Guano & Associates

Despite my best attempts to be cool, my true nerdiness comes through. I spent the last few days, at least when I had free time, working on this blog, trying to create some photos, banners, etc. With some significant help from Will, I think I've added a little more splash to the website. I'm trying to load up photos to Flickr as well, just don't know how I'm going to handle that one yet.

Let me know if you don't like it, just want to tell me I'm a nerd, etc!

P.S. Give it a try by hitting F5 (in southern-speak, that's "mash the f5 button") to refresh and get a different image on the header/banner and the flickr images.

This is a view of the castle from the street in front of my hotel (not from my room though)

This is the hotel up the street from mine (I'm at the Royal Duchy, but this one looked good from the street, I thought!) Again, more interesting chimneys.

Here's the enterance to the castle from the street....everything in the UK seems to have a "Harry Potter" feel to it.

Apparently the castle has been used for defenses of the Cornish coast for centuries, including emplacements from World War II. I found this to be an odd juxtaposition.

Here's the map and description of the whole area. Better than anything I can describe.

This appears to be a fairly recently constructed building, I think the sign above the door says 1901...compared to the rest of the region, that's recent.

Here's the front of the castle, there was a wedding going on today. Inside, there was a chapel area with benches, etc, not so different from the ice hotel. Outside, there's the flowers over the entrance and people in tuxes and gowns.

Here's a view from the tower of the castle looking back at the gate and entrance. Notice the gun positions.
Here's a view on the other side of the castle, looking out over the estuary instead of the harbor. It was a sunny day and the breeze was blowing, notice all the sail boats?

Here's a view of the castle from the gun emplacements...I just like the stone work.
Here's a similar view to the last, but this one shows the gate to the castle and it's not a mote, but where a mote would be!

And these next two are just for Kathy. This guy, I can only assume, was playing for the wedding. Obviously, the Cornish are not Scottish, ... he was there. Just standing there in the grass playing. I made me laugh when one of the ladies from the gift shop came out and was telling him that something didn't sound right with the pipes. She kept telling him to change this and modify that. As far as I'm concerned, how do you tell when the pipes are out of tune?
Again, another photo of the pipes player, it just seemed so....windswept is the word I kept thinking of!

I wish I had something more interesting to report...but alas, nothing. I spent last week in meetings in London with our consultants, flew back to Sweden on Friday and have been working in the office this week. This week feels very much like a time to wait for the other shoe to drop. We've got big reports coming out from the consultants this week and the big push is to have these reviewed and completed by the first part of May.

Spent some time in London learning all about the Underground. After a couple of days getting off on the wrong stations, wide-eyed stares at oncoming trains wondering if THIS one takes me where I want to go, and getting sarcastic remarks from under-paid train station personnel, I think I've got it figured out. I managed to even make the Underground to Surface train transitions several times. London is an expensive town. Take everything we're used to seeing, say a bottle of soda, candy bar, or a DVD. Picture the cost in US$, take of the $-sign and put in a £ and you'll have the cost in London. That's fine except the exchange rate is about $2 per £, or essentially double the cost of everything. It didn't hit home until I noticed on my hotel bill that I was getting charged £17.00 every morning for a buffet breakfast,...that's $35 for BREAKFAST! That's right, cold cereal, some bread and some bacon...(I eat very healthy when I travel!)...for $35!

I met with a real estate agent this morning who is promising to undertake a search for a place to live for us. Because I don't yet have my work documents (I AM A wetback!), it's difficult for me to get a place to live through normal channels. So, this guy is going to through a bunch of private owners/landlords and see what's available for us. It's unlikely that we'll be able to find a rentable house, those things just don't exist on a normal basis here. So, sounds like living in a nice flat is our most likely choice. Hopefully we'll hear something next week...

Went to church last Sunday, turns out that when I went a couple of weeks ago, there was a district conference and the meeting was cancelled that Sunday. The branch is about 20 - 30 people and has two missionaries assigned. I had to laugh, I sat down and was asked by a couple of the members if I wanted a translator. I declined saying I didn't want to impose and cause any kind of disturbance during the meeting, and besides, even in Swedish, I could get the jist of what I was supposed to do when. So, after the sacrament, one of the missionaries (both gringos) came over and began to translate for me. No big deal, I felt a little self-conscious, but it helped me get more detail. After the meeting, everyone came and introduced themselves to me and turns out they all speak english. I wanted to say, if you all speak English, why don't you just do the meeting in English??? Of course I know the answer to that one, but I did notice several of the members turn and correct the American missionary and tell him he was translating incorrectly. And, at least twice, in a loud voice, he said, "What did he say? I didn't understand any of that". At which, two members turned and translated for him into English which he then relayed to me or just said, "Do you hear that?".

The sun comes up early now (about 5:30am or so) and goes down late (7:30pm or so). Won't be too much longer before it stays up all night. I'm not sure if it's going to be harder on my system than jet lag, but I imagine its going to be tough.

Along the Thames, there are lots of high-priced flats. Our tour guide said that the flats in this photo started at £550,000 and went up £50,000 for each level above the ground floor. I know I'll never live in anything like this, but it made a great skyline.

I believe this is the Hammersmith bridge across the Thames. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammersmith_Bridge We crossed underneath a lot of bridges but this one just looked like you would expect to see in London.

I didn't hear which church this was, but it was very interesting to me.

After 3hrs in the cold and rain, I was ready to get off at the dock. We came in, had some warm soup for lunch and then headed over to the Court. This is the view as we came in: