Lady that Lunches

So this is what I've become.

The project I've been working on finally ended last Thursday. I was willing this project to end for some time now, and I was positively gleeful on the last day. Despite being overjoyed at the prospect of imminent unemployment, I was also worried about others who were concerned about where their next paycheck was going to come from.  It was also kind of sad that we would all disperse into the ether and would no longer have our usual day to day routine.

As sad as it was to say goodbye to everyone, it wasn't too terrible as I figured I would see the ones I considered friends again. And that I did! One of my friends was kept on to help wrap up, and my other friend and I met her at the office for lunch. While I was waiting for her in the lobby, I ran into a few of the others who were also helping wrap things up. I knew I would see them again!

I enjoyed lunch with my friends, and our project manager joined us for a quick minute to hand over his hat. We've been obsessing about getting his hat, and he's been really reluctant to hand it over for fear that we would burn it. We kicked around the burning idea for a while, but ultimately, we decided to give the hat the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants treatment. Basically, we're going to take the hat on all of our travels, and take pictures with it in front of various landmarks and then email them to each other. The hat is currently in transit to New Zealand. Can't wait for the pictures!

My Kiwi friend also brought along her lolly cake. Per Wikipedia, a lolly cake or lolly log is a New Zealand cake which features "lollies" in the ingredients; in New Zealand English, "lolly" is a piece of candy. The traditional lollies used are Fruit Puffs which are like firm, slightly chewy marshmallows and are obviously fruity. Malt biscuits and coconut are also used and other ingredients can be added or substituted.

Holy yum!

After lunch, I wandered over to Covent Garden and whiled away the afternoon shopping. So I've become that girl with the corporate husband who spends all of her time lunching with her friends and shopping. =) I can't imagine it'll last long since I already got a call to return to another project that's meant to start tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'll take it, since I'd really like a rest during Christmas, but we'll see.

I'm enjoying the downtime. Things to do in the upcoming days:

• Ironing, cleaning the flat
• Entertain my friend visiting from NYC
• Possibly hop over to Zurich for a quick weekend getaway
• Finish Christmas shopping
• Supervise the painting of our ceiling

Not working, but still busy! Oh, and I just got an email from a group of girls to join them from lunch - I'm off!