London calling...

So, I'm in London.

For all you who think it's glamarous to travel for work...I hate to break it to you, but it's not. Anything but, actually.

I was told at about 2:00 pm last Thursday that I was coming to London on the redeye that night and that I should pack for three weeks. I worked until 5:00 pm, then ran home to pack my life into my largest suitcase (you try fitting three weeks worth of business clothes in one suitcase!), jumped in a cab and was off to the airport.

It was snowing a bit, so we were delayed about an hour. I tried to sleep on the plane and even took a sleeping pill, but I didn't get many REMs, if any. When I got to London I dropped my suitcase off at my "flat" before heading straight for the office.

My apartment is pretty cool. It's two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a lovely kitchen and living room. I only wish I could spend more time here.

I've been working prettymuch round the clock since I got here...and this is the first day I've had off in two weeks. Monday I was at the office from 9:00 am to 5:00 am. Then, back again the next morning at 9:00 am and stayed until 3:00 am. By that time I was completely "knackered" (as my office-mate says). On Wednesday evening at work, I started seeing black patches, which is usually not a good sign. Ok, so it's NEVER a good sign. However, due to my black patch visuals and my fatigue-induced nasea (I couldn't keep anything down all day), I got to go home early (8:00 pm) so I could get some sleep. I slept that night for almost 12 hours straight, and woke up feeling much better.

Moral of the story: my body hates me right now.

Until today, the only sight I saw was St. Pauls Cathedral. Every day. My office is right next to the cathedral actually. It's pretty unbelieveable to walk by it every day, to tell you the truth. I don't think I'll ever get sick of it. My apartment is about a six minute walk from the office (which I should have recognized as the first bad sign....whenever you're that close to the office, you know it's going to be long hours), so every morning I get to have 6 minutes of fresh air before holing up in the office.

Three meals a day are catered to the office, so there is no need to go outside. Wait, I mean, there is NEED, but there just isn't time. I've worked through meal breaks every day. Good for the billable hours, bad for the phsyche.

Today was such a relief. Miraculously, I didn't have to go into the office. I slept in until 11:30 (yeah, don't judge me). Then did laundry and headed out into the city. I met up with an attorney from work --Marta--for high tea at the Four Seasons. It was amazing! I felt so high society. It was about 40 GBP per person, so I'm sure glad the firm was paying. Then, Marta and I went to Harvey Nichols to shop. It's a posh department store next to Harrods (but less touristy than Harrods). Of course, I couldn't buy anything, though I did fall absolutely in love with a coat. Guess how much? 1000 GBP...so roughly $2000. Geeze I have expensive taste. I've found that, invariably, when shopping I will choose the most expensive thing (even when I can't see the tags). Go figure.

I was going to try to go to a show, but we finished shopping too late, so I just went to walk around Leicester Square for a while. It's like Times Square, but with a British accent. It's sad though, because it's filled with dismal restaurants like Subway and TGI Fridays. Americana is tainting the world's cultures...

Well, I'm going to sign off for the night. I found a channel with House re-runs and I'm going to watch one before I go to bed. Tomorrow I get to go to church! Hooray. I didn't get to to last week, so I'm really looking forward to it.
"Cheers"