Last Month in London

Welcome to my last month in London - August 2007

The first Saturday in August Sara and I headed to Regents Park to check out the Innocent Village Fete. It was the biggest fair Ive ever been to, the weather was beautiful and there were so many free samples that by the time we left we didn't want any more organic yoghurt or soya milk. There were loads of cool stalls and live music and it was a great day out!

Being the last month of the "official London summer" meant that Scoop had their third entitlement of free things to do and this month it was theatre so one Friday night after work I grabbed a bottle of wine and some nibbles, met a couple of mates and sat in the sunken amphitheatre and enjoyed "The Jungle Book" first and then "Helen of Troy" - it was awesome! They used the same actors for both plays highlighting their versatility and it was a great way to relax after a crazy week at work, gotta love London on nights like that when you can watch free outdoor theatre and then have the beautiful view of Tower Bridge (even got to see it opening up to let a boat through) at night : )

For my last weekend in London we managed to cram in quite a bit with one final house party on the Friday night to celebrate. It wasn't as big as ones we've had in the past (seeing as it was a bank holiday weekend a lot of people were away, probably a good thing though as I can't drink much with my current antibiotics) but I had a lot of really close friends there so it was great to catch up with them.

On Saturday I headed out to catch up with Chris (we lived together at Sam's parents place in second year and I caught up with her in Conneticut almost a year ago) who was randomly passing through London on a trip before she starts a new job. It was great to catch up - can't believe its been a year - and enjoy a new dining experience but having lunch at an okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) restaurant.

Continuing the theme, I checked out the "Creating Beauty in Modern Japan" exhibition at the British Museum with a friend. Great exhibition and hopefuly I will have time to check out the rest when I'm back in Oct because it looked beautiful on the inside, with the architecture reminding me a little of the Met in New York.

Rather than my main focus being crazy amounts of travelling, work has actually been a really big part of my life lately, though usually things are pretty cruisy, this month an extra project has been keeping me out of trouble. I learnt a lot of new skills when I had to copy everything from the HR/Training sections of our current intranet site into the back-end of a new intranet (even got to learn some code - the boys would be proud!) and set up a system to effectively manage our new external training programme. That on top of all the normal admin my job entails have meant that just as I was understanding everything and it becoming a bit routine it all got a bit of a shake-up which is definitely a good thing. This has been a great job, a 6 month maternity cover contract turned into a 10-month one, so great to have had pretty much just one permanent position my whole time here and had some opportunities for training and development. My team are lovely, they have made my first job out of uni a lot of fun, Im sure I will never find another department like them (they're crazy in a good way!) and I will miss them a lot.

There's always a few random things that don't really fit into anywhere and this month is no exception. I went to see Pan's Labyrinth at Prince Charles Cinema, went to a karaoke bar in Tower Hill with Brady and Kirsty (everyone was pretty impressed with my "One Week" rendition), had dinner at Hell Pizza with Alistair, caught up with Karla (Caroline's old flatmate who’s visiting London on a holiday from her job teaching English in Japan) for a drink at my local. Checked out Amora "World's First Exhibition celebrating love, sex and relationships" and saw "The Vegemite Tales" with Hayley and a friend. The last show was pretty well timed (saw it just as I started my two week countdown to leave London) and so although a comedy I found parts of it quite emotional as I could relate to a lot of the characters feelings and recognised a few situations that I have found myself in over the last year

The last few days here have just been a bit of a blur really, after finishing work I went to the tax office and looks like I might get a nice little sum back (I know it was overpaid in the first place but getting tax back always seems like a huge bonus!) Caught up with Brady that night and grabbed some pub food and went to “We Will Rock You” the Queen Tribute show at the Dominion Theatre which has been playing since May 2002!! It was amazing, such a fun atmosphere with everyone standing up and clapping along and getting really into it. Interesting story line with songs and snappy references built in, the actors were amazing, I know it’s their job to sing and dance and act but wow! Definitely glad I checked out one last West End Show before I left. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Will_Rock_You_(musical)

Friday in-between the dentist/doctor and the travel agent I got the chance to spend the afternoon with Dave and Kate on the last day of their big UK tour. Haven’t seen Dave in ages so it was a great chance to catch up. We had lunch and Leon and then headed up to Camden Markets (gotta love that place!) to check out the shops and buy more stuff I don’t need : P Pulled an all nighter packing my boxes on Friday as they were picked up at 7:30 Sat morning so just had a relaxed day before my bus to Paris that night.

In retrospect I’ve had a great year here, done a lot, met amazing people and just enjoyed this crazy city. I would love to be able to stay here for a few years living it up but there are big challenges ahead to look forward to as well. Keep checking this for updates on my 7 week trip around Europe starting this Saturday, my 4 days back in London, a 2 week Hill Tribes and Beaches Tour in Thailand and catching up with a friend from Japan in the Philippines - so guess I cant really be sad about leaving with all that to look forward to right... : )

"It is not the days we remember but the moments"
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