Living in England

Lavender_05

2011-07-24T20:00:00.002+01:00

Lavender_05, a photo by rw233093 on Flickr.

Uploaded some new shots on my Flicker page.

Redundancy

2010-11-14T01:32:00.001Z

Well, it finally happened. During my 12 years in the games industry I've manage to dodge being made redundant until now, though on a few occasions it was pretty close. Normally the signs were obvious and I made a break before things went completely down the toilet. In the situation at Monumental things were looking good for the future. But a series of unfortunate events meant that the company simply couldn't afford to pay us all. Two days after the announcement myself and 37 other unlucky souls were shown out the door on the Thursday the 11th November, 2010.

Now a new adventure begins! Where I will end up I have no idea. Ideally I want to remain in the UK if I can but I'm open to relocating anywhere there is good jobs to be had.

So we'll see how it all goes and if I'm lucky I'll be back into making games sooner rather than later.

Holy Island

2010-02-21T22:29:00.004Z

As mentioned in the post below I went on a road trip to Edinburgh recently. There was four of us all together Rafael, Neiva, Coster and myself. The drive north took most of the day with a long stop at the Royal Armoury in Leeds. We stayed Saturday night at a small B&B in Hawick which is about 30 or so miles south of Edinburgh.

Sunday was spent wondering around Edinburgh. It's a beautiful city. I took a lot of pictures but the weather was atrocious and most of them are grey and dismal. The castle is amazing and is really worth the entrance fee, there is so much to see there. The biggest surprise of all was a quick stop in the Scottish National Gallery on the way back to the car park. We saw art by Monet, Raphael, Rubens, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin and even Da Vinci. It was a great way to finish of a fantastic day of sightseeing.

Once in the car we headed about 50 miles south east and ended up in the Craw Inn for the night. The food we had for dinner at the inn was nothing short of sublime. It's probably one of the best meals I've had since I've been in the UK. And breakfast the next morning was just as nice with the haggis easily the best part of the meal. Mmmmmm.... haggis! Just before leaving the Craw Inn I snapped a shot of the hanging tree out the back. This is where the last witch execution took place in Scotland.

Our next stop was the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. To get to the island you have to check tide times as you can only drive along the causeway to the island at low tide. For us it worked out fine as the tide was low around 10:30 am. Once again the weather wasn't great but it didn't detract from the picturesque beauty of the place. It has a long history and is a very import Christian site. The Lindisfarne Gospels were written here about 700 and along with the Book of Kells and the Book of Darrow is one the oldest living examples of gospel writings in Britain. The Holy Island was also one of the first places in Britain to feel the sting of Viking steel. Just before leaving we stopped at the Crown and Anchor pub to try some of Lindisfarne's famous mead. It was very tasty and Raf bought a bottle to take home with us.

After Lindisfarne we had a long drive home to Notts with a little detour to the 3 Horse Shoes Inn for an awesome steak.

Great trip!

Wall-to-wall Knights & Armour

2010-02-20T18:02:00.003Z

On the way to Edinburgh recently we stopped at the Royal Armoury in Leeds. This was my second visit to the museum and I can't stress enough just how much awesomeness oozes from the place. It's basically five floors of a massive building filled with all manner of weapons and armour through out history, from ancient all the way to modern. They even have rwo life size elephants dressed in full war gear - stuffed of course. There are also re-enactments and re-telling of historic battles by actors dressed in authentic costumes from the time. And it's not just your standard static display museum, there are interactive installations so you can hold and try out swords, maces, guns, bows and more all with complete safety.

Best of all it's free!

Here's a few pics of just a tiny fraction of the full sets of medieval armour on display.

Flat white coming to Costa Coffee!

2010-01-13T13:33:00.005Z

One of the strangest things I noticed when I first arrived in the UK was the weird look I got from baristas when asking for a Flat White at a coffee shop. As it turns out the Flat White is specific to Australia and New Zealand and generally unknown to the rest of the world.

