In the beginning of July, I heard of a cricket gala from Will and Nick, two of my coworkers who also happen to be our neighbors in Notting Hill. They were bragging about how they were going to the dinner and how there would be professional cricketers there. I was quite impressed that they were going to such an event and took note. So... when on the day of the event I received an email saying that someone would be unable to attend and that a ticket had come available, I responded immediately and without hesitation.
Will and Nick adjusting their bow ties on the way to the event. Cute, isn't it?
Doing the British clap.
The BCG gang
Nick and I with Devon Malcolm, a UK cricketer.
The boys showing off the crickets bats and ball that I acquired for them.
On our way out. Things started getting stupid at this point. I believe we left with cricket bats and apples and the boys proceeded to hit the apples across a field until a security guard asked them to stop.
Crashing a KPMG party around the corner
Adam, Nick, and Will carefully concealing their identities as the people who snuck in from the cricket gala.
2 weekends ago we went to Bath. One of my coworkers invited 9 of his friends up to his house in Bath. I was lucky to be offered an invitation +1.
It was an amazing house set in a beautiful garden.
From the backyard you could see horses less than 100 yards away.
And the garden was beautiful. It was so English. Dylan and I went on a short walk and spotted what looks like a castle in the distance.
And we walked behind the back of the house and had to take a photo. The area on the right with the windows is the indoor pool house. We spent most of Saturday lounging in there.
One saturday in July, we experienced Notting Hill just as it is in the movies. We woke up Saturday morning and received an invite from our friend Lisa to join her and her friends for lunch. We got ready to go and walked over to her flat, just a few blocks away also in Notting Hill.
On our way, we passed the Travel Bookshop from the movie Notting Hill. I didn't realise it actually existed until a few weeks ago when someone mentioned that it was a real store. We had never seen it before, so it was a great surprise to walk by it this day.
Now, we had both known that Lisa's flat was on "the garden" that Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts explored late on night. I secretly hoped the lunch would turn out to be a picnic in this very garden. And luckily it did!
The garden was even better than it appears in the movie. It really is huge! And surrounded by beautiful mansions.
There were a lot of children playing in the garden and climbing the trees. It seemed like such an amazing place to have as your backyard. And just like in the movie, it is a private garden - you can't access it unless you live in one of the buildings that surrounds it.
Sometime at the end of May, our office had an offsite day. The details of the event were a complete surprise. All we knew was that we were to arrive at Embankment pier at 8am on Friday morning. Typically, my coworkers arrive to work sometime after 9am, so an 8am start was not appreciated by anyone.
After arriving at the pier, and had some coffee and tea.
Then we got settled at tables and had some pastries as we cruised down the Thames. We still had no idea where we were going, but enjoyed the scenery nonetheless.
View of Tower Bridge from the boat
Going by Tower bridge
And here we are arriving in Greenwich.
One of the facilities we met in for break-out sessions and lunch.
Abnormally blue cupcakes with silver glitter - apparently edible, but deceiving to the eye. I'm glad I skipped the blue cupcake since they turned people's lips blue!
Here's my group listening intentively during our breakout session. We discussed BCG values and strategy for 2015 during the morning.
BCG London office portrait
Next activity: cross-cohort bonding. We were divided into teams of about 10 people to film 60 sec commercials.
Gavin and I were in charge of the costumes. We hadn't agreed our plotline yet, but were quite certain we could do something with this wig!
View of the lawn with an assortment of BCG themes preparing their commercials.
After a long day, relaxing at the pub.
Outside view of the pub - our venue for the evening. It was ideally situated on the River Thames with a number of balconies overlooking the water. We stayed here for entertainment, food, and drink until late in the evening.
June 7, 2008 will forever be remembered as the day Dylan took the CFA exam (for 6+ hours in Canary wharf) and the day I went to Oxford with Will for the end of term. I was fortunate that Will, my Notting Hill neighbor and coworker, invited me on a tour of Oxford. Will graduated from Oxford a year ago and decided to return for the end of term festivities.
As we strolled the streets of Oxford, he showed me all his favorite places and explained some of the many traditions that the students keep alive. At Oxford, student's take exams in their final year only, which culminate the 3 years of "undergraduate" study. One fun one involves emptying the contents of one's kitchen and dumping it on your friend's head in the middle of the street once they have finished their finals (and hence are ready to graduate).
Will and I on the streets of Oxford, enjoying a beautiful day. I will also remember this as the 2nd time since working on my Hemel Case that I became "deathly ill". My hacking cough was at its peak at this point. You may not be able to tell from the photo above, but I'm feeling awful. In the following 48 hours, I go to urgent care 2x.
Courtyard at Magdalen college where Will lived during his 3 years at Oxford. WOW!
A great hall, where students actually eat during a fancy meal called "formal hall", which involves wearing gowns and being served multiple courses here.
The deer park. Will says he was warned not to ride the deer at one point in time. Of course the students often sneak into this park at night, but techinically no one is allowed inside.
Students live in colleges. They are like dorms in that they are residential, but they are more academic in nature since the students also attend study sessions with other students in their college. Picture above is a group of students partying outside their college. It just so happens to also be a cemetery - though this didn't prevent students from drinking amog the gravestones or using the tomb as a table.
I love this arch / walkway. Apparently a student jumped out of it last year and broke both his wrists, but somehow survived without breaking his legs or anything else.
