photo album - london 2001
At last, after months of ginning around my secondment to London came through. This represented a change in my role with KPMG from internally focused working on the firms own knowledge management and globalisation initiatives, KWorld*, KClient and KPMG.com to working for KPMG Consulting (KCA) on a Knowledge Management/eBusiness engagement for one of the firms clients - Henderson Global Investors, an AMP subsidiary.
The role was initially to head up a team of 9-15 people including Design and Development, Knowledge Management, Change Management, Communications and Infrastructure and Architecture. It was all very exciting and just the sort of challenge that I would like to take on. The only problem was that it would mean an additional seperation from James.
At the time, we were unsure how the whole US Immigration/Job prospect issue was going to resolve for me. He already had a job at UCSF starting early July, but my via application was still burried in the bowels of the US INS. We talked about it for a LONG time and came to the conclusion that:
- If I didnt go to London, he was still leaving for the US
- If I stayed in AU once he had gone, I was going to be miserable
- Working for KCA opened some doors with KPMG Consulting International, while not closing the doors at KPMG's global Knowledge Exchange
Most importantly we decided that we were grown up enough to deal with a period of seperation. An interesting side note to this is that nearly all of our straight friends were very supportive of the decision and didnt seem to see anything that strange about living apart for a while. On the other hand a noticable proportion of our gay friends (not all by any means) were quite negative about it. They seemed to think that long distance was a death knell.
After trying it for four months, and enjoying bits of it (but not the seperation) I have come to the conclusion that the former view is the more true. Just becuase you are seperated, doesnt mean you cant still remain a couple.
So here are some snaps from the trip. James gave me a digital camera just before I left so that I could send him lots of pictures and we could video conference. Not as good as the real thing, but better than not doing it at all.
The seperation hasnt been easy, but it has made us both more certain of what we want and that is to be together. He is my best friend and, to use an old euphamisim, my long time companion. He is my partner and I am proud to tell the world. |
I didnt tip him. A word to the wise - catch the airport express to Paddington Station and get a taxi from there. There is w whole lot less time for them to bore you. My accomodations in London (supplied by KPMG and the client) were delightful I must say. Tucked in a side street very close to St Pauls Cathedral they were central, beautifully appointed and came with a bonus porter who has kindly directed the odd pizza delivery man to my door. The kicker is the address: Apt B02 The Kings Wardrobe Now if you havent read Harry Potter, this will be lost on you, but for afficianados two things:
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The pressure of seeing each other 10-14 hours a working day had an effect on how much social time we spent together later in the stay, but she is a great person to be around: smart, capable, patient and pretty. Sharon had been in the UK for a week or so when I arrived and had made a number of quite insightful observations on living in England. |
This is Ramone visiting Tower Bridge. |
 Given
the state of faming in the UK, I cant say that this was the most up lifting
sculpture to find outside my London workplace. |
 End
of the working day at Henderson. In the first few weeks, this was one of
the few nights Shaon and I left before sun down. As the project progressed
things relaxed a bit for me, but more importantly the sun set later. |
 Some of the work team at Hendersons. Moving left ot right, James Douglas,
David Ritchie (aka Young Jedi and Britney), the almost invisible Martha
Grey and the driven and delightful Mary Williams. This was a Friday afternoon
on which we were celebrating some sort of minor victory. Please note that
the boys are into the Champers while the girls are still engrossed in work
type conversation. |
 Tony
Robson was one of the first people I met in London and rapidly became my
best friend and training partner. Tony is sweet, kind and very modest. He
is also a dish. Boys if you are looking for a fantasitc candidate for Mr
Right, this is him. |
Living in the Square Mile was amazing and not something that many people can afford. Thankfully I didnt have to as the apartment came with the job. Trust me I know how lucky I am to have gotten this chance to experience London in this wasy. It has been fantastic. |
One of the biggest things that struck me was the gardens. Scattered through the Square Mile are these areas of greenery. As spring progressed they were overcome with some of the most beautiful flowers. It made walking to work a complete joy. |
