Work Hard, Play Hard

This past week went by very quickly and somewhat slowly as well. Because of the Bank Holiday on Monday, it was a four day week for everyone in the UK; however, it felt more like a six day week for me. I spent the week both settling into my life in London, as well as traveling to two other countries…

Tuesday morning a taxi picked me up to arrive at the airport for a 6:55 am flight to Brussels for a client site visit. I didn’t have the chance to see much of Brussels, but as my friend Jonnah says, “I was able to breathe the air in Belgium.” At 4 pm (Brussels time), I jumped back in a taxi to return to the airport and back to London. A similar story occurred on Thursday; however, the flight left at 6:50 am and took me to Copenhagen, Denmark. Luckily, we were able to take a lunch break and go to a traditional Danish restaurant with the client. The client insisted on each of us having the medium lunch special, which included chicken salad, breaded halibut, liver pate, brie cheese, pickled heron, bread, butter, and a LARD spread. The client was amazed when I said that would try the lard spread, because “Americans never like to eat anything they are not used to because they don’t like to try new things.” So, I basically ate LARD to break an American stereotype… ironic since Americans are also known for their high obesity rate…

While I was not off in another country, I was settling into my new area by joining the nearby gym. Wednesday was the first night I had been to the gym in weeks. I jumped on the treadmill ready to run my usual four miles, when the machine asked: Weight = ___ kilograms. So… I guessed. I started the machine at my usual speed, and it seemed like more of a fast walk. Ah yes, the speed was no longer in miles per hour but kilometers per hour. Throughout my run I was trying to do the calculation of 4 miles to kilometers, knowing that a 10K is about 6.2 miles (Thanks, Boulder Bolder!). I am sure that I must have looked very pensive and concerned during the first part of my run. After my run, I couldn’t help but feel that although it is the same distance, it is SO much easier to run 4 miles than 6.4 kilometers. I proceeded to go to the free weights, which were in a room known as the ‘guy area’. Well, I enjoy using free weights so the guys could bugger-off if having a girl in the room was going to be an issue. Unfortunately, after marching into this room, I was once again faced with the pound-to-kilogram issue. I guessed which weight I should use… I guessed wrong. The one girl in the room almost fell over when she tried to pick up a weight, which incited a couple of snickers from the nearby MeatHead. However, I finally found the weight I wanted and finished my workout with no further conversion issues.

My weekend started off somewhat calm with staying in on Friday and doing a little shopping on Saturday. Saturday night was an entirely different story… One of the managers had his 30th birthday at a posh bar near Oxford Circus. The party was basically made of employees from my company all getting ‘pissed’ on cocktails like the Porn Star Martini. At some point, I ended up having a 45 minute conversation with the HEAD of the London Office. I learned quite a bit about the difference between business in the UK versus the US. I also learned that the Boss and his wife can party better than anyone else. Literally, they were the last ones on the dance floor. Now that is leading by example! I ended up home around 4 am wondering if I was ever going to be able to keep up with the London lifestyle. One saying came to mind: “If at first you don’t succeed…”