Fun with a camera...

...in London. I just got back from a 2-day course and got a chance to take a flight on the London Eye for the first time. Afterwards I had a good time just walking around with a camera for a few hours.

An Arup Gateway to Europe

I’ve been a bit slow on the draw…er…“write”, but last week was a big one for my London-based design company, Arup.

Almost as soon and the Chunnel Tunnel between England and France was opened, people realized that it wan’t exactly the best set-up travelling at 180mph from Paris to the Dover coast, only to craw through the 100-year-old railway network of England on the way into central London. Arup basically just paid some of its top thinkers to just dream up the best way to extend this high-speed line into central London. At considerable cost and risk, the company suggested a method to the government, and they agreed. 18 years and 2.7million Arup man-hours later that dream is a reality.

A huge part of this project was totally renovating the historic St Pancras Station to accept the 400m long Eurostar trains, and you can see a great BBC slideshow about this process here. We’re excited to experience the new line and station first hand in February on our upcoming trip to Brussels!

Below are 2 posts from an internal Arup Blog about the opening, if you’re interested in reading more.

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“Queen opens Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) and St. Pancras Station Today”

2hrs 3mins 23seconds.

That’s how long the inaugural journey from Paris to London took on 6 September 2007. The new St Pancras station in London, and the Eurostar service that will run this route, is officially opened today by the Queen. Regular service will commence on 14 November from the new station to the centre of Paris and Brussels, running at speeds of up to 200mph.

The result of more than 1600 Arup staff and 2.7million Arup man-hours.

A Grand Opening Summary

Last night the new St Pancras International station played host to the opening celebrations of both the station itself and High Speed 1, with the Eurostar service.

It was a phenomenal celebration of an amazing engineering project, delivered on time and on budget, which Arup has been involved in for the past 18 years. St Pancras International will now be seen as one of the world’s greatest stations. For the evening it was transformed into an event venue to accommodate 1000 guests, including the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Lord Heseltine, John Prescott, and a full house of other dignitaries.

Her Majesty the Queen reviewed the arrival of two Eurostar trains and the first ‘Bullet’ train - the high speed domestic train linking Ashford and Ebsfleet to London, and providing a seven-minute ‘Javelin’ service between Stratford and King’s Cross ready for the London Olympics in 2012.

The occasion was highly appropriate for us, because of the thousands of Arup staff who have worked as part of the Rail Link Engineering (RLE) services and also the ‘maverick group within our extraordinary company’ (quote from ‘The Right Line’ book by Nicholas Faith, which tells this story and to be launched at the House of Commons on 3 December) that created this project; the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

The Master of Ceremonies last night was Timothy West, who acted the part of William Henry Barlow, civil engineer, who in 1863 designed the original station. We were reminded that this famous train shed arch spans 240ft and is over 100ft high at its apex. On its completion in 1868 it became the largest enclosed space in the world.

And now, nearly 160 years later this space has been transformed into probably one of the finest stations in Europe, and possibly the world - an icon has been reborn.

But, to me, this transformation was due to the brilliance of individual Arup engineers and, those individuals, working as part of the RLE and Union Railways North, should be hugely proud of their achievement. As should all Arup staff. Of course, I personally was also hugely proud of that ‘maverick group’ - the project creators. We often fail to acknowledge their role when great engineering achievements are being celebrated.

A wonderful day for Arup.

High-Beam Post: Set Your Browsers to Anti-Dazzle

On of the more painful steps in our gradual Englishization has been going through the long and arduous process of procuring a driver’s license. Since the States is not part of the EU or a Commonwealth country, (we said we want a Revolution) apparently the price of our freedom is US expatriates going through the incredibly bureaucratic and expensive process of attaining a UK license.

The first step for me (Nick) was to study 1,300 multiple choice questions and take a 1 hour theory test, which includes a hazard perception portion in a driver simulator to make sure that you can click a mouse when things pull out in front of you. Then, 2 months later when you can get a slot, you have to pay $200 to take a 1 hour practical driving test with a pass rate of 35%. In the mean time, you get to pay a professional instructor $45 an hour to teach you the correct way to handle roundabouts, bus lanes, and the 200 types of pedestrian crossing they have here.
Last week I was very proud to pass my driving theory test with flying colours, proving to the government (and Queen Elizabeth herself??) that I am ready for the real deal: the road test. December 12^th is my date with destiny.

To take you, our readers, on the excitement of this journey with me, I’ve included some real test content below. You can see how you might fare here in a 21^st century low-emissions plastic car on streets designed in the 12^th century. To warm up, here’s some vital definitions:

Carriageway - One side of a road or motorway. A ‘dual carriageway’ has two lanes on each side of a central reservation.
Pelican crossing - A crossing with traffic lights that pedestrians can use by pushing a button.
Puffin Crossing - Similar to a Pelican crossing, but with no flashing amber light
Toucan crossing - A type of pedestrian crossing that cyclists can also use
Zebra crossing - A pedestrian crossing without traffic lights
Pegasus crossing - An unusual kind of crossing. It has a button high up for horse riders to push (Pegasus was a flying horse in Greek legend).

