October 3rd - Arriving in London

I woke up as we landed in London and saw that it was a classically gray London morning…and I couldn’t have been more excited. While I’ve been in London many times I was excited to start this new adventure and to see my friend Theresa. Theresa is London’s current hostess with the most. She is here working on an international assignment with Goldman Sachs. She has been hostess to many guests this year so I was glad she would put up with me one more time! I’ve been able to see her a few times this year while on business travel in Europe and now I’d get to visit her with no work agenda surrounding the trip.

At customs the agent asked me a number of questions including what I do for a living. I proudly declared “I am not working right now.” Probably not the best thing to say as she then grilled me on what I was doing here, who I was visiting and then the toughest question…”what are you going to do for a job next?” I’ve heard this question from many people over the past weeks but did not expect this from the customs agent. The question made me realize two things…one I have no idea what I’m going to do next and two this trip comes without the traditional thought of going back to a daily grind when it is over. The latter made me relax and realize I can, and should, truly live in the moment.

Since I will be traveling a great deal on my own, Theresa helped me to launch right in talking to strangers. Tonight, after a welcome champagne in the courtyard of her building, we had dinner at The Pheonix, a local pub in Theresa’s Westminster City neighborhood. We spent time talking to someone sitting next to us who was visiting from of all places London…London Ontario in Canada! Theresa may have re-thought the notion of speaking to a stranger when he told her he could see himself dating her after five minutes of conversation. In the meantime the waiter and I broke into deep conversation about Sunday lunch at the pub in which he told me not to get the bread pudding as it gives him gas. Not the best salesman for the restaurant but all in both these conversations helped to prepare me for interesting and unique conversations to come while traveling on my own.