City Hall Tower

Our hotel room in Stockholm looks out across Riddarfjarden Bay, part of the city's inner harbour. City Hall, an imposing red brick building, dominates the view. Its fascade is dominated by a copper crowned tower, rising 106 metres above the harbour. More than 2.5 million bricks were used to construct the tower.


This morning, thanks to daylight-saving enhanced jet lag, I woke rather early. While Garry slept I ventured out to walk around City Hall. By chance I came upon the entrance to its main tower. The queue was short despite signs warning that only 30 people could ascend at any time. On impulse I decided to climb its 365 steps to the outdoor carillon.


I'm glad I made the effort. The view from the top was stunning, taking in the city's ice-choked waterways and the jagged skyline of Gamla Stan (old town). Stockholm's many canals and islands also become very apparent from this vantage point.


However, perhaps the most unexpected sight came into view two-third the way up the tower. In a large room I came across a 7.5 metre tall statue of St Erik, the patron saint of Stockholm. It was originally built to sit in the carillon's open platform. However, the architect Ragnar Ostberg changes his plans and the statue remains stranded in its current location.

Later, after descending the tower, I discovered that the crowd waiting to climb had grown to form a long line requiring a wait of almost an hour. Jet lag has served me well.

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Stockholm Spring

Garry and I have arrived in Stockholm for Easter. We've been blessed with cool but sunny Spring weather for the next three days. Our first day has been spent leisurely wandering the narrow, bustling streets of Gamla Stan, Stockholm's old town district. The streets were filled with locals clearly enjoying the first days of Spring.

Garry and I stopped for lunch at an old warehouse building, dining on Moose and meatballs made from game meat. The meal was delicious and we can now add Moose to our list of tested and approved local dishes.


Other off-beat attractions that captured our attention today include watching large ice flows making their way down the city's many canals. The Spring thaw is clearly underway upstream resulting in a mesmerizing flotilla of ice sweeping by the city's numerous waterfront parks. We were particularly bemused by a lone swan calmly preening itself while standing on one flow as the current carried it along.

We've booked ourselves on a Sunday brunch cruise touring the Stockholm archipelago for three scenic hours. However, first up is the world-famous Vasa Museum tomorrow. Watch for more photos soon (PS: The image opening this post was taken from our hotel room where the city's town hall dominates the view).

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An ordinary week

It’s been a rather ordinary week; a rather mundane time of long working hours and regular household chores. Our car is back from the repair yard. It looks as good as new. Outside Spring is finally making its mark; a month later than usual. The daffodils in full in our yard (although we’ve noted numerous stems yet to bloom further down the street) and the first blossoms have finally appeared in the backyard. Last night the clocks also went forward an hour, heralding the start of British Summer Time. Garry and I both noted how light it was at 7.00pm this evening. We’re finally eating dinner in daylight again.

Temperatures have also been milder. Today’s high reached 13.3°C. However, another cold spell is forecast in the run up to Easter. Wednesday’s high is predicted to drop to a chilly 7°C, with overnight lows of 1°C. This will be ideal training for our Easter vacation in Stockholm. The daily temperature isn’t forecast to rise above 6°C while we’re there with overnight lows dropping to -1°C. Weather at the Ice Hotel will be even colder, with daily highs of 0°C. I read this morning that the temperature inside the hotel will be -5°C.

The first daffodils of Spring

Hooray! Our first daffodils have burst into bloom. Spring is finally on its way. Just as horticulturalists have predicted the stems are shorter than normal thanks to unseasonally cold weather stunting their growth.

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Seeking sights and sunshine

The daffodils still haven’t bloomed. However, the buds are swelling. Our first flowers of the season can only be days away. Even better, the daytime temperature is finally heading into double digits. Today's high reached 11°C, while Wednesday’s high is forecast to hit a balmy 14°C. The warmer weather has arrived just in time for the Spring Equinox, now less than six days away.

