London Day 4

Today is another work day for me. One of the best things about my job is I get to visit construction job sites in various stages of construction. I am always accompanied by someone very knowledgeable about the site. It can be a great deal of fun. Our client was kind enough to hire a car to take us on a bit of a tour of the city on the way to our sites. The sky was clear and blue all day. It made for a very lovely London.

Today we visted three job sites. In order to visit the sites we must wear reflective clothing, steel toe boots, gloves, hard hat and protective eye wear. There is a photo of me wearing my gear standing on a street in Soho. Very sheek don't you think?

We visited two office towers. One was near said street in Soho. It was tucked away off a busy street. They have absolutely no space to store materials on site. In fact, their job office is a block from the site on a retail street. Their job trailers that house portable toilets, breakroom etc. are stacked three high on site right up against the building.

Next, we moved on to a site not far from the Thames and not far from St. Paul Cathedral. Again, there were considerable challenges trying to demolish and rebuild an office building in an existing and sometimes very historic area. I was able to take a photo of St. Paul Cathedral from the roof of the building. We then walked around the cathedral and drooled over all of the other beautiful buildings in the area.

We broke for lunch. We were taken to a very famous pub. I have provided a photo of my colleague, Stan, outside the pub. The people with me endulged my photos of fish and chips and bangers and mash. The fish was Stan's, the mash was mine. It was good. Unfortunately, we could not consume any beer. We had to be alcohol free for at least 16 hours prior to our next site visit.

Our next site was a new station and pedestrian tunnels for the Tube. First, we had to change into different reflective gear - orange instead of yellow. We then had to take a safety course from a woman with a lovely Irish accent. But the best part was the actual tour of the site. The subway stations are amazing and to see the underbelly in the young stages of construction is even more amazing. I would have loved to take pictures, but it was not allowed. I will not even attempt to describe what it looked like because it is too difficult. I look forward to visiting again once it is completed.

We then headed for the London Eye. This was a twenty minute tour on a wheel next to the Thames. It was great to see all of London at night.

We then had dinner at the top of Oxo Tower. The food was a bit unusual and very good. One of our party ordered wild duck that still had some shot in the breast. This seemed funny only because of the restaurant's ultra modern decor.

Next was a trip to a pub to enjoy a beer. We went to the wharf area and had Davy's Bitter Ale. The crowd was much younger and much more fashionably dressed than I expected. It was good to have a beer.

Our client then hired another car to take us back to our hotel. The driver was again directed to tour us around the sites along the way. We drove over Tower Bridge, past the Tower of London and then back through central London. It was a good day.