All an ESFJ needs

This week was our Christmas party at work, which I had coordinated and put a lot of effort into, sometimes begrudingly. Once this bouquet of flowers was presented and I was applauded twice, everything seemed a lot more worth it.

The party was an amazing success by the way, but I can't help but wonder if 65 bottles of wine drunk by 60 people had anything to do with that?

Hint hint

I've decided anyone who sends me a package will get a much-coveted shout out in the old blog.

My sister (the most wonderful person in the world) sent me this today, for no reason whatsoever.


Edit: nearly forgot that I'd already hung up the cute wreath that was also in the package.

I'm Trying to Make London My Home

I made this video over a few weeks' span. Just me on trains or the top of double-decker buses filming on my cell phone what I see most days.

The song is "I'm Trying to Make London My Home" by Sonny Boy Williamson, c. 1964.

The Festive Menu

My local McDonalds is serving mincemeat and custard pies this season. Hmm.

How lovely are your (plastic) branches

Bought a tree and the trimmings this weekend! Very pretty if I may say so myself.

I have my many years in the fire-safe dorm to thank for the fact that I now think of fake trees as totally normal. I almost forgot buying a real tree was even something some people do.

Thanksgiving via Skype

I had to tell people all day to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving. I also got to give my 1st grade version of the history of Thanksgiving to several interested parties (most of whom thought it was a celebration of when we slaughtered all the Indians!)

When I got home from work it was around 2pm in Greater New Haven where my family had gathered at my parent's house. I got on Skype to say hello, and couldn't help but snap far too many pictures of them while we chatted, although admittedly it was mostly me trying to shout over the ruckus. So, very much like being there.



I mostly miss my dad's pies, and watching Home Alone with my brother after everybody leaves. KEVIN!!

Movember

Today was a long-awaited day at work - the last day of a month-long fundraiser here called "Movember." Ok, so that name makes no sense if you're used to spelling it "mustache" as we do in America ... but in the UK it's "moustache" and this is a charity to raise money for prostate cancer.

The guys in my office grew "mo"s and it was both hilarious and painful (for us who have to look at them). We can't wait to have them back to normal, although I no longer know how to interact with my boss without making fun of him mercilessly. So that'll be weird.

So we had this voting at lunchtime today, for different categories. I can't remember them really but it was something like style, innovation, bushiness, overall. Hysterical.





(Gordonites, I hope this rings No Shave November bells. Incidentally, nothing can come close to No Shave November.)

My UK Thanksgiving

I had lots of time before I moved to England to come to grips with the 'sacrifices' I would make, including the fact that they don't have Thanksgiving here. But ironically, my British friends seem less OK with me missing this holiday than I am!

My dear friend Sarah (Scottish, mind you) found us this Thanksgiving dinner for Americans. It was tonite, on a boat moored on the Thames and there were nearly 300 people in attendance! The food was excellent and we had a super fun time ... I didn't have to miss Thanksgiving and Sarah got to celebrate her first!



Queen Mary












To get your River bearings, see the London Eye in the middle background and Big Ben in the right background.



The only pumpkin pie in England.











Sarah eating her first pumpkin pie ever!









This was the best part - they played a tape of last year's Macy's Day Parade. Ha!







Aren't we cute.

Best package ever

My friend Rosie sent me this and I got it today. My favorite toothpaste which I can't get here, and boxes of macaroni and cheese .. same!!

The Question Mark Inside

More Flickr pics
From last Saturday until today there was this amazing art project at St Paul's cathedral called "The Question Mark Inside". It was to celebrate the 300th anniversary and people contributed words about what makes life meaningful. The words were projected onto the enormous dome at night, and it was lit up a bright blue to celebrate architect Christopher Wren's love of astronomy. The artist Martin Firrell also wanted to make people see the cathedral again, rather than being used to it and overlooking its beauty.

It was the coolest thing. We have a great view of the cathedral from our office, and I worked late several nights this week, plus it gets dark so early now that I got to see quite a lot of it. I met my friend Sarah for dinner near St Paul's on Wednesday and walked across the Millenium Bridge (shown) towards it, and it's even more awesome as you approach it.

St Paul's website article about this project

Remember remember the fifth of November

I wasn't too familiar with Guy Fawkes Night, aka Bonfire Night, before I moved here. For awhile there I could never remember what it was called either, and kept thinking it was Sadie Hawkins Night. Ha! Not quite.






In 1605 (I kid you not), Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. His plans were foiled, and Guy Fawkes Night is a celebration of that. Yeah, STILL. School children are taught the rhyme "Remember remember the fifth of November" and there's all these traditions that go along with the day, especially big fireworks displays throughout the U.K. Fine, but it gets strange... they also build bonfires on which they burn effigies of Guy Fawkes!?

I didn't see any effigies this evening, but I went to the Blackheath fireworks with my upstairs neighbors and it was super fun. Also great because we can walk from our house and didn't have to deal with the insanity of parking or even the public transportation. There were TONS of people!







Incidentally, I'm not sure I'll ever get used to fireworks in November.

