Our friend from Hitachi, David Han, who also house sat for us when we were in India, is in London this week. One of his primary goals is to see Wimbledon while he is here. We agreed a couple of months ago that we would go with him on opening day, the 26th, to see the matches. After doing a ton of research online as to tickets, locations and times, we talked to him last night to agree to a plan. We found out that the matches were to begin at noon, and that we would need to get there early to get a grounds pass to get in. We could have camped out all night to get a seat in center court, but Erin and I agreed a grounds pass would suffice. David, of course didn't want to miss a moment and wanted us to meet him at 7am at the gates to wait in line. We agreed that we would meet him...some time after 9am. Three hours in line is enough devotion for us.
We went to bed, excited about the idea of Wimbledon the next day. Suddenly, the phone is ringing, and ringing, and ringing...by the time we realized that the sky wasn't falling we missed the phone. I went got my cell phone, assuming it was David and saw that there were two missed calls. One at 6:15 and one at 6:16. Only the ringing phone was the house phone, not the cell...make that one more missed call at 6:17. It was now 6:18 and I called David back. He informed us that it was raining and likely to rain all day. But that we should still try to go regardless. I said that sounded good...thanks for the update... and we'd call him back in "a couple of hours" after finishing sleeping. He asked what we were doing because he was bored....at 6:18 am. Afterall he had already gone for a run and needed something to do. He said he wasn't feeling any jet lag effects either after arriving yesterday afternoon. I hung up on him and went back to sleep.
Finally we got in touch with David around 9 (apparently he fell asleep again...ha!). We agreed that we should try to go to Wimbledon, because it wasn't raining as hard anymore. So Erin and I put our shorts (her skirt) and flip-flops on. Rain be damned! As we walked to the tube, there was no rain, just umbrellas in our shorts pockets. We may be getting lucky...The four of us, with David's friend Stephanie, made it out to Wimbledon after a brief 30 minute tube ride. We walked the mile from the tube and realized we missed the queue for the non ticket holders and began our walk back up the road. We found the queue and realized there wasn't actually a queue, only a security stop. We were in.
Quickly we were able to find seats at court 19 and watched the beginning of a match. It was 4 to 4 and 30 minutes in, when play was suspended. At first the warning on the PA said 1 to 2 hours. So we walked around. Eventually we found the practice courts and were able to watch Maria Hotapova, er, Sharapova take practice swings with her coach. I even was able to get my picture taken with her. Pictures coming as soon as I find the cable to connect my camera to the computer.
Following that we went to get autographs as even the practice courts were closed due to rain. As the players went to the locker room we were able to watch Leyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal, and a few other people we had no clue who they were walk by. We just weren't quick enough to get autographs. We did get a couple though. One we had no idea who it was, the other from Andy Murray, a young Brit.
We then spent about 45 minutes waiting in line for Wimbledon gear, then went for our requisite strawberries and cream....all while still waiting out the rain. We were so excited for the strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, that it took us until about half way through eating to realize, while shivering in wet shorts, that they are very overrated. Then the PA came back on and said play was likely to resume in another couple of hours...it was almost 4 already. We threw away the remaining cream, popped open the new Wimbledon umbrella and got on the bus back home. We'll look like grizzled veterans when we return in a few days with Wimbledon hats, tshirts and umbrellas....and jeans.
Overall it was exceptionally cool and we can't wait to try to go again. We will try to go one more day this week and possibly next week when Andy and Jen are in town. Grounds passes are a mere 17 pounds...really pretty cheap for a day of entertainment in London.
Photos
Monday, June 26, 2006
Isle of Wight
I'm suddenly on a roll with updates to the blog. I finally remembered to take my camera around to a couple of events we did this weekend, so it must get the blog juices flowing.
First, we went to the Isle of Wight this weekend. The IOW, as it is known apparently, is a small island off of the southern coast of England. Erin and I went with our friend from work, Honor Smith, the Director of Operations for Hitachi Consulting Europe. The trip involved a 1.5 hour train ride from London to Portsmouth, followed by a 15 minute ferry ride to Ryde on the Isle. We were able to find a nice little hotel in the coastal town of Shanklin. From the ferry we were able to take a "train" to Shanklin. The train was actually a retired London subway car. We were only there for about 24 hours, so we didn't do a ton while we were there. We did, however, have a fabulous meal at The Essex in Godshill. It was a small unassuming restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Not sure what type of food you would call it, maybe European Continental, but it was something to write home about (which is what I'm doing). Apparently Erin and Honor had this chocolate dessert that Erin actually had a dream about that night.
