Marques's weblog

On to the sophomore slump

Does anyone even check this anymore or not? God writing a blog is so taxing. That reminds me, I still need to do my US taxes and fuck now my UK ones are due as well. International living is hard. Anyways I sit here in bed in the waning minutes of my one year anniversary in London so I guess I kind of have to write something right?

This year has went by super duper fast and yet many memories still clearly sit in my mind. I remember the first cab ride from Paddington to my temp housing. I was sitting there in the cab with what would be all my belongings for the next 5 months and wondering if I would ever be able to figure out the route the driver was taking. I now could practically walk it blind if I had to. It is amazing how well I now know this city and it is scary how much there still is to know. It definitely makes Seattle seem small.

After I got to temp housing I struggled to carry my stuff to the front door only to find no one waiting for me. My new home was a bench that I laid down on and basked in the sun and nearly perfect weather.

My first home in London


Eventually the person would show up and let me step into my first place in London. I think I spent about the rest of the day sorting all my stuff out since it had all been. My only goal for the day was to get me some McD's as a reminder of where I came from and after getting a little lost, it was eventually mission accomplished. I passed out at 2 only to wake up 3 hours later.
My first meal in London


The early wake up time really wasn't too bad because the next day I had to go in early for what would turn out to be many early morning releases this year. The release actually got postponed till the next day for reasons outside my control, but that first day would start what has probably been the most successful year of my somewhat short career.

SEO pages for hotels

It is kind of shocking really because when I say that I moved here for the city and not the career, I really mean it. I moved here to take on a dev lead position which I had already had in Bellevue so there was no immediate leg up there. Sure I had hopes of really turning London into a center for development, but that certainly was a stretch. However for the most part that has happened and it was not all my doing, but I was definitely there to shape it when the decisions were made. Originally I was to manage 3 devs and maybe a 4th. By the end of October I was managing 3 onsite and 4 offshore. Now I manage 4 onshore and 9 resources offshore. Our pipeline has been super successful so it is hard to imagine how this might grow over the next year.

I wish I could say my good friends here have multiplied like my directs. I mean there are definitely people I would miss if I left here, but I am not nearly as entrenched as I would like to be. In my head things in Seattle are quite idealized. I mean it was a slow go for 5 months there, but once it started at the beginning of 2003 the friendships became pretty cemented. I mean it is kind of insane to think how quickly we went to hanging out every weekend and many weeknights. I definitely don't have that yet.

Some of my experiments to rectify this have definitely been misses. Fuck the first place I lived in was horrible. I guess I got a good experience out of it, but no friends. It did teach me how to do it right the next time though and living with Matt and now Vanessa has been great. Other than the fact that none of our dietary habits/restrictions overlap making it impossible to cook as a group, the situation seems pretty ideal.

Matt (roommate), myself, Vanessa (roommate), Sling and Noah


London is a tough town though. When I lived in DC, I always used the reason of it being a transient town for a reason to not move there. I never really thought about London being like that, but it is and now I know why transient towns aren't the best. I don't know many people my age who plan to stay in London. I have met quite a few people in the last months and half of them won't be here to see the ball drop on 2010. Even while they are living here they are rarely around. It amazes me how often someone in my household is missing. We may go the whole month of July without a full house. That is kind of crazy. This really does hurt one's ability to get a groove. I guess I just need to make more friends on the no fly list or something.

All these factors of course only makes me wonder about what I want with this experience. Well that and the fact that it is all anyone ever asks me. I spend a lot of time thinking about this, probably to the point where it is somewhat detrimental to the whole experiment. The answer is still that I don't know. I guess I always feel antsy about where my career is going. For some reason I always feel like I need to reset it, but honestly I don't know if I have a good answer as to why. This decision of course has the added stress of determining when the queen puts her dainty foot to my ass and kicks me out of the country. It all kind of gives me a greater appreciation for why Amazon loves the indentured servitude of the Canadians.

Even outside of work I am confused to my purpose. It actually bounces between that and why I think I need a purpose. I am by no means alone in these thoughts. It seems like everyone is just wandering around trying to figure out what is what in their life.

Bridge to where?


I guess it is best to just grab onto the concrete. I know I have my antsiness, but it is somewhat negated by the fact that I still haven't even put a dent into what I wanted to accomplish in Europe. I still haven't been to Scandinavia. No Poland, no Italy and no Turkey either. This of course is balanced against the ever daunting task of knowing London better.

So in the end I don't really know where I would rather be so here I stay. I can't really tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but that is probably a thought for another day. I am pretty good at procrastinating and if I am lucky maybe I can put it off another year.

After all only time will tell I guess.


In the mean time I should probably try to blog more.

Panic on the streets of London

So if you didn't know shit is going down in London.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7975597.stm

The G20 summit is in town and with my presidents first visit comes oodles and oodles of protests.  They are protesting capitalism, Irag, globalization, protectionism, climate change and whatever else is running through their hippie heads.  Obviously not all aspects of their outrage are without merit, but I do think people have let themselves get a little too distracted on things too big or too little to make a difference. 

When I travel the only English channels are news channels and so I have no choice, but to get deluged with the news in the world around me and for that past couple months this has mostly been about the financial crisis.  On my most recent trip to Mallorca I was forced to listen people go on and on about the AIG bonuses paid out.  Yes it sucks that part of the govt money went to bonuses, but the deal struck is the deal struck and people going rabble, rabble, rabble afterward really isn't productive.  Especially when the answer to those rabbles is consideration of a bill to tax the bonuses at some absurd percentages.  The idea of such a targetted bill is quite appalling.  I am not a fan of the bonuses, but some of them were probably contractually justified and others were probably justified given the price of litigation required to remove them.  All the rabble, rabble, rabble did was increase the costs associated with it.

Refocusing on London, the opposite is likely the case.  The sights are set too high.  Make peace, end capitalism... Turns out capitalism is probably not the root of all evil.  It can probably be shown to just the opposite most of the time.  It could use some fine tuning at times thought.  Yes it is possible for people to be irresponsible/greedy and yes this can cause hiccups, but it isn't just the bankers that were guilty of this.  Blood on main street is justified as well.  And yes I guess it is possible for capitalism to have overdrawn on its credit, but stuff like this has happened before and I have yet to be offered tickets to the Thunderdome.  So we have to kind of move on and fineM tune the system.  Throwing food at bankers and complaining that you have nothing to eat when you get home gets you no where.  A lot of the protestors probably aren't that radical, but they get drowned out easily.

