Anyway November was amazing. Work was good again as I wasn't doing audits, and it wasn't too busy so I actually was able to make it home before 7 pm on some nights. What a luxury this is when you aren't used to it! It's like back in the States when the end of busy season would come and you would spend your first Saturday at home, not working, when the past few month's worth had been spent in the office. I was able to catch up on so many things that I had been neglecting. And also yoga - hooray!
But first, Halloween! James and I went to one of his friend's (if you have noticed that I always say "his friends", it's b/c I still have very few in London. Beginning to feel like a bit of a social reject. Probably it's the accent) house party in what seemed like a very distant suburb of London after the train journey to get there. It was a costume party, and James and I procrastinated until Halloween day to get costumes. There was a line out the door of the costume shop when we got there! We tried to find things as quickly as possible since it was so crowded, so James settled on a Hannibal Lecter mask and chainsaw and I went for an alien. James would not let me be anything that wasn't "spooky Halloween", b/c in Britain they do not have as much fun with the holiday as we do in America, as I'm sure I mentioned in last year's entry. They do not understand why Americans dress up as things like ice skaters for Halloween and not just witches and goblins. Sigh...Halloween is so much more fun in the States. But the party itself was fun nonetheless, and it literally took us hours to get home b/c we left after the tube closed. Boo. There are pictures on facebook of Halloween if you'd like to look.
Just after I had written my last blog I started working for another department in the firm, and I was sent to San Francisco for a week on business! It was such a blessing, and not just the flying business class part. My dad's side of the family is mostly around the bay area, and I was able to see my grandma and one of my aunts and uncles. We had dinner at a Mexican place, of course (I had also had Mexican for lunch that day). And my grandma was very sweet and gave me an early birthday present of a fancy and beautiful tennis bracelet. Awesome!
Upon arrival in San Francisco, there was one thing I noticed which is distinctly lacking in Britain that I had not previously noticed. Toilet seat covers. I nearly audibly rejoiced when I entered a stall in a San Francisco airport bathroom and found the toilet seat covers tacked to the wall. Women everywhere will know why I feel this way. It is not nice to squat when you pee, nor is it nice to sit in someone else's urine which is covering the seat when you pee. In Britain I sometimes spend a stupid amount of time making my own cover out of toilet paper if I can be bothered. Hence, toilet seat covers are a lovely and much appreciated manifestation of American excess. Or perhaps it is just American convenience and resourcefulness. Either way, every time I walk into a stall in either America or Britain I am now usually aware of the presence or lack of toilet seat covers. Another random thing that I miss about America is Q-tips. The Q-tip brand, which I cannot find in Britain. The best they have there just doesn't cut it. It is a weird thing to notice, I know, but I am picky about how clean and dry my ears are, and Q-tips do the best job.
Speaking of American excess, when I walked into my giant hotel room I gave an appreciative sigh of recognition. Hotel rooms are generally much bigger in the States than in the UK, and I love it. Mine had a king-sized bed, a large desk, a sofa, and two TVs (yes two - so that if you were sitting on the sofa or the bed, which were on opposite sides of the room, you could have a TV in front of you), with of course the bathroom, all just for me. Brilliant. I admit the two TVs was pretty ridiculous though.
One more funny side note about the trip to SF - the building that we worked in was used for medical research, and the sign on the door that we walked through everyday read as follows: "Warning: This area contains one or more chemicals which are known by the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm." Awesome.
On the way back across the States I stopped in Ohio for a nice three day weekend with the family. It was very good to see them so unexpectedly and they managed to throw together my birthday in just a week (this is how much notice they had - I had two days notice, but any trip to the States is good news to me), and had a delicious home-cooked meal (as well as my fill of cheez-its!) and birthday cake and presents. My grandma had made her famous made-from-scratch noodles with chicken in her brand new kitchen. All summer she had been renovating her kitchen - torn down a wall and re-done everything new. It looks amazing, like something that was designed by a professional interior designer and that belongs in a magazine. There were a lot of candles on this cake - 28! I am now officially in my late twenties, but looking forward to the rest of life, it's been pretty swell so far. Especially now that James is in my life, it will be a fantastic adventure.
I was also able to meet Clemens, my family's foreign exchange student from Austria, while I was home. He's just a few months younger than David and very sweet and talkative. He fits in just perfectly with my family.
As I mentioned in my last entry James and I had a joint birthday party on the 14th, Top Gun theme. James' was the best costume, as he randomly had a proper flight suit and aviators. He looked smashing! I ended up wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, aviators, and dog tags and a pilot's hat I found at a costume shop (the same one with the queue out the door on Halloween, fortunately not so crowded this time). A few other people made the effort as well and did leather jackets or Top Gun t-shirts. We started with curry on Brick Lane just down the street from me, then moved on to drinks at a pub close by. The highlight of the night for me was when I got James to stand up on his chair and we all sang happy birthday to him. Afterwards we started chanting "speech, speech, speech", and one of his friends next to him whispered, "do the joke!". So James said, "What kind of bees produce milk? Boo-bies!" and sat down. Hilarious!! Obviously he had had quite a bit to drink at this point. It was a very fun evening and I spent most of the following day recovering from all of that fun. Pictures on facebook as well (not of the recovery, of the birthday party).
The following weekend we went to Egypt, and spent the final week of November soaking up the sun and doing a lot of nothing. But I will write more about the nothing that we did in the next entry...it has only taken me an hour and a half to write this time, but it is still late and I want to sleep. The Egypt entry will be soon though, I promise! Oh, and pictures are on facebook if you'd like to look.
Love to all and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Heather xoxo
