New Year's Eve in London

london416getty
Originally uploaded by zanmei east west.

Although I wrote a little about Christmas in Paris, I neglected to write anything about New Year's... After getting back to London from Paris, I was plunged into assignment hell. Procrastinating for so long, I don't know how to do anything else. Anyway, I visited another friend who was also struggling with assignments and we had champagne, food, music and watched the 10 minutes of fireworks at the London Eye on TV. Short, but spectacular!

Translation for Shopaholics

Language or accents/slang may not be the only things that need to be translated when you move to a new city. Today I found this great site that translates American shops into the British equivalents! Some shops can be found almost everywhere including London (French Connection, Mexx, Morgan, etc...) and some shops that were in at least one of places I lived before are here (Zara, Oasis, Mango). But there are some shops I miss:
Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Club Monaco, Theory...

No problem, just try:
Whistles, Monsoon, Jigsaw, Ted Baker, Kew, Reiss, Joseph...

Glad to have found the site as on my own, I had only discovered the first 3 of these places.

As soon I am no longer a student, I will have to start shopping at the other 4 as well as Karen Miller! (Oh, if only I had the money and occasion to wear some of the dresses at KM!) And then there is the lingerie at Rigby & Peller! Fantastic.

Check the site's London shopping primer.

S&M and M&S

It's important to know that:

S&M = Sausage & Mash
M&S = Mark's & Spencer's

London Linkup @ St. Moritz

Ok... so it wasn't an official London Linkup event, but there were several people who met via that institution at dinner tonight! I wondered how it came to be that Sarah knew so many people in London after only living here for a short time... but it seems she not only knows people from her professional circuit that she met in DC etc, but she also met people on the Linkup site for London. People post anything they have been wanting to do (from visit the neighborhood pub, to attending gallery exhibits, to traveling to Brazil for carnival) and any interested members can join the party.

Anyway, I have joined... but now I realize there was no need as I already know all the really interesting people from Linkup - they were all at dinner this evening! (London Linkup is not as active as the ones for LA, NY or Boston). Anyway, maybe I will be lucky as C was and meet my future Mr. there! (insert cynical snicker) Well, after dinner at St. Moritz (the restaurant in Soho, not the city in Switzerland) I am fondued out enough to last the next 10 years