London day 2

Since this is my 3rd trip to London, I decided to enjoy the city by foot rather than going to musems and such, as I have already done that. I ventured to the northern border of Regent's Park, where there is a canal (yes, London has canals) that forms a natural border between the city center and the rest of it (Zone 1 and Zone 2 if you are riding the tube). Along one stretch of the canal are these amazing mansions, that from what I gather are owned by Saudi princes. (look how nice in the photo)

From there I walked to Oxford and Bond to see the Gap UK flagship store. I got a little lost along the way, but it was worth it. First of all, their product is completely different, espeically the men's wear. They are much more daring with the men's product, stuff that would never fly in Gap US. I talked to the people working there and told them I was director of financial planning for Gap US women's (sorry Kathrin) and they all wanted to talk to me.

And above is the main display in the entrance of the new fall product at Gap UK (Steven, take notes).

This posting was made at 10:14pm at gate A64 of the Zurich International Airport. God bless Wi-Fi.

London, Day One

(finally I can post!)
So I arrived at about 10am at Liz and Rob's flat in the Kilburn area of north-west London. We had some breakfast, and then went to the annual Notting Hill Carnival. The carnival is like a cross between Halloween parade in the Castro and Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC. It's like the halloween one because it is one full neighborhood that just shuts down and is crammed full of human beings listeing to music and milling around. It is like Puerto Rican Day because it has a distinct scummy feeling to it. It was packed, both with people, and with police (as you can see in the photo).

We left the carnival before it became crazy (only 7 stabbings this year vs. over a hundred last year). Had coffee and drinks, and made our way to the eastern end of London, where we were scheduled to have dinner with Marc and Anne, two friends of Liz and Rob, as well as Rob's younger brother, Don. Kelly Miely joined us as well.

We all met up and had drinks at a bar, and then went to the infamous Brick Lane (the city's Bangladeshi center) to "have a curry" as Rob calls it. We ate, drank, had a good time, got back home late, and passed out.

Hi from London

Quick hello! I'm in London, the weather is fantastic. I will post up photos and commentary tonight...

Damn Audrey

I don't know why this is missing plan by 63%... the fit is fantastic. I always thought I was a size 10, turns out that the Agnes diet dropped me to an 8!

(nod to the crossword book in the bottom left, by the way)

Last day of work

Today was my last day of work, trying to get Abby all the info she needed before she went to New York for line adoption. I do admit that it was sad, and my team members were really touching, especially the little book that Julia made. Cleaning up my cube was sad as well. It was the catalyst...

I will post up photos from various going away celebrations soon.

Speaking of which, Steph please send those photos from Hi Dive to my usual gmail account.
Except that O shot of you. I don't need those 9 megabytes contaminating my laptop!

haha

3 days left!

Today was very productive. I left work at 2pm, sent a box of books to my cousin in Israel, dealt with some banking stuff, got my new glasses (which still seem a bit off to me), and then donated a huge box of books to the SF Public Library. I am a huge book snob, and I hoard books like Fifi hoards ex boyfriends, so it was a little sad to see them go. My sister helped me out, and took some for herself as well (that's her and her tiny car in front of the main branch).
Then I met up with a contact of mine at the consulate, and she reassured me that there will be no military service for me (you can relax now, Escoto). I wonder if they need financial planners though? Maybe I can get a part time job figuring out the sales to stock ration of Khaki vs. Olive Green fatigues...
Then I made a few rounds and said goodbye to people that will not be able to attend my going away thing (Friday night at Zeki's, if you don't already know). Said goodbye to Diller, which was sad, as she has been my one-year-on-one-year-off friend since I was eleven.

PS, Paul K is a fantastic dinner place, if you are ver looking for fine dining in SF.

First comment

Congrats Dingle on being my first comment to this site, at 12:25 AM PST, from Vegas.

Why are we both still awake at this hour on a weeknight?

(Dingle and I at Brette's wedding, years ago...)

Pity the Cube

One of the things that I will probably miss a little bit but not really is my cube at work. I have occupied this same cube for 15 months straight, about 3,250 hours of my life, give or take. My cube was the smallest of all my team, and it also had this huge annoying metal pillar at the entrance (unlike PJ's plush cube). One of these days I will have my own office... and I will keep that a mess as well.

Don't cry for me, Nook

Of of the things I will truly miss in my neighborhood in SF is my local coffee shop, Nook.
How many coffees? How many toasted everything bagels with light cream cheese? How many hours logged on to your free Wi-Fi? How many Saturday morngings running in to friends? How many tourists on the cable car riding by us as we sat outside and thought to ourselves "I know you are so jealous that I get to live here"?
Hopefully I can find somthing comparable in Tel Aviv.

One Week left

This is what my living room in SF looks like this morning... so much more to do. I did not take a photo of my bedroom because my mother would not be happy with me.