Pub Quiz Champions!

Last night Dave and I went to the Porchester, one of our local pubs, for the weekly quiz night. We quizzed there once before, in November 2012, but we lost badly. Back then we had only one other team member and we were three Americans. This time, however, three friends came with us, one of whom is British -- so we had more brainpower and we were able to tackle Anglo-specific questions.

We actually won!

There were at least five other teams, so I felt pretty good about that. We won £50 off our bar and food tab, which isn't small potatoes (about $82). I was proud of myself for knowing the two brightest stars in the Gemini constellation, named for famous mythological twins (Castor and Pollux), and I almost knew the treaty that made New Zealand part of the British empire. (I said Wairea, and it's actually Waitangi -- and I've been to Waitangi, so it kind of annoys me that I missed that, but oh well.)

Our British team member came through with answers to questions about both football (soccer) and cricket, and some British pop music which would have left the rest of us high and dry. Dave knew a quote from Shakespeare (because it had been used in a "Star Trek" movie, but still, that counts). All of us, in our own way, contributed to the winning tally.

The tube strike is over today, but I think I'm going to walk to work anyway, just so I can say I walked to and fro for an entire week. Why I want to say this I'm not sure. Just an obscure personal challenge. (Plus it will mean I've saved £28 in tube fares!)

(Photo: Night in Maida Vale, on Wednesday.)

Still No Tube

The tube strike is entering its second day today. Apparently mobs of people have been delayed in stations around London, but I couldn't testify to that from personal experience. I saw nothing out of the ordinary when I walked to work yesterday morning, except that some of the security gates were down at the Westbourne Park tube station -- where there was supposedly "limited service" -- and the Maida Vale station seemed closed. I saw no crowds. Then again, I didn't pass through any of the major transit hubs.

I like walking to work, as you know, but it is oddly, cumulatively fatiguing -- it's five miles each day if I walk both directions, and I've walked both directions so far all this week. (Monday and Tuesday I walked by choice, which might have been a mistake given the strike yesterday and today!) I might be ready for the tube by tomorrow, when things are scheduled to be back to normal. (There's another 48-hour strike set for next week, though.)

I always wonder about these sorts of strikes. They seem counterproductive, don't they? When we had a subway strike in New York in 2005, most people seemed to get angry at the union. Of course I suppose it depends on the bargaining and the circumstances. Here, the proposed closing of customer service windows in tube stations is the sticking point. Personally, I'm not sure I'd miss them, but some people feel they're important for safety.

I got a terrible night's sleep last night. (Surprising given all that walking!) I woke at 12:30 a.m. for a couple of hours, and then again briefly at 4 a.m. I'm going to be the zombie librarian today.

(Photo: Maida Vale, yesterday.)

No Tube, No TV

Yesterday I came back to my desk early from lunch. I'd eaten but I still had half an hour left in my ridiculously long lunch break, and my coworker persuaded me to take a walk rather than just sit down and go back to work. (I know this sounds like a work environment from another planet but I swear that's really what happened.)

I don't love walking in the neighborhood around the school -- like many wealthy neighborhoods it has very little character. Lots of hedges and walls and big white houses and uninteresting, gentrified businesses. But I walked in a new direction and after several blocks, I did find some photos, like this one of a pub that wasn't quite on my radar.

So, moral of the story -- and as I often say -- there's always something to photograph. I'm glad my coworker made me go outside.

Olga was funny on her walk this morning. She was very insistent about going in a different direction, and eventually she led me straight to the vet! I hope she's not trying to tell me something. (I think she just likes the vet. She often gets treats there.) Then, when we got back to our apartment complex, I let her off leash (like I usually do) and she immediately ran behind a hedge and ate something very crunchy. I could hear her crunching it. I have no idea what it was, but it hasn't killed her yet. Bad girl.

The tube strike has apparently taken hold, at least according to the headlines -- so I will definitely be walking to work today. I tried to turn on the TV this morning but it's giving me a message that says "no internet connection detected," which is weird because a) it's obviously untrue and b) our TV doesn't come through our home internet connection. I suspect our building's reception has been disrupted by this morning's high winds.

It's going to be an interesting day.

This Week's Superstitions

Dave and I came across this black cat on the way home from The Shard on Sunday. A very handsome creature! Fortunately I am not one who suspects that black cats bring bad luck. (Does anyone really believe that?)

Not that I've had exclusively good luck of late. To wit, I paid my tax bill from New York State. Hopefully I've put that behind me now. I may still go after H&R Block to see if they can pick up the tab for the interest, as I understand may be possible. After all, if they'd done my 2010 taxes correctly, I wouldn't have had to pay that interest, would I?

