Who wants a tour of London? Well atleast where I work and where I live...

Here's the office, Tower Place- The big glass building, not the pub...

again, just left of the Tower above the trees (nice location huh?)...

just a short stroll on my lunch break...

And now, home sweet home- Hope Villa.

the front entry way...


the lounge...

the kitchen...

the bathroom...

and the grand finale- the closet, I mean my room...

Well that's it. Life in London.

Note-
I'd like to apologize in advance for the probability that I will offend an individual, institution, or country in this diary. As my father pointed out yesterday, I need to be careful what I say, as this is public record. On his reminder, I am aware that I may have offend the people at Ikea for referring to their place of business as the "anti-Disneyland." Although I am aware that future employment and commerce opportunities may have been jeopardized by my comments- I make no apology- I really hate that place.

So, I'm kicking back on the train right now… making one of my weekly runs to the beautiful city of Birmingham. I've been making this trip about once a week since I started work. Basically I spent two hours to and from on a train, for meetings that last about 2 or 3 hours. Nice day. To be honest, I really don't mind. I get to chill out and look at the English countryside- which is indeed very beautiful. I don't have camera, so you'll have to take my word for it. There's endless rolling green fields separated by stone walls with the occasional old, mid-evilesque village complete with church steeple and spire… from time to time the ruin of an ancient monastery can be seen… Seriously, if they wanted to pay me to ride on the train all day- I'd be fine with that. Even the rain is fun to watch at 100mph.

Yesterday, I spent a nice afternoon kickin' it with the Queen down in Windsor- big castle, great fish and chips, and apparently "world famous" fudge. Anybody heard of it- Windsor Fudge? (Erica..?)

Well, I've had bronkidous (clearly misspelled, but sound it out and you'll know what I saying) for about three weeks now. Not sure why, Mom and Chris think I've been drinking too much and some of the London folk think it's cause I'm getting used to this polluted city. Both valid possibilities. I spend half an hour coughing up a lung each morning, but then I'm okay. And if you though I was bad about seeing doctors back home… boy, over here, there's no chance. I'm quite certain a broken pinkie finger stays broken for in England.

Observation #4
Remember in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, staring Kevin "Kimball" Costner, when that guy complains that there's no sun in England… it's true. Right now, and most of the time, it's quite grey out, but bright. And there's no way I would be able to tell you where the sun is. And it rains a lot.

Every night's a pub crawl...

Well, since I'm not busy enough at work to stay late and I don't have a whole lot going on outside of work, I find myself finished with dinner around 7pm at night wondering, "what should I do?" Inevitably I decide to go exploring. And not to worry. This is London- and there's a pub on every corner and two on each block. That makes for some great sightseeing- some bars are nicer than others, some patrons are as well. I want to see them all!

"I've got a nice little Saturday planned..."

"You're going tomorrow on a Saturday, are you crazy," says the girl who sits next to me a work. "Oh, it can't be that bad, I'll be fine." "If you go in the afternoon on a weekend, you're likely to see grown men fighting over the last dueve cover!"

It took nearly an hour and a half to reach, and about 30 seconds to remember why it's been three years since I last visited an Ikea. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Coldplay wasn't going to cut it, the iPod had to change, I'd need Metallica to get through this. So that's what I did, turned up the music and went in to battle. I had a plan, I knew what I wanted to get and I'd looked at everything online... "I can be out of here in 15 minutes," I thought. No dice. It's amazing how nice things can look in a picture online, and then how terrible they look in person. So, after 2 hours in the "anti-Disneyland" (25 minutes of which were spent waiting to check out), I emerged with only a bed pad and a lamp shaped like a jelly bean- they were all out of dueve covers and the wardrobe I was going buy, well, I decide to make a nicer one out of popsicle sticks. Next Saturday I'll just ask a mugger to kick me in the balls and take 25 pounds from my wallet and save myself 4 hours.

I had kind of a late night on Saturday "recovering" from my trip to Ikea. I found a bar in the city that shows NCAA football games and then turns into a dance club. Perfect. So I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon in Greenwich- famous for it's village, mean time, and prime meridian. By far the coolest place in London I've found so far.