Garry and I are busy making final preparations for three holidays planned for April and May. Two are side trips which make up our annual round-the-world ticket, and a third is a discount special from British Airways. We’ve scheduled each to coincide with forthcoming public holidays. However, we’re a little anxious as British Airway’s cabin crew have announced plans to strike. Currently the published strike dates are outside those of our travel but previous strikes disrupted flights for days afterwards. Hopefully, there will be aircraft in the right location on the right day over Easter.

The first vacation is an extended Easter break in Sweden. We’re flying to Stockholm for three days, before heading north to enjoy two days at the famous Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi. Garry is keen to see Stockholm, while I’m keen to go north of the Arctic Circle and chance our luck for another sighting of the Northern Lights. We saw aurora borealis for the first time two years ago in Iceland, also at Easter.

Our next vacation will take advantage of the first public holiday in May. We’re off to Greece for a week of island hopping and touring ancient Greek ruins. Our tour takes in three days in Mykonos, two days in Santorini, followed by two final days in Athens. We’ve taken advantage of off-peak rates and booked ourselves into some incredible hotels.

Our final vacation will be a long weekend at the end of May, once again taking advantage of a public holiday. We’re off for three days in Copenhagen, neatly rounding off Garry’s progressive tour of the Nordics. In recent years we’ve made it to Oslo and Helsinki. Hopefully, we'll encounter some reasonable Spring weather over the next few months.

Pace yourself

Today's paper kindly warned us that this spring is likely to be unseasonably cool. I tend to believe them. We've experienced a week of wonderfully blue skies most days, accompanied by bitterly cold winds sweeping in from the Nordics. Today's overnight low is forecast to reach a chilly 2°C, before falling to 0°C overnight later in the week. Sunday night's low was even lower, dropping to an icy minus 2°C.

I also read today that the extreme cold weather has delayed England's daffodil season by up to four weeks. In previous years our garden was filled to over-flowing with bright yellow blooms by early March. However, this year the bulbs are still struggling to make their presence known and none have yet flowered. The trees are also bare, whereas two years ago most were smothered in blossom by this date. In fact, this winter has been so sodden and cold that a couple of smaller trees in the backyard simply toppled over last month rather than burst into blossom.

Hit and run!

A shocking surprise greeted us as we prepared to drive to the hardware store this weekend. As we approached our car, parked as always in the street, we discovered someone had hit it. Worse still, they'd driven off without leaving a note. The right rear side bumper and boot lid are completely mangled. The cat had been hit so hard, its rear wheels were shunted a foot away from the curb, leaving it parked at an awkward angle.

Garry was most upset. After such a long and demoralising winter, this latest incident simply seems to add to our litany of winter woes. I was a little more sanguine. Sadly, it's not the first time I've had someone hit my car and disappear without a trace. We've submitted an insurance claim and take the car in for repair on Thursday. We're now a small part of the £54 million worth of insurance claims lodged nationwide every day.

In an ironic twist, we renewed our insurance a month ago, changing insurers in the process. The new insurer gave a better deal with a lower excess. Garry also discovered that we'd been charged insurance rates for a completely different (and more expensive) car form factor (a convertible rather than a sedan) for the last four years. It's our gas bill debacle all over again. I'm staggered that yet another UK company has been ripping us off for years. I swear I've never experienced such fundamental billing errors in Australia.

Cold feet in the morning

We endured more winter fun and games last week. The water main ruptured in our street. The subsequent loss of pressure meant no water was reaching our top floor apartment for two days. While the main was repaired within a day, a plumber had to come in and bleed air from the pipes before water could reach our floor again. Poor Garry endured two days without a hot shower, while I was forced to trundled off early to use the shower in our office. This marks our fifth ‘no hot water’ incident so far this winter. The novelty has definitely worn off.

Spring at last

Tomorrow is the first official day of Spring. The daffodils and snowdrops have started sprouting. I’ve even noticed buds on some trees starting to swell. These milestone couldn’t come soon enough. Winter has been particularly wearing this season. As recently as this week we soldiered through yet another bout of rain and sporadic snow flurries. On the home front, Garry has come down with a debilitating chest cold and I’ve been working extra-ordinary hours covering for staff on leave and senior vacancies we’re currently filling. With all this happening around me, I’m beginning to truly appreciate the psychological impact of the seasons on Britain life.

