City of London Guildhall.

Other than a few churches, the only thing we got to look at properly on the Open House London weekend was the Guildhall. I've seen the outside of the building many times, and thought about including a detour to it from my London Wall Walk photo set http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgunnee/sets/72157600537571233/ - as the arc marked out in the forecourt shows the extent of the Roman amphitheatre.


What I hadn't realised was the number of halls and the amazing quality of the interiors.
This is a view of the interior of the main hall - that is, the one you see from the courtyard in the view above.


There are some interesting monuments around the hall, including these to Nelson and Wellington:



This is its undercroft

Park Cameras.

So, the Gunnee clan clubbed together last year to buy Mum a digital camera. I volunteered to actually get it, and chose Park Cameras in Burgess Hill. I've always liked them and the new shop looks great.

But you can't really tell what customer service is like till you have a problem, so here is our chance to find out. Mum's camera (a Panasonic TZ6) has developed a fault with the zoom, so I called park to arrange a fix (camera is 11 months old). Brilliant start - I only needed to give my address and they had all the details - just drop the camera in, or send it, and we'll sort it out. It will probably take about 3 weeks.

So Mum takes the camera in, and reports that people in the shop are just as friendly and helpful.

So now the problem:
Only 2 days after Mum took the camera in, it was returned to me, still faulty, in a box with a copy of the original invoice and nothing else. Oops.

I expect its one of those simple human errors - someone has sent it to the customer address instead of the repairers. The guy I spoke to a minute ago was very apologetic and offered to pay the postage to get it back to him, and to rush it to the repairers once he has it.

Anyway - not a huge problem yet, and I'll update you all again once we know more.

So - the final update. As promised the camera was returned after about 3 weeks and it works perfectly.
So well done Park Cameras.

Today is a good day.

Had our presetation today for ISO 27001:2005. I've got the manual now so really need to do some working understanding properly what its all about.

Preparations for our little trip next week are just about complete. Anthony, Justin, Eddie and I are off to the Lake District for a couple of nights next week for a walking trip (and drinking, obviously). Once we've done it I'll get some pictures posted, but for now, here are a couple from London Open House that Suzi and I took on Saturday.

This is St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London.

Looks fairly unassuming from the outside, hidden between the huge mass of the Mansion House on one side and a Starbucks on the other.

But if you get the chance, take a look inside - its absolutely fabulous.

2,276,096 Steps

I have a pedometer that measures how many steps I take. I've had it for ages and I'm quite good at taking it everywhere I go. This year I'm trying to get to a target of 1,500 miles (thats about 3 million steps)

Having added up my total steps between 1st January and yesterday, I'm on 2,276,096 steps. So well on target.

Next year I'm going for something much more challanging. In 2011 I aim to walk 2,011 miles.

In other news...
Today is not working out as planned. Suzi has a cold so she stayed in bed; I drove myself to the station forgetting I'm out drinking with customers this afternoon. Customer has now re-arranged, so that's sorted.

All Bar Gerry

I'm back. Not that I've been anywhere.

So, Gerry and I took a client for lunch yesterday. We chose All Bar One on Moorgate. I can recommend the food - but not if you're in a hurry. When we finally did get our food, they only brought 2 of the 3 meals and after 15 minutes we gave up waiting for the third and asked for it to be removed from the bill.

The waitress did this with a shug and a "sorry" but that was it. No other recognition of the poor service.

Update 27/09/10:
I forgot to mention above that I made a complaint at the time on their website. Got this today:
"Dear Mr Gunnee

Thank you for taking the time to write. Firstly, please accept my sincere apologies for the disappointing visit you had at our All Bar One on Chiswell St.
I have forwarded your complaint on to the General Manager Ben Jones who will investigate your complaint and contact you direct"

I look forward to Mr Jones comments, and will of course, let you all know what he has to say.

Update 29/09/10:
Had a call from Ben Jones - very sorry we were dissapointed, would we like a free meal?
Yes, of course we would!

Email received - one free meal voucher passed to Gerry - Thank you very much All Bar One.

Brookwood Cemetery

Had a nice lunch with Mum and Dad on Mothers day, and then met the Pages at Brookwood station for a walk in the cemetery.

I still find it awe inspiring in its size, and it was a beutiful day, so we ended taking taking lots of photos.

I don't remember walking through the miiltary section before - we started there on Sunday.


I've seen rows of military graves like this in northern France. Here, it was strange to notice that almost every one was from a different regiment.

And finally, Brookwood is the only place in the UK where you can see this:

Walking in London - in the snow.

Yes, I know, everyone's banging on about the snow - but you have to admit it was deep - in Surrey at least. Didn't get to work on Monday, no way I was driving in that, and anyway, there were basically no trains.


