At Work: Missing The Queen

We were very sad at work yesterday.  The Queen came to Borough High Street to open up the Royal British Legion and we had no idea she was right in our area!  Once we realised that the Queen was visiting, we rushed out of the building and were greeted with the sight of the police guard departing.

We went around the corner to check anyway but she was definitely gone.  How sad for us!  We did get to see a couple of dashing young chaps in uniform so it was all worth it!  I think I am going to start walking up and down Borough High Street again instead of taking my usual short cut through Kings College and Guy's Hospital.

Apologies for the photo quality - I took them using my mobile phone again.  Maybe I'll make a Spring resolution to carry around my camera in future.

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Exams results

I passed all three exams with credit and am now the proud holder of a National General Certificate in Health and Safety.  "Credit" is not quite a distinction but it is a convincing pass.  [insert massive sigh of relief and big grin here]

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More blog news

I promised when I started this blog that I wouldn't blog about blogging and now I am doing it twice in one week!  Nevertheless, I have some "Emm in London" news and need some feedback and so it has to be this way!

Layout
I have been wanting to switch to a three-column layout for a while and have finally rolled out my new layout. I tried to keep as much to my old theme as possible because I liked it. It's not perfect, but this layout is wider and it gives me more space and freedom in my sidebars. I couldn't use footer bars in my old layout and that is definitely a plus in this layout. The picture in the header is my own, which is much better than using a template but I think I might need to work on the header a little bit.

Importantly, this layout allows me to use the "more" tag. That means that if I have a very picture-heavy post, then I can write an excerpt and put the rest of the post behind a tag for people who have slow Internet connections or are on dial up.  Would that appeal to anyone?  I know Mike suggested once that I start a photo blog but to be honest, this kind of is my photo blog and the purpose of starting the blog was primarily to upload my photos and give a bit of a story behind them.  So I know I have some serious blogger friends out there - let me know your thoughts on "more" tags!

I am still trying to get the layout looking decent.  Please let me know any problems with my use of yellow or any problems with loading times or pictures not loading!

Followers
If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that Blogger and I are no longer BFFs.  I follow a lot of blogs but in my defence, most of those blogs are photo blogs and I like to sit in bed and scroll through them on Google Reader and comment on the ones that catch my eye.  Well, with the recent following-debacle that I posted about two days ago, I realised that I was now following all of those blogs on an "anonymous" basis.  That means that if I was following you - you wouldn't know about it and most of us have noticed that our "following" numbers are right down.

Having been in the blogging game for 8 years now (been on Livejournal since 2001) I know how important it is to spread the love and "anonymous" just doesn't do that.  It looks like you need to click on every single blog you are following, edit the settings and after about 5 clicks, you can follow them publicly again. 

Thankfully, I found a bit of a work around:  I added all of those blogs to a category on Google Reader and then imported that entire category by clicking "add" in Blogger Home and selecting "import from Google Reader" and then "follow publicly".  What a mission but now I am spreading the love again and you should see me following you again!

I don't like the new "following" widget but  my whole layout looks funny to me right now so I am sure I'll get used to it all.

I'm sure I had something more to say.  Oh well... maybe that was it.  Going to central London tomorrow for movies and dinner with friends.  Hopefully I'll have something interesting to post about.  28 days until we go to South Africa!

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Road Trip (North): York - Minster and surrounds

Part 1 - Churches

Alongside Cologne Cathedral, York Minster is the largest gothic cathedral in Northern Europe (some say it is the biggest).  While it is known that earlier versions of the Minster existed, there is no longer an archaeological evidence for these.  The building in its current form dates back to 1100 though, which is pretty old! 

York really was a festive little town and I loved the atmosphere in many of the places we visited on our road trip.  Many times in York, Warwick and Bath there was an air of festivity with live music and stalls and fun fairs.

