Lions and tigers and beers, oh my!

I've been quite busy over the past few weeks and have had a couple excursions worthy of sharing.

Firstly, the weekend before Easter, Lou and I took off to Canterbury for a little getaway. I absolutely loved it! Canterbury is a beautiful little town (technically a city as it has a cathedral - thanks Lou for the useful fact!) with so much history it hurts. Absolutely gorgeous cobble-stone everywhere. The shops and pubs seemed all so out of place as they were found in such old buildings it just seemed wrong. But oh so pretty.

We went to the Cathedral, which was breathtaking.

You can help but marvel when looking at it. It just amazes me how things like this managed to get built once upon a time. Astounding.

That same week, we went to the London Zoo. It was ridiculously busy but that's what happens when you choose to go to the Zoo during Easter holidays! It was only the queue in which took 45 minutes to get through. Once it, it wasn't too bad. And we had amazing weather - it was about +25 all day! - so it was a lot of fun. Yes, I am a child at heart.

Lastly, over Easter weekend we went out for a night in Clapham. Ran into one of my friends from work. All in all, it's been a few good weeks.

I can not believe I've got but 3 and a half weeks left at work. And the next day, my parents will be here! It's all going by so so fast! Work is definitely going to keep me on my toes though so it's not going to be an easy-let's do nothing- 3 week period! But I'd rather it be busy than slow.

Still trying to sort out the job situation back home, but that's a work in progress.

And I'll leave you with a few pictures...off to enjoy the rest of my (2nd) 4 day weekend!

In other culinary adventures...

I made the foolish mistake to try my hand at making homemade perogies this weekend. (Yes, my posts have recently been about food, but that's all I've really been up to!)

Not foolish taste-wise because they turned out to be really great. Just foolish in not really comprehending just how long of a process it is!

Anyway, just wanted to share as I am unabashedly proud.

In other news, Lou and I are going to a preview screening of the film Killing Bono tonight complete with Q&A with star Ben Barnes and the film's director. So that's something cool that's unrelated to cooking...

Martha Stewart's got nothing on me!

Random post.. but I've spent most of my day doing a bit of baking.

And just felt the need to share the fruits of my labour. I made pizza buns as well as cinnamon buns. Huge sense of pride? Yes. Kinda nerdy? Absolutely.

This is for Auntie Christine. Who I'm sure would appreciate this.

Long time no post. I doubt anyone even reads this anymore!

Thought I'd give a bit of an update, despite not having really done much since I've been back from Christmas.

Work is going really well and busy as ever. I've started working on a new client portfolio and am now handling all of Disney's accounts. Keeps me on my toes because there's so many different products within the Disney corporation. And I'm not complaining, you all know my feelings on Disney! I'll be busy right up until I leave as I've just seen the May workloads, and they're not small!

I've been to Wales again - though this was at the beginning of February. It was a belated birthday celebration with some of my girlfriends. It was a nice weekend away with lots of fun times.

Apart from that, I really haven't been up to much!

I'll be coming back to Canada with my family at the beginning of June. I've been spending most of my free time researching what I'll be doing upon my return home. I'm looking to move to Toronto, so that will be a new, exciting adventure for me. It will be very sad to leave London though I've got some time to come to terms with it....

I leave you with a photo because this post would be rather boring without it!

Love you all x

And that's the way the cookie crumbles

Last night, my string of Christmas parties came to an end. We had our company party and it was amazing! The venue was so cool - set up much like a ski lodge. Food was amazing. Great music. And amazing company.

All in all, it was a good way to close out the media Christmas season.

Now I get to start the real party - my trip home!! I can't wait to leave tomorrow - this time tomorrow, my flight will have been in the air for half an hour!!

See you all very very soon. x

I Heard the Bells (whiskey) on Christmas Day

Oh Broadcast. How I have a love-hate relationship with the parties we put on.

I had my 2nd Christmas party on Tuesday - the infamous Broadcast one. It was a very fun night but it got a bit too silly, mostly in part due to shots.

I'll leave you with a few photos. I've got my 3rd and final Christmas party tonight, the Carat company party. Going to take it easy. But on the bright side, I don't have to be at work until noon tomorrow. AND THEN, only ONE sleep until I come home! I'm beyond excited but I still don't think that I've processed the fact that I'm coming home. Still have to pack.... so much procrastination.

Love you and miss you all, and can not WAIT to see you.

Around the World in 6 hours

We're full on into Christmas party season now. I don't know where the time has gone! Firstly, can't believe it's already December. Secondly, can't believe we're almost half way through December. Work has been a whirlwind. Early closedowns, lots of campaigns... just trying to keep my head screwed on.

On Wednesday, I had my first Christmas party of the season. It was our floor party. Lou organised the whole thing. The theme was Around the World and was a costume party. We all dressed up as different citizens of the world. I chose to go as Cleopatra. It was an awesome evening and loads of fun!

Here is a photo of me and the rest of my team. As you can see, everyone put in a lot of effort!

I'm coming home in 8 days! This is what's keeping me going. Next week is going to FLY by. It's very busy, work wise and socially. Tuesday is the big Broadcast Christmas party. Wednesday I have a lunch with the J&J team and one of the contractors. Thursday is the Carat party. Friday is radio drinks. And then Saturday, I leave!

The best part of Friday next week is I get to sleep in! With the floor party, everyone was allowed to come in at noon the next day - apart from TV, mostly because we have early closedowns to deal with. So to be fair, we get to come in late next week. Friday will go by so fast!

I can not wait to come home for a White Christmas!

Love you all x

Alrighty homies, not much to report.

I've been busy doing normal things - work, social outings, etc.

Work has been really good - I've been exceedingly busy but handling it all very well. I feel like I'm starting to get a real handle on it so that makes me happy.

I am, however, really looking forward to Christmas!! It's less than a month until I'll be flying home. 27 days in fact. I can't wait to do some Christmas baking, have my Mom's Christmas dinner and see all of my friends and family. It's going to be amazing.

I think missing Christmas last year truly made me appreciate it. Not that I've never appreciated Christmas, but when you miss out on it - you really realise how important and special it is.

It'll be nice to have Christmas in the new house - I'm sure Mom is happy that I'll be there for the 1st one!

The next few weeks are going to fly by! I've got at least one work related social outing a week until I leave. My Outlook calendar has been filled with lunches and Christmas parties. They're all going to be a lot of fun and will surely only make the time go by faster. This week I have a curry lunch with Sky TV and then SmartClip (tv online) will be taking us out for cocktail making lessons.

Anywho, love you and miss you all. See you all very soon! x

celebrity juice.

This week, I got a last minute invitation to go to the recording of a show on ITV2 (a TV station) called Celebrity Juice. One thing I absolutely love about the UK are the panel chat shows they have on TV - they're hysterical. Basically, they'll get comedians and some celebs together and have trivia and what not. One of them that I love is called 8 out of 10 Cats where they try to guess survey statistics. It's all quite funny.

Anyway, Celebrity Juice is one of said chat shows. This one focuses on celebrity gossip. The one we went to was the Christmas Special (English TV is huge at Christmas - loads of special programming, etc).

It was really funny! Had an absolute nightmare getting there because of the tube strike but in the end it was fun.

Got quite a lot on in the next few weeks as we start to get closer and closer to Christmas. We've got a team lunch next week which should be good. We'll all be going for a nice meal and some drinks, courtesy of my boss.

Lots to do, so little time. Work hard, play hard!

(41 days til I come home!) x

Shenanigan-ing about with work

I've had an eventful few weeks at work - it's been very "play hard, work hard." Very busy but we still manage to find the time to unwind.

Last week, Lou was behind organising our work's charity event for Wear it Pink. It was amazing! A lot of people from work turned up and there was an auction as well. I enjoyed bidding on things with no intention of winning. True class (ha ha).

On Wednesday, I went to Cartoon Network's launch party for the new Scooby Doo. It was a halloween party but I foolishly didn't dress up! It was loads of fun with all my lovely co-workers who I just adore. The venue was brilliant as well - it was a Vinopolis, which is sort of a wine tasting venue. All in all very good night!

RED premiere.

Long overdue post about my experience at the RED premiere. I'll make it really short and sweet. The movie was awesome and the experience was brilliant as ever. We arrived and went straight up the red carpet. Lou even had to point out that we walked directly past Helen Mirren.

The movies then all came out to introduce the film - so we got to see Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and Mary Louise Parker! Very exciting experience.(not the greatest photo as everybody's flashes were going off - but you get the point!)

RED premiere

Proper post to come... way too tired right now.

belated wishes among other things.

Also - wanna wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving!

It's unfortunate that non-North-Americans don't get this amazing holiday. Luckily for me, Mabel is cooking turkey dinner on Saturday and has graciously invited me to attend. So looking forward to it - despite the fact that it will obviously not be as good as Mom's (things never are).

Work has been busy as ever - it was nice though to have Monday off. It's made this week fly by. Can't believe it's already Thursday! We're starting to get an influx of events in the diary work-wise, so I've got quite a few things to look forward to. Today I've just gotten an invite for an event celebrating the launch of the new Scooby Doo programme (buying kids airtime has its perks). Hilariously though, this event - promoting a child's programme - is being held at Vinopolis. An amazing venue that's known for wine tasting and such.

