Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Cheers from the other side!

Well, I am finally settling in over here. As I expected, plenty to do has kept me very distracted. Following a quite successful Friday party, and a very hungover, rainy Saturday, I spent a quiet day Sunday packing and bustling about the house (most exciting moment - breaking off a broken luggage lock with pliers - how macgyver). I left around 4 to take a final spin in T. Snaab before leaving him at Chris's place for the first time. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that I felt a major tugging as I walked away. sniff.

The flight was fine and good, customs went smoothly, and then a wicked long cab ride in to pick up the keys to my flat. The first song on in the taxi was Band of Gold, which now makes me think of Ann Tyler's Back When We Were Grownups - I'll consider that a shout-out to bookclub. The flat is great, and although there has been some tension with British Telecom and the relocation service about the non-working phone line (which also precludes high speed internet, dial up internet and Cable TV), things have gone essentially smoothly. Suffice it to say, I've been spending a good bit of time in the Arabic Internet cafe down the street in order to do work and get sorted.

Jet lag aside, I spent Monday noon time out on Oxford Street getting my cell set up and buying new sheets for the bed (the existing ones looked wierd - and sleep was a key event on the horizon). Being London, of course it began to rain, and I was, naturally, without an umbrella. So, walking into Marks & Spencer sogging wet and spending 100 pounds on a very basic sheet set (that's about $200 folks) and then walking home in the rain lugging the big old bags on 1.5 hours of uncomfortable sleep was, well, trying. But then I got home, took a shower, made the bed, and slept. I woke up much happier.

Went to dinner with my friend Alexis at the chain italian restaurant across the street, and met a very enthusiastic friendly waiter who invited me to see a famous DJ at this club called Fabric (which Alexis has told me is definitely not my scene, but still, it felt a bit like that kid Colin in Love, Actually who goes to Wisconsin to get women, only in reverse. I'm hopeful that this means that Jonna's prediction will come to fruition!

Today has been much more normal, if a bit frustrating - phone is now on, met with Peter for lunch and discussed work stuff, realized that I do have quite a ton of work to do that I should probably be doing rather than writing this, and discovered that DHL Worldwide Express has delivered my box of stuff from work to a completely random person. Go figure. Also, the place I'm supposed to be going to work does not have a place for me or a computer connection or a phone. So what's the point in going? Silliness.

Thursday night, hopefully there will be drinks with Allan Brady (whom I used to work with at Economy.hell) and some other folks. Friday is off to Stuttgart to see Meg, Cristen and her baby!

So ... so far, so good, so long!

4 Comments:

At 6:17 PM, Blogger Kathy said...

So wait, did you accept the waiters invitation?

 
At 9:11 PM, Blogger Erin said...

Hello Kelly-
So I thought I would pass this web-site along to you, to help in your quest for less than $200 sheets and as a shameless plug for the company I work for (yes, job-stability). http://www.tkmaxx.com/ It is like TJ Maxx, just with a K. I am pretty sure they have a housewares department. I thought there was one in London, but when I looked on the store listing I didn't see it. Good luck settling in!

 
At 9:19 PM, Blogger Catherine said...

So what's the laundry situation? Did you sleep on unwashed sheets? yuck..

 
At 2:39 PM, Blogger mags said...

hey Kelly! thanks for keeping us up to date on your life as it certainly is a type of "hand holding" across the oceans to touch base on the blogger.
i'm glad that you got there ok, and i'm intrigued as well, did you go with the waiter?

 

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