On Sunday we went to Queen Victoria's summer house, Osbourne House. It was a beautiful house on about 3oo acres with a great view of the sea. The most amazing room in the house was an "Indian" room that was a recreation of an Indian palace. It was intricately carved and decorated and very much reminded us of our time in India.
We were also able to watch the England-Ecuador match at a pub in Ryde before heading back to London. Another great chance to learn english chants and cheers as Beckham's penalty shot won the game.
We all really enjoyed the Isle of Wight and would recommend it to anyone.
Ted
First, we went to the Isle of Wight this weekend. The IOW, as it is known apparently, is a small island off of the southern coast of England. Erin and I went with our friend from work, Honor Smith, the Director of Operations for Hitachi Consulting Europe. The trip involved a 1.5 hour train ride from London to Portsmouth, followed by a 15 minute ferry ride to Ryde on the Isle. We were able to find a nice little hotel in the coastal town of Shanklin. From the ferry we were able to take a "train" to Shanklin. The train was actually a retired London subway car. We were only there for about 24 hours, so we didn't do a ton while we were there. We did, however, have a fabulous meal at The Essex in Godshill. It was a small unassuming restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Not sure what type of food you would call it, maybe European Continental, but it was something to write home about (which is what I'm doing). Apparently Erin and Honor had this chocolate dessert that Erin actually had a dream about that night.
On Sunday we went to Queen Victoria's summer house, Osbourne House. It was a beautiful house on about 3oo acres with a great view of the sea. The most amazing room in the house was an "Indian" room that was a recreation of an Indian palace. It was intricately carved and decorated and very much reminded us of our time in India.
We were also able to watch the England-Ecuador match at a pub in Ryde before heading back to London. Another great chance to learn english chants and cheers as Beckham's penalty shot won the game.
We all really enjoyed the Isle of Wight and would recommend it to anyone.
Ted
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Contact Info
I've heard people don't know how to contact us. Here is the summary
Address:
12 Bathurst Mews
London, W2 2SB, UK
Home Phone:
+44 (0) 207 262 3508
Ted Cell:
+44 (0) 794 603 2676
Erin Cell
+44 (0) 794 036 7337
Note on phone numbers: the + is for what you dial to get out of the country, from the US to UK it is 011, from the UK it is 00. The zero in paranthesis is only for if you are in the country. For those of you calling us from the US, don't dial the zero in parenthesis. If you come to visit and are calling from a local phone, do dial it.
Other fun note is my cool phone here. I finally broke down and bought a pda type of phone. I got the T-Mobile MDA Vario. It is so cool and fun to use. I can now check my email from anywhere. It is WiFi enabled too so it is free to use in our house or office with the WiFi, but there is a phone option for the web. It also has this cool slide out keyboard. Here's a picture for you to enjoy as well....I know, dorky, but why not...
Erin will get a cool phone soon too now that we've finally gotten a bill with her name spelled correctly so that she can get on the bank account and therefore get a phone.
Address:
12 Bathurst Mews
London, W2 2SB, UK
Home Phone:
+44 (0) 207 262 3508
Ted Cell:
+44 (0) 794 603 2676
Erin Cell
+44 (0) 794 036 7337
Note on phone numbers: the + is for what you dial to get out of the country, from the US to UK it is 011, from the UK it is 00. The zero in paranthesis is only for if you are in the country. For those of you calling us from the US, don't dial the zero in parenthesis. If you come to visit and are calling from a local phone, do dial it.
Other fun note is my cool phone here. I finally broke down and bought a pda type of phone. I got the T-Mobile MDA Vario. It is so cool and fun to use. I can now check my email from anywhere. It is WiFi enabled too so it is free to use in our house or office with the WiFi, but there is a phone option for the web. It also has this cool slide out keyboard. Here's a picture for you to enjoy as well....I know, dorky, but why not...
Erin will get a cool phone soon too now that we've finally gotten a bill with her name spelled correctly so that she can get on the bank account and therefore get a phone.
London Photos
In order to speed the rate of posts, I'm going for shorter, more targeted posts.
Fun Pictures from London
Leanne, Ted and Erin at Eddie's summer tropics party
Tara and Erin clowning in the phone booth
Erin, Ted, Tara and Sam in Chinatown
Lunch with Crystal in Camden Town, photo by Tamra
Fun Pictures from London
Leanne, Ted and Erin at Eddie's summer tropics party
Tara and Erin clowning in the phone booth
Erin, Ted, Tara and Sam in Chinatown
Lunch with Crystal in Camden Town, photo by Tamra
Friday, June 23, 2006
Work - Life Balance
Now that we’ve figured out banking and the grocery store, it’s time to figure out the consulting world. This update is on what our work life is like and what we’re working on.
