Weeks 144–157 · England · Three Months in the Home Counties
Three Months
Three months of dispatches from suburban England — October 2016 through January 2017. Five posts covering Shepperton and the blue suburban skies, the Seven Sisters and Jurassic Coast, Christmas settling into Richmond, a guided hike to Arundel in Kent, and finally a weekend with Sharon at the White Cliffs of Dover. Work-heavy weeks, but the weekends consistently delivered.
Unexpected work trip to the UK — would have been great except we had a family football weekend planned so I missed meeting up with Sharon and the girls in Tempe for the UCLA-ASU game. But not too bad as this is the first personal trip messed up this year. Stayed near Penny Lane — but not the Penny Lane.
Overall one of the better jobsite situations I have visited with regard to logistics — near city, good hotel, short drive to site, and no crappy Korean food. The food is great as UK law requires a canteen onsite and I can get a bacon and sausage bap smothered in mayo anytime I want along with an endless supply of Diet Coke. About an hour outside of London, directly south of Heathrow just inside the M25 Orbital.
Went to Wembley for the England–Malta 2018 World Cup qualifier. England was favoured by 4.5 goals but only won 2-0, so the back pages were screaming over the low margin of victory. Note on the National Anthem — no one kneeled and the fans really sang with much more enthusiasm than you would ever see in the USA. Had a 10-year-old sitting behind me who had the colour commentary for the game — very knowledgeable. Best quote after England got another free kick was "Dad-dee, not Roo-nee again, we must make it stop." As predicted, Rooney launched one into the wall.
Getting in was easy via Uber and buying a ticket there — great experience as the stadium has a lot of history. Getting home a little more challenging: no chance of getting an Uber and my battery drained completely — so a good soul on the train into London let me use their extra battery to charge my phone. Uber'd from central London only to run into another stadium event at Twickenham with another 80,000 people at a rugby match ending.
The new Wembley Stadium — opened in 2007, replacing the original "Twin Towers" ground that hosted the 1966 World Cup Final — seats 90,000 and is the largest stadium in the UK. The iconic arch rises 133 metres above the pitch and is visible from much of London. The original Wembley also hosted the "White Horse Final" of 1923, the first FA Cup final played there, where mounted police on a white horse helped control a crowd estimated at over 200,000. England plays virtually all of its major home internationals here, and the atmosphere for qualifier matches against smaller nations still carries genuine edge.
On Sunday, took the train into London and almost met my goal of 30,000 steps. Lots of pictures attached. On the walk to the train station, a lady joined me for the walk and said she was very pro-American — she had fancied a young US GI at the end of the war, she must have been about 90 — and like everyone else wanted to know why Trump and what had happened to America. It is pretty much the topic of conversation once anyone hears my accent. And a good weather week — most days dry and even sunny.
Back for a week to the USA and to LA for the last parents' weekend with Sharon for Alexandra at college — pretty cool to go to Wembley and the Rose Bowl within a couple of weeks and always great to see her. The time in Shepperton on my return was pretty much devoted to work the entire time — really only out one night and a day for some hiking near the coast.
A work colleague and I took the recommendation of an Uber driver to check out a historic pub near the jobsite — it went back to the 12th century with the building from the 16th century. Almost everyone was really friendly. When locals asked where I was from, I said USA and my colleague said Dublin. One guy made a big point about how much he liked Americans — a couple of minutes later he loudly ordered an Irish coffee and said "hold the Irish." So apparently this guy thought it was 1975 — his friends were horrified and diverted the discussion but he kept at it. My friend was more shocked than upset and didn't want an altercation. By the time we decided it was time to leave, his friends followed us out profusely apologising — but helpfully identified our next destination, another old pub with great Thai food. It had been used as a gatehouse outside the walls of Windsor Castle, about 15 miles away.
The Seven Sisters are a series of chalk sea cliffs on the East Sussex coast between Seaford and Eastbourne, forming part of the South Downs National Park. They represent the truncated ends of dry valleys carved during the last Ice Age when the chalk was still above sea level. The cliffs are approximately 75 miles west of the more famous White Cliffs of Dover. While Dover's cliffs are higher, the curved coastline at the Seven Sisters allows multiple headlands to be visible simultaneously, which is why many photographers and walkers consider them the more scenic option. Seaford Head is a Local Nature Reserve and one of the best elevated viewpoints on the south coast of England.
Although I had planned to work on Sunday, it was bright blue sky and high of 65 forecast so I planned a similar road trip to what I did with Sharon and the girls about 15 years ago — down to Brighton, then eastward along the southern coast to the chalk cliffs of Seaford and Seven Sisters. This time I knew that Brighton Beach was not really a beach and skipped that stop and went straight into Seaford for a couple of miles along the coast. These are about 75 miles west of the more famous White Cliffs of Dover.
Gone from an "adviser" to a full-time role — the best way to quantify the change is my daily step count was 8,500 steps per day, and after 19 days straight working my step count was 2,500 steps per day. Ironically my energy level is higher — so work stress can be good. Had some personal stress as Alex had an operation 6,000 miles away — not good stress, but happy everything went as planned. My "inspirational" kickoff speech led to 4 people quitting. Happy to be home for 2 weeks over Christmas break — but looking to spend at least the first half of 2017 in the UK. Will probably get an AirBnB for a couple of months in Richmond.
