Thanksgiving

This year, I had a Vietnamese-American/Vietnamese-Australian/Chinese/Japanese/Dutch Thanksgiving. With Chinese fried rice, Vietnamese chicken-mint salad & spring rolls, French Moet, Japanese whiskey and English apple pie. Some American, Dutch and Japanese music finished off a truly international celebration. Five non-English, together in Heather’s wee apartment in Putney. Good food, good wine, and more importantly, good company. Just the way Thanksgiving should be. Turkey or not!

To do

I should be cleaning the house, doing my nails (toes and fingers a mess), cross referencing a gazillion spreadsheets, take out the garbage and paper, collect a parcel at the concierge and do god knows what. Instead I am off to bed, read A Thousand Splendid Suns and fall asleep knowing I will feel much better tomorrow. Yoga, a wee bit of shopping and a belated Thanksgiving dinner is just what the doctor ordered. Bloody hell, how tired can one be?

Drama drama

Since I have moved to the UK three biiiig things have happened. The banks started going bust. Russ and Ross misbehaved on air. John Sergeant left Strictly. One might argue Barack Obama winning the US elections was also a big thing, but judging by the attention in the papers, it wasn't. It was more or less up there with Hamilton winning the F1. Now I have to admit I read Metro, London Lite and London Paper during the week. Not quite your Guardian or Times. So maybe a day-to-day Guardian reader would have a different perspective.

Anyway. That last biiiiiig thing. John Sergeant, the dancing pig on Cuban heels. When he decided to leave Strictly this week, BBC flagged it as Breaking News on their website. My (male) colleagues were in shock. The country was outraged, and even MPs felt the need to publicly express their opinion on this. Shocking. One aspect of English society I so do not understand.

Weekend

A fun filled weekend. The Leonard Cohen concert on Friday was amazing, all 2.5 hours of it. Amazing how a man his age can still perform like that. He had an amazing band, sang all my fav songs and I was really moved by it all. Amazing, to use that word for a fourth time...

Then yesterday was my introduction to Twickenham. Pub, Hodge's (a mate of a mate who lives near the grounds with his wife and three gorgeous daughters), match, Hodge's, pub. Then Burger King on the way home. Keeping up with Australian men is not a clever thing, as my hangover told me this morning. Must have had about ten pints. 30 laps in the pool and 10 minutes in the steam room got rid of most of the hangover but I still feel a bit rough.

Time flies

Not only did this week fly by, the last couple have just gone so fast. And when I saved a document under 14 November today, I was slightly shocked to realise it was, indeed, mid November. Six weeks and the year will be gone! A year of many changes: from injured and hungover in weekends to sensibly drinking gym bunny, from Amsterdamer to Londoner, from having friends living close by to having friends an hour away from where I am, from village to big city. I cannot believe how much has happened in the past year and how fast it has all gone. 40 sleeps and I am off on my hols. Ending the year in South East Asia, a few hundred kilometers from where I started it. The excitement is slowly building up. Six weeks of work left. Let them fly by!

Stuff

Leonard Cohen gig, England-Australia @ Twickenham, another dinner at the Commonwealth club, Annie Leibovitz exhibition, Manon (a ballet) , Donovan Frankenreiter gig and a daytrip to Brighton. All in the next two weeks. How exciting!!

Christmas - part 2

It is not yet sinterklaas. It is not yet thanksgiving. I have accepted the presence of christmas stuff in the shops (and secretely was happy about it as I needed chrissy food for my folks). But christmas commercials on tele is just not on. I don't need to wear a coat yet. My street is still covered in yellow leaves. Let it be autumn first. And then worry about christmas. Silly poms.

Mix and match

One of the things I love most about working in London is the diversity. In the advisory FS (Financial Services) group in Adam we had some foreigners, but not many. Here, the team of about 30 includes people from the UK, Pakistan, India, Iran, Singapore, France, Czech, South Africa, Canada, America and Holland. A fantastic mixture. And since yesterday, China can been added to the list.

The British and Chinese governments sponsor a training scheme for young Chinese graduates. Companies like ours, JP Morgan and Accenture have implemented the program. Ten very talented chinese students, one of whom is in my team, have joined the advisory FS practice here. Yesterday we took three of them out for lunch, a proper English pub lunch. The three graduates were just lovely. One was a big fan of Dutch football, which made for good convo. England must be a complete culture shock for them. Imaging being so young and living in a completely different culture, not having left your own country before. They'll stay with us for nine months, and then join the Chinese firm. There will be a lot of mutual learning in these nine months!

Sleepy

It's kinda stupid to try and stay awake for the election results, knowing there is no way I will be staying up all night (well, I could do what bankers do and get some charlie, but let's not start that habit for the sake of an election night). Yet I so want to know the result when the rest of the world knows! The Blackberry is defo coming to bed with me tonight. And every time I wake, I will check. I will get up at stupid a clock to read the highlights. Off to bed now.

And back home

The weekend in the Dam was fab. Loads of great convo with friends, dinner with the folks, and even a walk in Westerpark on Sunday morning. And I so do not feel like working now!