Merry Christmas Eve!

It's Christmas Eve here in Londontown. No snow to report as yet but there is a ton of rain available.

*Sidebar* Please feel free to come along and get some if you'd like!

Sisi is here with me and it's been lovely having her here. It's helped me with my homesick-ness that has been really bad this past month. It's my first holiday away from home and I am absolutely missing everybody back home. I'm missing my grandmother and my sister and brother the most. However, this is why Skype was invented!

Since Sisi has been here, we've been out a little bit but not a lot as it's been a lot of crowds with Christmas here and everybody trying to get in their last minute shopping. We have managed to check out Westfield in Stratford (City) as we went there for my birthday dinner this past Friday. We met up with Livs as well and had an amazing time.

Myself, Sisi & Livs after my birthday dinner.

We all plan on meeting up in the week and exploring more of London with Sisi before she has to head back home to Canada. I will aim to remember to take photos so I'll actually have something to show you along with the posts. 

I must dash now to finish seasoning the meat for dinner tomorrow. 

Merry Christmas! xx

T-Minus 7 Days

Sisi will be here in seven days!

Eeeekkk! I am so overly excited, it's ridiculous!

-Lissa x

Home for the Holidays

Bonjour!

Oh, how I wish I was actually going home for the holidays. However, I'm getting the next best thing: a friend from back home for the holidays! One of my best friends is coming over from Canada to spend my birthday, Christmas AND New Years with me!! I cannot be more excited than I am right now (and as exhibited by my very free use of exclamation marks lol).

She will be here in a little over a week and we will have a blast. I'll have company this time around to check out the christmas markets and explore Southbank. I'll also have somebody to ooh and aah over the gorgeous christmas light installations in central London. My camera will definitely be getting a work out so I should actually have photos to post again! Whenever I'm out, I always forget my camera so no photos are ever taken. Shame on me.

We do not have any snow as yet but they are calling for snow sometime this week which will be interesting to experience here. London is not as equipped for snow as Canada and everybody keeps telling me horror stories about how the transit shuts down or doesn't run efficiently when it snows. I'm talking about maybe 15 cm of snow here people. That's child's play back home. LOL. To be fair, Canada isn't called The Great White North for nothing. I digress, the point is that I cannot wait until there's snow. I really would like snow for christmas day. After that, it can bugger off and I'll be okay. I just want a white christmas, is that too much to ask?

In other news, I've been out of commission lately because I've been ill. The latest illness? Blood poisoning. Yeah, tell me about it. I went to get a tooth pulled and was told it all went okay, only to wake up not feeling well and by time I got to my GP, I was told I had blood poisoning from an infection where my tooth was pulled. Huh. Leave it to my body to take a normal infection and go above and beyond with it. I also had the flu for a bit to add to the fun times being had all around. Haha. I am glad to say that right now, after the meds, I am once again whole and well. It better stay this way as my birthday is 8 days away and I plan on going out to party.

I've also got a boyfriend in London as well. It's still in the beginning of the relationship so I won't say much about it right now (don't want to jinx anything). I will share with you that he is a sous chef and really great so far.

Alrighty, I need to head off to finish off writing my xmas cards so that I can post them today on my way home. Will post again soon!

Lissa xx

Shmore's Anyone??

This is a quick little post to let you all in on our Shmore's Night.

A little background:

I had been talking about s'mores from back home and how good they are to the kids. I even showed them photos of what they look like. We agreed that we'd make some one night in the backyard. This all seems well and dandy, except that we soon realized that normal British stores don't carry graham crackers OR plain hershey's chocolate. The marshmallows also have to be halal so they melt a bit funny. What did we do to counteract everything? Bought digestives and Lindt chocolate and went to town! Thus ensued the birth of the Shmore - the British version of a S'more. Here is a mini-photo recap of myself with a Shmore...

Roasting my mrshmallow

Ahhhhh! LOL

Ta-da! A Shmore is born!

Yummy even though the chocolate didn't melt.

