Tag: London

Interviewed for a BBC Podcast about being in Technology

On Sunday I attended the first Geek Girl Meetup in London. see here

It was a great event, lovely to see such a vibrant and varied tech scene in London. There was a total cross section of people there too, from startup entrepreneurs to low latency Java devs to web developers.

I did a short version of my Altering the perception of the Software Developer talk and was also on a panel discussing whether or not, but having female only technical events are we creating a “girl ghetto”.

After the panel I was asked to be interviewed for a BBC 5 live podcast where I talked about why I became a software developer and about being a female in the tech industry.

This is the link to the article BBC 5 Live Outriders

And this to the Podcast

The Geek Girl Meetup section starts around minute 10 and I’m on at about 14.20. But listen to the whole thing!

Moving again…

Today is my first day back in the London ThoughtWorks office since I started here nearly 4 years ago. I have just transferred back here from the Chicago ThoughtWorks office.

It’s pretty crazy being back in the UK. I’ve been away for over 3 years now, and much longer since I lived in England proper. It took me a few days to figure out which way to look while crossing the road, how to use chip and pin payment and that left over coins actually are worth something so I should figure out what they all are. People may think that I’m crazy but I missed the food here too…

I’m quite the nomad at heart, and Chicago (at 2 years) is the longest that I’ve lived anywhere since I was 16. So it was time to move on. Tim spent time at TW UK 3 years ago and loves London and I am new here!

One of the great things about TW is that you have the opportunity to move around. So far London, Calgary, Chicago and now back to London. My TW network is ever growing and it’s nice to bump into people I know all over the world, and pretty much everyone I meet knows someone that I know, so it’s normally easy to start up a conversation.

I was quite sad leaving Chicago, I’ve made some great friends and have really come along professionally too. It almost feels like I’m starting a new school coming to TW UK. However it’s been great to spend some more time already with the other half, as right now I’m not travelling every week, and I look forward to making lots of new friends and exploring London.

My first project will have me commuting to Sutton (Surrey) every day, so I’m hoping that will give me more time for blogging and reading etc. that I really missed while driving to Peoria once a week.

Hopefully we’ve found a place to live. Pictures will come once we’ve moved in. We’ll be in the Angel Islington area.

Burgers and Lobsters in London

Last weekend I happened across an amazing eating hole in London.

I was reading Grazia magazine (no judgement!) and I read about a new restaurant that had just opened up in Mayfair thats mission was to bring ‘reasonable’ priced lobsters and Champagne to all. As I happened to be staying in Mayfair that night, it sounded perfect. Especially seeing as earlier in the year Tim and I had been to Cape Cod in the USA for the weekend, and Tim had made it his mission to eat lobster for every single meal all weekend. Oh and I’m quite partial to Champagne.

Tucked down a windy street, is the, blink and you’ll miss it, Burger and Lobster Restaurant Cocktail Bar at 29 Clarges street, Mayfair London W1J 7EF.

There was a bit of a wait, but they are happy for you to go to a pub down the road and call you when your table is ready. The super friendly staff took us to the table and told us about the menu.

Lobster

OR

Lobster Roll

OR

Burger

All with Chips and a Salad and for £20 and thats all they do.

Tim and I, of course, had all three.

The atmosphere is relaxed and throughly enjoyable. Everyone enjoying tucking into their lobsters. Which by the way live in a giant live lobster tank below the restaurant.

The food was excellent. The lobster roll was first and was amazing. Now I’ve had a few lobster rolls in my time, after being educated about them in New Brunswick, Canada, I have hunted them down in Atlantic North America ever since. This was definitely up there in the best that I’ve ever had. Perfect brioche bun, not too much but enough citrus mayonaise and a whole lobsters worth of meat in there.

I then had the Burger and Tim the Lobster. You have a choice of boiled or grilled and with lemon garlic butter or just plain melted butter. Both were pretty darn yummy.

All in all this was a great place to go and I will definitely be going back next time I’m in London.