What to Wear to Work

Having recently moved desks (and groups, coincidentally) at the new office, I'm now on the long arm of the L, which is readily populated by a decent proportion of other females, and from my desk I can see people going to and from the kitchen. This means I am now qualified to let you all know what the professional London female is wearing this fall!

Let's start at the top and work our way down!
So tops. The conservative choice is certainly the blouse, and most days I wear one myself. In fact, I'm wearing a blouse today. It's dark blue. Anyways, the blouses I see around vary widely in color and somewhat in style, certainly more so than the male counterpart of 'should I wear a blue shirt or a white shirt today'. Oh, and the blouse is tucked in. The popular alternative to the blouse is the solid-color sweater, sometimes over blouses or as a layering piece, but often on their own. They can be v-neck or scoop neck (you don't tend to see crew neck outside of cardigans), and are conservatively cut. You do not see t-shirts.

Bottoms! The younger people tend to be, the more likely they are to wear skirts (from my estimation!). Personally, aside from a couple days where I wore jeans for site visit purposes, I haven't worn pants to work since around July. Nice pants are also a popular choice, I've just decided they're a bit boring! The range of skirts is quite considerable, but the staple is still the knee-length black skirt. Most skirts tend to be solid-colored, but you do find some with prints amongst the slightly flower child crowd. Somewhere in between the top and the bottom falls the dress. While you see a few very conservative suit-type dresses around, it's more common to see somewhat less formal dresses, often accompanied by a sweater. They tend to be less formal than other work outfits, so I tend to wear them on Fridays. We don't have a casual day, but in my mind it's just a bit less formal.

Lower still...In my estimation the primary advantage of wearing skirts instead of pants is that you get to wear tights! Now sometimes tights drive me slightly insane, like when you're walking outside and they're slowly slipping down and there's no PC way to address the problem. However, popular yet again this year in London is the opaque tight. While black is again the staple, you are seeing more range in color this year. Also back in lesser esteem is the fashion tight, which are typically black and patterned in some way. My new acquisitions for the year include heather grey tights and some eggplanty-purple tights (and I got shoes in the same color, go me!). In the office, I've seen a lot of brown tights being worn with brown skirts, which is something I'm secretly aspiring to.

Shoes! Boot season has most certainly arrived! They come in black or brown and are generally either flat or have a very low heel. In pumps, thick heels are in! And they tend to be black as well. As with my eggplant shoe/tight situation (which I have worn together once!) you do see some tight/shoe matching. In addition to black, brown and eggplant, this is perhaps most commonly seen in shades of grey.

So there you have it, what to wear to work this fall. As for men, same standards apply: blue or white shirt, grey pants, black shoes. Perhaps a sweater if it's cold!

Silly Americans!

To continue somewhere around where I left off last week (my apologies for the delay), let's discuss what these crazy English think about us on our own turf. Last night there were two things on television (well 3, but I only watched 2 of them) directly relating to this topic. One was another episode of Stephen Fry's America show, last week he visited the deep south, and this week he traveled up the entire length of the Mississippi. The other was what seems to be the second annual NFL game in London.

First we'll address Mr Fry. While it seems the Mississippi wasn't quite as exciting as his visit to the deep south, I couldn't help but get the impression that he ends up emphasizing the exact same thing in the US that an American show would try and point out in the UK. Basically, he goes around and finds weird people and weird places and then gawks and stares a bit. Like going to a voo-doo ceremony in New Orleans and ice fishing in Minnesota. Kind of like we might go to a Morris dancing festival and a 'football' game. But there are a few other things the show taps into as well: first off, that Americans are very friendly folk, secondly, they drive around in big cars, and thirdly, it's surprisingly rich in culture that vary per region.

While people do often enjoy giving us Americans a bit of crap for many things, it's generally admitted that none of these things are to be taken too seriously. People seem to think that Americans are a decent batch of people, unfortunately led by a bit of a, um, 'twat'.

So that brings us to football. Like, real football. The Chargers played the Saints at Wembley yesterday evening. Quite frankly, I'm genuinely surprised how many people are quite intrigued by it. I've already discussed it with two work colleagues today, both of which had attended the game. Both found the game to be good fun (the high score was much appreciated, and provided a nice contrast to this soccer business). I was also surprised to hear positive feedback on the number of pauses in the game, as apparently it allows you to go and get beer at regular intervals without missing much of the game. I was like, duh, of course. At soccer games everyone runs out at half time and then misses a good chunk of the second half because the lines are so huge as everyone goes at once!

