Being an Aussie in the UK

Started our training sessions in London (well, the Adobe offices at Heathrow) yesterday with a great bunch of trainers and developers wanting to get into the Flash Lite courseware. But I've quickly learned a couple of things about being an Aussie visiting the UK.

1. Steve Irwin is everywhere - As someone who lives only an hour or so from Steve's Australia Zoo, it's amazing to realise that this guy really was loved the world over. We hear about how the whole world reacted to his death, but you don't appreciate what that actually means until you're on the other side of the world and people are asking you about him all the time. I was glad to hear that they're going to use the 50,000 seat Suncorp Stadium (best rugby stadium in Australia) in my hometown to have Steve's public memorial service.

2. Don't talk about the cricket - I have no problem (now) talking about England's win over us in the last Ashes series. It happened, end of story. It's one thing though to talk about cricket with Brits ack in Australia, but over here, well, let's just say the Barmy Army (the fanatical English cricket supporters) is a lot bigger here :) I've been reminded of our defeat only about 10 times since landing in the country about 36 hours ago :) Mind you, it might have been worse to be here as an Aussie cricket fan if we had actually won! My blog post though about my photo op with Glen McGrath though did go down quite well - after all, even English cricket fans know a true champion when they see one. C'mon Aussie!!!

3. The Tube looks nothing like the map - The map of the London tube that appears in most travel material and pocket guides does NOT look anything like the real Underground transit system. Now this has just come as a warning so far - I haven't travelled on the Tube as yet - but apparently you shouldn't attempt to use a Tube guide to get your bearings. The system is so big and complex that it just couldn't be realisitically represented on a small piece of paper, so it's design is a little misleading, particularly when it comes to determining distances. I'll tell you more once I do some trekking around later in the week, but perhaps Alen's Flash Lite Tube guide might come in useful for me now :)