Pho to the rescue

A funny thing about tomatoes. I think they’re a wonderful fruit/veg but sometimes I hit a wall, and the thought of eating tomato-based foods makes me feel ill. Tomato-based food includes many of my pasta dishes, casseroles and stews.

I hit this tomato wall a few days back. I had a tupperware box of mushroom spaghetti bolognese waiting for me at home. There is no easier dinner. However, I just couldn’t eat it.

This is how I ended up by myself in a tiny Vietnamese restaurant, giving my order of pho to the waiter. I’ve never eaten by myself in a restaurant. I don’t think I like it. I spent a lot of time avoiding eye contact with the restaurant host and his mother. We were the only people in the room.

The rice noodle soup was delicious, though. Oh! So good! I LOVE VIETNAMESE FOOD. It was as good as what we get in Melbourne, although it did have the drawback of being twice as costly.

Psyched for cycling

I thought that maybe I was ready to cycle to work. After all, I had taken my baby steps on the new bike. Then two weeks ago, I had proper test ride in the safe environment of Hampstead Heath. It really was time to take it to the jungle that is London traffic.

Today was the designated day. When I woke up, almost hopefully I ran through every one of my excuses for not riding to work. Wet weather. Not enough morning time to sort things out. Unwieldy bag. Awkward clothing.

Today, though, all those excuses melted away. I was prepped. I psyched myself up. ‘You’re gonna do it, Joan. Today’s the day. The day is today.’

And before I knew it, I found myself on the road curb, bike unfolded, helmet adjusted, trouser leg tucked in with a reflective clip. Then I pushed off and I was back on the road again.

The whole exercise of bringing my bike downstairs, unfolding it, riding slowly (to avoid catching up to buses and having to overtake them) and locking up my bike at work, it all took as long I normally take to walk to work. I’m not saving much (if any) time. But it sure is fun.

Transport for London‘s journey planner has even mapped out a route for me that uses dedicated bike lanes. I took that on the way home this evening, stopping only three times to check my map print out.

Now that I’ve proven that I can cycle to work, I’ll probably go back to walking most days. I’m sure, though, I’ll try the cycle again next week.

Sustainability and rugby

At work, I’ve been working on a project to look at sustainability issues for the Welsh Rugby Union. I’m not a rugby follower but there are plenty of people around me who are. They’re envious that I get paid to tour the Millennium Stadium and study rugby matches so popular that no one can get tickets.

So, a break from the holiday photography — here are some photos from the Millennium Stadium. The full set are in the gallery.

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Walking onto the pitch.

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Lots of resource issues in this picture. Firstly, the pitch has been imported from Holland. You can’t get high performance pitch from just anywhere.

Secondly, see those gantries on wheels? Those are high energy lights that are shining onto the pitch almost every day to help the grass grow. There is too little light reaching the pitch (and in Cardiff generally) to keep the grass lush. Before these lights were used, the grass would get very patchy.

Thirdly, the video screens — obviously, they use a lot of electricity but we were thinking of how they could be used for public service announcements, like ‘Do you know the four signs of a stroke?’ With 70,000 fans packed into the stadium for each game, it’s an opportunity to raise awareness.

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Grounds maintenance crew preparing for the big Wales-Ireland Six Nations match.

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Part of our work will look at the branding risks of particular sponsors, as well as how the Rugby Union can partner up with sponsors on outreach and business programmes.

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It was a nice day.

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Kegs and kegs of beer! Liquor licensing is an issue. I’m told that rugby fans are responsible drinkers compared to the more rowdy football goers. Football matchers are more tense than rugby matches. The fans of the teams need to be segregated because if they’re allowed to mix, there is the risk of punch ups.

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Inside the team change rooms.

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Inside one of the TV broadcasting suites. We’re looking at how the media travels to and from the match, as well as equity issues related to match scheduling. It appears that media demands for prime time scheduling sometimes conflicts with business hours (and how much local businesses can profit from more activity around Cardiff), as well as public transport timetables.

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Joan, sustainability consultant.

Gantting off to Edinburgh

As you might know, I love Gantt charts. A few months ago, Damjan and I put together a Gantt chart to plan out how I could use my annual leave.

2009 holiday Gantt

My first scheduled vacation was Mauritius. That cost me five days annual leave.

The long Easter weekend meant that spending only one annual leave day allowed me and Damjan to take the train up to Edinburgh for five days.