Thirty years ago, during the last winter as cold as the current season, civil unrest and union strikes crippled the nation. This infamous Winter of Discontent eroded confidence in the Government of the day, paving the way for the General Election that ultimately brought Margaret Thatcher to power in May 1979. History seems set to repeat itself as the nation’s major parties prepare for another General Election. The winter’s been harsh and current economic conditions are almost a bleak.

This week the Office for National Statistics revised last quarter’s GDP growth figure from 0.1% to 0.3%. In any other year this would have been positive news. However, the Pound’s value fell during the week as fears grow that GDP will contract again during the first quarter of 2010. This so-called double-dip recession is a distinct possibility for many reasons.

January’s foul weather hit retail sales hard as people stayed home. The pound has fallen again in value making basic imports, including petrol, more expensive. At the same time, VAT (goods and services tax) has returned to its pre-recession rate of 17.5% and several other Government stimulus policies have come to an end (including a stamp duty ‘holiday’ on house sales and rebates for scrapping old cars). Finally, factor in the dampening sentiment of a pending election, and you can understand why most economists think economic growth will be subdued at best.

Roll on Summer!

ON A LIGHTER NOTE
I came across these wonderful images of our Winter. While it’s been harsh and relentless, the nation has experienced some incredible scenes. Take a look.

Who says history never repeats?

Here in the UK the Falkland Islands have been making headlines. This month, Ocean Guardian, a small British energy company began exploratory oil drilling in waters north of the islands. Its actions have provoked a storm of protest from Argentina, which claims sovereignty over this remote, wind-swept archipelago in the South Atlantic. Currently, Britain administers the Falklands, having reestablished its sovereignty in 1833 when newly independant Argentine nationals attempted to establish a settlement.

Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands is hotly contested issued. Since their discovery in the 1600s they've been claimed by France, Britain, Spain and Argentina at various times. Of course, the most recent and possibly most dramatic, of these disputes is The Falklands War. This conflict began on Friday, 2 April 1982 with an invasion and occupation of the islands and neighbouring South Georgia by Argentine forces.

Britain subsequently battled for 74 days battled to reclaim the islands, before Argentine forces finally surrendered on 14 June 1982. The death toll on both sides was surprisingly high; 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and three civilian Falklanders lost their lives. At the time, less than 2,500 people lived on the islands, alongside 600,000 sheep.

In the decades since, the British have built an airbase, upgraded much of the island's infrastructure and spend £70 million defending them. However, at last count 125 uncleared minefields remain intact. Clearing them has only recently begun. The islanders have also been integrated into the modern world courtesy of a weekly Chilean flight from Santiago and twice weekly, 20-hour flights from the UK by the Ministry of Defense. Ironically, the weekly Chilean flight is popular with Argentines visiting the graves of soliders killed in 1982. More than 4,000 make the trip each year. A supply ship arrives from Chile every two weeks loaded with fresh fruit and vegetables, while the UK sends its own supply ship every six weeks.

As oil exploration commences, the stakes have been raised. By some estimates, more than 60 million barrels of oil lie beneath the seabed. If true, these deposits equal those of the declining North Sea oilfields. Given such dramatic sums, Argentina's current outcry suddenly makes sense. Who says history never repeats?

56 hours in The Big Apple

I'm blogging from the back of a taxi en route to the airport in New York. It's been an intense 2.5 days on the ground here with back-to-back meetings since I arrived. However, there have been a few lighter moments.

Yesterday was a special day in my long list of lifetime ambitions. I've always wanted to be in New York when it's snowing. It snowed on and off most of yesterday, often with large and perfectly fluffy flakes. Right now, as we slowly drive through the eastern suburbs of Queens I'm surrounded by the sight of several inches of snow on the ground. New York is definitely prettier in the snow.

