July 2009

Cripes! I can't believe it's been just over a month since I wrote last! It doesn't feel like it...but maybe b/c August has been so busy, and finally it was for a few reasons other than work. Well, let's be serious, work was still busy. But at least it wasn't to the point where I felt like throwing myself out of the window everyday.

Right, so backtrack to July, but first to the very end of June. One of my best friends, Denisse, who was here in Feb, have birth to her first child - an extraordinarily beautiful little girl named Isabella. She also has more hair than I've ever seen on a newborn - so funny! I cannot wait to meet her when I'm home for Christmas...

Also another best friend of mine, Heather (or H2 as many called her when we lived together in KC), got engaged. And she is the fastest wedding planner I've ever seen b/c she's having the wedding on 2 Jan! But very fortunate for me since I'll be back in the States for Christmas. So it'll be a big trip this year! Also James will be coming with me, so he gets to meet all of my friends - hooray! I'm so excited to introduce him to America (he's been just across the Canadian border for about a half day and calls that having "been to America", but we all know it's not), and I'll be so proud to introduce him to all the friends and family who haven't met him. He's only coming to KC and then South Dakota for the wedding, but he'll get that good ol' Midwestern experience! He's coming from his parents' house in New Zealand where he'll be for Christmas, and I feel bad b/c he'll be coming from a warm Christmas to a freezing NYE! Oh well, soon enough it'll be back to dreary London.

But that is all a long way away, and to get back to my life as of late...July was fairly quiet after my grandma and Missy left, but I did celebrate the 4th...kind of. Let's just say that American Independence Day celebrated anywhere but America will be a bit of a let down. Maybe it's b/c I'm in the place we're celebrating our independence from...hmm. No, actually you don't get any negative energy about it and there are so many Americans here that there are parties and stuff going on all over the city. I went on a little self-made tour of some American sites around the city which turned into a bit of a pub crawl, mostly the embassy and some statues. At the embassy I was taking photos and the security guards out front starting eyeing me suspiciously, and given the presence of their semi-automatic weapons, I decided to wander away slowly. The embassy is a horribly ugly 70s/80s style building that frankly looks very American. But it's in a really posh area so nice to walk around. Afterward we tried to go to a fireworks show which we found out was cancelled only after we got there. I was pretty disappointed, I mean it was depressing enough being away from the States on the 4th. But ah well, it's a choice I made to move here after all.

On the 11th James and I went to Oxford again to help his sister celebrate her birthday. It was good fun and I spent most of the night looking after James when he'd had a bit much to drink...but he's adorable when he's drunk. He mostly just gets very sleepy and you have to keep an eye on him that he doesn't wander off and fall asleep in some inappropriate location. The next day his parents came up and he all had Sunday lunch in a gorgeous pub on the river. It was a lovely day and an even lovelier time.

Also in July I finally met more of James' friends, which is good since the only friends that I've seemed to make outside of work so far I've mooched off of him. Sigh. Anyway his friends were really nice as usual, and really good fun. I met Christoph, Caroline, and Nicola who were James' old work/flatmates, and Russ, who lives in Newcastle and for whom James was best man in his wedding to his wife Emma in April, who also came along. Russ and Emma were telling us all about their honeymoon in the Maldives and making me so jealous! It sounds and looks absolutely amazing and I think I might be on a mission to get there at some point in my life, and then I might never come back!

Work was still awful in July, working through the weekends and other awesome things like that, but it did finally wind down a bit towards the end. I finally started going back to yoga, something that I had not done in months. To give you an indication, I bought a 13 class pass which was good for 3 months back in Feb/March, which I then had to pay an additional 10 pounds to get reactivated for an additional month - twice - then it still permanently expired with 3 classes still on it. Pathetic.

Speaking of fitness, I also started going running again, and more than that, I also got James started running! This is the man who literally had never stepped inside a gym in his life unless he had taken a wrong turn. But he actually kind of likes it, has gone on his own several times, and is usually the one to suggest it now! It's so much more enjoyable running with him than just alone. I did a 5k for GT at the beginning of July, and it was a horribly slow pace, but my only goal was to not stop running, which I accomplished. This sounds like a pathetic goal to all of my runner friends I'm sure, but I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I had run twice - TWICE - since I'd moved to London. Running an entire 5.2 miles without stopping felt like quite a feat.

The other American secondee that I worked with most closely returned to the States at the end of July, but she left with a going away dinner at a tex-mex place! It's called Crazie Homies, which I had heard about but hadn't been, and it was soooo delicious! I felt like I had stepped into SoCal for a few hours. James and I have been back once since then, and intend to make it at least a monthly ritual. The only bad thing is they make you pay for the chips and salsa - sacrilege!

The best bit about July came at the very end though, when my family arrived for their visit on the 28th! But I'll tell about that in the August post since most of the trip took place then, and also I'm sick of staring at a computer screen for today.

Love to all, miss you like crazy and wish I could hook a rope to America and haul it across the Atlantic and park it right next to the UK, but until I figure that out please keep in touch here, on facebook (where there are also more photos that have been posted), or by email/phone. I'm also on Skype if any of you have it - it's literally like a miracle that it's free!

xoxoxoxoxoxo,
Heather