Christmas in London, Week Two: Starting to Say Goodbye

Hmmm... you can tell from the title, that this week, especially weekend, has been full of conflicting emotions. Work was a bear, but outside work, I had a truly delightful week. This weekend I've spent a lot of time reflecting, which has been a bit difficult, as it requires a letting go of London that I'm not sure I'm ready to.

Well... in the spirit of fun, each night after work was full of delightful events. My British coworkers are fully a delight and I so wish I'd had the opportunity to get to know them better before now. I don't look back with regrets, b/c as I look back, I know things in the UK played out as they should. I wasn't meant to build deep relationships here in the UK, b/c it would make it harder to say goodbye and this move was never meant to be permanent. In spite of all the uncertainty and anxiousness, Virginia is my home, where I'm supposed to be, even when I don't want to be.

Anyway...

Monday night I relaxed but Tuesday night was the BT Christmas Party (my client). I didn't know many folks, but it was still nice and fun enough. The good fun though was really to be had on Wednesday. There are about 9 of us that will be gone from BearingPoint UK by the 17th... we we had a great big leaving party. It was a blast. We laughed, played, met some new people... it was A+.

Thursday was the lighting of the Trafalgar Christmas Tree. It was raining and the event was fairly anti-climatic, but I'm still glad I went. From there, I met up with a male friend to go to one of London's most famous jazz clubs. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a booking and then struggled to find somewhere else to go on late notice. But in the end, the evening turned out an absolute delight. We had wonderful conversation (we've know each other for months, but never had really gotten to really chat much before) and an amazing meal. After that, we went for a walk through central London and then down by the river. London is truly gorgeous at night and the weather was actually fairly warm. We both had our cameras b/c of the tree lighting and got some nice evening shots.

Friday night I stayed in to relax but then woke up at dawn on Saturday to do some early morning photo touring. Got some nice Christmas shots around town and then had a lovely brunch at this little restaurant we stumbled on. Another A+ time.

The rest of my day I shopped and then went to the carol service at my church. It was really nice and helped me to process some of all I'm feeling about leaving.

Today (Sunday), I went to Hillsong Church in the AM and then did some more shopping (including these awesome leather boots!). I'm normally not a shopper, but its fun in a city like London and makes me feel so trendy, ha, ha. Tonight... I'll got take some more pictures before Internet Church.

It seems that RockYou has changed some of their uploading policies, so I'm moving my Europe photos to Flikr. You may have noticed that some of my prior postings I said I was posting pictures and they're not there. They'll be on Flikr soon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21648605@N05/

So... one week left. Hmmmmm.....