casting gio's inner circle in london

hey all - some people often ask me 'who was that in your picture and how do you know them?' so this is ths ultimate guide of the who's who in my london circle...in alphabetical order but i'm sure that'll change by the time i'm done, and i'll probably forget a person or two but will add as i go along.


this is aleksandra, who i met in Rome in june 2008 (yes, before i moved to london). aleksandra hails from poland and is a great friend...one of my travelling cohorts to sicily, devon and i'm sure more exotic locations to come. she convinced me to live in london and not in epsom, and for that i am eternally grateful. i love her accent and tend to say certain words like her, like Boots, oh my gooooooodness and OK?


i met alison back in the mid 90s when i worked at ATP in Calgary (yes, a Canadian). she moved to london god knows how many years ago and was a wonderful familiar face when i moved to london. i don't see her as often as i like, but when we do get together, we always have a great time.


basar (pronounced Bash-are) is my beautiful Turkish friend, fellow movie goer and traveller. she is a delightfully funny friend and am thankful to have met her. i have a feeling she has no idea how beautiful she is!


abimbola (aka bim) is my nigerian goddess...uk born but 100% nigerian in her soul. she keeps my faith in check, is a great listener, and gives amazing hugs. she likes to yell my name out in the office every once in a while, startling most as she tends to do it when all is quiet.


this is carlos, my venezuelan friend and fellow wimbledon-aholic. we did everything at wimbledon we were supposed to, from pimms and lemonade to strawberries and cream. he claims he'll share the pics with me...but they still haven't materialized...hmmmm


chris is another friend i made before i moved to london (unbeknowst to us both) as he and i were on the same 'race across africa' team in 2008. it was funny that he also ended up sitting quite close to me when i got there. a devonian at heart, he spent a long weekend with us in his home town, where we heard interesting tunes and dined on amazing cream tea, courtesy of his chef mother. yum!


dan and steph are my wimbledon neighbours who i will sorely miss. dan was the man who caught the mouse in our house way back at the beginning of the year. he saved our sanity! dan is a wealth of knowledge as he knows a lot about the uk (his country) and our lovely steph hails from germany and likes to bring us bizarre german alcohol for us to try.


dee is my fantabulous roomate hailing from dublin. a foodie at heart (just like me) we always eat well and never regret it. she's taught me how to say 'eee-jut' and 'scabby bastard'...among other things. and i love when she says the f-word with her lovely accent. like me, she's a november baby and scorpio...and like me, is freaking excited about moving to our new flat.


erik...aka golden erik or thor...hailing from norway but with an american accent...but he's never lived in the US before...how bizarre! its from watching all that damned american television. that being said, when he first met me he thought i was around 26 so he's one of my favourite people here. :)


a trio of dee's friends that have become my friends, we have hannah, abbey and jonathan. usually when we're together it involves a lot of food and a lot of wine, and a fantastic good time. all from the uk, hannah has an amazing ability to burn every time we go out, abbey is an incredible triathlete and jonathan not only loves my sweetart martini but is a fellow november baby.


horacio (aka hoho) hails from ecuador and is of argentinian descent. a fellow foodie, hoho makes me laugh on a daily basis with his satyrical humour. he's also the reason why i drink too much because he clucks like a chicken every time i say i'm cut off.


juliana is a lovely gal from argentina who i met within the first week of work (she's one of aleksandra's close friends). juli is a fellow harry potter fanatic...need i say more. that alone tells you how fabulous she is.


the lovely kate comes from newcastle and although she should have a geordie accent, she actually speaks quite posh! she was quite kind in inviting me to her xmas party not knowing me much at all, but i found a friend in her quite quickly. she's one of my pub quiz teammates and we get quite excited when we win either the bottle of wine or free food.


another fellow calgarian friend, this is larissa who moved here almost five years ago. we meet up as often as possible and whenever we do, we always have much fun. and we tend to meet up at busaba in soho because we LOVE eating there. she often says 'calgary, shmalgary' when i get home sick. :)


the jelinek brothers!!!! mark and erik are also some of the first people i met, way back in november during salsa night. mark likes to think he's all street much to my amusement, especially since he's one of the whitest guys i know. erik is my scrabble nemesis, but also great tour guide finding excellent hikes to the likes of the north downs and dartmoor.


ola hails from nigeria and is entirely responsible for making mark 'street'. but again, it amuses me so i think its fab. once a month, ola, bim and i go out for lunch and try to find somewhere fun, different and ecclectic (if possible, which can be a challenge in epsom!)


have you seen...the man they call raveen? (albertans might recognize that song)...raveen is my lovely malaysian friend who lives for yoga and is about to take some time off to volunteer in africa. what a grand guy! although he's got to stop thinking he has love handles. i'd be shocked if i could pinch 1/16 of an inch.


tanya....my dearest desk mate and fellow marketing team member. she keeps me entertained every time she's at work and bless her, she is one funny gal.

i know i'm missing tons, but this posting is getting real loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong. i promise i'll add more when i get pics, and a bit more time.