I had an amazing amount happen in one week. Selling a house in CA, Buying a flat in the UK, leaving Meta, and starting on my own company.

On top of that there was a lot of choir and people visiting from out of town.

After getting back from Turkey, We took a much needed day to rest at the flat. Then I got to my last few days in the office. I also met up with Punit, and we walked around the Camley Street Nature Park. Steph and I also dropped by IKEA to get some furniture shopping in and establish a baseline for what we are looking for in our furniture for the new place. We closed on Tuesday and got the keys. There was still some furniture left in the flat so we got that moved out on Thursday.

I had a lovely going away drinks on Wednesday, with a lot of my Meta colleagues coming by. Many had already gone home since a plumbing issue caused the P Building to be shut down. I also left my keyboard in the office since I rushed out, but not a huge thing to have left.

Thursday I was free and the weather was nice and left my phone at the flat. I walked from King’s Cross to Russel Square, then down to Westminster. I walked through St. James Park, Green Park, and Hyde Park before having lunch in Little Venice. I decided to head back and jumped on the tube to get back in 15 minutes.

Thursday evening most of the dive group for Turkey came over and we had a lovely evening of games. They were so nice, and I really appreciate the books from Diana, Jose, Anel, and Pavel. I’ll read through the one from Anel so I can discuss it with her.

Friday I had a motley assortment of friends over, and it was great to see them all getting along so well and connecting. Nicole, Radha, Marissa, Bijoy, Lynne, and Pauline came. I really enjoyed the evening, and I want to host more social events like that. The new place will be better setup to handle it, from the layout of the space and having our own furniture to move around as we like.

For Friday I did a twist on the blueberry scones that I’m calling blueberry dumplings, as I wrap a few blueberries in the scone dough. It turns out much better than the scones, due to the blueberries staying whole and inside the dough instead of leaking everywhere.

Saturday Morning we had a call with Yutong and Paul. It has been too long and I was really happy we were able to get so much time talking to them. It was really late their time, and I appreciate them staying up so late to talk.

Michael and Michelle arrived Saturday around noon. They took a jet lag nap before we met up with them for dinner at Dishoom in the Battersea Power Station. We then headed to The Treehouse where we met with Nicole and some other of her friends. It was a really nice evening, with drinks late into the night. A little too late into the night for me, but it was still great discussions. It was interesting to hear the others complain about their moms, and when they asked me I could only answer “My mom is perfect.”

Sunday was lots of choir. In the morning we went to Merkato Mayfair, a church converted to a food court. The acoustics are great in there. Then we headed to Comic Con, and performed again. The guys from dive club were amazingly supportive and showed up to listen and record. We walked around afterwards until the Con closed. Then I headed into Covent Garden to meet Evelyn, who happened to also be in London this weekend. We had dinner at Seven Dials market, then watched a street act. We then met her husband and went to Mr. Fogg’s Society of Exploration. It wasn’t their normal kind of place, but I think they still had a good time. There was a live singer who did amazing jazzy cocktail covers of pop songs.

I’ve also been setting up tons of meetings about leaving Meta and a whole different set of meeting with builders to walk them through our plans and get bids. I feel bad that I haven’t done much actual work yet, even though it has been only two working days, during which I was mainly handling the flat purchase.

London Weekly 125