Seasons Change, Plans Change

I'll start with the good news first. The weather here in London has been amazing this last week. It is officially summertime. The temps are in the high 70's people are out and about in their flip flops and shorts. I spent this weekend getting my short sleeved shirts, skirts, and open toe shoes out of storage and swapping them with my sweaters, scarfs, and turtlenecks that have been in my closet for the last 9 months. I never realized how much I missed seeing color in my wardrobe! London is like an entirely different city in the summertime. If only it could be like this more often. I have definitely been taking advantage of the weather by enjoying all the beautiful parks and walking alongside the river. I used to take gorgeous weather like this for granted when I lived in California, but now that they're so far and few in between it's amazing how you make the most of it. Speaking of making the most of my days.. can you guess what time this photo was taken?

6 you say. Try 9:30 pm.!! The days lasting so long has got to be one of the oddest things I've experienced since arriving here. The sun comes up at 4:00am and it doesn't get dark until 10:30pm. The great thing is, I come home from work and it feels like I have all the time in world to go do things. The down side is, I am wide awake come 6:00 am because the sun is shining as bright as can be into my room. I'm thinking I might to need invest in some curtains, the sunshine cutting into my beauty sleep isn't going to fly.

Now the bad news, or maybe I should say challenging news. My friend Sima who I've referenced many a time in this blog as my future roomie is no longer going to be filling that position. She unfortunately has to return back to California to help out with her family business. She came back to London last week on her way to Italy for a 2 week tour, and dropped the news. Needless to say I was super bummed. We had all these grand plans to travel all of Europe together, take London by storm as two single girls on the prowl, explore other parts of the city, etc.. I was also really looking forward to living with someone. One of the things I've realized is that I prefer living with roommates instead of living alone. So now I'm debating whether I should to try and find someone else to live with or continue to live alone. There's advantages and disadvantages to both situations. If I do choose to live with someone else it would probably end up being a stranger since I would use the Internet to find them or send a note to friends at work who can pass along the message. I keep going back and forth.. on the one hand living with someone who I don't know very well could be a great way to make a new friend and meet their friends, hence creating a social network for myself. On the other hand, living with someone I don't know could end up being a nightmare because they turn out to be a freak. I'm not sure what to do??? Luckily, I don't have to make up my mind immediately. I'm going to give it some more thought this weekend and see how I feel on Monday.

The Grove

This past week I had the chance to stay at one of the prettiest resorts in London for a two day work meeting. It was outside the city in a city called Watford. The name of the place was The Grove. I got to bring my friend Heather with me and was able to indulge in all the property had to offer a lot more than I did. When you drove up to the resort it was like something out of a movie, Dirty Dancing to be exact. Alongside the beautiful green landscape and tons of trees was this majestic brown brick building. It completely reminded me of the hotel in Dirty Dancing. The inside of the hotel was beautiful. All modern furnishings, fresh flowers all over the hotel, a bathtub in my room that was one of a kind, and an amazing spa which I got to visit my first day. The resort also had a man made beach on the back of the property. This place it had it all! After our series of meetings were done, on our last day we had a team building activity on the beach with all my co-workers. We played beach volleyball, ran an obstacle course, and did some other challenges. It was a blast! Heather and I did get to spend sometime together, we had the yummiest kiwi martini at the bar one night.

Turns out while we were staying at this resort so was the entire US and UK futbol team. Mr. David Beckham himself was there!! Me and a few of the other girls tried to find him on the grounds one day (we got a tip he was golfing) but had no success. At least I can say I slept in the same hotel as Mr. Beckham.

Below are a fewphotos of the resort. I'm hoping I'll get a chance to go back again at some point this year.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

In May I had the pleasure of two visitors back to back and with some overlap! I had Heather and Arati. Heather and I have been friends since I was 7 and she was 5. We've kept in touch over the years even though we haven't lived in the same city for the last 10 years. She now lives in good old Louisville Kentucky and is engaged to a great guy named Anthony! Arati and I have know each other since we were babies. She used to bully me when I was a kid and play cruel, cruel pranks on me. Some things never change :) She was on her way to Cannes and stayed with me on her way there and on her way back. It was a short visit for her but nice nonetheless.

Unfortunately during some of Heather and Arati's stay I managed to get a nasty flu which left me bed ridden for three days. So, the poor girls had to manage on there own for a few days. They were both troopers and very understanding.

Heather and I share a passion for two things; food and shopping. Therefore our game plan during her stay was pretty straight forward- eat at as many great restaurants and get our shop on. We definitely partook in both. We had no plans to do the tourist thing, since Heather had been to London quite a few times. But we ended up adding that to the list, as well as a three day retreat at a beautiful resort outside of London (courtesy of my work; more on that later). Heather's fiance, Anthony had never been to London and everyday Heather would send him pictures, everyday and he would ask where are the pictures of London? For some reason all the pictures of us eating and shopping weren't really what he had in mind. Go figure! Heather being the sweetheart she is (the things we do for love) convinced me to do a hop on hop off bus tour of London on her last day here. I have to say being a tourist in your own city after living here for awhile, was very enlightening. We spent three hours on a top of a bus taking in all the sites London had to offer. It was actually really fun! Thanks Anthony :)

Heather and I on the bus- it was a little windy can you tell?!

Now, one of the things my friends always love when they come to visit is hearing the English accent. They just can't get enough and the next thing you know they start talking adopting the accent themselves. One evening Arati, Heather, and I went to a pub. We were on the hunt for fish and chips. Arati thought it would be fun to talk in an English accent for the entire evening. Heather and I had our very own Madonna in the house. It was pretty comical. I managed to get a great clip of her in action. Not bad huh!?

I had a great time with both the girls. They were my last visitors (or at least that I know of) for this year. So if anyone else wants to come visit, you know where to find me! Here are some of the eating and shopping pictures I referenced earlier.