A Trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury

Hello everyone!

We set off this morning for Stonehenge and Salibury, of course with London Walks. We started off at Waterloo station, but due to engineering works we had to take a different route. We ended up gong through Guilford in Surrey, and then changing trains in Woking...unfortunatl we were delayed in Surrey and ended up missing the train in Woking. They were suppose to hold it for us, but didnt. So we had a 1 hour layover in Woking where we dined on a takeout microwaved pasty each for lunch. Not the best start to the day. Finally made it to Salisbury, jumped on the coach and headed to Stonehenge.

We had been to Stonehenge in 2003 on our honeymoon, but were excited to go back. Its such an amazing site...I still find it funny that the hwy runs right beside it!!! After 45 mins there we headed back to Salisbury for a tour of the famous cathedral. It is made of limestone and was being cleaned but was so beautiful. We were even able to see an original copy of the Magna Carta!!! Cool!! We headed back on the 5:20pm train, changed in Woking with no problem and were back in London by 7pm. All in all, a great day!

Back on the Property Ladder

Well, we took the plunge! We bought a place in Greenwich!

Its a new build in an up and coming area...it is the first stop in zone 4 and will get DLR (tube) access early next year. Right now it is servced by National Rail with regular service to London Bridge, Charing Cross, and Cannon Street, all about 30 mins away, which is about the same as Clapham where we are now. It is way faster to Canary Wharf, where I currently work, and will also be getting the Cross Rail across central London in 2012. So we are hoping this helps up the property value.

Its on the top floor, 6th, facing north west with 2 huge 40 ft balconies. It is in a new complex which you can check out here http://www.royal-arsenal.co.uk/ and is about 300 meters from the train station, and equal distance to the Thames. Its a great up and coming area with lots of regeneration and easy access to some of the Olympic venues as well.

Its small, but its new and hopefully worry free, with lots of greenspace for the monkeys.

The pics are of the show suite and are the same layout we will have. Obviously its not our furniture, or our colour scheme. And we will have an additional floor to ceiling window behind where the couch is...and wont look out onto a parking lot. We will hopefully have views of the Thames through the other buildings. The last pic below is the market square which thankfully is going to be regenerated very soon and incorporated into a nearby park.

So here are the pics:

Off to Bath...the town, not an actual bath!

We went on another trip with London Walks on Saturday. We had visited Bath in 2003 on our honeymoon, and thought it was beautiful, but only had 2-3 hours there so we decided to spend a day there to get the true feel for the place.

We headed out at 8am (yuck, very early for a weekend!) and it took the usual hour to get from Clapham to Paddington on the tube. Unfortunately there are not transit links between Clapham and the western part of London. Walked up just in time to pay and jump on the train to Bath. Bath is 1.5 hours by train west of London, I believe its about 85 miles and is located in the South Cotswolds. The train was just packed, but luckily Scott and I scored 2 seats together and we were off!

The train goes through the Thames valley and then along one of the River Avons (apparently there are 7 as Avon means River). We have had a lot of rain lately, and you can see by our pics that the river is REALLY high and some areas are flooding. Our guide hadn't seen the river this high since 1973 when they had a huge flood.

We arrive in Bath and started our tour. Bath was settled by the Romans 2 thousand years ago due to the hot water that comes from the earth here. When the Romans left the town disappears, only to be rebuilt in the 16-18 hundreds on the same site. They didnt even realize they were building on the Roman city until the last century. Royals and everyone who was everyone gathered there to be seen during the summer seasons. It is built of beautiful limestone found there, and this same stone was used to build alot of buildings here in London.

We decided to opt out of the Roman Baths as we had spent alot of time there last time, and we just wandered around taking pictures and having a bevvy during our spare time. We headed back to London at 5:30, arriving just after 7. We met a bunch of friends for drinks later on.

Jamie's First Job in Industry

Hello everyone! On Monday I started my first industry job. I am working at Northern Trust, an investment bank out of Chicago that is growing rapidly. I'm on a team with a friend from Vancouver. Our team focuses on operational audits of the Group Fund Accounting division. I know, that sounds so absolutely fascinating I am sure you are all on the edge of your seats now!

To be honest, I'm not even really sure what that means yet! Hahahah! I started yesterday with 2 hours of orientation, learning where the fire escapes and washrooms were, and what the corporate values etc are. Then I headed up to the top floor, the 11th (11th floor is aparently where the Ivory Tower is at Northern Trust). My manager, who is fantastic, introduced me to my new team. All of them are so friendly and helpful...and they all seem to enjoy their jobs which is refreshing. I then logged in, discovered they use Lotus Notes (weird) and was rushed out to a group welcome lunch at the Gourmet Burger. Super fun! Turns out the guy I was sitting next to at Orientation also joined my team yesterday but is working for a different manager. He just moved here from Greece.

Spent the rest of the afternoon learning how to use Lotus Notes and getting comfy. I am helping another guy with an audit this week and next, then heading to Dublin, Ireland to help Heidi for a week. Woo hoo! I have to go back to Dublin next month and Scott is going to pop over for the weekend.

Today I completed my manditory Ethics training today (it was actually really well done, as far as ethics training goes) and read up on my new employer.

I really like working at Canary Wharf. Its like working downtown Vancouver, modern office buildings, underground mall with a food court (although the food court doesnt have the normal north american fast food...it has a salad place, sushi place, Pret a Manager...no McDonalds from what I can see YAY!). The commute is ok, Northern Line to London Bridge and then the Jubilee Line. Although the Jubilee line has not been kind to me this week...delays this morning and yesterday almost making me late. So tomorrow I am going to take the Northern Line to Bank and take the DLR which I hope to be better.

Well, that is how my first couple days have gone...so far, so good!!!