full fathom five: Tag london

Reports Of My Blog's Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated!

Michael Studman — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

But you could be forgiven for thinking it was so. It’s been a long time between posts and there’s a good deal to report and a few things to celebrate.

On the professional front:

In January I celebrated my first year of working for Cenqua/Atlassian (in August 2007 we were acquired by Atlassian). Working for Atlassian is much like working for Cenqua except rather than working with 7 really smart people on 3 cool products in a different time zone, I now work with around 150 really smart people on 7 extremely cool and increasingly well integrated products across 3 different time zones.
This also means I’ve completed my first year of working from home. Home working has been a surprising adventure (and not always for good reasons - more on that in a future post) but I’ve survived and feel I’m now in my groove (well, one of them, anyway). Atlassian has also ramped up its European presence so I now have developers in my geographic region to work with.
In May of last year attended my first Java One. I worked along side of the other Cenquans in the JavaOne trade hall demoing our products, talking with customers and networking with other nerds.
Clover and Fisheye both won first prize Jolt awards! For those not in the know, Jolts are kind of like the Oscars of our industry. As a long-time reader and fan of Dr Dobbs Journal there’s a deep sense of pride I feel from being part of a team producing something worthy of a Jolt.

On the personal front:

Today we celebrate our 5th anniversary of living in London. It was initially tough going but ultimately worth it. Moving countries always is tough, I suspect, but doing so during the worst part of the tech crash was not something I’d relish again. London is a fantastic and vibrant city which constantly surprises me - despite the seductive charms of the (for me, very accessible) cities Sydney, SF and Singapore, there’s no place I’d rather be right now than Finsbury Park, London.
Wei Kiat recently celebrated his first anniversary of working at the British Museum. In that time he survived his first blockbuster exhibition, The First Emperor (ending on Sunday). Having someone on the inside with a thorough understanding of the events and celebrations taking place there has meant for a very culturally rich 12 months.
In December we celebrated our 6th anniversary together.
And finally, I’d like to announce to you all that I’ve decided to have my gender reassigned. Of late, you may have noticed my enlarged manboobs and assumed I’d been hitting the Krispy Kremes a bit too hard. Well, now I can now announce that this evening*, after several months of hormone therapy I’ll be going under the knife and will come out a new woman. Please kindly refer to me as Brenda Studman in all future correspondence.

* Tonight, 1st April, 2008 - April Fools day

Finding great oriental food in London

Michael Studman — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 23:00:00 -0400

One of the great things about Sydney is the ease of availability, cheapness, authenticity and freshness of oriental food. It’s taken a year but I now have a handful of places in London where I can go and find fresh and authentic oriental food for not a whole lot of dosh.

Here are some of the places I found. Bon apetit!

Oriental City’s food court, North London (Colindale), zone 4

For anyone who misses the buzz of oriental food courts in Sydney such as in Market City shopping centre or on Sussex St then this is a very fine substitute. There are about 8 stalls each selling specific types of oriental food – Hong Kong Dim Sum/Yum Cha, Malaysian, 2 Japanese, 2 pan-south east asian, northern Chinese and Singaporian hawker food. If you’ve ever enjoyed Hainanese chicken & rice then you simply must try the Singaporian stall’s version of it – according to my partner, a native Singaporian, their version is very faithful to the meals served to diners in hawker centres all over Singapore.

Situated right next to an oriental supermarket makes it convenient for a good meal and a place to pick up hard to find groceries like IndoMi instant noodles, Japanese mayonaise or Chinese egg custard buns.

Kingsland Rd, E2

This street in east London is full of tasty and cheap Vietnamese restaurants. So far I’ve only tried Song Que Cafe (#134) but with 6 different types of Pho noodles and more than 100 dishes on the menu it might take some time before we get around to trying other places in the area.

Chinatown

Well this is the obvious spot to pick up a good oriental meal but often the prices are well inflated and the food less than fresh (alas, not uncommon in many restaurants in London). I’ve had decent HK-style Chinese fare at Rong Cheng on Shaftesbury Avenue; enjoyed absolutely enormous Japanese curries and bento boxes at Misato on Wardour St; and stuffed myself on great Malaysian meals (go the Nasi Lemak!) in a restaurant whose name escapes me but is the only Malaysian restaurant on Wardour St.

London/European Assembly elections

Michael Studman — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 23:00:00 -0400

Today I voted in my first election outside of Australia – for the London Assembly, London’s Mayor and the European Parliament.

I was suprised to learn that even though I am not a citizen nor permanent resident of the UK, because I’m a Commonwealth citizen I’m entitled to vote in all UK elections. It’s quite progressive and internationalist of the UK to approach elections this way, and no doubt, is referential in same part to its imperial past. Australia, would you offer the same rights to UK citizens?

There seemed to be few difference to the system of voting in Australia – political parties handing ‘how to vote’ cards outside, a registration desk, an electoral office representative getting shirty with absent minded voters leaving those same ‘how to vote’ cards on the registration desk. A similar range of candidates – from extreme left (Communist Party) to center left/right (Labour/Conservative) to slightly left of extreme right (BNP). Sadly, there were no looney parties this year.

A key difference is that voting is not compulsory in the UK. My local polling booth certainly seemed less busy than any polling booth in Australia I’ve ever been to.

Another difference is that voting occurred on a Thursday. In Australia elections only ever happen on a Saturday – no end of annoyance to the football crowds, as I recall. I can imagine the turnout would be dismal in this country if they held it on a match day.

Prior to voting, I must admit to some ignorance on what exactly the London Assembly is. Well, now my vote has been cast I know – it’s an assembly to form some checks and balances against the mayor’s power by, for example, altering his budget or investigating issues of concern to Londoners. Aparently I’m not alone on this.

Similarly, it seems many people have little idea what the European Parliament does. Most often it seems to be the perpetrator of a great many Euromyths – apparent affronts to British common sense whipped up by UK tabloids – of which my favourite is “Yogurt to be banned”.

For most people it seems the mayorial contest is of more importance and signifcance. We’ll find out soon enough if Ken, the tireless (but not ineffectual) self promoting Mayor of LondOn, is returned to office.