Adventures in Austin, New York, London and Beyond: Welcome Drinks & My Day Out In London

It's been a nice weekend so far, lots of things going on some for fun, some just to distract myself. On Friday after work, I arranged to meet up a few friends from work that I met at GS training in NY. We went around the corner to a place called the Centre Page and had a pint outside and chatted a bit. It happened that the same night another guy from training was leaving the firm and sent out an invitation for drinks on Friday as well. So we merged the two events and quite a few people turned up to the pub right across from our main GS office. I now forget the name of the place but it was a cool spot and you could definitely tell that's where loads of people went after work to cool down but cooling was definitely limited. The main area was really really hot! fortunately the back room wasn't taken so we meandered our way back there and found a few bottles of wine for us to enjoy. How could we pass that up? The group that had just left didn't finished a few full bottles of wine so we happily took over where they left off. :-)

Yeah, so it was a fun night, lots of catching up and seeing faces I hadn't seen in ages. By the sounds of it, a lot of people hadn't seen each other in donkey's years (britishsm for you) so it was a great night of catching up. Some people were definitely surprised to see me there and know that i had moved over here and of course i got the question "so why have you come to London?" a gazillion times but i was expecting that and had my answer ready, haha. It was good to see everyone, lots turned out like i said before and from what i can remember i saw: tim, stew, ash, alan, ali, john, alice, melissa, darshini, chris, simon, steve, eric, vicky and i'm sure there were others but the names aren't popping into my head.

Right, so today I had a lie in and puttered around until about midday until I decided to head out and explore a bit of London. I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I looked up a few places on my list near Green Park which would be my last stops and then took the train into Blackfriar's station and started walking. It was such a beautiful day and i stupidly brought my coat with me which after about 2 minutes of walking was taken off and stuffed into my backpack. There was a cool breeze, blue sky and sun shining down on London. Lovely. I headed west through a few areas and one really cool street i found was Denmark street which is perpendicular to Charing Cross and SOHO. It was lined with guitar and music shops and I wanted to explore all of them. I'd been meaning to get new guitar strings so I headed into an acoustic guitar shop that smelled of polish. I saw the familiar elixir nanoweb's behind the counter and inquired how much they were. £12 was the answer which was crazy as that's how much they are but in dollars! I was a bit shocked so I decided not to buy strings until i really needed them (i.e. one popped off) because that price is just outrageous to me, that's about $24! I passed a pub along the way that caught my attention...see the picture below. he he.

I continued on and hit Oxford street, a very busy shopping area and lots more people were out and about. I stopped in John Lewis which is a large department store over here and picked up a few kitchen items that I've been meaning to get. I continued on, stopping at Boots (pharmacy like CVS) to get some water and a few things. The odd bit is they didn't have non-spray deodorant which is the opposite of what you'd see in the states, well at least in the past. They only had stick and that was the major stock. But here, at least in Boots, they only had spray deodorant which i thought was a bit weird but I purchased a can and continued on my way.

I kept going on Oxford street, and passed by a belgian waffle shop that looked VERY tempting. I had just eaten a snack so i wasn't too hungry but was very intrigued and starting to feel hungry after seeing a chocolate covered waffle advertised. I kept going and headed towards Hyde Park. I passed another waffle place and couldn't resist this time so a VERY tasty chocolate covered waffle was purchased and carried to the park. Along the way, passerbys stared hungrily at the chocolate mess that I was holding. I tried to stop myself from chuckling as their eyes widened once they spotted my tasty treat. I would be doing the same if someone was walking down a busy street carrying a chocolate covered waffle. That would be grounds for pinching it, me thinks. I'm a chocolate addict and in times of need, drastic measures must be taken. he he.

Right, so i arrived at the park, ate my waffle and found a nice tree to rest under for a bit. I explored a few other places, stopped in at an old fashioned shaving stored called Taylor's of Old Bond Street and bought a few items as an impulse buy. They've already been tested out and approved so it was a worthy buy even though it was a bit pricey.

All around it was a nice day out in London and I liked walking around and just getting my bearings about where things are. I now can pinpoint oxford street or at least the relative direction it's in and have a better grasp about where things are and how far apart they are. Much more exploring to come, hopefully with some company along :-)

Marble Arch