One way to the UK?

Work Party People:Neil, me and Cath / me, Mario and Alex / me, Cath and Abby / Me and Cath (argh I am always holding a glass of wine!)

Well, Monday night I went out to dinner with some colleagues from the ODA which was very nice. I used to do a lot of work for them at Churchill Place (office) and so they invited me along to join them! There were eight of us out for drinks and dinner, and Cath and I being the only girls had to sit at either end of the table to ‘add intelligence to the conversations’ haha (not my words). So it was a really good mix of the Project Sponsor, two Project partners from Australia, some partners from a finance/consulting company, my boss’ deputy and Cath and I. The food at Fishworks was very good – I think I got all out-fished! Mussles for entree, lots of wine and Salmon for dinner. Oh and Cath and I managed to squeeze in a Creme Brulee for dessert too! I was chatting with my boss about how well everyone enjoyed the dinner etc, and he said it’s probably because he picks a good team by two criteria… are they clever, and could I spend an hour at the pub with them!

Speaking of wine earlier… Wednesday night was the big 2012 Christmas Party, only 600 tickets were made available so we got in quick! The event was held at Leadenhall Market, and included all free champagne, wine and beer, food and entertainment. We had japanese drummers, ice sculptures and magicians. The free alcohol went over well… almost too well actually. The champagne lady kept finding me, so lord knows how many glasses of the stuff I had as it was never allowed to be empty! Perhaps because she knew I was on the social committee… at one point I said no thanks, and her response was ‘oh there’s only a tiny bit left in the bottle, just have it’ and I didn’t want to start an argument haha. And then, once the champagne was out, the other good thing (?) about being one of the only females in my group is that the guys always make sure I have a drink or two in hand. Following the party at Leadenhall, where I took Margaret’s camera and proceeded to snap away at everyone (evidence for the next day), Alex, Abby (site colleagues) and I tried to get the last tube home, and literally missed it by about 30 seconds, so on exiting the tube station we also noticed our bus driving off and because the next one was 30 minutes away, we headed into Abacus a nightclub (i think!). Anyway just one drink turned into three rounds and lots of dancing, and I even got kinda caught up in some gay fellas fighting – I had a flashback yesterday at work remembering getting blood on my dress when one guy got punched in the face! Oh fun fun.

Speaking of yesterday – o0h what a painful day. I got home at 3am and crashed out to bed, then my alarm still went off at 7am – so I snoozed for one hour and then dragged myself out of bed and to work. I was lucky to arrive all fully clothed etc, etc and all I did for makeup was some new foundation as my eye liner from the night before was still on! haha. My bus was late too, so there was me standing in the rain (lost my umbrella at christmas party), clutching my bottle of water and leaning against the bus stop sign… ohh what did we do it on a weeknight for?! Needless to say the boys were all surprised I made it to work at all, as Dion knew what time I got home (i messaged him to say I got home ok at 3am; as requested cuz they think I’m going to get attacked all the time in East London) and yes… it was a funny morning. I am positive I was actually still drunk, not hungover yet. I found everything funny and was just laughing away to myself, and clicking away at my mouse whilst leaning over keyboard to see the screen clearly! Lucky no one had the camera around then! I didn’t even eat anything as I was too worried it would make me sick – especially when the tide changed and the hangover hit about 1pm. I’ve never been ‘conscious’ when a hangover has hit me, so it was a new experience (not to be repeated, don’t worry). So… I did pretty much no work, and then found out I had a ticked to the whole site Christmas do (which my team wasn’t allowed to go to), so I headed home, had a long shower, got dressed and then headed into the city for party 3 of the week! I met some more people that work on site (my team never meets anyone as we’re in the end of the office block) so that was fun and we danced for hours too. I was so surprised to see how many gay guys there are on site! My word, I never would have picked it. I think my Logistics team is the only team with all straight men or married men with kids! Not that I have anything against gay people, just that they don’t show it at all when at work.

