I am done with Oxford Street

....but I got some cool boots.

I had my first retail experience in London today (besides the horrible Asda)..and it was pretty awful! First I went to the Clark's store, where customer service is NOT a priority. This kind of angry woman was "helping me," couldn't find my size in the shoe, I liked, didn't tell me for about 20 minutes while I sat there, and then said, "go look at some other ones." So I switched salespeople and then, later, she came over and chewed her co-worker out for stealing her customer. Nice.

After I got my boots from the nice salesperson, I went to H&M which I have been so looking forward to and...I liked nothing. I think I may have outgrown H&M (sorry, Jess). it seems like the top thing to purchase on Oxford Street are leggings, which remind me too much of the 5th grade for me to embrace. I'll be glad when that style goes out. I can't say that I won't get sucked into it.

In between shopping, it was pouring and there were huge crowds of people. My great fear is that I'm going to be purse snatched, so I was trying to hold my bag close, hold the umbrella, keep track of my purchases, and manage the crowds. When I got on the tube, an announcement was made that someone had pulled the alarm, so we had to wait for clearance to move. And by the time I got home, I decided that I'm done with Oxford Street and all the people and bad customer service from now on. It's just too much.

I'm back

I had my bottom slightly kicked by some sort of flu/strep type illness yesterday, but I'm back in the land of the living again and ready to blog!

Yesterday, before I succombed to my illness, I went to the National Galleries with the wife of one of JIm's co-workers. She was very full of energy and spirit and extremely excited about the art. I, on the other hand, was wondering why my bag was so heavy, and taking every opportunity to sit down...I just didn't appreciate it like I should have, so I'm going to have to go back. There were quite a few pictures of Christ at various stages of his life and portrayed by many different artists, as well as of Greek gods and goddesses. Some were unbelievably huge and very, very old.

To the left, are a few pictures of the National Galleries and Trafalgar Square. The top picture is only a portion of the Galleries, which is HUGE and can't be fit into one picture. The second is a fountain in Trafalgar Square (there are two like this), and the third is a huge mass of pigeons, surrounding a man. It was raining and there was pigeon poop everywhere, which made for treacherous walking conditions. It was pretty disgusting.

In other news, I have officially put my feelers out for potential jobs and so far haven't gotten any information back from anyone. So, next week, I will be getting more aggressive.

I have also started the process of volunteering for a young women's resource project in Lewisham, which is one town over from where we are living. I'll be meeting with woman next Thursday to see how the group is and whether it is something that I would want to do. They are a group of special needs girls who meet on Thursday evenings. I was kind of hoping to do more than just one evening a week, but I guess that's a start. I'm not sure that special needs kids are the group I am looking to work with...so we will see. At least I will be doing something.

The other thing I'm considering is the American Women's Club in London. Jim's friend's wife says the young women in the group are "just adorable," which leads me to believe that I will probably not be the type of person they have in this club, because I am not typically described as "just adorable." These women also seem to be pretty rich. One of them lives in Lady Di's old flat...sheesh. Anyway, the club goes out for walks around London, goes to the theatre, museums, plays bridge (HAH! Can you see me playing bridge?!) , has book clubs, cooking classes, visits the auctions, etc. There were a few things that looked interesting to me, but I'm not sure if I can really swallow it. PLus it costs 100 pounds! I could be spending that money joining the British Association of Exercise Scientists who post jobs once a week!

Tough decision: pay for friends or pay to have the priviledge to job hunt? It would be nice to spend time with other people during the day. Sometimes I get tired of myself.