Life in the home of Big Ben

I think I finally decided I was a real Londoner when, the other day I was walking over the Westminster Bridge with lots of (heavy) shopping bags, and got annoyed with all the tourists who were stopping willy-nilly on the sidewalk to take pictures of Big Ben! :-)

I’m slowly starting to feel more at home in London.
My job is getting more challenging and stimulating and I’m starting to feel part of my team.
I offered to be the team social organiser for the year, and it’s my job to organise quarterly team events for our team of 10.
We had our first team social evening about three weeks ago.
We went for a curry in Brick Lane. Brick Lane is a long road that would be any curry lover’s idea of heaven. It has about 2km’s of Indian restaurants!
We went to a restaurant called Bengal Village, starting with Cobra beers (an Indian beer) and moving swiftly onto poppadoms and chutney. I had a lovely chicken curry with naan bread for my main course.
There was a lot of eating with your hands and chatting and giggling. The evening was declared a success by all!
The next events coming up for our team are a social being held by the bank, a Pub Quiz night. We’ve entered a team aptly called ‘The Smarty Pints’ :-) (It took me ages to get everyone to agree on just one name!)
Half the team will are also entered into the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge (London) for June. It’s a 5km run. I’m going to have to start training soon ;-)
I think being the team social organiser has definitely made me get involved with the team and team life, which is great.

I’ve also had a taste of a bit of culture in London.
One evening I went with some work colleagues to a play. It was Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. The play was held in East London in the Wilton Theatre which is this magnificent, crumbling 150 year old theatre. The theatre itself is terribly grand inside with wooden carvings and colour giving it the feel of a Spanish or Mexican hall.
(We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but I was sorely tempted to, it really was beautiful.)

In the same week I went to a Jazz charity evening with a friend at Hampstead Hill Playhouse. It was organised by an organisation called African Revival. They’re a charity who sends money to African countries to build schools and other community based projects.
We were spoilt with a live band of extremely talented youngsters and their music teacher who entertained us with jazz music. There was also a husky voiced singer who joined them for a couple of numbers.
That evening I finally had my first English fish and chips for 2007 :-)

I find that if you don’t say no to any invitations, you can pretty much be busy every night of the week in London (thank goodness the TV here is terrible ;-)
This week I’ve been to after work drinks on two evenings, one evening to a trendy bar in Piccadilly called Cocoon (it was so trendy, I almost expected to bump into some English TV star there) and last night was at the Slug and Lettuce (still love the name) a pub near work, I have a supper tomorrow, an am meeting up with a friend, Anthea for a quick drink tonight.
Last week was filled with dinners out, lunches and coffees.

It feels really good to be social. I do however miss my Jhb friends terribly! :-)

Picture 1: My unruly work team
Picture 2: Breakfast with a work colleague Nameetha at Giraffe (a restaurant on the Thames)

Picture 3: A chilly day out in Greenwich with work buddies