The Bodleian Library is the largest library in the UK. This picture doens't entirely do it justice. We entered a courtyard and were surrounded by 4 walls, with many doors. The library is made up of a series of rooms containing different subjects. Each door is labeled with a different subject. Another college quad - I can't remember which one though! Oops.
Down the main street. The Sheldonian Theatre. I like the busts on the top of every column.
Many of the buildings in Oxford are 800+ years old. I can't imagine how amazing it would have been to be able to study and live there.
I went to see Sex and the City a couple weeks ago at the Odeon Theatre in Leicester square. It was really a great time. I went with my friend and coworker Christine. She is also a North American and therefore is as obsessed as I am.
Getting ready to go to the show. Of course I needed to wear something fashionable, but wacky. Note: new silver snakeskin belt. I love. Turquoise metallic pumps: an old favorite.
The movie was so much fun. Firstly, going to the movie in Leicester Square on opening weekend was a wonderful idea. (Besides for the fact I looked like an idiot wearing fur in June and walking down the street like this at 7pm when there was still daylight). The movie was filled with women who were all dressed up - though none as extreme as I. It was great though. We had assigned seats and Christine, being thoroughly type-A just like me, bought our tickets in advance. When the lights began to dim following the 20 minutes of previews, everyone cheered! I knew at once that this was going to be amazing - a theatre full of woman who knew all the lines and were dying to see this movie. When the Fergie theme song came on there was another cheer. And then as they showed the various women and had clips from previous episodes, people laughed so hard at all the jokes (Charlotte: I've been dating since I was 15. I'm exhausted. Where is he?)
Carrie's opening dress led the audience to gasp for breath. AMAZING.
But then again all of the fashion in the movie was great.
I won't analyse the plot, but I did like it a lot. I thought it had more mature themes than many of the shows and dealt with topics (trust, forgiveness, staying true to yourself) that are difficult to discuss. The movie made me laugh out loud (Pooh - kippsie) and cry. But I loved it overall!
I enjoyed the movie so much, that I saw it twice. This is very rare for me to be able to see a movie repeatedly, especially so soon after the first viewing. So that means something! Dylan came with me. And at the end, I asked him "what'd you think?" He said, "Wow, that was actually really good." So I was pleased.
The result of this movie most importantly is that it has reinvigorated my need for city life, very very large closets, fashion, and friends!
Again there is a large blogging backlog. Just received an email from Stuart urging me to blog so I better get to it.
This spring London elected Boris Johnson as the new mayor. His election created quite a bit of commotion for reasons that I haven't cared to look into. However, the one thing I do know was that when he was elected he announced that he would put into effect a ban on alcohol on all public transport starting June 1, 2008. This created quite a scandal for 2 reasons: 1. This clarified that drinking on the tube actually was legal! Many people didn't realise it was legal, so refrained from doing it. After realising it was legal, more people started to drink on the tube. 2. By banning alcohol on June 1, Boris effectively created a historic day in London, May 31 - the last day to drink on the tube.
In the weeks leading up to the alcohol ban, the idea of a party on the tube spread like wild fire through social networking websites and all social circles. The plan became known as "Last Round on the Underground". On May 31, people planned to gather on the Circle line, the only line which one can ride continuously in a circle all day without coming to the end of the line and having to turn around. As the Brits would say, it was "brilliant."
So like a true American, I jumped on the bandwagon and decided to join in on the fun. That day, some of my coworkers began a Circle line pub crawl around noon. They would ride one stop on the Circle line and then get off and grab a pint at the local pub. Ride, drink, repeat. They started at Victoria and by 4 pm had made it to Notting Hill gate. Will and Dylan and I had been out to lunch and met up with them at the Duke of Wellington (appears in opening scene in the movie Notting Hill). We temporarily halted their Circle line pub crawl where we began our own pub crawl in Notting Hill. We went to several different bars before deciding it was time to hop on the Circle Line for the real party.
At 9pm, we went to Sainsbury's (a UK supermarket) to stock up on alcohol and Dylan went home to study for the CFA (boo!). Someone had the brilliant idea to buy squirt guns and fill them with gin and tonic. Yummm.... not.
Walking to the Circle Line after stocking up at Sainsbury's on Westbourne Grove.
Will and I entered the Bayswater tube station and found a fabulous sign to pose by! While we were devising ways to steal the sign (never ended up stealing it though), we realised the rest of the group was missing.
Apparently they had stopped in a Tourist shop to by Police hats. Clever! Favorite pic of the night.
Hannah and Adam on the tube. Note the cover story - "Police alert over party on the tube"
Adam, Hannah, and Julie posing with the London Police
Starting the party on the tube.
Someone even brought Twister! Will (in pink shirt) is playing.
Our first train... very loud. Everyone is singing and banging on the roof.
Outside the tube, changing trains. Again, very loud. Anytime a train arrived and the doors opened, people would cheer.
No more circle line. By about 10pm they had shut down the circle line. So all of us partied on the platforms. Notice the group of people wearing blond Boris wigs in honour of Boris Johnson himself.
Carrie's opening dress led the audience to gasp for breath. AMAZING.
However, the one thing I do know was that when he was elected he announced that he would put into effect a ban on alcohol on all public transport starting June 1, 2008. This created quite a scandal for 2 reasons:
