Diamond Jubilee madness

Wow- what an amazing time to be in London! British flags hanging from every house, street parties, the Flotilla on the Thames, the Queen parading through London... and a very sweet 4 day weekend to pack it all in!

I've had a fantastic month of May, really enjoying my job (turns out it's been solely working for the travel department which has been fun) but honestly, it's the people that have made it incredible. I've made some invaluable friendships and have done so much laughing that I'm starting to get a 6 pack (well not quite). 

It's hard not to feel excited right now, even if you're not a firm supporter of the Monarchy. The energy in London is insane- with all the madness of the Queen's diamond jubilee, her birthday, and with the Olympics coming up... this is the place to be. 

With that being said, I can tell you that a lot of Londoners aren't quite as excited as I am, particularly in terms of the masses of people clogging up our streets and the ridiculous delays on our tubes and trains. I feel like I'm slightly removed from it because I don't care if I'm slightly uncomfortable for a couple of months- but for lots of people, these few months are a HUGE inconvenience. 

It's quite funny really, I think secretly everybody is very proud and enjoying the hype over here, but not everyone will admit to that. It's much easier just to complain and have this collective understanding that it's entirely inconvenient to have so many foreigners coming over and stepping on our toes. 

Haha. Anyway. 

Here's a laugh for my readers: I've had my first experience of waking up on the coast of England and not having a clue how I got there... something I've learned, particularly in the last month, is how satisfying it is to work bloody hard and play really bloody hard. The English do it best. My amazingly wonderful boyfriend had to figure out where I had gotten myself, and if it weren't for the automated train thing that says "beep- the next station is..." I wouldn't have been able to figure out where I was. Turns out, I couldn't have gone any further anyway, because it was literally the last stop before the Ocean. Let's just say I owe him my first born child for driving a total of nearly 2 hours to get my drunk ass home. 

We've been so blessed this month with amazing weather (amazing= normal Ottawa summer weather) but unfortunately it looks like it might rain on the Queen's parade. Wow, I'm talking about weather. 

Time to meet up with a fellow Canadian and battle our congested streets of London. Thing is, we secretly love it...

xx