What a weekend

Well, my birthday weekend was a blast...I had half a thought to extend it and take one of my remaining annual leave days on Monday to make it a long three-day weekend, but then I remembered a home visit I had scheduled, so off I went to work yesterday. That's okay though, I'll take that day off on Friday Feb 2nd, which is the weekend of my yoga and hiking trip to the Brecon-Beacons in Wales. And then I've allocated my other three remaining annual leave days to a trip back to the States. I found an amazing fare online, so I will be going home for a couple of days, driving up to Boston for Nicole and Rob's wedding, then coming back to NJ in time to catch a flight to Peru or Costa Rica with Viv (we're deciding and booking everything this week), followed by a couple more days at home before I come back to the UK. Woohoo, let the new annual leave time begin! Five weeks of vacation a year definitely does make Allison a happy little worker bee. No word yet on my next rotation or potential move to Senior II, but you can bet I'll be posting on here when I do.

Anywho, on Saturday, we went to this amazing little restaurant/bar in Shoreditch called Cantaloupe. Limited menu,with a Spanish-North African influence, but everything was delicious! Everyone absolutely loved the meal, and it turned out to be quite the popular bar as well. Our meal ran pretty late, and the bar was just rammed by the time we left. 15 people decided to sing "Happy Birthday" at the top of their lungs (a few of those were big blokes with some sizeable lung power) and I was burning bright red by the end of the rendition, realizing quite a bit of the bar had joined in...I was bombarded with calls of "Speech, speech, speech" and then forced to deliver one standing in front of both strangers and friends. As embarrassing as that was, however, it was also a lot of fun, and I got a taste for being up higher than everyone else-- I later took advantage of the speakers at Ministry of Sound to dance on a stage, as it were. Technically not allowed, according to a sign posted on the speakers, but then nobody kicked me off either. Ministry was fun, although the "house" music tended toward techno and electronica. Around 2am, a live band went on, which I loved, but the headliner DJ who was on from 3:15 to 4:30 or so was a bit of a let-down, even for Nicole's boyfriend Dave who had been really looking forward to hearing this guy spin. But regardless, it was a great night, and I spent most of Sunday sleeping to recover, only getting up to join Nicole and Dave for a curry in the late afternoon. After which we watched Arsenal beat out Manchester United-- our house being Arsenal supporters :) I've got a few pictures below from Nicole's camera, haven't uploaded mine yet. Again, thanks to everyone for the cards, messages, flowers, and pressies!