Moving again…

Today is my first day back in the London ThoughtWorks office since I started here nearly 4 years ago. I have just transferred back here from the Chicago ThoughtWorks office.

It’s pretty crazy being back in the UK. I’ve been away for over 3 years now, and much longer since I lived in England proper. It took me a few days to figure out which way to look while crossing the road, how to use chip and pin payment and that left over coins actually are worth something so I should figure out what they all are. People may think that I’m crazy but I missed the food here too…

I’m quite the nomad at heart, and Chicago (at 2 years) is the longest that I’ve lived anywhere since I was 16. So it was time to move on. Tim spent time at TW UK 3 years ago and loves London and I am new here!

One of the great things about TW is that you have the opportunity to move around. So far London, Calgary, Chicago and now back to London. My TW network is ever growing and it’s nice to bump into people I know all over the world, and pretty much everyone I meet knows someone that I know, so it’s normally easy to start up a conversation.

I was quite sad leaving Chicago, I’ve made some great friends and have really come along professionally too. It almost feels like I’m starting a new school coming to TW UK. However it’s been great to spend some more time already with the other half, as right now I’m not travelling every week, and I look forward to making lots of new friends and exploring London.

My first project will have me commuting to Sutton (Surrey) every day, so I’m hoping that will give me more time for blogging and reading etc. that I really missed while driving to Peoria once a week.

Hopefully we’ve found a place to live. Pictures will come once we’ve moved in. We’ll be in the Angel Islington area.

Spring time comes to Chicago

The last week has been beautiful in Chicago Mid 20’s (mid 70’s for you Fahrenheit folk) and gorgeous sun. Thankfully Tim and I made it out to the park this afternoon after doing lots of sorting of our apartment ready to move in a couple of weeks. One cobbled together awesome picnic from Fox and Obel later and we were ON.

Pictures taken in PFC Milton Olive Park by Navy Pier in Chicago.

Photography: Composition Workshop

A few weeks ago I bought a Groupon for a photography class on Composition in Chicago through the Digital Photo Academy. We spent the morning walking around Millenium Park looking for shots. It was a beautiful day for it. Didn’t feel like I got as much out of it as the other two classes I’ve done. But it was still nice.

Here are a few of mine:

Christmas Carols at Millenium Park

As many of you may (or may not!) know, last Christmas Tim got me a DSLR. I have since spent the year attempting to become a bit less amateur! Thanks to Groupon I have been on a couple of day-long workshops and they have helped a lot. I haven’t got out to practice as much as I would of liked, but I quite liked these photos I took at the carols. Realised that I have learnt quite a lot this year, always in manual mode now!

There will be Carols at Cloud Gate every Friday from now until Christmas. Well worth braving the cold.

Hope you like some of them!

Visitors from Canada for Thanksgiving

Tim’s parents came to stay with us over Thanksgiving in Chicago, which was really lovely.

We managed to all fit into our little apartment for the long weekend, and it was great to be able to show them the sights of Chicago. We did lots of walking, playing Fluxx (my new favourite card game!), football watching in Tim’s Dad’s case, eating yummy healthy food, oh and the odd Chicago deep dish pizza at Unos!

Tim’s Mum and I even braved the shops on Michigan Avenue on Black Friday!

We spent a fair bit of time in the Christkindlmarket, which is a German Christmas market in downtown Chicago. The place is awesome. You should go! I was more than happy to introduce Tim’s family to Gluhwein!

We also put up the Christmas tree. A little ahead of schedule even by my standards but it was fun having Tim’s Mum help me with it as we won’t all be together for actual Christmas.

Here are some of the pictures from the weekend. Enjoy!