While wandering back through Soho we spotted a slightly grumpy looking Graham Norton, striding purposefully northwards. Apparently he doesn't smile all the time - amazing!

Labels: celeb spot, London

For some reason Westminster Council is trying out a new way to charge people for parking that boggles the mind. The scheme, ostensibly aimed at people on a budget, charges people more or less depending on how full the car park is - a scheme inspired by easyJet's cheap fares for the first purchasers. So arrive first, and you get charged 20p an hour, arrive when the car park is full and be charged £2 an hour.

Will it save people money? Or is it just the most ridiculous thing ever? I mean, if I knew a car park only charged 20p an hour I'd try and park there, but so would everyone else - so most likely it will be full, and hence at the two quid an hour level. Still not bad by London standards of course, but not a bargain. With easyJet this system makes sense, as it encourages people to book early and lets easyJet keep the money and get interest - a bird in the hand and all that. With car parking when people turn up and pay it sounds crazy to me. People looking for a bargain will turn up, find it's not that cheap, then drive somewhere else leading to an increase in fuel consumption and pollution, not to mention frustration. Crazy.

Labels: Cars, Crazy, London

Yesterday we headed up to Primrose Hill for a picnic with Olwen, Sarah and friends, on a grey but thankfully un-rainy Sunday. It was, unsurprisingly, Miette's first trip to the hill to see the dramatic views of the London skyline. More surprisingly it was also my first trip, which having sat there for a while I found pretty outrageous as it is a most splendid view. We were lucky in that the grey weather seemed to be keeping the place relatively un-crazy from fellow picnicing Londoners, just the odd hip hop possee having their photos taken.

Thanks to Olwen for giving us the excuse to head up there, and to bringing along plenty of good company to hang out with. Some photos will appear once I have a chance to upload them, as right now we're un-interneted at home (I'm in a local pub) due to our O2 broadband not yet being installed, and our 3 broadband currently on the fritz since yesterday... come on 3, sort it out!

Labels: friends, London

Not long now and we'll be on a plane to Heathrow, ready to enjoy an English summer of warm beer, cricket and CCTV. What ho!

The Montreal apartment is all packed up and stored in various places. Our aches, pains and bruises from moving all the boxes are starting to fade. We're enjoying some last Canadian sun so we land nicely tanned and I might even have a shave so I don't get pulled aside for looking too suspicious. Ah, modern travel.

See you all soon...

Labels: London, travel

Today is our last day in Montreal, at least for a while, as tomorrow morning we begin our roundabout journey back to London. We arrive in London early Wednesday 14th May, ready for a hectic week of settling in, finding jobs and family birthdays. Before that we have to load up a 17" U-Haul lorry with most of our possessions, drive to Toronto and Miette's family, spend a few happy days catching up with Toronto folk and then onto a plane to London and onto another chapter in our lives.

Right now both of us are a bit tired - mentally and physically. Thankfully the Montreal sun is shining down which is keeping our spirits up, as we prepare to leave the home we've created for ourselves here. Our first shipment of 'life crap' is boxed, waiting in a Montreal warehouse, soon to start it's own journey to London by sea. We've ticked most of the boxes on the 'Montreal things we'll miss' list; hanging out with friends, a last yoga session, eating way too much poutine, walking around the Old Port, dinners at our favorite restaurants (Chez Jose, Stash and last night L'Express) and just enjoying the Montreal chilled out pace of life. Personally I hope we can take some of that calm and stillness that we have here to the more hectic, bustling London world.

Sitting last night at L'Express, enjoying foie gras and beautifully cooked steaks, we wrote down the things we're looking forward to in London; seeing family and friends, jogging along South Bank, going to the art galleries, shopping at Tesco, trips around the country, watching Doctor Who without waiting for someone to upload it to youTube, cycling around and finding out how we create our home over there for a while at least. There's an adventure ahead of us that's for certain, and fond memories of the adventure so far to enjoy in the quiet times. Ta ta for now.

Labels: Life, London, Montreal

Well Led Zeppelin have just finished their one-off gig at the O2 arena in London. From the Radio 6 broadcast I'm listening to the set list was full of classic Zeppelin tracks - Song Remains the Same, Kashmir and Stairway to Heaven all featured. Hopefully soon someone will put some bootleg tracks up and we can all have a jolly good listen to find out how the old rock fogeys have held up. Some of us can't afford £86,000 for a pair of touted tickets y'know.

In related news, the Vicar owner of Bron-Y-Aur, the small cottage in Wales near Machynlleth, has asked that Led Zeppelin fans refrain from doing the pilgrimage to his remote home. Back in my young student days in Birmingham I made that trip as part of an ill fated camping weekend. I hadn't planned on it being a special visit, but as soon as I saw that cottage named on the Ordnance Survey map I had to go. It was dusk when I got there, so I snapped a photo of the wonderfully atmospheric, tree covered driveway then went home - happy to see the place where Page & Plant had spent a weekend creating some amazing songs.

Labels: Brit Stuff, Genius, gigs, London, Music

For our last night in London we splurged out and went to see Patrick Stuart in Macbeth, at the Gielgud Theatre. There was one word for this performance - outstanding. I've never actually seen Macbeth, or Stewart act for that matter, but both the production and the acting from the entire cast kept me riveted to my seat the whole three hours. Great stuff, with an intense modern production, some disturbing effects and fine timing of Shakespeare's words. Highlights, aside from Patrick Stewart's amazing Macbeth and Kate Fleetwood's magnetic Lady Macbeth, were the three sisters as nurses, the sheer gore of the production and the re-enactment of the dinner scene once with and once without the ghost of Banquo. Genius.

As an aside; In an attempt to be 'organised' we tried to get tickets yesterday, but it was already sold out as the run finishes 1st December - but they told us that at 10am every day excess premium tickets can come up, so today at 9.56am we got to the counter and got the last two tickets, much to the dismay of the person behind us. So a big thanks to London Underground for getting their act together this morning for a change {:).

Labels: London, Theatre

The Kinetica Museum, slated to be the site of the first demonstration of the Orbo perpetual energy device from Steorn, has now announced that the opening of this exhibit has been "postponed until further notice"...

Labels: London, Technology, treadmills

Today at the Kinetica Museum in London, Steorn are supposed to be demonstrating their new Orbo technology - a technology they claim offers free energy, or perpetual motion as it's also known. As of now, July 5th 3pm BST, the demo is not working - with the following explanation:

"We are experiencing some technical difficulties with the demo unit in London. Our initial assessment indicates that this is probably due to the intense heat from the camera lighting. We have commenced a technical assessment and will provide an update later today. As a consequence, Kinetica will not be open to the public today (5th July). We apologise for this delay and appreciate your patience."

Labels: London, Technology, treadmills