I was also asked if we have chants at American sporting events. Now, I've been on the tube enough prior to Chelsea games to know that European teams tend to have little songs that their fans like to sing while, you know, walking along the platform to get out of Fulham Broadway tube station (and other places too, I'm sure). My response was that we did not sing songs, but fans tend to have established chants of a few words with coordinated arm movements, for example the arm chop for kick-offs at Washington games and the 'O-S-U' situation at Beaver games. Personally I think these are much better than songs as I'm not a good singer! Plus they're easy to catch on to, and even if it's your first game, you'll have the hang of things by the end! So there you have it, positive reviews of football by English people. Although I still don't understand their strange fascination with cheerleaders...

The third show, that I didn't watch, was about the influence of religion in the US. Now don't get me started on that...

The American Stereotype: Tourists

To further what Mark mentioned in the previous blog, I think it's time we address some stereotypes commonly associated with Americans and speculate whether or not they are deserved. These stereotypes can be easily split into two categories: stereotypes of Americans in the US, and stereotypes of American tourists in the UK. To keep this blog within manageable length, I'm going to split these into separate blogs. First, my personal favorite: American tourists.

All of you who have been to London or watched enough movies taking place in London, are probably aware of the steady stream of announcements and warnings and general updates on life that come with riding on the underground system. Many of these have been previously recorded by one particular voice-over lady. While these recordings are still played incessantly, the voice-over lady has been fired. Amongst other discretions, she had made some mock underground voice overs and posted them on her internet site. One of them was something along the lines of: "To our American friends, yes, we can hear you. Could you please keep your voices down". And so there you have stereotype #1: American tourists are annoyingly loud.

Is this deserved? Not really. See, whilst it may seem American tourists talk loudly on the tube, they have good reason. Unlike many of the local tube users going to and from work, most often by themselves and therefore with no one to talk to, and who are most likely bitter about that the fact that they are constantly commuting on over-crowded trains and therefore have no cheery inputs, American tourists are often traveling in sizable groups and are happy and chatty because they're on vacation. Enough said. The only reason Americans get the bad wrap in this, as opposed to Spaniards or Italians and such, is that as they are speaking in English, the ear is naturally going to pay more attention to speech that it can comprehend, making the English stand out above other languages. It may be obvious that I've put a lot of thought into this, but I think it makes sense!

Furthermore, given the distance required to travel to London from the US, as opposed to say, from France, Americans often visit in larger groups. Again, perfectly understandable! Personally I think it's kind of cute seeing groups of retired people pottering around trying to figure out what train to take and pronouncing place names phonetically (but there's no excuse for you lot, I've given ample instructions on these topics for you to blend right in!). I assure you that all tourists get lost, but those without the best English are likely just less willing to ask for directions. And while Americans may travel in groups, they generally do so without guides. Don't get me started on those Japanese tour groups and their guide-following tunnel vision!

In general, perhaps American tourists tend to be noticeable because they didn't get the memo that the goal of English-kind is to blend in public and generally avoid being singled out in any way. Unless you know, you're wearing a funky outfit or really, really attractive. Americans, on the other hand, are happy people who don't think it offense to talk on trains or otherwise appear to be having fun while sober, and they generally don't see the harm in asking for directions, as in the reverse situation they would generally be more than happy to help a distressed lost visitor to their own town (and would probably invite them over for dinner as well).

historical knowledge + america

Over the past few weekends i think my or should i say our knowledge of the world has significantly increased. this mainly occurred when one morning Margo, over breakfast, went through the succession of the british monarchy from memory- i was quite impressed! i think i was quite shocked at how unrelated some of them were! anyways i think her knowledge comes from lunch time wikipedia reading / trips to london when she first came over the pond...

we consequently decided to hit the national portrait gallery the next day where we leaned even more...i was quite shocked i genuinely found it very interesting! and learned quite a bit - enough to bring it up at work and test other peoples knowledge! anyways the museum also had a modern section which was not so good and actually quite random!

the museum also touched on american history this has been recently supported by a TV show that is running at the moment showing how the united states was born i guess- using modern day pictures of the current presidential candidates - its quite interesting! actually very interesting like in my complete lack of all things historical - in complete opposite to my brother! (i gave up history when i was 14 because the schools curriculum studied american history!) i didnt realise that the civil war was only like 60 years before WW1!

This was followed by a famous presenter in a different show traveling round the states in a london taxi! he is quite pompous! as you can imagine they find the weird and wonderful (they have the same show for the UK) anyways one of the things they showed was thanksgiving southern style with fried turkey (which scared me a little well a lot!) and their 'civil war game' which he described as "wonderful and only in america"!

Stairs

Through no fault of my own, I have become a frequent stair climber. Mind you, I don't walk around looking for stairs to climb, nor do I climb the equivalent of the Empire State Building everyday. I just find myself constantly confronted with short flights of steps that stand in between myself and my destination. Perhaps the easiest thing to do is simply go through a typical day. Let's say, hmm, today (with some forecasting over what is yet to come). And for clarity, I will be expressing floor levels in American terms, not English terms. So the first floor is you know, the first one, not the one above ground level.

