4 weeks in the new house :)

It's been almost 4 weeks since we've moved into the new apartment. We're settling quite nicely I think, and the house is looking more homey now.


We hosted our first Grand Prix gathering for the Valencia Grand Prix last Sunday. We decided that everything had to be themed, the food, the drinks, so we had a huge shop at Tesco for tapas and ingredients for sangria. Stuart made the sangria, which turned out quite lethal. It was also an incredibly hot day, so after the race, we sat outside on the balcony sunning ourselves.


Last week was uneventful work-wise. Wasn't mega happy about some stuff, but hey, everyone has bad days at work. Also managed to register successfully at the NHS health centre near the new apartment.


On Friday, Barratts (our developer) organised a resident's barbeque on the roof garden. Stuart and I headed there after work and we met a few of our neighbours. They're all really lovely people (with amazing jobs!) and we ended up staying on the roof garden till quite late at night, chatting and hanging out with everyone. 


On Saturday, Hayley and Dave came to stay. They'd come down to London to watch the Hayes-Klitschko fight at JonP's and Emma's. They arrived in London at about 10am, so Stuart and I got ready (I got ready in record time, might I add!). Hayley and Dave dropped off their stuff in the apartment, we gave them the mandatory home tour and then we headed out to see the sights of London. It was a really lovely day, so we headed to Waterloo and walked on the South Bank, where Hayley and Dave had ice cream and Stuart and I had frozen mango yoghurt. After that, we headed to London Bridge for lunch at Vapiano's. No one really wanted to have a proper sit down lunch, but I insisted on it, and it turned out that everyone really enjoyed their lunch! Dave, Hayley and Stuart all had pizzas, whilst I had my usual Aglio E Olio pasta with extra bacon and mushrooms. Yum!


After lunch, we ventured into the Tate Modern, where we stayed for about 5 minutes before Stuart started whinging about modern art and how he hated it. So we left and walked across the Millenium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral. Along the way, a string quartet were playing, a small crowd had gathered to listen to them, and they were playing one of my favourite classical pieces, Pachelbel's Cannon in D. We listened till they finished the song, and Hayley and Dave snapped a few photos of the cathedral before we decided to head to The Lord Raglan, a pub near St. Paul's tube station, for a few drinks.


We then headed back to our apartment and then to Tesco to buy some drinks and snacks for the fight, after which we headed to JonP's and Emma's house. I'm not a fan of boxing or any sort of fighting sport, but it was quite exciting. I found myself on the edge of my seat, rooting for Klitschko, who won in the end. The fight ended quite late and we were all knackered so we fell asleep around JonP's and Emma's. When I woke up at 1am from what was supposed to be a 20 minute nap (I'd overslept!), I woke everyone up and we took a taxi back to Canada Water.


Sunday was relatively slower compared to Saturday. We went to Buckingham Palace and then Green Park for a picnic before we decided to head back because Dave and Hayley wanted to avoid the Sunday traffic back to Nottingham. Stuart and I then spent the rest of the evening chilling out and watching Stargate SG-1 :)

New apartment

It looks like I only ever update my blog monthly. LOL.

I thought I would start a video blog, but I've basically given up on that already. Back to writing for me!

WELL. This past weekend (and the weekend before) has certainly been action-packed and eventful.

We've officially moved in to the new apartment! It is AWESOME.

Stuart has his own room, and I will take the master bedroom. My room has an ensuite room with a shower. Stuart's bathroom is opposite his room, and is also the guest bathroom (although if people want to use my bathroom, I'm not going to refuse them!).

On Friday, I had to take a half-day off to meet the developers for completion of the house and the handover. At 4pm, we met up with a lady called Shirley and the site manager Paul and were brought around for a home tour. Everything in the building looks nice and clean and new, and smells like fresh paint.

We were brought up to our apartment and got to see it for the very first time, which was extremely exciting. It's been almost 3 months since we actually decided we were going to buy the place. The Spacia flooring which I wanted to be fitted in the living room and hallway was not completely finished, because the flooring guy was waiting for extra material to be delivered, so for now, we've got a small unfinished section in the hallway at the door. Other than that, I'm quite happy with how the flooring looks and feels.