Other than that, nothing new to report.

Except. 65 days til I'm home!!

x

praha-ha-ha

Time for a proper post about my weekend away to Prague!

We left early (and I mean EARLY - caught a cab to airport at 3am!) and arrived in Prague just before noon. We couldn't check in yet but luckily our friends were already there. So we ditched our luggage in their room and went off to explore. We ended up climbing up to Prague's highest point where the castle and subsequent cathedral were located. It was a beauty. And as was the view.

We then went searching for a pub that Time Out has said was quite good. Once we finally found it, we realised it wasn't that great. Well, the beer was. But the food? Not so much. I ordered dumplings and got a pile of what seemed to be steamed bread. Lou ordered pork crackling and got a bowl of lard. Makes for a good memory but not a very good meal!

That night we went out on the town - mostly just hopping from pub to pub. Mark (one our friends that went along) wanted to catch the first Boston - Phoenix match in a bar but unfortunately, all they were playing was American College Football! Too funny. Lots of Americans loving it though. All in all the evening out was very fun. One of Lou's friends lives in Prague and took us to a more local place and it was by far one of the coolest bars I've been to. She led us into a normal looking pub but then we went to the very back, down some stairs, through a tunnel, more stairs and then finally to the back room which was like an underground cellar. So cool.

You can smoke in bars in Prague and as the bar was underground, very little ventilation = lots of smoke. As demonstrated in this photo.

The next day we spent most of the morning sleeping - pretty tired out from the day before to be honest. We then went on to watch the Boston - Phoenix opener. SO good! I miss watching hockey - so it was great. It made me feel back at home. Though it was funny to hear Europeans trying to say LET'S GO BOSTON. About 12,000 people turned out for the game and the atmosphere was great. And for once, beer and food was appropriately priced at the stadium. That's definitely a first!

Our last day was spent checking out the BEAUTIFUL clock tower (where the video was taken).

We then finished our time in Prague with an amazing traditional Czech meal - which was the total opposite from our first experience!

All in all, Prague was a beautiful city and a great weekend.

czech me out

just a quick video - will do a proper post with pictures later! x

picturesque.

I felt like sharing some more photos...

Me and a few of the girls at Lou's London-themed birthday party (I was Canada Water - a tube station)

Me and one of my best friends at work, Karl, who's leaving this week.

And finally, Lou and I in Cardiff.

I was watching a Christmas episode of Grey's Anatomy this morning and just got really excited and anxious to come home. I can't wait to see you all! x

media's next top model

There was a photo booth at one of the work events I went to a few weeks ago...

Just another random post...

Work has been crazy busy the past few weeks. Our September workloads are quite big so it's been a bit mental. I'm managing though. It's just a matter of learning time management and such. But I'm really enjoying it.

Had another night out on Thursday with WebTV. It was girls only so they took everyone for dinner and drinks. Bobby and Brady (a couple of friends of mine from university) were in London for a few hours so I missed the dinner bit. It was lovely seeing them though! Nice to have familiar faces around. Once they left, I went and met up with the girls for dessert and drinks. We then headed off to one of my coworker's leaving drinks.

All in all it was a lovely evening.

Happy its the weekend - been catching up on some sleep.

I've also booked my flight home! I've cleared everything with work and I'll be back in Saskatoon on 18th December and staying until 8th January. It's gonna be amazing! Although, I have a feeling that the cold is gonna throw me off guard - sort of getting used to English weather!

Can't wait to see all of you - 4 months!!

well welsh.

So an exciting weekend was had. Just got back from Cardiff, Wales last night. Lou and I just went for the weekend. It was a very good trip!

Cardiff was beautiful and much quieter than London. Even today I've found myself getting frustrated with the swarms of people - mostly because the streets were empty in Cardiff! The weather was lovely, which is shocking because Wales is supposed to be much more rainy than London. (So that's two places I've gone - Edinburgh and Cardiff - and had sunshine where there was supposed to be rain!). The nightlife was great and we just went around the Bay on Saturday.

It was nice to get away from London for a bit.

Not sure at the moment if Greece is going to happen or not - more than likely getting postponed. But Prague is still happening in October.

Work is busy as ever - this morning just flew by! I'm hoping to book my flight back to Canada soon, so stay tuned for confirmed dates.

For now, I leave you with a photo of me at Mermaid Quay in Cardiff.

Love and miss you all. x

me and a few colleagues at the sports day.