Living in London

In April after facilitating and organizing a customer advisory board meeting and helping execute a conference in New Jersey -and getting the chance to spend a few really nice days with my cousin Ben & fam!- I took the opportunity to keep flying east and made my way to Europe, somewhere I had not been since study abroad. Seriously, it had been 13 years which seems insane but I'm not gonna get into feeling old.. in this post. 

Why London? It was an easy sell when I was catching up with an old EMC coworker Brittani who now lives in the UK and offered her guest room. Nothing better than traveling and catching up with friends. Well, maybe swimming in the ocean but I'm probably saying that because today's water and waves were Amazing. I love the ocean! Total tangent - back to living in London for a week... 

So I didn't make any plans. Really my goal was just to spend some time immersed in a new city. I wanted to go with the flow, not do the whole touristy thing, so that's what I did =)

It just so happened that the same weekend I flew in was the London marathon and my friend Meg was running. Her husband and their friends came too so after my Friday red-eye I met up with them at Tower bridge and we made our way to a couple pubs. 

I actually enjoyed the local ciders more than I thought I would. I'm not a beer drinker so those didn't do anything for me. I sipped a few. No hops for this girl. Tea, however...

Sunday I woke up at 1pm. I should say 13:00... keep reading, you'll understand. Then Brittani, her husband, and I walked to a British Fes-Tea-vil  (the festival's marketing, not mine .. it was kind of catchy though) in Chiswick, a district of west London where they live. We drank lots of tea, of course, but my favorite was the gin-infused Noveltea. Both the earl grey and tangier flavors. I also loved the colorful animal artwork from Charlotte Gerrard and weirdly enough I walked away buying botree kampot salt and pepper. ??? So strange, I know, but easily packable in a carry-on (yes! 3 weeks with a carryon only! I still need to post about this...)

 

Pivotal has a London office in Shoreditch so I commuted in a few days and worked from there. Always great to be in an office and catch up with coworkers. The office has a great vibe to it too. Took about an hour from Chiswick on the Tube. I love a city with an easy-to-follow transportation system, and if I can figure it out it has to be easy. Plus the Citymapper app is super helpful. I also LOVE how diverse the people are. Commuting in really made me feel this. So many languages being spoken, people of all colors, creeds, ethnicities. If it wasn't always raining I could totally jive with this place.

One night after work I met up with a college friend who lives in the city, another night I roamed Regent's Park and caught sunset at Primrose Hill then grabbed a fish n chips dinner at Hook in Camden. Lots of walking that night. Another night Brittani and I saw The Book of Mormon in the West End, London's theater district. Soo funny. I can't remember ever laughing out loud so much at a play.

In London fashion, it was gloomy and raining the one day I took off from work so I spent the day at a local Chiswick spa. It was great until I was outside in the rain in my pedicure flipflops waiting for my Uber driver to find me on the main road!! Not 1 but 2 drivers canceled on me and after 30 minutes wet and trying hard not to wash away the relaxed spa feeling, my masseuse, on her way home for the day, helped hail me a cab. Totally ordered in and crawled into bed at 21:00 that night.

The weather over the weekend wasn't much better anywhere nearby so Brittani, Trev and I decided to stay local. Brit and I laughed our way on the tube and ate our way through Borough Market on Saturday (minced pies, greedy goat gelato, naughty brownies - yum!) and then as if we were hungry had a 3-course dinner with my family friends, Gillian & John. I forget if I ordered 2 or 3 desserts, "for the table"😏. 

Surprise, Auntie Carol! For those who are curious: Gillian and my aunt met in England when they were just out of college and have stayed close friends to this day. I stayed with G&J when I first made my way to London when I was a student. They also make their way to San Diego regularly for work conferences, so we get to see each other a bit which is lovely. Of course, the selfie we took is on my broken phone.

