A love of London, continued yet again

Whew. Busy, busy, busy. London life is busy! Good busy, but still. But, I'm being evah so British in my take on it and a) I'm being quite careful not to let things get toooo busy and b) I'm using all this "live and let live" mentality I seem to have built up in the last six months to keep myself sane.

I've been asked to present about my project at work at our company meeting next week...not as big a deal as it sounds, it's just a company-wide update meeting and I compiled all of 5 slides :) But I actually have to present 5 times, as there are meetings all afternoon in small groups. I like to present and don't really get nervous, but it's been yet another thing on my plate. Although oddly, I'm in a bit of a holding pattern otherwise at work, so it's not like I didn't have time to get ready for it.

I'm finally moving my boxes over...so I'll have it sometime between late March and late April. But I've been emailing movers, trying to get everything organised, making sure my beloved things will arrive somewhat safely. For twice as much money, I could have my stuff in 10 days (by air), but since I've waited six months already, it doesn't really seem worth it. But I do very much miss all my beloved kitchen things.

I'm taking a last minute weekend trip to Dublin in 2 weeks with a friend and a couple of her friends, I'm going to somewhere - possibly Italy - for the 4 day Easter weekend by myself, I might go to Nice the first weekend in April with the Dublin friend and then I'm doing the last of the planning for the trip to Champagne with my wine group the second weekend in April. That planning has been tiring and complicated! But the trip should be really fun :)

I'm getting the lay of the land in my very very cool new neighbourhood, I am right in the middle of everything, yet off on a quiet street...it's perfect.

I have plans on quite a few nights coming up and I'm looking forward to all of them :) But I'm being careful to buffer in nights to myself to just veg and relax...as much as I love my social life here, I still need my me time :D Plus, with my mind-boggling 5 weeks of holiday time, I'm taking random time off simply because I can. For instance, I've got the day after the Champagne trip off, just because I know I'll be exhausted when we all get home late Sunday night.

So, I'm just enjoying of all of these activities, there's still plenty of time to rest. I've spent the weekend doing just that. I spent most of yesterday and today exploring my new side of the park...Hyde Park is just so incredibly amazing. My new run route takes me through these gigantic open fields where you can see for forever. And this in the middle of the one of the busiest sections of London...if I keep going south, I pass beautiful little creeks and come out of the park just down the street from Harvey Nichols and Harrods. If I walk really far across the park diagonally, which I did today, I can get to my beloved Whole Foods.

I also spent much of the weekend getting lost ;) It just baffles me how completely faulty my sense of direction is. But, at this point it just amuses me when I finally realise I'm going the totally wrong way. I did get back from WF exactly the right way, so I suppose I'm improving.

Next weekend, I intend to wander around Marylebone, which is now just down the street and is considered the gourmet food mecca of London, with several of the best food shops in the city stationed there. I'm nearing the end of a diet and soon, I'll actually get to enjoy food again!! Hopefully this time I'll manage to keep the weight off.

I'm now walking to and from work...an easy trek all the way across Central London, 2.8 miles each way. So far I'm actually really enjoying the walk, we'll see how long that lasts ;) A 60ish year old man asked if he could buy me a drink on my way home one night last week. Ew. And worse, he wouldn't really take no for an answer and I had to resort to rudeness. But otherwise, it's a nice walk :P

But with the £80/month I'm saving in tube costs (and the calories I'm burning!), I can partake of those lovely Marylebone shops that much more.

My trek to Whole Foods was for coffee, because they have a grinder, so I can do a relatively coarse grind myself for my new coffee brewing method - boiling the grinds in a tea kettle and then pouring the coffee into my cup through a tea sieve. It's quite tasty and easy, but requires that the grinds be relatively coarse. I do need to buy a coffee grinder...Whole Foods has yummy coffee, but there are better and closer places that do too :)

But, I decided this morning that I just really wanted some chocolate. Scouring the chocolate aisle at WF, I discovered minibars that fit into my neurotic diet, so I bought one. And as I walked back home through the park, I munched on my chocolate, savouring every bite and the beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. It started raining later, this is London after all, but for awhile, it was a warm and beautiful day.

I know it's getting goofy to keep saying so, but I just absolutely love this city. My only wish was that it were a wee bit more British and less cosmopolitan :) But, I'll take it as is...I was out with some friends last night for drinks and we were lamenting on dating, men, life in general. And I said something that just sort of came out of my mouth, but I suppose sums up my attitude toward life in moving here:

You have to have something in your life that brings you happiness, something you have the power to control. Something that no one can take away from you. And for me, London brings me happiness. The UK brings me happiness. My whole life can be upside down and stressful, but when I walk out my door and have so many vastly different things right at my disposal, I feel like I'm in heaven.

I love this place. And my new neighbourhood has just deepened my love for London :)