The new verb in my life

Is SKYPE. "Can you Skype?" "Do you Skype?" "Let's Skype".

Skype has made my move a lot easier, for me at least. Usually weekly I can talk to my family and I've even been able to talk to my grandparents. It's amazing .. and free! (If anybody wants me to be on a Skype commercial, I'd be happy to.)

With songs I have sung for a thousand years

Deedee and I went to see stage adaption of The Sound of Music tonite - soooo fun. The movie version I think I could watch scene for scene in my head, I've seen it so many times, so it was really enjoyable (if jarring) to see done a little differently.

Jason and I saw Spamalot a few weeks back and in a couple weeks, my work girls and I are going to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. So I'm doing pretty well, I think!

I sang Sound of Music songs the whole way home, so I'm thinking I probably got them stuck in people's heads who could hear me, and probably by tomorrow, all of London will be singing Climb Every Mountain all day long.

Juice

Saw this in Central London the other day!

Blackheath Village

I've been going to Greenwich Market every Sunday, and a couple weeks ago started going to Blackheath Village immediately thereafter. It's a quick bus trip from Greenwich and then just a short walk down a hill to get back to my house from Blackheath.

It's a lovely little quaint area and feels particularly fall-ish. I could sit on this street and watch the passers-by for hours.

This church is situated on the large heath (as they like to call big patches of land) in Blackheath and I can see the steeple from my house.

Oh boy, what a wonderful city!

I'm loving the chance to familiarize myself with London. There's lots to explore but it took me awhile to get settled in the first place, so I'm still working on getting my major bearings, as far as where things are in relation to each other, how to get from one place to another, what's in walking distance, etc.


I spent some time on Saturday near the amazing St. Paul's Cathedral and walking down Fleet Street. A few days earlier my friend Seana had taken me to "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese", a pub REBUILT in 1667. It's right out of Charles Dickes, just like almost everything in London.
















This is St. Bride's Church, also on Fleet Street. "Legend has it" that wedding cakes are tiered to look like the steeple. I'm doubtful.

To market, to market

It was a beautiful Sunday, and my friend Sarah and I met my friend Odette at the lovely Greenwich Market. It's filled with incredible foods, jewelry, art, etc.


Sarah and Odette - do I have gorgeous friends, or what?

Sarah is Scottish so naturally I made her pose with this.












After that Sarah and I went to the much less lovely but much more humorous Lewisham Market, which is my local market run by Cockneys trying to barter with anyone who walks by. Check out some of the classy merchandise.

I know I'm right

OK Americans... help me out. What is the nickname for this place?
Quite clearly, quite obviously, it's Mickey D's.

Yeah, well over here it's Macky D's, I kid you not. Not only is it Macky D's but they pronounce it MACdonalds with the stress on the first syllable and a definite "Mac". Not only THAT but I got made fun of for a good 15 minutes at work for my "Mick-donalds" pronounciation and stress on 2nd syllable. And blank stares of disbelief that - no really, 300 million people call it "Mickey D's".

Stuff like this happens allllll the time in my life now. Here's a few more examples off the top of my head:
They have Where's Waldo, but it's called "Where's Wally"
They have the boardgame Clue, but it's called "Cluedo"
They know The Hokey Pokey, but they call it "The Hokey Cokey"
They have T.J. Maxx, but it's called "T.K. Maxx" !

Probably my favorite was when I walked into a dry cleaners the other day and asked them if they hem pants. I forgot that in the UK "pants" means "underwear". (They say "trousers" for what we call pants). So yeah, that was humorous.


It's a bit like living in just a slightly alternative universe. It's almost the same but a few things are askew.

Working late

My dear friend and coworker Deedee, with whom I now spend most of my life since we both started temping for NHS Direct at the same time and she sits across from me, and I had to work late tonite. While we were both pretty annoyed being the last ones in, the nice thing about it was that I could take a few pictures of our amazing view without being too embarrassed. Plus London is a whole different kind of pretty at night.

From the chief exec's office


Out the windows facing one direction


35 degree turn to snap this one


One side of the empty office


Other empty side with an angry Deedee refusing to have her picture taken after our long day.



I had such a lovely walk to London Bridge station along the Thames on the way home, but my camera just couldn't capture much in the near-dark. Oh well.

Open House London

This weekend is the annual "Open House London" event, where there are free tours of buildings and properties around the city. You can go see things that normally people wouldn't be able to see, like the inside of old banks and homes. Also if you book in advance, you can go on the London Eye for free. It was a BEAUTIFUL weekend in London (amazingly) so totally perfect for this.

I didn't do much with it, but there is this very odd misplaced estate about one second from where I live that I got to visit. I hadn't even noticed it until more than a week after I'd been using the bus stop right in front of it, because it's behind a gate and set back from the road. But it was part of the event weekend so I was thrilled to be able to go inside the little chapel that is oddly on my street that leads into the huge front yard. It's beautiful.




The chapel from the inside of the gate



My normal view of the chapel when I get off the bus right in front of it!


Immediately across the street are these shops. It's SO strange that the old manor is there. Clearly it was there before everything else!



PS. Happy birthday Mom! :)