I have a flat!

No, I don't mean my tire blew out, I mean I have a place to live in London. :) I got confirmation today that the wire transfer for my deposit went through, so I have a place to call home when I arrive in the UK. Whenever that ends up being...right now I'm in this aggravating unknown space. My work permit got held up because they had the company name wrong, so it could take another three weeks before I have the paperwork. !!!! Not excited about that, because if it does take that long, I will have to fly to New York on the way to London to go to the embassy and get my visa stamped. If it comes sooner, I could just overnight my passport there and back. We'll see.

But the point is, I am going to be living in Notting Hill (not because of the movie), which is such a cute area! I'm technically north of Notting Hill, but close enough to say I live there. I can walk to Portabello Road where there is an awesome market on Saturdays - reminds me of Salamanca Market in Tasmania. Except it's massive. But on the gorgeous April day when I was there, even the hourdes of people didn't bother me, the sun was shining, musicians were playing, avocados were rolling in the street...okay that last one was just odd, but it was still a cool experience overall. I did a horrible job taking pictures this trip, so I've resorted to stealing other peoples. Actually, why do we have to take our own photos of landmarks and tourist sites anyway? Unless you're going to put yourself in the picture (which I hate doing at truly beautiful places...don't pollute the idyllic scene with my stupid grinning face) why not leave it to the professionals? Maybe I'll just give up picture-taking altogether, just start using images off the web. There certainly are enough pictures out there to cover even the crazy places I end up going!

So that's Notting Hill, where I have a flat and will have two cool roommates. At least, I think they are, and we clicked amazingly well when we met. I'll have to put up pictures of the flat when I move. Might even actually take the pictures myself. ;)

Late 20's

Wow, so today I hit 28. All in all a good birthday, but a long one! I started the morning in DC, left at 6am and went straight to work, arriving at 10:00am - still not sure how I did that. The drive is supposed to be almost 5 hours from DC to Raleigh...hmm...

I managed to stay somewhat coherent at work, got to go out for lunch with a group of my favorite Lulu's (people that work at www.lulu.com). Then I took a nap and had dinner with my brother, my friend Hope and her husband Will. You can check out my new bangs/fringe look in the pic...I'm still getting used to peering through hair to view the world, but it's fun to have a different hairstyle.


Going in reverse, yesterday was another big day - I sold yet another large possession, my Kurzweil PC-88 keyboard. A great instrument - we've been through a lot together, and I will miss the nice piano sound of that thing. But it has a good home in DC with a friend who used to play with me at a church in Columbia years ago.

Then I got to see my friend Andrea, who I met studying abroad, and her newly expanded family - had a baby on Wednesday. I'm not the biggest baby person, but he's pretty cute, and it was cool that the timing worked out so I was there and got to see him.

And of course, there was the showing up on Ryoko's doorstep without warning, one of the most consistent marks of our friendship :) I will miss her, and having that place to visit randomly.

I love driving to DC. There's just something about crossing the Potomac on I-395 and heading into the nation's capitol that makes me swell up with a very strange emotion. I just love it! Partly because I have such good memories and friends there, partly because it's pretty to look at, and I guess partly because of the whole patriotic connection.


Before that, I was at my friend's wedding in Richmond with a reunion of the "Maxcy girls" from my freshman year in college. I really was lucky to end up with such a great group of friends - we all met in the first couple weeks of moving into the University of South Carolina, and have stayed in touch ever since.

The wedding itself was beautiful - outside on a perfect April day. I played the piano for the ceremony - which I was happy to do, and love being able to share my music with my friends special day. But it does severely limit one's view of the actual wedding...

I think I'll save the London trip for another post - sleep is calling!