This man was playing "Hallelujah" on his piano.  I couldn't really say whether it was the Leonard Cohen or Alexandra Burke version but seeing as I spent tons of money voting for Alex to win, I'll just say it was hers.

There was a memorial to those lost fighting the Anglo-Boer war in South Africa between 1899 and 1902.  Even though I am of English decent, I took a moment to remember the many Afrikaans people who perished both in the fighting and in the concentration camps too.  It is an often overlooked fact that the British invented concentration camps.

War memorials are very sad to me actually.  I think war is such a senseless thing and there is rarely a true right or wrong side, just thousands of needless casualties.

I'd better steer off the politics before I lose all of my readers!  (Or the ones Blogger and Google Connect did not drop, that is).

Right across the road from York Minster is another church, St Michael Le Belfry.

St Michael's is an Anglican church and was built between 1525 and 1537 during King Henry VIII's break with Rome.  How does one describe Henry's architecture in the way that we describe "Elizabethan", "Victorian" or "Georgian" styles?  This style is not my favourite, anyway.

On our way back into the town, we spotted this bridal party making their way into the York Minster.  Can you imagine getting married in such a place???  Hardly the outdoor, poolside, South African bush experience I had!  

They must have been freezing.  As it was, we were too cold to stick around and wait for the bride!!

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At Work: Taking a break

It's not a great picture at all as I was trying not to look completely silly taking a picture of my hot chocolate in the middle of Starbucks. Anyway, I decided I really, really needed to take a break from work today; so I took myself off to Starbucks and ordered a hot chocolate with cream. The girl behind the counter was very proud of her work and told me she was an artist. See JaPRA, you can find art in everything you do! It was a lovely half an hour just sipping my hot chocolate and reading my book.

I'm reading First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung.  It is about the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia and the resulting genocide.  I am right at the point in the book where the horrors are about to begin.  I'll have to try hard not to cry on the train on the way home.  Still, it is important to know about these things.

I discovered the most amazing quotation today:

"To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth" - Voltaire

Back to work then!!

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Blogspot Blues

Jeepers!  Either I have become extremely unpopular since lunchtime or there is something seriously wrong with blogger.  I was all happy this morning to see that I had 40 followers on this blog and 10 followers on my media blog (thank you - you all make it worthwhile).  When I signed in just 5 minutes ago I noticed I was down to 30 followers on this blog and only 7 on my media blog!!  (I still have only 1 follower on my political blog but I suspect that is because the subject matter is pretty dry and uninteresting to most).  Realising that I am just not exciting enough for people to gang up on me and leave in droves, I am going to assume that something is wrong at Blogger Central.

So, if you were following either of my blogs this morning and see that you no longer are, please feel free to follow me again.  If you weren't following any or all of my blogs, please feel free to do so! (Oh come on, I almost never actively troll for readers!)

I think it might be a glitch because it looked like I was no longer following Pule's blog Johannesburg Daily Photo(s) but when I tried to add him again it said I was already following him.  Nevertheless, if I was following you before and you see that I am no longer doing so then please leave me a comment and I'll make sure I am following you again once all of this blows over.

It possibly seems like a big post for a little issue but it really is nice to know that I have readers and that people read and like what I'm are saying.  My biggest blogging surprise over recent months was seeing just how many people subscribed to my media blog on RSS.  I was convinced I was writing that for an audience of one!  In an effort to return the favour, I like to show people that I am reading them too even if I don't always comment. 

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Road Trip (North): York - Churches

The final destination on our road trip around England was York.  We were staying a couple of days at my friend Nina's house in Bolton and so we were able to spend almost a whole day in York without the worry of checking into and out of hotels and spending hours travelling between cities.

Incidentally, we were meant to go to St Albans on the way home to London when we left the next day.  Unfortunately, Mandy only managed to make it out of bed after 10am that day so that idea fell by the wayside.

I knew nothing at all about York before we went but it was the one destination that my mum-in-law had requested before they came over from South Africa.  York is an absolutely charming and pretty little town located four hours north of London.  It has a really rich history dating back to Roman and Viking times and it is a walled city.

