London Office

Scheduled a day in the office en route to my Amsterdam holiday, at the start of the French school holidays, to coincide with NHS Doctors and Dentists appointments (that multi tasking thing never lets up!)

Having never known anyone to wear much other than ripped jeans and hoodies in the office, i donned my best prada lookalike jeans, new boots, matching dior t shirt and top, then a few other layers (as UK is roughly 7 degrees colder than Marseille) and took a taxi to Witham station in the dark.

As you commuters know, its like an expert thing to know which sign or flower pot to stand opposite to have any chance of getting near enough to the doors of the train to acquire a seat for the 40 minute ride into the city. I am that expert and had no problem getting a seat.

Arrived on schedule for my first meeting - at Mcdonalds: the 8.15 hash brown, egg muffin and a copy of the Metro... (France may have great croissants but they don't do McDonalds breakfasts).

9am meeting with my boss - (obviously I wouldn't want to forfiet my job by disclosing top secret company details here), but needless to say that my boss has engineered a couple of not too testing projects for me, that I am happy to run with.. whilst still working from home in South of France on London money!

Coming into work really was like meeting old friends, hugs for Dara and pleasantries with the new faces.. though within half an hour, once the fresh croissants were all out on the plate and coffee in hand, we were like old friends too... I find it so refreshing to be around like minded people, and even noticed their dress sense had smartened up quite a lot now in the main building! (much less rips)

The new faces in my team couldn't have been more welcoming - designer who has lived in France for 4 years and has a couple of houses here and a developer who is obviously well set up too. In case I never mentioned it, im a developer, building websites. My colleagues spent the rest of the morning showing me pictures of their houses and we talked cars and geeky stuff about how to get around the new download laws and the internet costs - it was great.

Then lunch with my boss and my friend Dara. Great food in a nice little restaurant in Bourough. Two bottles of chardonnay, talk of finding investment properties and a taker for the Private Island Deal (see previous entry) later we returned to the office!

2 coffees, a croissant, more talking about geeky stuff and my day at work drew to a close, quite sad to be leaving so soon really. So sad that I managed to stay for their regular Friday Wine Down to finish off the day :)

Smiling Hard on the train home, knowing I have to make this project extend into something more longterm... then life could be really sweet!

What a great start to my holiday in Amsterdam - really feel like I will enjoy it!