Walking to work

I appreciate the fact that I don't catch the tube to the office each day. Catching the incredibly crowded trains during peak hour is not a tempting proposition, even before considering the narrowness of the central portion of trains on lines like the Central line where there actually head room for people my height. Today, with most lines closed due to a strike, it is even more convenient that I not only don't need to catch the tube or use the now unusually crowded buses or roads, but can walk from home and back.

In general, the less than 20 minute walk is a nice way to relax, especially as I pass through the park and by the canal. Sometimes I can be lost in my thoughts, serious or otherwise, but it also seems to provide more opportunities to run into people. It can even be productive for my work, as the insights I've used have often come on the way home!

How do you spend your time travelling to work?

Weddings

Tomorrow will be the first Saturday in four weeks on which I am not planning to attend a wedding. So today, there is no packing, no travelling, no helping to put up decorations. It actually seems a bit strange!

It has been great to attend the weddings of these three lovely couples. It has also been interesting to see the three different weddings. The only one that was in England was also the only one where both bride and groom were not English. The one that was most in one language (English) was in Wales and included a blessing in Welsh. At the receptions, we had life-story videos made by Dutch friends, songs and sermons in Russian, and Irish partying into the small hours.

So, after some beautiful times under shooting stars in the Netherlands, in the park in London and in a Welsh field, it's congratulations to the Ferrabys, the Zhangs and the Slatters!

East meets West

Berlin, central Europe: a city named by Slavic settles with a name probably meaning "swamp". A city chosen as capital by the Hohenzollern electors of Brandenberg.

A city that welcomed persecuted Jews from Austria, Huguenots from France and other refugees from Poland and Bohemia in the 17th century. (The domed church constructed by the Huguenots sits opposite the similar German church contructed in response.)

The city of Frederick the Great and the Kingdom of Prussia. A city occupied by Russians and then by Napoleon. A city whose iconic gate was carried to Paris, and on return, had Victory's wreath of peace replaced with an Iron Cross. (Victory now looks straight at the French Embassy.)

The capital city of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. An Olympic city, where the infamous 1936 games meant the "Forbidden for Jews" signs were temporarily taken down. A city full of memorials.

A city whose old buildings, the Reichstag and more, are riddled with patches of stone used to repair bullet holes, and decorated with black statues that had been buried during the war. A city conquered by the Soviet Army and then split with their Western allies.

A city divided by blockades and then a wall. A Western island including the world's second largest department store, next to an Eastern capital with government buildings lined with propoganda murals. The city of Checkpoint Charlie, where tanks faced each other and spies were exchanged.

A reunified city, full of construction sites. A city where the largely demolished wall has been further whittled away by souvenir hunters, and street stalls sell communist memorabilia. A city hosting a European conference on reading opposite Bebelplatz, where the Nazis burned books. A city where full coaches drive in from Poland and further east, exchanging passengers before heading to different Western destinations.

For 12 points, tell me who could carry this flag now found in the Zeughaus. For thoughts on the flag's inscription, see Byron's excellent series.

A Tale of Two Summers

Here are five differences between summer in London and summer in Sydney:

Temperature: There is a reasonable chance that the maximum temperature for a summer day in London will be similar to the maximum the same day in Sydney, where is it winter.

Day length: The sun setting around 9pm even a month after the solstice is one of the highlights of the London summer.

"Football": In Australia, the top soccer (football to the English) league now plays in summer. In England, summer is the time for professional rugby league (football to most Sydneysiders).

Ice Cream Vans: In summer, the ice cream vans come out no matter how warm it isn't, and here, that means many different tunes floating down the street. As I remember it, ice cream vans in Sydney generally all play the same tune.

Parks: While I have been pleased to see many people playing informal games of cricket, the parks in London lack public barbecues. Instead, whenever the sun is out for an hour, the locals seem to head to the park to strip down, lie down, and roast themselves.

I may as well give 10 points to the first person to name the park in the picture

Whispering pictures

On Wednesday night at Paul and Jo's, we played a version of Chinese Whispers involving writing and drawing, rather than whispering. Last time we played this, "A young boy is eating pizza on a train." became

which was described as "A man eating pizza on a jigsaw piece.", which was translated into

This was interpreted as "He stood on top of the giant hot dog." and became

giving our final result: "A man standing on a hot dog." I will leave you to imagine how a brass band and cricket game became a church with a music group and people standing in cakes. Then, while we were praying, we were interrupted by the voice of Yoda: "Message from the dark side, you have." from someone's phone. Quite a funny night.

When I started writing this, it was dark enough to be after sunset, and torrential rain was pouring down among the thunder and lightning. We almost needed a boat to get across the campus. Now, the sun is shining brightly and evereythign looks dry.There's nothing quite like a quick thuderstorm.

P.S. Not for the first, interesting weather in London proved much more serious in other parts of the country, with more floods and all sorts of travel chaos.

Guns on stations or bombs on trains?

The announcement of London as the host city for the 2012 Olympics wasn't the only thing that happened nearly two years ago. The next day, four bombs went off on the city's public transport, killing 52 people. After the bombings were unsuccessfully imitated two weeks later, police armed with large guns were stationed at many railway stations, watching passengers enter and leave.

Yesterday, after the recent car-bombs in London and Glasgow, I saw heavily armed police again at one station. It probably says something strange about how my mind works, but I'm instinctively more disturbed, if not scared, by the visible guns than the thought of possible bombs. I wonder whether it would be any different if Jean Charles de Menezes hadn't been shot 2 days before I first saw them.

(I could offer 10 points for guessing which station I saw the police at, but there are already points on offer for naming that station.)

Olympic preparation déjà vu

Just under two years ago, the city I was living in was awarded the Olympic Games for the second time in my life. This time round, I didn't participate in a basketball dribbling race at an event that was part of the bid process, although I did walk through a gateway supporting the bid at a Guy Fawkes' Night Display. However, we do live roughly the same distance from the site of the Olympic Stadium as the furthest part of the Olympic village will be.

As of today, the roads, footpaths, cycleways, towpaths and waterways in the Olympic Park area will be closed to allow for construction. Thankfully, the two main routes, the Greenway and the River Lee Navigation, are excepted from this, so it will still be easy to go off along the river or head towards Beckton. The Greenway will be partially closed at some points, but that's just as well, because that part of the Greenway could do with revamping. The Olympic Park should be quite a nice area by the time everything is done.

Of course, this is not the only "closure" that has just come into effect. Yesterday England "went smokefree". It is no longer legal to smoke in enclosed areas that are also workplaces. At the same time. the whole college campus has been declared a non smoking area. I don't think I've ever breathed in so much cigarette smoke while walking down a public road as I did outside the college this morning.

(Ten points for the best explanation of what the picture has to do with this post.)