an advert i saw on the telly i love that totally encapsulates my current state of mind while i am here-

happy inside.

i'd be lying if i said it's all a bed of roses here because it's not really all sweet here-

except well the desserts all going for 1 quid or less during marked clearances at marks and spencers.

things i like- the weather, which everyone has been saying that is the 'good bit', until november (which i won't be here anyway) till february, which is dark and 'awful and dreadful'. I love how people say 'whereabouts?' instead of 'where', and 'give me a shout' instead of 'call me'. I love how they say 'lovely' and 'rubbish', and how people can say insanely funny things with a completely straight face. I like the feeling of sitting opposite Sayrian, (whom i initially thought was male before meeting her), because it gives me a nice warm fuzzy feeling. I like the smell in the office, which strangely i can't really identify. I like doing the British thing and having tea (with real milk, no sugar) every about 3 hours or so (except my bladder can't quite take it and thus the frequent toilet visits). I love the street buskers in the tube, covent garden, and around about trafagar square. I love the yoghurt bar Snog, which ngeezy brought us to. I like h&m, because it's so decently priced compared to everything else here. I love the company flat, cause it's so nicely carpeted and slightly posh, plus it has a bath tub and mini balcony. I like going to work, because i can learn loads of things everyday and also there's a cute guy called Tom (but i don't know him personally). I like that Paris is just a 2 hr eurostar ride or 8-10 hour coach ride away, I like that there are loads of mixed marriages and thus cute pan-asian/eurasian kids all about. I like that people here have something really healthy (e.g. low fat yohgurt) and really unhealthy (e.g. potato chips, which they call 'crisps' here) for lunch. i like that M&S has fantastic 1-2quid instant meals for lazy people like yours truly. I think the bus and the tube is charming, but walking is cool too. The streets, buildings and decor is really nice, and i love watching the brit-ish telly.

I like living/working so near the Chelsea football club, and seeing everyone donning blue and white whenever there's a Chelsea match.

but of course not everything is nice-

Mainly it's just that i don't really like my mentor (whose name i won't mention) because my gut (and observations as well) tell me she's somewhat bitchy even though she seems all nice on the outside. Also i don't really like that most of the food is cold, i don't really like that on weekdays the shops close so early and only the pubs are left open. and also though people are nice, i still get the feeling that we're guests and thus the conversation ends after the typical 'is this your first time to london?', 'whereabouts have you been in london?'.

likes and dislikes aside, i'd say it's been really eventful the past few days-

we saw Kim Catrall (my semi-idol after seeing her in Mannequin, my first favourite movie ever) in borough market (and then we tried to get a photo but she just shook her head and dismissed us and walked away); Prince charles and camilla (and supposedly william as well but it was too fast) in his car as they whizzed into clarence house while we were there for an open-house-cum-garden party. We had a strange man approach us to talk to us and air-kiss us (and really kiss ngeezy) in the tube station. We had the pope visit London, even though we didn't catch him in his pope-mobil. We saw Winterplay all the way from Korea, live at the Thames river fest, for free, which is awesome since they would never go to Singapore anyway.

all in all it's been really quite smashing.

and we'd booked coach tickets to Paris for a weekend in october, and tickets to Brighton for the weekend after. Really looking forward to it.

if you want a postcard, email me your address! i'd procrastinate but it'd probably reach you before i get back.