From the accounts that leaked into the office it was pretty crazy in the City today where all the banks are located.  Even though the banks were prepared people still got in.  I guess some firms told their workers that they would lock all doors at 8am and not let people out till 5pm just to make sure no one slips in.  They were also encouraging people to not wear suits

After work I went down to see the protests.  I couldn't even get close because of all the cops blocking stuff off.  Evnetually I found an edge where I could see the crowd.  It was greatly diminished, but still there.  While taking a photograph I actually saw a guy in a suit get pushed down by some kid.  Just annoying.  I will try to have pics for tomorrow, but don't have them off my camera yet.

So in these times turbulent times I wonder to myself, will life ever be sane again?  Likely, but people probably have to let it become that way.   Eventually people will stop throwing food at bankers and complain when they get home and have nothing to eat.  ,In the mean time I like drama so I am going to be a gawker of the carnage and  get some pictures.  It sounds like it is pretty crazy, but honestly I am more worried about the ever watching eye seeing me down there than the crowd.  Oh that and tear gas, I loathe me some tear gas.

On this day in 1984...

Turns out CCTV cameras are a lot like the Sun. If you stare at them for too long, you may never see the light of day again.

I need a better picture, but if you can't read it the poster states the following

"A bomb won't go off here because weeks before a shopper reported someone studying the CCTV cameras."

The overall message here is nothing new, but the delivery is uniquely British. Anyone that lives with a mass transit system or has been to an airport has seen these signs before. They say things like

"Report suspicious activities"

The UK likes to make their PSAs more real and the "more real" is often done by including a scare tactic. Here they are actually showing you the people you would be saving.

What makes this ad more interesting is that it is actually attributing the bomb not going off to two devices. Clearly the first is the reporters role in preventing changes. The second one is more subtle though. They are also kind of patting themselves on their back for CCTVs doing their job well enough to be a barrier to terrorism. I mean without the CCTV, regular people wouldn't get the chance to be heroes. They would just get blown up. Kind of makes you want to high-five every CCTV camera you see on the way to work, right?

This PSA treatment isn't restricted to just anti-terrorism ads. Take a PSA for taking unlicensed cabs:

"Think there's no harm in taking an unlicensed cab? Ask a rape victim."

I saw this PSA for the first time and it took me a second to see what they were saying and then I was appalled. I mean the line is shocking in itself, but when you break it down it seemingly characterizes rape victims in a very poor light. The first part questions common sense and then the second part implies a direct connection between rape and the first sentence and therefore some sort of blame. Rape is already a crime where people struggle with fault and for a government to imply this at all seems kind of irresponsible.

Some day when I actually talk to a British person it would be interesting to get their take because to the American foreigner these things are just shocking.

...And you know I probably am wrong by saying the CCTV is a classic British PSA. The more British PSA would probably show a bomb already exploded and blame the reader for letting it happen, but then again maybe they couldn't figure out how to fit in the CCTV plug with that treatment.

Threesomes are a bitch

So last week no less than 5 people asked about my blogging.  While this does the past months no justice, it is certainly a main consumer of my thoughts.  The other thoughts will have to wait till another day.

So for those not in the know I now live with Matt Lindsey, a work colleague of mine.  When he was moving here I conceived a plan to help fix the "no friends in London" thing and proposed that we move in together.  Seemed like a pretty good fit and so we agreed on it.  The problem is that I am greedy.  I didn't just want to live with Matt.  The whole time I had my eye on a third.  I got Matt to go a long with it and we found a place for three.

There were problems from the beginning.  We moved in and things were good, but there was still an emptiness.  The problem was that there wasn't any time to fill that void.  For the next month and a half we were both hopping around the globe and so we couldn't find that person.  We actually had one person stop by who was a friend of a work colleague.  He had just moved to the city and was looking for a place.  The fit seemed right, but in the end he just didn't feel comfortable joining in with strangers.  Understandable to both of us, but hey we are new to this too.

Anyways we eventually got back and the search continued.  We wanted to get into the full swing of things so posted a classified in gumtree (UK/AUS version of craigslist).  We put up photos did our best to sell our wares, but we got little response.  We even dropped the price several times, but only occasionally were contacted.

One of those contacts did make us question things.  We got a call from two french girls who were considering moving into the room together.  I mean sure Matt and I set out find a third, but what if we found a third and fourth.  It would be great to grow our friend group like this, but could it work logistically?  I mean that is a lot of extra pressure to be adding to our dynamic and to be honest the room just isn't really setup for it.  Our better judgement was being put to the test.  We escaped though when the girls flaked, but had they shown up who knows.

Outside of that and a few others grumtree was dry.  Eventually we decided to try another site.  This requires someone in the transaction to pay.  So we could pay and get contacted for free or we could post for free and get contacted for members only.  Well we put up the ad, but didn't realize we had to pay to get full exposure so the first week was slow.  Matt was kind enough to use my email.  Now I get non-stop alerts everytime the vehicle cameras photos someone new moving into the city.  Each day's mail brought new hope.  Email with subjects like "New to the city Aussie looking for friends" and "Music lover and beer drinker looking to find similar flatmates" would show up, but like all spam they are never what they say they are.

After a couple days I noticed another ad on the site.  It was for a speed flat-mating event.  Seemed a little out of the ordinary, but I mean if you can't find a third at a bar with some drinks then where can you find one right?  So we went and after waiting line we were finally thrown into the landlord-fest.  There were so many landlords, like at least three to one.  By the time you removed the people not in your range and your neighborhood there was slim pickings.  Most in our area were beneath us.  I mean we were at least a 160 per week and so sure we would stoop to a 150 per week, even look a 140 up and down, but a 130 is not even in our league.  I mean we are better than that.

So we mingled through the crowds and tried make the best impression we could.  We told our life stories with only slight embellishment.  Sometimes it was hard to remember our real jobs, but we had to.  We were looking to make it last for 6 months and that is probably more than enough time to find out that neither Matt or myself were recently appointed as ambassadors for the Obama administration. 

Finally we happened upon Upton.  He seemed like a great fit, just the right mix of "I have a job" and "I like to have fun".  We chatted for a bit and left with plans for meeting up on Friday night.  Originally we thought Friday was too big of deal to have someone over, but we decided that for Upton it would be worth it.

