Adventures in London: Issue 101

Imagine if you will, the last round of Group C matches. England is playing Slovenia, and USA plays Algeria. It is anyone's group. Offices all around the country have closed for the afternoon so employees can glue themselves to the tele. Your workplace in fact has decided to celebrate "free bar night" a day early and 4 hours earlier than normal just so people could watch. Televisions all around the office have been tuned to BBC for the big game. Sounds ideal huh? Now imagine you are American and you work in England.... not so ideal now! Knowing all to well that finding a place to watch the game would be difficult, the American in the office sought refugee in a conference room to watch the USA match with a handful of beers and our laptops so we could continue our work day. I won't go through the recap of the entire match.... it was rather unnerving when England scored and there had yet to be an official goal in the USA vs Algeria match. 92 minutes into the match, the unbelievable occured...Donovan scored!! Don't know how, but not only was USA moving on, but they topped Group C :-)

To celebrate (or to console one another), the Americans arranged a planned impromptu night of meat and beer at the infamous Bodean's. There is nothing like a tray (no kidding here - they literally serve you on a tray) of meat, fries, onion rings and BBQ sauce to bring friends together. After dinner, a few of us walked off our meals with a trip to Charlotte Street Blues. I truly love this place. It reminds me of the east village jazz bars (that I never went to). The thing I love about CSB is that you are always in for a lovely night there. The vibe is chill, the drinks are cold(ish) and there is always a live band. On Wednesday we were treated to a guest performance from a most amasingly talented 12 year old guitarist/singer. I wish I taped him. You would not believe the pipes on this kid!

I joined a running club earlier this week. Although a part of me does not feel like I am ready to be running with a group, another part of me felt like I needed a club to get me back on a running rhythm (also figured it would be a good way to encourage me to leave the office in a timely manner). I miss the days of the ARE and this club reminds me a bit of them. It is early, but they are very welcoming group. There is no competition, each runner goes at their own pace and distance. Want to run 7 miles, there is a group and course for that, want to run 5 miles at 65% effort, there is a group and course for that. I went at my own pace and made sure not to push it too far too fast. Keeping up pace and distance with the boys on day one was not going to help me. Give me time, I will be right up there with them. After the run, we all met up at a local pub for dinner. I was rather nervous before going to running club, but within minutes, it was as if we all had known each other for months. I am glad I went to the dinner afterwards...we all just chit chatted about random things for hours. Truly lovely.

That Friday, the club was holding a social - a way for the runners to meet one another outside of club runs. It was refreshing to meet people outside of work, from varying backgrounds / countries and who shared a common interest and love for running. We all have our reasons for joining the club, but the common theme is that we all enjoy running. A bunch of them are marathon runners and are training for their next race. Right now, it is not about the next race or keeping up, for me it is just about finding my pace and keeping up with that. I discovered that night that Buddha Bar has closed down. Tear! Sadden by this, we ended up going to a Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown. So delicious. Cannot pronounce or remember the proper names of what we ordered, but it was amasing. Truly love the flavours of Mexican, Indian and Asian cuisine. There is nothing like it.

It is my Dad's birthday today. He would have been 68 (I think that is right). Last year the family celebrated the day in Paris with a delicious meal of oysters and salt baked fish. This year, I kicked off with bagels and cream cheese breakfast with KV followed by the England vs Germany match in Islington with the Gerharts. It has not been a easy weekend (not because of Dad's brithday, but for other reason that I do not care to go into detail about). What I will say is that I have learned who my friends are and I am so thankful and blessed to have the people in my life that I do. Thank you!

In World Cup news...USA lost to Ghana on Saturday. It was a crazy match, but Ghana brought there game and the USA could not handle it. We did put up a fight and pushed the match into extra time. Well done USA! Question now is...who do I root for. Brasil, Holland, Germany....hmm.