Nothing made me feel more homesick than when my mate Andrew, who lives in London, took me to a coffee shop that specialized in serving Flat Whites. It tasted sooooo good and really made me feel like I was back home.

Outside of London the chances of finding a Flat White anywhere seemed impossible. But today my prayers were answered when I asked the barista at Costa Coffee, where I get my regular morning latte, if he knew how to make a Flat White. He said that they were adding the Flat White to the menu in just a few weeks. Management were doing training on it as we speak. He even showed me a banner that had been printed up with the Flat White on it ready to be hung once they were ready to go on sale.

HUZZAH!

Here's the recipe for a Flat White from wikipedia:

Originating from New Zealand and Australia, a flat white is a coffee beverage prepared by pouring steamed milk from the bottom of steaming pitcher over a single shot (30ml) of espresso.

The drink is typically served in a small 150-160ml ceramic tulip cup. The stretched and texturised milk is prepared by entraining air into the milk and folding the top layer into the lower layers. To achieve the "flat", non-frothy texture the steamed milk is poured from the bottom of the jug, holding back the lighter froth on the top in order to access milk with smaller bubbles, making the drink smooth and velvety in texture.

If you're an Aussie or Kiwi living in London and really want a Flat White you can find one at the Flat White coffee shop in Soho.

Mmmmmmmm...

Update - Starbucks adopts the ‘Flat White’

Leica vs Notts

2009-11-25T23:13:00.000Z

Tried out my new Leica compact for the first time on the weekend with a few shots from around Nottingham. Pretty happy with the results so far.

C'mon you reds!

2009-10-21T21:54:00.002+01:00

Went to a football (soccer) match to see Nottingham Forest play Barnsley last night. It was great! Forest dominated the first half but couldn't score. In the second half they struggled but scored in injury time at the end of the match to take a 1-0 win. The crowd went berserk. You couldn't have asked for a much better ending really.

Some trivia about Nottingham Forest. They are actually one of the oldest football clubs in the world being established in 1865. They were also the first team to wear red. They chose the colour Garibaldi red to pay tribute to Giuseppe Garibaldi a revolutionary leader at the time. Arsenal got their current colours from a set of red uniforms donated by Forest. At the start of the game and the second half the crowd sings Mull of Kintyre by Paul McCartney. But the words are changed slightly - "Oh mist rolling in from the Trent", "Far have I travelled, much have I seen, Goodison, Anfield are places I've been".

Of course we all lifted our voices to the universal "Referee's a wanker" after he yellow carded the winning goal scorer for excessive celebration. The guy already had a yellow card and had to leave the field with a red...booooooo! You suck ref!

Commenting made easier

2009-10-14T13:50:00.003+01:00

I've changed the settings so you don't have to register to leave a comment.

Apologies for the lack of posts but not much has been going on really. I won't be travelling again before Christmas as my trip to Aus/NZ pretty much cleaned me out. But the itinerary is awesome!

London->Shanghai->Sydney->Auckland->Tokyo->London

Can't wait!

A Wee Trip to Scotia

2009-09-15T21:55:00.018+01:00

York

2009-08-23T16:36:00.012+01:00

Well it's been a while since my last post. I'd like to say I've been terribly busy but I haven't really, just lazy. Anyway, I'm off to Scotland next weekend so I thought I should put up some shots from the York trip. Basically we went to York to meet up with some friends of Rafael & Neiva's that were visiting from Brazil. Well, it wasn't so much to meet Marcquinhos and Suelen but really just a good excuse to take a trip to York and if we managed to run into them while we were there then cool. As it turned out we didn't meet them but we had a good time none-the-les

For the trip north we went via Leeds. As we arrived in Leeds it was bucketing down so we decided to follow the signs to the Royal Armories museum. It turned out to be fantastic. Since living in Europe the last couple of years I've been looking for a museum with a good selection of arms and armour. Well this is the place! It's huge over 4 floors and it's stacked wall to wall with suits of armour, weapons and life size dioramas depicting battle scenes. In one room there is a life size elephant covered in armour with bowman and lancers on top. And while we were too late to see them they also have demonstrations of combat techniques with ancient weapons and armour. And the most amazing part of all is that the museum is free.