It was glorious, such a picturesque city! We were especially fortunate in that it didn’t rain on any of those five days. This is highly unusual for Scotland.

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This is Edinburgh Castle. Something funny happened while we were there. I got a text message from my friend, Frances (who is visiting London from San Francisco).

Want to join a few ny [New York] ppl at edinburgh castle tonight?

Confused, I replied:

Hi frances, did you mean the real edinburgh castle? I am here in scotland.’

From Frances:

Oh right, haha! No i meant the one in Camden [London]. Hope you’re having a fun holiday!

Here are some photos from inside Edinburgh Castle.

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I thought it was funny, having a Royal Mail post box inside.

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Here is an uncomfortably angled bench next to the guard house.

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Loud annoying children playing with guns.

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It’s good to see the Castle is up the latest environmentally friendly technologies.

Damjan and I stayed at Budget Backpackers in a private room. You know when you’re growing up when you become less and less able to tolerate hostels. I’ve stayed in hostels all around Tasmania, Germany, the UK, in Lisbon… I’m generally happy in a private room but in dorms, I feel quite anxious about waking people up and being woken up by late night party people and snorers.

Budget Backpackers was clean and friendly, though cramped. We joined one of their free Edinburgh walking tours. Our tour guide as an Aussie from Melbourne (Carlton). In our group, there were another two girls from Melbourne (Glen Iris and Gladstone Park). In the kitchen, we also met an Aussie from Geelong…

On the walking tour, we learned about body snatchers, people who would steal bodies (or murder to get fresh ones!) to sell to the anatomy school for £5.

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It became necessary to protect graves from the robbers. In the first few weeks after a burial, family members would take turns to guard the body. This is the origin of the phrase ‘graveyard shift’!

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The very posh George Heriot’s School, reputedly JK Rowling’s inspiration for Hogwarts. I thought the school kids could easily whip the tourists into a frenzy by coming out in black gowns, like we wear at Oxford and Cambridge.

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It’s daffodil season!

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We climbed to (the original) Arthur’s Seat. An easy one hour climb gave us a 360 degree view of Edinburgh.

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St Anthony’s Chapel on the way up to Arthur’s Seat. Damjan and I sat down in the sunshine to draw the chapel for about an hour. Drawing is a hobby that we are experimenting in. I tend to draw fatter and more cartoony pictures, compared to Damjan’s more detailed and spindly drawings.

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The Scottish seagulls are HUGE, so big they’re almost majestic. As Damjan said, ‘If they weren’t so common, I’d almost say they were elegant.’

All my photos are at the gallery.

Snow to storm to sun to scorch

In February, one of my best friends, Kate, got married. Kate and Avi had a multi-day traditional Hindu wedding in Mauritius, a little tropical island in the Indian Ocean. There are not many people for whom I would fly 12 hours. Kate is definitely one of them.

I stayed in Mauritius for a week. They were strange days, weather-wise. Just days before I was due to fly out, Britain suffered terrible snow storms and most flights were cancelled. I rushed home from work to buy travel insurance online. Even a flight delay of three days would render my trip to Mauritius pointless, as the wedding would be over.

The evening I was to leave, my departure time was pushed back two hours (Air Mauritius was kind enough to call and message me). Problems with refuelling and the closure of one of Heathrow’s two runways meant that we were stuck on the tarmac for another hour.

I was pretty anxious because as we were waiting, the snow starting swirling around the plane.

‘Oh no!’ I exclaimed to the girl sitting next to me. ‘Snow! It’s getting pretty white out there. I hope we get out in time.’

‘Hmph,’ the girl agreed and sadly curled up into a ball as she suffered through airplane allergies. (I get this too, when my eyes water and throat itches in the recirculated plane environment.)

Luckily, we finally took off. Later I was told that we flew out of a snow storm that shut down Britain’s transport systems for another two days.

It was not the end of eventful weather. The flight was the most turbulent I’ve ever experienced. We flew into a cyclone just north of Mauritius. For my first day on the island, the cyclone and choppy seas prevented us from going to the beach.

When tropical calm returned, I waded into the ocean. The water was beautifully warm. There was virtually no change in temperature going from the beach to the water.

I got a rather nasty sunburn. Carrying my backpack home (I managed with carry on luggage only!) sure did hurt my shoulders. It took me almost two months to recover fully from red skin.

It was only when I was flying home that I found out about the scorching bushfires in Victoria. The lady sitting across the airplane aisle had a newspaper with the headline, ‘Australian bushfire death toll its worst ever‘. I waved at her.