I was on apple juice for most of the night, and then I only had three drinks and was drunk enough again, as it was just like topping up from Wednesday night!!! haha Glutton for Punishment!

Well tonight I’ve got farewell parties for my Aussie friends Mel, Vauny and Jade so that will be interesting. I think I’ll go on the juice again before my liver packs up and leaves home.

Well, cousin Brett arrived from Melbourne last Thursday – I didn’t go all the way to Heathrow to pick him up however it was a good excuse to leave work early to meet him at Stratford Station! I was pretty stuffed from work (had a social committee meeting haha) and Brett was a bit jet-lagged so we just grabbed some food and headed home for dinner. I then watched some TV (yay, still a novelty haha) and Brett went to sleep. He’s sharing my room but it’s pretty big so not squashy or anything, and I even put his bed next to the radiator so it’s not too cold for him in the UK winter!

Umm last week at work I also organised the team Christmas get-together, which we are paying for out of our own pockets, don’t ask why as there’s a long explanation, but everyone doesn’t mind that much as it’ll give us a chance to socialise outside of work and luckily the team gets along well! Monday night (tonight) I’ve got a ‘special’ work Christmas party, where just some team leaders, mentors and the three assistants have been invited! This Wednesday night is the big London 2012 Christmas function, at the apparently very nice Leadenhall Market in the city, and we’re having ice sculptures, a champagne reception, food and drinks etc from 7pm – 1am which should be great…. apart from the fact that we still have to turn up to work on Thursday morning and be productive at the office!

Okay so now I’ve got you up to date on those things — on the weekend Brett and I headed up to Birmingham on Saturday morning with Chiltern Railways. It’s a bit slow and takes about 2.5 hours to get there, but the tickets are so much cheaper than the fast Virgin trains! Laura and Roy met us at a coffee shop in town, as the traffic was bad and our train arrived only 5 minutes late (!) and then we all walked around town a little bit and saw the German (Frankfurt) Christmas Markets. We then did a spot of shopping, mostly looking, in the shops around the Bullring; a very big shopping centre. There were SO Many people around the place! I mean Birmingham city has about 1million residents, but I always think of it as a small place, and I guess compared to London city during the week it is! After shopping, Laura and I got dropped at her mom’s house and got ready to go see the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam at the big Birmingham Symphony Hall. What a great venue – the accousics are brilliant! And lucky they are too, as we got fantastically cheap £5 tickets, and our seats were almost ‘in the roof’! We were at the ultimately last and very top row of seats! Up about 4 main flights of stairs, and then up a little side flight of stairs was our entrance! The “Grand Tier” they call it, probably because you’re sitting up with the Gods! I kept leaning foward to squint just to make sure the orchestra members were actually moving their fingers and playing! I have taken photos – once I have my laptop I’ll upload everything and show you. The orchestra looked so similar from where we were sitting to the tincy glass figurines we saw in Venice (Mara and Lis you’ll know what I’m on about!). The music was fantastic! I preferred the second half to the first, and they played one song (probably an Opus) for 45 minutes straight! Good enough reason to not have an encore as far as I’m concerned!

The first half comprised of two long songs, one with a famous soloist, but as much as I appreciate music, I don’t know the famous violinists well at all, but he was one of them. His piece was quite good, but Laura and I both preferred when the whole orchestra played together – the sound was amazing. Violins, violas, cellos, double bass’, french horns, flutes, piccolo, oboes, bassoons, clarinets, timpani drums and the conductor (with bald patch). One funny moment was when the interval had been called, and people had already walked out, but then the soloist came back on-stage to show off a bit, the skills he has on the violin, and the remaining orchestra members were just ‘plucking’ the violins like a guitar – and Laura and I were quietly chatting about how the conductor wasn’t there, but they were still playing okay etc, etc so it was probably all planned, and then we got Shusshed by the man sittnig next to us!!! hahaha Gosh that was funny! His bloody son who looked like an absolute geek was there in his addidas trackpants and trainers, and the dad was pretending to be classy and Shush us!?? Come on!

