Jason's Daily Notes

The heater in my room wasn't working. So I woke to the room being very chilly. Soon I realized that the radiator itself was turned down; I turned it up and it worked! I felt bad for Charly though. He was bundled up so tightly I could tell that he was chilly.

I went to work at 9am. No stress; I read the newspaper the whole way and Vibered with Brian too. I walked from Kensal Green. Work was enjoyable; I was following up sales leads most of the day. Tom, Simone, Dennis, Ecehan and I all went to Sainsbury's together to buy lunch. (I had the salad bar yet again. I need to eat healthy during lunch; I was snacking on carrots all morning too!) As we finished our lunch, I sat in on the 3 partners brainstorming ideas for their mobile app. I have them some useful feedback; it felt great! THAT is what I wanted to do!

It looks like my trip to Belgium will be canceled (due to everyone else canceling and my time being suddenly limited by my work).

I decided to go to Tesco right after work. I had Charly join me at Brixton and we walked over together. There were severe delays on the Victoria lin. Charly and I bought some ingredients, and we made fajitas for dinner (after first eating the leftovers from last night's potato/mince curry). I strongly disagreed with how Mike and Charly assembled their fajitas (putting sour cream first). We also watched a couple episodes of Fast and Loose (our new favourite show) before I left to prep for my phone interview.

I wasn't too enthusiastic about the position, especially after seeing how much of it was numbers/analytics driven instead of being creative/interactive. I think I then made up my mind not to give 100% in the interview. (Stupid me!) I tried to sleep early; I ended up hanging out in Mike's room until midnight. I helped Mel make a ringtone of the Gaslight Anthem.

When I woke up today, the first thing I did was open my laptop to find the news that President Obama had been reelected. I let a smug smile come across my face as I got ready for work. Today, I didn't have to go to work until 10am, and so I was less stressed in the morning. I was also the last one in the flat to leave for work. I woke Charly up as I left.

Work was good; I'm getting along with my coworkers Ecehan and Jaspreet., but should I be more pushy? Of course. We got lunch from Sainsbury's together. Jaspreet is apparently a Us citizen, but she has a green card too?

I set up my email address with Tep, and then I spent the afternoon making sales calls. It was not very successful, but I think I planted the seeds of a few relationships that may be fruitful eventually.

I left work at 16:15, and on the 316 bus there was a mentally challenged young man who was squealing. It reminded me to focus not on what I don't have, but on what I do have in my life. I am lucky. And life is awesome in a crazy way. What a journey we're all on!

And speaking of journeys, I'm now on the tube - the Bakerloo line to be precise - to stop by the library at Borough to return my Cornwall guide book before going home. (Writing blog posts on the tube make the journey go by so quickly! It's great.) Mike told me that he feels weak and wants to eat potatoes, so I'll prepare something nice for dinner tonight. Or at least try.

It was Election Day.
My second day working at TEP. Charly was still staying over. I was up and out the door by 7:55am. I took the bus to Brixton and caught the tube from there. I just made the transfer to the Bakerloo line, which luckily took me to Kensal Green. There, since I had a couple minutes, I sorted out my Oyster card (I was overcharged on Monday, because a power failure at Brixton prevented me from tapping out). I also bought a monthly travelcard for £115. Damn.

Work was good. My coworkers/bosses were busy meeting in the morning so I didn't have much to do. I spent most of the day working with Ecehan, the other intern who is also from LSE. I also befriended the other side of the office, Jaspreet, Dran, Noelle, Raj, and George, who are really cool. They tried to help me with my phone unlock. (Amol had unlocked it in India and I needed to check it.)

The afternoon was spent making sales calls, none of which were successful, but it was pretty fun nonetheless. I think I should be more assertive, because I can feel myself holding back already, and I shouldn't be afraid of being wrong or making mistakes.

I left work around 4:15 and returned straight home. Charly was there to let me in. He had stayed in the flat all day.

The plan for the night was to go to LSE to watch the election results. Mike bought chicken and made pesto dinner for us. What a great guy. I was really tired so I took a little nap. Mike had to wake me up, and I was groggy. I stayed tired and grumpy the whole night, which I think ruined things for everyone else. It was nearly 10 before we left. Mike, Charly and I were there first. Swag arrived soon after, but he was pretty lost since he had no Internet. It was crowded and I just wanted to go home.

We ditched LSE and went to Walkabout, which was about to close anyway. I thought that the night was a total loss, and I really wasn't feeling social, so I just left. This made me feel worse. I think I'm almost sabotaging my friendships :(

I got home around midnight, opened a beer and watched some of the early results coming in. Charly and Mike soon arrived too; they had gotten a drink at Walkabout.

We stayed up until 1:30. No real results had come in yet, so I just went to bed.

