United Kingdom - Day 5
October 30, 2003

Thursday, October 30th, was day 4 of my 5 day visit to the S&P office in Ipswich, Suffolk, UK. I brought my camera to catch some photos along the way to work, some of the office building, and a few scenes around the town of Ipswich, taken during my lunch break. The sun goes down an hour before the business day ends, so I determined to try some evening photography, to catch a couple of scenes as I will remember them (in the dark!)

About 7:45am, almost foggy. The harbor at Ipswich, off of the Orwell River. Can you pronounce the word QUAY? Neither could I. I thought it was pronounced Kuh-WAY. Nope, it's KEY. Oh well.
Very interesting grain transport vessel, has a minimal engine and propeller, and not too large a sail area. Solid steel hull. This one, the "Thistle", is from London. It was loaded and gone by mid-afternoon.
If looks could kill. I think I was supposed to have a supply of swan food, or else not have slowed down. I'm sure they catch a lot of excess from the mills just beside the water.
A view of the Standard and Poor's Ipswich offices, the two buildings on the left of the alleyway. That's the marina just on the other side.
This building is just next door, to the east. By the looks of it, it's very old.
My boss, Chris Schmitt. He was over in England for just a week, and visited 3 of the S&P offices. We had breakfast before he had to leave for London.
Milena Bilcheva, from Bulgaria. One of the three key developers of the project I'm taking over. She's authored the charting package.
Richard Conrad, originally from Chicago, settled in England after marrying a British woman. He developed the XML middleware and some logic handlers for the project.
The foundations of a church built in the 13th century by the "Ipswich Blackfriars".
The old and the new - a pedestrian alleyway that ends at the back door of an old church. One doorway on the north wall of this alley enters the "Ipswich Conservatives Club". I wonder if that's a busy place?
Many of the streets in Ipswich are connected by these small pedestrian passageways, storefronts on either side.
Another view of the passages.
Here's one of the larger streets, now set aside for pedestrians only. I liked the blend of architecture just over the street level. Mostly very old.
This is a shot inside the office building of S&P, the second level - which actually had the MOST headroom, I'd say the average clearance under the beams is about 6 feet.
Evening pictures: Here's a building that was completely renovated, and opened as a hotel about three months ago.
A low-light photo of the boats at the marina - all look well cared for, despite how this photo tells it.
Another harbor photo - the boat on the right is "permanently" docked, and is set up as a restaurant.
This church is on the same traffic circle as the Novotel - just thought it looked impressive standing up there in the mist of the evening.
Home, sweet home - rather Hotel, suite hotel. The Novotel at Ipswich, my accomodations.