Anyway after the concert Laura and I headed to Bennetts a gorgeously decked out pub in town, and Brett went to the pub with Roy near to where Roy lives. Apparently they drunk a bit of larger because come Sunday Brett was feeling a bit under the weather!!!

Sunday morning/mid afternoon Laura and I went back into town and the rain has stopped, so we walked around a bit and then I got my hair cut, and bought some yummy shampoo (smells like caramel), and I also found the old really nice shampoo I used to used that smells like Rasberries… been looking for it for years and I was told it had been ‘limited edition’ which turns out to be bollocks because al Tigi did was change the packaging and re-name it! Uhh well, it’s for blondes and I’m more brunette now. I have a fringe too, and after having it for a month I’m nearly ready to grow it out long again!

Sunday afternoon before getting the train back to London, Brett, Roy, Laura and I went around to Great Auny Mary’s house to have a chat and get fed biscuits and drink Rose wine! Very nice afternoon and Mary’s going pretty well. She’s quite funny, and reminds both Brett and I so much of Grandma! Fair enough as they are sisters. One main difference is Mary’s very white hair and she is shorter by a few inches than Grandma.

Well, during last week I wasn’t feeling the best, especially on Friday when I used almost a whole box of tissues, so I just barely managed to get myself to a comedy gigg Friday evening where Mara’s friend Scott Elliott was having a go and stand-up. He was really good, and was the first finalist through from the ‘gong rounds’ where people get 3 safe minutes, then 5 minutes more to ‘do their act’ when people can red-card them to vote them off. Unfortunately on the night there were a lot of good comedians, and so he didn’t win the final but hey! Great first effort!!!

So Friday night I crashed into bed, after burning up hot on the tube (it was -3 outside) and my muscles were aching, so I slept well into about 11am on Saturday. Jupmed out of bed and headed for the local post office… which didn’t sell boxes (stupid royal mail), so headed into Stratford to the bigger post office and shop. With that done, I headed back home, frozen (7 degrees), had a hot shower (which felt cold) and then jumped into bed! I slept most the day but also read some things, and had the heat turned up because my body thought it was cold, then hot, then cold etc! Sunday I woke up late again, but cleaned the house (mopped floors, cleaned bathroom and toilet) and then just lay about on my bed until I went with John to pick up my new (new for me) TV and DVD player from Oscar. Oscar’s heading back to Australia so just my luck with getting the goods! The guys, especially John were very very kind and carried the TV back to my house down a big hill, on the tube (all the station steps!) and then up the stairs to my room, so yes very good of them! I need to get John a birthday present now haha.

Oh also, I kind of sprained my ankle on Saturday night… I was standing at the top of the stairs about to walk down, and I coughed and slipped down the stairs, landing on my bad ankle! haha it was quite funny, but as Mara said, one illness/injury at a time would be nice!

My cold’s getting bit better though, dosing up on vitamins and sudafed and lemon&ginger tea.

Okay, so over Christmas time my work closes for a few days, and they automatically deduct 4 days off your annual-leave entitlement to cover this! This means I work for Dec and Jan and my holidays are already allocated to Christmas (kinda sucks!). Mara’s heading to Jersey to see her grandparents, and I hadn’t planned anything until Kristy was also going to be left in London – and so we are now going to Budapest! We fly out on 23 Dec and back on 27 Dec and hopefully it’ll be snowing there in Budapest! We don’t know what to expect really, or what will be open because it’s Christmas but I think just getting away from London will be good fun!

Umm also on 1 December (i still need to book train tickets) I’ll be heading up to Birmingham to meet and stay with cousin Laura, and we are going to see the Concertgebungeow (spelling) Philharmonic Orchestra from Amsterdam which will be great, so say the reviews! Cousin Brett from Melbourne is coming over to the UK starting on 29 November, and I think he’s going to visit Birmingham with me too so that will be good! I’m not sure how many of the UK relatives he has already met.