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Location:Grand Central Pkwy,Forest Hills,United States

Frome

We've enjoyed a relaxing weekend in the town of Frome. It's an old town able to date its history back to at least the 7th Century. Much of the town consists of grey stone buildings which seem to be scattered rather randomly across the hills of a shallow river valley. I've read that it has more listed buildings than any other town in Somerset.


Many of these buildings date from the prosperous cloth industry that began in the 14th Century and peaked in the 17th Century. Perhaps the most notable building in the area is the dramatic parish church of St John the Baptist, set in brown stone on a hill overlooking the town. It was founded by monks that settled in the area in 685AD.


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Location:Frome,United Kingdom

1607 was a good year

In 1607 a glorious stone manor house was built in the small Somerset village of Frome (pronounced like room spelled with an 'f'). Today the same location, called Stonewall Manor, is available to rent as self-catering accommodation. This is exactly what Garry and have done this weekend, booking the entire house with a group of friends.

Since arriving on Friday evening we've discovered many things about 17th Century architecture. The door lintels are quite low, the floor is perpetually creaky, and not a single surface is ever level. It also takes 24 hours to really warm the interior of a large stone manor. This afternoon we decided the cool indoor temperature had created the perfect excuse to visit a nearby, well-heated micro-brewery pub for a leisurely ale.

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Location:Frome,United Kingdom

The big freeze - Part 2

The coldest winter in three decades has returned with vengeance. Since Monday we've had snow flurries falling on and off throughout the day. While the falls have never been heavy enough to settle, we've still come home to a light dusting over cars parked along the street. The overnight temperatures have also plunged. The mercury fell below zero more than an hour ago and will continue dropping to at least -3°C.

Once again, as the cold weather returns, so do our household plumbing issues. This time the dual flow valve heating our water failed. We've endured three morning of bitterly cold showers before the plumber was able to finally complete his permanent repair. I've been going to work early to use the office shower. You could say we're over it.

Nationwide it was the coldest January since 1987, while December was the coldest since 1995. January was definitely a cold month across England. Mean temperatures were 2.5 to 3.0 °C below normal. December was between 1.5 and 2.0 °C below normal. Ironically, January has been the warmest on record in Vancouver, the host city host for this month's Winter Olympics. This week organisers resorted to shifing 780 tons of snow daily by helicopter and tractor in a desperate attempt to cover the slopes for snowboarders and freestyle skiers.

Joining the herd

My university marketing courses regularly referenced the product lifecycle curve. This is a model that categorizes consumers according to the risk they associate with buying a product. According to marketing theory, each group or life stage is defined by shifts in market awareness, profitability, and competition. Those with the lowest risk perception buy the product immediately after its release; they’re called Innovators. Four more distinct groups follow, with the most risk adverse, called Laggards, at the rear. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m an Early-majority consumer, which lumps me in with a third of the general population.


This week, remaining true to my consumer profile, I became the proud owner of an iPhone, Apple’s revolutionary smartphone. Apple unveiled its first iPhone just over two years ago - on January 9, 2007 – and set itself the goal of selling ten million in its first year. It finally hit stores on June 29 of the same year. Since then more than 42 million units have been sold. I’m clearly not an early adopter.

The iPhone is an incredible product. It’s effectively a handheld computer, no heavier than my previous Motorola Razer phone, and only slightly larger. How times have change. I can hardly believe it’s been barely 15 years since I got my first mobile phone and less than a decade for my first laptop. Industry watchers say it cost an estimated US$150 million to develop, spread over a thirty month period.

It’s clearly money well spent. I can take photos, read email, monitor the weather globally, track time zones and surf the web on my iPhone as if I were using a regular computer. I’ve already fallen in love with its location finding application. A couple of taps on the iPhone’s touchscreen brings up a map with your exact location clearly marked. Tap again and you can view a satellite image of the same area, or even a street level image. Amazing. No doubt you’ll see me posting from my iPhone soon.

Too good to last...

