Big city

Well... I am here... in the middle of London..
I can't believe how not used I am anymore to a city.
Walking to where my course is is plain dangerous, cars everywhere!
And noise...

It is unbelievable what an assault a city is to your senses, screeching tubes, roaring motors, masses of taxis and buses, bad singing in the metro stations, so much to see, all that dust everywhere, I forgot how DIRTY cities are.

The area I am in is very close to 'Liverpool Street', which apparently is the heart of the financial part of the city, which means there are masses of 'suits' running around, and I mean running, nobody seems to just pootle along, it is all QUICK QUICK QUICK, frantic!!

For someone interested in food it is absolutely magnificent the amount of choice one has here. A lot of 'latte' factor.. I think half of all these running around people have either a big cup of expensive coffee in their hands or a mega big baguette.

My hotel is simple but SO exactly right. It has all I would ever want.. well... maybe a bath would have been nice but the powershower is lovely too! I even have a nice little couch in my room and a desk and a hair dryer and coffee and tea things and I get a showercap every day (which I then steal of course) - no cool shampoo and stuff to take home though, they have these dispensers with shampoo and showergel and other soap. Oh well... can't have it all I suppose!

Found the greatest little restaurant across of the hotel.. it is a pizzeria but the posh trendy version where they sell the pizza per yard. Quite nice.. they consider 'a glass of wine' to consist of 250ml.. thinks... how many units is that!!! It is a good thing I only have to roll 'home'. :-)

Oh and what is this thing about 'water'? Everybody is walking around with bottles of water, all the shops are overflowing with bottles of posh stuff and in my favorite restaurant they keep on asking if I would like some water and look really surprised and worried if I said, tapwater will be fine. I first thought it was because they can't really charge me for that but I think it is more that for them it it so rare to meet someone who dares drink tapwater. Interesting! Oh well. since they do know how to make good food I will let them off!

And the course is fun too would you believe! Almost forgot to mention that.. normally I am really really bored on courses, they are too slow in general.. this one is different, yesterday the teacher almost went too fast for me which is something that never happened to me. Today was a bit better because it is getting more difficult now and the rest of class is struggling so she needs more time to save them :). It is a bit unfair on them though, I have been working with all of this for about a year now and just lack the basic structure when they probably see all of it for the first time, it is fantastic to get all my blanks filled in!

Only 2 nights before I fly back again, then a month pause and then flying to Southampton again, pff.. .rains it pours and all that! Wish I had something like this in boring end of November or something... maybe I should try and steer in that direction :-) Having said that.. part of the enormous fun I am having at the moment is the lovely weather I suppose, can't really expect that in November ;)

It is also lovely to watch all my rubbish on TV WITHOUT feeling guilty :) Poor John has to suffer so much, from Strictly Dance Fever to Big Brother to xFactor Battle of the Stars etc... when he is more interested in the digestive system of the egyptian tigershark or something like that! Only downside is I miss him like hell.. it is just not the same without him snoring next to me on the couch and me trying to find the perfect balance between the volume just so I can hear it over the snoring but not so loud it wakes him up. :-)

The little joys in life eh... for now I will have to cope with a big double bed just for me :-)

How I suffer....

Wine and Dine

Oh joy... temperature is rising - Sunday morning I am flying off to LONDON
Big city girl - same girl, different city

I wonder how it feels, I thought Glasgow was overwhelming, wondering if I am de-city-ing without realising it.. maybe I am more a suburb girl than a city girl after all :-)

Anyway, it will all be good fun, leaving early on Sunday, going to the hotel and trying to get online (everything feels more organised if you have access to the internet don't you think? Me? Addicted? Neh!! :))

Then going to THE SHOPS I think... or just browse and see where I have to be on Monday to attend this cool Domino Designer course. Had to ask my boss person what it is I am actually doing. Bit embarrassing really. I knew I was working with databases and manipulating data and that I work with developers and have to tell them what to code (using the agreed processes).

Learned now that it is a database application that I work on, very educational indeed. And now I am going to be taught the fundamentals of designing one of those databases because I keep on feeling I have fallen right in the middle of all this code and miss the basics. So hope I will not be bored out of my skull. But eh.. I like the hotel experience in itself and the fact that I can choose which restaurant to use as long as I keep under 25 quid. Not sure if that is enough in London, I guess I will be OK as long as I stay away from the Ivy or Fifteen.

I saw this advert though, that you could go to the musical 'Les Miserables' including dinner at Planet Hollywood for 25 quid!! Now.. that sounds interesting.. decided to not book but see how it all feels when I am there though. :)

Apparently I am in the middle of the financial part of the 'City' - Liverpool Street is on walking distance.. so nice of BAC to organise a course in the middle of where things happen. Much better than in the middle of nowhere where I have to go when I visit my yearly do in July, lovely hotel but NOTHING around but country roads, this is a lot better!! :)

So tomorrow, packing, bbq-ing, wining, sleeping and go...

Exciting!