Frigid photowalk

Today was not so much an early start as I stayed in my apartment watching a movie until about lunch time. Oh... I will miss that when I start work next week! After that, I went back out to Covent Garden where I picked up my cell phone which I had left at a shop to be unlocked. Thankfully, they were able to at least unlock my Iphone 3G (I finally have a working cell phone! :D) since my Iphone 4 can't be unlocked yet... Something about firmware 4.1 not being unlockable to date. 

The rest of the day was spent with a group of photographers from flickr. Met up with a bunch of guys from flickr (Aris, Nana, Sam, and Stan) and walked around Old Street/Brick Lane area. There were more than the 4 of us too so it was actually a pretty big group. All in all, it was a blast despite the frigid temperatures that we were walking around in. None of us were quite prepared to be spending hours out in "what feels like" -6 degrees centigrade. We had all frozen solid by about 9pm (me and Aris started at 12:30). Of course, we supplemented our time with lunch, dinner, and several beer/drink breaks. Good times! Though... I hope the next photowalk takes place when temperatures get a little warmer... or we walk during the day haha. 

Tonight I go and meet up with a potential flatmate. Hope all goes well, if it does, I move in this weekend. You know... I had trouble sleeping again tonight but I read an article about questions that I should be asking myself. It made me realize that worrying is nothing but self destructive. Instead, I should be thankful for what I have and what I have around me. If it really is something that is important, then do something about it rather than sit around. Sitting around and worrying is the equivalent of not doing anything and that's not what I will waste my time doing.

Sleepless nights...

So, it is currently 5:30am and I have slept maybe 1 hour tonight... I just can't fall asleep. Too much thinking maybe. My mind is on overdrive. The move, the flat that hasn't been found, everything else. It has just kept me up all night.

Anyway. I went around to a few properties yesterday to take a look. I think we took a look at about 8-10 properties in total, of which maybe 3 were worth while. The other ones were too old and kind of dingy to consider. Maybe it's because I come from North America. I almost feel snobby because I am so used to modern and new. It's hard to come by a flat like that here unless I wanted to move to Chelsea or Angel and pay a fortune. I mainly took a look through the Clapham Junction and Common areas today. There was this one flat that was amazingly modern and well done up but it is expensive at over 330 pounds per week! This is for a single bedroom mind you... My real estate agent suggested that I do a flatshare. I am just so iffy about that though. I am very, very picky about who I live with and unless you are a close friend, it probably doesn't work out long term but she did insist that if I were to consider that, for my budget, I could consider a very nice flat in Chelsea. We'll see I guess!

Arrival in London

The anticipated flight to London happened last night and I landed at 1:30pm local time. The flight was relatively pleasant... it would have been a lot harder had I had no one to speak to. But in this case, since I got to the airport and went past security, I sat next to two nice people and we just chatted about her experiences. She was going to connect in Heathrow and then fly out to India for a month long excursion. We spoke about that and how she loved the time when she lived in the UK (she now lives in Vancouver). She kept telling me about how I would love it in London and may not end up coming back. I guess the most encouraging thing she said was how fast this whole experience would just fly by. It's not that I want it to fly by quickly, but the alternative of having this experience be slow and agonizing would have been much worse.

I was picked up at the airport by the driver of the company that my company hired after I got my baggage. It was the first time I'd been picked up at the airport by someone with a sign with my name on it. Though, as you would have guessed, the name was spelled "Kelvin Ng". Go figure.

The car that he picked me up in was kind of fancy. It was a Mercedes van... apparently the rest of their fleet are brand new BMW 3 series cars. It was roomy and covered in nice supple leather haha. Not too bad car to be picked up in :) The drive took roughly an hour in the city traffic and I felt like passing out. But not before the driver chimed in on what he thought about politics, food, etc.

Driver "I think that sushi just isn't meant for this population in London"

Me "Oh? Why is that?"

Driver "Well, the Japanese probably eat all these herbs and have a diet that lets them break down the fish better"

Me "..."

Driver "I'd rather have chinese food (all you can eat)"

Me "..."

When I got back to the apartment, I just put everything down and started to look through my luggages and flipped open the laptop. I've been here since... Oh... and when I looked in the kitchen, I found a gift box from the company. It contained some of the following: two cans of coke, a bottle of water, pringles, a chocolate bar, orange juice and cereal. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least.

Tomorrow is another big day... going apartment hunting tomorrow. Hopefully I find a place that doesn't break the bank!

Appreciation

As the old adage goes, you don't know what you have until it is gone. Sometimes it is easy to lose your appreciation for the good things in life. Like it or not, we are all (in some way) "what have you done for me lately kind of people". But there are also people or simple things that you can appreciate at all times.

I spent the New Years weekend in Whistler. One thing I learned as I took the picture above is that you can never really fall out of appreciation for the fact that I live in such a beautiful place. While London is on the horizon, I know that I will always call Vancouver home. Not only for the beautiful landscape but for the company I was with. There is no person I would have rather been with at this time.

We all try to live in the present and it is easy to forget to appreciate what we have. Too often we don't appreciate the things we love and care about until it is gone or is about to go. I won't be making that mistake - there are just too many reasons to not take her presence for granted.