The other winter holiday, the one I might chuck a sickie for, is for Mara and I to celebrate my birthday with a weekend away, including the Friday, for 2 nights at a ski resort in Italy! We’re flying into Bergamo, again, but this time we’re missing Milano (thank god) and instead heading north to the Alps! Fingers crossed it’s snowing, which it definitely should be in January, but if not they also have great man-made-snow machines there. We get discounted ski school lessons and a day pass for the slopes (lift pass) and free ski/boot hire so we should be set! Boarding costs and extra £8/day, so I’m not sure if I’ll try it this time around or not! Depending on what money I don’t have I might have to use of one of my days off (once I’ve earnt it) in late February to go skiing! … hmm when is the next Bank Holiday (public holiday) in the UK!!??

Oh also, on a side note, I think I need to get an X-ray of my right ribs, as one seems to be ‘underneath’ the other rib but I can ‘pull it forward’ by pulling my skin up, but then it ‘slides underneath’ again! Ewww I know! It’s especially noticible after doing sit-ups or planks and using the muscles there… excuse to stop exercise? nah. 

So it’s now Wednesday, which means I’ve been permanent for a whole three days – yay! Just in case you were wondering no, it doesn’t feel any better and there aren’t really that many extra perks… in fact in January I need to take a day off work (will explain later) but I don’t think my boss wants to give me a day LWOP (I have no normal leave as that kicks in on 31 January) and so I think I will be feeling quite ill on said day…..

Rewind a little – Thursday night last week saw myself and Carol (colleague on site) joining a bunch of other CLM Delivery Parner administrators and PA’s for a ‘famil’ night at the new Radisson Edwardian 4* Hotel near Canary Wharf. It was a nice occasion, and all giggling girls (haha) especially once they got us on the champagne! We had to try all their canapes of course that people we might book in would get to eat, and so we had salmon and oysters and pineapple rolled in duck, sundried tomato&feta on a spoon, bespoke little fish&chip packages, pumpkin and cheese cracker things and other tasty stuff as well! We then got shown, and learnt how to make cocktails and of course got to drink the products! As well as order whatever cocktails (or more champagne) or fruity creations we wanted before heading on the tour of the suites and the day-spa. Wow what a place! Right on the River Thames and the rooms are so nice! One room (size down from the Penthouse) is about the size of the shared 3-bedroom-flat I currently live in!!! But my flat doesn’t have flatscreen TV’s everywhere and no floating TV remotes for the spabath either… uhh well! The day spa was definitely something all of us girls want to try out… or a pajama party in the penthouse suite we decided! The good thing about this hotel is that because it’s in the business park, the rates are CHEAPER on the weekends! All in all it was a fabulous night, especially for a work freebie!

Last Friday I had a nice night in, and just relaxed, studied a little bit and listened to music. Nothing too stressful, as I knew Saturday night was going to be a big one! Angie and Rachel who I met on Sail-Croatia had their joint 30th birthday parties on a river boat cruise, and it was awesome fun! The girls hired the boat and DJ, and bar staff and had food there too (which didn’t stop some people getting dreadfully drunk anyway) but it was great fun! It was a good catch up for heaps of people from Croatia so there were hugs all around and plenty of non-stop chatter. Red wine got spilled a bit too – good old bar staff didn’t even charge for the tonic water everyone was after to remove it from their clothing! haha. Oh also, all the girls on board had to dress up – literally, in dresses. We thought we would FREEZE but it was fine on the covered boat, and we did all have jackets anyway. I was getting some bizarre looks on the way to pre-drinks at Vaugn’s house on the tube, but then once a bunch of us girls were travelling together it was all for a good cause! Following the boat we all went across the road to Motion – a club where we had to go down about 2 or 3 levels to get to the main dance floor and cheap-drinks bar etc. It was all fun, except Kristy and I lost pretty much everyone, and then when we found a few, an almost-fight with the bouncers then ensued near us, because they were kicking out Brenno’s little brother’s mate… make sense? I don’t think it would have mattered who was getting kicked out actually, cuz I’m sure the boys would have all got involved as they did whether they really knew the fella or not!!! Anyway no one was too injured which is good, but the security guards were a bit over the top.

