After seeing off our last visitor, Nick, it was time to hit the road again (or the airways, rather) and head across the channel to England. Yes, time for another week of hard work (and a bit of fun, of course!). I made it to Heathrow without any problems, the flight was even early, would you believe it? After a day of hard work at the office, the plan was to head into London.
So I got on the 6 o’clock train, and actually ran into Gilad, an old colleague, on the shuttle bus. Good to catch up with him. My first stop was at the Fire Station, where I met up with Adrian, who had just had a job interview (Adrian, who changes jobs nearly as often as tee-shirts, has just finished his M.Sc. and was now on the lookout for a job). After a couple of beers, and quick catching up, it was time to make my way across to the city, where I was meeting up with Ed and some of his mates. The venue of choice was the appropriately named The Banker (it’s located off Chancellor’s Lane in The City, where a lot of the banks are located). I actually knew a couple of the people there, including a Swedish guy and his girlfriend. So it was actually a really good night out in the end, and I got to practice my Swedish a bit, which was nice. I also really like the old pubs in this part of London, the expression “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” is quite appropriate for pubs, I reckon… A dodgy fried chicken ‘n chips meal later, I was ready to crash (on Ed’s sofa…).
Getting to work from Ed’s place was a bit of a pain as usual, but I did make it into the office at a reasonable time. The plan was to organize a sort of team meal that evening, but unfortunately no-body showed up from my team in the end – I suppose I should’ve given people a bit more notice than 6 hours or so… Thankfully Nick joined me down to the Prince Arthur in Fleet, where we discussed our company’s problems very passionately (as engineers tend to when they have beers in front of them). Things only got more passionate when Sinhung joined us at the Water sky restaurant, where we had some nice Chinese food. For that night’s accommodation I’d actually booked the Aviator hotel, which is supposedly one of the classier joints in the area. And it certainly beats the places I’ve been to (especially the Holiday Inn across the road) – but it’s not exactly what I’d call budget accommodation (then again, I don’t think that exists in the South-East of England). Quite a futuristic place, and the breakfast was pretty good as well…
Much to my amusement, I was picked up by a taxi driver wearing a Hawaii shirt, shorts and flip-flops (it was raining and the temperature was about 10 degrees) the next morning. I shall not bore you with the details of what I did at the office (also, if I told you I’d have to kill you), but rather move on to the marginally more interesting events of the evening. For tonight, I headed over to Guildford to check out some of the old haunts there. Things kicked off at the White House, where I met up with Nick (yep, the same one I’d been on a train with earlier this week). Simo was supposed to show up as well, but got a bit delayed, and once he headed off and made his way to the White House, we had already headed over to the King’s Head, where we were meeting up with Bruce and his better half and another friend, where we proceeded for the ritual intellectual humiliation, a.k.a. a Pub Quiz. Not even the arrival of Phil, and eventually Simo, helped us – we came last. But well, we had a good time, and that’s the most important thing, right? Great to see Bruce again, it’s been absolute ages… (Turns out there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for him ignoring all my SMS’s, apparently he’s changed mobile number). As always, I crashed at Hotel Whitaker… (That would be Phil’s sofa…).
The next day was the last day at the office, so we decided to have a pub lunch at the Crab and Anchor to celebrate the arrival of the weekend. Quite a few of the usual suspects were there: Sinhung, Scrum Master Steve, Samy, Louise, Jon and Pragati. Good way to end a trip to the UK on a traditional note – Fish and Chips and a pint of real ale.
Good to get back to France and get some rest again…
So I got on the 6 o’clock train, and actually ran into Gilad, an old colleague, on the shuttle bus. Good to catch up with him. My first stop was at the Fire Station, where I met up with Adrian, who had just had a job interview (Adrian, who changes jobs nearly as often as tee-shirts, has just finished his M.Sc. and was now on the lookout for a job). After a couple of beers, and quick catching up, it was time to make my way across to the city, where I was meeting up with Ed and some of his mates. The venue of choice was the appropriately named The Banker (it’s located off Chancellor’s Lane in The City, where a lot of the banks are located). I actually knew a couple of the people there, including a Swedish guy and his girlfriend. So it was actually a really good night out in the end, and I got to practice my Swedish a bit, which was nice. I also really like the old pubs in this part of London, the expression “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” is quite appropriate for pubs, I reckon… A dodgy fried chicken ‘n chips meal later, I was ready to crash (on Ed’s sofa…). 
Getting to work from Ed’s place was a bit of a pain as usual, but I did make it into the office at a reasonable time. The plan was to organize a sort of team meal that evening, but unfortunately no-body showed up from my team in the end – I suppose I should’ve given people a bit more notice than 6 hours or so… Thankfully Nick joined me down to the Prince Arthur in Fleet, where we discussed our company’s problems very passionately (as engineers tend to when they have beers in front of them). Things only got more passionate when Sinhung joined us at the Water sky restaurant, where we had some nice Chinese food. For that night’s accommodation I’d actually booked the Aviator hotel, which is supposedly one of the classier joints in the area. And it certainly beats the places I’ve been to (especially the Holiday Inn across the road) – but it’s not exactly what I’d call budget accommodation (then again, I don’t think that exists in the South-East of England). Quite a futuristic place, and the breakfast was pretty good as well…
Much to my amusement, I was picked up by a taxi driver wearing a Hawaii shirt, shorts and flip-flops (it was raining and the temperature was about 10 degrees) the next morning. I shall not bore you with the details of what I did at the office (also, if I told you I’d have to kill you), but rather move on to the marginally more interesting events of the evening. For tonight, I headed over to Guildford to check out some of the old haunts there. Things kicked off at the White House, where I met up with Nick (yep, the same one I’d been on a train with earlier this week). Simo was supposed to show up as well, but got a bit delayed, and once he headed off and made his way to the White House, we had already headed over to the King’s Head, where we were meeting up with Bruce and his better half and another friend, where we proceeded for the ritual intellectual humiliation, a.k.a. a Pub Quiz. Not even the arrival of Phil, and eventually Simo, helped us – we came last. But well, we had a good time, and that’s the most important thing, right? Great to see Bruce again, it’s been absolute ages… (Turns out there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for him ignoring all my SMS’s, apparently he’s changed mobile number). As always, I crashed at Hotel Whitaker… (That would be Phil’s sofa…).
The next day was the last day at the office, so we decided to have a pub lunch at the Crab and Anchor to celebrate the arrival of the weekend. Quite a few of the usual suspects were there: Sinhung, Scrum Master Steve, Samy, Louise, Jon and Pragati. Good way to end a trip to the UK on a traditional note – Fish and Chips and a pint of real ale.Good to get back to France and get some rest again…
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