Observation #3
USC fans living in London are as annoying as USC fans living anywhere else.

Visca Catalunya!
I just got back from spending the weekend in Barcelona visiting Dave and Piedad, and my friend Almudena. Quick little run down, flew into Girona on Thursday night and took a bus to Barcelona. Met up with Almu and went out for a few drinks. Spent most of Friday with Dave and Piedad eating tapas and drinking wine... Surprised?

Chicas quapas!

y no chicos quapos

Alum, Dave, Piedad, and I went out for drinks and a little dancing... that's right folk- I saw dancing david! Saturday, Almu and I went to Sitges (smaller beach town 30 minutes south of Barcelona). Beautiful day, and since it's kind of off-season- there were no crowds.

Almu and I in Sitges

Tapas and wine again in Sitges, and then a night out with Almu and some of her friends. Sunday, got the whirlwind tour of Barcelona before catching a flight home to London.

See more pics from the weekend... click here!

David, Piedad y Almu- gracias por tres buenas dias!

Hasta Luego,

Tim

Josilito, hay un foto donde Almu es en la telefono, es quando te decitado.

Cheerio!

Instead of filling up everyone's inboxes with emails, I've decided to keep an online diary of my experiences... So this is the first of many entries The British Blogger.

Where to begin... Heathrow Airport- 20 September 2005. I arrived at London's Heathrow Airport and collected my three oversized and overweight bags and my adventure began. Unlike other international flights I've take lately, this one was without incident or the need for medical attention. Perhaps the most exhausting experience of my life was carrying my bags the 100m though Paddington station from the train to taxi stand. A five minute taxi ride landed me at the London House Hostel... which is a load of crap, because on expedia.com it's "Hotel" not "Hostel" a subtle difference that's all the difference in the world. I spent my first five nights on a rickety old bunk bed with a mattress about as comfortable as train tracks...

I spent the first few days house hunting and after many miles logged and flats inspected. I decided to move into "Hope Villa." It was Saturday 24 September, and I would not be able to move in 'till the following Sunday. So, I decided to upgrade my accommodations to The Hyde Park Towers for the coming week- sounds glorious doesn't it? I wish I had taken a picture. Literally the smallest hotel room I've ever seen. But it would do.

I started work on Monday the 26th, where I was promptly thrown into the mix. It's been about a week and a half, and I'll say I quite like the office, the work, and the people. Wearing a suit everyday, is, well, it makes me feel like the young professional I haven't exactly been for the past 3 years. Perhaps that's what was missing in Seattle and lead to all the tom-foolery and lack of "professionalism at Mercer." Although, I'm quite sure I've been the subject of multiple joke around the office for my color combinations, I think I'm quite posh. The culture of the group seems to fit me just fine, atleast twice already I've gotten boozy after work with my work mates... and last night I had my first pub quiz.

So, on Sunday I moved into the Hope Villa (left). And I'll say, I think I'm going to like living here. By the way, Hope Villa is the name of the house.

My housemates are great- all British... Chris, Fran and Charlotte. More to come on then... I'd take a picture of them for you, but they'd probably think I was a wanker.

It's been a good ride so far, seems like months so much has happened. There have definitely been time I've asked myself "what in the hell am I doing here?" But most of those times it's been while laughing at myself. I've made a few friends who've taken me out and introduced me around. And I do appreciate those of you who sent me contact info for friends or fiends of friends in London.

Did I mention the pub across the street from where I live? -

The Northgater

Tomorrow it's off to Barcelona to see Dave, Piedad, and Almudena...

cheers, Tim

Observation #1

The British really "fancy" stuff. They say things like... "Tim, fancy a drink after work?" "Fancy a trip to the canteen?" "Fancy a meeting to Birmingham?" "Fancy a shag?" (okay, nobody's asked me that... at least not yet)

Observation #2

The British hate "Z"s, in fact they call them Zeds. They don't like to use them in words like organization, so the write organisation. Finalize/finalise. Whatz up/Cheerio.