Change of Pace

Well it's official....sort of. I am staying in London long term (I think). I was approached by two of the companies that I work with, both offering me fabulous jobs. After careful consideration, meetings and many interviews I decided to take one of the positions that was on offer.

It is a huge step career wise and goes back to what I used to do in Vancouver. Once again I will be a claims adjuster, just not a road adjuster. I will be "sitting on the box" in Lloyd's which is quite exciting. But one of the best parts is that instead of taking files to somebody for them to make the decisions...people will be bringing me files and I will get to have imput on which direction they go and how they get handled.

There is also the opportunity to travel with this job which would be great as I'll be dealing with Canadian, US and UK business.

I handed my notice in to the company I work for now. My last day will be March 28th and I am hoping to go to Paris for a long weekend before starting at my new job on April 2nd.

Will keep you posted.

What does it take to shut down London transit?

Snow!! I woke up this morning to 1cm of snow on the ground. Most other people woke up to a couple more but as I am right in London, I don't get as much as those on the outskirts.

Fabulous I thought, I love snow! This lasted from the moment I got out of bed until I got to the train station and found that my train was delayed by about 15 minutes. But this was nothing compared to some peoples journeys. Trains, tubes and buses stopped running because of "snow on the lines"....I couldn't believe it. 1cm!! Are you kidding?

The snow melted off ridiculously quick - a couple of hours at the very most. Even though I love the snow, I dread to see what would happen if we got 2-3cm. Just imagine!

Another one is "This service is delayed due to a person under the train....". And you'd be surprised at how often you can hear that. Back in Vancouver we have "jumpers" on the bridges but here in London we have "people under the trains".

Home for the holidays

There's nothing better than being home for the holidays - regardless of the weather. Vancouver had just gone through snow storms, rain storms and wind storms.

I arrived in Vancouver on Sunday 17th December, went straight to my parents (where I was staying) and then straight out to my friends for an open house. Great night even though I was exhausted!

The next 4 or 5 days flew by with coffees, brunches, lunches, dinners and drinks with friends and family.

I decided to do most of my Christmas shopping in Vancouver as it's much cheaper than here in London - big mistake! I had to brave the crowds of Robson Street shoppers and Metrotown maniacs! In the end I got it all done in time although I still saved wrapping for 11pm on Christmas Eve....when will I learn!?

Christmas Eve was great with the whole family and the traditional dinner of prawn cocktail, french onion soup and capellini. It was an interesting time of year for me being a vegetarian as it's my first Christmas without meat or seafood. It wasn't as bad as I thought as we always have at least 6 or 7 different kinds of veggies. Again, great to be with all of the family, especially my little nephew Max as he's got the greatest personality ever and is so much fun.

Unfortunately my time came to an end sooner than I wanted it to and I was back to London on Tuesday 26th so I missed out on all of the boxing day sales :( But the good thing was that I hit all of the boxing day sales over here - fabulous!

Next trip - July 2007.