Miss you all and love you loads

xoxo

T

Adventures in London: Issue 100

I finally cashed in a bit of my GHF and purchased a iTouch! Actually I should repharse...I finially cashed in a bit of the GHF and OPENED the iTouch I bought while I was home (even though I did not have the appropriate balance, I was not going to miss up on the chance to save £50+ by buying it in NYC). I have been enjoying the iTouch! I see now what the whole hype about the iPhone/iTouch is. That said, this thing is addicting. Reading on my commute to and from work has not been replaced with playing Line Up. If you have an iPhone/iTouch and have HOURS to waste away....may I suggest this game! I have downloaded some other games, but find myself only playing Line up :-) Eventually I will figure out how to convert the movies and TV shows so I can upload those and watch them instead trying to beat my previous score on Line Up.

Rather timely as it is the 100th issue of the blog. This week I helped a friend out with a paper. She asked me if there was any use in looking in the past. The notion was, can you ever really move forward if you are continually looking backwards. It is an interesting topic if you ask me. Lords know how much money people pour into psychotherapy and counseling...can anything be learned from looking at the past? When posed the question, I looked at it from a different lens. Being the natural geek, I went into the whole logic and theory of econometrics. What is econometrics? In simple terms, it is about collecting historical data, analysing past patterns and behaviours, quantifying the impact of each historic activity and using those understandings to shape and optimise future behaviour and performance. I realise that I just took the statistical approach to the question, but I believe the principles are there. Understanding and living in the past are two seperate things. I think as long as you looking backwards to learn from it that is okay. It is when you stay in the past and do not move on from it that it leads to poor KPI performance. Life is about innovating, companies that fail to learn from their past fail. So, is there merit in understanding the drivers of past performance? I would have to say yes... otherwise I would be lying when I talk to clients :-)

On Thursday, Vic and I left work early (well maybe not early as it was nearly 7pm, but that is early for me) to go shopping. Around the office we had a competition going for teams to put forth an idea that would bring the floor together, that everyone would benefit from, yadda yadda. Our idea that we pitched was to have a garden (building on our chili obsession). Anyway, teams had been putting put posters, etc in the office so we thought we would go one step further and make t-shirts. It is that bits and glimpses of fun that keep me going...where else can you do this sort of stuff. Anyway after our shopping trip, Vic and I went to Christopher Place (a little neighborhood behind John Lewis) and tried a new restaurant. Guerrilla Burgers is the newest find. Good burgers are hard to find in London, but this place certainly delivered. They even had sweet potato fries (which you never find) and Brooklyn lager - - it was just like being home :-)

In other news, the second round of matches for Group C were today. I was rather nervous at half time as the score was 0-2, but the USA came back and drew against Slovenia. Phew!! I was supposed to go to a England vs Algeria party after work. There was no way I would be able to go there dressed in my red, white and blue if USA lost against Slovenia.

Hosted by Business Week magazine and held at the always joyful Charlotte Street Blues, a couple of us joined Big E to watch the utterly mind numbing match between England and Algeria. It was not intended to be a dull match mind you...but it ended up being so. England should not have drawn nil-nil against Algeria, but as they have Group C is up for grabs. It is anyone's game (except Algeria) now. Who will go through.

It is Father's Day here in the UK (and I believe in the US as well). I find it interesting that Father's day is celebrated on the same day, yet Mother's day is different. It is in March here in the UK and May in the US. Hmmm will have to see if I can find out why. There has to be a reason for it. right?

To celebrate the day, I decided to go out for a run. Initially I only planned on a run around Clapham Common, but 10 minutes in, I decided to run up to Battersea Park - more specifically the peace pagoda. I don't know why, but thought it would be a fitting way to celebrate Father's Day. The peace pagoda is nothing like the one in Grafton, but for some reason I just like running by it. There is just a sense of serenity around it that I enjoy. I wish it was more convenient to get to...would love to go there to read, but the only times I have ever been there it is by running to the park. Come to think there are a couple of places that I only know how to get to by running.

Well you were probably thinking there would have been something more monumental for the 100th issue..perhaps I should have done something special, but I didn't. Deal! Will be celebrating 2 years soon, so you can look forward to that recap. See there is always a sliver lining.

Hope you all are well. Miss you.

Adventures in London: Issues 90-99

It has been an interesting 10 weeks, but filled with good friends, good food and plenty of laughter! Always need to laugh, cause if you don't..well you will just cry. HAHA.