A few years ago I posted a photo of a feather that came in our egg carton. The other day, it happened again. I'm going to invent a superstition that says it's good luck to find a feather in your eggs.

I came across this silly sticker on one of my walks with Olga. I think it's definitely good luck to find a silly sticker, even one that's slightly weathered and tired and rained on...

...or perhaps faded.

We'll need good luck this week in particular. We're supposed to have a tube strike beginning tonight and lasting through Thursday. Transport workers are protesting the closure of station offices and the elimination of jobs. It's a good thing I can walk to work!

Top o' The Shard

I've posted a few photos of The Shard, the 87-story spire of glass that is now the tallest building in Europe. It's easily visible from all over London, but we'd never been inside. Until yesterday, that is. Taking advantage of yet another rare sunny day, Dave and I decided to go up in The Shard and check out the view.

It's not an inexpensive outing. The tickets are £30 apiece (about $50), which is frankly insane. But we figured, why not do it just once? Dave wondered if they'd give us a drink, at least.

The answer is no. And despite the fact that the observation deck is named The View, Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg were nowhere in evidence. (Dave gets credit for that joke, too.)

We did have an excellent view of the Tower of London. I wondered what its inhabitants from centuries past would think if they could see The Shard.

And farther afield we could clearly see the white gleam of St. Paul's Cathedral.

We couldn't see as well to the far west and south, because the sun was low and everything was a bit backlit -- so I didn't get good photos of Westminster Palace, Battersea or Elephant & Castle. But oh well.

All in all, I'd say it's an incredible view, but it ought to be about half the price.

A Mud Masque for Olga

An unexpected surprise yesterday -- sunshine!

Olga, of course, seized the chance to go to the park without being rained on.

 

But given that much of the park looked like this...

...it's probably not surprising that the dog wound up looking like this.

We bathed her thoroughly when we got home...even her face.

In the afternoon I had a long Skype session with my mom, in which we discussed my still-unresolved tax situation with New York State. (My tax preparer is theoretically working on it, but since she hasn't responded to my e-mails in about a month, that could be more theory than fact.) I've pretty much decided to just pay New York what it wants to get the matter to go away. I do think they're probably correct that I owe something, though what they're charging me seems a bit steep.

Then, in the evening, Dave and newly-clean Olga and I watched some documentaries on Netflix, including one about "Bronies," the adult (and often male) followers of the children's cartoon show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." This sounds so bizarre I was tempted to write it off as some kind of Onion-like spoof of a legitimate documentary -- but no, these people really exist, and they're serious. I suppose, upon reflection, that being a fan of "My Little Pony" is not a whole lot different from being a fan of anime or Spider-Man or even Star Trek. Whatever floats your boat, as my stepbrother used to say.

Pub Reprieve, and Eudora Welty

Remember how I told you we were losing two of our favorite pubs to real estate developers? Well, in both cases, the plans have apparently changed or been delayed. I heard an unconfirmed rumor that the one already closed is due to reopen once again as a pub, and apparently the development plans were rejected for the other one, so the owners have to go back to the drawing board. Meanwhile it remains open. (In fact, Dave, our coworker Gordon and I went there last night.) So that's a bit of good news, at least temporarily.

Lots of people at school were dressed in red for Chinese New Year yesterday, and in fact several people (not Chinese) wished me a Happy New Year. I must admit I didn't even realize yesterday was the day, though I knew it was coming up. We are apparently now in the Year of the Horse. I found this little sticker several weeks ago in the library and was told by one of the Chinese teachers that the characters mean something like "congratulations and good fortune," which is a greeting people would give each other for New Year's. So Happy New Year, everybody!

In the news: Did you hear the story about the Milwaukee concert master who was attacked with a stun gun in a parking lot by two thieves who made off with his Stradivarius? What is the world coming to? Unbelievable.

The weeding of our library bookshelves continued yesterday. Throughout this process I have claimed nothing for myself -- to be honest, most of these books no one would really want -- but yesterday we discarded a slim book of Eudora Welty's photographs from rural Mississippi during the depression. (You can see some of the photos here. Apparently they're in the state archives.) The library has had the book since 1972, and it's been checked out five times, most recently in February 1980. Clearly it is no longer being used. Anyway, once the librarians made the decision to discard it, I grabbed it -- with the boss's permission, of course.

(Photo: Produce truck paint job by Elmo, Maida Hill.)