The next day we sang the praises of Upton at work.  We left work excited to see him that night. but as has happened so many times he said he would call, but he didn't.  He toyed with our feelings and ran, no doubt to the comfort of anothers room.  Our hopes were dashed.   In the end I guess I blame myself.  My size is just too intimidating at times.  I think it scared him away.

Then there was someone we will call Sue.  I will withhold her name much as I would hope that Upton does about us as he blogs mentions those he scourned.  She came over to look at what we had to offer and immediately liked it.  Matt and myself had more reservations about her.  She seemed ok, but maybe a little too cheerleaderish.  I have nothing against cheerleaders in general, but it all just seemed like a little more maintenance than Matt and I were looking for in a roommate.  Not wanting to turn her down prematurely though we kept in contact.  She wanted us to meet her parents who were visiting, but we hadn't set a date yet.  Ultimately she forced the issue and asked the question we were not prepared to answer.  I had to pull the trigger though and let her down as best I could.  I did so with as clear of a conscious as I ever could, but that answer is never an easy one to give.

Tomorrow this Vanessa girl is supposed to stop by.  Matt and I don't really remember talking to her.  It is becoming a pattern.  I have just been giving out my number so much it is hard to keep track of them all.  All we can do is open the door and hope something kicks in when we see her.

Until then we sit with an empty room.  Beggars can't be choosers I guess, but this is a big step for Matt and myself. We started down this path and it is important that we get it right.  Just heed this warning. 

Threesomes can cost a lot more than you planned for in the beginning so you better be ready to deal with the consequences before making the commitment.

And I'm spent

So the last two weeks have been insanely crazy so I thought I would try to recap that and do so by highlighting my waking hours.

Mon 12/09: 11:00am - 02:00am

So after leaving Seattle on the 8th I arrived in London on the 9th at noon and made my way to work. My project was in the final stages so as usual there were a lot of issues. This becomes a pattern for the week.

Tue 12/10: 09:00am - 03:30am

Again the day was crazy at work. Myself and a coworker ended up staying at the office until 2am.

Wed 12/11: 10:00am - 02:00am

More working till 2:00, but at least this time I got to do it from home.

Thu 12/12: 09:00am - 10:00pm, 12:00am - 05:30am

Freaking Bears had a Thursday night game and my schedule was already pretty screwed up so I tried to take a nap and then stay up late that night. Problem is, I don't really do naps so that was basically two hours of me laying in bed thinking of what I was going to do when the two hours were over. Also lucky me it even went into overtime. The Bears won though and that is all that matters.

Fri 12/13: 11:30am - 12:30am

So obviously Friday was a short day at work, but since I worked the whole Bears game I still put in too many hours.

The bonus for the night was that I went to a Prodigy show that night. Lucky for me it was an early show and over at 11 because I needed to be up at 6am. The show was amazing. It was at the Brixton academy which has been voted as the best venue in London, but I challenge that. I still like Koko better. The venue is kind of somewhere in between the Moore and the Paramount. Tickets were GA, but there were two GAs. The seating setup was really confusing from the site. I had to scalp the tix and because I didn't feel like laying down a hundo I went with the upstairs. Had I known the diff I would have maybe went with the extra expense. I actually had space to dance, but unlike the flat bottom I had to make sure fall off a step and fall over the rail.

Sat 12/14: 06:00am-01:30am

So I had to be up really early for our data center move. I had elected to take A shift so that I could be done and be off to Santacon by 11am. There really wasn't much action going on during that time so the sleep would have been nice.

Santacon was amazing. As can be exptected this was an order of magnitude larger than Seattle. It was also kind of set up to show off the large amount of Santas which it sounds like Seattle did as well this year. Last year in Seattle we kind of stayed hidden from the public and overall it was probably a good choice.

There were actual two groupings one for the East and one for the West. My roommate and I joined up with the West. Due to the release we were running a bit late and by the time we got a cab we were just hoping to find them. When we got near Notting Hill I turned to Matt and told him we were close. As soon as I said that we turned the corner and had to stop the car due to the wave of Santas marching towards us. Matt was in awe. Our leader was Drag Santa and he was right in front of the pack fishnet stalkings and all.



Like I said the path was meant to show off all the Santas. This include a trip in the tube which produced probably the best pics, a trip down Regent Street (think mag mile) and then on to Trafalgar Square. As we went down Regent Street I was actually spotted by one of my directs and her dad. He pointed out the Santas to her and then she saw me and was like "That's my boss". This is mildly awkward, but I wasn't doing anything stupid so I guess it is all good.



Things headed south though in Trafalgar Square. We went there to meet up with the East, but mass grouping was broken up by stupidity. It had been raining all day and when we got there people climbed up on the monument. This is not really a big deal, but there are also lions on the monument and two people climbed up on those. I saw them climbing up there, but didn't see it when the guy slid off sideways and landed on concrete. It was at least a 12 foot drop. Immediately everyone had to get off the monument and dispersement procedures start with attempts to push us to Leicester Square. Everyone kind of sat around and watched as the cops attended to the guy. I technically don't know how he ended up but I don't know anyone that saw him move. When I got home that night I looked, but never saw any news stories following up on the issue.



So after group had regrouped from the chaos we went to Leicester Square. It was kind of crazy there because there was a carnival and every ride was saturated with Santas. We forwent the rides and went on to a karaoke bar so that I could make that an annual part of Santarchy.

After that the night kind of mellowed. I got some Chinese food and then we went to find the after party, but you needed a ticket and we were tired so we headed home. Once home I did stop by the local fo rthe first time and now I am branded as the "silly American". So I guess the lesson is to not set a first impression in a Santa suit.

Photoset for Santarchy http://www.flickr.com/photos/marquesk/sets/72157611500068836/

Sun 12/15: 07:30am - 11:00am, 02:00pm - 02:00am

Yay I got called into my shift early. How lucky am I? Well at least I could get back to bed for a little while. I never actually left the house that day since as soon as I woke up I spent the rest of the day investigating release issues.

While this week does begin in a shitty manner, it does kick off what might be one of the best weeks ever.

Mon 12/16: 09:00am - 02:00am

More work stuff. The new VP was onsite so I got to meet him. A last second release issue kept me up late... why did I check my email before going to bed?

Tue 12/16: 10:30am - 2:30am

More work stuff, then we got dinner with the new VP and that is where the awesome happened.

