04.25 SKY LARK

In Eggesford, do as the country folk do - bird watching. The English have an astounding affection for their wildlife - particularly their birds. I do recall stumbling upon my flatmates, 21-something blokey blokes, admiring the little birdies in the garden on an early morning, cuppa tea in hungover hand.

So it was no surprise when, along a wander through the countryside with the more ambitious (and less hungover) of our group, Chris came to a halt at the distinct sound of what he then enthousiasticall pointed toward and identified with certainty as a Sky Lark. Apparantly their twitter is clearly distinguishable and they are known to hover in one place quite high in the sky which is indeed what this bird was doing. It took me a good squint and a few attempts at focusing at the correct point in the distance to finally spot the bird, hovering above.

This was just one of many staple, yet for me exotic, sights we saw along the way. Cows and horses dotted the rolling hills; the grass was long, and a brighter green than I've ever seen - ready for ruminating bovine to engorge. We saw sun and clouds, rain and a double rainbow. We stopped in a small town pub for a break and a round of bowls before forging ahead. I stepped on a bright blue beetle and learned to navigate a kissing gates, which, unfortunately, did not land me a kiss.

Most remarkable was how vague the public footpaths are. Our route was a wayward path from gate to gate, diagonals across fields and wanders through pine forest. Left to my own devices, I would have been lost in no time. What a peculiar version of 'the hike'.

04.24 BANANAS

On our way to the countryside in Devon for some cottage country fun for Lex's birthday. I've decided on a banana-themed present for her birthday after having promised her that I wouldn't bake her with a banana cake in an attempt at some kind of reverse-psychology tactic of surprising her.

The gift bag, a recycled grocery bag, was decorated with a poem:
'Roses are red, bananas are yellow, hope that your birthday is as good as jello'.
My apologies for that one.

It also contained a banana badge, the simplified bananafied version of a Rubrik's cube, banana-coloured nail varnish, a banana coaster with a witty birthday-themed remark that I can't, for the life of me, remember (I'm suspecting 'it's not your birthday if you don't go bananas' or something along those lines), and, of course, a chocolate chip walnut banana cake (aka banana bread in Canada).

Somehow, the package still wasn't complete. I called on Kat and Paul for ideas, and Paul kindly offered his illustration skills which, before now, we all thought was limited to drawings only of bunnies doing what bunnies do most. But he managed to pull of this Warhol/Banksy-fusion-style banane. At least Paul is full of surprises.

04.23 JAMIE OLIVER

This one's for Judy. A DIY pizza buffet at the new Jamie Oliver store in Clapham. Pizza-lovers heaven. Yet another good reason, besides bread and butter pudding, to come visit me in London...

04.22 ROUNDABOUT WAY

I'm generally pretty good with maps, but navigating the Elephant and Castle roundabout is on an other-wordly scale of orienteering. It's particularly a challenge while pedalling furiously alongside bustling traffic, honking cars, and swerving buses.

I walked into work today -and I'm walking more and more because I find this much more relaxing than cycling and less a death-defying feat.

At worst, I might trip over myself, bump into a strolling pedestrian or get shin splints. Knock on wood.

04.21 URBAN CONSERVATION AREA

Regent's Street is a Conservation Area. Not the sort of conservation area I'm familiar with though. You'd think the absence of trees and birds and abundance of paved road and towering buildings leaves little for conserving.

Like England's oldest National Park, this area is rather paved compared to Canadian standards. But unlike our nation which boasts remarkable landscapes, mountains, forests and lakes, England channels far more energy into preserving its heritage. The Regent's Street Conservation Area is all about protecting the Grade II listed buildings that rise above a valley of buses and cars. The street was completed in 1825 and was named after Prince Regent (George IV). Sadly, what is left is not the original buildings, designed by architect John Nash, but structures that were restored and rebuilt toward the end of the 19th century, rather peculiarly, under commision of the Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues.

04.20 STEP FOUR

It's looking more like a bird, no? The photo I've based this painting on rests just below the easle. I've yet to dabble a bit here and there and touch up highlights in the background. And the beak is blank for fear I would accidentally smudge the surrounding wet colours with my hand. But I'm nearly there. Another painting only a father could love...?

04.19 PUB QUIZ

Pub quiz at The Goat. With categories on Disney Films and Harry Potter you'd think they were catering to parents and kids.

Somehow Salma and Higgins nailed these ones.

Which European country has the letter M on its licence plate?

I got one answer correct, but sadly lost confidence and kept it in my head. The answer was not Gozo.

