19 February 2006

Month 2 Begins...And It's Still Cold!

I have to work today, mainly because I am trying to subscribe to the 'leave work at a decent hour' philosphy that is refreshingly observed by the office most of the time. In doing this, though, I seem to have gotten a little behind, and considering I have a meeting ('coffee') with the Chairman tomorrow morning, I figured this was not a good time to be behind. Another thing, almost all meetings here are called 'coffee' (very civilized) or '121.' It took me forever to understand what all of these 'one-hundred-twenty-one's' were in my diary! Oh, I get it 'one-to-ones'! It is just a nice way of saying 'weekly touching base meeting' -- either with your boss, your bosses boss, or the people who work for you. It seems a much nicer way to schedule a meeting.

So I have trekked down to the Starbucks in Islington to do my work (I know...I am writing my blog instead of my business plan, but a girl deserves a little procrastination on a Sunday morning, right??). So I trekked down here in the cold, ordered my coffee (not that I want to support Starbucks but it is all there is) and found a nice cozy seat. Not five minutes after I sit down am a surrounded by a group of mums with 3 little kids. The children have been alternating running around and screaming, and one of them has got one of those soap-bubble-blowing guns! I keep having to lift my laptop up to save it from being taken over by bubbles! I was relieved when one of the mums took the gun away from the kid, but now she is using it and there are more bubbles than ever!!! Thank God for the iPod!!! :-) Now comfortably listening to Gene and tuning out the rest of the world...phew!

So it has been cold and grey, with mixtures of rain and hail this week. Lovely. It's enough to depress a girl. Seriously, it's depressing! Sometimes it makes me question what in the world I am doing here--especially when I hear it was 85 in LA last weekend! But something happened this week that helped me remember...

Since I have such a hard time waking up in the mornings, I have taken to using 2 alarms: a regular alarm clock that turns the radio on at a particular time each morning, and an annoying-sounding alarm on my high-tech phone that will ring every 9 minutes until I actually get up and shut if off. I try to set the radio to go off before the phone, so I can ease into the day a little. I need to preface this by explaining that this country is very into its news. There are no less than 10 daily newspapers, and the TV, radio, etc coverage is very good. So when my radio alarm goes off I usually get a nice dose of local, national and international news mixed in with the standard morning show chatter. On Thursday morning, instead of going right into the disruptive Danish political cartoons, the ever-nearing bird flu, or Cheney's shooting his friend in the face, or even the football, by far the biggest news story of the day was the coverage of the Brit Awards the night before--and the fact that the Kaiser Chiefs had stole the show, Coldplay might be taking a break, and everyone feeling a little sorry for James Blunt. Yeah...music will always prevail!!







posted by Eleanor @ 12:11 pm 0 comments

01 February 2006

2 weeks down and so far, so good...

Failed to finish this post last week...so this is a bit of a hodgepodge. I'll have internet access at home one of these days..maybe...

Hard to believe I've now been here for a little over 2 weeks. And yes, I am still cold. It was actually snowing on Friday when I left work! I opted out of my usual post-work brisk walk and ran for the nearest tube station!

I spent a good part of Monday morning reviewing check discs for Little House on the Prairie. Hearing that theme song again made me feel like I was back in 4th grade! Wow... The rest of the week has been spent preparing presentations for our Sales & Marketing meeting, which is all day tomorrow. Talk about jumping right in!!! Fingers crossed for me...or I may be put on the next plane back to LA!

I still haven't managed to learn anyone's name, but I have managed to figure out that I am not the only one. This is why the term 'mate' was invented! (Credit actually goes to Vermut on this one, but I have tested and proved his theory). People walk by one another (myself included) and just say 'Hi, Mate, how's it going?' or 'Morning Mate' - hilarious. But so true...

Last week I finally got a phone and cable ('Sky') TV. These are major landmarks in my life, and not easy accomplishments. I still don't have a bank account, and Uni won't pay me until I have one. It is kind of like a chicken-and-egg situation. It is so frustrating I have just started to laugh -- if I didn't I would most certainly cry.

John and Liz came by on Sat which was wonderful. John brought me a stereo, which was even more wonderful! I had been without music for 2 weeks, and that is 2 weeks too long in my book! We got some munchies at Waitrose and watched the Gunners play an awful game (this is becoming a theme since my arrival...apparently I am a jinx!).

On Sunday, I walked over to Camden Market and wandered around for a few hours. Browsed the stalls and ate some Venezuelan food from a (presumably) Venezuelan man on one of the stalls. Apparently there was a gang-related murder there on Sat night, so a lot of the roads and tube station was roped off and police were everywhere! Scary. I just sort of kept walking...



----

Mon 6th Feb: I guess it is more like '3 weeks down' now. The meeting on Thursday went fine, aside from the fact that the heat was broken in the cinema where we had the meeting. It was in the basement and really cold to begin with. It was somewhat amusing (looking back, of course), with everyone presenting in their coats, gloves and scarves. Made quite a change from my last Sales meeting in San Diego where presenters were in Hawaiian shirts and flip flops!

And while I'm on the theme...the heat stopped working in my flat this weekend too. I think the Brits may be trying to freeze me out of their country! I waited all day Saturday for a guy to come 'round and fix it. He got it working and then it broke again yesterday. Gotta love the new building! Yes, it is really cold. But I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record so I'll stop. For now... :-)

My weekend was fairly quiet. I walked over to Hampstead Heath yesterday, which was closer than I thought--only about 25 mins walk from my flat. It was so beautiful. Massive park - you can walk up the hill and have a really nice view of London. It seemed very English, like Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy should wander right past me at any moment. DON'T I WISH!!! ;-)

A few 'Brit-culture' funnies picked up over the last week or so:

  • Orange juice with pulp is labeled as Orange juice 'with bits'
  • Received an email from a co-worker that started off right 'Quite right, Eleanor...' - I half-expected that to be followed up with 'Righty ho...'
  • I have already become immune to walking down into the tube station at the end of the day and hearing 'Due to a person under a train, service is delayed...'
  • Servicemen here do things at their own pace. They wil always wipe their feet outside your door without being asked, and you should always offer them tea or coffee upon their arrival to your flat. When asked 'Could you show me how to use the remote control?', be prepared for a response of 'Yes, but I will finish my coffee first.'









posted by Eleanor @ 3:12 pm 0 comments