Sunday we stayed in Chiswick .. another gloomy day. I read my book over breakfast at Gail's and then did a little shopping. Trevor cooked a delicious dinner and we drank more Noveltea. Very fortunately for me, they asked my flight details and we realized that I wasn't flying out of Heathrow the next morning. That would have been interesting. First time in England (first trip while studying abroad) I missed my flight back to Florence because I got to the airport for a 6pm departure. Totally missed the memo that 06:00 is 6am and 18:00 is 6pm. Needless to say I flew out safely AND got to spend a 30-hour layover in Florida with my siblings 💓💓 That deserves a whole separate post which I will get to ... at some point. I still have my brother's trip out west that I need to write about, oy!

Hope you enjoyed this. Will try to write more soon! Heading back to London (and Frankfurt & Milan😀) later this month to facilitate more customer advisory board meetings. If you have any recommendations or want to meet me in any of those places let me know!

Cheers!
XO, me 

When I'm Sixty Four I will still need you

Yay! Today is Mom's birthday! And since I've been dilly dallying on posting about our trip in San Francisco I thought this was the perfect opportunity.

Y'all know I travel up to San Fran quite a bit for work. For the past couple years Mom has made it a point to share that she's never been, wants to go, and one of her old friends lives there. My answer, always is: Fly out when I'm there and stay with me. Always in agreement, we just had to find the right time. Post her major back surgery last March, a cross country flight to a city with a lot of walking wasn't in the cards so we waited til she felt up to the challenge. With her recovery going well and great deals on flights, we booked October.

I was excited.  Why?

1) Because Mom was strong enough to travel on a long flight. That right there gives you a barometer of how she is feeling. She would have flown had she needed to; we all know Mom's tenacity :) but she was being appropriately cautious.

2) Because Mom was ready enough to walk. We talked about this at length. This was a concern of mine. Flash back to last March when getting herself out of bed and taking a few steps with a walker was her daily goal. And a major accomplishment might I add. Walking down stairs was something to aspire to. Walking downstairs, outside, and up and back on the driveway was when the PT knew his work there was complete.

Yes, you can get around the city other ways but undeniably there is a decent amount of walking when you travel to any city.

3) Because Mom was able to visit! Mom's back has been bad for a long time. She could hardly walk for years and it impacted her ability to do activities most of us take for granted. Having quality time with her doing one of my favorite activities -meandering- made me happy.

And we had fun experiencing the best of San Francisco ... in gorgeous weather! Of all the times I've traveled to SF, I really hadn't explored its incredible scenery and world-famous attractions.

We spent her first day on a Hop-On, Hop-Off Big Bus with an entertaining tour guide, and my girlfriend Lindsay. The vantage point on the top of the double-decker bus as we rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and other areas was stunning. And the weather could not be beat. We all know Amy is always cold, and I was in a tank top. The next evening we did a panoramic night tour back on the Big Bus. We made our way through the city again and across Bay Bridge to Treasure Island for some magnificant skyline views of the city. I wasn't sure I would get much out of a 2-day Big Bus package, especially since I worked during the day, but I have to say I loved it. It's such a great way to see a city, learn the area's history and culture, and San Francisco looks even more beautiful after dark.

The next night after work we went to jail. I had never been to Alcatraz and I'm glad Mom wanted to go. ProTip: If you're planning a trip to SF and think you may want to check out the infamous former federal prison, buy tickets early - they book fast. Everyone talks about the Night Tour, but those were all sold out. I have to say though, I thought Alcatraz was awesome for sure, and I definitely recommend the audio tour (as everyone does), but the cruise on the San Francisco Bay was un-freakin-believable! As I mentioned, all week the weather was picture perfect (for me), especially being on the water. And by chance we took the last ferry off Alcatraz and got THE MOST INCREDIBLE SUNSET. I would have paid double just for a sunset cruise on the bay.

On this trip Mom also wanted to make sure I had work friends, which makes me laugh. So she toured the office and one evening a couple of my friends and I showed her a good time.

All in all a great trip that I look back at and smile. Thanks for making the trip out, Mom. Happy happy birthday and yes I still need you when you're Sixty Four.  Love you, Mom. XO