Summer is rolling on by....

Summer in London has been brilliant, I can't believe that in less than 2 weeks it will be September and then Autumn will follow closely behind.

My sister Sandra has been visiting from Canada this past week and it's been really great to catch up with her.  One of the best parts of having her visit was the chance to play tour guide and show her around London.  We did the usual toursity things but I also got a chance to show her the more hidden secrets of London; pubs that are tucked away in corners and different Boroughs of the city that a tourist wouldn't usually go to.  A highlight of the week was going to Go Ape.  It's a high ropes adventure course with lots of zip-lines and tarzan ropes, it turned out to be a lot of fun.  I definitely recommend to anything visiting the UK.   The past week has also reminded me what a great city London really is.  In the 3 months that I've been here, it's already starting to be lost of me as I go about my day to day life.  Definitely going to make an effort get back to exploring the city!

I have been keeping busy this past month - done a few theatre nights, more than a few BBQ's and other social gatherings and many, many pints of ale.  It's all been good fun and I've made some really great friends.

Heading to Greece next month with Gez - finally starting to get in a bit of travel!  Travel was one of the reasons I moved to the UK, happy that I'm finally making good on it.

                                                         Sam, Steph and I after Curry night

                                                        Gez rowing our boat on the Thames
                       

                                                                    Richmond Park

                                                             Sandra and I at Go Ape!

                                                                  Gez and I at Go Ape!

The rain forecast for the next 4 days is as follows:  Rain, Rain, Heavy Rain, Rain.

Should I be surprised?  I've been spoiled by beautiful weekend weather the past 2 months and I have been able to get out and enjoy much of London.  The weekend before last I spent an entire Saturday out at a Rugby tourny.  It was my first time watching Rugby and I loved it!  I picked up the rules pretty quickly and by the end of the day I was as into the games as much as the rest of the fans.  The endless pints of beer may have encouraged my enthusiam for the game.

If anyone ever makes their way to London I definitely recommend hopping on a train and heading 30 minutes south out of central London.  I've developed a fondness for Richmond, it's right on the Thames with a lot of one off shops and a great pub right by the river.  I've spent many hours sitting on the edge of the river with a pint, much of this has been my favourite moments since I arrived in the UK.

Overall I've been surprised that the quiet moments are the ones that have been the best.  When I go over Tower Bridge, or get a glimpse of Big Ben I'm always taken back for a second - such an incredible reminder that I live in London.  The best part of the experience so far is the people I've met and the life that I've made for myself here.  

I'm off to the Changing of the Keys at Tower Bridge tomorrow night - really excited to see it.  It's a tradition that has been maintained for over 700 years!


                                                        Check out the Rugby players legs!
          

Finally settled...

I was hoping I would keep up with more consistent posts but it's fallen off pretty quickly.   The last 3 weeks have been terribly busy but quite fun.

I moved again today for the final time, I finally have a flat to call home for at least the next 6 months.  I'm quite happy with the location - I'm 1 tube stop away from London Bridge, 4 stops away from my work and on a direct tube line to my closest friends.  I'm living with two other guys and we all get on quite well, and they are quite clean - possibly more so than me.   Work is good but seriously busy, put in a lot of long days in the past few weeks.  Spent a lot of time over at the BBC which has been really exciting, I never thought in a million years that I would have to go there for work!

I've been out a lot on the weekends, trying to get the most out of London.  I've found myself a tour guide, a very cute Welsh boy named Gez.   We've done loads the past 3 weekends, touristy stuff like Parliament, Big Ben, London eye and the zoo.  He's also introduced me to some classic English pubs, spent a lot of time at different spots of the Thames and has cooked me up some delicious BBQ on a few occasions.  

It was Canada Day on Friday and I met up with many of my Canadian friends in Trafalgar square to celebrate.  It was heaps of fun, probably one of the best Canada Day's I've ever had and I wasn't even in the right country.


