My First Year in London: I Want Snow…But Not ‘til Friday.

Where the flippin’ ‘ek has 2011 gone?!...
One week until Christmas and another until the New Year! It has certainly been a busy one. Lots of changes and I’m still getting used to all this new-ness…but luckily I’ve got a couple of weeks off work and back up north to get back to what I know best: family, friends and too much food and booze. Which is why, when I heard the reports of all the snow this week I was:

A) totally confused because we approximately 0mm of snow in East London and

B) slightly panicked because I know how the UK can grind to a halt when we ‘unexpectedly’ have 3cm of snow…the trains go crazy and if I can’t get home on Thursday evening I’ll be ringing dad and getting him to jump in the car and collect me!

To say I’m excited to get home is a massive understatement. I love a good Snow Day, but not before Friday!!

Note to self: Really Rachel, it’s high time you learnt to drive, BOTH of your little sisters can and it’s getting a tad embarrassing.

This week I’ve had an exam, been on a boat, fallen over…twice and braved the biggest shopping centre in Europe.

Mr Brook

Let’s start with this exam. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times before; it’s the APM IC exam. 1 hour, 60 multiple choice questions… Sounds easy right? Wrong! Well, it probably could have been easier but I was a bit underprepared but I did my best and I’ll have to wait for the results to come through in the post in a few weeks. Fingers crossed folks!

Messes

I felt really unwell during the early part of this week, but I perked up enough to attend the event of the year!...well maybe not but it was a bloody good knees up: The TfL Grads Christmas Party 2011! Mr Brook very kindly travelled the length(ish) of the country and back to accompany me upon the Golden Flame for a night of boozing and dancing down the Thames and back. It was a great night but after finding myself face down on the floor of Walkabout for the second time, I thought it was about time to call it a night and James and I headed for the night bus…and from there my memory is pretty hazy.

The Golden Flame (not my picture)

After saying goodbye to James (not that I remember that very clearly) early on Saturday morning I did absolutely nothing. All day. In fact the only times I spoke were to say thanks to the Pizza Hut delivery man and a muttered ‘afternoon’ to one of the housemates (have no idea which one, I barely had my eyes open). No, after a night on the cheap white wine, shots of SoCo and Captain Morgans (because ‘it’s Christmas so we might as well’) all I could manage was a solid 24hrs in bed. And I’m OK with that.

Today I was fully prepared to do the same but that really would have left me with very little to write about (and I’m pushing it as it is..). So, reluctantly, I headed to Stratford Westfield to get the Christmas shopping out of the way. And it was quite possibly the most successful shopping trip ever. Armed with my list and a pen I headed from shop to shop like a professional. I would love to name one of the shops for being particularly helpful but I’m afraid that’d give the game away so maybe I’ll publically thank them after Christmas, but realistically probably not. Really great customer service, especially once I made it clear that I had no idea what I was buying…

All in all a very successful week! Now, just four short days in work and then, home. Before then.......wrapping!

Until next time,

Bren x

PS, I’m not proud of this but feel the need to get it off my chest. First, mum…I can only apologise. I’ve never done this before but I got a craving and just couldn’t stop myself:

I ate all the chocolates in my advent calendar :’( SORRY!

PPS, Not sure I’ll blog over Christmas. I’ll have nothing to say because all I do at Christmas is sit on the couch eating too many chocolates and far too many roasties. But we’ll see. - Oh I just remembered, I will blog...because I need to tell you about my trip to see Rihanna!!!

PPPS, Some other pictures from the boat party: