My First Year in London: "Why’re You Intimidating My Wife?"

...is a great question (and a last minute blog-title rethink). I’ll fully(ish) explain it later. For now I’ll revert back to my original title: Beer, Balls, Bath and Bits of Everything Else.

Beer.
Tuesday was Pancake Day AKA the day everyone half heartedly agrees to give something up for Lent, because…

A) They want to acknowledge the sacrifice Jesus made when he went in to the desert/wilderness for 40 days, something happened, a stone was moved... (I forget the exact story).

B) They have massively failed in their attempts at sticking to a New Years Resolution.

Or, the one that applies to me...

C) Everyone else is doing it and, actually, I want to play too.

Decide amongst yourselves which of the above applies to you.

I haven’t ‘done’ Lent since second year of university when the 6 41-Second House girls (plus OB) gave up one thing each and the loser had to buy everyone else a Nando’s. I had to give up pizza and pasta which happened to be the only thing I could cook at the time. It was tough but we all made it, and my cooking skills haven’t improved much since.

I’ve given up, ‘all drinks that are traditionally served in a pint glass’. Now I know what you’re thinking, “but that leaves a world of alcoholic options” but trust me, for a girl who had a first taste of booze sneakily out of dad’s pint glass many moons ago – this is tough. Nobody, not one person, can watch a football match with a glass of Red and have their footballing opinions taken seriously. One week in and I’m doing OK.

And when I say ‘OK’, in mean I’m dying for a pint!!...

I seriously doubt I’ll make the whole 6 weeks. The real test will come in Manchester in a few weekends time… We shall see!

Balls.

Netball – we’re now 4 games in and we are actually getting better! We had our best loss so far this week with a 12-7 defeat. I’m rather pleased with that. I stayed again for a second match with a team who was struggling for players and won that one 13-11. Then I shuffled home, aching, bruised and exhausted. More of the same next week!

A really bad picture of training...

Football – On Saturday morning I headed down to Clapham Common again where I enjoyed another training session with the AFC Phoenix Academy. We did some fitness training, drills and skills, and finally a 10(ish)-a-side match. The sun was shining, I was having a great time and before I knew it, it was 12pm and I had to dash across London back to the house then head back to Paddington Station ready for the journey to…

Bath.

Yes, on Saturday afternoon I made my return to Bath to visit Nat and Binks who, along with their housemates, were hosting a Pre-lash Party before heading to the SU night, Fuzzy Ducks. The theme at the SU was Cowboys and Cowgirls but the housemates had decided it would be much more fun for the theme to be – Cool Runnings! An excellent movie and a great fancy dress theme. Unfortunately, and in a very uncharacteristic move, I didn’t get my act together in time and sort out an outfit… So Binks basically tricked me into wearing ridiculous zebra leggings – which, after a bottle of red wine and a shot of Stroh, I thought was a fabulous idea. The photos (treat yourself at Facebook) tell a different story entirely. I had a flipping brilliant night, great to see the girls and even a surprise pit-stop from Becky who was in Bath too.

Hangover hilarity (and this video you can see on YouTube) is what led me to this week’s title – top stuff, proper ROFLs. Clearly I was late to this with already thousands of views but it just shows how some people are properly mental - pretty lengthy video so highlights include:

4.46 - "this'd be great on YouTube"..."are you threatening me?!"

6.55 - "why're you intimidating my wife?" [repeat 20000 times]

Sadly I’ll miss the next Africa Gang get together over the Easter weekend. I can’t complain too much though as I’ll be in New Zealand! In other Big Trip news, it’s now only 5 weeks away and I really need to plan…stuff. I’m not sure what, but I feel a need to write lists or make a spread sheet or something...

Passed!

Bits of Everything Else.

I got my results from the ITIL exam I took and it was all good news! I passed and have the certificate to prove it. In other BCS related news, this week I went to a lecture hosted at the BCS HQ close to Covent Garden – ‘HiTech Transport – Were Is IT Going?’. Geeky, yes. But actually rather interesting and…excellent catering. And wine.

RUN sculpture outside the
Copper Box (Handball)

On Friday I went to a TfL organised event at the Olympic Park in Stratford. Every TfL employee has been invited to attend a Fit For London session where we got the chance to ask senior directors questions about preparation for the Games, TfL's Olympic legacy, and how TfL can work more efficiently in the future. After the presentation and Q&A session we were loaded onto double-decker buses and set off into the Park. I really enjoyed it and thought it was quite cool getting to see it as it's being built - not many people get the chance to do that and so far it's looking incredible.

I also found out this week that I won tickets to the recording of David Mitchell’s BBC Radio 4 show The Unbelievable Truth in a couple of weeks. Ace news!

This week I’ve got a few things on at work that should be quite interesting; a writing workshop (fingers crossed these get a bit better!), Cycle Hire training and the annual TfL All Finance (including IM) conference. All followed by a weekend with so far no plans – possibly time for London Adventure III.

Until next time,

Bren x

PS, The only photo I got in Bath:

PPS, I learnt about this at the HiTech lecture - amazing:

PPPS, Anyone been watching Homeland?...I won’t lie, I couldn’t watch at a one-per-week pace. I’m 8 eps in and it’s pretty great. If you’re not watching it, get on 4OD and catch up!

PPPPS, Some more photos from the trip around the Olympic Park: