Tokyo

Um...

....I'm still in London!

It has been a quite extraordinary two weeks Ladies & Gents. To start with last weekend, B came over from France and the sneaky bugger organised a surprise birthday dinner for me on Saturday night at the Bluebird on the King's road. I saw friends I hadn't seen for a very long time and it was wonderful to have them congregated in one place. The entire weekend was very emotional for reasons that are as yet too sensitive to go into, but let's just say that it was a very depressed Princess who stumbled into work on Monday with an enormous suitcase ready to embark on her month-long tour of Asia.

Until...my desk were called into an emergency meeting. That morning, about two hours before I was to head to the airport, two members of the team resigned (they're a bit of a double act as you can see). This left two others on holiday, one already in Asia awaiting my arrival, one person in the office, and me. So, as you've guessed, I cancelled the Asia leg of my trip, and sat back down at the desk! I will still be going to Japan but Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shangers and Korea will have to wait until later in the year.

On the same day, I also found out that I PASSED ALL MY EXAMS!!!! NOOOO MOOOORE!!!!!!!!! My weekends are mine again and I am SO happy! I also got promoted on the same day -WOOHOO.

No time to celebrate however as due to the lack of hands, mine were supremely busy until this blessed four-day weekend.

I have to say that yesterday was one of the nicest and most relaxing days I have spent in London thus far. The weather was beautiful, I was with GG and we hit the shops for the entire day, followed by a well-deserved pedicure. There is something inherently luxurious about shopping on a weekday afternoon. Oh, to be a full-time leady of leisure!

Let's Reflecting

In 6 days, I will turn 25 years old. Every birthday nowadays seems to resonate with meaning; with opportunities missed, lessons learnt and a new wrinkle! Seeing as I have client dinners every night this week and will be heading off to Asia for a month, I thought I should write down a few things that I wish I knew/want to know/want to remember now that I have lived a quarter of a century.

1. Mentally, you are the same person as you were when you were 16. The only difference is that you learn restraint and when to keep your mouth shut.

2. Your friends are so much more important than you ever gave or will give them credit for

3. You don't get any more confident as you get older, you just get better at pretending

4. There will always be things that you regret doing or not doing, so stop thinking about it and move on

5. Sunbathing with baby oil will come back to haunt you

6. Women are at their most beautiful when they are in their 30's

7. Men are at their best in their 40's

8. When people hurt you, its most often because you put yourself in a situation where they can

9. Waxing regularly almost eliminates the pain-factor

10. The men who you run away from are the usually the ones that will make you happy in the end. The men you turn into a giggling mess around are the ones that you should avoid like the plague

11. Having curves is sexier than being very skinny

12. At the risk of sounding like a cliche, you CAN do whatever you set your mind to. Seriously.

13. Don't start smoking

14. Don't drink on an empty stomach

15. If you ever quit your job, take 3 months off and go travelling. You never know when you will next have the chance.

16. Love shouldn't hurt and relationships should be easy at least 75% of the time

17. Never buy uncomfortable shoes, even if you love them. No matter how sexy they are, you won't be if you can't walk.

18. It is possible to have wrinkles and pimples at the same time - unfortunately

19. Writing down what happens in your life is something you will never regret. It can (sometimes) prevent you from repeating the same mistakes

20. Never believe that you have the upper hand in your job/relationship/friendship. Life is guaranteed to come and bite you in the ass. But sometimes it can feel goooood!!

A weekend of extremes

After my plans to visit my father in Kent this weekend were laid awray due to the snowfall in Kent, I decided to go for a couple of post-work drinks before heading out on the town. Unfortunately, I had to go home to change first and upon walking into the flat, felt a magnetic pull of unfeasible proportions pull me into bed and forcing me asleep my half-nine. In trekkie lingo, this is what is known as a tracker beam.

Turned out to be a good thing though as I headed out with a gang from work last night at 5pm, was drunk by 7, then proceeded to club-hop from Eclipse, to Mint and finally to Pangaea before walking home at 8.30am.

Ow. My head.

Ow. My empty wallet.

The white stuff

Let's get this straight. Snow when I was at school was something exciting, beatiful, cleansing and pristine. But I was in timbucthree. In London, it is grey, sloppy (forget about that nice crunchy sound when you walk), very rare and as such, the whole city shuts down. Trains, schools, the tube, buses etc all kaput.

Let it snow? Like hell.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4312513.stm

Freedom? For a bit, maybe.

You may have noticed how I miss out the week in my blog these days. Reason being, as I'm sure you've guessed, that I doubt you want to hear about my long, loooong days at the office. I love what I do, but I can understand how it would bore you to death. Let me just tell you that as of Monday, I have my first client, and as such am waking up even earlier than usual!

Anyway. Last weekend Poochie and my great friend from Geneva, Pablito (you may have seen him in my NYC report) was in town on business. After taking my poppy to a ridiculously over-priced Japanese dinner for his birthday I then dragged my heavy butt out to Leicester Square. Yes, you read right...Leicester Square. To cut a long story short, I was seriously passed the baton. All of Pablito's mates left when they realised that he was TOTALLY trashed and guess who agreed to accompany him to Freedom. A GAY BAR. A GAAAAAAAAAAAAY BAR. A GAAAAAAAAAAAY men snogging each other with tongues out of their mouths for all to see and then trying to practically bum-fuck each other against the wall, bar. Call me homophobic if you wish, but its just way too carnal.

Anyway, Saturday night blended easily into Saturday at 6am at Poochie's house with a game of Cranium. Pablito's friends are a great crowd and to top it all off, I kicked ASS at the board game. Small victory, but I felt so damn cool! ;-)