New Month!
I got a job. Internship :)

Halloween!

I went with Swag to Fernanda's place in Hackney Wick. It's big, and there are a lot of beds (it is a former hostel).

Then, back home. Mike and I were tired, and not in much of a mood to go out for the night. Swag, Sandy, and Fernanda soon arrived. Mike and I got our energy up and we all went out to Coronet, by Elephant & Castle.

It was cold.

Drinks weren't that cheap. But Swag and I drank plenty, double vodka colas. The student crowd was fun, but somehow I felt myself holding back. I guess I wasn't feeling the music, or the vibe in general. There was some foam, but I didn't get good pics on my phone. Swag was dancing with lots of ladies, somewhat desperately but hilariously.

It was raining hard when we left, not that late - around 1am. My turtle shell had completely fallen apart, but Mike's was intact.

It's Swag's birthday. He and I went to Tesco to buy some supplies for the
Hurricane Sandy has swept through the US East Coast, devastating New York City in particular.
I had an interview! With a startup. It went well. I met Fernanda on my way home, so that we could buy a gift for Swag. Mike also helped out. It was chaotic and rushed, but we pulled through somehow.
We had some people over for dinner - Swag and I ordered Indian food for everyone. Sandy came over, and so did Maria. We ended up playing drinking games down in the living room (including Mao). We didn't go out at all to Mother.

I went to Tesco. With the time change, nighttime now comes at 5pm. It started to rain. Swag came over, to stay for 2 nights. We cooked curry for dinner. Mike and I watched two more episodes of Game of Thrones before I fell asleep.

Friday, 26 October
Mike stayed at work for an hour or so to finish making the turtle shells for our costumes.
Ludo came over, and the three of us put on our costumes. A bit of drinking, and then we went out to KOKO in Camden. It was fun.

People on the tube were really excited to see us, including a child who took a picture with the tree of us. "Where's Donatello?"

Asia met us there. Raphael ended up with two girls's numbers :) including an Australian named Stacy.

Totally smashed, I ran to the bus stop. On the night bus, I kind of got into a fight with the bus driver. Haha XD. It was like 4:30am.

Saturday, 27 October
I wasn't that hung over. I was just tired, having woken up around 9am. I took a little nap around 12:00. Then, Mike and I then went to meet Swag and Fernanda for lunch at a Brazilian restaurant near Bethnal Green. It was amazing! The food was great, all you can eat meat!
We parted ways, so Fernanda could get her costume ready. Swag, Mike, and I took a bus to Tottenham Court Road and walked to Trafalgar Square, where there was an NFL "tailgate" even going on. We just wanted the free food from Mike's coupon. But we got there at 4:59pm, and the stall closed at 5:00pm, so we didn't get the hot wings as promised! Ugh!
Disappointed, we returned home to get ready for the night out.
Sandy and Ludo came over, and soon we were all dressed up as the ninja turtles. Kayleen and Mel took some pictures of us (but they didn't go out with us).

We showed up to the pub crawl starting at Verve Bar. We got there around 9, too late to join the first group headed to the next bar. It was crowded, hundreds of people joining. Fernanda showed up, and so did Amanda and Asia. Then, there was Bernadet and Lilly. We danced, piling all our jackets on top of each other (it was really cold! Close to freezing.), and then we headed with the group over to Zoo Bar. There was a free shot of sambuca (yuck), and we just danced with each other in a circle. There was a female pirate who looked a lot like Bridget, haha!

Then, over to Rumba near Piccadilly Circus. There was a long queue, and we had to wait for like 20 minutes in the cold to get in. It sucked. The organizers kept pushing us against the wall. Inside, the place was pretty boring. Raphael, however, did manage to score a groupie, a Canadian named Robyn! Go for it!

After that the night kind of died. We split off in different directions, Asia and Amanda joined Fernanda at a warehouse party in Hackney; I went on a quest for alcohol (failed) with Bernadet, and we considered having a small get together at her place in Battersea. Swag and Sandy went home. The remainder of us went to Burger King, where Lilly and Bernadet ate, and there was a disgusting guy who was passed out and vomiting all over himself and the floor. Horrible, an ambulance was finally called.

Zoo Bar wouldn't let us back in without paying, so we just went home. There was a crazy drunk loud girl on the night bus who was very friendly with everyone sitting upstairs. Entertaining but uncomfortable too.


Sunday, 28 October
Not really hungover! Great. I declared it Speculoos day, and we had lots of the delicious cookie butter for brunch!

We went to the Diwali festival in the evening. It was crowded. I ran into Ankit. Then we went to Sandy's, to watch a movie (or the NFL game), but his housemates were using it. So we just sat in his room playing on our phones. It was really boring and useless. Mike and I then went home and watched some X Factor with Mel.