(*Update* The flooring guy Paul called Stuart and arranged to come tomorrow to finish off the flooring, so hopefully we will have the hallway all done by tomorrow evening! Yay!)

The furniture from Hatch was all put in the apartment as well. I picked a beige L-shaped sofa, and it was huge! Much bigger than in the pictures that Elaine, the lady I've been liaising with, sent me! It is super comfortable and can easily fit 4 - 6 people on it.

(By the way, I will upload pictures soon, it's just that I have no internet connection at home, so it's a little difficult to do that.)

After the home tour, I had to do the legal stuff and sign some papers, and then Shirley brought us over to see the gym (which is open 24 hours, seven days a week) and meet our concierge, Roland (the Gunslinger, anyone? LOL!) He's really nice, and he will be there to collect any parcels that we might get delivered to the new apartment.

After that, Stuart and I went back to the flat and chilled out for a while on the giant couch whilst waiting for the rain to stop. We then went back to Barbican to have dinner and to move the first load of stuff in our 2 large suitcases. Moving on the tube is ridiculously tedious and painful. People keep getting in our way and barging past us to get on the train. HELLO?! Can you not see us struggling with 2 massive suitcases?! Idiots.

After the first batch, we were really tired, and it was getting quite late, so we decided to call it a night. We then went to the Tesco Extra just round the corner to get sheets and pillows and other bits and pieces. Poor Stuart's heel was hurting from his new shoes, so he was limping back and forth in the rain. (I did offer him my umbrella, but he insisted he didn't want to look like an idiot limping under a polka dotted umbrella. I said he still looked like an idiot limping in the rain.)

We got back from Tesco (in the rain, again. It stopped whilst we were inside and then started the moment we stepped out. Sigh.) and went to bed almost immediately because we were both knackered.

And now I haven't written about it I've kind of forgotten bits and I'm now bored of writing about this.

We've been in the new apartment for about 2 weeks now. It's kind of surreal. It's home. Home. A long time since I've considered any place a proper home. Everything's mostly settled now. There were a few defects in the new house, but we have a customer service guy who helps us deal with that stuff. We tell him if we're unhappy with something, and he tries his best to fix it.

We've had 2 trips to Ikea, both of which were really fun but tiring. The first one involved a 2.5 hour taxi ride back and the second trip involved us carrying a curtain pole on the tube. Fun times.

I really need to get better at this 'updating my blog' thing.

Right, so where did we leave off?

Ah, yes! I went back to Nottingham to pack up and move the last bits and pieces with Stuart, and Carly and Rob both very kindly helped to move everything to Stuart's and Carly's dad's place. Surprisingly, it took only 2 trips to move all our junk! We also had to stop off at a B & Q to pick up an electric hob for Stu's Crown Street house because the old one was a gas hob and had to be disconnected or something. After moving stuff, we had a barbeque because the weather was so gorgeous. It was really nice to sit outside and chill out. In April!
The neighbour's dog Bluebell came over at some point with her yellow ball, and we tossed it a couple of times around for her to catch. She wasn't exactly a very bright dog, because she put her ball in the bird bath, and when we pretended to throw it, she ran off to catch the imaginary ball. Towards the end, Stuart threw her ball over the garage roof to the back garden and she disappeared, re-appearing without her ball, looking everywhere for it. Stu had lost her ball! Poor Bluebell!

We left around 8pm, and made our way to Tesco to get some drinks and snacks, as we were staying over at Carly and Rob's place in Derby. Their house is really lovely. I hope that when I get my apartment with Stuart, I will keep it as tidy as theirs. We basically just chilled out all night, chatting over drinks, and played Mortal Kombat on Rob's PS3. He is really good at it! After that, we tried out the Playstation Move with some game I've forgotten the name of. We finally went to bed at almost 5am. I don't remember the last time I went to sleep that late (or that early!).
When we woke up, Carly made us a yummy breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, and we watched some terrible TV show called Gladiators or something. After that, we watched some programme about Princess Diana's life before we left for Nottingham.

