Hello all!

This week I am coming in a little bit early. Well at the moment of writing (it is usually different, because I tend to write when there is no wifi to distract me) I am onboard a train from London to Manchester, so yes, this is my last London diary entry. Short and sweet, just like my stay. 

When I first got to London, I did not know how long I will be staying, since I only had work booked for 2 weeks. If anything I thought I will be going back to stay with my sister in Lithuania or maybe Portugal to finally visit a friend. The fact that I got booked on a job right after I wrapped my 2 week one, was a huge and welcome blessing. I am so so lucky, I keep telling myself. My overall stay in London was more than I could have ever hoped for. I have a wonderful welcoming friend here, who went above and beyond for me in every sense, I am contemplating on ways to show her how much it meant to me. Any ideas? Even though I had to work from home, I still managed to get decent hours of rest and time outside. I went for reformer pilates every week, had drinks and deserts out in the town few times, had a number of sweet walks with Riki and every night slept in the cosiest bedroom my friend refurbished and decorated for me. Every morning when I wake up and start to list ten things I am grateful for, I slow down, only because my hand starts cramping.

Ok, I know I sound a bit soapy, but it is what it is. I am here to share not to teach. Below is a little breakdown as per usual:

Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Honestly it feels like one blur of working and being at home. Dog walks were highlights of my activity. 

Thursday. So, a little while ago this colleague I have worked with in the after party night club 5 years ago has messaged me on instagram asking if was in London. He might have seen my stories or something like that, so it wasn’t just a lucky guess, but anyway. He told me that with his other friend (also my colleague from that club) he set up a little business selling electric scooters. Well good for them really. Back then he just asked me to like his facebook page. Fast forward to this week, he asked if I would be willing to do a little photoshoot with the scooters for their promo. He said they would come over to the park where I usually walk with Riki and just take few photos of me riding scooters. It sounded like fun and meant a lot to them so of course I did not mind. All in all me and Riki had a fun day playing with scooters and I got to hang out with my old colleagues. Odd feeling, my mom compared it to an old classmate gathering. Straight after the shoot I had a zoom production meeting. I like those. Finally I got to see everyone at least virtually and to feel like things are really moving along. Also saw a very first news publication about our show going ahead with the shoot, so no turning back now.

Friday. Shopping day. Took a taxi from my home to a mall to avoid public transport just in case. The day was actually nice and sunny. A lot of thoughts are circling in my mind though. Getting ready for Manchester – hence the shopping and general feeling of uncertainty once again, cause covid cases in the UK has risen by 3000 in one day.. Also we were issued Covid regulations for the shoot, which will see me testing on Monday and Thursday next week, just to make sure that I am clean. Also I’ll have a FPP2 mask fitting on one of the days as well. I feel like I am once again working on Chernobyl and about to go into the power plant with all the security measures in place. It is good though. It is here to protect us, but I can’t help, but just wish and hope that it will be enough and I will see this project to the end. 

Saturday. Early morning pilates class! Dog walk after and.. Me and the friend went for one of those immersive theatre experiences. It was awesome. Basically you have to bring your own headphones which you will be wearing during the performance, the organiser gives you a code to log in on their app and you’re set to go. It was kinda like listening to a very well recorded audio book, which was also reenacted in front of you. Todays performance had us following the lead girl. The weather was great for that and we were in the Tower bridge area in London, which I love, so the overall experience was top noch. After that we walked all the way from there to Marylebone for a pretty quick gin and tonic and a desert. (“Quick”, because everything was closing at 10 pm, and “all the way”, because we clocked almost 20 km by the time we got there) Go us!

Sunday. Woke up pretty early, did my journal and packed my belongings. Now I am on the train, trying to think if I got everything. Usual travel jitters. Never go away. The London weather has been incredibly generous those past weeks and it seems that Manchester is not that different at least today, so excited, for the new chapter.

Highlights:

  • My time in London. All of it.
  • Riki and the friend.
  • On Friday, when I did my Manchester shopping trip, I stopped by the Yamaha store in Soho to check on this one model of digital piano I have been eying online. The thing is I really really want it. Learning piano has been a dream of mine, I picked it up a little during the quarantine and would love to continue. The only issue with that is, that even the most portable digital piano is still pretty big. My mom laughed at me when I said I was thinking of getting it. She said, I should just get married if I wanted a hobby. Funny mom.
  • The walk from Tower Bridge to Marylebone.
  • 108 Brasserie place. Very nice! Cème brûlée there is probably the best I have ever had! Wau.

Cheers with a glass full of happy, fulfilled and ready for the fresh new start elephant.