‘Excuse me, can I borrow your paper when you’re done with it?’ I pointed to the bushfire article. ‘That’s my home, Victoria.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘The paper is a couple of day old already and I hear that there are more deaths now.’

I only got the full story about on the Tube back home from Heathrow. Imagine that, finding out about this tragedy from a rehashed press release in the free London Paper!

Anyway, the reason I am revisiting the events of February is that I’ve finally sorted out photos from Mauritius. A selection of the are here at my gallery. Here are some highlights.

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I stayed with three of Kate’s friends in a massive holiday house. It was fairly swish and not expensive at all. I got the penthouse room. It had a walk in wardrobe, full size ensuite and, most importantly, air conditioning. At night time, the house also had cockroaches. They’re everywhere.

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The Trou aux Cerfs crater high up near the shopping town of Curepipe. This crater is in the shape of a love heart!

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Statues of Hindu gods at the Grand Bassin Hindu Temple, which is one of the most sacred Hindu places outside of India. Every year, half a million people make the pilgramage to the lake during the Maha Shivaratri festival in February or March.

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I’m a sucker for waterfalls. This one is in Charamel, better known for its coloured sands.

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The coloured sands of Charamel! So pretty, eh. I understand the colours are something to do with volcanoes. Not very specific, I know. I guess it’s to do with heating sands to different temperatures.

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Giant tortoises! This one was very unusually active. It was eating leaves that tourists waved at it, it wandered around before settling down with its motionless friends in a puddle.

Finally, some beach photos.

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Legs above belong to Kate’s family. Thank you for looking after me for the week!

Television thoughts

I’ve lived in my flat since November last year. Yesterday I finally figured out how to turn on the television.

I watched Embarrassing Bodies on Channel 4. It made me happy because it reminded me that I have a healthy normal body and that I should do whatever I can to keep it that way.

I watched Grand Designs and that made me think that people who build their own homes are ego maniacs who don’t know how to manage projects.

Well. Maybe it’s just people who nominate themselves to go on TV with their life-defining project homes who are ego maniacs who don’t know how to manage projects.

I also watched part of City of Vice, a show I’ve mentioned before. It’s a drama series about the battle to bring law and order to London’s streets during the 1700s. Once again, one of my favourite places has been revealed to be a historic slum of desperate poverty and wickedness. Seven Dials is now very hip and home to my favourite London eatery (Food for Thought). But back in Georgian England, it was crowded with starving people and a lair for criminals and prostitutes. It’s amazing how places can change so much.

Folding bike spotter

I have become a folding bike spotter. I look at all bikes passing me by and this newfound attention has yielded a rich landscape of folding bikes.

Yesterday, I spotted:

  • A full sized city bike (26 inch wheels) with a tell-tale knobbly bit in the middle of the frame — it was a folding bike!
  • Someone wheeling into the office a completely flat folded bike. I think it was a Wobbegong.
  • Two Strida-style cycles with tiny wheels at the bottom vertices of the triangular frame

And, of course, Bromptons everywhere!

Damjan and I took my bike up to Hampstead Heath on the weekend. It was frustrating that the paths mostly had ‘no bicycles’ emblazoned on them. Then we found one bike path and that led to another. I was so happy to be zooming around. Hooray for bikes!

Professional photographer

I got an email from someone called Jon.

Hi there, I would love to purchase a copy of ‘urinal‘! Would you be happy for me to do this? I go to Lisbon every now and then and your images are lovely.

How exciting! How very kind.

Having never sold a photo before (and having had a photo stolen for use on a website), I did some research into how to license stock photos and how much peopel paid for photos.

In the end, I sold the photo to Jon for personal use for the princely sum of £6. It’s not as much as comparable photos are being sold for on microstock sites but  I’m happy to start this professional photography career anywhere.

For a photo that I took for my own pleasure, £6 is a price I am very pleased to receive.

A good day to be sick

I had been working very hard to meet a deadline. I worked on the weekend and then quite late for a few nights. Then I handed in my work and felt very happy for it.

The next day, I woke up at my usual time. While having breakfast, I realised that today was a good day to be sick. Usually, when I am feeling a bit unwell, I push through it because I have an important meeting, a deadline or there’s work to be done. But on this day, my calendar was blue sky clear.

Regretfully, I did not feel the least bit ill. If I had even a slight cold, I could have stayed away from the office and maybe even taken a therapeutic walk around Regent’s Park in the sunshine.