blew my little whistle until i was blue in the face. Nevertheless this was good enough to get a merit (second highest pass) and considering the endless wait for the test and the extreme heat that day, i think that's pretty good! Go Scarpers!

Oh yes and i tried running. It's fun and not dangerous and i can get from Waterloo to Bank in 16.5 minutes (PB). However it's quite a sweaty sport and i've developed shin splints. Awesome. Hence i'm cycling a bit more now and occasionally taking the tube when i can stand it, which is just about never.

Heel

Today we took The Scarpers for her fourth gun-dog training session. She was excellent! No really.

Pause. Awkward silence.

Well, she was very good anyway. Her heel-work is very good, she's much better on recall and her retrieve is, well, not very good at all really. She dashes off to collect the dummy and sprints about half-way back before deciding it'll be rather more fun to run about in circles with the dummy in her mouth, taunting me with it all the time.

She does eventually bring it back but our Grade One test is in a month and i'm moderately concerned that she won't quite get it in time. That, of course, is probably the reason she's not doing it yet.

On the other hand her quartering is great and she's been so much more responsive, alert, and engaged with us since we started the training. The trainer (Allan Hender) is really excellent, so although it's a big time-commitment, it's well worth it. We're personally hoping for a Distinction on the test.

Popcorn

Almost one year since i started working for youDevise. In that time i have had many adventures and written none of them down. i'm not sure anyone noticed.

So what did you miss? youDevise continues to be cool. My Brompton is excessively cool but cycling in London is deeply terrifying. Considering the Mayor cycles to work (using only his abundant hair as a helmet) i am amazed on an almost daily basis how poor the road network is for cyclists considering that there are about one million of us now.

Cycling really lets you see the cold dark interior of London's polluted heart. I've been yelled at, called countless names, moaned at by the police and nearly bashed off my bike by dozens of taxi drivers. I've even been told by one particularly prickly taxi driver that i'm lucky to be alive and that running me over is just about preferable to obeying the rules of the road.

In short i absolutely hate cycling to work. Mainly because i don't really want to get mashed by a truck or smacked by a black cab. So i actually tried rollerblading, which was disastrous. And finally, my new plan is to run to work. Starting on Monday. I might let you know how it goes.

Why is this entry entitled "Popcorn"? Because i was just eating some.

No adventures

Is anyone still reading this? In the unlikely event that you are, you may be interested to know what's been going on with us lately.

It turns out that London isn't quite as interesting as the French Alps for providing me with things to write about. Sure, i could rabbit on about how much i detest the daily commute and how, based on my extensive knowledge of three cities on the planet, London excels and surpasses all the competition in the "unfriendliness" category. i could probably fill several (dull) books on "things that happened on my way to work" but i really couldn't be bothered.

So the good news is that my new job is totally awesome. i should have moved years and years ago. It turns out that i really had no idea how to code. It's great to be learning again.

On the subject of my commute (which we weren't) i recently invested in a Brompton (the S2L in bright orange) which has revolutionised my trip to work. Not only has it cut my trip time by 10 minutes each way, i no longer have to park at the station and the tube is the thing of the past for me. Hurray for youDevise and the Cycle-Scheme.

So apparently the snow is awesome so far. We're going to Val d'Isere on the 10th of January and then the Portes du Soleil on the 17th. Two weeks of skiing with the Vallee Blanche planned for changeover day. i'm sure you know this, but We. Cannot. Wait.

Visitors

Paul and Lesley are visiting the United Kingdom this week.  Britain put on its best display of weather just for them.  This is the view of Dover taken from the top of the Keep at Dover Castle yesterday.

Not to be deterred, after seeing the Castle we headed off to the White Cliffs where the elements continued in their balmy crazy-English-summer way.  Here we are pictured fighting off the onset of hypothermia.

Finally, having not had enough of British culture (i use the word lightly) we were dragged (against our will) to a nightclub in London called Tiger-Tiger.  It was entertaining.

Determination

This photo was taken on the 31st of July 2008.

i think we may just about qualify for the stiff upper lip now.