London: Monday 4th July - Sunday 10th July

Hello! I'm so very sorry I'm posting this late, but you'll understand once you've read Sunday's day!
It has been yet another week! The more I do, the less I have to do...obviously...?
First of all, thank you for such positive responses to last Sunday's post, I didn't think it was going to receive as well as it did, so thank you for your interest!
Secondly, lets get on with my week, many of you are gonna be disappointed by the lack of mishaps, I'm getting used to this whole 'be professional, Aoife!' thing now!

Monday 4th July

So I woke up feeling a little nervous to go to work again and start the week, but I was soon calm and ready to head out.

I did so, and generally my work day was enjoyable.

I went out to shadow a meeting around 10am and jumped on the tube down to Soho. That finished around 12pm and myself and 3 collegues went to get lunch while we were out.

Some weird, fancy 'pizza', it was one of them places, you know, where all the menu is written half in English with bits of Italian or French etc, and they have to use the fanciest word for things - something I always find particularly humorous is how there's no posh word for tomato so it's always massivly out of place on the menu! For example, they couldn't have called this "Cheese & Tomato Pizza" cause that's way too easy. Instead this was called "Mozzarella & Tomato Pizzette" - see what I mean about "tomato"! Anyway, they didn't do chips, cause again, that would be too easy, so this was eaten with Roasted Baby Potatoes.

The rest of the day I was working non stop which has its pros and cons, but hey, I was occupied!

Once I'd got off the bus to walk home, I popped into Tesco again (wahoo) to buy some cake because Monday was my Dad's birthday so I celebrated for him down here! Side note: I left Tesco with a Raspberry Swiss Roll - I'm such a let down. But it tasted good.

The rest of the night was just spent making calls, FaceTiming with my family and ironing clothes. The evening parts are always the most exciting to read aren't they, eh?

Tuesday 5th July

Tuesday seems like a bit of a blur because I was actually busy all day so I was occupied and have very little to say about it...

Not a lot of work day stuff to tell, except on the way home I got some good reduced bargains in Tesco...god I need to do some stuff!

I got back to the flat and was kindly greeted by a box of chocolates, chocolate is like my favourite thing and these were great!!

I did some washing and made a pretty good chicken curry and rice, it was worth sharing.

Pilau rice if you're asking "Why's its yellow?", and quorn chicken if you're asking "But you don't like meat?". Yeah, gotcha! I'm one step ahead!

I actually think I only watched one Breaking Bad episode last night, I dont know what the hell else I did...and then Taskmaster started at 10pm so I watched that literally until my eyes were forcing themselves shut!

Wedneday 6th July

So we are allowed to go and help ourselves to Toast and Fruit for breakfast in work in the morning, so I thought I'd go and take advantage of my opportunity, I got butter on one and peanut butter on the other...terrible mistake to say the least.

So once I'd finished applying said toppings, I, as I do, embarrassed myself by asking the woman behind the counter "Where do I put this knife?" To which she replied by pointing to the pot of dirty knives sitting on the counter that I was standing right next to. Another smile, walk away and forget..

The rest of my day was pretty quick as I finished all my work by lunch time.

Wednesday evening was filled with nothing very interesting except a lovely FaceTime call from my Auntie, Uncle and Cousins, and a refreshing shower which felt very much needed after yesterday's humid, sticky weather.

Thursday 7th July

So, similarly to Wednesday, Thursday went pretty quick as I'd done most work by lunch time, I had some bits to do when I got back to my desk and a meeting about a project I'm working on at 1pm.

Because I usually go for lunch at 1pm, I had to go at 12pm instead so I took myself to McDonalds and beat the horrendous queues!

I picked up this little Raspberry & White Chocolate Danish in my lunch too but that was saved for later because I literally could not eat another thing!

The rest of the work day went pretty slow and boring now and then but I got home and made spaghetti bolognese which was a nice change!

Again, another evening where not a lot happened and I enjoyed every minute of it! Haha!

Friday 8th July

So Friday morning was a bit of a rush...I woke up at 6:45am, as usual, and I set another alarm for 7:00am just to say "Okay get out of bed now". They both went off and I woke up wanting to "finish my dream", so from what I can only assume, I fell back asleep to do so and woke up at 7:20am, panicked and rushed around! I did make it into work on time!

I went to listen in to a meeting until about 10am and then got on with some work, which was boring, but ended in me watching gameplay of different videogames on YouTube, yeah, I know, I work so hard!

Lunch time wasn't as looked forward to, as usual, because in the mornings, when I've finished my breakfast, I make my lunch and have a tendency to not put much food in because im "not hungry" ...well duh, cause I just ate breakfast..! So, again, another regretful decision, so I decided I'd go for a wander at lunch time. Instead of the usual leave the building and turn left, I turned right. I went for a little walk and came across a cool little market happening in a small cobbled street. Being in the adventurous mood I was, I took a walk down and it was lovely, the sun wasn't shining, but it was warmer outside than it was at my desk!

I decided I'd search for my nearest Tesco and discovered it was 0.2 miles away, which in time was about a 5 minute walk. So rightly so, I was over the moon and continued my adventure. Incase youre wondering, I bought a Watermelon and Grape fruit pot which came with a "berry drizzle" (I don't know..?), some bourbon biscuits, a packet of Snickers and a packet of Coconut & Vanilla popcorn. I already knew they were going to be nice!

So for the rest of the day, I finished the work from this morning and did some work for the guy that sits next to me. 

After work I headed off to Kings Cross St Pancras Station to collect some train tickets I'd booked in work, got caught in crazy rush hour people-traffic and then safely returned home about 6:30pm.

I'm not entirely sure what I did for the rest of that night, it can't have been much other than eat some more Spaghetti Bolognese and Garlic Bread - and it certainly was bread cause our oven's rubbish so forget 'golden brown'.

Saturday 9th July

A face from home! On Saturday, Ryan, a friend from home came to visit me for the day. He came about 10am and left about 6pm, I was so busy, so tired and so warm. It was a pretty humid, sticky day, ew.

We began the day by taking a walk right around Hyde Park, underestimating the heat and the distance, which didn't work well...

We then carried on walking and went down Oxford Street into a couple of shops, and then jumped on the tube at Oxford Circus along to Leicester Square.

We were about to walk past M&M World, but decided to just pop in and see what an M&M shop would look like....and I sure am glad we did! It had 4 floors of chocolate, gifts and merchandise which I didn't even know existed!

Carrying on exploring, we walked from Leicester Square to Regent Street and ended up around the beautiful streets of Carnaby Street.

We then headed for lunch which took about an hour and a half to decide, but mutually settled on Nandos.

Next, we jumped on the tube to Charing Cross, heading for Trafalgar Square and stumbled across a huge Indian Festival, which we overheard someone say it was to celebrate the end of their Ramadan period.

We could see the London Eye from where we were so headed that way for the Thames. We accidentally stumbled across The Mall leading to Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, ending up looking over the bridge at the London Eye.

We continued, and walked down, along past the London Eye and over another bridge to Westminster Station which we got on the tube to Baker Street.

We walked around for a while and then Ryan called his parents to see where we should meet them, the answer was Westminster Station, so we very easily jumped back on the tube from Baker Street and along to Westminster.

Once I'd done that, I headed home and got my pyjamas on and got the quilt onto the couch about 8 o'clock.

I wasn't hungry on Saturday night so didn't make any dinner, but decided at 10pm I wanted toast. So, to avoid waking the other people in the flat, I brought the toaster, the butter and jam into my room, prepared my toast, and silently replaced everything! Success!

Sunday 10th July

This morning was an early rise (for a Sunday) at 6:45 to prepare myself to leave at 8:00am for my train to Leicester. I was off on business trip to watch what goes on behind the scenes of a brand film shoot and interviews etc.

I caught my train at 9:30am and arrived at Leicester around 11:00am, jumped in a taxi from the station and headed to the location.

The day was very long, very cold and very windy. We didn't get off site till 9pm and then it was back to the hotel for some food. That wasn't very long, I was so tired, I went and got a warm shower at 11pm and got in bed for a 5:45 rise....

You see how when I said "you'll understand once you've read Sunday's day" I have hardly even had a chance to look at my phone!
Again, apologies that this has been posted late, all should be as usual next week!

Hope it was another enjoyable post, see you next Sunday!

London - Sunday 26th June - Sunday 3rd July

Hello everybody who is reading this and everybody at home.

If you’ve managed to find your way here, you probably already know I have left home to go to London and live and work there for a month doing an Internship. Initially, I thought this is gonna be a great experience, I love London and this is gonna be fine! And I was not entirely correct. This has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but it’s also going to be one of the greatest things I’ve done!

