Sheep shearing & promoting homosexuality- just another week in London...

Randomness from across the pond:

On the personal front- we had two good weekends- two weeks ago we celebrated Stuart's big 2-9 with a loungy night on the town. Then a few days later we welcomed Peggy & Joy to town. We all worked together on the recruiting team back in the US. They were here as part of a whirlwind trip through Europe. JP & I took them on an impromptu pub crawl on Friday night and ended the night playing Kerplunk on our living room floor. Saturday the girls braved the rain and Harrods on a Saturday (I don't know which is worse) and then that same night we met out friends in Soho for dinner and drinks. Sunday was more sight seeing. Like always, it is fun to have friends in from the US- it is a little piece of home. Plus- they brought salsa with them- plenty of it to get us through the hump until we can have copious amounts of it when we come home next month.

As the title states, I also did something quite interesting last week- I sheared a sheep. Why you might ask? (or how, or where, I know...) well, it started with an email requesting that I join a co-worker to go check out an event next to our building. It ended with the two of us, clippers in hand, shearing the wool off a sheep. Instead of explaining in full detail (JP tells me my blog entries are too long) I will just say that during my lunch hour last Friday, with the help of the champion sheep shearer from New Zealand, I learned how to sheer a little lamb. Then I promptly went back upstairs, washed my hands, and attended my 2pm meeting. How is that for another day at the office?

Finally, on another aside, this job in the diversity arena always proves more entertaining than any other project I could potentially be on. That is because I have fools who make the most ridiculous comments to me on a daily basis. They say things like "Angie, why don't you have initiatives that promote white men?" and "Angie, you are promoting homosexuality by advertising the firm's gay and lesbian networks" and finally "Angie, there is a danger with supporting our maternity returners (those women who return to work after maternity leave) that the firm can become TOO family friendly."

*Sigh*

All these comments from old white male professionals with no idea what it is like to be in the minority. All these comments made to me in front of other people- exposing their ignorance and fear in a lame attempt to "put me in my place."

Just 9 more months until a return to normalcy. You certainly don't know how good you got it until you leave it.

Catching up...

I keep lagging in my blog updates, there is much to catch up on!

JP gave good highlights of our recent trip to Oslo, so I just thought I would share a few pics... Oslo was super fun and we enjoyed seeing the sights and for me wearing flip flops and a skirt was the highlight of the trip. To see more pics you can go to our shutterfly site- link is on the top left of this page.

Here is a pic of the four of us (we also had our friend Aimee with us who is an expat here at EY with us from NY) in our room pre-partying before we went out for the night. The drinks in Oslo are extremely expensive- so we thought we'd be a little strategic with our funds.

This is a view of the city from near the castle... gorgeous, clean, green... what more can you ask for?

We walked for over 30 minutes through some dodgy Oslo streets to arrive to a closed Munch museum (he is a famous Norweigan artist). We still had to photograph the conclusion to our journey.

On the homefront- the weather has improved drastically- which gives us something new to complain about... when it is warm here you must still take public transportation. The underground and buses are not air conditioned which means you arrive to work a little more stinky than you left. I wouldn't trade the warm weather to go back to the cold... it is quite nice to break out the sun dresses and skirts. I just hope it keeps- there is nothing more unpredictable than London weather!

In the last couple weeks JP and I celebrated our anniversary and welcomed our friend Jon to town. JP and Jon enjoyed a week of bonding and extreme liver damage. I look forward to new visitors next week- Peggy & Joy. They are in London on a stopover during a whirlwind European vacation. I am excited to see them both and show them the town.

This weekend is our friend Stuart's birthday (You'll recall from previous Angie & JP posts that he strongly resembles Troy Aikman and is always the last man standing after a night out). Tonight his wife has planned a group outing to a bar/lounge in Mayfair. The goal is to get out, get dressed up and try a non-pub option for a change. Here is where we are heading: http://www.mewsofmayfair.com/home.asp We are looking forward to it.

Other than that- a little Happy Mother's day to all my friends who are mums and of course the best mums of all- my mom and Grace.

Until next time...