Now, on to some of my favorite real test Sample Questions:

You have been involved in an argument before starting your journey. This has made you feel angry. You should:
a) start to drive, but open a window
b) drive slower than normal and turn your radio on
c) have an alcoholic drink to help you relax before driving
d) calm down before you start to drive

Take your time to think of the right choice on that one. Now, let’s see if you know how to drive with some real panache:

Using rear fog lights in clear daylight will:
a) be useful when towing a trailer
b) give extra protection
c) dazzle other drivers (correct!!)
d) make following drivers keep back

I always drive to dazzle. Ok, let’s say I’ve just blinded you with my flair…

You are dazzled at night by a vehicle behind you. You should:
a) set your mirror to anti-dazzle
b) set your mirror to dazzle the other driver
c) brake sharply to a stop
d) switch your rear lights on and off

Anti-dazzle mode: ENGAGE! Armed with this practical know-how, Y’all (like me) are so ready to take to the streets of Britain. I’ll be honking and circling a roundabout endlessly if you need to find me…

The Law of the Land

Last week UKTVGold (television channel devoted to 'classics' such as 'Jim'll fix it') published a survey on England's wackiest laws, according to public vote. This is the kind of thing we yanks over here live for!

The Top 10

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament

2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down

3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store

4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day

5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter

6. A pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet

7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the king, and the tail of the queen

8. It is illegal to avoid telling the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing

9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour

10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow

See here for the full BBC article. And thanks, Martha, for bringing this to our attention!

Candace Rae, Aquanaut

There's a chance that you don't know Candi, since she hasn't made the trip to visit us yet. Most of you, though, probably already know that she has been a dear, dear friend of mine since kindergarten, that we went to 'university' (as I now always say instead of college, which causes Nick to shake his head at me in shame of my growing vocabulary of Brit-speak) in the same city, and that she was one of my bride maids.

What you may not know is that Candi is getting ready to complete a three-day stint as an aquanaut! She will be living and studying under the ocean with Project SeaCAMEL. If you're interested in learning more, such as reading the mission blog, finding out how Candi will be spending her time, and reading her profile, check out the mission site here.

On another note, one of the guys I works with sends some of us our profiles and the word of the day every day. A couple weeks ago the word was aquanaut. Amazing coincidence, I know. :-)

UK Travels: Back in the Saddle

After a few weekends of rest, we’ve managed to get out exploring the UK a bit these past 2 weekends and will report briefly on our progress =). First, we joined 3 friends on a trip to the Brecon Beacons in southern Wales for a 10 mile “Waterfall hike” that was heavily hyped. It ended up being a really nice fall day and was probably one of the best walks we have done here. At one point the trail actually goes behind a waterfall, and the views from behind a sheet of water are really cool. It was perfectly laid out walk too, with a village pub right at the halfway point for some grub and a pint of ale. We posted some photos of the walk here.

Last weekend we borrowed our friend’s car again for a birthday trip for Lauren to the Cotswolds, a range of hills about an hour south of Birmingham. This region is called the Heart of England and is dotted with “cookie-tin villages”, as they call them here, which are so perfect they could go on some quaint biscuit box. We stayed one night in Broadway, which is supposedly one of the nicest towns in the area, but all of the places we visited looked like movie-sets for a quaint and charming English village. Even the names are charming…we visited Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water, Chipping Camden, and even drove through a place called Studley.

It was a pretty leisurely weekend of driving from town to town, checking out the shops and bakeries, and having morning, afternoon, and evening tea. It was an incredibly British birthday for Lauren, though we still stick out as pretty clear tourists with my sneakers and our American clothes. We should have come on horseback wearing a traditional plaid ridding hat and bonnet…if we managed to avoid speaking we might have been able to fool the locals. Oh well, we’re yanks in the UK and proud of it =). Here's some pics of that adventure in Britishness.

English Lesson #1

I'm hoping this will be a running feature, with whatever new 'English' word or pronunciation I've learned. Then your challenge could be to use the word in a sentence, or try out the Brit pronunciation in a posh voice and impress (amuse? annoy?) your friends.

Today's lesson: whine and whinge are two different words with almost the same meaning. For years, whenever someone would 'whinge' in whatever Agatha Christie book I happened to be reading, I pronounced it in my head as whined, chalked it up as a typo or crazy British spelling, and moved on. But no - whinge rhymes with binge, is almost interchangeable with whine, but as Tim, co-worker and guest-blog-writer-extraordinaire, put it 'kids whine, adults whinge.'