The smoke from the fire clouded the photo but I'm quite happy with my Shmore. :-)

I will aim to do a full post soon to update on what's been going on with me the past month or so. 

Adios amigos! xx

Where Has The Time Gone?

Wow.

It's already November! That is absolutely insane!

I haven't written on here since September as I've had mixed feelings about it because of events that took place. However, with that being said, I will definitely be writing again as I'm feeling better about writing again.

I will aim to get a fresh post up by the end of the weekend.

- Lissa xx

P.S. I have no idea why Livs hasn't yet written and I will try to persuade her to post an entry soon but this may turn into a blog solely done by me. Sad, sad, day.

Canada Day, Olympics & Life So Far

Canadiana Uno, here!

It's been a few months since I've blogged and for that, I apologize.

I've been busy as per usual, what with four children that I have to look after. My days usually start off around 6.30am -7.00am and I'm watching the kids until around 7.00pm at night (at least). That's at least twelve hours a day, five days a week, taking care of four children ages 10, 7, 5 and 2.

Coming from not having any children to being responsible for four at one time is a hell of a lot. One thing is for sure though, I now know for sure that I do not want four children! LoL I have the utmost respect and admiration for single mothers who are raising children on their own.

London–2 Months In

Hello Hello!
I have been a REALLY bad blogger lately. Apologies for not keeping up with the blogging at all. I’ve been completely knackered by the end of my work day that the last thing I want to do is write a post. However, I am going to start writing a little at a time so that when I’m ready to post, it’s not a daunting task.
So, what have I been up to you may ask? I’ve been settling in and getting my bearings in London; getting the kids on a schedule so things work much smoother; started Zumba classes three times a week; going out & about on the weekends and dating. Yes, I said dating. I’ve been trying the dating thing while here but that is for another post so that I can go more in depth about the dating scene that I’ve been experiencing while here.
Getting my bearings have proven to not be as difficult as I though it would be but that’s probably because of the fact that I used to come here so often to visit my uncle. I guess you can say I had a leg-up on London before moving over here. What’s proved the most difficult for me though, has been making new friends. I’m not out a lot as I haven’t joined any clubs or anything of the sort so it’s difficult to make new friends. Also, I’ve found that most of the people I tend to run into are quite standoffish when I try to start a conversation with them. It’s quite frustrating really when I would like to make friends but not quite sure what the right way is to go about it all. I’m hoping that it’ll change as it is just my 2nd month here.
The kids that I work with are starting to come along well. I absolutely adore the family I’m with and so glad that they chose me as their au pair. I was extremely overwhelmed when I first started as it is a handful with 4 children (ages 9, 6, 4 and 18 months) 5 days a week for about 12-14 hours each of those days. They weren’t on a schedule that was working for me so the biggest challenge was getting them on a schedule that everybody could work with and also have them listen to me. It’s hard with children and getting them to trust and listen to a newcomer. However, I have been told by their mom that they do like me and we all get on really well. I’ve started a Star Chart as a rewards system which they have to earn each day in order to get a Friday Treat. If they miss a day, no friday treat. They seem quite keen about the idea and I think this is what I needed in order to get a bit more order with the kids as well as keep myself sane.
The kids’ mother and I get on extremely well. She’s like a second mother to me and I can talk to her about anything at all that’s on my mind. It’s really nice to know that she’s always there to talk to should I need it. We’ve discussed life, what I miss back home and even men. She’s the one I run things by every time I get asked out on a date. I let her see the guys photo and we talk about or exchanges on the phone and such. She also then gets into copper mode (yes, she works for the London police hehe) and goes crazy online. In a way, it’s great because she tends to find things on every single person that’s asked me out. It’s like seeing into the person’s closet really. It did come in handy with one guy that had asked me out as it was a complete waste and it turned out he was a liar. C’est la vie.
Overall, I’m really glad I decided to take this chance and have this experience. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I do miss home and I miss my family immensely but I did this for me and it feels damn good.
-Lissa x