Notes to Myself

River Thames

Thames River Walk

This is a series of pictures taken during a lengthy walk from Trafalgar Square to Big Ben, and along the River Thames to the Tate Modern & St. Paul's Cathedral on July 12 2005.

> Thames River Walk Gallery
> Photo Galleries Index

Tinseltown

Welcome to Tinseltown, London's funkiest 24 hour Diner, milkshake bar and internet café.

Tinseltown? Sounds like Christmas to me. A friend would not stop talking about this 'incredible place to get burger and chips.' So at last, we made a trip down to Central London for me to sample the food.

The food was good. The portions were good. The desserts are huge! But also, the atmosphere of this '24hr diner' was very cool.

It's in the basement floor of a building and opens out in front of you when you go down the steps. There's music TV and plenty of celeb photos to look at over your milkshake. Actually, I must try a milkshake next time...

Driving Urge

There are a couple of driving books that somebody once gave me which I took off the shelf today. As I looked through them, I wondered how it would feel to be able to drive. How hard would it be? What kind of buzz would it be to drive?

I've decided that it's a skill I should learn sooner rather than later. Actually, I applied for a provisional licence years back but never took any lessons. I'd like to pass this year if possible. Wish me luck.

Future

How often do you think about the future? Is it best not to look to far ahead? You can think ahead but it's not worth worrying yourself into the grave over things that may or may not be. We all know it's not good to dwell in the past, after all, it's not coming back. But it can be hard to know when we should let go of things, know the time to move on. We could all give ourselves good advice but it's not always easy to follow.

I used to feel that with time some things would suddenly change. A problem would cease to be, something about me would change, I could move forward. Things can change but it seems that I was naive to think that this would happen with time alone.

Sometimes I can be guilty of lacking self-belief - who isn't? - but this can often hinder me when I could be achieving and ejoying life. If you rule out possibilities before you even try, you are clearly going to lose out. Even when I do achieve results worthy of being proud of I often feel little more than slight relief, a case of avoiding failure rather than enjoying success. How do you change that?

Despite the fact that I feel we all make our own choices and that this shapes our lives I also believe in fate. Even when terrible things happen new opportunities arise. For example, having to change jobs you might meet the most amazing new people. Moving country you may lose out on precious relationships, but maybe others are surely waiting around the corner. On several occasions it has seemed like fate had laid out things in my path. There is no wrong decision, only the one you make - have you ever felt that?

Today I hope I've managed to take some positive steps to getting my future back on track.

Intense Greens

When I looked at the new colour sheme for notestomyself.net on a CRT monitor I was really shocked. On my laptop LCD screen the colours are quite muted and understated, but on the CRT the colour, especially on the banner, they were quite garish. I've toned it down a little, as well as darkened the vibrant links. Does the site still feel like 'in your face' luminous green?

Pence Problem

These pesky Sterling coins are causing me problems. This problem seems to catch me off guard with vending machines in particular. I slot in my 10p coins but they aren't accepted. Of course, I always think there is something up with the vending machine.

The other day I was paying my friend back for something. I looked at my coins and realised I had the exact amount which I lay down on the table. Another friend said, 'How much do you think that is?' 'Ah, not again!!' Because of their appearance I keep mistaking 2 pence coins for 10 pence coins - they look similar to 10 yen coins. How embarrassing.

Big Quake

I was shocked to hear about the huge earthquake in the Tokyo area. By all accounts some friends had horrific journeys trying to get home. I hope everyone out there is doing well.

Japanese Mail

I've spent such a long time trying to use Japanese to read and write e-mails with the yahoo service. While yahoo.co.jp mail accounts obviously support Japanese, the yahoo.com mail accounts appear to do less favourably.

I can read e-mails by manually changing the encoding in my browser, but otherwise messages will be garbled. When sending Japanese e-mail the recipient also has to change the encoding they use - not something everyone knows how to do and quite a pain in any case.

"Although we are continuously working on improvements to our service, Yahoo! Mail does not currently support non-Roman characters. As a result, any messages that includes them may appear garbled or unreadable."

I find this quite dissapointing as other services such as hotmail and gmail seem to work with Japanese flawlessly.

Close Threat

A massive hunt is under way for four would-be suicide bombers who tried to set off four explosive devices on three London Tube trains and a bus. Source: BBC

Again, someone phoned me to tell me the news, this time a Japanese friend (good to hear your voice!). Needless to say I was shocked again.

Shepherd's Bush?! That's only a stones throw from here, really. I guess central London isn't the only area that could be a potential target.

Apple Tramp

It was about 11 at night on Regent Street. A tramp was huddled in a small corner beside a shop. Only, as I drew closer I realised this guy was holding an Apple laptop. He was actually sitting there, typing away. The shop he was sitting next to was... the Apple shop.

The Apple shop appears to offer wireless Internet access; if you go up to the lecture area there are always people ignoring the presentation while using their laptops to access the Internet. Don't they use any network security?

I wondered whether this guy outside the shop was sneakily taking advantage of free net access. I must take my laptop next time to test the theory.

Supersize Me

You'd think that watching Supersize Me would stop most people from eating Mc Donald's, at least for a while. Who would watch it, be suitably disgusted, only to go to McD's later the same day for a bite to eat? Ahem...

Real London

Are you an avid Tube user? If you prefer the Underground to the buses and if you don't drive, then like me, perhaps your knowledge of the actual layout of London is poor or skewed.

