Traction...

Life in London is picking up traction. I'm glad for a lot of things in my life right now. My house. Awesome location. Profitability. My sweet bike. Chick magnet helmet. Free new shoes from Puma which is like 80 quid. Oh I need new formal shoes. Gotta ask my friend who works at ALDO for the 50% employee discount. The trip I organized to Thorpe Park, saving everyone mad money on admission and train tickets. I fixed my camera. My new friends. My Motorola Q smart phone. It's beginning to feel like in Toronto where you have so many options, it doesn't matter what anyone does anymore because you can just say "next." Netvibes. Starting sailing at AHOY in Greenwich soon. Free stuff. Being able to borrow textbooks. Don't even get me started on the food I'm eating. Exercising at the Tate for money. I got the most amazing microwave. (Does yours have a combo grill? I didn't think so. Stainless steel?) Oh and TV season is back. Watching a lot of Entourage, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Simpsons. Also I'm using up all my 500 outgoing minutes every month which is a good sign. Should be careful about brain cancer though.

My life is getting pretty busy and 6.75 hours of sleep is pretty good for the lifestyle I'm having right now. For example, I'm out pretty much every night which is important for meeting people. But follow up is really important too. Need to do more of that. But still a problem of London is that people are too dispersed to get close to. So my strategy is I talk to everyone when I feel like it. Usually it doesn't go anywhere, but when it clicks I get info.

Today I was at a Private Equity Networking event by BVCA at Glass Bar. Supposed to meet Yang from LBS there, but didn't happen. Oh crap. I didn't call BT yet... Anyways. Open bar but because I'm recovering from being sick. I just had like 4 glasses of orange/pineapple juice. What I learned from talking to people. Almost everyone in private equity went to Oxford or Harvard. Met a guy from UofT and woman from UCLA. Average age is like 30. Many people got their start through accounting or IBD. Many people have MBA or engineering background. Just hung out there. BarCap does debt. I didn't know that. Left at about 10, bought some great food at Sainsbury. I wanted gum and they had gum 3 packs for 1 quid. So each pack is 79p. That's like huge deal. Came back cooked and ate. Now it's late and still so much to do. 

Also I'm going to Cornwall because a guy from Warburg Pincus and a girl from GIC reccommended the place. Thinking about going there Oct 24-26. Got invite to go to Bath in November.