J and I were sending each other photos from our days to make it feel like we were sharing more. It really helped and i loved getting his 'My Day' e-mails. This is a shot I took in the change room using the timer. I was training pretty hard, but not dieting as well as I could have been. Not long after I arrived I met Tony Robson who rapidly became my training partner and best friend in London. I had a great picture of him but I cant for the life of me find it, so i shal have to sneak another before I leave. |
As things turned out his visa wasnt through yet, but he come to London anyway and we spent three weeks together. A blessed relief, even if it did take a bit to get used to having someone in our personal space again. This shot was taken on a trip we took to Paris. We had just arrived and this is outside the Gare De Nord where the Eurostar pulls in. If you are in London, trust me this is a FANTASTIC way to get to Paris. Cheap and VERY easy. DO NOT FLY!! By pure coincidence we were in Paris at the time of Gay Pride. We went down and started off watching the parade and ended up joining in and walking along. One of the things that defines our relationship is summed up in a quote from the gay errotic artist, Tom of Finland who said that his pictures were of happy men proud of their love for each other. I am very proud to walk hand in hand down the street with him, for the world to know that we are together. I dont need a Pride Parade to give me permission to do that, I do it all the time, but its also good to join a community in making a big statement, as well as making those personal, day to day statements. |
The trip to Paris was a little challenging becuase neither of us speaks much in the way of French and despite the Parisians being MUCH better about it all than stories you here, it was still tough. J bore the brunt of it because he has a lot more french than I do, but in all we managed and learnt some new things about each other. |
Yep - after 2 1/2 years together I still love him. |
It looks like you just cant keep our shirts on, doesnt it. But it was a hot day and we were enjoying the sunshine (yeah really) And again you can see the smile this knocks me out. |
I didnt get to meet her, but I did spot two Spice Girls (Emma/Baby and Mel C/Sporty) and was apparently rubbing shoulders with a couple of the members of Here'Say - the UK "Popstars" product. The best bit though was going out with Tony and the crew for a drink and a dance. |
He
is looking a little pensive here, but this is the last day we are going
to be together for an, at the time, unknown period and things were a little
teary on both sides (you will notice that you are not getting to see what
I looked like).
After
the long haul from Melbourne to London (I cried over most of central Australia)
I arrived VERY early in the morning to be greeted by a cab driver who
was determined to tell me that I was mad for leaving sunny Australia for
grim, dreary, rainy, depressing, boring, unhealth England.
The
day I arrived in London was spent doing some minor site seeing, getting
the lay of the land and searching for somewhere to buy food. Sharon Noone,
who was also here from KPMG working on the project, was my partner in
crime for the first few weeks while we settled in.
Sharon
and I went on a number of weekend adventures around London and on most
of them we took Ramone, the trusty Knowledge Management Cat. Its a long
story to explain Ramones existance, but he was a gift from my team in
Melbourne. They are a great group of people and I can honestly say that
I missed having all of them around in London - the project would have
gone a LOT more smoothly with Glens friday afternoon Chardy runs.
St
Pauls Cathedral, Christopher Wrens great masterpiece. This photo is taken
about 50 meters from my front door so this is what I walked past on my
way to work everyday.
The
City of London, known as the Square Mile for very literal reasons, is
not the same as the rest of London proper. It is busy during the week
and DEAD on the weekends. Plus there seem to be 2 street cleaners for
every business people in the city. The upshot is the place is immaculate.
In
London I was training at Soho Athletic, a reasonable gym not far from
Covent Garden and really conveniently located to 
J
came to London to join me for three weeks. Originally we planned it that
he was going to then go on to the US and I would hopefully join him.
My
happy boyfriend on the roof of the Arc de Triumph looking down the Champs
Elisee. We did a lot of site seeing visiting the Eiffel Tower, the Louve,
St Chappel, the Arc and many points in between.
This
is looking towards the Louves new courtyard. I love these two pictures
of James, the expressions on his face just makes me smile.
Back
in London and it was time for London Pride which was renamed this year
to Mardi Gras (how original). It was a nice day out in the Park but we
didnt go out for long that night as J had to be up the next morning to
fly home to AU.
Quite
by acident I ran into an old friend, Tony who was in town working on the
Madonna Drowned World tour as - get this - her dresser. Tony is a sweetheart
and arranged tickets for me at the last minute to see the show. I arrived
at Earls Court to find that what I had was VIP seats right in the middle
of the crowd and then back stage passes.