TO NINA:

CONGRATULATIONS ON FINISHING ALL YOUR UNI EXAMS SIS =)

Lancashire

Thanks Tom and Bei for your hospitality in having me over at your place over the weekend- it was such a lovely and relaxing time away from London for me! Guys, all the best with all that will come your way *fingers crossed* it's a girl for you Bei (sorry Tom)! ;) At least now I know that the baby will be due late next year and not in 2 months time!!! hahaha See you guys some time next year with something little for me to hold, back in the warm Sydney sunshine!!

xxx

P.S. I miss your lovely red bathroom!! =)

Work

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I've been working at Stefan Zins Associates (http://www.szal.co.uk/) since June this year and I find myself still enjoy working for them. Although work can seem tedious at times (e.g. you can work on a certain part of the project for a whole week and then find yourself fixing everything back to the way it was because the client had a "change of mind"), the staff and the whole work environment actually makes up for it all. Our office consists of a vast number of nationalities and if you actually had a chance to sit at my desk you would've found that at one stage, apart from the wall on my left, directly in front of me (which let's say is the North direction) sits a South African guy and beyond him sits a South American guy, North East of me sits a Japanese guy, North East East sits a Spanish lady (my Associate), East sits an American lady (my highly regarded mentor), South East East sits an Indian lady, South East sits a Greek lady and to my South which is directly behind me sits a German guy (beyond him sits a Scottish guy). Isn't that interesting? It's a very good thing also that everyone comes from around the world because they seem to travel occasionally and they usually bring back some sweets or treats for the office! I think I can gain a lot of weight if I ended up working here longer!! However, I'm still quite the quiet character that I am and no difference to the uni days, I'm still completely immersed in my work and don't talk much. Fortunately I get to listen to my Ipod at work which helps get me through the looooong days of constantly punching the keyboard with my left hand and clicking away at my mouse with the right hand. I've recently tuned myself into 2dayfm and mix106.5 online which makes me feel slightly closer to home again... oh what a feeling that is.

With all the different nationalities in the workplace we've planned to have cultural dinners on an occasional basis so we can all go out together and try a new national cuisine that we've either never tried before or not used to eating. Several weeks back we went to Parsons Green down South West of London on the district line to try a Bolivian cuisine as introduced by our South American workmate Luis. We all had a lovely time with the very filling and delicious foods served whilst we all got a chance to mingle with one another out of the office scene. I invited my two friends Abraham and Suzy to come along and they also had an interesting time with my workmates. The next one up is German food and since I'm still single as ever, Stella will be accompanying me to this dinner which is happening next Wednesday.

About 2 weeks ago one of our team member named Marcella decided to leave the company and prior to her leaving, most people in the office got together and had lunch at a Thai restaurant called Addies down the road as a sort of farewell tradition that happens in the office. It followed by some farewell cakes and drinks towards the end of the day with a farewell present given to Marcella as contributed by everyone in the office. Honestly, the people in my office are all really nice people and they're all very enjoyable to work with in particular is Marcella who I have high regards for and had considered her as my Mentor during her time in the office. Because it was my first ever proper architectural work in an office Marcella had guided me through everything since day 1 and she actually made everything that little bit easier for me. She would always have the time not only to answer my questions but also to go over things or explain things if ever I'm unsure. I always found it difficult to open up to strangers but Marcella seemed to break that barrier as I started to open up and talked to her about certain situations regarding my travelling, family, friends and studying again. I really didn't want her to leave!

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-Marcella, I surely miss your company at work.
Good luck with your studies & may the best ALWAYS be with you! xxx

Contentment

So it's a Thursday and I'm having one of my once again cheap lunches. On Monday I spoiled myself and had a Salsa Toasted Twister from KFC (no chips, no drinks) only because we went to Scotland over the weekend and I didn't have time to do grocery shopping for the week, Tuesday I brought into work a filling "bap" (a burger like sandwich) stuffed with roasted pork, mature cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Yum. Wednesday (yesterday) was the same lunch but subtract the tomatoes. Today is the same as yesterday but subtract the lettuce! hehe Yes, so it's just cheese and roasted pork in a bap right now. I got desert though- a 49p hazelnut & chocolate mousse =)

Over the weekend us girls went to Scotland which was a very pleasant and relaxing trip. We accomplished our goal of doing a road trip from Glasgow to the Loch Ness region which is up North via Fort William and Glen Coe although we managed to get there 2hours behind schedule due to the difficulty of getting out of the Glasgow city centre (too many motorways and too few road signs) and got there at 7:30pm! *NOTE: Loch = Lake. It was completely dark by that time so there were no monsters to be seen but instead we took hilarious photos with the moon and outside the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre. We took the scenic route up North and my fav. drive by area is Glen Coe. Such a shame we didn't stop to take some pics though. The area is very green and hilly and you always see small streams of water running through the crests of the mountains. Beautiful! We got back to Glasgow 3hrs behind schedule and to our accomodation after midnight. Sunday we drove to Edinburgh and checked out the famous castle before having lunch and heading back to Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Driving around with a hard-to-read zoomed out map was difficult! But we all managed.

I'm leaving for Lancashire after work today (located up North, 1hr drive away from Manchester) to visit Keo's cousin Bei and her English husband Tom and staying til Sunday. I don't know Bei that well but the occasional times that I've seen her back in Australia, we seem to have got along well which is just great. I'm expecting a very lovely relaxing weekend away from the hustling and bustling London lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE LONDON but I do find that you can easily get hyped up with all the "happenings" going on and it can get a little tiring and of course expensive. Even though 1 night out in town may work out cheap, add several nights to that and the expenses simply climbs. But then again, I won't be here for long and should make the most out of everything.. right?! I even have this diary that has never been filled up with so many days of people and places to see than right now. Wow!