Seeing and Viewing and Sighting

Two big things happened today: I viewed my new flat and I saw a new friend!  Woohoo!

First, the flat.  I love it.  Love it.  Like I said before, the building has zero personality on the outside, but I may have been to harsh.  It isn't ugly, it's just pass-over-able when you walk by it on the street.  Inside, though, it's great.  The reception room (living/dining room) is sizable, though I'm itching to move the furniture around to open up the space more.  The kitchen has tons of cupboard space and includes a gas stove (hate electric stoves) and - wonder of wonders - looks out onto the communal garden in the back.  Our bedroom is huge, with a lovely sleigh headboard and two (two!) built-in wardrobes.  The whole place gets a lot of light, which is what sold it to me in the pictures online, but what the photos didn't show was - drumroll please - the patio.  The patio!  It can fit probably a small grill and a table with two chairs and there's a trellis mounted on the wall.  I'm going to go crazy about this patio and its possibilities re: entertaining and gardening.  (And, as always, Tiny-Ass Apartment and Apartment Therapy will be right beside me.)  Can't wait to move on on 4 August!

The new friend: I took the plunge last week and cold-emailed a fellow expat blogger, AT, to see if she wanted to hang out.  She did!  We had a lovely lunch today in Chelsea, and I very much look forward to exploring London more with her.  Yay for new friends!

Tonight Jon and I are hieing ourselves to his family's house in Suffolk.  It will be a weekend of barbeques, sailing, and sun.  I'll take lots of photos!  Happy Friday, everyone.

(Last night I saw Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, on Oxford Street at midnight!  How exciting - my first London celebrity sighting!)