New Year

New year. New job. New city. New flat. Same hair.

Don't mess with a good thing.

2012 is going to be a big year in my life. The year I moved to London.

I consider the past 6 weeks here really as more of a vacation than an actual life. Come to think of it though, I usually try to live my life like a vacation everyday. But I didn't really feel like I was actually living here yet.

But as of my return Tuesday, I moved into the flat where I will live for the next 11 months. I finally unpacked the boxes of clothes that have been waiting to be worn, pulled out picture frames filled with the smiling faces of my mates back in the States, and finally started to believe that for the next year, I'm living in London.

My first day back at the office was tough. After a 10 day holiday filled with cookie baking, dog-cuddling, and present exchanging, it was very difficult to be back at my desk working, typing, and emailing. As all of London was not working for the past 2 weeks, and most people are still on holiday, I came back to only 1 voicemail message, which I must transcribe because it was so brilliant.

But I need to first preface this by sharing that among the many gorg and awesome things the company I work for makes, is door knockers.

"Hello this is Peter Plummer. I am interested in some of your errr, ummmm ....products.

Ha. I nearly said knockers - but that would have been terrible wouldn't it?

Anyway, my name is Peter - and I am interested in knockers. Thank you."

Welcome back to England.

I am throughly enjoying having 3 English flatmates. All sorts of things I find hilarious have already been said. Like when I moved in, I only had 5 boxes and 2 suitcases - and they said "well done you!"

I've also started the New Year off with finally"joining up" with a gym, as they say.

I first tried to join up at the Harbour Club - the gym Will and Kate go to. But my dreams of taking pilates with the Princess were crushed when I learned it was a shocking £250 a month, plus the joining fee of £1000. I had to pass on that one.

So I tried another gym, and went for a "tester session" while there was a zumba class on at Virgin Gyms. I had to bolt for the door half-way through when the teacher turned away to change the song on the stereo. It was that bad. For £90 a month, there should be a decent zumba class - so I crossed that one off the list.

Third time's the charm. I popped into SoHo Gyms today after work and found I was just in time for the "Body Attack" class. I didn't know what it entailed, since the class schedule gave no description of the class at all. So the only thing I had to go off was fear and the mental image of the horrible pain associated with the word attack, but I thought I'd give it a shot nonetheless.

The teacher was called Arnaud. He was French. And gay. And fabulous.

At this point, I liked the class already!

Arnaud prefaced by saying "I love the first track so much - it's my favorite track" and then Pitbull "give me everything" comes blasting on and we all begin a 45 minute, nonstop dance of jumping, running, kicking, lunges, and a move he called "superman" until I was dripping with sweat, gasping for air and grinning ear to ear.

Now I know why it was called body attack!

So I am definitely starting off the New Year with a lot of new in my life.

I will end with my list of New Year's Resolutions.

Some of which I will keep, some of which I completely fail at.

1. Go on a trip every month I'm here. This can be outside of the UK or to somewhere fun in the UK, since I want to see loads of this fine country! Granada is booked for February, Amsterdam and Coppenhaghen in April, and the rest is TBD - but I have my sights set on Stockholm, Germany, Scotland, Dublin, Brouges, Vienna, and Istanbul - to name a few.

2. Save money to fund Resolution #1.

3. Go to the gym everyday and stop eating sugar so that I become extremely fit. A girl can dream.

4. Volunteer at the Battersea Dog and Cats Shelter. As long as I don't have to go near the cats.

I actually found out you can foster a dog there, which is extremely tempting!

5. Write everyday. Or nearly everyday. Fun is my priority afterall. But nothing would please me more than ending this whole 9-5 business and becoming a writer. So I pray that there are more people equally as loony as you - who will read and enjoy the nonsense I come up with and give me a column in the New York Times. As I said earlier - a girl can dream.