                                                                 Penguins at London Zoo

This guy wanted to be friends

Canada Day

Enjoying the Thames

No longer homeless (at least for the next 3 weeks)

I finally found a place to live.....until July 3rd.  I`m currently living up in Golders Green with 7 other people, although I`ve been here 2 days and I`ve only met three of them.  I`ve barely been home since I moved in.  I`m only staying until July 3rd because the letter has to give back the house to the landlord (not really sure of the details), so everyone in the house is moving on July 3rd.   For the next 3 weeks Golders Green is home and it will give me time to find a perm place to live, I vow my next move will be my last for at least 6 months!  It`s also only a 20 minute tube ride to work, which is fantastic!

The weekend is just about wrapping up and it was another good one.  I was still staying with Steph, Ksenia and Dan on Friday evening and we had a bunch of people over for dinner and games night.  Ended up being a very late night, but heaps of fun!  Saturday morning I moved into my new flat and then went over to Russell Square and Covent Garden to do some shopping.  I didn`t really find much, but it was a very nice day out so I enjoyed wandering in and out of the shops.  Saturday evening 6 of us girls met up and we went out around Angel Tube Station, we hit up a pub and then moved onto a club.   I love English pubs, everyone is so friendly and as soon as they hear that I`m Canadian the response is ``I love Canadians!``

Today Steph, Ksenia and I went to Shephards Bush to Westfield Mall.  This mall was unreal, like nothing I have ever seen before.  There were champagne bars set up in the middle of the aisle ways so people can stop for a glass of bubbly.

I`m finally starting to feel settle in and it took less than 3 weeks!   I just need to start doing some sightseeing and hit up Museums.  Hopefully next weekend! 


                                                      Friday night pizza and games night

 

Saturday night out with the girls

Still homeless...

Finding a place to live in London is hard! I've been crashing on my friend's couch the past couple nights, kinda feel like a stray puppy that's been taken in!

Besides that lack of a place to call my own things are going quite well here in London.  Working at Lonely Planet is going well, it's turning out to be the most interesting work I've ever done. I was finally able to get out last weekend and do some sight-seeing. I met up with the girls at Borough Market and did a bit of shopping there; Borough Market is great, it's like the St. Lawrence Market back home but much bigger!  After that we took a walk along the Thames to Tower Bridge.  It was a gorgeous day, the weather was perfect.  That evening I met up with Ashlee who is from Chicago and we went out for a night in Chelsea, turned out to be a later night than I expected but lots of fun!

                                                     Olivia, Ashlee, Steph, Ksenia and I

I'm a workin' girl

I'm 2 days into my job at Lonely Planet and I love it!  It's really busy already, writing job adverts, sourcing out candidates.  By the end of summer I will have (hopefully) filled 30 positions.  It's going to be a very busy summer.

I still haven't found a perm place to live, I'm really hoping to have it by all sorted by the end of the weekend.  My fingers are crossed!  

Work has kept me quite busy so I haven't been up to much else.  I'm becoming a Londoner already, I can't stand how busy the tube is.  Every morning I have to fight my way to just get to work!  I'm really looking forward to the weekend, I have plans to finally get out and do some sight seeing and I'm off to see Rent Saturday night!

All for now! 

First night out in London town....

I met up with a few girls from SWAP and we headed to Maple Leaf pub for some Canadian nostalgia. When we first arrived it's was quite busy, there was a big football match between Man U and Barcelona, so every pub was packed. We headed to a restaurant for a glass of wine while we waited for the game to end and then headed back to Maple Leaf. Here I had my first beer in the UK and it was a Moosehead! There were a lot of drunk English men there so we didn't stay very long and we then headed to the Roundhouse pub. Here we mingled with some locals as they drowned there sorrows of the loss of Man U. Britain's really do love Canadians, they tried to explain the rules of Cricket and I tried to teach them about baseball.

Eventually the group whittled down to just 2 of us and Ashlee and I tried to find a cab but it was impossible. I convinced a rickshaw drive to take me home, and it was fantastic. We drove right along the Thames, right by Parliament. I'm really loving the neighbourhood I'm living in. All in all a really great night!

Maple Leaf Pub