Category: Musings

Battersea Power Station


Battersea Power Station
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

Today we cycled (yes, cycled) down to Battersea Power Station which is currently open to let you walk around. Sweet! Battersea is such a classic London landmark, but for years no-one has had any real idea what to do with it. Everyone wants it to stay there, but it’s not an easy building to adapt to other purposes.

The present proposal is for the outer shell to be kept, small spaces to be added inside the walls and a park to be created around the site. Then behind the power station a new building is proposed, using ecological principles to minimise its carbon footprint; basically it’s a tower like an old kiln, but built totally of glass – the direct sun causes the air inside to heat and rise, generating electricity and also automated cooling effects. It all looks very clever, and definately something to watch out for.

Oh, and happy Independence Day to all my American chums!

Pride in Toronto


Dressed to Impress @ Toronto Pride
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

Yesterday was the Toronto Pride parade – the biggest gay pride parade in North America*. So as a brief stopover between Mathew and Micah’s post wedding brunch (congratulations again!) and a Miette family barbecue I got the chance to wander through the thronged (and thonged) masses in the Toronto down-town. Quite the spectacle.

Thankfully my camera survived some folks throwing buckets of water from their apartment building onto the crowd so here are more photos of Toronto Pride.

*Also I believe it temporarily makes downtown Toronto hold the highest concentrations of rainbows in the world, so how come I didn’t find any pots of gold? Pesky leprechauns.

Getting Ready for M&M’s Wedding


Getting there…
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

We had a busy day yesterday, making pom poms, tying up a complicated system of ropes, putting things out, carrying things up stairs, taking photos, trying not to eat the delicious looking cupcakes. Mmm..

The main event is later today, so expect plenty more photos. In the meantime here are some of the setup. Here comes the bride….

Milk in Bags: A Canadian Import

It appears me and M are not the only things to come over from Canada recently. The BBC has a report on milk in plastic bags coming to our supermarkets soon. The technology correspondent makes a bit of a pigs ear out of putting the milk bag into its dispenser and pouring it, but I can totally understand. The first time I came across milk in a bag at the M’s family house near Toronto I was flummoxed too, however the way they use it is to have a small plastic jug with the top of the milk bag sticking out the top – then to use the milk you snip a small triangle off the corner of the bag and voila! Pourable milk.

It will be interesting to see if it catches on here, as the environmental benefits of less packaging are high. The downside is that the plastic bags are more susceptible to breaking when you take them home – plus I can just see some gangs of kids finding it hilarious to throw the bags at people to watch them explode! More news as it happens…

The Weird and Wonderful World of London Parking

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.

Atop O’ Primrose Hill

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!

Blighty ho!

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…