The next few days were just spent chilling out and packing things into 2 large suitcases that we were taking down to London with us. It felt weird when Stuart went to work on Tuesday and I stayed in bed (I'd taken 3 days off work to help with the move). Felt kind of nice too, because it was just like when I was unemployed before, and Stu went to work and I stayed home. Kind of miss that now, especially the sleeping in. I hate my alarm clock with a vengeance more than ever nowadays.
Stuart decided to leave work for the last time at lunch time, so I met him at the main Post Office in town to set up the redirection thing for our mail. It felt quite surreal, knowing that we were walking through Nottingham for the last time. At about 5.30pm, we got a taxi to the train station to catch our train to London.
When we got to the platform, having gotten our tickets and everything in order, the train to St. Pancras was just pulling into the station, so we walked to our carriage and waited for people to alight. A train conductor (or someone who worked on that train) got off and held the door for us to get on the train, so we did, thinking it was ok to board the train since a member of staff let us on. Stuart struggled to get both massive, heavy suitcases on the train and place them in the baggage compartment, and then we found our seats. A few minutes later, another member of staff came in and very rudely said that we weren't supposed to be on the train, and that we had to get off. The stupidest thing was that the reason we weren't allowed on the train was that we might use the bathroom on board the train whilst it was in the station (his exact words were "it's someone's workplace"), and that we were only allowed to board the train 18 minutes past 6pm (our train was due to leave at 6.38pm). What a ridiculous thing! Plus, we asked if we could leave the heavy suitcases in the baggage compartment, instead of lugging them off to wait on the platform for 5 minutes, and then have to heave them back on again. But no... He insisted we take them out with us. What a douche.

The next few days was spent travelling around London like a tourist. It was quite fun actually! On Wednesday, Stu got it into his head that he wanted to see Little Ben, Big Ben's lesser known little brother! Since it was such a nice day, we decided to walk there. Along the way, we passed by a New Look, so I went in to buy some leggings, since the ones I have had holes in them. I also bought some harem trousers and a grey cardigan. At the checkout, I saw a pair of cute sunglasses, and bought them because I'd lost all my other pairs of sunglasses and I needed a pair at that point in time, because the sun was so bright. At £2.99, it was a steal! It took us another 2 hours to walk to Little Ben, although our journey was broken up by having an ice lolly and lunch (from Marks & Spencers).
We passed by Westminster Abbey on the way to Little Ben and it was PACKED, thanks to the Royal Wedding on Friday. It was ridiculous. People were camping along the road, in preparation to catch a 5 second glimpse of Prince William and Kate Middleton on their wedding day. Bad enough that the pavement was already blocked by the press setting up their cameras and what not!

On Friday, we went to JonP and Emma's house to watch the Royal Wedding, and for a champagne and cream tea breakfast.

And now I'm bored of writing this already long and rambling blog post.

Changes

Well, it's been a hectic few weeks, and I didn't update (as usual!) about my life. Things have changed rather drastically.

So, the job? I'm now a Marketing Assistant with SMi Group! It's really great that I got it, and I'm really happy about it. In fact, I've done 2 weeks there now, and I'm loving the job!

Also, since I last updated, Stu had got an interview at Lovefilm and got offered the job the day after, which is totally awesome!

So, in a nutshell, we both got the first jobs we went for London, and we're both going to be living in the Canada Water apartment once it's ready! Stu has to finish up his notice period at his current job, but he'll be moving down to London soon, so yay!

The only downside to having a job is not having loads of free time and having to wake up really early to get to work every morning. Other than that, this is what I want to do, and I'm determined to make the best of it.
SMi Group is an events and conferencing company, and has about 50 to 60 people working there. I haven't met everybody yet, but those that I have met are all really nice, and it helps a lot that Kan and Vinh work there too, so I've got friends around.