The first pub quiz I ever did was during my travels in Australia. Don't know how I got roped into that one. One of the answers was 'Blackberry' but I can't for the life of me remember the question. This is probably thanks to years of watching Alex Trebec host Jeopardy...

04.18 60K

The Chasers organized a training day for cyclists. We met early at Richmond Park for what I anticipated would be an hour or so of drills and hills.

Four hours later I am home. I've logged 60 km on my tires and its only the second time I've ridden in since I hauled the bike here from Canada. We practiced signals and safety, cadence and shifting. Rolled into the last hour with a session of hill repeats. Ouch. Legs are jello.

04.17 EARLY BIRDS

Let's be outrageous, he said, and meet for breakfast.

Early birds. But its fish in the sea I'm out to hook. I have no appetite for a worm.

We had breakfast at Nelsons. My choice - a cozy Italian-run sandwich shop that was one of few places catering to those who are up at the crack of dawn. I had smoked salmon on wholemeal bread toasted. I shattered records for eating slow. Probably because of all the talking. We covered everything from New Year bongs to budget airlines to easter eggs to bicycles to divorce to...my how time flies.

04.16 GREAT MAZE

On my way to the hospital at King's College London. The place is a labyrinthe of crossroads and I was lost and nearly late for my appointment. Appropriately, the street I have found myself lost on is called Great Maze Pond. To add to the confusion, there is no pond in sight.

04.15 STEP THREE

I've filled in just a bit more of the background, and completed the rock that the Kookaburra is perched on. It's coming along with the aide of James Yorkston which I have discovered sets a suitable mood for splashing paint.

04.14 SNOW FLOWERS

It is the warmest day of the year so far. The sun is glaring. The trees on Clapham Common are blossoming furiously and their white petals shed on the green grass in a contrast that makes them appear almost as though there has been a snow flurry. But these flakes don't melt.

04.13 STEP TWO

I got quite a bit accomplished in this second phase of painting. The background is complete, but for a few highlights in green, which will have to be added once this layer is dried to avoid a murky brown blend.

I'm quite pleased with how it is progressing - it's the first time I've nailed a painting in my first attempt. No canvases scrapped! I'm almost tempted to leave it as is, with a white silhouette of a supposed bird left up to interpretation. Or otherwise, I could blow up the photo of the Kookaburra and paste it in.

I'm afraid I might just ruin my work so far in Step Three.

04.12 EASTER EGGS

Easter Sunday. Last year, in an attempt to be festive, I ate a goose egg. It tasted nice; but you can eat too much egg. To say the least, this range of prehistoric ovum at the Natural History Museum failed to whet my appetite.

Neither would I like to eat rabbit, which is a Maltese tradition and which my mother used to plate for us every year on this occasion. It seemed, coincidentally, that our pet bunnies routinely came down with an ear infection every spring and died.

Neither would I prefer lamb. Two times unlucky with food poisoning from the meat last year is enough to develop a life-long aversion.

Instead, I think I'll settle for a block of chocolate. What's the worst it could do but give me a sugar high and resurrect my endorphin levels for a little while...

04.11 BRIGHTON

It happens, from time to time, that I develop an insatiable urge to be by the sea. I've been itching to get to the coast, and despite the gloomy weather, set out with some urgency to Brigton, the nearest coastal town from London. I beelined from the train station, past the shops just opening their doors for the days, through the lanes and across the green of the Royal Pavilion toward the shoreline.

I was nearly at a trot once the horizing was in view, with a pace that would suggest I was racing the tide and the sea would soon dry up and dissappear, like the shoreline at Alma in New Brunswick. I'd be left trodding the sludgy sea bottom, my desparate attempt at watching the waves roll in futile.

It wasn't all that dramatic. In the end I made it to the coast, sat for a good hour or so shielding the drizzle with my umbrella until my bottom was numb from the pebbles underneath and I felt sufficiently despondent thanks to the unforgiving critique by Jeremy Paxman of his own culture for their inadequacies and idiosyncrasies which are partly explained by the fact The English are an island people and have developed a nation surrounded by a moat.

It was absolutely perfect and just the sort of afternoon I was hoping for.
Ahhh....

04.10 DIPLODOCUS

I visited the Natural History Museum today, which my coworker Alice has been raving about. The 2009 BBC photographer of the year awards were on exhibition so I made my way for a viewing. The pictures were impressive, my favorite a group of swans, in a near white-out snowstorm, their white feathers barely visible against the winter background, but their beaks, bright orange and almost illuminated by the contrast. It was taken in China. Absolutely beautiful.

