Been a while!
Ok, so it's been quite some time since I've done a real update on here
Things have been going well recently, I've been given 2 promotions in work in recent months, the first was from general accounts to basically being put in charge of the whole purchasing side of things, and being made transport manager, so I had to take care of the entire company's vehicle tracking system. The other was being made site manager for about 15 of our Central London buildings. So now I have to take care of all the budgets, hiring, etc and who we use for our suppliers.
Apart from that, went to a couple of concerts at the end of the year, the highlight of which was Muse at Wembley (I may upload and post some pics/vids from a few of them at some point, but nothing in this one :P)
Then in January I had my first out-of-Europe holiday (and first holiday anywhere for about 7 years) when I went to stay with Sarah for a week in New York :D
It was weird going through the airports alone after so many family trips, but it was pretty much complication-free, apart from the second changeover in Boston airport. I'd landed, and there was a 49 minute wait between flights, in which I had to get from one side of the airport on terminal B, to the other side, terminal C. The guy at the information desk told me the fastest way there was to get the number 11 shuttle bus outside the main terminal B entrance. After waiting for 30 minutes for the bus, I decided "that guy is a complete twat, or I'm just really unlucky when it comes to catching buses" xD. Then after a 10 minute run to Terminal C, I came to the boarding gate just as they have a "this is the final boarding call for Philip Rolfe" call over the PA. Shiiiiiit. So I guess that was a close call, but apart from that, everything went perfectly.
When I landed in New York, it was still snowing outside, and I was greeted by Sarah, her sister Michelle and her sister's friend, another Sarah :O US Airways were so fabulously well organised they managed to lose my case during one of the changeovers (or at least it didn't make it to the flight in time to make it to NY with me, and they ended up sending it over the next day). Glad to get into a warm car - OMG IT WAS COOOOLD - we made our way over to Sarah's place after dropping her sister's friend off, and once we'd arrived I was shown the baby's room and the fridge full of Coke and these smexy little chocolates xD
Don't you wish you had some?
We were both so tired that we just decided to sleep, I think it was about 11.30 by the time Sarah had finished showing me around,
The next day, Michelle picked us up in the morning and they showed me around the local town, and we drove to pick something up from one of Michelle's friends, then went to the store to pick up food and stuff for the week. THEY HAD LUCKY CHARMS! Yes they may be nice usual cereal for you US gits, but they've been banned in the UK for about 10 years now, so I had to get some for old times sake ;_;
We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out at the house, it was strange after living in London all my life, being in an area that you had to actually drive if you wanted to get to a store (or at least have quite a walk) but made a nice change with the peace and quiet ^_^
On Monday, her dad had decided to take me up to an Indian casino about an hours drive away to go play in a poker tournament. After getting there, I found out that unlike UK casinos, they don't accept debit/credit cards as ID, and since I left my passport at home, we were screwed, so just went back home, rather disappointed x_x
Tuesday was spent mainly around the house, we'd planned to go back to the casino on Thursday and Friday evenings, so it was pretty much just chatting and stuff.
Wednesday we went to the mall with her cousin, which was a nice day out. I love the price of things over there, and easily managed to spend 1/3 of my budget in that day alone xD
I ended up getting: 4 DVDs (3 movies, 1 Coheed & Cambria concert), 4 poker books, a new pair of shoes, a new wallet since my old one is falling apart. I was tempted to get a smexy little ornament in one of the stores, but there wouldn't have been room in my case, and it would've been very heavy and more than likely would have been broken on the way back, so I decided against it :(
We saw a movie before we actually went shopping (Night at the Museum - great movie, a lot better than I was expecting) and had a bite to eat in the food court.
After we left the mall, we went to a nearby chinese buffet restaurant for dinner, which was definitely my favourite meal out there, omg their fried shrimp and spicy beef was sooo nice :X
The rest of the week was mostly hanging out, apart from going to the casino on Thurs + Fri night, although on Thursday after we got back we spent most of the night hanging out in her room just chatting about things, and then again when she woke me up knocking on my door at 5.30am :P It was really nice to be able to just lay around and chat though, so it was nice ^_^
Then on Saturday we went out to a party at her uncle's (or at least we kinda did). After her neice had gotten sick, everyone caught it over the weekend, and from Saturday morning onwards, one by one we started to catch it, and it started to hit us badly :( We left her uncle's about an hour after arriving, and went straight back home after dropping Michelle off. Saturday night was spend rushing to and from the bathroom, throwing up etc, until around 5am when I finally stopped, and then I ended up just sprawled out on the bed trying to cool myself down, without much luck =(
So overall it was a bloody great week, even though we didn't really do a whole lot, I had a great time just hanging out and having the few days we did to go into town or such. I was very relieved to find her parents liked me, and they've already started making plans for when I go back xD Fondest memories have to be the day at the mall, the first day being shown around and just hanging out, even when Sarah let her neice beat me up ;_;
I MISS NEW YORK, BOOO
Apart from the holiday and the aforementioned, nothing much has happened recently, but I've been a lot happier over the past few months for various reasons, and I'm starting to have a great feeling about how things are going, and it's been a long long time since I've felt anything like that.
