Sproglets and the rest
It has again been a long time since I last blogged. There always seems to be too much else to do, especially now it's nearly Christmas. I have been out nearly every night over the last few weeks, at Christmas meals, birthday parties, meeting up with friends etc. I went to the O2 arena for the first time the other day, to see Eddie Izzard. He was very funny, but the O2 is not the best venue for watching comedy. It is too big for that kind of thing, and as a result the atmosphere wasn't great. It is a rather impressive arena though - one that London has been crying out for for a long time. Another reason I have been busy is that Vanessa just bought me a Wii for my birthday, so I've been playing on that in most of my spare moments!
Prior to November, I was studying for my final CTA paper. I passed the other two that I took in May. But only just! The second one I couldn't have possibly passed by a smaller margin! But the important thing is that I did pass! The result from the final paper is due in the middle of January - so please keep all your fingers and toes and arms and legs crossed for the next six weeks!
So what has happened over the last six months? I went on holiday with Vanessa to Chicago and Toronto. Chicago was an amazing city - it has lots of impressive skyscrapers, including the 'Willis Tower' (more famously known as the Sears Tower, its previous name). Vanessa and I went up to the viewing platform of this tower. Then there is the Frank Gehry inspired Millennium Park, which has the Bean designed by Anish Kapoor. The best part of the city though was that it is on the banks of Lake Michigan. Unlike most cities which are on the banks of rivers or lakes, the banks have been reserved for pedestrians, with wide paths and parks allowing views not spoiled by factories and council estates. There are also beaches just minutes ago from the shopping centres and the business districts.
Toronto was also a nice city, but it is quieter and more sedate than Chicago. It seemed like it would be a very pleasant city to live in, but not the most interesting place. The CN Tower is the icon of the city, and again Vanessa and I went up to the viewing platform - in this tower's case, there were two platforms, so we went up to the second higher platform. We coincidentally managed to select the only sunny day of the four days we were there to go up the tower, so we got some rather impressive views. However, every other tourist who was in Canada on that day also decided to go up, so we were stuck in a number of excessively long and slow-moving queues for the majority of the day.
We also took a day trip to Niagara Falls. I had been once before, in the middle of March when the river was covered in floes of ice, and the outside temperature was -18 degrees centigrade. It was more impressive and more pleasant in the summer. We went on the Maid of the Mist boat trip, which goes as close as is safe to the bottom of the falls. As you can see, we got to dress up in fetching blue plastic macs!
The major recurring theme since the end of October has been that lots of my friends, relatives, colleagues, acquaintances and people I've met have been either having babies or begetting them, depending on their sex. In the five week period from the end of October to the end of November, there were six babies born to the above-mentioned groups of people. Unfortunately, due to a mixture of having other commitments and being lazy and miserable, I have only met one of the six newborns so far. This is a situation which I am hoping to address in the next few weeks and months! Congratulations go to all six sets of parents. It sounds like all the babies are doing well, which is great news. The parents seem to be surviving too...!
This last six month period has been quite a remarkable one, in that I have only been to one wedding - Emma and Stuart's wedding in Oxfordshire. I have only been to a couple of cricket matches too after the end of June. One of these was the final day of the Ashes, when England regained the trophy that they so weakly gave away during my big tour of the world in 2006/7, so it was well worth going to!
So that's my news, speak to you again in six months - or will I be more inclined to update this blog next year?!
Prior to November, I was studying for my final CTA paper. I passed the other two that I took in May. But only just! The second one I couldn't have possibly passed by a smaller margin! But the important thing is that I did pass! The result from the final paper is due in the middle of January - so please keep all your fingers and toes and arms and legs crossed for the next six weeks!
So what has happened over the last six months? I went on holiday with Vanessa to Chicago and Toronto. Chicago was an amazing city - it has lots of impressive skyscrapers, including the 'Willis Tower' (more famously known as the Sears Tower, its previous name). Vanessa and I went up to the viewing platform of this tower. Then there is the Frank Gehry inspired Millennium Park, which has the Bean designed by Anish Kapoor. The best part of the city though was that it is on the banks of Lake Michigan. Unlike most cities which are on the banks of rivers or lakes, the banks have been reserved for pedestrians, with wide paths and parks allowing views not spoiled by factories and council estates. There are also beaches just minutes ago from the shopping centres and the business districts.
Toronto was also a nice city, but it is quieter and more sedate than Chicago. It seemed like it would be a very pleasant city to live in, but not the most interesting place. The CN Tower is the icon of the city, and again Vanessa and I went up to the viewing platform - in this tower's case, there were two platforms, so we went up to the second higher platform. We coincidentally managed to select the only sunny day of the four days we were there to go up the tower, so we got some rather impressive views. However, every other tourist who was in Canada on that day also decided to go up, so we were stuck in a number of excessively long and slow-moving queues for the majority of the day.
We also took a day trip to Niagara Falls. I had been once before, in the middle of March when the river was covered in floes of ice, and the outside temperature was -18 degrees centigrade. It was more impressive and more pleasant in the summer. We went on the Maid of the Mist boat trip, which goes as close as is safe to the bottom of the falls. As you can see, we got to dress up in fetching blue plastic macs!
The major recurring theme since the end of October has been that lots of my friends, relatives, colleagues, acquaintances and people I've met have been either having babies or begetting them, depending on their sex. In the five week period from the end of October to the end of November, there were six babies born to the above-mentioned groups of people. Unfortunately, due to a mixture of having other commitments and being lazy and miserable, I have only met one of the six newborns so far. This is a situation which I am hoping to address in the next few weeks and months! Congratulations go to all six sets of parents. It sounds like all the babies are doing well, which is great news. The parents seem to be surviving too...!
This last six month period has been quite a remarkable one, in that I have only been to one wedding - Emma and Stuart's wedding in Oxfordshire. I have only been to a couple of cricket matches too after the end of June. One of these was the final day of the Ashes, when England regained the trophy that they so weakly gave away during my big tour of the world in 2006/7, so it was well worth going to!
So that's my news, speak to you again in six months - or will I be more inclined to update this blog next year?!
posted by Gaz man at 5:09 pm
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