a new chapter in london has begun

i saw my first mouse on the tube, and it wasn't basil of baker street.

now people keep telling me that they see tons of mice and rats down in the tube stations but i never ever saw them. until tuesday (jan 26th). why that day? you ask. simple...they recently replaced the track and rocks at baker street station and the normally soot-covered rock and track was gleaming white...so those little black mice stood out. they didn't creep me out...namely because they stayed far away from me, and i from them. :)

there was a couple of days break from dierdre-palooza and i had time to do some laundry (much needed) and have lunch with larissa. she's about to pop so i was glad to have spent some time with her before she becomes a new mom. i imagine she'll not have much time to nip down to the city for lunch for a little while, but at least i can go up and visit. can't wait to meet her...i am assuming the baby is a girl becauase 'she' and 'her' keep coming out of my mouth.

friday night saw the last night of the cahill/schipani legacy that has been the past 11 months. we ended our night with a bunch of girls, drinking wine and noshing on cheese (yum), bread (even yummier) and one of bim's cakes (you know what's next!). on saturday i watched as one flatmate packed up her stuff and another unloaded his. my last dinner out with dee (with michael joining us) was at busaba eathai, and it was perfect as usual. saying goodbye to dee was immensely tough and we both did it quite quickly...and as soon as the door shut, i of course, started crying. text her i was crying, and well, she text back saying she was very upset too. but we both know there are visits in our future so we've not seen the last of our dee yet. besides, she's coming to canada for a visit with me this summer.

and now is the (4 week) time of michael, my american but living in australia flatmate who just started at my company. he flies back to syndey to get married so its perfect he can live with me for 4 weeks before denise moves in. denise is also from dublin and a firend of dee's - how fitting!

my first night out with michael involved seeing sherlock holmes at baker street (how fitting) and on sunday, i combatted my blues with some retail therapy down sloane street and sloane square, then to south kensington and then to high street kensington. i walked 7 miles. i tell you, those first 24 hours sans dee were miserable. they equated to how i felt the first night i got here. sad and alone. but you know, i had my pity me time and then picked up my socks and moved forward.

i bought a beautiful pair of shoes



sloane street is quite amazing....from gucci to prada to armani to gina (?)...its a street designed for my sister gina and my cousin isabel.

i also was able to attend an aeorspace defence and national security banquet with my company where i shared the room with some people who i'm sure are important to the A&D business. haha. our key note speaker was Ian Lucas, the minister for business and regulatory reform. the highlight of the evening (aside from some great conversation with some clients believe it or not) was when at 22:00 hrs, we had a loyal toast. never in my life have i particpated in a loyal toast. we rose, said 'god save the queen', then sang god save the queen, then toasted again with 'the queen'. WTF...i barely contained my mirth.

the fun thing about the A&D banquet was it was a 1:10 girls to guys ratio...thing is, 99% of said guys were over 50. :(

being the early sleeper i am, i left before John Culshaw came on. i figured it would be ok since an impressionist only makes sense if you know who he's impersonating.

i then partook in a company pool/wii/dart tourni and had a lot of fun. i won nothing, but drank plenty so it all worked out in the end. i was part of the committee that threw the do together (pics of us below) so it was relieving that it all worked out great.





and finally, last night is the piece de resistence....i saw cat on a hot tin roof last night starring none other than james earl jones and phylicia rashad...but really, it was all about the big daddy himself. what an amazing actor. he and kevin spacey have been the best i've seen thus far. the man just commands presence. he is such a big guy and he made a deplorable character almost likable.

so a busy time these past few (ok maybe 12) days but such is the life of a london girl.

xoxo