My Londiniversary

In eight days I will have officially lived in London for a year! I can't believe it! So many ups and downs it has actually felt like it's been a lot longer. I still love it here and know that it is the best thing I have ever done. I love Calgary, but I know that this is where my happiness is. (Sorry Nana)

The last few months have been somewhat routine, work has really slowed down as most of the students are gone for the summer, but my contract has been renewed and I will be here until at least December!

In the last few months I have been back to Paris and Edinburgh for work...Still don't fancy Paris and still LOVE Edinburgh. Had a visit from my Great Aunt Anna, Great Uncle Gordon and cousin Laura from BC. We went to Oxford for the day and to be honest I was a little nervous about seeing them, I wasn't sure if we would have anything to talk about as I hadn't seen them since I lived in Medicine Hat (I hadn't seen Laura since 2002). But my worries were unfounded. We had such a nice visit! Gordon and Anna got stranded because of the volcano and I got to spend a few more evenings with them and they came to see me at work which was really nice.

My friend from Germany, Julia, now lives in London and we went out for dinner in April. It is amazing with good friends how you can see each other twice in ten years and still pick up like nothing has changed. I'm hoping to see more of Julia in the summer, but with our schedules it's difficult.

I had booked off the second week in May and was hoping to go somewhere warm, but going on my own was looking pretty expensive. Bored at work one day I looked to see how much flights were to Canada and saw that a return flight was only £300 (which is what I was looking at to spend a week in Greece), so I figured I would go home for a week. Checked with Morgan to see if he could pick me up and set a great Mother's Day surprise in motion for the family. Showed up at my Mum's house on Saturday and actually made Mama Kat SPEECHLESS! It was funny because my Nana gave me the exact same reaction. No chance those two aren't related! Aunt Deb ended up dropping an eff bomb when I rang her doorbell....Yeah, we're related! Enjoyed my week at home, didn't do too much, had a short hospital stay (I'm fine) and relaxed all week. I'm always worried about going home, just in case I like it so much and want to stay. And while I love the comforts of home (slurpees, cars, my shower, having my family on the doorstep, hanging out with friends that have known me forever) I just can't see myself working in Calgary. Whenever I think about going home next Spring I worry about what career I will end up in...Because I just don't know....So I don't think about it too much and enjoy the life that I have made here.

Sidenote* I just bought porridge from the refectory at work and it was burnt....I can't even begin to imagine how you burn porridge and it was possibly the worst thing I've put in my mouth this year* hush peanut gallery.

Last week Jason from Corus and his brother came on a stopover to a family reunion in Malta. They had never been to London before so I got to play my FAVOURITE role of tour guide! We walked, Lord did we walk, around all the sights of London and I got to depart some of my useless freaking knowledge to the Wellman boys. We also played my favourite game of Pub Crawl, we would see a sight, then hit the pub, then we would have to pee, and hit the pub. It was a blast....Except for my hangover on the way to work...But it only lasted 30 minutes. Another reason to LOVE London! Short hangovers!

Last Friday there was a leaving do for one of the managers at the college and the after party was at a place called the Tatershall Castle. It's a boat on the Thames right across from the London Eye. At one point I was talking to a co-worker and Big Ben was right over he left shoulder. It still makes me stop and think "How did this become my life!!?" I had a great time getting sloppy with co-workers. At one point we were playing tourist and were taking pictures with the London Eye in the backround. Glad to see I am not the only one who is still a tourist, even people that have lived in London their whole life feel the same.

Saturday.....WAS EPIC!!!!!! I hopped on a bus to Cardiff to see the STEREOPHONICS...One of my favourite bands of all time! When the bus pulled up to Millenium Stadium to let us off it was pretty cool. There was a rugby match between Wales and South Africa that afternoon and there was a 50? (I'm bad with measurements) foot poster of a rugby player on the side of the stadium and it gave me chills.

I wasn't even going to the match and it was cool. Sat by the river to wait for my friend Charlotte who was coming on a different bus and got to listen to the crowd, pretty cool. Tried to ring Lloyd, but he screens calls at 9am so couldn't share the moment with him :(

Saw the band, and was sooo tired from the night before but really enjoyed the show. I do love them and it was really good. So cool to travel around for opportunities that I wouldn't get in Canada.

Now looking forward to seeing Tasha and her husband Jason on Friday. They are spending the day in London with me before heading off to sunny Spain. I am so excited to see her (them). Am in desperate need of some best friend time as I haven't seen either of mine since Devon was here before Christmas.

Building up to the London summer....And I thought I was broke before! I know you will all scoff that this might sound like a complaint (it's not...and I don't mean to gloat either) but there are so many once in a lifetime opportunities here in the summer and I want to try them all! Gets pretty expensive! The free event I'm looking forward to is Canada Day in Trafalgar Square again. Hawksley Workman is playing a free show and I'm ready to rock out Canadian style!

Hopefully will have more visitors over the summer....Let me know if anyone needs a place to stay!

Ooops, Belgium Part III

Soooooo, totally got bored with the long story that was Belgium. Basically got to Dover and drove on the donut to the car rental place that I had seen on our way out (thankfully) to see if I could switch cars. The place was "open" 24 hours, but only by appointment and you were supposed to call the number on the door, but it was an 0800 number (which are usually based anywhere but England).
Peeked in the door and saw that there was actually someone in there! What luck!...Or so we thought.....
I will condense this into a short version as I have lots of other stuff to write about.
British customer service SUCKS. I blame the brainwashing that Slaveway put me (and most of you) through for my apparently ridiculous high standards. After about 8 phone calls...okay, I'm exaggerating....6 phone calls between the car rental place, the tire (or tyre, in England) place and the road recovery I was basically told...Meh, you should be fine....Drive on the donut...Sorry, what!? When I asked one of the people at the car rental call centre, if I was your relative, sister, daughter, whatever, would you tell them the same thing? The woman on the phone finally saw it from my point of view and said we'll sort something out for you. Yay! Replacement car! Jim (guy in the shop) got really stressed and tried to figure out what car to give finally found one and I thanked him profusely and was ready to be on our way...oh...what? You don't have an automatic? Back to square one.....sigh.

LOOOOOONG story and THREE HOURS LATER we were safely on the back of a flatbed (well, the car was anyway) and we were on our way back to Gatwick with...Matt? I can't remember now, the flatbed driver. Pulled into Gatwick at about 1.30am and checked the car back in and then remembered that we hadn't filled the tank.....And he made us fill it up! Back in the car, found a petrol station and FINALLY was shut of the place. Get into the terminal and see that we had missed the train by THREE minutes and now had to wait 56 for the next one. I think that's where Katherine and I lost it a little. The wait is blurry, but I remember a lot of tired shennanigans and A LOT of whining (not just by me!). Got on the train where the conductor came by (we thought to ask for our tickets, but no, it was to ask if we could see anything on the side of his face because someone had just spit, that's right, SPIT at him. Gotta love drunk Brits at 3am.
All in all, would do it again. It was a blast, and Katherine and I still talk about the things we did that day....Maybe with less hitting of passport offices though....

When I got back I wrote a scathing email to the customer service department and ended up getting £30 back for the ordeal, even that took three phone calls and six emails. The moral of the story is don't rent from EuropCar and ALWAYS get insurance.