Things have been going well recently, I've been given 2 promotions in work in recent months, the first was from general accounts to basically being put in charge of the whole purchasing side of things, and being made transport manager, so I had to take care of the entire company's vehicle tracking system. The other was being made site manager for about 15 of our Central London buildings. So now I have to take care of all the budgets, hiring, etc and who we use for our suppliers.
Apart from that, went to a couple of concerts at the end of the year, the highlight of which was Muse at Wembley (I may upload and post some pics/vids from a few of them at some point, but nothing in this one :P)
Then in January I had my first out-of-Europe holiday (and first holiday anywhere for about 7 years) when I went to stay with Sarah for a week in New York :D
It was weird going through the airports alone after so many family trips, but it was pretty much complication-free, apart from the second changeover in Boston airport. I'd landed, and there was a 49 minute wait between flights, in which I had to get from one side of the airport on terminal B, to the other side, terminal C. The guy at the information desk told me the fastest way there was to get the number 11 shuttle bus outside the main terminal B entrance. After waiting for 30 minutes for the bus, I decided "that guy is a complete twat, or I'm just really unlucky when it comes to catching buses" xD. Then after a 10 minute run to Terminal C, I came to the boarding gate just as they have a "this is the final boarding call for Philip Rolfe" call over the PA. Shiiiiiit. So I guess that was a close call, but apart from that, everything went perfectly.
When I landed in New York, it was still snowing outside, and I was greeted by Sarah, her sister Michelle and her sister's friend, another Sarah :O US Airways were so fabulously well organised they managed to lose my case during one of the changeovers (or at least it didn't make it to the flight in time to make it to NY with me, and they ended up sending it over the next day). Glad to get into a warm car - OMG IT WAS COOOOLD - we made our way over to Sarah's place after dropping her sister's friend off, and once we'd arrived I was shown the baby's room and the fridge full of Coke and these smexy little chocolates xD
Don't you wish you had some?
We were both so tired that we just decided to sleep, I think it was about 11.30 by the time Sarah had finished showing me around,
The next day, Michelle picked us up in the morning and they showed me around the local town, and we drove to pick something up from one of Michelle's friends, then went to the store to pick up food and stuff for the week. THEY HAD LUCKY CHARMS! Yes they may be nice usual cereal for you US gits, but they've been banned in the UK for about 10 years now, so I had to get some for old times sake ;_;
We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out at the house, it was strange after living in London all my life, being in an area that you had to actually drive if you wanted to get to a store (or at least have quite a walk) but made a nice change with the peace and quiet ^_^
On Monday, her dad had decided to take me up to an Indian casino about an hours drive away to go play in a poker tournament. After getting there, I found out that unlike UK casinos, they don't accept debit/credit cards as ID, and since I left my passport at home, we were screwed, so just went back home, rather disappointed x_x
Tuesday was spent mainly around the house, we'd planned to go back to the casino on Thursday and Friday evenings, so it was pretty much just chatting and stuff.
Wednesday we went to the mall with her cousin, which was a nice day out. I love the price of things over there, and easily managed to spend 1/3 of my budget in that day alone xD
I ended up getting: 4 DVDs (3 movies, 1 Coheed & Cambria concert), 4 poker books, a new pair of shoes, a new wallet since my old one is falling apart. I was tempted to get a smexy little ornament in one of the stores, but there wouldn't have been room in my case, and it would've been very heavy and more than likely would have been broken on the way back, so I decided against it :(
We saw a movie before we actually went shopping (Night at the Museum - great movie, a lot better than I was expecting) and had a bite to eat in the food court.
After we left the mall, we went to a nearby chinese buffet restaurant for dinner, which was definitely my favourite meal out there, omg their fried shrimp and spicy beef was sooo nice :X
The rest of the week was mostly hanging out, apart from going to the casino on Thurs + Fri night, although on Thursday after we got back we spent most of the night hanging out in her room just chatting about things, and then again when she woke me up knocking on my door at 5.30am :P It was really nice to be able to just lay around and chat though, so it was nice ^_^
Then on Saturday we went out to a party at her uncle's (or at least we kinda did). After her neice had gotten sick, everyone caught it over the weekend, and from Saturday morning onwards, one by one we started to catch it, and it started to hit us badly :( We left her uncle's about an hour after arriving, and went straight back home after dropping Michelle off. Saturday night was spend rushing to and from the bathroom, throwing up etc, until around 5am when I finally stopped, and then I ended up just sprawled out on the bed trying to cool myself down, without much luck =(
So overall it was a bloody great week, even though we didn't really do a whole lot, I had a great time just hanging out and having the few days we did to go into town or such. I was very relieved to find her parents liked me, and they've already started making plans for when I go back xD Fondest memories have to be the day at the mall, the first day being shown around and just hanging out, even when Sarah let her neice beat me up ;_;
I MISS NEW YORK, BOOO
Apart from the holiday and the aforementioned, nothing much has happened recently, but I've been a lot happier over the past few months for various reasons, and I'm starting to have a great feeling about how things are going, and it's been a long long time since I've felt anything like that.