First of all, Hitachi Consulting hired a few people in London to start an office about a month before we arrived. There are currently three VPs in London driving work in the Public sector (government – big here) and financial services. These three VPs and one senior manager were most recently with Unisys in London. In addition to these three VPs, the COO of Hitachi Consulting Europe and the director of Operations are also based in London. Then there are the three of us from Seattle.
Now that you know the players, the ballfield is another story. According to Charles, the managing VP, most people in London work from home. Since office space is so expensive, we don’t have a big space to house everybody. We do, however, have an office in “The City” which is the financial district of London. Since we are very much in start-up mode, we are renting what used to be a library for a law firm. Inside this library, there are shelves on all the walls but with no books anymore. In the middle is one big conference room table. Since the general theory remains that you can work at home when necessary, it’s hard to predict how many people will be in the office. Some days there are two of us. Other days it’s 12 and no one can concentrate. It’s fun listening to the different types of conversations people are having about their particular problem. Not often do you get the chance to hear the COO talk to the CFO about their meeting with the CEO. That is A.OK.
The other reason that there is a loose office policy is that most people live outside of London because it is too expensive. One of the people in our office lives near Bath, which is about a 2-3 hour train ride away. He makes the commute a few days a week. The real kicker for him is the fact that the fare is about $125 a day. Must be a good deal on rent out there to justify it.
As for work, Erin and I are primarily focused on Microsoft. Thankfully for me, we are also trying to expand the Business Intelligence practice here, which is my specialty. I’ve been lending a hand where I can. My two recent interesting activities were to help complete some due diligence on a potential acquisition and help on a proposal for the government of Northern Ireland.
All of the logistics aside, while it is fun to be in London, it is stressful being in more of a pure business development role. There is certainly far more pressure on making sure we make a sale. While the job is similar to what we would be doing in Seattle, all of the Seattle support systems are around the world. While people there help all they can, we still need to figure it out, have the conversations and close the deals. Erin and I firmly believe we are doing all of the right things, and know that it will take time, but we’re still nervous because of the trust that people in Seattle have put in us, not to mention the expense of letting us be here. It will be a lot better when we can report more on the money coming in than the money going out. It will also be a lot easier to enjoy the experience.
Thank goodness for quiz night at the pub to relax and forget for a little while. We’re also looking forward to the summer tourist season. We’re taking Monday off and going to Wimbledon with David Han from Seattle. Nothing more relaxing than strawberries and cream on the grass of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (or something like that).
First of all, Hitachi Consulting hired a few people in London to start an office about a month before we arrived. There are currently three VPs in London driving work in the Public sector (government – big here) and financial services. These three VPs and one senior manager were most recently with Unisys in London. In addition to these three VPs, the COO of Hitachi Consulting Europe and the director of Operations are also based in London. Then there are the three of us from Seattle.
Now that you know the players, the ballfield is another story. According to Charles, the managing VP, most people in London work from home. Since office space is so expensive, we don’t have a big space to house everybody. We do, however, have an office in “The City” which is the financial district of London. Since we are very much in start-up mode, we are renting what used to be a library for a law firm. Inside this library, there are shelves on all the walls but with no books anymore. In the middle is one big conference room table. Since the general theory remains that you can work at home when necessary, it’s hard to predict how many people will be in the office. Some days there are two of us. Other days it’s 12 and no one can concentrate. It’s fun listening to the different types of conversations people are having about their particular problem. Not often do you get the chance to hear the COO talk to the CFO about their meeting with the CEO. That is A.OK.
The other reason that there is a loose office policy is that most people live outside of London because it is too expensive. One of the people in our office lives near Bath, which is about a 2-3 hour train ride away. He makes the commute a few days a week. The real kicker for him is the fact that the fare is about $125 a day. Must be a good deal on rent out there to justify it.
As for work, Erin and I are primarily focused on Microsoft. Thankfully for me, we are also trying to expand the Business Intelligence practice here, which is my specialty. I’ve been lending a hand where I can. My two recent interesting activities were to help complete some due diligence on a potential acquisition and help on a proposal for the government of Northern Ireland.