My first week at SMi was great. Got to know the systems and had my inductions and all that. Still unfamiliar, of course, but I'll get the hang of things eventually. At first, I was only doing simple things, but I'm gradually being given more responsibility. I quite enjoy it. My boss is really lovely, and she's been showing me the ropes, along with the girl who sits next to me, who is also really nice.

I've also moved to the temporary accommodation near Barbican tube station. Kan and Vinh very kindly offered to help me move. I stayed with JonP and Emma for a week before the Barbican place was ready, they're brother and sister, who Stu introduced to me. They were such lovely people to do me such a huge favour by letting me stay at their apartment. Now, it'll be another 2 months (hopefully not any longer!) till the Canada Water property will be ready.

I came back up to Nottingham last week for Stuart's birthday and also to help pack up more things and bring more stuff down to London. Also went to Stu's friends' Vlad and Jo's 10th wedding anniversary, which was very enjoyable. I also came back up this weekend for more packing and moving. (in fact, I'm blogging on the train!). Went to Stu's dad's house for Sunday dinner with his sister Carly and her boyfriend Rob. She very kindly offered to help move some things from Nottingham to Pleasley, where his dad's house is. Carly's also offered to help move the last bits of things next Saturday when she's not working, bless her!

It's rather strange being so far away from Stu these past few weeks, but it's only for another 4 days! This Friday's Good Friday, so it's a long weekend, so I'm gonna make another trip up to Nottingham for the final move, and Stu will be travelling back down to London with me. I'm also taking 3 days leave, which gives me an 11 day weekend, since the weekend after next is also a bank holiday weekend, thanks to the royal wedding! Should be able to get packing and moving done and get properly settled in by then!

Wow, this is a long post! Probably another few weeks before I update again, so savour this one, haha!

Job and moving to London

So, as you all know, I went down to London last Friday for my second interview. It went really well, and I quite enjoyed myself. After that, I waited in the lounge area for Kan and Vinh to finish work, and we went to get dinner at Vapiano again. Andy and Kan's friend Cynthia met us there as well. Stuart also decided to come down to meet me and spend the weekend in London.

After dinner, we went to Emma's house. We chatted awhile with Emma before we all went to bed, as we'd all had a very long day. On Saturday morning, I got a message from my brother, saying that my mother wanted me to check out a property development in Canada Water. Since Emma's house was close by, we decided to go there before we had lunch in Canary Wharf. When we got there, there was a marketing suite, so I decided to have a chat with a sales person. Stu and Emma had some drinks and hor d'oeuvres whilst they waited for me. After I got a brochure and price list and spoke to my parents, we left for Canary Wharf and went to a funky Mexican restaurant called Wahaca for a very delicious and filling lunch. After that, Emma and I wandered into Zara to do a spot of shopping before going our separate ways so that Emma could do some of her acting rehearsal stuff.

Over the weekend, we went back to Canada Water to look at Fairmont House again for my parents. After that, we decided to go to lunch at the Korean restaurant just outside Holborn tube station, but unfortunately it was closed. Stu and I walked back and forth for awhile trying to look for somewhere to eat at, and finally settled on a small sushi place. Whilst we were eating, Stu spotted a Krispy Kreme shop across the road, and we headed over there after we were finished with lunch. We bought a dozen doughnuts to bring back to Nottingham. :)

We then headed to Leicester Square, where we visted Rendezvous for the yummy ice-cream. I had rum and raisin and pistachio, Stu had coconut. We stayed there for awhile chatting about the future and our potential move to London and whether we could afford living in London. After that, we walked to Chinatown. I remembered seeing a Singapore-Malaysian cafe when I'd gone to see Les Miserables with my brother two summers ago, and so Stu very nicely waited for me whilst I had a curry laksa, one of my favourite foods that I miss so much. I also bought some Malay desserts to take back to Nottingham. After that, we went to collect our bags and made our way to St Pancras train station. We got there pretty early and had to wait around for the train to arrive. We only arrived back in Nottingham at about 10.30pm.

