Leaking ceiling

So I am back from Germany. I had a great time. On the weekends I was at my sister's place in Hamburg. And I met my nephews. They are both adorable! Though very different. One of them is pretty big, has red/blonde hair. You can hardly see his eyebrows and lashes. But his head is so big! The other one is tiny. Had full black hair and long eyelashes. His face and everything is really tiny. Both of them were pretty much eating, sleeping, crying. Maybe next time when I see them, around Easter, they will be more aware of their environment. So excited!

During the week I was at my parents place. Went to the dentist. All is well. Yay! And I met up with a lot of friends from high school. We will have our 10th year reunion next year. Originally I couldn't care less about it. But now it seems like one of my friends will be organising it, and most of my friends will attend. So I might go after all. Just because it would be such a great opportunity to meet them all at the same time. This might mean that I will be going back to Germany three times in three months next year. Easter in April, a friends wedding in May and the reunion in June. Uh oh. That will blow a whole into my bank account. Thank god for Ryanair. So I guess the Japan trip will have to be in the Fall. No way I can squeeze that into spring as well. And I want to avoid going in the summer. I don't much enjoy the summer heat. But we will see. I just found out about the reunion and the wedding in the last week. Will have a think about it over Christmas.

Anyway, I came back Sunday late evening. That was a bad idea. I was so tired all week at work. But I made it through somehow. Was super busy catching up on last week. But wasn't really motivated. Especially because next week a lot of my colleagues will be either on holiday or work trips and I have to take care of their emails. Boo. On top of catching up. Well, it's Christmas soon(ish) and I will be off for almost two weeks then. Cannot wait!

In other news... There are really no other news. I still love our new flat. Though we discovered a few problems that we have to call our landlord about next week. It rained heavily tonight and in the morning we discovered that some water had leaked through the bathroom ceiling. Not a lot. But they better check that out (since it NEVER rains in England I am sure it won't be a problem). The other thing is our boiler. So far we only had the hot water on. But now it's gotten colder so I switched the central heating on. But then the boiler heats for about ten minutes and then shuts down with an error message saying it's over heating. That can't be good. Let's hope someone can fix that before it gets really cold. The other thing is that one of the pipes in the shower is leaking. Not a lot, but still I want to get that fixed before it turns into a bigger problem.

Even though those problems are annoying I think they can be forgiven. It's a new place so there are bound to be things that are not working. But eventually everything will be tuned and then it will be a gorgeous flat.

Which is why I will leave you with photos taken from my balcony yesterday. Enjoy the London dusk:

 

London, what are you doing?

My work send me home early today because of the riots. It feels very surreal to be honest. The area I work in was not affected directly. However, one of our London offices was close to a riot centre and the police advised businesses to let everyone go home early before the violence could spread. So they send us home as well.

The area I live in was not affected. It is a very residential area with no shops around. I live behind a prison. I don't know if that makes me feel any safer tonight though.

I heard a lot of sirens during the night. Today I found out that on my nearest high street people had broken into shops and destroyed cars and property. I go the opposite way to work so I did not see any of this. But when I came home today I popped into my local supermarket to stock up on food (just in case, you never know) and stores in that area looked very different. Lots of them were closed. The ones that were open left their shutters as closed as possible. Just open enough for people to enter/exit. The supermarket had put a really scary security guard in front and all stores had at least on person in front of their doors keeping watch. 

What makes all of this even more surreal is the good weather we are having. The sun is shining, it's warm and nice. Though some people are acting like complete assholes, there are also those that are extremely nice. Feels like they are almost trying to make up for it. When I went into the tube a guy who sells The Big Issue (magazine made by and sold by homeless people to have some income) came towards me and greeted me very warmly. 

Waiting for bf to come home now. I guess we will wake up again tomorrow and see what's happening. As long as the tubes are running I will be going into work. So far that has worked good. So fingers crossed that people will smarten up and things will calm down.

Everyone be safe tonight!

After work fun

Couple of weeks ago my bf finished an incredibly busy period at work. He remembers the exact time he handed in the project papers: 11.27am. It was on a Friday and he basically ran from the office that second to go drinking. I met up with him later in the day and we had some celebratory drinks. His workmates came out as well and we had a lovely evening.

I actually managed to take some pictures while out with my camera phone. Not the best pictures in the world. 

I like these newly developed areas. Especially when they randomly plant a few trees in them. You have these modern straight line buildings broken up by lovely trees.

London night sky anyone? 

 

 

 

We headed out for one more drink after I took the pics. Or let's say, the boys had one more drink while I had juice. My old bones can't handle the alcohol that well anymore. Have to stop drinking early if I want to feel like a human being the next day.

But otherwise it was a lovely evening. Hope you enjoyed the (blurry) photos!

Trip to Japanese class

I kinda felt bored taking the bus from university to my Japanese class and then from class back home. So I amused myself by taking pictures out of the windows. Not the best idea at night. Most of them are horrible, but some turned out ok. Sharing with you random pictures taking of Central London:

King's Cross Underground entrance.

Scala bar/concert venue.

Random itsu I sometimes eat dinner at before class.

Near Warren Street Station.

Again, Warren Street.

Now I'm exhausted and it's bed time. Everyone have a good night!