I Can’t Believe I’m 29

Happy Birthday to me! Yay – what a bizarre day. It started off kind of blah, but my theory of ‘it can only get better’ worked. Yay.

It started off with a nice sleep in at the hotel – what a nice bed. Sigh. We decided to check out the breakfast downstairs and ooops, didn’t think it would cost that much for breakfast. I’m not even going to put that number in writing, just know it was ridiculous. We finally got on the train at 11 to get to Clapham to look at places. It’s a nice enough neighbourhood, but wow, what crappy flats. Talk about living in squalor. The gal showing us the room had heels where the leather was peeling away and she was walking on the tacky part of her heel…and she thought she looked good. Man - the place was a dump. I looked at Gina in despair. The area was good enough, but the rooms were bad. I no longer find my aparthotel as unacceptable. I guess a good thing came out of that.

We went to starbucks for gingerbread lattes to recover.

Then we went to wimbledon, and there it was – the perfect british neighbourhood I was looking for. Who knew? Mercedes, bmw, audi – the lined the streets. It was quieter, cleaner, maple leafs (again)…and it felt safe. I found my ‘hood. Plus, I will save a bundle on train passes (and on time as well). The flatmate appears to be nice – a decent gal. I have another flat to look at tonight in Wimbledon, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be living there in 4 weeks time. Plus, its on the same line as Fullham Broadway – where I can start some serious stalking very quickly. I need photos. Btw – joe cole’s wag was in the paper and mentioned as ‘finace’ – did they not get married this summer???? Who cheated, is what I want to know. I’m going to say joe cuz he’s a footballer and the women here practically spread when they walk by.

So really, wimbledon was the start of something good (if feels so right, to be here with you…oh) and we head back into the city to my temp flat…where the hot water was looking and gina said, you know, it ain’t so bad (and seriously, after Clapham, it wasn’t so bad). We watched some digital (and we found English non porn channels – tons of Italian channels), then head back to the hotel. That night, we went to Patara (http://www.pataralondon.com/) for dinner (a thai curry house). Holy Dinah. The food was INCREDIBLE. They have a cookbook coming out in one month. I’m on in!

So turning 29 again was an interesting day. Maybe this will be a great year after all.