A bit of a strange song selection, but if you watch it to the end, you will perhaps see why it was selected. I have fond memories of this song after my visit to NYC; singing and dancing to the Glee version with my favorite little person :-)

Cute huh?! Hope you enjoyed it.

xx

T

Adventures in London: Issue 99

This week I went to go see SATC 2. I know what yo are thinking, "I thought Tini just saw SATC 2 and was not a fan." The answer is yes, but I saw it with my NYC gals. So, when it came time to watch it with my London gals I was not going to pass up the opportunity. As a bonus, the pre-show dinner was going to be at the newly opened CHIPOTLE!! Yes believe it or not, but Chipotle has made its way across the pond to London. What next? Best Buy! Oh wait we have that too. Now what?! Taco Bell? Yup getting that too. They are giving it another shot and opening locations here in England! Getting back to SATC 2. Watching it in London did not make the film any better, but the time zone did ensure that I stayed awake to watch an horrific movie depicting Americans in the worst light. I have my opinions on SATC 2, but I won't get into them here. In case one of you is a fan of the second movie then I will not rain on your parade.

AT Boston University there was the GSU. As I was a SMGer, I spent most of my day time either in the student lounge, Starbucks and later the BU Pub. I did however, occasionally go to the GSU for lunch or school events. What I am trying to say is that whilst in uni, I did not hang-out much at the student union. Now that I am 8 years out of uni, I found myself hanging out at the LSE (London School of Economics) student union. On Friday, after having a quick drink at the Mindshare bar, a bunch of us decided to migrate to the "student union". Thinking this was a clever name for the bar, it in fact turned out to be the student union. It was not bad actually; we all grabbed some drinks (£1.5o pints) and hung out outside until grandma (me) got hungry and required some food.

Saturday was the day of sports. The afternoon kicked off with the Korea Republic vs Greece match at noon followed shortly by the live online streaming of the New York Mini 10K in Central Park. I was rather gutted that I was going to miss the Mini 10K. The Mini 10K is truly one of the best women only races hosted by NYRR. I have ran the race a couple of times and the last time I ran it was truly memorable for a number of nerdy running reasons. Not only would this race see the finest women racing it, but Kara Goucher and Paula Radcliffe (both 6 month pregnant) would be running it as well. Granted an easy run for them is running a 10K in 42 minutes, which is still far from my reach, but it was truly remarkable to see the two of them out there. I was pleased that NYRR streamed the race so I could be apart of the fun and cheer on the runners even if I was 3000 miles away. But to see that race in person...that would be have been bliss.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup has officially started. Yesterday was the official kick-off of the 1 month battle to the finals. 4 years ago I was introduced to the World Cup (and Magners with ice) while living in NYC. It was an absolute blast watching and cheering on the teams. As you can guess the World Cup is not the biggest sporting rage in the States. Living in London now, I can say the sentiment is completely opposite. World Cup fever is on and hotter than ever. On the second day of the World Cup, the long awaited question came to reality - which team would I support? Have no idea what I am talking about? Well on Saturday, was the first match of group C - seeing USA play against England. Get the dilemma now?

The big debate now was where were we going to watch the match. Should be congregate in someone's flat? Or should we be brave and find a pub. Thankfully LL came across an event for all of us. The University of Texas London alumni chapter - aka the UK TexasExes has been known for their American parties. We all decided to join them for the USA vs England match. It's been a while since I have watched a live sporting game in a pub. We've gathered to watch the superbowl and the American football game in London, etc, but its has always been at someone's flat. It truly brought me back to weekend in the Wharf watching tennis, baseball, college basketball, American football with Molly and Jen. How I miss those days. Suppose if I want to have some reminisce of that here, I need to start following rugby or football or dare I say cricket. Will need to rally the others too, cause watching solo is just NO FUN!

