Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
On Friday my time in the United States came to an end and I departed at 9am (getting up at 5am wasn’t fun) and flew back to London. This time there was no free upgrade, and while I tried to get an exit row seat for extra legroom I couldn’t (at least without paying) so I was stuck with an aisle seat in economy.
Fortunately this wasn’t as bad as I was expecting as I was able to stretch out into the aisle a little and didn’t have to fold myself up too much. Additionally the small child that was seated a few rows in front of me was well behaved so I didn’t have to put up with a screaming kid all the way home, which was nice.
Now I have to get used to the little things in London again. Night buses instead of trains, using my oyster card rather than my metrocard (and not having to worry about topping it up manually) and the differences with the etiquette in bars with respect to tipping. I’m sure I’ll soon slip back into the usual ways though.
For now, however, it’s time to get on with the mass of unpacking and washing that I need to do before work starts again on Tuesday.
Tags: london, Virgin Atlantic
Given that this is the start of my final few days here in the United States, I figured it time for another blog (that and I’m avoiding revising for the Java test tomorrow morning).
The last couple of weeks have flown by, and I’ve got up to a fair amount of stuff, including going to the previously mentioned NBA game between the New Jersey Nets and the San Antonio Spurs, which was good fun. I also went to an NHL game between the New Jersey Devils and the Tampa Bay Lightning, which was more fun as the crowd seemed to get into it more and while the basketball had a couple of moments of skill, the hockey game was far more entertaining overall (especially with there being a couple of fights).
Last weekend I also managed to finally do some sightseeing, taking a wander around Manhattan to see a number of the landmarks - although I still haven’t done all of them, or any of the museums, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.
I’ve also fully experienced the problem of being a guy trying to go out in New York when a few of us were told it would be $700 for the 6 of us (3 guys and 3 girls) to go into the club… needless to say we declined and went elsewhere which was far cheaper and probably better.
Still, I suppose I best do some work and maybe head to the office as part of that.
Tags: Basketball, Ice Hockey, NBA, New Jersey, New York, NHL, United States
Well, I’m now in my third week in the United States and so far I’m enjoying it, despite the large numbers of differences other than the obvious accents and driving on the wrong side of the road.
The most noticeable differences that I’ve encountered so far have been when going out. It’s strange having to tip bar staff for every drink I buy (along with making drink prices rather expensive) and also the very strict male:female ratios that some places seem to enforce when letting people in (not a great thing when I’m here with work and work in IT with mostly other guys). This has only really been noticeable once so far, which was on Saturday when a few of us went to a comedy show (after being thrown out of a bar by the NYPD earlier in the night) and then went to find a bar for a couple of beers afterwards.
While this might seem negative there’s a load of positives. The transport system runs 24/7 and is pretty reliable too. This makes getting home from a night out at 4am both cheap and easy (especially living only a few hundred yards from the station). The snow also doesn’t seem to cause quite as much suffering as it does in the UK, with the infrastructure actually handling it without issue.
This weekend a few of us are heading to see the New Jersey Nets on Sunday, and possibly the New Jersey Devils on Friday so that should be good.
Of course, fitting this in with the training is a whole load of fun, as we’ve got early starts two days a week and a late night on one of the other days… in this case tomorrow when we have a C++ assessment. So with that in mind I’m having a rare night in watching some TV.
Tags: New Jersey, New York, United States
As part of my graduate training with work, I get to spend six weeks in the United States of America working in New York, which is due to start tomorrow - so I’m now sat in my apartment in Jersey City.
Yesterday started with the trip to Heathrow airport for the flight, which all started well but we soon discovered that we couldn’t check in easily as there’d been some mess up with thetickets or something. As a result 2 people got free upgrades from economy to premium economy, and through the use of the names-out-of-a-hat technique I was lucky enough to get this.
The next seven hours were spent sat on the plane, mainly watching films on Virgin’s in flight entertainment system - which is pretty good (with the exception of the slow interface).
Upon landing there was the fun with customs, where we got directed down to the side that’s supposed to be for US citizens only, which didn’t go down too well with the officer there - who said (whilst stamping the passports) “welcome to the United States - try not to have too much fun”. Baggage was then collected and a cab taken to the apartment here.
The place itself is very nice, although the view isn’t too great from the 10th floor where I am as there’s a lot of high rise buildings around here that block the view of the Manhattan skyline.
A few of us then went for a wander, got wet in the rain, and eventually ended up in a bar and grill not far from here. As my first taste of a proper American place it wasn’t too bad, and the prices were pretty similar to those in the UK… only in dollars not pounds… so it was rather cheap.
Today will see some more exploration, as all of the grads are here now and we’ve got all day before the 8am start tomorrow morning.
Tags: customs, New Jersey, United States, Virgin Atlantic
Hmm, time really does seem to disappear. It seems like only the other day that I was graduating, and now it’s less than a month before I go to New York with work for the first 6 weeks of my graduate training programme. This was all brought to my attention this week when I found out where I’ll be living for that time, and it all sounds good - even if it is in New Jersey.
