Across the Pond...

Before I get to the London part of this post, I just had to say that I had a fantastic time at Reena and Smitty's Bday/my going away party on Friday night. Granted, Reena and Smitty picked about the worst possible place to have it - 2 floors and only 1 bar, no Patron or even semi-decent Tequila, and only 1 bathroom on the top floor, which, as many of you know, became a major issue and eventually forced me to leave early. F'in Smitty!



My last Saturday in NY was also memorable - a great brunch with the usual crew and the usual amount of drinking at HK, then some hookah. Even though I'm positive she doesn't read this, a special shout-out to Shef for calling me and preventing me from being iPod-less for 3 months. I owe you big time.



Got to the airport early, so continued my drunkenness by downing a couple brews at the BA lounge. Very useful as I was able to pass out before the plane even took off and managed to get a decent night's sleep on the plane.

Arrived Sunday morning in London. After spending an HOUR waiting to go through passport control (lazy Europeans only had like 3 of 10 booths open), I was rushed to a car by the driver of a car service. He literally said "no, I'm in a rush" when I asked if I could stop at the ATM for some cash. Normally this would not be a big deal, but I'll explain later.

Got to my apartment and was just amazed. Since it's corporate housing I expected it to be pretty nice, but still I was impressed. The building has a very hotel-like feel, with the concierge, porter, gym, business center (I refuse to spell it "centre"), etc. My apartment was even more impressive...1 bedroom place, with a big living room, separate dining/work area, and fully-furnished kitchen. The place even has a washer/dryer. Needless to say, it will be a great place to crash for any and all who decide to visit. As I told Shashank earlier today, "Corporate Housing 1, Living with Smitty 0"

Spent the rest of yesterday roaming the residential area I live in looking for an ATM, eventually having to walk like 10 minutes to the nearest bank (Barclays baby!), doing some grocery shopping (essentially milk, water, diet coke, cereal, and a couple frozen dinners), buying a cellphone, and watching whatever American TV was on (limited to The OC, Friends, and Everybody Hates Chris...no ESPN in the apartment).

Today is the first day of "work" at the new office, and fortunately I haven't had much to do outside of setting up my computer and opening up the obligatory Barclays bank account with the help of the obligatory Indian banker. There are literally like 5 people in the office right now, in a 20-odd person group. I honestly don't know where anyone is, and don't really care as long as no one starts giving me work to do.

That's all for now. This weekend is a 4-day weekend here in the UK so hopefully I'll have some interesting stories to tell.