I had a very eventful week last week. Went to many places. Did many things. It was fun while it lasted. But like always, all fun eventually comes to a stop. Reality always finds its way back in to ruin things. This time was no exception. The fun ended and reality is kicking in.

It’s so ironic that sometimes the more fun you have, the more consequences you have to suffer later. Does this take away from the initial enjoyment? I don’t know. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. If only fun and enjoyment can come with absolutely no strings attached. But we all know that’s not possible.

An interesting question was posed to me while I was in London. First allow me to list the facts involved.

(1) The normal liquor license in London (or maybe in England as a whole) allows pubs to sell alcohol until 11pm. With a 15-minute allowance to wrap up all drinking, pubs usually kick customers out by 11:15pm.

(2) Certain clubs and/or restaurants have extended liquor licenses allowing them to serve alcohol later into the night, till as late as 2am.

(3) Because of items 1 and 2, there has been a long standing problem in London where people kicked out of pubs at 11:15pm migrate over to clubs with extended licenses in attempt to continue drinking. But seeing that most of these people are already half drunk or have had enough to drink for the night, bouncers at the clubs deny them entrance. With both sides persisting on their stands, fights often break out between the two groups.

The question posed to me during a casual conversation at a pub was, “If London extends drinking hours to 2am for all pubs to match up with the clubs, do you think that would alleviate the problem with fights between club bouncers and pub-to-club hoppers?”

I was asked this question because the person knew I was from San Francisco where drinking hours end at 2am uniformly for all establishments. He wanted to know if doing what we do here in SF would help them with the problem of fights they have there. My answer was no, it wouldn’t help their problem. It would only create other problems instead. Everywhere there is drinking, there are problems. For us, the problem is at 2am when the streets are filled with drunks who are at least loud and raucous if not fighting or driving. The threats of these problems are as troublesome, if not worse, than the problem London currently faces. Also, with their culture of hitting pubs earlier in the evening than we do, extending the drinking hours will only increase the amount of alcohol they will consume in one evening. That just creates drunker people on their streets by the time the pubs close. I think I have some valid points here. Feel free to comment.

After quitting my last job and before starting at my new job, I went to London for a week. This was the first time I stepped foot into Europe. I’ve been to Canada, Mexico, and all around China, but never Europe. Wish I had the time and money to go to more European destinations, like Paris and Italy, but at least I got to go to London. It was a long overdue trip. I have a friend there and he’s been bugging me to visit him for two years. And finally I did.

Overall the trip was good. It wasn’t the best trip I’ve ever taken, but it was definitely worth my while. The history, the architecture, the culture were all new and/or different to me somehow. London is one of the oldest modern cities I’ve been to. At the same time that it is a modern metropolis with a bustling economy, it is also a city full of history. Everywhere you go you see old buildings still standing from eons ago. For me this was good because I enjoy looking at old architecture. London definitely has lots of that to offer. Westminster Abbey, for example, is one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen. And with all the royal coronations done on location and with so many important figures buried or memorialized there, I would also call it powerful. Other than Westminster Abbey, I was also impressed by Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and the London courthouse. London Bridge, on the other hand, was a disappointment. Having heard about the bridge so much and with the old nursery rhyme that pays tribute to it, I expected a beautifully designed bridge. To the contrary, it is the most boring of all bridges with no design aesthetics whatsoever.

The most beautiful area we visited was the city of Bath, which is two and a half hours west of London. On the last day of our trip, we joined a tour for a day-trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. The city of Bath was built around the hot springs that the Romans discovered in the area in 90AD. The Roman Baths occupied a huge area of the city. To the present day only a small portion of it has been dug up. The bulk of the area still lies underground yet to be unearthed. Anyhow, with a beautiful river running across town, a charming little bridge lined with shops, and the entire city built with one single façade of yellow brick houses, Bath looks absolutely gorgeous. It is as picturesque as any scene you find on jigsaw puzzles. I can imagine myself visiting Bath often for weekend trips if I were to live in London.

The one biggest problem I had on this trip was the weather. London is too darn cold!!! I don’t deal with cold weather too well. This has always been the case throughout my life. I don’t know why. Maybe my body just can’t generate enough heat to warm me up when the surrounding is cold. For me to be in London in early March was not the smartest idea. But when that’s the only time I can go, what can I do? Nothing really. So I roughed the cold. It wasn’t fun, but I survived. The way I consoled myself at the time was to constantly remind myself that at least it wasn’t snowing or raining like it did the week before my visit. That was a blessing I counted.

Another thing that posed as a little of a problem was the poor exchange rate we got for the dollar. The 2:1 (dollar to pound) ratio we got really deteriorated our buying power. All the numeric values posted in pounds in London looked the same as those in the US in dollars. BUT…we had to multiply all the pounds by two to get the equivalence in dollars. As a result, everything was essentially double the price as in the US. That really hurt. Given that, we didn’t spend much on this trip. Maybe I should rephrase that. We didn’t “buy” too much but we still spent a lot of money. How’s that for Econ 101?

A lot have changed since I last blogged. I no longer work at the TV station where I slaved for over six years. I am now working at a radio station as an operations assistant. This is the sister station to the station I’ve worked at part-time since college. Throughout my nine years as part-time board operator for the station, I built up a strong rapport with the company and its employees. They like my work ethics and I like the company’s stability. So when we mutually decided we needed each other’s help – they needed a new assistant and I needed a new job – both sides came together naturally.

I’ve now been here two weeks. The work is easy. Not to be bragging, but I’m a fast learner. They didn’t expect me to catch on so quickly. There’s still some stuff they haven’t transferred to me yet. Those seem to be the more complicated stuff. Can’t wait to take on those responsibilities too because there’s just not enough for me to do now. (Hence, the free time to blog again.) I rather have things to do instead of sitting around all day waiting for stuff to come my way. Another reason why I want more work is that I’m afraid upper management might think this newly created position is not so needed after all. They created this position with me in mind, thinking I will be of great help to the Director of Operations who has too much on his plate. Which he does. I’m amazed by how much he handles in a day and how he managed to get by without an assistant in the past. This year he was finally able to convince corporate headquarters that he needs a full-time assistant. Hence I’m on board. I just hope he can continue to convince them there’s enough work to justify keeping me full-time. But like I said, there’s still stuff waiting to be transferred to me. Hopefully once those get going all will be fine. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy my stress-less work days. Such a thing was nonexistent at my previous job.