My friends and I were discussing the fact that the Underground map is totally warped and can give you a distorted view of London. These friends found just what I've been dying to see, the real Underground, that is, how the Underground is mapped out geographically instead of schematically. This map covers the centre of London - just watch as it morphs between views - snazzy!

> Real Undergound Map

T630 & K750i

Thinking I'd save some money on montlhy line rental, I opted for a Virgin pay-as-you-go handset. The problem with pay-as-you-go is the initial cost, often very expensive if you want a recent model. Taking the middle road, I chose the Sony Ericsson T630, weighing in at 90 quid.

At the time I just wanted to get connected and I thought I'd ignore the rather poor camera - at least the phone is in colour, unlike my previous UK phone. For a handset with camera which was apparently one of the most popular about a year back I have to wonder just why it's so bad. Or is it that recent phones are only just starting to produce half-way decent pictures? I'd show you a picture I've taken, but it would cost me 30p which is approx. 4 times the price it cost me in Japan! And with sms (instead of e-mail) at 10p, almost 7 times the price of a short mail in Japan, the cost difference is simply rediculous (granted, that was a contract).

There are many things I could complain about, but I am losing energy, and it was my choice after all. It just hurts that this phone, about a year old, is clearly far inferior to my first Japanese phone which I bought 3 years ago.

Though I don't really know how good the phone is, I've wanted the Sony Ericsson K750i since the moment I saw it. It was just being released when I got back to England. With a 2 mega pixel camera and lots of bells and whistles this seems to be the cutting edge phone of choice. Purely from an aesthetic stand point, this phone deserves attention.

Today someone showed me their K750i, the first time I'd seen one up-close and personal. The picture quality is stunning compared to the T630 - not so much as gimmick as something useful.

Unfortunately, at 250 pounds on pay-as-you-go, it's a little expensive. If I opt for a contract plan in future I'll probably go for this phone.

Snack Memories

Snack Memories

When I go into a newsagent it's amazing when I see the old snacks I used to love. Well, I still love them. 10p Space invaders! Nik-naks! Tangy-Toms! There are so many more. Of course, there's lots of salt & vinegar flavour crisps to enjoy, too. Ah, heaven - until I start to really crave Japanese snacks.

Commemoration Day Gallery

Commemoration Day 2005, Trafalgar Square

Down at Trafalgar Square people basked in the hot Sun and dipped their feet into the cool water by the fountains. Messages of thanks for Commemoration Day were hung from strings attached to Nelson's Column.

> Commemoration Day Gallery, Trafalgar Square
> Photo Galleries Index

Into London

A call came from a shop on Oxford Street this morning saying that something I had been waiting for had arrived. Off into the West End, then.

I'd thought it wouldn't bother me having to get on the Tube - after all, we have to get on with things, right? But when I actually thought about being in those tunnels...

As it turned out, the Piccailly Line wasn't running all the way into the West End so I opted for the bus. It was a little unnerving boarding and sitting on the upper deck, but soon I forgot about it. A woman on her mobile arguing with her boyfriend couldn't help but distract me.

Oxford Street seemed the same as always - lots of people, lots of shopping. I'm not sure what I was expecting.

London Blasts

Well, I'm sure most people have heard about the explosions in London and I'll leave it for the news sites for in depth information. If anybody was wondering I just wanted to say that I'm fine and my family and friends are OK.

Luckily for me, I was still at home when the chaos unfolded. At around 10am I was about to get ready to go out to meet an old friend for lunch in the West End. This friend phoned to say that blasts in London had caused the Underground and buses to be suspended. I switched on the TV. All 5 channels were covering the scene in London. I couldn't believe the news - at the time they were saying there were 6 blasts including a bus bomb. Now the number is at 4 blasts with around 40 fatalities.

The phone network was jammed at points, but the phone didn't stop ringing - people checking to see whether everyone was OK. My friends working in the city thankfully replied by sms to say they were OK. I hope their journeys home weren't unbearable.

It made me think... If I were to die in such an attack who would I want to be with?

London Bid 2012

The Olympics are coming to London!

When I came back to London there were 'back the bid' signs all over London. The amount of effort that has gone into this looks incredible.

Let's hope the preparations go well. I'm hoping that improvements made will benefit London way beyond the actual Games.

London will be an exciting place to be in 2012.

> London 2012 Homepage

Final Grunt

We were all hoping for a closer Wimbledon final but Federer swept Roddick away in straight sets with ease.

How about that grunting? I'm not talking about the players. Jimmy Conners commenting for the BBC let out a little grunt of surprise, approval and appreciation after practiaclly every point. Couldn't someone have told him or 'muted' him?

Run & Become

I've been thinking about investing in some running shoes - anything would be better than the trainers I'm running in now. A friend of mine has been running for a long time and knows several specialist shops in London. He recommended going to a specialist shop as they give expert advice about running shoes appropriate for your running style. One shop he mentioned was Run and Become, near St. James Park Station.

Thinking there might be some running shoes on sale, I went along with a friend. There were a number of shoes on sale and I asked about one pair. The lady working there told me a little about them but said that she'd need to see me run to see if they suit my running style.

She got out some 'neutral shoes' in my size and told me run from the shop door to a lamp post and back in the drizzling rain. I wasn't exactly dressed for running and there were lots of business folk ambling past so it was a little embarassing at first. After seeing me run for just 20 seconds the lady had analyzed the way I run, the amount I 'pronate' (feet rolling inwards) and where I needed support. Amazing!