So we were getting towards the end of the meal and I heard someone cough and when I looked up it was fucking Amy Winehouse. I turned to the table and muttered "That's fucking Amy Winehouse. That's fucking Amy Winehouse" which of course is perfectly appropriate work language in such an instance. Only one person turned to look quick enough and they were unsure, but I was sure. Two others went off to see and after 5 mins she came back by. Now when I initially saw her I though she was stumbling, but she might have just been struggling to keep her pants up because she definitely had problems doing that. See that is the hidden cost of crack. It causes you to have to buy a whole new wardrobe too. So she was just sitting in the back corner with two guys who I assume were body guards. She had one of those three tiered serving trays with only shrimp lining it. It seemed like she was only eating it by herself. She must love shrimp coctail. Anyways I don't really see celebs a lot and really didn't know how to play it. I mean honestly I was mostly excited because I knew two girls in Seattle that would be excited. I contemplated how to take a picture of her, but just settled on taking a candid of her at the bar. People wanted to know her size and I say she is about a lil' E sized person.



I went straight home and tried to go to bed, but due to my weird sleep patterns I didn't get to sleep at 12:00am like expected.

Wed 12/17: 06:00am - 10:00pm

So Wed was the big release day for my project from the last couple months. The release took forever, but not because anything was technically wrong. Once it was out, it was out and pretty smooth sailing from there.

For me the 4 months seem like forever. I can't even think how Bart and Matt will feel once their game goes out. I think what they do is super exciting, but those release cycles are crazy long.

Thu 12/18: 10:00am - 3:30am

Yeah that's right I finally got some sleep, about 12 hours... It was nice.

So with the release out of the way it was on to the company party the next day. I was a bit scared by the party because it seemed way different than the Seatle one and honestly that even scares me. At this one there is a formal dinner, but no +1s are invited. Also there is no such thing as drink tickets in London which is probably good because honestly if there were then everyone would drink too much too early and that wouldn't be good for anyone. Instead everyone just drinks too much at just the right time.

It was during this event that the best week ever continued because during the prize giveaway I won free roundtrip tickets (that's right a pair) on Emirates. It was the first prize given out and arguably the best. Unfortunately Emirates flies to Australia, NZ and Thailand, but I can't use the ticket for that. Right now my burden is that I need to pick someplace by March and I have to pick the person by then too. Any bidders?

Afterwards we went to Soho, but ultimately every place there seemed lame and little was done except for delay my sleep.

These are the people I work the most with including the three that report to me. Apparently I should have done more supporting and shunning. Hopefully that doesn't affect my review.



Fri 12/19: 10:00am - 2:00am

It is well known that the day after the party is a waste. Some people already headed out on vacation. Others couldn't get out of bed. Personally I was just tired. We were supposed to go skating somewhere as a team, but instead we just went somewhere local, had two mulled wines and called it a day.

Sat 12/20: 12:00pm - 4:00am

Oh I finally got to sleep in with no deadline as to when I had to be up and that was sooooo nice. I had to decide this week if I wanted to do touristy stuff or just clean my place so that it was in order for when I get back. I decided on the latter. My day was pretty lax and then I walked to Angel to attend a club night there that I had always wanted to go to. I will probably put that night in my normal Saturday rotation. The night is called "Feeling Gloomy" and features a lot of music from Joy Division, The Smiths, Pixies, Interpol and others that I love. When I get back there is a Smiths cover band playing and I am definitely going to that.

Also today I found out that Blur is regrouping for some shows in Hyde park this summer. I got two tickets for the show and if people are interested we can buy more. Blur is number one on my "Bands to see live before you die" list so that is a big win for me.

Sun 12/21: 11:30am - 2:30am

Another good day of sleeping in, cleaning and accomplishing pre-vacation items like a haircut. I was beginning to feel a little hippie-ish which basically means there was a hair that was resting on the top of my ears.

Also I have finally finished opening my presents. Did I say presents, I meant boxes fully of stuff that I shipped here from Seattle. I had like 40 independent things shipped here and have tucked most of them away at the apt somewhere... where I don't know, but they are mostly out of sight. In the process I threw out quite a few things. Here are a couple gems that I shipped for no particular reason than to spend Expedia's money. Ok likely I think the movers just took whatever could find and throw it in a box. I kind of feel bad that someone had to pack a Hot Mama's menu. Especially when they won't even honor the coupons on it any more.

I am sure I will look through this some day. Right?



This just caused me pain to see. I miss you Hot Mama's.



Monday and beyond

So tomorrow will be filled with closing out end of year tasks. Many of these have to do with making sure that Matt and I have a place to live in when we get back. Other things have to do with making sure I get reimbursed on stuff.

Also tomorrow is my last full day here which means I get to screw up my schedule even more by changing timezones on myself again. Only -5 this time though. On top of that the Bears are on Monday night. So I will likely not be sleeping tomorrow night and then stay up straight until my flight takes off on Tuesday.

Fun. Fun. Fun.

A new hope err... I mean home

The old place

So I know I have never blogged about it, but anyone who has talked to me since I have been over here probably knows that I have kind of struggled with my living situation since I have been here.

Toward the end of July I had felt that I had pretty much settled into the city. I had found a flat that I really liked. It was exactly where I wanted it to be. It had two large flat screen tvs. What more could I want? So I put a deposit down on the room I wanted. Then the lovely real estate practices in London taught me a thing or two about the big city.

With a week before I moved into the new place I finally got my contract and it had me leasing the smallest of three available rooms. It is actually the room that was advertised, but when I went there two larger rooms were also available. There is a reason that I didn't try to put in a deposit for that room. It was just way too fucking small.

The next couple days I spent frantically trying to find out what my options were. Problem was my bank had messed up so the landlord actually had both the first months rent and deposit (same as first months rent). I had no hopes of getting that back so this meant I would be walking away from a shit-ton of money. Ultimately I had to move in and work it out from there.

Move in day was devastating. I was already of course tainted by the fact that I got screwed over with my room. I dropped off my meager belongings at the place knowing full well that they would be I would have until I moved out. I had yet to actually take on anything I shipped over here other than my bike even though it was all waiting for me somewhere in Essex.

When I returned home from work that day I just laid on my bed with my feet hanging off the end and stared at the ceiling contemplating how the first act of my grand settling in London made me feel more like a transient at a hostel than a resident. My only comfort was a book I picked up on the way home called "I lick my cheese". It is a compilation of notes left to flatmates. Hopefully this was painting an extreme picture and not something I would have to deal with.