After Kristy had had well enough to drink (hehe) we decided to head home, and we both live a lil while away, so Vaugn who lives RIGHT in Tottenham Court Road gave us her keys to crash there the night. We waited ages for a taxi, and found none, so Vaugn said it’s like a 10 minute walk “that way” (pointing) so off Kristy and I set to find her flat. Well, luckily there was a Tesco on the way where we stopped for supplies, as I think it was a 30 minute walk all together, in high heels too! We got home, ate our TV dinners (I think her flatmates thought us a bit odd at 230am… actually I dunno what they were even still doing up in the loungeroom come to think of it) and then we crashed out.

Next day, so Sunday, we woke up and then Mel came over (met Mel in Croatia too) and we walked up to China Town for yum cha at a restaurant called Chinese Experience. That was my first go at yum cha, and most things they brought out were tasty! Pity I wasn’t exactly feeling the best ever (haha) and so I didn’t eat all that much. It was cheap too which was good – have to go back there. After yum cha Kristy, Mel and I and everyone else from lunch (Nikki, Nick, Doug, Felicity… ok I cannot remember the others’ names) headed out to find a pub (me freezing walking around as I had on the same dress as Saturday night – don’t worry, different underwear and stockings I had in my handbag!) and we set down in Brown’s Hotel for a few drinks. Mine was a coffee. Brown’s was a really nice swanky place with a gorgeous long bar, and someone playing the pianio. Apparently you can so celebrity spotting there, but we didn’t see any. So after leaving the bar with Mel (Kristy and co stayed until 11pm!!!) we headed back to our houses in the East end, and then I had a nice long hot shower and then relaxed in my room and did my nails and read my book – yup nice Sunday! Oh I was going to do washing but Mara and I were out of capsules (damn hey!).

Well last Friday, once the bloody website was working again, I got last minute tickets for Swimming with Sharks, a play with Christian Slater headlining. Ali and I decided not to see the second half of 39 Steps from last week (might see it later…) but decided, especially I did, that Christian Slater for cheap tickets would be money well spent! So after work on Monday I raced home, well after stopping by Woolies in Stratford to buy pots&pans, I raced home to cook stir-fry with honey & corriander sauce and turkey for Ali and I, as I owe him dinner many times over (but once will suffice) and then we headed to Charring Cross to the Vaudeville Theatre. His map reading skills suck as much as mine do, but we finally located the place — by me noticing Christian Slaters face on a lit-up billboard signalling the theatre’s location! Well the play was great! It wasn’t a raucous comedy, but funny and had the audience laughing along for most of the time. Some cringe-worthy moments which I could relate to (work wise… ahhaha especially Pa/Boss wise) but I won’t go into them as I know Vicki T occasionally reads through this! So yes, the show was great! It was good to be out in the city at night too, rather than stuck in the house in the east. But that kinda sucks too, as Ali had a tiny short trip home down the Northern Line, and I had to sit on the District Line for a good 25 minutes or so just to get back to Bromley. Uhh well, all part of living in London!

Tuesday after work, I changed my bedroom around slightly. On the weekend my mate John and his friend (sorry, will insert  her name when I remember it!) came over to look at the new flat and noted my bed inthe middle of the room, near the fireplace with a space behind it, as did Ali, and all commented that they thought the pillows would fall off etc. No, they hadn’t yet! But they obviously jinxed me because on Tuesday morning I woke up minus pillows on my bed. So – the bed has been turned around so it’s now near the wall, not on the wall because one of my heaters is there, but close enough. I also bought some little ‘feet cups’ to stop the weels moving around on the wooden flooring.