York is full of churches.  This old gem dates back to the 14th century and is named Church of All Saints Pavement because it stands on on of the earliest paved streets in York.

I really loved this red brick building but I couldn't find any details about it online.  This is an exquisite exam of Victorian red brick architecture - look at that detail!

St Helens Church is an incredibly old church.  From their website, "the oldest datable feature in the church is the mid twelfth century font, and it is likely that the church was rebuilt in stone at that time or earlier".

This spectacular example of Victorian architecture is St Wilfrid's Catholic Church which was completed in 1864.  How beautiful is it?

I loved the terraced housing in the picture above.  It reminded me of all of the romantic notions I had about Victorian England and the world of Peter Pan and Mary Poppins.

That is York Minster you can see in the distance there but that deserves its own post!

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Road Trip (North): Liverpool part 4

Part 1 ¦ Part 2 ¦ Part 3

I have to be honest.  I'll be happy once I've finished uploading all the pictures and stories from our road trip in December.  We just saw so many wonderful things and I want to remember it all!

The last stop on our trip to Liverpool was the Merseyside Maritime Museum.  This is a massive museum actually comprising several different exhibitions and attractions and if you were spending more than a few hours in Liverpool, then I would recommend that you set aside a whole morning here.

First things first - it was a cold day that day and we had been traipsing around for hours.  So our first stop was for some rich hot chocolate with cream.  Yum!

We then went to see the Titanic, Lusitania and Forgotten Empress exhibition.  This was really, really interesting. 

  
Figurehead from HMS Hastings / items salvaged from the Titanic / apron worn by Titanic survivor
Click pictures for bigger photos

I stood looking at that apron for a really long time. A person had been wearing that apron and had escaped the sinking Titanic and was taken to safety. I found it really touching in a way I can't explain. 1,517 people died on the Titanic as there were not enough lifeboats. More men died as women and chldren were taken to safety first. The band continued to play music as the ship went down and none of them survived. The captain of the Titanic went down with his ship. Most of the people that died in the Titanic were third class passengers and staff. There were 706 survivors.

I knew some of these stories before but I hadn't previously known anything about the RMS Lusitania. This story really shocked me. This luxury liner was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1915 during World War I.  More passengers died in this disaster than in the Titanic because so many of the passengers were in their rooms or were hit directly by the torpedo.  1,198 people died that day and over a half of those were children. 

The next part of the complex that I visited was the International Slavery Museum.

This is a rich and complex exhibition detailing the slave trade and the history of racial oppression round the world.  There is a lot of material on modern day slavery and human trafficking as well.  I didn't take any photos during the exhibition (except for the above) but I spent a lot of time there absorbing the wealth of information.   I do think the ISM is badly placed in the Merseyside Maritime Museum as I believe it should be a destination in and of itself but I imagine that this is one way of making sure that people visit and that they get people through the door.

The last part we looked at before we went was the Seized! exhibition which is a fantastic exhibition about the type of items that people try to import into the country.  Very interesting!

It was getting late by then and suddenly it was time to go.  There is so much we didn't get to see including the Tate Liverpool and the bombed out Church of St Luke.

   
Dockside living / The Pillar of Friendship installation
Click pictures for bigger photos

We did get to walk through Liverpool One on the way back to the car.  This is a trendy new dockside-living and shopping complex.  We dreamt of one day living in those swanky apartments (one day after The Puppies have gone on to the big dog kennel in the sky) and we admired the Pillar of Friendship installation on Paradise Street.

All in all, it was an awesome day and I can't wait to go back to my beloved Liverpool sometime in the near future.

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Road Trip (North): Liverpool part 3

Part 1 ¦ Part 2

Next on our tour of Liverpool was the Pier Head. The Pier Head is definitely my favourite part of Liverpool and it has some of the best architecture in the world (once again, my fascination with old buildings comes up. It's not my fault I spent much of my working career as a property manager housed in a listed building, is it?)

