For the Love of Milton Keynes!!

I've been hearing of Milton Keynes ever since being in this country. It's the butt of all jokes. I finally got to experience what it was all about. I got to go to a 2 day overnight training course on presentation and negotiation.

Man what a shithole! Milton Keynes is about 80 kilometers north of London and is a purpose built 'high tech' new city that was created in the 1960s. It takes about 40 minutes by fast train to get to and is the centre point between London and Birmingham. Its all spaced out and is apparently the only place in the UK with North American Grid style streets. Thing is, it's so spaced out that its difficult to get anywhere. There are about 185,000 people living in MK. All the houses are cookie cutter brown brick look alikes. There not one chip thats ahoy. It has no character ad seems far removed from the rest of the UK. I guess this is why they call it an alien transplant space colony. Robbie Williams held a concert there only a week ago.

There should never be any reason to go to MK unless you're on a conference, and why they host conferences there, I have no idea....oh look at that, its just over 5pm on a friday, beeroclock time

dtm

Wise Sayings

'You gotta Jack it up before you back it Up'

This one got me some mucho laughs amognst co workers, they think my ryhming style is
some crazy bullocks!

dtm

Let the Good Times Roll....

Ahhhh more tastes of home. So Johnny and Leah arrived on Sunday and arrived at our place last nite. Fresh emigrates from Vancouver into ole London. It's great to have them here. They will be staying with us until Sunday as an extension to them finding a place to live (or longer if they need to).

It's interesting to think of all my Vancouverite friends here:

Geoff n Hailey (Fom UBC Geog) which includes Cassan and Aaron (Haileys sister and sisters fiance)
Laura from Lord Byng High
Eleanor from UBC Geog
George from Prince of Wales High
Now Johnny and Leah from UBC Commerce

I've known everyone in the above for over 6 years, and some as far back as 10-12 years. So its kind of like a mini community, which really does help in this massive city. Suddenly I dont feel so annonymous anymore. But then again that is like .000000000012398 of a percent of London, so it's still pretty small time. I'm glad they are all here on the journey. Who knows, maybe there will be more?

dtm

Fucking Fish n Crap!

ArG! For Petes Sake, what is it with the dodgy food handling in this country? This weekend is the second time I've been food poisoned since Ive been here. It started out Friday after work as I got retardedly drunk with co worker mates at the Chapel. you know when you need some good drunk food to balance out the alcohol in your system. Well Vancouver, we have 99 cent pizza, Mexico has 99 peso hot dogs, and the UK has 4.99 pound Fish n Chips (well and Kebabs, but there wasent a late night kebab shop open in BlackHeath). So what did I do but order a 1 piece cod and chips for my late night meal deal. I dont know if it was all the grease in the cod and chips or it was sitting there all day, but its Monday, that was Friday and I still feel like shit. This weekend was a compelte right off as I was in bed mostly recovering from my greasy purges. Terrible. The first time it was a dodgy Kebab.

dtm

Where not to take your Folks.

So it's been 6 months since I've seen my parents, and I had the joy of having them over before they jetted of to Spain, Russia and Iz for 3 weeks. They arrived last Thursday and left Sunday at 3am to catch their flight to Barcelona. So during their stay, while absolutely delighted to see them, I had to think of a London tour to give them. Now my dad has been here about 3 times, 2 of them with me doing whirlwind 1 day tours on our stop overs. So I was thinking of showing them stuff the Big Bus Co doesnt go to. Maybe theres a reason why they dont go there :P

Where else do you take your 65 plus year old folks who enjoy a good life, like designer stuff and well dressed people? Camden! Yes I thought, well they've never seen Camdem, maybe they should!

'I know there are freaks in this world, I dont need to see them!', get us out of here this is ridiculous.

Ok so they didnt like Camden. Camden is like Granville St x30 with punks and goths, yet there are some reasonable people that go there. Camdem is world famous! There are some nice pubs. Its really a world of its own. Needless to say they were not impressed. So where else did I take them after Camden. Oxford Street. After all you must see Oxford St!

'this is nuts, it's like a zoo, I'm getting a headache'.

Ok, so Oxford St wasent really a good choice either. My dad didnt mind, my mom was going ballistic. I mean Oxford St is the most sought out destination for shopping, yet the consumerism ozzes homogeniety as all the stores are just basic joe schmo Gap type. We ran into Bond St by accident which was quiter and of more designer status, so we took a break that day and had a cafe. Much quieter and cooler St than Oxford. I had tainted my parents perspective of London even more.

Funny thing, I was sitting in Greenwich, only a stoens throw away from Blackheath, maybe a 20 minute walk, Sunday after they left and it was so cool that i felt guilty we didnt make it down there. Greenwich after all is GMT, where you can stand with your feet apart and say you straddled 2 time zones. Greenwich is a cleaned up Version of Gastown and culturly much like the Greenwich Village in New York, lots of funky bars, pubs and restaurants. Tres Cool.

So off they've gone with the perception that this city is mass crazed. They did like Blackheath quite a lot. Just goes to show you theres a different cup of tea for every mug.

dtm



dtm

If you ever get the chance to see this....

Im just going to put in a quick plug for this, should this show ever come to Vancouver or anywhere else you have access to seeing it, I highly recommend seeing it. Its a Martial Arts Comedy spoof that will make you cry laughing.

Its called Jump, heres a weblink to where I saw the show (I saw it at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest)
http://www.assemblyrooms.com/programme2006/prog_code/JUMP/programme_item.php

and the Official Website is here:
http://www.hijump.co.kr/default.htm

Highly entertaining, great performance.

dtm

PS - How to call me if you want to

PS

Some people have actually tried to call me but couldnt get through. so..

If you want to call me and you live in North America, here is what you dial on your phone..

1 44 7999694911

In that sequence. That should put you through directly to me. It's my cell phone number. If you are using a calling card you dial your card, then when it asks you for the number, dial the number above.

If you are in the UK, all you dial is 07999694911

Simple. I hope I get more phone calls :P


Oh yea, and keep in mind, i'm 8 hours ahead of you on the West Coast (5 hours East Coast).

dtm

Just Moved....

Well, Just a quick update.

Been a little slow and havnt replied to emails as I have no internet conenction at home. We just moved hosue into a way cooler Area and they are very slow to hook up service.

New address JUST in case anyone wants to send cold hard hand written mail is:

40 Bennett Park
Ground Floor
London
SE7 9RB

It's in Blackheath Village. Heres a map:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Bennett+Park,+Greenwich,+Greater+London,+SE3,+UK&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=51.466908,0.009184&spn=0.006537,0.021458&t=h&om=1

Blackheath has some interesting history. If you see the green patch in the map, that is the huge heath and the village is a triangle of streets at the botton of the map near the green arrow (our place). To describe the heath vilalge, its kind of like a Kitsilano Demographic, but a Point Grey type area if that makes any sense.

The short History of the Heath was that it was used as a burial ground in the 14th Century during the Black Death, or more commonly known as the Black Plague.

If you really are curious you can read about the area here as there is a reference in Wikipidia :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackheath,_London

Other than that I just returned from Scotland. was up in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival and Glasgow for a day. More on that later.

dtm