Hangin' out in London

Scary stuff happening in Mumbai this week. The weird part is that, according to my original plan (as of early September), I would have been in Mumbai right now to attend my cousin's wedding. I even had a plane ticket booked. The only reason I'm not there right now is because I had to start my new job before December, which forced me to cancel my trip.

I'm slowly getting used to the working life. The hours at are pretty long, which is a definite change from grad school. Each night after work, I can choose to do only one thing -- go out for dinner, do some homework, watch a movie, whatever. Just one of the above. The long hours were a little objectionable for the first couple of days (maybe because I was jet lagged and cranky), but I guess I don't really mind them now. There's a lot of stuff to learn right now, and most of it is pretty interesting (in a math nerd sort of way), so the hours go by pretty quickly.

Went to pub with (British) co-workers on Friday night to celebrate fiscal year-end. Pain.

Also got to see some old friends (Sarah and Neil) this weekend:

At "the bar" on Saturday night, somewhere south of London (in Surrey? Sutton?). Clockwise, it's me, Alison, Neil, Sarah and Adrian. Meant to recreate a picture taken two years ago, on my last (and only other) trip to England.

My first ever Sunday roast. Possibly the best culinary idea to come out of England, ever. Exactly what I needed after a big Saturday night.

My last night in San Francisco

Q: Why am I starting a blog, and why now?
A: My mom has been telling me for years to keep some sort of journal, but I've always been too busy (read: lazy) to bother. But as of tomorrow, I'll be starting a shiny new job in a shiny new country, so if I don't start journal-ing now, I probably never will. So, here goes.

(I imagine I'll end up posting photos here more often than I write. We shall see.)

My flight from San Francisco to London landed just a few hours ago. Tomorrow, I start working from the London office of my new employer (a big bank that shall remain nameless), while I wait for my Japanese work visa to be processed. And in a week or two after that, I'm off to Tokyo.

I flew business class on Virgin Airlines from SFO to Heathrow. Awesome. Virgin has mood lighting! Brand new aircraft, fancy new entertainment system, great food. No wonder the US carriers are getting trounced.

I got pretty emotional as the plane took off from SFO. It occurred to me then that I might not be back in Cali again for quite some time. Oddly, the last person I spoke on the phone before taking off was Kelly Woo. Nice. Even now, it still hasn't fully sunk in that I won't be partying with my friends in the Mission next weekend. Sigh. The night before I left, we had a solid Friday night out. Phoenix, Osha, 500 Club and after-party at Anand's. I just wanted to visit all my favourite spots one last time before heading out. Felt good to see everybody out. At some point during Friday night, in the midst of all the chaos, I remember feeling really sad that I was leaving. Flying into London, I couldn't help but listen to Pink Floyd. I played Wish You Were Here several times on my iPod, on repeat.

The other thing I keep thinking right now is that I had better not forget to write up my thesis. I have a fuzzy memory of James beating that into me on Friday night (thanks James!). I'm also a little worried about my Japanese language final exam, which I really hope I passed because I need the units to graduate... and then there's this stupid accounting project I need to worry about... damn it.

A few pictures from Friday night:

Goodbye dinner at Osha in the Mission, after pints at Phoenix.

After-party at Anand's apartment, around the corner from the 500 Club. (Thanks Anand!)

Me in my hotel room after arriving in London on Sunday afternoon, still wearing the same clothes as Friday night... classy!