Happy (Belated) New Year!

Oh and also a horribly belated Happy (Merry) Christmas! I’m back from DC and wishing I wasn’t headed back to America again in 8 days for work. But, it pays the bills, so off I go.

I had a rather telling and amusing entrance back into the country I love last weekend. Having once again procured my beloved upgrade, I was coming through the Fast track passport queue at Heathrow, where classism rules the roost and the immigration officers are nice to you, friendly and talkative even. Well ok, to be fair, I did not get my upgrade on my return after Thanksgiving and so was forced to join the commoner passport queue ;) And that immigration officer was quite friendly. But usually this friendliness hasn’t been my experience in the regular queue. But anyway, I digress. My conversation with the immigration officer went a bit like this:

Upon viewing my visa, the officer said “Just returning then?”

Me: (with a smile and happy sigh) “Yes.”

Officer: “Holidays are always too short, aren’t they?"

Me: “No! It was lovely to see everyone, but I’m glad to be back.”

Officer: (with a raised eyebrow and a surprised smirk) “No one ever says that."

Me: “Well, I’m weird. I love it here!”

And with that, he handed my passport back and I wandered off to baggage claim, officially back home.

So there you have it. I love this silly place so much that I was happy to be back, despite a work week sitting right around the corner. And though it’s the life I chose, having taken this job, I really wish I wasn’t leaving so soon again. The upside is that I’m only visiting America and soon enough, I will be home again. I did enjoy my visit back to DC, it was fantastic to see the people I did, sad to miss the ones I couldn’t see and also fantastic to eat some of my favourite American processed foods :)

Oh and also? Having received my first paycheque shortly before departing the UK, I went shopping in DC and spent (some of) my almighty pounds! It was heaven. It would have been a much better trip if I wasn’t so utterly lazy and had gone to the doctor before I left to get some antibiotics for this very stubborn sinus infection. I deteriorated rapidly upon my arrival in DC and was a bit cranky and ill all week. (Incidentally, I was having a brain drain just now and couldn’t remember how to spell deteriorated. MS Word’s first suggestion, based on my attempt to spell it, was “detonated.” Hee.) Here I am in the land of free healthcare and I can’t drag myself to the doctor for one appointment. Serves me right too because, of course, spending a total of 15 hours at 30,000 feet is quite excruciating when you have unhappy sinuses. But I’m a quick study and with another even longer flight just around the corner, I’m dragging my lazy self to the doctor on Monday. If nothing else, I’m curious to see what free healthcare is like ;)

My first New Year’s Eve in London was nearly perfect. I’d planned a dinner out with some friends and, with only a few weeks to plan, even managed to find a restaurant that we all thought would give us a view of the famed midnight fireworks display over the London Eye. The food was phenomenal, the wine lovely and, with a few minutes to spare to midnight, our server very kindly brought free champagne for the entire table. We ventured out onto the roof terrace, glasses in hand, to watch the much anticipated display. And we soon burst out laughing. You could hear them, you could even see bursts of light. But alas, a newly built building blocked the exact area where the fireworks were going off and we saw perhaps one or two actual fireworks out of a 15 minute show. Oh well. The point is, I spent the evening with a very fun group of people and even at my old age, was still wide awake at 4 AM, when I finally guilted myself into going to bed. It was a lovely way to bid 2007 adieu and an even lovelier way to welcome in 2008. And the icing on the cake was that I did not encounter any annoying drunk people on my tube ride/walk home....there the girl in the pink bikini in the tube station on the way to dinner, but I think she was just crazy, not drunk, so that's different.

In other news, I’m moving! My current flat is gorgeous, my landlady has turned out to be the sweetest person ever, but I’m not crazy about the complex and it’s actually quite far from work. So, tonight begins my quest for a new flat, I'm stopping to look at one on the way home. I have my stubborn heart set on quite an expensive area, but I have hope that with a little hard work and obsessing, I’ll land right where I want to :) Moving day isn’t for another six weeks, so I’ve time just yet. As for the rest of the weekend, I’m still recovering from holiday mayhem and I have absolutely no plans yet and I love that. Perhaps I’ll call a couple girlfriends to do Sunday lunch, there is the off chance I'll be up for a night out tomorrow night, but otherwise, it’s time to relax!