All of the logistics aside, while it is fun to be in London, it is stressful being in more of a pure business development role. There is certainly far more pressure on making sure we make a sale. While the job is similar to what we would be doing in Seattle, all of the Seattle support systems are around the world. While people there help all they can, we still need to figure it out, have the conversations and close the deals. Erin and I firmly believe we are doing all of the right things, and know that it will take time, but we’re still nervous because of the trust that people in Seattle have put in us, not to mention the expense of letting us be here. It will be a lot better when we can report more on the money coming in than the money going out. It will also be a lot easier to enjoy the experience.
Thank goodness for quiz night at the pub to relax and forget for a little while. We’re also looking forward to the summer tourist season. We’re taking Monday off and going to Wimbledon with David Han from Seattle. Nothing more relaxing than strawberries and cream on the grass of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club (or something like that).
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Meredith in Paris
We've started the weekend trips off in style with a weekend to Paris for the long bank holiday (no Memorial day here, but the Brits were kind enough to have a bank holiday, not sure why though) this past weekend.
We loaded on the Eurostar train on Friday afternoon. We were very lucky to be able to stay in a flat owned by a friend of Erin's who was out of town for the weekend. Two times I've made it to Paris now and both times stayed in someone else's apartment while they were out of town. It's great because there is more money then to spend on wine and foie gras, which we certainly did enjoy.
Our plan was quite simple - eat, drink and shop...not necessarily in that order for Erin. She had the greenlight to do lots of shopping after winning some extra cash at work for all of her hard work getting us here.
A friend from Hitachi, Meredith, was also in Paris and we hung out all weekend. Lucky because not only was she fun, but she provided ample opportunities for us to laugh, if not at her, very near by. To start, on Friday night we had plans to go to a party with Erin's friend. We gave Meredith detailed instructions to our neighborhood from her hotel via the Metro. After waiting over drinks, we decided to eat dinner when she still didn't show up. Finally as our meal just arrived, so did Meredith. Apparently it was a long journey. Her order of duck confit arrived shortly after I finished mine. In true Corbett fashion, I was eyeing her plate and couldn't understand why she was eating so slowly. Then she stood up real fast and ran for the bathroom...She must have had too much fun on her recent trip to South Africa. Oh, and I enjoyed the second helping of duck.
On Saturday, Erin, Delphine and Meredith took off on a long day of shopping, while I walked all over Paris. Erin did indeed live up to reputation and brought in quite a haul. As for me, I wandered around Paris. In most places, I have a great internal compass, but apparently, like me, it doesn't speak French. I did enjoy a nice, meandering walk to find the Eiffel tower. Who would have thought you couldn't see it from everywhere.
Saturday night we all went to Delphine, Christophe and Viktor's (Erin's friend from living in Paris in high school) house for dinner. So great to eat dinner in a real french household. How can it be bad when you start off with Port and then move into a steak dish with a big piece of foie gras on top with a yummy sauce and wine. It was fantastic. It was also great to see Christophe's work, as he is a cartoonist who is soon to have his first book published in the US. (you can see some of his work here http://www.bulledair.com/blain/). Of course Meredith was tired from the night before, so she showed us how to fall asleep during dinner. And we thought Meredith was supposed to be fun.
On Sunday, Meredith, Erin and I went to the local market near our apartment (per our original plan Meredith was staying with us now too to save $ for shopping herself). After looking at all kinds of great food, we decided to shop for a picnic for later in the afternoon. We bought so much food that we wound up having about three picnics around town throughout the day. We had three kinds of pate, two cheeses, fruit, bread, olives, some fancy feta dip (I guess that's three cheeses), and of course, wine. We had our first picnic outside Notre Dame and our second, with champagne (Meredith's favorite) outside the Louvre. It was extremely decadent and a ton of fun. Always great to travel with someone who loves food as much as we do. Plus, she was so embarassed by her performances on Friday and Saturday that she had to prove how much fun she was. So we had a great Sunday night wine/foie gras crawl through Paris. It was indeed fun.
Meredith added one more bit of excitement on Monday morning when Erin went to see why she hadn't gotten up yet for her early flight to London. She found out that her alarm, which was our cell phone that I set...oops, was set for an hour later. She should have plenty of time, except that she realized when she woke up that she left her passport in the room safe of the hotel she was staying in on Friday night. After a chaotic race to get ready and catch a cab, she missed her flight...fortunately for her she was able to get on a later flight.