In similar terms, I have also found myself in a position where I am constantly pressing cards against readers to gain access to different places.

I started out this morning on the 2nd floor. Leaving the house, I went down one small flight of stairs. Arriving at the train station, scanned my oyster card, and I climbed one flight of steps to get to the platform. However, the magical powers that be meant that when I arrived at Paddington, I had to climb another flight of stairs to get to street level. Sneaky, I know. Scanned oyster card again to get out. Climbed half a flight of stairs to reach the street.

Arriving at my place of work, scanned work ID card to get through initial barriers. Walked up two flights of stairs to third floor office, scanned ID card again to get through the door. Forward to lunch time, I walked down two flights of stairs, scanned work ID to get out of the building. Crossed the street to the station, walked down one flight of stairs to the level of the taxi rank (for some reason much lower than street level). Acquired Diet Coke, then went back up short flight of steps, scanned work ID, up two flights, scanned again. That brings us up to present. Now we must speculate.

Eventually I'm going to want to leave the office. This will involve walking down two flights, scanning my work ID, walking to the tube, down half a flight, scan oyster card, down big flight to the train station. I'm signed up for spin class tonight, so I'll get off at Fulham Broadway, walk up one flight, scan oyster again. I'll then casually coast up to the third floor via escalators (these don't count as stairs, for obvious mechanical reasons). I'll then scan my gym card to gain access to the facilities. After changing I will climb one flight of stairs to the main workout area, where the spin room is located. After much energy is expired, I'll climb back down the steps, coast down a few escalators, walk home, where I will hopefully climb my last flight of stairs for the day.

Truth be told, that's not really a lot of stair climbing, but you have to agree that it's frequent. And sometimes I want to see the little chart big brother surely has that keeps track of all of my movements. Of course they might think I spend all of my time at the gym as we don't have to scan to get out...

Little Venice

One of the many joys of moving to a new office is having a new surrounding area to explore. And as my initial enthusiasm for exploration waned long ago, the move has provided a much-needed boost in this department. So far I have spent 2, yes, 2! entire lunch times exploring my surrounding area, as well as another lunch time spent tasting local Thai pub cuisines. Sadly, all this exploration got in the way of my updating blog last week, but as it was in the interesting of possible new blog topics, I hope I'm at least somewhat forgiven.

The first exploratory period involved walking to Paddington Basin and Little Venice. Both sound, exciting, I know. First of all, I had hard much talk of this Paddington Basin but had no earthly clue what it entailed or where it was. Now I can tell you that it's a massive development just north of the train station (I'm just west of it) involving office space, some commercial space, and I think some residential. In the middle there was a bit of a circular hole in the ground with some grassy seating, some food options and a gym. Around this hole there were more food options, primarily involving sit-down restaurants, and a pub. All-in-all, handy but perhaps not exciting.

Stop 2 was Little Venice. Believe it or not, but the UK has an intricate canal system that was developed shortly before the arrival of the railroads. Many of these canals still exist, at least in parts, including one just north of Paddington Station. Two canals meet, resulting in a large pond-like open area, and this serves as the heart of Little Venice. Now I was expecting a happening landscape, but instead things were relatively quiet, with one boat serving as a small cafe, but other than that it was really just a pleasant place for a stroll, and was surrounding by what I can only assume to be extremely expensive houses. There is also an architectural-type pedestrian bridge crossing the canal, connecting me to this little urban oasis.

My other journey out last week took me towards Edgware Road (not to be confused with Edgware!). I typically think of Edgware Road as an annoying tube station, as I take Edgware Road branch District Line trains to get to work. But low and behold, there is actually an existence outside the station! I know, crazy. We happened to come across a random market, mainly involving cheap wares, vegetables and kebabs. Not that exciting really, but it's interesting to know what goes on! We were attempting to find Lord's cricket ground, the 'home' of cricket in London or something silly like that, but without a map we sort of ran out of time and had to turn back. It turns out we were about two blocks away.

Luckily I still have many directions to discover. Like to the west towards Westbourne Grove, and to the south towards Lancaster Gate and Hyde Park. We'll see how long it takes for me to get around to those! Oh, and the Thai food was not the best!

Petworth House

I visited another stately home! This time it was Petworth House, located in, um, Petworth, West Sussex. As Mark and I had gone down to his parent's place for the weekend, we thought we might best take advantage of having access to a car/having annual memberships to the National Trust by visiting one of their local properties. We decided on Petworth House mainly because it was relatively nearby, was open on Saturdays, looked big, and was supposed to have a renowned art collection. So on Saturday morning, we hopped into the car, and pealed out.

