Back in the social scene

Spring is arriving in London, at least for this week anyway. As part of my new year resolution, I have decided to get out and socialize more this year. Now looks like at least weather has kicked off a good start.

I was in the city earlier this week for a seminar at IBM office in southbank. It is one of those ugly, characterless buildings, but southbank area always gives me a nice feel about London. The river, theatres and buzz ling crowd makes a good dynamic city that enchants many hearts. Sometimes I think Hammersmith is a bit isolated, it is a buy place during work hours as there are quite a few big companies here (Coco cola, universal studio) but somehow it just doesn’t have the viber that the city offers.

I was talking to H, one of my Swedish friends on the phone last week, she is moving to San Francisco. Nice place. I think it is a good time to be in America – they have got a charismatic leader who hopefully will revitalize the country.

I have not been going out to social events since Mark and I started dating about two years ago. I guess it is partly because we get too comfortable and lazy and work gets quite stressful sometimes, but now it is time to get out of our shell and interact with the big world.

“Why don’t you try oriented?” H reminded me that was where we met in Beijing. I checked out their website, seems like they have been expanding to more cities around the world since three years ago.

So here I was, standing in the middle of this Italian restaurant/bar called Vapiano just off oxford street. I realized I am no longer  “savvy” at socializing anymore, of course I blame it for lack of practice. But I quickly gathered my guts and hid away my shyness. Within a few minutes I was in the mingling crowd.

It turned out to be an interesting night, and I even bumped into someone I know in London, whom I haven’t seen for at least two years. It was quite civilized crowd, a mixture of British Chinese, other nationalities who have China links, and Taiwanese and people like me from mainland China. The only disappointment is that I was hoping to speak a bit Chinese but it seems everybody is keen on speaking in English.

Winter Wonderland in London

When I got up this morning, it was a delightful surprise that outside it has turned a winter wonderland. The snow started in the evening yesterday, apparently had been snowing all night long, and it was still snowing when I left for work. The snow on the untouched streets was deep to my ankles. 

When I got to the office after 40 minutes (usually it is a 30 minutes) walk, it turned out I was one of the few people who made to the office as most public transportation had stopped running. I enjoyed a quiet day in the office and went home at 15:00. A nice change really compared with normal working days!

In the last ray of sunlight, we made a snowman in our communal garden. It was wonderful to have a day like back in the childhood.