We returned to London on Monday along with Meredith as she was making one more stop here. We got to spend a couple of more nights with her, including one night at quiz night at the local pub. It was a great time...though we came in around 10th...out of 13. We need a brit on our team in the future. We had five people from Seattle. One of our new friends is a neighbor, Eddie, who is from Seattle and is the marketing director for Cranium (one of our favorite games). In a small world, he brought a friend who was visiting from Seattle, who works with our friend from Denver, Patrick Combs....or as she called him, Dr. P Diddy. We had a good team name though, "Seattle: Where the weather is better".
We'll get pictures posted soon.
Thanks for the fun Meredith.
Ted
We loaded on the Eurostar train on Friday afternoon. We were very lucky to be able to stay in a flat owned by a friend of Erin's who was out of town for the weekend. Two times I've made it to Paris now and both times stayed in someone else's apartment while they were out of town. It's great because there is more money then to spend on wine and foie gras, which we certainly did enjoy.
Our plan was quite simple - eat, drink and shop...not necessarily in that order for Erin. She had the greenlight to do lots of shopping after winning some extra cash at work for all of her hard work getting us here.
A friend from Hitachi, Meredith, was also in Paris and we hung out all weekend. Lucky because not only was she fun, but she provided ample opportunities for us to laugh, if not at her, very near by. To start, on Friday night we had plans to go to a party with Erin's friend. We gave Meredith detailed instructions to our neighborhood from her hotel via the Metro. After waiting over drinks, we decided to eat dinner when she still didn't show up. Finally as our meal just arrived, so did Meredith. Apparently it was a long journey. Her order of duck confit arrived shortly after I finished mine. In true Corbett fashion, I was eyeing her plate and couldn't understand why she was eating so slowly. Then she stood up real fast and ran for the bathroom...She must have had too much fun on her recent trip to South Africa. Oh, and I enjoyed the second helping of duck.
On Saturday, Erin, Delphine and Meredith took off on a long day of shopping, while I walked all over Paris. Erin did indeed live up to reputation and brought in quite a haul. As for me, I wandered around Paris. In most places, I have a great internal compass, but apparently, like me, it doesn't speak French. I did enjoy a nice, meandering walk to find the Eiffel tower. Who would have thought you couldn't see it from everywhere.
Saturday night we all went to Delphine, Christophe and Viktor's (Erin's friend from living in Paris in high school) house for dinner. So great to eat dinner in a real french household. How can it be bad when you start off with Port and then move into a steak dish with a big piece of foie gras on top with a yummy sauce and wine. It was fantastic. It was also great to see Christophe's work, as he is a cartoonist who is soon to have his first book published in the US. (you can see some of his work here http://www.bulledair.com/blain/). Of course Meredith was tired from the night before, so she showed us how to fall asleep during dinner. And we thought Meredith was supposed to be fun.
On Sunday, Meredith, Erin and I went to the local market near our apartment (per our original plan Meredith was staying with us now too to save $ for shopping herself). After looking at all kinds of great food, we decided to shop for a picnic for later in the afternoon. We bought so much food that we wound up having about three picnics around town throughout the day. We had three kinds of pate, two cheeses, fruit, bread, olives, some fancy feta dip (I guess that's three cheeses), and of course, wine. We had our first picnic outside Notre Dame and our second, with champagne (Meredith's favorite) outside the Louvre. It was extremely decadent and a ton of fun. Always great to travel with someone who loves food as much as we do. Plus, she was so embarassed by her performances on Friday and Saturday that she had to prove how much fun she was. So we had a great Sunday night wine/foie gras crawl through Paris. It was indeed fun.
Meredith added one more bit of excitement on Monday morning when Erin went to see why she hadn't gotten up yet for her early flight to London. She found out that her alarm, which was our cell phone that I set...oops, was set for an hour later. She should have plenty of time, except that she realized when she woke up that she left her passport in the room safe of the hotel she was staying in on Friday night. After a chaotic race to get ready and catch a cab, she missed her flight...fortunately for her she was able to get on a later flight.
We returned to London on Monday along with Meredith as she was making one more stop here. We got to spend a couple of more nights with her, including one night at quiz night at the local pub. It was a great time...though we came in around 10th...out of 13. We need a brit on our team in the future. We had five people from Seattle. One of our new friends is a neighbor, Eddie, who is from Seattle and is the marketing director for Cranium (one of our favorite games). In a small world, he brought a friend who was visiting from Seattle, who works with our friend from Denver, Patrick Combs....or as she called him, Dr. P Diddy. We had a good team name though, "Seattle: Where the weather is better".
We'll get pictures posted soon.
Thanks for the fun Meredith.
Ted
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