At work we were supposed to get a site-visit today, however we then found out we have to attend inductions to each of the site construction companies, not just the office induction, and one runs at 0800am and the other at 0730am… so that means TWO very early morning starts,… hence we’ve postponed the site visit until everyone has attended those.

Oh I forgot to say too, that on Saturday I met up with Kristy in the city, Oxford Street to do a bit of looking around etc. The lights are all turned on and the lamp posts have lights and things dangling from them for Christmas, and Debenhams looks like a shiny gold Christmas Box! The entire strore front is hung with long strings of gold fairy-lights and it all looks very pretty.

Kristy and I met up in Boots (makeup section of course) and I bought some mineral stuff from L’Oreal, which is similar to my Physicians Formula good stuff, but that can only be ordered online in the UK and seeing as it costs the same, I will see how this new stuff goes (it’s foundation for those who don’t know what I am on about). We were going to see The Mayor’s Firework display, as the Mayor’s Annual Christmas Parade was on (from 11am til 530pm), however it was “somewhere” on the Thames, we didn’t know where and subsequently missed it! Kristy and I then headed up Tottenham Court Road towards Goodge Street, as when I was there (Goodge St) on Thursday last week for training (work related, computer systems) I saw some great laptop shops one-after-another, and also some excellent ‘asian/bali’ style shops, which I love. So on Saturday I went back to The Pier and bought a maple candle (yumm) and an Elephant, with it’s trunk up. Every house should have one for good luck, and I’ve been looking for a while for one I like so it was a good find!

And if only I had millions of £ over here, because then I would have nearly the whole shop in my house/bedroom!

Well the weekend was nice and quiet. I did some decorating in my bedroom and ironed everything I own… I need to buy more wrinkle-free items I think! On Sunday morning, 11 November I went down to a Church of England which combines a parish from Bow and one from Mile End for their Remembrance Day service. The service was good and the church was interesting too. It is an historic Church and has many visitors throughout the week who come to look at the building itself and the ancient headstones in it’s grounds. Remembrance Day is especially remembered in my family too as it was my late Grandpa Walton’s birthday – he would have turned 91 this year.

For something different, come Sunday evening I was heading into Stratford again, as the light globes I bought on Saturday were the wrong type (everything over here seems to be bayonet-style) and so I walked up the street, waited at the bus stop, jumped on the S2 to Stratford…. and ended up in Hackney (bad place to end up in!). I don’t know what the bloody bus driver was doing, but I’m pretty sure the sign on the bus must have been changed after I jumped on (I did see him fiddle with it), because the bus, from that stop, should have really gone to Stratford as the exact same bus from the same stop did on the Saturday… bizarre! Anyway because it was already nearly 5pm, I didbn’t bother trying to get back to Stratford, but instead walked around a bit of Hackney and got a bus back to Bromley-by-Bow, where I jumped on the tube to go and meet up with Mara and Doug, her friend who was visiting from Canada. We met up in Leicester Square, where some starts (ala Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins etc) were all there on the red carpet for the opening of Beowulf, a scary looking movie which I will not be seeing!

After grabbing a bite to eat (overpriced in Leicester Square… don’t eat there again unless in China Town part), we headed up to The Hen & Chickens Theatre near Islington to see Slap, Tickle & Squeak. An improv. comedy by three people, one of which is Cath whom I work with at the Olympics! The show was in a proper little Theatre above a nice cozy pub, and it was a great laugh! I’ve seen them perform twice now, and it’s never the same thing and it always good. The whole audience gets involved and has a good laugh which is important especially in London!

Oh what else can I say? Not much happening but I have been offered a permanent position with one of the parent companies from the group that makes up the Delivery Partner (CLM) so that is some good news! A little bit more money and paid holidays and some sick leave if I get really sick too which is always a bonus especially for a UK winter!

I spelt Stratford wrong in my last post – oops was in a rush! You can check out the 2012 Olympic Games information at www.london2012.com OR we even have a blog! Yes that’s right, people sit around and keep everyone up to date. It can be read at http://blog.london2012.com