Other things just seemed to compound on top of my already sour attitude. The first night I was greeted by a roommate who was... what's that saying about kites? Anyways she went off on me for having my fan running while I was away. This was in a smoke filled living room. When I woke up ashtrays were still full of old butts. I threw them out. When I asked that they throw them out the next day I only woke up to find a whole new batch creating a stench.

Like I said three rooms were open so technically we were almost all on level ground in terms of seniority, but I had no interest. I tried to impart some opinions into the settling of everyone, but things were too busy at work for me to even get home while they were up. Then I started traveling heavily. In the first 6 weeks I had lived there I had only spent 3 weeks staying there.

The roommates were pretty nice for the most part. Seriously they could have been a lot worse. Even the kite person was extremely nice when she was not with the kites or drunk. Socializing was a bit tough because they would be in their rooms when I got home and gone when I woke up. Even on the weekends I wouldn't see them a lot. I tried hanging out with one of the couples once, but they had Italian friends over and were only speaking Italian. I don't speak Italian so I went to watch Friends because they speak English.

Over time though I preferred not seeing them because I couldn't really hang out in my room and this schedule mismatch gave me some sense of control over my me-time. In the end it is a lot to throw yourself in with 5 strangers. This seems weird given that I used to live in a house with 50, but I think moving to a new city has a lot of do with this. Also there things were so huge that you could find someone who did what you wanted to do.

The place too was nice in general I mean it had a lot of area and even when people were smoking in one room you could usually go watch tv or hang out in the other. The biggest problem with the place was that it had accumulated so much junk over time that the place could never feel like yours. It could only feel like those who had already left. With all my stuff in storage it seemed like this is something that would not change.

In the end no matter how much things got better they would likely not be good enough so I needed to figure something out.

Pictures

My room


The photo set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marquesk/sets/72157609723885170/

The new place

So ever since I found out that a coworker, Matt, was moving to the London office I figured we could give a go at living together. He got here in October and so we started to look for a place. We looked in a couple different areas, but mostly focused on Shoreditch and Camden Town. The latter being where I live now. This process was different than the first one because in the first case I went through essentially an ad on craigslist because it was a flat share. Here we were going to find a 3 bedroom, get a lease and rent out the extra bedroom. This exposed us to a whole new side of shadiness in the leasing industry.

So after about a week of viewing we found a place and wanted to put an offer down. Now they way it works here is that once you want to start the offer you pay the leasing agent a weeks rent and they will take it off the market. Now that you have put that money down you can start the offer process and if it accepted then that money goes to the rent. If not then you get your money back.

Well we put our money down and the offer took a couple days to settle, but we had our offer and a move date. Things were looking up an up for Matt and I. And why wouldn't they? We had went through a reputable leasing agent. I mean they had used the motto "Your soul agent". That makes you feel warm inside.

Well the leasing agent was like the whiskey those dogs give you in the Artic. You may feel warm now, but you likely just end up colder in the end. Four days later we got a call that someone else had outbid our accepted offer now they wanted us to up the ante. It would have put us all in and we weren't ready for that given that we didn't know who the third roommate might be so we passed.

We were both so pissed. The idea of something to their store kept running through my head, but the CCTV cameras make a compelling argument not to do that. My final idea was to put the letter "AS" on piece of paper and then slap that over the "Your" in their logo.

The next day I went into the office to get our money. I walked through into the back and was informed that I was interrupting a meeting. Our agent walked me back out and and I had him give me every reason why it was not their fault. He said he could get my money back and I was like "You will get it back now" and so he went upstairs and got it.

In the end it is not really their fault it is the failure of the system. They lost commission just like I lost my home. The fault in the system here is that there is no such thing a single leasing agent. An owner can lease it through many agents at the same time. So our leasing agent took it off the market and guaranteed to not show it. Maybe they did and maybe they didn't, but another leasing agent did show it and that person put down a higher bid. That means we got fucked. So the lesson is that unless you have moved in you don't have a place to live. This system makes no sense to me because it just seems to cater towards shady dealing. Sometimes I wake up and wonder if I am in Moscow or something, but then I realize I am not because at least there you know things are supposed to be shady.

The good thing is that later that day we saw the place that I now write this entry from. It has some pluses and minuses over the other place, but ultimately I think it is better and slightly cheaper. Only time will tell.

The current place is right where I thought about living after being here in January. It is near the heart of Camden Town, but on the Mornington Crescent side. Some things are a little further like Hamstead Heath Park and the big Sainsbury's, but all the key things are super close. This also means the move is short. If shopping carts were easy to come by you know I would have used one, but they are not and I didn't have my tools to make a dolly so in the end it was just me carrying a couple loads of my crap from place to place.


View Larger Map

The rooms in this place are pretty big. I would say that overall the place is bigger than my place in Seattle which means it is gigantic in London. My bedroom is probably larger than in Seattle too and I got my own bathroom again. Sweet. My own bathroom is actually a big thing. I find this is just one of the conveniences I have really grown accustom to over time and it is hard to remove. Sharing a place matters a lot less when you can still go to the bathroom without getting dressed.

My bathroom


One added feature of this place is that it has the biggest fridge ever for a London place. It has both a full height fridge and freezer. Even though they are both skinny they are way bigger than anything else I have seen here. Now if only they had a ice maker.


There have only been a couple negatives so far.

• The boiler broke 2 days into living here. This left us with no heat and no hot water. This would have been less of a deal if I hadn't been home sick for a couple of these days. This is fixed now.
• The smoke detectors seems to be invisible. It really seems like there should be some of these, but I really haven't seen any. This is only a concern because Matt and I both have a lot of electronics and I don't have a lot of confidence in the systems here. I mean they have fuses in all plugs. Seems like that speaks to a larger problem.
• We don't yet know how well sound travels or who our neighbors are. It appears that they are mostly families or old people. When I first came into the place an old lady gave me the stare down and asked me what I was doing there. I told here I was moving in and it took the porter (oh yeah there is a porter) to explain to her that I was moving in. I have seen this old lady just sitting in the lobby at least 5 times in 8 days. She kind of scares me.
• This place isn't going to be cheap. We do probably need to find a third and that will be hard because Matt and I are both hardly going to be around before Christmas. Also we have no idea what power bills will be. I expect them to be astronomical. This would worry my less if Expedia's stock was over the change in my pocket.

