A Walk and Proposal along the Thames

Sundays can be lazy, but they can also be days spent walking along one of the world’s most famous rivers. Although polluted beyond recognition, the Thames is still quite spectacular as it draws a path through so many famous landmarks in London. One can literally walk for hours along that river and not get bored. My plan was to check out the “Canada Water” area for no other reason than its name, but that relatively aimless destination unexpectedly led me all the way to Tower Bridge and beyond.

It was a long walk but one that was definitely worth the time and effort. Furthermore, London has no shortage of creativity even when it comes to marriage proposals as one unique individual demonstrated recently:

Royal Family: Obsession or Indifference?

For some reason the media in North America always seems so keen to publish anything remotely interesting happening within the British Royal Family. I remember being in high school when Princess Diana died in a car accident and although I wouldn’t say I was obsessed with her, her death did bring me to unexpected tears. The longer I live in London the more I see that there is a huge divide between people in the East and those everywhere else where interest with the royal family is concerned. My students (in the east) view the family, along with their fans, as posh. To me being called posh is no big deal, but to them it’s quite an insult. Last summer was apparently a big deal for the city as Princess Diana’s first grandson was born. I suppose the hoopla doesn’t look to be dying down anytime soon…

2013: A Good Summer (for London)

When I try to imagine popular holiday destinations, London is not the first place that comes to mind. Millions of people seem to disagree, however, as foreign tourists visiting this city hit an all-time high in 2013. Apparently London had close to 4.9 million visitors last summer, 20% more than the previous “Olympic” year. In all honesty this doesn’t make much sense to me but who am I to dispute facts? According to various sources Andy Murray’s victory at Wimbledon, the birth of Prince George, and the long hot summer were contributing factors. Frankly I don’t understand how any of these could be more important than the Olympics. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, took advantage of this convenient statistic to make some incredibly questionable comments (most green space?) about the great city:

“These incredible figures prove that London is without doubt the greatest city on the planet. With so many fascinating museums, the best theatre scene in the world, more green space than any other European city, numerous top sporting venues, a low crime rate and much else besides, it’s no wonder that people from all over the globe are flocking to London in record numbers.”

VoiceOver: Riots Reformed

It’s amazing how random and unexpected life can be. I recall reading about the London riots in 2011 whilst studying at the University of Ottawa but at the time didn’t know I’d be moving to London nor did I think I’d ever meet anyone truly affected by the riots. It seems 2014 will be full of pleasant surprises. After receiving an email from my alma mater about a documentary being screened there I quickly glanced over the information expecting to delete it at any moment. The film, however, being about the London riots naturally caught my attention and the next thing I knew I was emailing the creator for an interview.

Fahim Alam is an Oxford University and London School of Economics graduate who was mistakenly arrested in Hackney over two years ago and spent six weeks in prison as well as being electronically monitored for an additional six months. Throughout that horrid ordeal Mr. Alam managed to make the best of the experience and without any prior film knowledge began a quest to document the riots from new perspectives. VoiceOver: Riots Reformed is the result and I look forward to meeting him this week to discuss it in greater detail!

Happy New Year from Iceland

I suppose this post is a little late but it took a few days for me to settle back into England life after two weeks of living out of a suitcase. Christmas in the Czech Republic was lovely, but the new year in Iceland was quite phenomenal. Hallgrímskirkja Church in Reykjavik was the centre of the fireworks action. From the information I gathered the fireworks display is not a calculated one as it is in most capital cities (including London) but rather a free-for-all spectacle put on by thousands of locals. In short new year’s eve in Iceland is pretty special and unique. Hopefully 2014 will be just as special.