Whirlwind Christmas in UK

After three weeks of partying with Taneka I was feeling quite exhausted by the time I touched down in London. I spent the first night with a visit from my Mum in London. We went for dinner and I tried to fight the desire to sleep so that we could catch up.
I had planned to work in the PTS London office for 2 days to meet my UK co-workers and share best practices. It was interesting to see the same company operating so differently in the UK from Japan and I felt slight reverse culture shock at the working culture back in London.
I spent my lunch breaks visiting my old favorite places around Liverpool Street including Spitalfields, Brick Lane and Old Street. In my first visit to the newsagents I tried not to gasp as I paid almost £6 for a magazine, drink and Maltesers. This was a general theme in London with the price of drinks, eating out and travel - I can't remember the city being so expensive.
My second night in London I met Suzie and Annabel in Oxford Circus for dinner and drinks. We were all quite shattered with the events of the festive season so didn't stay out too late.
I decided to stay in London a third night at Suzies place which meant we could spend more time together and I could meet Sagar on Friday before heading up to Raunds.
Seeing my friends reminded how much I have missed of their lives and you can't really catch up you just have to start again from that point which was quite sad.
I was so excited to see Sagar and spent hours just talking before heading for some lunch before I had to catch my train. Being with my friends in London made me quite homesick but the life style of London just doesn't compare to Tokyo.

Back in Northampton I headed straight to Heart to surprise Tony and felt nostalgic being back in the little shop. I went out with Ali and her friends that evening for a farewell meal before she headed off to San Diego. Lou also came for dinner so I got to see them both on my first night back. We went to Northampton and to a club in Town after drinks - I spent most of the night with my mouth open at the sights in there - it was like something off Footballers Wives meets Shameless. Needless to say I was in no hurry to go back to Northampton for a night!

Most of my time in Raunds was spent either sleeping, drinking or gossiping with friends and family.


Christmas Eve me and Ali went to a local bar and continued the night with a house party until 5am causing us to nearly miss Christmas Day.
For Christmas dinner me and my Dad joined 15 of his friends so that we didn't have to go through the pain of cooking and cleaning up for dinner.

Before the New Year I spent 2 days with Big Kyla and was happy for a break out of Raunds and to catch up with her and Lee.
I also had a sad goodbye with Ali before she headed off to San Diego to live but we were both happy we had the chance to spend Christmas together.

To see in the New Year Lou and me went back down to London, Hoxton Square for drinks before heading to Turnmills to see Simian Mobile Disco, Mylo, and 2Many DJs and also met up with Kiren and Nisha who were also in the UK for the festive season. Out of character for me I was done by 4.30am and we all headed back to Amy's place to get a few hours of shut eye.







I spent my last two days packing and took my little cousins (who are not so little anymore) to the Snowdome in Milton Keynes with Zeke for Snowboarding lessons.

The 2 weeks went so fast and felt almost like a dream. It was very emotional being back in UK and then saying goodbyes again.
Before I knew it I was back on the plane and biting my lip not to cry.
A weekend of snowboarding planned though gave me something to look forward to back in Japan.