So my stuff has arrived and I starting to get it put away and settled in. So yeah things are looking good with the living situation. Hmmm... this brings up other worries. Well I will deal with those later.

I am guessing there are a lot of things that I don't remember since so much has happened with regards to my living situation here in London and so much of my life is based around it. I will leave those for future stories or most likely just forget to write about them.

Photos

My room
This is missing. Check out the photostream. Hopefully I will get more pics up in the days to come.

Park out our windows


The photo set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marquesk/sets/72157609482957175/

An empty nest

Over the last two months I have had tons of visitors, but they are all gone now. No mas until maybe March of next year. The last one to go was Natalie. She had been here on an off for a duration of 6 weeks and it was certainly a lot of fun having her around. Honestly other than going to Les Mis we never really did too many significant things. I guess the other one was going to election night together.

Us on the the way to election night. I look stellar in this picture by the way.


Overall it was mostly just us hanging out and chatting about life and that is great because it was our ability to do that which helped us become such good friends in the first place. A lot actually happened while she was here. We got to ponder how my rapidly changing work situation might affect my position at work. We joined in celebration at the coming of a new president. We freaked out about her rapidly falling net worth. We discussed my nighttime bathroom patterns and how she could best accommodate them. We worried about her pending admission to the US. We commiserated over my continued screwing in the housing market and finally we rejoiced in me getting what seems like a sweet place so far.

Her leaving is kind of hard because she is a perfect example of the uncertainty I have with many of my friends. When she gets back her and her boyfriend are going to pack up their shit and get out of Seattle. Unlike most of my friends though she heads off to areas I will not happen upon during a business trip like NYC or DC. They are off to Mexico, Cuba and Columbia and it is highly unlikely that I will make it to any of those. I mean unless they are taken hostages and I have to go Jack Bauer on some commies or drug thugs, those areas just aren't my cup of tea. The time line is pretty free so I really have no idea as to when I will see her again in my fly zone.

The last hours were spent with her packing stuff at my place as I with a cold typed away at work email. I was kind of grumpy since the cold was back and probably should have been a little more pleasant during the last hours with one of my best friends. She finished packing and then she was off. At the last second I was like "Natalie don't leave." and she was like "What?" then I was like "Do you have my keys?" and she was like "Oh yeah that would have sucked." and I was like "Yeah. Ok later." It was very heartfelt.

Later Nat.

Someone hold my hair back

So I am pretty bad at this. The problem is that I get busy and then a lot of shit happens and of course I want to write about it, but I don't have time because I am busy. So it builds up and builds up and then bam nothing happens. I wanted to say that I had blogstipation, but other people already use that term and I can't invent the term I don't want to use here. So I am going to push it all out as fast as possible in a little segment I am going to call a blog puke.



Bleh... The back slide recap

When we last joined our hero he was heading back to Seattle. It is not where it all began, but it feels like it doesn't it? All I can say is that trip was great and it really helped my frame my mind for why I was in London. Still not sure how, but it did. I think it was the fact that I got to see a lot of many of my friends, but I also got to see how many were just their visiting or on their way out (Elaine and Molly). Also D&G left and this was pretty sad. This was of course on top of seeing people who had already left (the Chris's in NYC). In the end I did all the things I wanted to with all the people I care about except for maybe going up in the Space Needle.

Some notable things

Divya and Gautam packed up their things and left.


I sold my car.


I finally saw the gorge it was great even though it fucking hot as hell.


I grew out my neck beard to help the bears beat the colts.


I got a mohawk so I guess no one needs to hold my hair back anymore.


Bleh... So thaaaaat is why I am here

By the time I left for London The phrase that constantly repeated in my head was:
I didn't want to leave, but I needed to get back.
Besides the mass exodus setting in, being in Seattle reminded me of how comfortable I was there. It opened my eyes to that being the challenge in London. When I returned the weather was great and I could see what I needed to do to feel comfortable in this city.

1. Stop going crazy finding the best thing to do the weekend. Sometimes you are going to miss the coolest show. It is ok.
2. If you don't feel safe address that by doing things that will make you feel more safe. I now have a new messenger bag which is much more pursey than my old one. However I don't have to worry about people undoing my belt buckle and running off with my laptop.
3. ...This heave is too long already.

Anyways I think I know what I want to get out of London now.

Bleh... Hey Cousin

Not long after getting back Tim showed up for two weeks. It was great having him in town. The first night was awesome as we hopped from bar to bar in Camden Town. The theme on the bars was late 90s metal and that is great for Tim and I because this is really when we started to get pretty close. Every song almost had a distinct memory attached to it which involved the two of us. We even moshed to some System at this one bar. Did you know that hurts? I liked moshing with Tim better back when he was not yet in college and I was only 20. It was great.

Bleh... Here comes the Dish

Trish came just the next day so the weekend was spent sightseeing. Trish is a fellow big city dweller from the NYC class of 2008 and she loved walking. If you didn't know, I love walking. I also love making Tim walk. That weekend we walked a lot.

Bleh... Like home but not really

After a busy weekend I was off to Szeged in order to train up my team there. Oh yeah somewhere in here I became Mr. Manager again. I used to have that because Expedia got rid of leads. Then they brought back leads so I was one of those. The job here was the same. However now I am Mr. Manager once again.

Getting there was so shitty. I stayed up all night to watch the Bears beat the Eagles and as soon as the game was over I got in a cab and went to get on my areoplane for Budapest. I forgot my license though so when I got there I couldn't rent my car. There was train that could go there, but I that would make it more of a pain for when I left. I wondered a small airport for hours. Partly because I was to tired to deal with it and partly because all the ATMs either didn't work or were being serviced. Eventually I got on the train there.

Szeged is like 2 hours south of Budapest near the Serbian border. The countryside reminded me a lot like home. It was flat. You could see churches miles away. The city itself was a college town along a river like greater Lafayette. All in all I thought I would have a lot of time and relax some, but I enjoyed walking around the city at night.

The place was so quiet at night and yet there was a nightlife. The basement bars just prevented the sound from spilling out onto the streets. This made them incredibly difficult to find. A lot of times I would tend to end of following the neon lights only to be led to a hardware store.

Daddy needs a new chainsaw


Photostream for Szeged

Woo that was a long one.