The Pier Head is a small strip of land with three magnificent old buildings facing out over the Mersey River. This is where you will catch the ferry made famous by the Gerry and the Pacemakers song, Ferry Across the Mersey.

   

Most days we would catch the Merseyrail under the Mersey and come out at Hamilton Square, then we would catch the ferry back. On this particular day though, it was very cold and we had loads to do so we settled for lots of photos instead!

  
The Royal Liver Building, The Cunard Building and the magnificent Port of Liverpool Building
(click on the pictures for larger shots)

The Royal Liver Building was built between 1908 and 1911. "Liver" in this instance is pronounced "laiver". It houses two Liver birds on top of the buildings. These are the fabled birds that look after the city of Liverpool and the story goes that if they were ever to fly away, then the city of Liverpool would cease to exist. They are not the only Liver birds in Liverpool but they are the biggest and most famous. The two Liver birds on the Royal Liver Building face in opposite directions - one of the birds faces inwards towards the city of Liverpool and the other faces the Mersey River.

Many of you will know the Liver birds from the Liverpool Football Club crest of course. I would post a picture but that would just ruin my blog. (I'm a proud Everton supporter).

The Cunard Building was built between 1914 and 1917 as the headquarters for the Cunard Line, the shipping company that owned the Lusitania. I'll talk about the Lusitania more in my next post about our visit to the Merseyside Maritime Museum. My brother worked on the fourth floor of the Cunard Building from 2006 to 2008 when I convinced him to rather come and live in London with us. Looks like that worked out for him as he is earning twice as much now than he was in Liverpool!!! In any event, I would absolutely love to work in an old building like the Cunard Building and I think he is very fortunate. He says they often popped over to the Royal Liver Building for lunch in one of the restaurants. Can you imagine that?

The Port of Liverpool Building was built between 1903 and 1907 and was designed by Sir Arnold Thornley following an architectural competition in 1901. It is an absolutely exquisite building with the most intricate details and finishings. Actually, after reading the details about it on the Liverpool World Heritage website, I now know that I have to go inside the building if I truly want to appreciate it.

During the Blitz in 1941, a bomb exploded in the basement of the Port of Liverpool Building. The cost of the restoration project that began after the war far exceeded the original cost of constructing the building!

 

Liverpool was so badly affected in the Blitz of World War II and these memorials to sailors from the Merchant Navy are also located on the Pier Head.

  
The Buildings of the Pier Head and the art deco George's Dock Ventilation with the rear of the Port of Liverpool Building and the Royal Liver Building in view
(click on the pictures for larger shots)

Finally we tear ourselves away from the old Pier Head and walk on up to the Albert Dock. On the way we are reminded of just how much this magical city has to offer.

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Awards and gratitude

I've been given tons of awards over the past couple of months but I have always been hesitant to put them up as they all require that you nominate other people in return. I'm a bit shy to do that though - I am always shy to nominate people for memes and things like that.

Anyway, I've had so many awards by now that I think the time has come to be graceful and grateful.

Sandra from Get To Know Croatia and Jodi from Jodi's Journey gave me a Lemonade Award. This is meant to be for bloggers who show attitude and/or gratitude and it is a pretty little award.

I like the idea that I have attitude and gratitude!

Next, the lovely Ivana from From Ohio With Love gave me a butterfly award. What a sweet award! I like the idea of being cool too!

Mye from Blog Appetite gave me a triple award which is a very ambitious award! It encompasses the lemonade award as well as sisterhood and friendship. Very nice!

Finally, for sheer fabulousness, Forrest over at Travelling Through Space and Time gave me a "Your Blog is Fabulous" award. A very chic award indeed!

I'm almost certain I'm missing out on one and I honestly don't mean to sound as ungrateful as I undoubtedly do. Poo. If I left any out then please forgive me!!