Of course, time does seem to speed up at certain times more than others, weekends are a prime example of this. I swear I only just got out of bed today, and I know that no sooner will I get up tomorrow than it be time to get a decent night’s sleep before Monday’s work. (And no, it’s not because I’m sleeping all day)
Ah well, just another fact of life I suppose.
Tags: sleep, time, Weekends, Work
Well, I think I managed to surpass myself in strange ways to start the year. On the 4th day of the year I ended up live on Radio 1 talking about digging up dead animals… certainly a new one for me. Oh well.
Aside from this madness I’ve mostly been at work. Meh.
Tags: animals, radio 1, weird
So over the past two nights I’ve ended up on the tube after 2200. Last night was one of the latest tube trains on the jubilee line and I encountered the following:
A train carriage with myself, a can of Stella and a bottle of Coke:
A woman who had badly fitting Converse trainers and didn’t care:
A guy who found an innovative way to sit when there were no seats:
And tonight a new reason for things being broken in stations on the central line:
Full images can be found on my flickr page.
Tags: central, jubilee, london, underground
As mentioned in a previous post I went to see the New York Giants take on the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in the first NFL regular season game to be played outside of North America. As such tickets were hard to come by, but I got lucky and managed to get four when the third batch went on sale to people who had pre-registered (having just escaped from the meeting at work mere minutes before they appeared online).
Tickets secured I was rather happy, especially as I’d managed to get some seats in row 16 behind an end zone - which just sounded awesome without having ever been to Wembley. I then found out that we could also get tickets to the tailgate party that they were doing before the game - so why not!
Eventually game day rolled round and Dave, Phil, Nariman and I made the journey to Wembley. Outside Wembley Arena (where the tailgate was held to avoid being completely washed out due to the wonderful English weather) was the “Big JT” robot version of Dolphin’s defensive end Jason Taylor and a HGV full of XBox360s to play Madden on. We however wandered inside where there were NFL challenges that you could take part in (passing, kicking, receiving) some little areas styled to the two cities and also a stage with a rather poor cover band playing. Even at this stage the atmosphere was good with everyone seemingly looking forward to the event itself.
Not long after the gates opened for the stadium itself we wandered inside, and finding our way out into the seating we realised just how close we were. With the front 5 rows or so being closed off (due to the limited visibility that you’d get being that low down at an American Football game) we were about 10 rows back, pretty much in line with the edge of the pitch and very near the tunnel through which the teams would later enter at the start of the game.
Having taken in the initial moment of going out into the seats we wandered back inside and experienced the worst part of the day; Wembley’s “food”. At £8 for a meal it was expensive and rather crap. The burgers came in a disguise with nicer bread so as to hide the rest being crap - and the chicken was very dry… but this was soon forgotten about as the pre-game show started. This involved a performance by The Feeling, the national anthems and of course the coin toss - where the biggest boo of the day was heard as John Terry was announced as a guest captain for the Giants, and then the biggest cheer as Lewis Hamilton was also announced to be there (whilst being shown to be tiny next to the players).
Kick off and the game ensued with the game being quite scrappy. We saw a number of dropped passes and a missed kick towards the start of the game - with the rain not helping anyone (I mean, who designs a stadium with a roof that doesn’t close all the way). Even without a particularly great set of play on the field the atmosphere was fantastic with the crowd really getting into it and numerous Mexican waves going round and round the stadium.
Half time arrived with a half-time show. No Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunctions or crazy stages as seen at the Superbowl here; instead we had the band of the Royal Engineers play - opening with the theme from Rocky. It was soon over though and the second half started… well… after the streaker who had dressed as a referee and run to the 50 to do some exercise had been removed from the field.
With the score being 13-3 to the Giants and the game drawing to a close it seemed that the Dolphins were destined to continue on their losing streak - but there was a glimmer of hope towards the end when Lemon found Ted Ginn Jr in the end zone at the other end of the stadium to bring them within three points with only 90 seconds or so to go. The on-side kick then followed… with the crowd (or at least us and those around us) hoping that they’d manage it and we’d get to see some overtime… but it promptly slid over the wet grass and out of bounds for a Giants possession and a series of knees, which also attracted boos from the crowd who wanted to see some more action.
We then wandered back through the crowd to the tube and headed home having had an awesome day. With any luck we’ll have another game at Wembley next season and I’ll get tickets to that too.
During this whole thing I managed to get some (rather crap admittedly) photos, which can be found in my Flickr set.
Tags: dolphins, giants, nfl, sports
So, after a few months of my old site being somewhat out of action and me being lazy - I’ve finally got around to sorting out a new domain and whatnot; resulting in this blog.
In the time since I last did anything blog-wise there’s been a whole host of things happen:
- I graduated
- I moved to London
- I started work
- I went to the New York Giants vs Miami Dolphins NFL game at Wembley
and probably a lot more that I can’t think of at the moment.
I’ll try and post some stuff on these things as I see fit in the near future, along with endeavouring to keep this up to date.
Tags: stub