Bleh... New tall things in old cities

On the way back I stopped in Prague to see what Timmy and Trish were up to. Turns out no good. They had also met up with a friend Sara at Oktoberfest. Trish had a case of The Trish so she was kind of out of commission which led to Tim and I hanging out alone. Somehow we wondered into this sweet bar when I had been to when I was there in 2006. It looks like a tiny little bar outside, but underground it has a lot of rooms connected by narrow tunnels. Picture catacombs.

The next day Tim and I conquered a tall thing. I had been up the space thingee before, but this was the mini eiffel tower. It was great. Also I made Tim walk up the hill which was nice as well. After we ended in the free music festival with some local music that was crazy for real and crazy good. It was for a group that helped mentally challenged and was a pretty sweet fundraiser.

Tall thing


Photostream for Prague

Bleh... The Trish just won't leave

For a week or so. I was pretty much decommissioned and stayed home from work a couple days. This kind of sucked because it would have been nice to go out with Tim more. However Tim had a goal to search out Banksy murals. I accidentally showed him this one which is like one of the sweetest things ever.



Bleh... Tag your it

So right before Tim leaves I get a new resident at Chez Marques. It's Natalie. For the most part it was just me hanging out with Natalie. We met one of her friends and she bummed around the city during the day. She left to visit the mainland for while. This meant that for the first time in like 4 weeks I was the only person staying in my tiny tiny room. Actually it hasn't been too bad with people in the room, but you can't open the door with air mattress very well so it was nice finally being able to not have to think about going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

A notable thing is that I saw my first West End musical with Nat. It had been her dream to see Les Mis and that is one of the three shows I figure I will go to while I am here, Phantom and Spamalot are the others. Natalie was so psyched. All I can say is that I was so glad that she didn't shout out "It's so good" during one of the softer numbers. Ok a couple more things...

• Apparently France was a super small place back then because everyone keeps randomly running into everybody they know in different parts of the country.
• Cosette sucks compared to Éponine. Marius is an idiot.
• It was weird to hear people who were supposed to be poor and French have poor (poverty not bad) British accents. Then again if I was British they would just be poor people accents.
• Would the song "Master of House" really stick in my head if it wasn't for Seinfeld planting the idea that it would stick in my head?

bleh... Halloween sucks here

That can be found here

bleh... Peanut butter new president time

That can be found here

Wow that was exhausting and quite messy. Well I am sure I forgot a million things and have even intentionally left out some, but now you know what I have been up to.

Halloween sucks here

So if you know me then you know I love Halloween. It is a chance for me to try to be far too clever for my own good and come up with a costume that only makes sense to me. 3 months before the holiday comes around I start to freak about my costume. October is then mostly spent with me making a costume as I watch the baseball playoffs. So you can imagine how disappointing it is for me to live in a country where it is an afterthought.

The fact that people here didn't celebrate it kind of put me in a state of denial with regards to how it approaching. I contemplated what I would do for a costume and how I would theme my party, but all those thoughts revolved around being back in Seattle. In reality I didn't know if I would have a costume or even go to a party. I tried to fly somewhere to make it more special, but that never happened either.

Eventually I got a text from my friend Miguel saying that he had a party for us to go to. Even with that, I was unsure how to reply, but ultimately I said I was in. I still didn't have a costume, but figured I could fall back to my Jesus costume that I bought for a superhero party I attended earlier. See that is the problem. This country loves to dress up, but when the holiday comes along to do so they don't do shit. Lame.

So it was the big day and, for a country that doesn't celebrate the holiday, the costume shops had huge lines outside. Finally Miguel got back to me and the party was in some far off land I had never heard of called Woolich. I asked my coworkers where this was and they said it was near Greenwich (pronounced Grinich, this matters). As soon as they said that I had my costume. I would go as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

As soon as I got home I needed to hit the costume store. I had some ideas in my head, cut didn't know where I could get my supplies. Where are you when I need you Jo-Ann Fabrics? At first I couldn't think of how I would do the green and this ultimately caused the biggest flaw in my costume. In my head I kept thinking about I would be a lot of green or something that is green and then be "greenish" mean time. The reason why this led to my downfall is because having that run through my head caused me to lock on the "ish" and miss out on the "wich" which would have been really easy to pull off. I did fail here.

The costume store was packed and I was actually one of the last let into the store. This was fortunate for Miguel because I could attempt to pick up stuff for him. All in all I spent an hour in the store and ultimately only bought two things and none of them were really used. I had hoped to at least get a flava flave clock, but they didn't even have that.

It was all of 8:30 which meant that nothing was open except Sainbury's, but grocery stores are lame here and don't have anything except groceries which meant I wasn't getting my clock there either. I was kind of devastated because it meant I would have to use a marker to draw a clock on my clothes. Turns out they don't even have a marker. Ouch.

Luckily the market across the street which has lots of random shit had random wall clock and it even had a screws so that I could attach string to it. Probablem is that I didn't have string. All I had was a green clothes line and of course no wire cutters. After trying various cutting tools I had to break the line by heating it up over a gas burner till it got white hot and then pulled it apart.

• Greenwich - I am pretty green
• Mean - People with swords are mean
• Time - I have a clock don't I

Cause I'm GMT


Finally Miguel and I headed out. He was going as Willie Wonka, Johnny Depp style. As we headed out Miguel warned me that it would be lame and that only the Canadians would be dressed up. I was dressed up so that point I didn't care.

So obviously I got a lot of stares. No one on the tube was dressed up. Where were all those people clogging up the lines at the party store? The best was on one of the trains a girl sat across and chuckled until she asked what I was. It took like 3 tries for me to explain it to her. One problem was of course the lack of a witches hat, but the other was actually a comment that I made to Miguel on the train prior. I said to Miguel, "You know I bet people won't even get it because of how you pronounce the town.", and I was right. Even as I broke it down to her she was getting really stuck on green part of it. The good news is that once she got it she loved it. She even said that if she ever dressed up she would steal the costume just because it is so great. This reaction ended up being par for the night. I think people just weren't use to any sense of originality.

So we got to the party at 11 and one guy was already leaving so you knew the party was going to great. We opened the door and no one was dressed up. The hosts were dressed as tourist, but that was it. So depressing.