Well, like I said, I don't like the idea of tagging people so I thought I'd mention that my way of "recognising" the blogs I like is to "follow" them using Blogger and to, well, read them. So if you're on my blogroll on my sidebar or if you ever see me popping by your blog then these awards are for you! I don't read blogs I don't think are great.

Talking about blogging, in the next two weeks or so I will finish the posts about our road trip in December. I have just Liverpool to finish now and York to add. Then I want to set up my old PC and show you some of the beauty and wonder that is South Africa. I have lots of photos to show you. Some of them are even good. (Most of them were taken before I learned some basics of photography, like holding the camera straight or steady). I also wanted to write about some of the blogs I follow in categories like "South African blogs", "photo blogs" or "expat blogs". It should be March then which is anniversary month in which I intend to be a hermit at home and post pictures from my honeymoon in Spain 7 years ago. Then it will be April and we're off to South Africa on a whirlwind visit. I'll have lots to post then as my gorgeous friend Gyda is getting married. And then, fair readers, it will be summer here and I should actually have original content to post again!!

Lots to look forward to!

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Snow Day!

We had our first snow day today.  This picture shows the field behind my house with all the children playing on sleighs and building snow men.  I had to stay home for the day because all of the trains were cancelled.  Luckily, Ste and my brother work outside of London and their colleagues picked them up and took them to Orpington and Dartford respectively.  I was a bit disappointed after sitting around in my work clothes for three hours to learn that apart from there being no trains or buses, our offices were closing at 1pm and those of us that hadn't made it in would have to take a day's annual leave.  I tend to sleep in late and lounge about in pyjamas on my days off - not get up earlier than usual to make a special effort to get in and sit around waiting in my suit and jacket.  Grumpiness aside, once I realised it really was a day off, I made some Milo and watched Demons and Being Human from the weekend.  I also experimented with changing the layout for this blog, as I am a bit tired of this layout, but that didn't go very well.

The most amusing part of the day was observing my pets' differing reactions to the snow.

Cats
Early this morning, Seth was being an incorrigible pain in the neck bold and was meowing and asking to be let out.  So I opened the window thinking he would feel the snow on the window sill and realise that it was to wet and cold to go outside.  He put a tentative paw on the window sill and quickly shook it; but instead of coming back inside, he launched himself out of the window and promptly disappeared!  All I saw then was him shaking his back paws as cats do when their paws get wet and forging a way ahead in the snow.  Before I could do anything he sped off and was gone.  Oh dear.  I had to leave a window open for him then as I went to bath but soon he was back announcing at the top of his lungs something that sounded remarkably like, "Mum! I'm home! And wet! And cold! Close the windows quick!"

Well, his wet and cold experience didn't really leave an impression because a few hours later I was confronted with these friendly faces as I walked into the sitting room:

I promise you! He was giving me a right mouthful!  Summer supports him but won't actually go outside herself.

Well, as you can see, he got kind of insistent after a while so I hauled on my wellies and went outside the front door with him.  He immediately ran to the shelter of the bay window, complaining about the cold all the way!  Then he ran under the car and sat forlornly under the engine as if he were the most hard-done-by cat on the planet.  Unable to coax him from under the car, I returned inside and he came shooting in at the sound of the door.  Thankfully, that was that and he seems to have accepted that it is too cold and wet to go outside.

Dogs
Considering how terrified our dogs were of our swimming pool in South Africa, I never imagined that they would like snow so much!  I had opened up the back door to see if the dogs needed to pee and they just stood there watching it snow. 

That wasn't so much fun for me so I went inside to make some tea.  Suddenly, I noticed the pair of them prancing about in the snow like two little puppies, and they were even playing about with a rubber toy between them which is something they never do (share, I mean.  They are very possessive over their toys).  It was so funny to watch!

In the end, it was a pretty fun and exciting snow day!  Now to cook some dinner!

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