To provide some context, Petworth House was built in the late 1600s (and revised over time, as is generally the case with these things) as the country seat of the Dukes of Somerset. It was 'blinged' out, so speak, thanks to one of these said dukes marrying the rich heiress of the Percy family (I don't know who they are, but I remembered the name so thought I'd toss it in there). The family collected vast quantities of art over the years, and England's favorite landscaper, J.M.W. Turner, was a frequent visitor of the house in the 1820s, and painted a number of interior and exterior views of the house. It was given to the National Trust in 1947, who have thus opened it the public, while the family still lives in one of the, um, areas (it was a rectangle, so it doesn't have wings). The house features extensive grounds, laid out by Capability Brown, to look conveniently natural. The grounds are currently home to the largest herd of fallow deer, um, let's say in England. You can see a few of them in the photo (sorry it's slightly askew, I was in a rush to get the running deer!). Watch out for deer droppings!

So there were intermittent rain showers on Saturday, this being England and all. But that doesn't generally have much impact on the inside of a house, so we ventured forth. I must say, the art collection in the house is very impressive, with a mix of portraits and landscapes, some by the aforementioned Turner. It seemed a lot of portraits were by van Dyck. The big ground floor rooms were all open, with handy little books available in each room telling you about each of the paintings and the furniture.

The two most impressive rooms (and by this I mean jaw-dropping) were the grand staircase and what was described as the carved drawing room. The grand staircase had a very interesting wall-decor. The walls were essentially murals, with the giant ceiling covered in one of those Greek god-like situations where everyone is wearing a toga and sitting on a cloud. The walls were what I found especially intriguing, as they were painted to give the impression of being 3D marble with insets (I hope that makes sense, not sure how else to desribe it!). I must say I have never seen anything quite like the carved room. The walls were dark wood panels, and were covered with extremely intricately carved lighter wood designs, primarily in the shapes of floral bouquests and fruits and other little bits of nature. The picture frames were also carved and formed part of the paneling, instead of being laid on top. To say the least, every inch of that room gave off the appearance of a piece of art. And it was really neat!

Once we'd seen the interior of the house, we popped across the courtyard to hit the restaurant, where we got some tea, scones, jam and clotted cream. We totally had our pinkies up the entire time. We likewise went through the old kitchens and checked out the gift shop. Despite a fierce wind and a light mist, we decided to check out some of the grounds. We soon regretted this decision as the rain just got heavier and heavier, while we stood under a big tree next to a 'natural-looking but too conveniently located to ever actually be natural pond'. We saw some serious walkers, the types with special hats and a walking stick in each hand, who probably enjoy walking in the rain best of all as it keeps the pretenders away. Once the rain let up a little we walked back to the car, as the overhead skies guaranteed that there was more rain on the way.

So that was Petworth House! I would definitely recommend a visit! However, it's of course conveniently located nowhere near a train station so you'll have to drive...

Paddington Station

Welcome to October! And boy, am I feeling it! From a nice sunny, warm weekend temperatures have plummeted into the 'gee, I really wish I had gloves and a scarf' realm very quickly. I'm not impressed!

Anyways, this picture is clearly not of me wearing gloves. It's a shot of the inside of Paddington Station! More specifically, trains. Paddington Station is my new work 'neighbour', filling in the across the street void filled by ugly 1960s buildings at my former work site. It is also my best bet for lunchtime entertainment. What you can't see in this picture is that behind me there are about 8000 shops and food places. However, there are also about a million people trying to make purchases in each one and a considerable proportion of these people are lugging large suitcases, making it quite difficult to get around.

So what exactly goes on then? Okay, so I leave my building, cross the street and negotiate to separate lanes of taxis (aka, I walk through the taxi rank) to get into a side entrance to the station. At this point trains are in front of me, and on the right there is a large open area with food spots on the right (including McDonalds and a pasty place). If you continue towards the right you pass into what is essentially a food court, separated from the main station by a big glass wall. It seems to actually be temperature controlled, today it feeling noticeable warmer on the other side. In this little area, spread over multiple floors, you have a small Sainsburys, a Starbucks (plus two other coffee places), an Eat (thank goodness), a Boots (I went there today), Marks & Spencer Simply Food, a Krispy Kreme, Yo-Sushi, a pub, and some other temptations. Oh, plus if you go outside the glass walled area back into the main station, you get a number of stalls, including a smoothie stand, the standard train station baguette option, a Burger King, a cookie place, a bagel place, a Sweet Factory cart (not factory so much), and, of course, the Paddington Bear at Paddington Station stall.

Sadly the station is really as far as my neighborhood exploration has taken me this week, thanks to the weather and a site visit yesterday! Apparently we are near 'Little Venice', so I'm hoping to check it out soon!