Back in London

Hi folks!  I'm back in London after almost 2 weeks in New York.  It was actually a fantastic trip back to New York, with lots of fun and reuniting!

After Thanksgiving with the fam, I was in New York for the rest of the week.  We tried to re-do the fun that was Lyon's birthday with a 5-day cocktail party.  Unfortunately, since I started on Monday, it ended up being a 6-day cocktail party.  Monday, I went to a hockey game with a bunch of my coworkers.  We started at Korean BBQ, and I tasted tongue for the first time (honestly, better than expected).  The Rangers were playing the Penguins, and while it was a good game, the Rangers lost (sad face).  Tuesday night, a few of us grabbed dinner at Back Forty.  It was so nice to get some one-on-one time with people and to hear what they've been up to since I left.  Very glad to hear that Emma has settled on Nomura for next year.  Also, Back Forty had just gotten a giant elk, so I had an elk steak.  Really good - seriously, try it.

From there, we headed to Mc Sorley's.  I love McSorley's!  It's like a rugby party - kind of dirty, you can bang your glass on the table, and you just continue asking for more beers.  Lots of people came out and we stayed till almost 1 playing this-or-that.  It's a little more awkward when you're playing with a few people you work with (eep).

Wednesday was drinks with my 2 life-coaches from work.  We went to Ward III where we got to create cocktails and had a nice time drinking, snacking, and catching up on life.  Thursday we went out downtown with a bunch of my coworkers.  We started at Puffy's Tavern, the bar we had my coworker's 'congrats on getting married' party.  Found a few new songs from the bartenders playlist (thank you Shazam!).  From there, a few coworkers were heading to another bar near by, Reade Street Pub.  AWESOME place.  11$ pitchers and a guitarist who was willing to take requests.  Lyon held up the lyrics for "You make my dreams come true" and he played it.  Other crowd pleasers were when he called us out, welcomed me back, and then played "Only the good die young."

I stayed with Lyon Sun - Thurs and it was wonderful.  We stayed up for a bit every night just catching up and discussing life stuff.  We remembered our acronym goals for May of this year - "A FROG".  See my facebook for the meaning.  My favorite is R is for no more people who remind you of lord of the rings :)

Friday, had quiet dinner with Mallika then off to Dana's bar to wish her happy birthday.  My brother was there too (as he was all week), but we decided to go Kaushik-style and take lots of celebration shots.  Bad idea.  Post the bar closing, we decided to go check out his new apartment.  We couldn't get the door open or figure out which apt it was.  Fail at 5 AM.  Got some late-night pierogies around the corner (good to have, Vik), fell asleep at the restaurant while eating said pierogies, drunk bonded, and crashed.

All in all, most people exceeded my expectations.  It's hard coming back, as you really don't know what to expect.  Pretty much everyone came out at least one night.  I got to catch up with most people individually, and most relationships were exactly as I left them.  Yay!  Was also really nice to spend more time with family.  From Thanksgiving to Cousin's Party to the week in NY, I got to spend some real quality time with my family, and it made me sad to be so far away from them, but happy that we get times like this when we're all together.

I'll update on the wedding I went to on Saturday later!