On Wednesday, I got a call from SMi Group (the company I interviewed at), offering me the job! :) I said yes, and so from April 4th, I will be a Marketing Assistant at SMi Group! :) :) :)

I'm just so glad now that I am going to starting a new job, and one that I think I'll really enjoy!

Oh, also! I spoke to Dad on Wednesday afternoon as well, and he asked me if I liked Fairmont House at Canada Water. I replied that I did, and so my brother and I will be joint houseowners! In fact, they've already taken a deposit fee, so the house will be ours very soon! :) I'm really looking forward to moving into the apartment and furnishing the place!

However, because the apartment isn't fully completed yet, and is estimated to be completed in May or June 2011, I've had to look for somewhere to stay short term before moving into the new place. So I will be staying in a studio flat near Barbican temporarily.

It will suck being away from Stuart, but kind of exciting to start working too. And a proper job, in the field that I really enjoy as well! I'm really happy that everything is panning out and working out properly! :)

There's more to update about, but this post is rather long already, and I'm getting quite tired, so it's bye for now! :)

Job Hunting

So, for the past few weeks, I've been busy with job hunting. It's been difficult, and at times, emotional, having to deal with endless rejections.

I'm actually on the train to London at the moment, on my way to my second interview. This is my second trip to London this week. On Monday, I travelled to London for an intial interview. I was set a task to do, which I did and sent back on Wednesday. To my delight, they called me soon after and arranged another interview on Friday.

I hope this goes well. Potentially, I would then be moving down to London. Whilst this makes me sad because I would be leaving some dear friends back in Nottingham, it's also kind of exciting to start a new job and meet new people.

I haven't written a blog post about Prague (which was amazing) yet. I promise, I will write one once things settle down a bit.

So, fingers crossed. I'll update when I get news, good or bad. Hopefully good. :)

February-ing

It's February already! Wow, time flies.

In less than 2 weeks it will be Valentine's Day, and in 16 days it'll be my 23rd birthday. Boy, I'm getting old!

This will be our first Valentine's Day together. I'm kind of stuck on what to get Stu for Valentine's Day. When I asked him, he said "Valentine's Day is for girls. You don't have to get me anything.", and then we proceeded to have a lengthy discussion about the origin of Valentine's Day. Stu says it's a corporate holiday invented by Hallmark, whilst I maintain that Valentine's Day came about because of a monk called Valentine, who was jailed for not giving up his religious beliefs, and fell in love with the jailer's daughter, writing letters to her signed "From your Valentine". He became sainted and Valentine's Day came about because of St. Valentine.

My version is so much more romantic. AND it's probably true.

It's Chinese New Year on Wednesday, and tomorrow I'll be Skype-ing with my family when they gather at my aunt's house for the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year Eve. I'd planned to be with them this year, after missing many years of Chinese New Year festivities because of uni here, but sadly, thanks to the visa application taking forever to process, I have to miss another year of seeing my family at Chinese New Year.

Stu got my birthday present already. I was on ASOS looking at stuff (looking, not buying! I have been true to my word (or New Year's resolution) and have not gone shopping since New Year's!) and I saw a pair of strappy wedges that I really liked, and so I jokingly asked if he could buy them for me as my birthday present. Surprisingly, he said yes! So he bought them, and on Saturday a box was delivered by a very nice deliveryman. But now, he won't let me open the box! :( I already know what it is, so why can't I open it?! So frustrating.

Right, I'm off now. Going to have a quick shower and then get ready to pop into town for some V-day present hunting (which does not count towards the New Year's resolution of not shopping, since whatever I buy is not for myself!). :)

*********************

As you can probably see, I've added a new little gizmo on my blog, showing you shows I've watched recently. It's a really cool website I use (Stuart introduced me to it) to "check in" to TV shows or movies I watch. It's called Miso, and you can earn badges for checking into shows and movies. You can even add shows if they aren't already on there. You can also follow people who watch the same stuff as you. It's really cool.

P.S. I'm in no way paid to write an advertorial for them, so there's no benefit or advantage in me writing this. I just think the website is pretty cool, that's all. :)