Had another good day with Marty.

We woke up at about 9 sunday morning but lazed around in bed for more than an hour surfing the net and reading before deciding to get up and make a breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, spinach, baked beans and buttered toasts which we ate on the tiny coffee table in front of the telly whilst watching an interview of some loser from the Labour Party wanting to contest Tony Blair's replacement Gordon Brown.

The interviewer was some razor sharp journalist and you'd think the contestant would have been pretty glib as well but it wasn't too long before it became apparant to the interviewer and very soon us as well that this guy just wasn't destined for greater things. Although his facial expression never changed to give away his nervousness, his answers were vague and made little sense. The interviewer upon realising what a loser this guy really was got so excited he almost leapt out of his seat as he shot out question after question. Towards the end of the interview, the contestant even made the statement that Gordon Brown was the best candidate for prime minister. What a laugh!

But that reminded me a bit of the ridiculous labour party ex-leader Kim Beazley whom Marty talks about sometimes. I don't keep up with Australian current affairs because the newspapers can be quite thrashy but my impression of Mr Beazley is, much like Bush, he is in the habit of making serious gaffs. Like for example, when one of Autralia's famous talk show hosts, Rove McManus' wife passed away, he issued a public statement offering his condolences to Karl Rove, a white house strategist. And I thought politicians had to have the gift of the gaff, oh i mean gab.

Anyway, what i then realised was that if all your political parties are shit, then even if you had like 10 to choose from then that wouldn't really be a choice anymore. For example, in Sydney, there's the 2 main parties, the Liberals and then you have Labour (yay beazley!) and then you have the democrats, the greenies (read: tree huggers) and other tiny parties.

and alot of people actually end up choosing the insignificant small parties because they can't bring themselves to choose either the labour, the liberals or the demorcrats! So where's the choice in that? It seems to me that one good party in that case would be much better than having many shit parties.

Anyway, the loser dude whom even the newspapers labelled the 'unknown person' pulled out the very next day. poor guy. his political career quite finished after this embarrassment.

Moving on, Marty and I went to the British museum after brunch and had a late lunch at a pub around the area there. It was a really nice english pub and the decor felt quite old and cosy. It had high tables and high chairs in dark wood, red carpets, low lights and a fantastic steak and mushroom pie served up with mushy peas and mash drenched in gravy. It was a cold and grey day out, perfect day to be hiding from the rain in a pub with hot comfort food. mmm...

Marty pointed out that day that I have adapted really well to London and I suppose that is true. For someone who hates the rain and the cold, the grey weather that's been lingering for the last week and the cold hasn't really fazed me much. Life still goes on when it rains and I am now quite indifferent to it. London seems to be mainly positive to me so far.

Plus, I feel really comfortable with the English. More than I can say for lots of Australians at work anyway. I mean, I've been in Sydney for more than 2 years but have not made any good friends at work. Marty reckons it could simply be the culture at PwC because everyone there seems really fake sometimes. There seems to be a lot more emphasis on networking in OZ. It's hard to explain it but there is a lot of subtle politics and elitism and sucking up to people with power.

For example, if a particular manager is seen as a high performer, then there appears to be a tendency for junior staff to clamour for his/her attention. Sucking up seems to be more blatant and acceptable than in Singapore or London. I think that's the main reason why I feel more comfortable in London. I don't feel a pressure to please people anymore than I would feel comfortable doing so anyway.

A couple of Aussie colleagues here have lamented how thy dislike London because people here seem cold and I guess compared to Sydney, but of course. They say English people are cynical and my response was 'Cynisim is great!'.

One example of how I think I'd get along so much better in England is the fact that I've made one good friend even though I've been here for such a short time. I mean, I've only worked with two audit teams here so far. Each for less than a week. But I've already made one good friend here with this girl Clare I've only just met yesterday. It seems we have so much to talk about even though we come from completely different backgrounds. She's only 23 but it doesn't feel like we have an age difference. Anyway, I invited her to have coffee with Marty and myself after work but was a little disappointed when Marty didn't appear to enthused about her although he denies that *narrows eyes*

Anyway, so far, i've only got positives to say about London, cept for maybe the level of crime, speaking of which, witnessed this guy being chased by a group of people and eventually being tackled by a group of bullet-proof vested police officers just outside starbucks below my apartment. :

Marty and I had a good dinner tonight. to celebrate our anniversary yesterday which I had forgotten. He met me yesterday with a bouquet of roses and had side-parted his hair. He hates his hair side-parted and I hate it centre-parted. Anyway, didn't notice his hairstyle ;P and he had to remind me all these were for our anniversary... awww... he's sweet!

So today, the day after our monthly anniversary, we decided to try out this gastro pub near my place. It was recommended by Clare who heard about it from a friend. We got to the pub but it looked too busy so we decided to try another restaurant in the vicinit and settled for a Spanish restaurant with a redecorated pub interior. It looked as if the restaurant was a converted English pub with orange walls and some spanish art work. Otherwise, there was a bar in the centre with tables all around it and high chairs. Along the walls, there were high tables and high chairs too. Probably leftover furniture from pub days. The food was good but not great but the ambience was good. The buzz of conversation all around made the restaurant feel alive but conversation was still possible without the need to shout and half way through dinner, a spanish guitarist got onto a tiny stage/platform and entertained the diners. The price was reasonable as well. Dinner cost us about £30 for 4 tapas dishes, 2 beers and a diet coke.

The weekend is coming soon. Hopefully the weather will turn a little better. There will be a jazz performance at the national art gallery this friday and hopefully will be able to go to that without braving the rain. assuming that it will be outdoors.