Had a half-day off and did some walking in Richmond on a very nice day — outside of that afternoon it has been all work. I do walk by holiday parties — the hotel runs a "Roaring 20s Christmas Party" Wednesday through Saturday and it is like Groundhog Day. I was going to crash on a Saturday night — but after the OSU debacle wasn't in a party-crashing mood.
Richmond Hill has one of only two views in England protected by an Act of Parliament — the View from Richmond Hill Act of 1902 prevents any construction that would obstruct the sweeping panorama of the Thames below. At 10 miles, St. Paul's Cathedral is visible from the hilltop and nothing can be built to interrupt that sightline. Richmond Park itself covers 2,500 acres and is the largest of the Royal Parks, home to around 630 free-roaming red and fallow deer enclosed by Charles I in 1637. The Uber driver tip about Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall's adjacent townhouses — connected internally so their children could move between them — is widely repeated in Richmond, though not officially confirmed.
Another very busy two workweeks — both professionally and personally (and not fun personally). Had one day off and found a great meetup group with professionally guided hikes. I was out to dinner at a local pub when the owner asked me to speak to some ladies regarding Trump. Very nice grandmothers who have their book club in the back room of the pub. The discussion quickly varied to "why does the UK need to import an American to work at the waste station." I said I was a recycling expert, not a waste person — I sort the recycling by visually identifying the different types of metallurgy and placing into the appropriate bin and no one in England qualified. Three laughed while one was like "are you serious Clark?" and went on to bemoan the loss of English technological leadership. She left and we — with the ones who suspected I was BSing them — started discussing the quality of the Thai food and Korean food in the town. She came back right as I noted I lived in Korea — and she said "they can't sort their own waste either?"
The hike was great — 9 miles through a national park, getting off at one stop and hiking to the next at Arundel (pronounced "Air-ran-dell," not "Ah-run-del" — not sure why the English changed it). Very friendly people, either expats to the UK or UK citizens who had lived outside it. But off to a rough start on a couple of conversations: a guy said he was a labour lawyer, so I asked "Why is it so hard to fire people here?" His response: "No one should ever be fired — I am a leading activist for developing stronger labour rights." While another person was interested in renewable energy and I told them it is not economical compared to natural gas and the UK should start fracking — she said she was in Greenpeace and protested often at fracking hearings. But had a pint with both of them at our stops. OK to disagree. Three pubs in 9 miles — not really a pub crawl.
Looking forward to meeting Sharon for the weekend — original plan was to meet a friend in Madrid but then I had a work meeting in Vienna so rescheduled, which is not glamorous and a pain. In Vienna — hotel and office in the same building — so never stepped outside.
Arundel Castle in West Sussex dates from the Norman Conquest — the original motte and bailey was constructed by Roger de Montgomery following the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It has been the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk, England's premier Catholic dukes and hereditary Earl Marshals, for over 400 years. The castle was largely rebuilt in the 18th and 19th centuries in the Gothic Revival style. The town of Arundel sits at the head of the River Arun and the castle's silhouette above the medieval town is one of the most recognised castle scenes in southern England. The "Arundel pronunciation" confusion is common — the town's name is locally stressed on the first syllable as "Arr-un-del," not "Ah-RUN-del" as outsiders typically guess.
Sharon was over for the US holiday weekend — the original plan was to go see a friend in Madrid but work plans changed so we ended up meeting late Friday night at Heathrow as we both landed about the same time. Worked out great as we literally had no plans but ended up quite busy.
On Saturday, we stumbled across an exhibit of music and revolution from the 1960s — basically followed the words of "Revolution" through a series of exhibits of music and cultural history. It was very well done. We ended the day going to a play written by a new acquaintance — performed in a community theatre on the 4th floor of a pub in Clapham Junction, only 5 short miles from the West End. It was fun and interesting to see people starting at the "love" stage of their career — they aren't getting rich (yet).
The Victoria and Albert Museum's "You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966–70" exhibition traced the cultural, political, and artistic upheaval of the late 1960s. John Lennon's handwritten working drafts of "Revolution" and "Imagine" — shown in these photos — were central to the exhibition's narrative of art as political act. The show used immersive audio-visual technology to recreate the sights and sounds of the era and was praised as one of the finest music exhibitions staged at a major European museum. The Bedford in Balham is the multi-storey pub venue widely known for hosting fringe theatre, comedy, and live music — theatre performed "above a pub" is a venerable London tradition going back centuries, predating the purpose-built West End theatres.
We were heading over to Dover to try to get a hike in on the coast and the weather was awful — then the miracle of Facebook. Got a message from a friend from when we lived in London asking if Sharon was in town — they were east of London so it would probably be too hard to connect while we were west. But since we were driving southeast, we knew we were closer. Ended up being about 10 minutes away. Great catching up with them — hard to believe almost 15 years since we left. Stayed over in Dover and got better weather the next day for a muddy hike. Although the cliffs are higher in Dover, because the coastline around the Seven Sisters is curved it is much more scenic.
Having some language issues — a co-worker was bragging that his kid after getting his Master's degree got his dream job at the "7-11" with a path to working on staff. Hey, everyone has dreams. Later it was clarified that a "7-11" is also a school that teaches 7 to 11-year-old kids.
"Although the cliffs are higher in Dover, because the coastline around the Seven Sisters is curved it is much more scenic."