Dressed in my Red Sox jersey (as I have had to finally admit that my JFK USA shirt is a bit too small), my UT cap, my I heart NY socks and my pac-man belt I was geared and pumped to cheers on team USA. It was a bit unnerving when England scored not even 4 minutes into the match. England was off to a good start, but the early goal only ignited team USA. 34 minutes later (and thanks to butter fingers Green), USA scored to even things up. From there it was just a series of almost goals, yellow cards and some amasing defense from the USA goalie. After missing that first goal from Gerrard, nothing got passed him. If only our offense showed up, maybe we could have won the match. Drawing against England though was not too bad - at least we all could show up to the office on Monday ;-)

Hope you all are enjoying the world cup fever!

xoxo

T

Adventures in London: Issue 98

The flight back was anything but enjoyable. Gifted with the ability to sleep anywhere and through anything, I quickly discovered on this red-eye flight back that turbulence is something I cannot sleep through. The flight was a roller-coaster ride back to London. Just days before I flew, 10 people were injured on a flight from London to LA because of the turbulence. Thankfully no one was injured on the flight, but it did leave many sick, soaked from the flying drinking and sleepless. At one point during the flight, we kept jumping so much that the crew was asked to be seated for nearly a hour. It was at that time that the panic kicked in. What if this was it. I thought of my family, of Kadin and the people I loved. Did I tell them enough how much they meant to me? It is funny what goes through your mind at times like that. Would I be able to say good? I started writing an email to them, I figured that at least the email would get sent if altitudes levels went low enough. Pretty depressing way to kick off a post huh...sorry. The flight did settle down and instead of sleeping, I stayed awake watching Shutter Island, Leap Year and some other movie that I cannot remember now. Lucky for me that Monday was a bank holiday in the UK as well, so I spent the day sleeping.

On Wednesday, we celebrated KV's leaving do from Mindshare. It seems like most of the A-I-L have one foot out the door - - honestly cannot blame them and in a short couple of months I will have that option too :-)

To enjoy the nice weather and in efforts to do something out of the norm, KV held her leaving do at the Royal Festival Halls. It was a grand day in the sun enjoying the company of friends, meeting new people and drinking some not so cold beer (sad, but you do get used to that here). When the sun set, so did the temperature. The daytime may be warm, but once the sunsets is it brutally cold. To seek refuge we escaped to The Arches for warmth and food :-)

On Friday a bunch of us from work went to support/ watch a fellow co-worker in a play. It should have been clear from the email sent that we were in for a thrilling night:

"It's going to be a really bad show - nice and slow, uninteresting and exceptionally dull. So book now to secure disappointment!"

All jokes aside, it was actually nice to show some team spirit outside of the office and the norms of drinks or a lunch. It reminded me of being in high school or college when you would go and see your friend in the school production or when we used to have our musical concerts. Dorky, but it was nice to see what our team members are up to outside of the office hours.

Whilst on holiday I got a text from a friend asking if I wanted to see the Merchant of Bollywood. I had wanted to go see this show for months, but every time I went to buy tickets, something would happen to distract me. I did not know what the show was about. I had seen adverts in the Tube and in the Metro and just wanted to see the show. The Merchants of Bollywood is a colourful and elaborate dance spectacular which tells the story and history of the film industry and the influence of its stars and music over the generations. Through hit bollywood songs (Rang de Basanti, Bunty aur Bubli, Dhoom, etc) the show is high energy and choreographed brilliantly. The 40+ person cast did a fantastic job re-creating the hit songs with twist. If Merchants of Bollywood makes to your city, a HIGHLY recommending going to see it. I am so very happy that KV got us tickets and I did not miss out on the show.

Since we bought matinee tickets, we took advantage of the fine weather and the sun by having a picnic in the park. That is one thing you absolutely have to love about London....no matter where you go there are parks all around for an impromptu picnic. Convention should have said that we would have gotten a couple of sandwiches, some salad and fruit, but being KV and I we got burritos and gauc and chips for our picnic :-) It was the perfect day relaxing and not doing a thing...I even managed to turn my mind off from my to-do list and just enjoyed the feeling of fresh grass on my bare feet. Oh how I miss that feeling. I cannot wait until I have a lawn of my own and I can enjoy the weekend paper, morning coffee, and blogging with the green grass under my feet.

On that lovely note, I am going to bid you all adieu. I hope you are well and for those of you have lawns...please remember to change the pattern and direction in which you mow. It is not good for your lawn to continually mow in the same patter and direction :-)

Miss you all and love you more

xoxo

T