Days 2-3

For the love of Pete, what the HECK is in the air/water here?!?  Want straight hair?  Fahghettaboutit.  The second I walk outside my hair turns from freshly straightened by my handy dandy UK/EU straightener (props to Momma bear for the awesome gift) to waved and flipped.  I promise, it’s not a cute wave and flip.. I look like a lamp shade.

Anyways… I finally got back to work the past couple days and it’s been amazeballs.  I figured out the tube to my temp office – Knightsbridge on the Picadilly line, switch to the Victoria line at Green Park, and get off at Warren Street.  Flat to office door takes 20 minutes.  Well, yesterday (day 2) took a little longer because a nice man told me to walk the wrong way down Euston road once I got off at Warren.  Eventually I figured out the building numbers were going the wrong way.  Since I always give myself more than enough time, (Because by now I know my Spidey Senses are under par), I still arrived to the office early.  The second I got there I was told to drop off my stuff because they were taking me out for coffee.  Ok.. I’m down.  We walked passed Starbucks and instead went to a quaint little Italian café just around the corner.  My colleague ordered a latte so I ordered the same because I had no idea what to get.  I asked for non-fat milk and they looked at me like I had 6 heads.  It’s “skinny milk” – Get it? Got it?  Good.

That reminds me – over the past couple days I have inherited an entire new vocabulary.  I thought I hit the jackpot by going to an English speaking country.. yahh.

1.       Bathroom = toilet.  Yes, we went over this in my last post

2.       Elevator = lift  I’m sure we already knew this one

3.       Line = queue

4.       Sidewalk = pavement

5.       Cent (i.e. currency: fractions of pounds) = P  (just P.)

6.       Fat bastard = fat bastard (it’s just as common as saying hello)

OK, back on track.  Coffee lasted about an hour before returning to work for a couple hours only to be followed by a grand welcome lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant down the road.  ..You think they picked up that I might be Italian?

Back to work for a couple hours before celebrating the company’s rebrand over Tandberg.  All of the offices around the world called in via video conference so that we could all clink (plastic) glasses of champagne, waive our country’s flags, and congratulate each other on a successful rebrand of a stronger, bigger, better, more global company.  Was I waiving a British flag, you ask?  You bet your sweet behind I was. 

After more work and meetings I went back to the flat and went for a run over to Buckingham palace – less than a mile away.  Pretty cool, eh?  Across the street is a beautiful winding park so I continued on my run through the greenery and found myself back at my flat to continue my workout with my resistance band (Shout out to Lori Haverty for lending me that for a few months), prepare dinner, and FaceTime with some of my favorite people.  Bed time brought more drag racing and a sleepless night.

Day 3 (Sept 3/Today)

Coffee.  On my way to work I stopped at Pret, a really popular coffee shop here.  Ordered an Americano (obviously) with skinny milk (I’m learning).  It was decent but it’s definitely not a Dunks pumpkin iced.  Sorry.

Today was very productive – lots of meetings and figuring out more things that need to be done around here.  A co-worker joined me for a sushi lunch at Wasabi, a sweet sushi bar down the street.  Emails, emails, calls, and more emails but again, today was very productive.  I went for a walk in the afternoon with the same co-worker to Boots, which is a pharmacy-like store.  It’s pretty much the CVS of London.  Want to know what I bought there..?  Earplugs.  Take that drag racers.

Tonight I’ll be joining an old friend for dinner and a (few) pint(s).  Looking forward to allowing the ABV and earplugs help me to sleep tonight.