London

Much has changed since I first came over to London for an 18-month experience. I've been able to do quite a bit of travel, explore Europe, meet some new friends, find a great client where I've been working, and substantially settle into life here.

Over the summer, I slowly realized that the stability of traveling only for fun rather than weekly for work was great for my sanity. It's allowed me to settle into a city and have a more consistent and sane life than when I'd been spending 100+ nights/year in hotels for work.

After much debate, I decided to stay here in London on a more-permanent basis, rather than returning to New York in January 2010. In making this decision, I've also resigned from my firm and accepted a job with the primary client I've worked with for the past year.

Assuming my application for a new work permit goes through on the expected timetable, my last day with my current employer is going to be 23 October, and I'll be continuing on my current project as a permanent London-based employee rather than as a consultant from 26 October.

Oktoberfest

Last year, a few of us had looked into going to Oktoberfest shortly after we arrived in London, but it was ridiculously expensive to do it last-minute. Instead, in January this year, we booked a weekend trip that we took two weeks ago.

Friday night, the group of us sharing two hotel rooms were on the same 5:30 flight to Munich. We crammed into a cab, dropped everything off at the hotel, then went to the Hofbrauhaus. We found an open table in the beer hall, stood up on the benches and got right into the experience!

Despite a late Friday night, we were up at 7am Saturday for breakfast and into town by 9, to buy our outfits for the rest of the weekend! As you can see in the photos, we all ended up getting authentic outfits for the weekend!

We spent the afternoon outside at a Paulaner tent, where you can see the next set of photos. A few liters later and after an amazing half-chicken for dinner, we ended up moving over to the Hofbrauhaus tent -- the one with the green roof with all kinds of stuff hanging off of it -- and taking that in for the evening.

Let's just say that Sunday morning was a bit of a challenge to get up and about. Eventually, as I got a few glasses of water and some coffee into me, I felt better. Two hours later, we were back at it, with 20 of us sitting at two adjoining tables in the Hippodrom tent.

Now, the other tents that we'd seen had completely rowdy and out of control people everywhere, whereas this was a bit more sane -- table service, a full menu of amazing German food (you can see me with the wienerschnitzel in one of the photos) and the like.

I left midafternoon, as I had a flight back to London late Saturday evening. I went back to the hotel for a shower and to change out of the lederhosen before the flight, and then went to the airport a bit earlier than I normally would have. I figured I'd find a corner somewhere with a bottle of gatorade and a book, read a bit, and maybe get in a quick nap before the flight.

I cleared security at 6:45 or so and saw a sign directly in front of me at a gate: "BA 955, LHR, 1730 flight, delayed departure 1840." As the door was still open, I walked up to the gate agent and asked if he'd let me on it. He said yes, gave me a new boarding card, then closed the jetway door behind me. About 30 seconds after I sat down, the plane pushed back and was airborne. This absolutely shocked me and has to qualify as one of my very few "I had a good flying experience" stories... I got home more than two hours early!

All in all, a great weekend! My voice is slowly recovering from the experience, but just about back now!