Mind the Gap

Here is a picture of Sergio and my favorite place to take people when they visit us for lunch. It is the best view you can get of Big Ben. It's fun finding interesting places in the Palace (the building you think of as Parliament, it is still a working palace). Sergio is on the left and my friend Jacob from UT is on the right.

My desk in the office.

from the door of the office.

View from the office window

So Friday was pretty crazy at the office and I didn't get out until around 6 PM. This is not normal at Parliament. Most of the offices are barely even there. I walked out and the place was empty. Sort of a weird feeling.

Sergio, and another flatmate of mine Esma went to Chinatown and enjoyed some good food before coming back to the flat and meeting up with a lot of other people and having some wine. My friend from Tejas Jason was in town and he met up with us before we went out. We went to a place called the Walkabout again. It is a fun place in an old church or some sort of domed building. We had a great time and it was really good to see Jason again. He is biking through Europe...intense.

On Saturday we got up and ate breakfast at a place right next to our flat. There is a great group of people here. After that I went and got a haircut at, yes they have them here, Supercuts. Nothing too special about it. They are pretty consistent across the pond except well over double the price.

We went to a fancy dinner that night to celebrate Kendra's Birthday. We went to the Mirabelle. It was very nice. Some of the food was very new to me. I was pushed to try just a bite of foie gras. They wouldn't tell me what it is until after I took a bite. I would suggest finding out first. Evidently, foie gras is the fat liver of a duck or goose. The horrible part is how they make it big enough to eat. When you get angry or distressed your liver swells. Basically these poor ducks and geese are fed nonstop. Food is basically shoved down their throats and they are supposedly beaten at the same time to make the liver extra big. Then they kill it and they have a big foie gras. It is banned in many places and from what I understand it will soon be banned in the UK. I'm not happy that I ate it.

From there two members of the group wanted to go to a club that costs 20 pounds just to get into...that is $40...just to get in! I said that sounds good, but I need to get back and don't really know if I can spend money like that. Luckily, I said what the majority of the group was feeling and so we went to a cheaper place, but still somewhat expensive. It was a fun night.

Sunday everyone took it easy and I slept in for the first time the whole trip. It felt wonderful! We went and ate a Ed's for dinner. Ed's is basically Johnny Rockets. It was good and the music was great. I came back home and finished a book and turned in early.

Today I was hard at work researching whale hunting. 1000 whales are killed by a certain nation for scientific purposes a year...why they have to kill them I still don't understand after researching a lot today. We have a VIP meeting tomorrow in our office and I hope my research will help. I will tell more later, but this blog is searchable for some reason and I don't want to get anyone in trouble. Gordon Brown takes over for Tony Blair on Wednesday. Parliament is a very exciting place right now. Overall the media and newspapers are not very good to Tony Blair. To be honest, I haven't spoken with anyone that is all that complimentary. It is very interesting to watch.

Today I was watching the news after work and they interviewed the cast of Harry Potter right across the street from my office window. I could actually see the window in the background of the frame. They are lucky I didn't know they were filming right there today. I might have made a scene. My local book store has a countdown to the release of the book...28 days... If you are rolling your eyes right now, you obviously haven't read them...gut it up and read them.

After dinner tonight we were so excited, and I mean I was so excited, about the US beating Mexico in the championship soccer game last night that we had an impromptu soccer game in the apt. Really bad idea. It wasn't my idea for the record, but I must tell you the IKEA paintings on our walls are very sturdy. Since we had three Americans, an Italian, a Mexican, and a French all playing soccer there were bicycle kicks, diving headers, and plenty of close calls. It is a miracle the flat is still in one piece.
Ouch is the same in Italian as it is in English...

Thanks for all those who have commented and sent me e-mails! It is great to hear from you! It should be a tough week of work, but I am very happy with the challenge.