I’ve settled in and I have completed my first week. Three more to go. I am going to upload a blog post each Sunday to update on my week and you can follow it along with me. 
During the week is pretty boring, as I am just working 9 till 5, there’s not much I do except come home, make tea and sit on the couch and watch Breaking Bad until I fall asleep – currently, definitely one of my favourite shows - so, because of that, I hope for the weekends to be a bit more interesting so you have more to read about and hopefully see!

Sunday 26th June

So I arrived here in London on Sunday 26th June, ready to start work the next day. I’d had a few teary goodbyes before I left and went and got the train and went off to Camden with my parents.

We had a little shop around and I bought new Vans without even being there more than 10 minutes, and I also bought a new longline waterproof coat when we went to shop along Oxford Street. Then we headed to the tube station and made out way to the flat I’ll be spending my next month in, kindly enough, there was a beautiful little plant waiting my arrival.

Monday 27th June

So Monday was my induction, plus first day on the job, I had a very emotional day including a couple of runs to the bathroom when I was getting a bit upset. Generally, work went well, all I was doing all day was training which has to be finished in the first two weeks. 
I had a bit of an incident in the office which after experiencing it, was embarrassing, but after telling people, it was supposedly funny. For a brilliant start to my internship, I went to work on my first day with my new longline coat on....and the tag still in it! After hiding that and attempting to forget about it, I then managed somehow, after hanging my coat over the bag of my office chair, to get the coat stuck in the wheels of my chair. So then I proceeded to spend the next 5 minutes on the floor of the office desperately pulling my coat out of the chair wheels.

My parents met me after work and even still I was a little bit emotional cause I knew I had to say my biggest goodbye that night. After getting a chippy and crying endlessly on the balcony with my Dad, it came to the time I had to say bye to my parents for a month in the Capital City. It was not easy and I waved them off from the balcony and cried for the rest of my night.

All round, not a very good day.

Tuesday 28th June

Well Tuesday was better, still training but doing bits of little jobs for people to help with whatever they’re working on. I stayed at my desk for lunch and spent the day doing not a lot. 

So after mentioning yesterday’s incident, I went and had another one on Tuesday morning, allow me...  
So for security reasons, we need a key fob to enter the building and get through some doors, after I’d entered and got in the lift, I’d put my key fob away, got out of the lift, and realised I needed it to get through the door. Luckily, there was a woman behind me who kindly bleeped her key fob so I could open the door. So, I’m standing, in front of this woman, pulling the door to open it and it’s just not moving at all, so to make matters worse, I then realise it’s probably a push door, so I turn around to the woman and roll my eyes at myself and say “Push door” in a ‘Oh silly me!’ tone of voice, and as I’m doing so, I push this glass door too far as I’m not looking and bang it right into the wall. Needless to say, I just walked away and hoped we could both forget how stupid I am...

For the rest of Tuesday, it was just some tears when I got home, calming myself down and watching Breaking Bad.

Boring day....apologies...

Wednesday 29th June

Wednesday got progressively better, I started getting given more things to do but I had a lot of time during the day in work where I was sitting with nothing to do as I’d smashed all the training and I was done in two days!

I hope the two previous days incidents have amused you, because believe it or not, I’m about to tell you about another. Coming to London and starting an intership job in a massive company, I intended to be professional and make good impressions. No one really speaks to me much until they have something for me to work on, and today, someone spoke to me, so I’m trying to be very professional and have the conversation and I suddenly realise I’m starting to descend on my spinny chair, so in  panic I start hovering and trying to pull the lever under the chair which took too long leaving me to hover for the remainder of the conversation.

If you think that’s all I did to embarrass myself on Wednesday, then you are wrong, of course...
After finishing my second bottle of water and sitting with nothing to do, I decided I would get up and nip to the toilet and stretch my legs. Of course, nothing this week has gone particularly well for me, so in that case, to be brief, I spun my chair around to the right, got the left hand arm rest jammed (so tightly!) under my desk, and got stuck in my chair. No, I did not wet myself in my chair if you were waiting for me to top it off with that!

Lunch time was a little more interesting today, I went for a wander outside the building and had to run an errand for a colleague, Google Maps falsely led me to believe that there was a Dunkin’ Donuts near to where I was going, which was a disappointment so on my way back to work, I went into Waitrose that was near and treated myself to a chocolate muffin!

