London life

Monday 20 June I got up at 4:30, took a cab to the airport and flew to London, where I got the light rail to east London. I walked 10 minutes and arrived just in time for the 9:10 a.m. start of an all day conference. What is PRI's purpose (what is the reason we exist/what can we uniquely contribute)? What is our mission (what do we do/how do we contribute)? What is our vision (what is the world we hope to see)? Then we talked about our culture and ways of working together. This conversation involved more than 210 people from 15 countries in a very large conference room in Shoreditch.

The more interesting discussion was around greenwashing and the backlash against ESG and how we remain relevant when ESG has become mainstream. Clearly an appetite to raise the bar on requirements to be a PRI member.

The rest of the week, the two largest teams at PRI would be involved in their own series of meetings. I'm part of a smaller group, communications, that took a more social approach to the week. On Tuesday, we took a boat trip to Kew Gardens and back. We passed the Tower of London on our way to catch the boat.

There is a tube strike on, which means the buses will be very crowded. We had to be at Millenium Pier at Westminster by 11:45. My plan was to take a Boris bike. The alternative was a one-hour walk from east London. Our young intern asked if she could go with me. But she doesn't cycle. So I researched water buses and found one that would get us from Tower Hill pier to our destination. Then another colleague wanted to join us, then two more. At the appointed hour of departure, the intern wasn't answering texts and one of the colleagues went to the bathroom and was gone a while. I was getting increasingly anxious and became very aware of how I do not like being responsible for other people. Instead of me riding a bike to Westminster, I was trying to get four other people rounded up to walk 15 minutes to a pier to catch the first boat so we could catch the second boat. But we made it.

Here are some of my colleagues on the first boat. It was late, so it was going to be very tight to catch the boat to Kew. Me with the London Eye in the background:

Once on boat number two, I could relax and enjoy the ride. Which I did, thoroughly.

It was a gorgeous day, so a 1.5 hour boat trip to a garden was my happy place. In the photo below: red tents for house of lords to entertain, blue tents for house of commons. I wonder if they get any work done?

We went under a lot of pretty bridges--each one different. I don't recall the name of this one or the architect (Brunel?), but I thought it was lovely. You can't see it from ths angle but there are daisy shaped cut outs framed in brass all along the bridge deck. As people and cars go by, it's as if they twinkle. Below, house boats and house houses.

There were a lot of men, and some women, rowing crew. One of the chase boats (I don't know what they're actually called--guys in motor boats with megaphones) got into an argument with our pilot because he said we were creating too much wake.

All I can say is the Thames is busy--all kinds of boats: sailing, rowing, motorised. Our boat slowed down a lot to try not to rock the boats of the scullers.

My impressions of Kew Gardens. Not many gardens! Most of the surface area I saw was either brown mowed grass or tall brown meadow grasses. I saw only one formal garden--a broad walk that had deep borders on either side. I'm assuming Kew has decided--bravely--not to fight climate change by foregoing watering of massive green lawns. So the greenhouses were the highlight. Here is a fabulously ornate staircase--like the bridges, needlessly and intricately detailed, like the greenhouses themselves.

Belfast has a greenhouse by the same architect that did one of Kew's greenhouses. But it is on such a tiny scale relative to the Kew structures.

As we strolled around, we talked about work. Not endlessly, but there was both a bit of work commentary and just time spent getting to know each other.

The greenhouse included photos of the queen in Fiji, Guinea, etc. surrounded by the plants that were now sat in the greenhouse. This guy was in a row of maybe a dozen statues running parallel to the greenhouse.

I would have taken more photos but I was trying to keep up with the group. Below is me on a treetop walkway with one of the greenhouses in the background. Photo taken by my manager, Mark. I should say my impressions of Kew are probably not fair, as I saw less than half of it.

For instance there was a Japanese garden at the bottom that we didn't make it to. And while the grass was brown, there were magnificent trees throughout--lots of varieties of oak (my favourite) as well as more exotic species. Some really lovely Japanese horse chestnuts in full pink and white bloom for instance.

The greenhouse above had octagonal extensions on either side--massive. Below taken on the way back--lots of boathouses along the Thames like the ones in the background.

Below is St. Mary's Church, where Benedict Arnold is buried.

And finally, County Buildings.

On one of my first visits to London, when I hadn't been in NI very long, I was trying to get to this building but I managed to be on the wrong side of the river. I kept asking people for directions to County Buildings, and no one knew where it was. I ended up at Nelson's Pillar--in a panic as I didn't have much time until the conference started. I called David and asked for help and he got me back to the bridge, across the river and to the conference. I was in such a state! I've come a long way. Much better at getting around London--not perfect, but a bit more confident.

While the day was nearly perfect, it ended badly. We waited a long time for a water taxi back. Aiman found an app that said the taxis were canceled. We went up the ramp and headed for Charing Cross for a bus--looking back we saw that a water taxi came. We get to the bus stop--a mob of people. We waited more than a half hour and then crammed into a bus more tightly than I'm sure any regulation would permit. Pressed against strangers in a hot smelly bus for 10 stops. I was with OG, the intern, who is from Lagos. And she warned me we were going to do this Lagos style--push onto the bus aggressively. And we did--the doors closed behind us. I'd been on my feet all afternoon and now needed them to grip the floor as the bus started and stopped and I tried to minimize my lean onto other people. So unpleasant.

We got to Aldgate, had dinner at Efe's, a Turkish place I like, then in our beds around 11:30 pm. Absolutely knackered.

20-21 June.