Its 45 days before I bid London (the City I have an off/on relationship) with goodbye and after 5.5 years of being here, I feel that it deserves to be known for its merits and for how the experience of living in this City has dramatically shaped my life. I first stepped foot in London in Feb 2000 for Robert and Lisa Pawinski's wedding. Friends that I met through Tracy Dunley Owen in 1997, when we all decided to experience a road trip through Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. It was rainy, cold (no surprise) and I could not understand why people chose to live here but there was something about this city, perhaps the level of energy, which even made Johannesburg feel very chilled out..
I then returned for my first fling with London as part of an 18 month secondment in June 2000 and then the love-hate relationship began: hate the tube, the crowds and the weather but love the cosmopolitan nature, the variety, the ability to take a train to Paris and the anonymity. The great part was that I got to meet some really impressive women who have are still good friends to this day.. Notty and Zips.. I shared a flat with Phares, who became a big brother in away, ensuring that we girls did not get into any trouble.. I sometimes hung out after work with Nolan, aiming to try different sushi restaurants each time, but often ending up at the same haunt… I also got to see the world of the oil traders, who partied so hard, that I often had to stand back and just watch in amazement (Thankfully they have all started to settle down.. ). London was and is still home to so many different walks of life, each living in their own microcosm but benefiting in different ways from what London has to offer. It still the best place to people watch…
Returning to South Africa in November 2001 was easy… but the memories of London often mademe restless and question what I really wanted to do with my life.. I needed a change.. so I bought a new house, but something was still missing.. I needed a boost.. and after many lengthy talks with Nolan, I finally decided to apply for the MBA on the last day of the last round.. just like Andreja, with whom I ended up living together for the next 2 years…
So on the 1st of July 2003, I heard that I was accepted and in a month had packed up my life with the help of Eva and landed in London, which was experiencing a heatwave… with an expected GBP70K in student debt.. and then did what most MBA students do.. lose contact with the rest of the world and live the insular life besides your fellow classmates.. Part 2 of the relationship had begun. At the start of the MBA, it took a while to adjust to the fact that I was a student in London. It was a good thing that I was coming from a ZAR currency with 12:1 conversion math taking over, which helped with realizing just how expensive London is…especially for a student.. As much as we hate to say it, I am grateful to HSBC for providing me with the loan. My South African bank only offered me a student loan of ZAR 40K (less than GBP3500) which would pay for less than 3 weeks of tuition..
My 3 housemates (Andreja, Mitali and Philipp) and myself met over the internet with Philipp doing the match-making and we ended up as “Flat 31”..This flat was 5 minutes from school and we soon had John joining us (the only person I know who can study for exams whilst watching TV and end up doing really well). Puneet was our most frequent visitor and many students thought he lived with us. Many a meal, discussion and debate took place around that large table in the dining room - Should women be given equal rights in the work place was one that tested friendships… and study group dynamics.
The MBA experience taught me a lot, not just how to create a value chain or how to leverage and unleverage betas, but more so about the ability to better understand yourself and how you relate to others, to understand the cultural differences in doing business and for me personally, to make ambitions come to life (well maybe not straight after graduation..)
And then came the summer of 2004: internships in banking – working till 2-3am at the whim of some jaundiced VP and before we could blink, we were finalizing job contracts and preparing for graduation.. and for John and I, our 3 month holiday of a lifetime through Asia. It was also a sad time for us as we were returning to the real world after being cocooned for the last 2 years in an environment where we all thought we were best of breed.
Jobs in London.. back to the daily tube commute.. the first pay check.. the long hours.. the aim to impress…thinking that we will be the global future leaders, only to be stuck with excel, powerpoint and a deck of slides.. it was turning to winter and we all missed being at school.
Since then the last two years have flown by so quickly…
- short weekend trips to South Africa,
- Christmas with the Kims in Bend,
- Ballooning in Turkey,
- Iceland in September (not the best time to visit) D
- riving through mainland Greece,
- Safari in Madikwe,
- India to see tigers,
- Namibia (not conducive for pregnant women) to see dunes with the Jarvis,
- climbing Mt. Sinai with John in Egypt
- learning to cook Korean from Jane,
- Some fantastic home cooked meals,
- two of the most international Thanksgiving dinners..ever (last count 23 different nationalities)
- We also lived through Sarah’s pregnancy which gave us the lovely Queen B (pictured above),
- sumptuous weekends with Andreja in Slovenia and Italy where we each ate for 3 people (thanks to Paolo),
- trips into the countryside to Sevenoaks to see the Stewarts and get John accustomed to the South African ritual called the “Braai” which he then practiced with the Gushes in SA,
- welcoming Taira to London and the somewhat intimidating LBS crowd,
- daily lunch with Anna at work,
- hanging out with Celeste and trying to pack in our days with all the things we need to do before we leave..
and from today I have 45 days to do all that I have not discovered and wanted to do in London. I think I am going to run out of time….but this time I am leaving for new adventures in a different world.. some say its like Cape Town, others say it’s the best part of the US to live in.. one thing for sure, I don’t think I will ever complain about bad weather again..
(more photos and sunsets to follow... )
As the countdown has begun, together with friends, I am creating the list of my top 100 things to do before you leave.. Its funny, you never think that you will actually need to do this, but this time round, I don’t want to have any regrets.
Car gazing.. No need to say anything else here the picture says it all.. Its been added to my ever expanding Christmas wish list.. I know what John will be getting me instead – a white Acura!! This guy's wife was driving the Porsche Cayenne.. I want her day job..
Asking complete strangers to take your photos outside your new No 1 hot spot.. This one is of Celeste, an old friend from my Brait days in South Africa, who moved to London this year and the person who invited me to Facebook..
People watching in Hyde Park… Its summer 2007 in London.. Smoking has been banned in all public places.. oops but in a culturally diverse city like London, the authorities forgot about the sheesha pipe..
Buying sesame bread at Paul.. and those deliciously light macaroons.. Paul, for the non-Londoners, is the French experience in a nut shell.. Its a bakery with the slogan, "made with butter".. How do the French stay so thin!!! Have you ever spotted a french woman with a muffin top???
