the first week of 2010

i wasn't sure what to expect for the beginning of 2010 but what i wasn't expecting was sub zero temperatures and snow in london. :( its warmer in calgary...how does that happen?

the flight back to london was nice - i got bumped up (thanks Suz) and got to sleep about half of the flight in comfort. however, the flight was delayed...the bonus being i could have dinner with gina at her place. so...i'd rather hang out in that living room than in the airport...but again, got to chill out in the first class lounge watching tudors season 3 so i don't see much discomfort there either.

my seatmate on the way home was a gal named penny....working with a hedgefund in london (and originally from calgary) it turns out she's also my neighbour. she lives one block over near the princess grace hospital (incidentally where larissa works). amazing the marylebone/calgary connection!

work was real quite namely because no one could get into work (or wanted to brave the colder temps). i kinda laughed along with some of my other canadian colleagues in london at the office's perspective on the snow. although i do remind myself that they just aren't used to this kind of stuff...but then again at the same time, regardless of this type of situation, they'd take the piss out of me so do unto others, i say. ha ha

the hunt for a new flatmate continues and i have it narrowed down to a couple of people...we'll see how it goes. one is a future colleague on his way from austraia (but originally an american). he needs a place for 2 months and that's how long my contract at the current flat is meant for. so hopefully i find another flatmate after him (there's a gal named elena who is interested and is in town next week to take a look). wish me luck. the only reason at this point to hang on to the current flat is to accommodate potential guests in april and july....but i guess i have to give them the heads up. i may not have room for them afterall. no need to get to panicky yet...i'm sure i can figure something out, just not sure how quickly.

friday night i went for dinner with my flatmate dee and her sister aiofe (pronounced ee-fah, beautiful name) and her husband dave. we went to the crazy bear for dinner and it was lovely. we had (many) lychee mojitos, and the 10 plate taster menu. there was so much bloody food! aiofe ended the night sharing the bitter chocolate soup (hot chocolate pudding for us north americans)for dessert and i opted for the 'nuts and berries'...a shot of frangelico with a shot of chambord shaken with ice and cream. yum!

saturday was perhaps one of the coldest days i have experienced here yet. seriously, i am warmer at home in -10 degree temperature than the '-2' we had here. but, i had to venture out to covent garden because the aveda in my 'hood shut down and moved there...but in an effort to convice us marylebone folk to follow them, they enticed us with £20 off the haircut (sweet) and a free manicure. both welcomed, however, i had to sit near the window and proceeded to freeze my ass off. never in my life did i welcome the smelly underground as much as i did on saturday. i met up with my friend hoho after, and he, dee and i went to fishworks for a very long lunch. we opted for the fried whitebait with aioli (i still cant eat their heads...i have to take them off...haha), moules frites, followed by a nice lemon tart. top it off with some wine and our 3 hour lunch was perfect.

and when we left the restaurant, the wind had died down so it was warm, with big fat flakes coming down...nice way to end the outside adventures.

today is sunday, and i'm cooking lentil soup (mmmmmmmmmmm) keeping all the warm air in my flat as long as possible. but in 2 hours, we are venturing out (not far thankfully) to the wallace collection. we're going to check out the damien hurst exhibit and today, there's a free tour at 3. sweet.

ok, so not bad so far...i promised to blog by the week and so far, the committment has stuck. hopefully i do something exciting in the next week or else my next post could be so boring. ha ha.

xoxo