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Shake-up? February 27, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Camden , 1 comment so far

After seven years in Wellington earthquakes still worried me. At least there the houses are mostly wooden and only two stories. The thought of one in London, with all those bricks and old mortar is a truly frightening thought. But they never happen here.
So, when I lay awake at about 1am and the bed moved my first instinct was ‘that’s an earthquake’ and my second was ‘naah, not here, must be something else’. My mind was being kind to me, and kept that thought even as the bed shook again.

But they do happen here, though rarely. It was the biggest in the UK since 1984, at 4.7 on the Richter Scale and centred near Grimsby.

Down here in Camden, on the first floor of an apartment block, it felt about 10 seconds long, and a 2 on the Modified Mercalli Scale. This scale can be used by any observer to describe the earthquake at a given point. How an earthquake feels in any particular place and the damage it can cause depend not just on the raw power of it, but also on the local geology and the buildings you’re in. If you felt it, go to the US Geological Survey and log it

The Joy of Commuting February 23, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Being Freelance , add a comment

It’s 0630, and the alarm goes off although I am already awake.  I have NEVER been a morning person, and this is not natural albeit better now than in January.  A few minutes dozing, and its ten to seven.  I get out of bed, and the organised personality kicks in.  Feed cat, turn on boiler, turn on shower, brush teeth while water heats, loo, into shower, clean, out again.   Moisturise, check bag and pack laptop, makeup, clothes, make sure cat has food for the day and out.   Drink a glass or two of water somewhere in there.   From bed to pavement in twenty minutes flat.

A quick stroll through Somers Town, the park with many gates then the Purchese Road Open Space to St Pancras.  Perhaps cold and misty, but still rather lovely, and St Pancras is grand.  Come in through the back of Kings Cross, and on to Platform 2 on the far side of the station, via Caffe Nero for a small Americano and muffin, and then onto the train.

Breathe, boot the laptop and relax.  The brain slowly engages and autopilot has done its job.   I’m on the way to the Cambridge client, but first have to check up on the Virtual Company client.  I’ve told them that if they email or call me, I will respond by 1000 the next day, and this is when I do it.  Check their progress spreadsheet, email my technical lead if there are any problems, deal with whatever I can.

The train slips quickly out of Kings Cross, and up through North London.  Hitchin is the only town I know at all on this line, and we’re there in about half an hour.  After that, through Cambridgeshire where it is often bright and misty.  The train is empty, and the world slips by.  It takes about an hour and twenty minutes, door to desk, but on the train and or pleasant walking, it’s a good way to start the day.

Or, on other days, it is a little different.  Out of bed, and head to Euston rather than Kings Cross.  Victoria line to Green Park and then a switch to the nightmare that is the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly line.  No hope of working here, let alone relaxing.  Getting a seat is a major achievement.  Somewhere in the wilds of West London, my supplier’s offices are a fifteen minute walk from Boston Manor.  Its normally easy to get there, but getting back can be very very hard.  Someone decided to pull the passenger alarm at Finsbury Park on Monday, and so I, and a few thousand of my closest companions (for that afternoon), got to sit for an hour outside Gloucester Road station.  If you ever have the urge to pull the passenger alarm, and noone’s dying, just don’t.   There are about 1000 people on each rush hour tube, and 2 tubes per station, so anything blocking Central London pisses off about 20,000 people.  That’s an awful lot of bad karma.

It is easier to travel sixty miles to Cambridge than ten to Brentford.  There is a moral there somewhere.

Diversionary activities February 12, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , 1 comment so far

All through my original degree, and subsequent addiction to random diplomas, my oven was always polished at exam time.  The cleaning of kitchen cupboards happens, as if by miracle.  Some things never change.  I’m doing a journalism course, an assignment was due yesterday, and here I am, blogging.   I’d probably be better off cleaning the oven.

My assignment is to write a review, and I found it hard to decide what to write about.  I’ve done very little cultural lately except watch TV, it being winter and all.  On Sunday night, I ventured out to the Barbican to see the London Symphony Orchestra with their Chorus perform Dvorak’s 8th, and Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass.

The LSO and chorus are a real treat, something I’ve only done once before with Beethoven’s Ninth back in 2006.    As then, the full impact of the 200+ singers is magnificent  transporting the audience with the power of so many human voice united in devotional music.  The text is in Old Church Slavonic, which is completely incomprehensible to me, accentuating the music of the voices.

If I was reviewing this for my assignment, I’d do a little more about the background of the two pieces, the LSO’s Belief series of which is a part, and the conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas, but actually thinking of something sensible to say about the performance itself is very hard work, given that these weren’t pieces I know and my knowledge of classical music is limited to ‘I don’t know much about it, but I know what I like’.  A review that says ‘I like this’ won’t earn me many marks, sadly.

Neglected blog February 4, 2008

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Blogging , 2 comments

Poor, neglected wee blog.  New Year’s resolutions don’t seem to last too well, so perhaps I should have a new month resolution to post a little more often.

I do not like January in England.  It’s not natural.  Dismal days, with the sun going down at about 4pm mean that all I want to do is curl up with a DVD, the cat and a bottle of port.  But now it’s February, and somehow everything seems brighter, even though its actually colder now than it was a couple of weeks ago.  I guess its global warming to blame for such a mild winter.

There are lots of things to blog about.  I seem to have booked lots of tickets, so expect reviews of many Royal Shakespeare Company productions, the LSO next weekend, Laurie Anderson in May and just possibly Richie Haven in  a couple of weeks time.  Daily revelations of the surveillance society on the rise, and political corruption, give plenty to get annoyed about (though Guido Fawkes does the latter so much better than I could, even if he is a libertarian).  My stock portfolio doesn’t bear thinking about, though I need to do another pension investment soon.

I found a new word the other day - telapathy - the sense of ennui that comes from watching too many episodes of a television series in one sitting.  That describes it beautifully.  Time to kick self in the posterior and come out of hibernation, I think.