It's been a while since I posted - December has been manic! The picture above is the front of the London Evening Standard - one of the free papers they have here. And yes, -6° made front page news! What I thought was the funniest part were the posters with headlines saying "The BIG freeze tonight!". I suppose that it is cold for London, but still. I don't think any of them would survive a day in Saskatchewan in December!

Moving on. As I said, December has been a very hectic month. Very busy at work with work in general and loads of Christmas parties. I had 3 Christmas parties for work alone and then a bunch of lunches out with clients. It kept us going I suppose but I felt battered by the end of it! I can't even begin to explain how much English people drink. But it's a cultural thing - as odd as that sounds. Going to the pub after work is as common as taking the tube.

Needless to say I was happy to have a couple days off at Christmas - just to get a break from it all really! I went out to Surrey to spend Christmas with Lou and her family. And as far as my first Christmas away from home, it was the best it could be!

We spent Christmas Eve at the pub - an English tradition from what I understand. Then Christmas day we went over to Lou's cousin's cottage (which was beautiful by the way) and just chatted over champagne and canapés. Then we went back to her's for a proper Christmas dinner. It was good but not near as good as back home.

An added bonus was that Mom got the family a webcam and I had a bit of a breakdown when I saw them! I think it was more than likely because I haven't physically seen Mom and Dad in close to six months. It was nice though - it almost felt like I was there. Not quite, but as close as we could get. Seeing all of you on Christmas Night was also a weird occurence - waving hello to everyone was a bit odd! But I managed.

I'm now back at work - and it's slowed down. There's very few people in the office so it's quite quiet. But I'm sure next week it'll start to pick up.

New Year's Eve is this week - a few friends and I are going out for dinner and then heading to the bridge to watch the fireworks. Should be a pretty tame way to ring in the New Year, but I'm happy with this choice!

Miss you all and hope you had a great Christmas and an even better New Year's!

baby please come home for christmas.

So it's been a few days since Lindsey left and I already miss her! Sunday was harder than I can begin to explain. It was the first time since I've been here (and in my life in general) that I've ever been homesick. I think bringing her here was awesome but I also knew that she was just gonna leave!

Now that we're in December, and Christmas is fast approaching, it gets harder being away from my friends and family. I am happy though. Work has been going really well and I love everybody I work with. And I've realised that December gets busier and busier as you get older. When you're a kid, you only have Christmas Eve to wait for. Now it's dinner parties, get togethers and work parties. And I'm not complaining!

This weekend I'm off to Surrey with Lou. Her parents are away in China so she's stealing their house for a dinner party. And I'm very excited! She's planned this crazy menu and I can't wait to try it all.

Anyway, I gotta head to work now! Just wanted to let you all know that I love you and miss you - now more than ever.

xx

time flies.

I can't believe it's already almost December! Where has the time even gone?

Lindsey is leaving tomorrow. We've had a fantastic time. We started with a trip to Paris and tired ourselves out for four days. On Day 1 we visited the Louvres, which was amazing. I can't even begin to understand how big it is. Just getting around the building took over 2 hours. I think Lindsey really enjoyed it, as did I. We topped off the day by trekking up the Cathedral of Notre Dame. And what a trek it was! We climbed what seemed to be endless stairwells but it was beautiful once we got to the top. We were promptly in bed by 9 that night - Paris had tired us out! But it didn't stop there. We went to Versailles for the day on Tuesday and than that night climbed up the Arc de Triomphe. It was beautiful. And tiring! I seriously don't think we've walked so much in 2 days before! The Wednesday was probably the highlight of our vacation. In true UnRuh style, we went out to EuroDisney for the day! It was amazing! Obviously it didn't really compare to California or Florida but it was still quite good. We capped it off by going to the Eiffel Tower. Absolutely amazing little vacation.

The rest of Lindsey's trip has been filled with lots of shopping, a couple of musicals (Avenue Q and Wicked), The Eye and the cinema. It's been great and I'm sad to see her leave tomorrow!

Can't wait to come home and visit eventually. It won't be for a while, but I'm still excited!

We're gonna finish today with a trip to Marks and Spencer and then heading to the cinema tonight.

Love and miss you all. xoxo

It has been a VERY long time since I've posted and I'm trying to recollect what's been going on since then. Work has been going great. It gets busier everyday which is a good thing. The first couple weeks were really slow but we're getting more and more stuff to do on a daily basis.

I love the people that I work with and the company that I work for. So, all in all I think it's a win.

I'm excited because tomorrow Lindsey's gonna be here! It's going to be amazing to get a little piece of home. She's also bringing me loads of stuff but all in all I'm just excited to see her. It's crazy to think that I've been here for 4 months already - part of me doesn't even really understand that I've been gone that long! On one hand, it feels like it has only been a couple weeks but on the other it feels like I've lived here forever.

I have all of next week off and Lindsey and I are going to Paris for four days! I know I live in London and it's been amazing, but words can't describe how stoked I am to go back to Paris.

Anyway, just thought I'd give a quick update. Will try and keep more regular with this thing. Expect a few posts over the next few weeks considering Lindsey and I will be adventuring around London (and Paris!).

xoxo

driving miss crazy.

It goes without saying that I miss my friends and family. But I've just realised something that I genuinely miss. Driving.

It's been almost 4 months since I've driven a vehicle. Not that I mind public transport. It's part of London's charm. But since I've recently acquired new music, I forgot just how much I loved driving, most times alone, while listening to music. It was probably one of my biggest forms of therapy.

This isn't me saying I'm home sick. This is me saying I miss one of the minor things that used to play a vital part of my everyday life. I guess in a way I've swapped listening to music in the car for listening to music on the tube. Lou and I take the tube to work everyday together and sometimes I like when she's running late because then I get to listen to my iPod for the whole journey to work.

I guess this is just a small way of describing things that I've swapped. I have a new method of transport, a new job, new friends.. all in all, a new way of life. And don't get me wrong, I'm loving every minute of it. But sometimes, for as little as 20 minutes, I miss Saskatoon.

Love you all xx

video killed the media star.

Alright - so time for a post since I've started my new job! It's been almost 2 weeks now at Carat and I have been loving it! There's a lot to learn, but I'm embracing it. Basically, I work as an assistant to the broadcast team and mostly just do administrative work. So my days are filled with building spreadsheets, booking tv spots, etc. But the best part has been learning all this new stuff! I sit with some of the TV buyers and they've been really helpful in terms of helping me grasp the industry.

One of the cool things so far was on Monday, it was MTV day at work. They came to work and had different presentations (none of which I could attend - too busy) and then finished the night off with a pub quiz (they're huge over here - basically, you get in teams, go to pub and do trivia questions). The pub quiz was so much fun! I was on a team with Lou and her friend Rachel and it was all music trivia. We didn't do too badly - didn't win, but still - and the winning team (again, not us) get to go on to the finals to compete for MTV Europe Award tickets! All in all, we got to go for a night out on MTV's dime! And in a few weeks, ITV (a TV channel) is taking out all of broadcast for drinks.

The people have been lovely and I'm really enjoying the job. That's about all I can say for now. For the time being, I'm just biding my time until I get paid and then Lindsey arrives! So excited!

Miss you all and love you. xx