Up until today I had no travel booked, for business or leisure, in the first three months of the year. Sadly, my days on the ground are numbered. I now have two separate trips scheduled to New York; one for 2.5 days in mid-February and one for 1.5 weeks in mid-May. The first Atlantic crossing will be rather punishing. I'll have to take a long-distance taxi from a country manor we've rented for the weekend at 4.45am to Heathrow airport, catch the first flight of the day to New York, then go straight into meetings and dinner until almost midnight local time. That's 24 hours on my feet. I think I'll be napping on my morning flight!

The Green Belt

Every so often I come across an inspired British innovation. The Green Belt is one such example. It’s an urban development policy from the 1930s, developed to counter relentless suburban sprawl. At the time town planners urged local and national politicians to wrap the nation’s major cities in a “green girdle” of farm land. These green zones restricted development, maintaining a relatively clean boundary between urban and rural land use. This in turn encouraged compact residential development in British cities, significantly reducing the flight to the suburbs that blighted the inner city in other countries.

Over time this policy has resulted in 16,766 square kilomtres of green belt zoning in England alone. The impact on the landscape is significant. As you drive out of London, the scene shifts swiftly from urban jungle to tranquil countryside. Strip malls and cookie-cutter housing developments are almost non-existent. Instead, the view is punctuated by discrete, quaint villages and broad rolling fields. The contrast couldn’t be starker compared with uncontrolled development corridors elsewhere in Europe.

The Mediterranean coastline of Spain and Greece are particularly good example of this ugly, unplanned sprawl. One coastal town seems to blend into another. None have a distinctive character. The overall impression is one of concrete, clutter and commercial greed gone mad. Every time I see these coastal zones I’m left wondering why local authorities permit them as they simply discourage me from ever returning. The same can be said of many urban areas in the USA.

London's Green Belt

Currently, about 11 per cent of English land is zoned into 14 distinct green belts. The largest, and oldest, surrounds London. More than 5,133 square kilometers of protected land encircle the city. The first such zone was proposed by the Greater London Regional Planning Committee in 1934 under the leadership of Herbert Morrison, and introduced the following year. It took another 14 years to define and codify the rest of the belt that remains in place today.

The future of the nation’s green belt policy remains a political hot potato. Its preservation is actively championed by a vocal and well organized lobby group called the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE). The organisation boasts 60,000 members and the Queen as its Patron. It’s efforts have done much to prevent the densely populated UK from suffering soul-destroying urban sprawl.

London Zoo

Today dawned bright and clear, but bitterly cold. Overnight the temperature had fallen to -2°C. However, even at late as 9am, despite blue sky and sunshine, it was still -1°C. A layer of thick white semi-hoer frost covered everything in sight. In fact, we briefly thought it had snowed overnight. We later discovered our car covered in spectacular ice crystals. Fortunately the new windscreen was unharmed.


On a spur of the moment we ventured out and went to London Zoo. It’s only a ten-minute walk from our house, on the edge of The Regent's Park. However, despite its proximity, we’ve never visited. The Zoo claims to be the world’s oldest scientific zoo as it was originally established for scientific study in 1828. It didn’t open to the public until 1847. It also houses the world’s first public reptile house (1849), first public Aquarium (1853) and first insect house (1881).


More than 750 species are on display, spread across 36-acres. We thought we’d see the inhabitants out and about given the unusually sunny weather. However, most were huddled under heating lamps or sheltering indoors as the external temperature never rose above 3 °C. The Great White Pelican gained our immediate sympathy as they shivered in the feeble sunshine, while the penguins didn’t seem the least bit bothered.


Today’s highlights included the Galapagos tortoises. Dirk, the oldest of three tortoises on display, turns 70 this year. These lumbering giants looked very content exploring their cosy new enclosure. The otters and meerkats were also active, as were the ring-tailed coati. We both loved the Llamas who anxiously searched for their keeper bringing a late-afternoon snack. However, by 4pm, were both shivering and decided it was time to head for the warmth of home.

Living the high life

No doubt you've noticed recent blog posts have been punctuated by periods of inactivity. A combination of a heavy workload and a routine home life are conspiring to keep me offline. I'm either too weary to craft something inspiring, or life has been so predictable that chronicling it could send you to sleep in seconds. However, there have been a few moment worth compiling in a brief potpourri post.