After the museum we headed for our hotel in Halifax which is about 50 miles from York. But as it was still light we decided check out a little park close by. There was an old mill in the middle of the forest which was kinda cool.

Later that evening we had a nice meal with excellent service in the hotel restaurant and an early night ready for a big day in York on Sunday. We woke to a beautiful morning and spent some time having a look at a few little sights on the way to York. Neiva decided we were spending too much time messing about so we cut or lazy sight-seeing short and headed directly for York.

There is a lot to see in York and you can easily spend a whole day there. The top sights to see in my opinion are the Minster including the catacombs beneath, the City Walls, the Shambles (medieval streets) and the Yorkshire Museum & gardens. The Jarvik Viking Centre was a big disappointment for me and was also one the most expensive attractions. In fact everything in York costs money so if your visiting be prepared to spend £20-30 or more in entry fees alone if you want to see everything.

One the best things to do in York is to walk along the old city walls. They are broken onto 3 different sections and include gate houses and towers and you get great views over the town as you wander along. It does get quite narrow in parts and being a lot wider than most I usually had to find a parapet or hole in the wall to squeeze into so people could get by.

As you can see from the photos it was beautiful day and as much as I've winged about the weather here in the UK the last 3 weekends have been great. In fact as I write this I'm suffering from the copious amounts of BBQ'ed meat I've consumed while lazing on the deck this afternoon. Life is good.

Next weekend Scotland!

Birmingham & Bosworth

2009-08-01T02:10:00.009+01:00

In the continuing quest to purchase a car I travelled 60 miles west to Birmingham last weekend. My flatmates Raf and Neiva also came along for the ride.

As it turned out the car was a bit of bomb so we decided to enjoy the sunshine and headed to Birmingham city centre for a quick look around. The city centre was quite nice and looks like a great place to shop. Unlike Nottingham which is absolutely jam packed with people on the weekend.

Strangely we found an area of the main square where a large amount of sand had been dumped and people were sitting on deck chairs watching some kind if free concert. This seems to be a common British summer event as the very same thing was set up in the Nottingham market square. I guess after living on the eastern coast of Australia it's easy to take our beaches for granted. But still, it was kind of weird.

Next stop was the Cadbury chocolate factory which turned out to be pretty interesting. And you get quite a bit of free chocolate - woot! They've set the place up as a kind of theme park and obviously play on the whole Willy Wonka thing. But it wasn't completely lame, other than a horrible little ride at the end of the factory tour. I had to drag Neiva away so that she wouldn't buy a photo of us in this dinky little plastic car and me with a wtf expression on my face. Man I dodged a bullet there, could have been some serious laughs at my expense had that made it online.

On the way back to Notts we stopped of at Bosworth Field. This was where the final battle of the War of the Roses was fought between the Tudor king Henry and Richard III. Richard assembled his army in Nottingham and vastly outnumbered the Tudor forces. The battlefield itself is great as it has little plaques around it that describe the events and often mention important things that happened right where you're standing. As it turns out Richard III was killed in battle and his forces routed and the Tudors became the new rulers of a united England for centuries to come.

If you've ever seen the first episode of Black Adder where he kills his uncle Richard the king by accident, this was the battle he was fighting in.

Overall it was a really nice day and the weather was fantastic.

This weekend I'm heading north to York.

The Snot People

2009-07-10T01:35:00.003+01:00

I was surprised to discover an interesting fact surrounding the name of the city where I'm living here in the UK.

According to Wikipedia, the name Nottingham is derived from a Saxon Chieftan named Snot. And in fact Snot's people lived right on the site where I work in town called the Lace Market.

First Post

2009-07-07T17:31:00.001+01:00

Finally caved and decided to start a personal blog.

We'll see how it goes...