That's the only way off the estate.

Between flurries we managed to get out around the lagoons




So that's this years christmas card sorted.

Today things were a little clearer, but I still didn't fancy taking the car, so walked to Redhill station...



Which took way too long. And when I got there, it was pretty bleak.


I think that'll do for now.
Jimbob out...

Drinking in London

Ok, so going for a drink after work is not exactly the most unusual event, but this week it was both Thursday and Friday.



Thursday, as a nice change, we (that is all four of us directors) all went to the pub together. It was a good night, but probably most notable was that the Fountain now has food in the evenings (to be fair they always did do pizas, but it always seemed a hastle to get Jim to put one on.)



We ordered the chips. Hmmmm, Chips.



23:10 train from London Bridge, in bed by midnight.



Friday Morning, up at 6:45 as usual, feeling a little jaded. Full day, and had a quick chat with PB over a drink at the aquarium - before moving on to the Elbow Rooms on Curtain road to meet the boys.



Pathetic. Justin, you REALLY need to learn to play, mate. Kingfield vrs Westfield has never been great. And to be honest, both Ant and Ed are way better than me.

LESSON: Don't rely on a Blackberry to direct you to a steak house, and never trust a cabby who shouts 'hang on there, I'll turn around and come back for you'. They BOTH Lie. Excellent Curry (Joy) though, and brilliant company.

On the 23:41 train to EC and on the Redhill for about 00:30. Up early Saturday. Ouch.

Driving in London

Yesterday...

This is the Dog Car - a 1994 VW Corrado VR6. Although its not something I do very often we took it to London - took a few photos in the city, which is nice on a Sunday as all the workers (like me!) are at home.

It was an absolutely beautiful day - and we parked easily near the guildhall. Despite working only a fifteen minute walk away, I'd never been here before, and there were a couple of things I wanted to see. Firstly the two fine dragons on the roof (photographed for an update of my Dragons post) and the oval marked in the pavement which marks the extent of the Roman Ampitheatre which stood here. Apparently there are some remains that can be seen inside, but we didn't go in this time. Maybe next time.

We walked up Gresham street, as Suzi wanted to see the Postmans Park -

Against one wall there is a monument to people who courageously lost their lives. Each person is remebered in a plaque fired by Doulton (lambeth).

We then wandered around to Paternoster Square, for an iced coffee, and to try and get some decent pictures of Temple Bar. I got what I wanted in terms of Dragon shots, (again for my Dragons post) but still didn't manage to get a decent overall shot (due to strong shadows).

We then took Dog Car out to the North West - aiming to get to Kensall Green cemetry in time for the 2pm tour. We *just* made it. No picture of the Catacombs tour - appaently its rude, but it was good to see anyway.

The rest of the door was pretty dull, and unfortunatly we failed to see most of the monuments we wanted to.

This is the tomb of the Brunel family - including the grest engineer, Isembard Kingdom Brunel. Its one of the least grand tombs in the place, by then as the guide said, his monuments are obvious, being the great feats of engineering he created in his lifetime that are still with us today.


And just in case you were wondering - this is why the Corrado is called the Dog car.

Dragons

There are a lot of Dragons in London. I mean Loads. They're everywhere - especially in the city. The particulary fine example above is in Leadenhall market, supporting the archway to the Leadenhall street exit. He has a mate at the other end of the arch, and many smaller friends around the market on column tops.



Markets are generally good places for Dragon hunting - this one above is in Smithfield.

Every main entrance to the city is guarded by a pair of dragons (or sometimes a single large one), who are mostly squat silver beasts, detailed in red, and clutching a sheild bearing a red cross. If this is, as I suspect, a reference to St George, then I don't know how they were convinced to show the banner of a man who is most famous, after all, for killing Dragons!


This little fella is on the south west side of London bridge, and is typical of the breed.

The Embankment Dragons are a bit larger an have an inscription that reads (in part):
"These dragons represent a consituient part of the armorial bearings of the City of London"
(Sorry! no photo yet...)

The pair below grace the roof of the Guild hall in the centre of the city.


The temple bar monument marks the place where Wren's magnificent city gate once stood - which is now between St Paul's Cathedral and Paternoster square, and incidently, has some very fine newly carved stone dragons of its own, like the one below.


But back to the Temple Bar Monument - A large, black and serious looking beast marks the entrace to the city from the top of the plinth, who is so large and fearsome that he does it alone. Compare his size to the Mini in the street below - he really is huge.



The Guildhall has some very fine beasts, and here are some lovely examples from inside the main hall:



Its not just statues of Dragons either. This one has graced the shutters of the Wyvern Bindary in Clerkenwell for ages.