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. |