A life more ordinary

Been a bit silent on the blogging front, mostly because of work. Man work's a waste of time isn't it! So I resigned, but I had to see out the notice period. However I have managed to squeeze a little bit of fun into the last month or so in this fabulous city.  Have at it!

Wandered China town as I am liable to do. Tried to buy some dumplings, losers wouldn't take a £2.50 order, £10 minimum - so I wandered on. I have still not had any dumplings.

London's China town.

There's a rather large snow globe at Piccadilly Circus:

I went and watched the changing of the guard. By which I mean, watched the back of other tourists watching the changing of the guard. I did hear them occasionally, and saw them come and go. The mounted police trying to get foreigners to not stand in particular places was entertaining, but yea - least I've done that now. I have video of this, and video of a squirrel. Squirrels are still awesome.

Covent Garden is lovely and festive at the moment, this day was particularly enjoyable - wee orchestra cranking it down there. I did my part and didn't buy a pie for £4, choosing to give it to that lot instead. (I still do the mental calculation of pounds to NZ dollars, no way am I paying $8 for a pie!)

Rein it in already! Covent Garden is all up in this festive grill.

In other news, my flatmate has convinced me to go running in the Nike run club from Regent Street - they go around Regent Park. So I've been doing that, it's a total piece of cake on the flat, makes me feel fit. Been doing a bit more of that, running around, enjoying the parks around here. Everyone's little dogs having a blast make me happy.

We also went and saw Greg Proops record his Greatest Man in the World podcast, I doubt you'll hear my laugh in the podcast but I was there, quietly.

Hanukkah was a bit of a novelty in Golders Green, this Mitzvah Tank parked up across the road and blasted traditional music until about 9:30 the other night - pretty fun, good atmosphere!

I finally went to the V&A museum, it's really good! Plenty more to see there.

Wandered over to the Royal Albert Hall across the road too, must go see something there in the next six months!

Went to Spittlefields market, to a craft beer festival and tried some beers, met some folks.

A beer.

Socially, I've been trying really hard to pretend I'm an extrovert, getting out, meeting people. But the truth is I just want some friends over here. Folks who already know who I am, so I don't have to introduce myself 600 times every social gathering. I just can't be bothered with it anymore, so I'm just going to be a hermit and work from home and do my travels and annoy my flatmate.

Coming up, I'm off to Portsmouth to see Naval stuff and Forts n that so that'll be fun, then Morocco for Christmas and New Years which'll obviously get a post. Then in February I'm going to be doing some Europe with my bro and his lovely partner, it is going to be fantastic!

In between these bits of fun, I am doing freelance contract work for folks back home. I feel rather blessed being able to do that, helps me out with my travelling immensely. I am such a lucky scamp. The challenges of moving away from everything and everyone I've ever known have been rearing their ugly heads, but hopefully with this flexibility I can keep the dream alive a bit longer.