Anyways, I didn't take a picture of the picture, as this wasn't allowed. But what's a trip to the museum without a dinosaur skeleton on display? I spent a bit of time admiring the structure and size of this one, and trying to figure out how to pronounce its name...

04.09 BABEL

Night out in Clapham with the girls. Babel, not babble. But there was a lot of babbling. And words on the walls that were missing letters.

04.08 TRAFALGAR SQUARE

Trafalgar square, on a a rainy day.
Also a busy day, with little time to elaborate.

In short, the wet pavement, nearly puddles, with pigeons and people wading across is a very English scene, if I ever saw one. But I wish somebody would turn the fountain off? It forms such a juxtaposition against the drizzly backdrop.

04.07 PARLIAMENT

All this writing. Here's a pretty picture of parliament, aka the Palace of Westminster, taken from Westminster Bridge. I've yet to take a tour of the place and this is one of the few remaining sites to check off my list of 'touristy' things to do before I can officially consider myself a resident. I do believe, however, that Parliament is up there with the London Eye in terms of things that locals love to see and visit. With its 1100 rooms and 3 miles of corridors, I do hope they've devised a beeline route through the place.For now, I will appreciate it from the outside - an architectural marvel by Sir Charles Barry. I can only imagine how impressive it's belly will be.

04.06 STEP ONE

I've got the bristles and linseed out again. This time, rather than splashing my imagination on canvas, I'm working from a photo, taken nearly 6 years ago, during my visit to Australia.

It's an exercise in technique more than anything, and I can certainly use the practice.

Like a jigsaw puzzle, I've started with the background, which frames the picture, and am working inward toward the more detailed object in the foreground - a bird. You'll see.

04.05 EYE

I have yet to take a trip on the London Eye. My first impression was that this glorified Ferris wheel is an overpriced tourist trap. But I find more and more locals have taken their turn in one of its capsules and taken in a remarkable view of the city. One of these days so will I.

For now, I quite like the view from the ground.

04.04 CONCOCTING

Out with Claire and some friends in Clapham. She looks angry, but I promise we had a good time. Lazy eye?

Started at mine with red wine, moved onto her previous workplace for martinis and fancy coctails, then onto a club sipping rum. A toxic concoction, but I survived it. Thankfully I needed only to cross the street and walk two minutes to roll my tired and tortured body into bed...

04.03 PROTEST PARADE

More G20 action at Bank - it never ends. This afternoon, a parade of protesters marched past our building and my coworkers and I scrambled from the third floor, flooding the streets to decipher the commotion. It was a trade union group, from what we gathered, although it was difficult to tell exactly which. Someone was hollering into a megaphone, but it was not clear exactly the point that was being made. After the commotion of the past few days, their group of 50-80 seemed minuscule and inconsequential, but at least they were out there. We wondered exactly where they were headed, who their target audience was, and what the point of their effort could be. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work and have little to report...

04.02 AFTERTHOUGH

The day after the G20 protests, I wandered back toward the Bank of England, littered with the odd copper and peppered with afterthoughts graffitied on the walls.

This one caught my attention. Indeed, the streets were claimed, and overtaken by protesters on mass, blocking the usual parade of taxis and buses and automobiles. Whether we 'reclaimed' the streets is another story - were they really ever intended for us?

In any event, I get the point - and it is one that has been well made in the brightest of oranges, inward from the main road, yet catches your eye - if you're moving at the rate of a pedestrian at least.

04.01 G20 PROTESTS

I work around the corner from the Bank of England and made my way to the protests this afternoon. It was a spectacle!! Just AMAZING to see so many people out rallying!! I first meandered through the 'Climate Corner', where hundreds of friendly hippies had taken over Bishop's Gate St, camped in tents and kicked off a jamboree - all in the name of Nature. There was even a bake sale...(but I wouldn't trust the brownies weren't just made of cocoa). Anyways, it was a peaceful protest, as you would expect, with most of the crowd mellowed out with spliff-in-mouth...

Around the corner, however, was the chaos at The Bank - the crowd was raucous but not yet violent at the time I made my way through, so I joined in with some rants and chants about the state of the economy. There were some pin-striped bankers with the nerve to indulge on oysters and champagne in a building atop the crowd - or so that was the rumour going round - and I'm imagining the bottles I heard smashing were aimed at them. Wankers. As it was starting to get ugly, I got my money shots and made a mad dash.