Back From Europe

I just came back from Europe yesterday. Feeling slightly jet-lagged though. It's been a good trip, and after this trip, I must include London under one of my favourite cities along with Paris. I didn't get to explore London much from my previous trip - purely business where I spent most of my time at meetings.

There's so much about London that I enjoy - no language barrier, its a vibrant city, and the football culture there is great. The only thing about London is that everything is freaking expensive.

The interesting thing about London is that while we were there, the Tube drivers went on strike! That made transport very difficult and we had to rely on buses and our feet to travel. And the tube drivers are earning 40,000 pounds a year, with a 36-hr work week and get 43 days of annual leave. Amazing. If I had 43 days of annual leave, I'd be very very happy.

The highlight of my trip has to be Paris, before going London. I deviated from the tour group and went to Roland Garros on my own to catch the French Open singles final! I didn't have any tickets before hand, so I bought them from the black market, some African guys were selling tickets outside the stadium. I paid 300 Euros for the ticket to watch Roger Federer beat Robin Soderling to create history. Watching arguably the best tennis player ever live is an experience that can't be bought. Some people think it's expensive, but I think it's well worth it.

Well, I love doing these sort of things, watching live events, and even going all the way to NZ to do filmings, which explains why I keep doing it. It's an expensive habit but I don't really spend much on other stuff anyway.

Now that I'm back, it's still a challenge adjusting to the hours, here I am wide awake at past midnite, and I still have lotsa things to unpack and settle, not to mention spending some time at the gym on Sunday afternoon, which in my opinion was well worth the time and effort. Those of you who were there will know what I mean. Loved the energy though.

When the dust is settled, I'll have to come back to reality again.