Olympic Countdown
A couple of weeks ago my company hosted an event at the Paramount Club in central London. This is truly a stunning venue that opened in late 2008. It's a private members club located on Level 31 of Centrepoint, a controversial high-rise building in Soho. Centrepoint was built in 1966 and rises to a height of 117 metres, or 32 floors. It was one of the city's first skyscrapers and very nearly became its last. At the time it violated every conceivable height restriction imposed by the City of London, creating massive public outcry. As a result, no other buildings of similar height were ever built in the area and so it offers unrivalled views across London in every direction.

Everyone at the event commented on the view and spent the evening identifying popular London locations in the dark; the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Wembley Stadium, Buckingham Palace and so on. However, it was the Olympic Countdown clock wrapped around the top of BT Tower that caught my eye. It was unveiled on October 31 last year to mark 1000 days until the opening ceremony of the 2010 Summer Olympic Games.


Within a few years this view will be surpassed by that from the rapidly rising Shard of Glass, a new skyscraper being built over London Bridge station. When completed in 2012 The Shard will rise 310 metres above the Thames and briefly hold the tile of Europe's tallest building. It's a stunning trianglar design created by world-renown architect, Renzo Piano. He's the genius behind Paris' famous Pompidou centre and Aurora Place in Sydney. The Shard will have 72 floors, including a public observation deck at the top of the building's stunning glass apex. I've read that the concrete core currently under construction rises an incredible three metres every day.

Garry remains employed
Garry's contract has been renewed until June. We'll both be gainfully employed until Summer. I'm currently holding down two jobs at the moment; my regular day job as well as interim manager of UK business. We're actively searching for a suitable replacement so I'm hopeful life will return to normal fairly soon. One job is quite enough.

Wining and dining
We've both been out wining and dining in recent weeks. My CEO was in town last week, which offered the perfect opportunity to enjoy a few of my favourite London venues; Roka and Balans. Garry and I have also caught up with friends for lunch and drinks, again enjoying a few of our favourite restaurants; Boheme Kitchen and Balans (again!). We even tried our local Indian restaurant for the first time in four years. It's been fun going into the city as our frequent travel last year often kept us away from Central London.

Country Living
Finally, a group of us have combined resources and booked an Elizabethan Manor House near Bath for a long weekend in February. We'll be celebrating a friend's 40th birthday in style, relaxing on deep leather sofas in front of roaring log fire. Garry did some phenomenal research, tracking down this stone home built in 1604, then negotiating a deal far below the website sticker price. We've already spotted a suit of armour in website images!


And finally, our neighbourhood fox is in good health. We've seen him several times in recent days enjoying the warmer weather (that means, temperatures above zero). I still marvel at the fact we have such an animal in our yard.

It's almost time for kissing babies

This billboard appeared outside our office this month. It’s one of almost a thousand posted across the country at an estimated cost of £400,000. Each shows David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, looking rather presidential and ever so slightly air-brushed. If opinion polls are to be believed, he’ll soon be Britain’s next Prime Minister. The nation’s general election campaign is clearly underway, well before a polling date is announced.

The British Parliament sits for a maximum of five years, after which it is dissolved and a general election is held. Much like Australia and New Zealand, the prime minister has the power to choose the election’s date. Once he (or she) calls on the Queen to dissolve parliament an election must be held 17 working days later. This year a general election must be held no later than June 3, 2010, seeking voter endorsement for 646 MPs.

We’re set for an interesting time in politics. The Conservative Party has been in opposition for 13 years. It lost power in 1997 after being soundly trounced by Labour’s largest ever parliamentary majority. How times have changed. Most polls currently show the Conservatives rating ten to 16 percentage points ahead of Labour. Worse still, the Labour Party is still saddled by enormous debts it clocked up during the last election.

At last count, Labour owed at least £11.5 million. As a result, this year’s campaign budget has been capped at £8 million. Contrast this with the Conservative Party, with debts of almost £5 million. It expects to raise a staggering £25 million for the next campaign, effectively outspending Labour three to one. Both parties spent similar amounts during the last election. By law, the main parties cannot spend more than £18 million on the campaign. However, individual candidates can spend up to £40,000 each this year, thus swelling the overall spend.

