Christmas In London Again

It’s London, December, 23rd. It was a special day for me because it was my husband’s birthday, we worked short hours and OMG I joined those photographing and then posting their life on the Internet!

My name is Elena. I’ve been living in London for about 7 years. I’m married and we have a beautiful nine-year old daughter and 16-month old kid. I work in the bank.

I don’t set up my alarm clock because it is my younger kid which plays the role of the family alarm clock. Usually, we wake up at 7.20 but that morning we overslept…

I had just 20 minuted to get dressed! Mission impossible!

My daughter woke up a bit later. She’s big and doesn’t need my help in the morning anymore.

Another time check.

Our Christmas tree.

This is food for our Christmas dinner my husnad bought at the only 24/7 grocery store in the neighborhood that night.

Making breakfast.

I always take a bottle of mineral water with me. It’s a habit I acquired when I lived in Israel. Here in London it is pointless.

I left that money for our cleaning lady who was to come that day.

Running to work.

This is a hospital where my son Ron was born 16 months ago.

Nice homes, aren’t they?

I ran into someone’s funeral…

I was late!

I don’t have breakfast at home not because I don’t want to but because I don’t have time! I prefer to buy coffee here. The owner of this place is a very nice person who knows all his clients by name and asks questions about their life which is very nice.

I saw the line and had to passed my favorite coffee place by.

I listened to some music on the way to the office.

Thirty minutes later I saw the London Eye.

The underground was almost empty because of the upcoming holiday.

Usually, this station is full of people wearing suits.

This line goes under the Thames and I prefer not to think about it.

Usually, they advertise different banking services here but it’s Christmas!

That glass building is Bank of England.

And that’s the building where I work.

This picture is not mine. I just want to show you the beautiful view of the old church adjoining the bank.

And this is the picture I took.

When I entered my office, I learnt that our boss congratulated us on moving into a new building with a purse by Anya Hindmarch with the company’s logo on it. Nice!

It was 10.20 and I finally had my breakfast (I got it in a local cafe).

We were in no mood of working and decided to open a bottle of wine we found in the office!

Some photographs of our new building.

It was a lunch hour and I went to the cafe to have a tomato soup. It’s delicious there!

This is the salad I grabbed in the cafe too. I just couldn’t resist it.

Then I went to get a holiday turkey.

The workday was over and I was the last to leave the office.

I took some photographs of myself in the restroom.

This shot with toilet paper is the best (I’m so thin here).

I had to waste away 4 hours before going to the restaurant to celebrate my husband’s birthday.

So I went shopping in hope to find a nice shirt for myself and a present for my husband.

So far unsuccessful.

It began to rain and I entered House of Fraser which is my favorite.

Two hours flew by. I found a birthday present for my husband and some Christmas presents for my daughter.

I spent another 20 minutes trying on dressing gowns.

The Christmas present!

When I left the store, it was raining and dark.

I had to hide shelter from the rain at the nearest Starbucks.

I ordered a grande latte and a skinny blueberry muffin and enjoyed my coffee looking through the window.

This guy was staring at me so I had to photograph him!

An hour later, I texted my husband and left.

Rain really suits London!

I just don’t like when it’s windy.

That elevator brought me to the restaurant.

By the way, it is situated on the roof of the building so it is a popular place among both newlyweds and self-murderers.

I took some more photographs of London at night.

That tower in the middle is the bank I work for!

The restaurant was empty because it was early.

Oleg examined the menu carefully.

That’s what we ordered.

That green stuff is my watercress soup.

Oleg’s desserts are always better than mine!

Two hours later we were done so we headed back to my office to pick up the turkey.

We could go home.

Waiting for our train.

No newspaper can do without a photo of Pippa Middleton today!

Oleg left his car by the station so we got home by car.

I can tell that the cleaning lady did a good job!

The baby-sitter left and when I saw our girl in her pijamas, it seemed to me that she’d never put on anything else since morning. But she did! She had a busy day too!