This was not a halloween party, it was 10 people sitting around drinking on October 31st. I was one of 2 people that didn't work with Miguel or at Google. Even though nothing was happening I did stay quite late, but that is mostly because I didn't know how to get home. I quit drinking around 2 and then didn't head out till 5:00.

The good thing about London is that you can get home at night, but it just takes forever. For me it took 90 long minutes. I got home at 6:30 and hit the sack right away. Obviously I was upset with London, but at least I was happy with myself.

A look at what could have been

Price Is Right - Halloween 2007


Won't go fully into it, but definitely not poo - Halloween 2006


A hand - Halloween 2005


A bear - Halloween 2004


Stay Puft Marshmallow Man - Halloween 2003

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

For the festivities Natalie (a fervent Obama supporter) and I headed to a bar at about 8:30pm. We were attending a London expat party in Shoreditch and it promised to be packed which meant we needed to get there early. Actually it was supposed to be so packed they got a second venue. From the pictures I would say that venue was more fun than my own.

The better party. Everyone at my place had suits on.

In any case we sat there, drank and waited for the results to roll in. It was beer for Natalie, but All-American brother Beam for myself. The Beam was actually a smart choice because it is way easier to stay sober on bourbon here than beer. Just ask Natalie.

It was quite a long wait and quite a packed house. If it wasn't for the drama regarding our food we would have probably been quite bored. The biggest disappointment is that the crowd was not that American at all. I would guess less than half. I mean few people were wearing party colors while I racked my brain beforehand about which colors to wear. The internationalness of course meant that it was almost all Obama. In fact I kind of got annoyed at how people made fun of the few McCain fans present.

To clear it up I did vote Obama, but it wasn't a slam dunk for me. (I wore a blue shirt, but kept the red socks just to stay grounded. Yellow would have been preferred, but technically I didn't vote for any libertarians.) And while I am quite international and Obama would obviously go over better than McCain it pisses me off just how certain outsiders are that only dumb people would pick McCain. That kind of a assertion seems to display the same sense of arrogance that people have draw upon to create their negative view of the United States. If you don't think we know what's best from others then how in the world do you think you know what is best for us?

This feeling also surfaced during the senate vote on the bailout package. News for that mostly consisted of BBC interviewing senators for 10 mins, economist for 10 mins and then EU leaders going on for 30 mins on how they had to approve it. Whew, good thing we listened.

Anyways the pain of all this is that his acceptance by the outside world is definitely a solid check falling into the category of "Why to take a chance on Obama".

There really weren't too many distinct memories at the party. People we sat next to were drunk and mostly ranted about shit that I didn't care about or made jokes that I didn't care for. I blocked them out as much as possible.

The most notable point was when I was outside writing an email before the big kick off and I had a conversation with a couple of ladies who were from London and black. They felt like it would be forever until something similar happened in the UK. It is hard for me to port this experience to another country because honestly this is not something anyone would have predicted 8 years ago. In my mind, and I tried to explain this, it is very much a case of the right person at the right time and he happened to be black. The fortunate thing is that the US provided a unique environment for the right place and right person phenomenon to happen. I am not an expert on the UK system yet, but it seem like it is much harder in the UK due to how the structure is just more filtered. So even if the right person was there at the right time it doesn't mean they would settle to the top. This point is actually being confirmed on the TV right now by politicos as I write this.

We also got into a discussion about why Americans don't know as much about international politics. This argument mostly involves scope of influence. UK knows about strikes in France because it directly impacts them. We know about strikes in California. The fact is that in many cases we just aren't forced (notice I didn't say "don't need to") to because the whole US is bigger than the the EU.

The demographics of this conversation also played into something else. I noticed the crowd as it was much more diverse than what I have seen here in general. Natalie will debate this, but I just write it off to the fact that I traveled the crowd more and most of the black people I saw were women. This really drove home the importance of his race. During the coverage they kept showing that 90 percent of people said that race wasn't a factor in their vote. I really don't agree with that number, but I don't credit that to people hiding their racism. I think it is the opposite. I would like to know what of that 10 percent considered race an issue and then voted for Barrack. That is what I think makes the 10 percent number incredibly low. For better or worse many of us thought about how it could be beneficial to society to have a black president. It just may not be the only reason you voted for him.

Oh and the coverage, my god the coverage here sucks. We had the BBC coverage. They did barely anything of value. All they did was echo ABCs numbers. No analysis whatsoever. Where was my fucking hologram BBC? Ok that was probably dumb, but still.

On Indiana, honestly I was surprised. Obviously I am not that connected anymore, but I really felt like this was something that the media was trumping up to give us more to talk about. Guess I was wrong about that.

Our party ended at 3 so we headed out at 2 to be home for 3. We got home right as it was announced.

Obama is our new president.

We stayed (read I stayed up) for the following speeches. Actually Natalie woke up for Obama's.

McCain's was an excellent speech and paralleled his campaign exactly. His crowd was less than excellent and demonstrated how they ruined his campaign exactly. It further cemented the idea that he is a consummate statesman and would always do what is best for America. He took credit for the failure and while I definitely think his actions lost my vote, I am not sure how much control over those he had. The party just didn't give him any choices.

Obama's was of course great. That is one of the reasons we love him after all. The call to action reminiscent of JFK was great. The references to the opposition were great. The idea of nearly a million people hanging on every word in his hometown was great. There will be 4 years to see how that plays out, but that start was exactly what you expected when you voted for him.

When it was all said and done it was 5:30am on Guy Fawkes day and bed time for me.

Meanwhile in Seattle...




It kind of sucks missing big events like this. Technically the attitude of the people probably would have drove me insane, but by being in London I definitely felt like I was missing out on something special.

Finally I want to focus on how I feel this election was a transfer of the civil rights torch. Without a doubt we took a huge step forward in validating our forward progress on how race is viewed in America. However the fact that liberal states like California passed amendments to ban gay marriage made my jaw drop. Obviously these battles have been going on for some time, but the gravity of this decision is amazing. 20,000 marriages now in question. I mean the idea that a state would pass a bill prohibiting unmarried cohabiting people from adopting or serving as a foster parent just to stop gay couples adopting is insane. The mere fact that the measure had to be a blanket one just to not be discriminatory points towards the motives being blatantly discriminatory. I think many people don't want to see this as a civil rights issue, but the question of why it wouldn't be is a question we all should reflect on.

Oh yeah, technically I only voted for Obama because he likes the same sports teams. Go ChiSox. Go Bears. Go Obama.