On Wednesday night, I changed into my lounge clothes once I’d got home from work and after I had my tea, got on the couch after a few tears and watched Breaking Bad with a box of Guylian chocolates (which are one of my absolute favourites!).

Thursday 30th June

Thursday, in general was the first day I started to feel okay, it was the first day I hadn’t cried so it was progress I believe!

Today’s incident was just kind of an embarrassing story which I won’t go into detail with other than, I had to pick up a birthday cookie that had been ordered for someone in the office who’s birthday it was, lets just say he is male and it had an inappropriate drawing on. I was informed that all I had to do was give in the receipt and collect the box. Wrong. The woman at the counter asked me “What does it say? Or what’s on it?” to which I awkwardly replied “...I don’t know? A colleague ordered it, I’m just collecting it....It’s a birthday one..?” – terrible time.

Anyway, for the rest of that day I felt settled and strong enough to make my round of phone calls home which was nice and I shared my weeks embarrassing stories.

Friday 1st July

Today was another kind of general day, lot of time where I was doing nothing so a boring kind of day in work, however, I made my own way home by myself on Friday night and went shopping on the way home.

I walked out of my building at the end of the day thinking “Wow, no incidents all day, oh yeah!” – wrong, again, of course... So I went into a shop on the way home and broke a shelf! It came off, onto the floor! So embarrassing!
I also popped into Topshop where I picked up a few bargains in the sale

I got this gorgeous little bracelet with a sweet on which is on a bobble-like elastic tie, I love this a lot, I think it’s so cute and I had eyed these up before, then they went into the sale and I tok complete advantage of my opportunity! Rightfully so!

This cute little key ring was in the sale for £2.50 so I grabbed this, now I have keys to the flat, I’m going to temporarily use it for these, and then I’ll take it home and put it to use there!

Then I got off the bus a couple of stops before mine to take a walk down the road home, I popped into Tesco (exciting, I know...) and picked up some food for the next few days – and Pringles for £1! – I think it was definitely my bargain day!

That was pretty much all for Friday, I ate some Pringles and I’ll give you three guesses at what I watched...Breaking Bad, yes.

Saturday 2nd July

So Saturday was my first weekend here after starting work, I worried a bit that I’d miss home without work distracting me, but I jumped on the bus down to Oxford Street at 11am and went shopping.

 I picked up some nice things which I’ll try and add in photos of some of them.

So I went into Uniqlo, which is usually my highlight of coming to London! I picked up this cool 'I am Other' tshirt from Pharrell Williams collection.

It has some cool little cheese patterns on the back too!

Another 'I am Other' from Pharrell's collection.

With a cool little watercolour submarine on the back.

I also picked up this tshirt from an artist, Keith Haring's collection.

How cute is this little canvas bag! It says "The Best Milk Ever" and I just think its a cool little bag!

Stopped quickly at McDonalds for some lunch and then headed home.
I sat myself on the couch and got my laptop out to start writing this post and pretty much remained there for the rest of the night after typing up everything you’ve read so far (my back hurts a lot).

I got a lovely surprise when a neighbour gave us this plate with a slice of cake on which I think might be bigger than my face! It was so heavy but it tasted so good!
Breaking Bad & cake for the rest of the night!


Sunday 3rd July
So today is the last day of my first week here. I woke up in the middle of the night  and was almost sick, but I got up this morning, got ready and left for Camden Town around 11am, I did visit exactly a week ago today and yes, I returned! Last week I saw a cool Breaking Bad tshirt that I wanted to go back and pick up, and today was my chance.

I think this tshirt is so cool and I like how simple it looks but it has cool detail. It’s the silhouette of the main character Walter from the show, made up of tiny little pictures related to the show. Cool, I know!
I continued and had a walk around Camden Lock and through the market stalls.

This was a back of a piano that I saw painted inside some of the market stalls near a little place to sit and eat so I took a quick picture as I passed.

I then went to an ice cream van, bought myself an ice cream and went and ate it near the water.

I ended up having to take a bit of a detour home but it kept me out and busy for a while and I successfully got myself out and back for the day in one piece! I have had a nice day, it has been sunny at times and stayed dry all day.
All that’s left to do is some ironing, try and dry my washed clothes and get on the couch for another night of texting/chatting and watching TV.

That’s all for this week, see you next Sunday!