As the current billboard bitz suggests, the nation’s burgeoning public debt will be a key election issue. The Government has attempted to kick-start the economy by boosting spending. Funding this stimulus has resulted in it borrowing money a rate of more than £50 million per day. This strategy will be under intense scrutiny by the opposition. It claims that savage cuts in public sector funding must start sooner rather than later to bring national debt back under control.

No doubt, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is praying for good news tomorrow when the Office for National Statistics releases its economic data on 2009’s last three months. Commentators expect the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to show growth for the first time in 18 months, thereby officially ending the recession. Labour will be praying hard for plenty more good news in the months ahead.

UPDATE - January 26
We're officially out of recession. The UK economy grew a meager 0.1% in the final quarter of 2009. One tenth of one percent doesn't sound like much of a recovery! This result means that the 12-month economic decline in 2009 hit a record-breaking 4.8%. It's been a tough year.

More than just a statistic

Despite enduring the worst recession in 60 years, crime is on the decline in Britain. Last year crime recorded by nation's police fell 5%, to a total of 4.7 million incidents. Violence against the person fell 6%, violence with injury was down 7% and robbery fell 5%; despite London’s most expensive jewellery heist taking place last August. Small rises were reported in domestic burglary (up 1%) and drug offences (up 6%).

Last year's jewellery robbery was a particularly brazen crime. On August 6 at 4.40pm in the afternoon, two men walked into a New Bond Street jeweler, produced handguns and selected 43 items worth £40 million, before making their escape in a sequence of carefully coordinated getaway cars. Only one other robbery has ever resulted in a larger haul, making it the UK’s second largest in history. Even the Great Train Robbery only ever netted £2.6 million, although this was the nation’s largest robbery at the time.

Video footage taken at the time shows the two men briefly taking a woman hostage and firing at least two warning shots into the air. The men also made no attempt to conceal their faces from CCTV cameras in the building or on the street which made the crime seem rather foolhardy. However, police later discovered that the men has used a professional make-up artist to alter their appearance using wigs, makeup and latex prosthetics. The artist, who’d spent four hours preparing their disguise, had been told his work was part of a music video. The robbery wasn’t a success, as within weeks three men were charged for the crime and put on trial. By October a total of ten accomplices had been arrested and charged.

Last year, August 6 was also note-worthy for another headline grabbing event in British criminal history. Ronald Biggs, the infamous Great Train Robbery criminal, was released on compassionate grounds on this date; one day before his 80th birthday. At the time he was considered gravely ill and unlikely to live more than a few months. However, as the New Year begins, he remains very much alive. Biggs became internationally renowned after his escape from prison in 1965. He fled to Brazil, via Australia, and lived in relative comfort for more than 35 years. In 2001, he voluntarily gave himself up to British authorities and was returned to prison to serve the remaining 28 years of his sentence.

On a personal level, crime has been very much front and centre for our respective families this month. My brother’s Auckland home was broken into while he and his family were on Summer vacation. Even more unnerving was the experience of Garry’s mother. She found herself caught up in an armed robbery at a Sydney Pharmacy. She was in the store when a man wielding a machete entered and demanded money. The staff complied and the man fled, later stealing another couple’s car by threatening them with the same weapon. A truly terrifying experience for all involved.

The Big Thaw

Life is returning to normal as the nation enjoys a brief respite from four weeks of abnormally cold temperatures. We're now in the midst of a comparative heatwave. Tomorrow's high is forecast to hit 7°C, at least ten degrees warmer than the coldest day we've endured this month. The warmer weather is well timed as we've had several very heavy rain showers this morning with more on their way. Last week this would have all been snow. However, winter isn't over yet. The Met Office warns that harsh winters in the past were often punctuated by brief mild spells, before the intense cold set in again. This reflects the pattern we've seen over the four years we've been in London.

Late January or early February is the most common period for snow. We saw falls on January 24 in 2007 and February 1-2 in 2009. 2008 was the only winter we didn't see snow in London (but a trip to Scotland over the New Year certainly sated our snow fixation). This winter couldn't be more different. The Times reports that it's snowed somewhere in Britain every day since December 17. At Swiss Cottage we've had four separate snow days, starting from the week before Christmas.

Locally, the last of the snow has melted, leaving just a few scattered icy piles in the shadows. Yesterday we also got our poor car's ice-fractured windscreen replaced and organised its annual service and roadworthy fitness test (known as an MOT). I was surprised to learn that we've clocked up less than 1,500 miles (2,400kms) over the last 12 months. This mileage includes a road trip last Spring to Cornwall, where we drove as far as Lands End. This distance alone is a 640 mile round trip (more than 1000 kms), excluding all of the numerous side trips we made along the way. I'm sure our car feels rather neglected.

Here we go again!

We woke this morning to 3cms of fresh snow blanketing the neighbourhood. I must admit that the scene was a complete surprise. As we were headng to bed last night the Met Office wasn't forecasting anything substantial. However, about 4am it issued a snow alert for London as the weather's footprint began shifting. Snow then fell as we walked to work and continued through most of the morning.


You can see some of our regular commuting route in the images above, including the view from our front door. While the outdoor scene is magical, I must admit it's not inspiring me as it once did. I've clearly seen enough winter snow this season to last me a life time. In fact, only yesterday did the last of the black ice from last week's fall finally disappear. We've never had such persistent ground cover during the four years we've been in London.

Once again, huge part of the UK ground to a halt as the snow came down. Airports closed, tube lines stopped runnng and hundreds of schools closed their doors. It's all becoming a rather depressingly familiar story. As the bitter winter conditions continue, local councils and the nation's highway agency resorted to rationing salt supplies this week. The nation's dwindling salt supplies has been the lead news story for days as authorities struggle to keep road open and pavements ice-free.

However, the news isn't all bad. Our water supply has finally been restored. Some water began flowing began yesterday and by this evening was back to normal. It's been four days since we last had normal flow. Will this winter ever end?

Another winter casualty

Last week it was car windscreen that fell victim to our harsh winter; yesterday it was the turn of our water pipes. Incredibly, the pipes have frozen. We lost all water in the house mid-morning, including hot water (as the cylinder wouldn't refill after my morning shower). Poor Garry went without a shower. The Met Office was forecasting sub-zero temperatures for another four days so our chances of flowing water were slim. We immediately filled buckets with what water we could drain from the rooftop balancing tank.

However, the Met Office's predictions proved worse than reality and forecast snow failed to materialise. Instead, temperatures rose above zero overnight, unblocking pipes downstairs and filling our hot water cylinder once again. The thaw continues through the day, melting snow and ice across the neighbourhood. Treacherous ice is finally disappearing from pavements and stairways, while the roads return to their regular bitumen black colour.

However, not every pipe is back in operation. This evening we still have no cold water flowing in the upstairs bathroom or into the washing machine. With a little luck, we'll have water tomorrow as the mild thaw is predicted to continue. The Met Office says we'll have a high of 1°C tomorrow, rising to 4°C by Wednesday.

The first casualty of winter

Experts recommend a scraper over any other method of ice removal. Every year insurance companies receive dozens of claims for windscreens cracked by people pouring warm water over the glass. Determined not to join their ranks, we bought an ice scraper for the car four years ago. However, we've never had cause to use it until now.

Today we carefully scraped a week of accumulated ice and snow off our Saab, only to find that the bitterly cold weather had already claimed a casualty. Ice appears to have found its way into a old scratch or stone chip, shattering the glass. The windscreen is now blighted by an ugly spiral crack. It's completely ruined and needs replacing. I've never seen anything like it.

Our misfortune isn't as dramatic as that of one car owner. A national insurer reports that a Harrier jet was blamed for one recent windscreen claim. The motorist in question claimed his windscreen melted when the aircraft crash landed nearby and burst into flames. I'll take an ice crack over a plane crash any day.