Spinning Words

Well, what can I say now? What should I start with, my first conference or the tennis? Tough choice.

My first conference was at Westminster University. It was pretty much the first time I was among so many scholars, each of them, just like me, focused on their study, convinced that it is the most important of them all and defending it in all possible ways. And then you get really good constructive criticism and encouragement to take it further. Or at least this is what happened to me. Boy was I nervous. But instead of sticking my nose on my notes or reading from my slides I tried to make eye contact with my audience and see if they aprove or not of what I am saying. They must have liked it, they asked questions and offered me suggestions on what I should read further. My reading list grows nicely. Next time I will do even better cause I sure hope there will be a next time. I didn’t use to like politics, or maybe I didn’t understand what politics really is and here I am now seeing it everywhere and looking for it in everything.

The tennis. Besides the fact that Horia and his partner, Juls, have defeated the Bryan Brothers for the first time in their career, have qualified for the final of the ATP World Tour Finals and have clinched the year end number 1 in the teams rankings, tomorrow they are playing the final against…drum roll… Florin and Rohan. Florin is the other Romanian, which means that yes, a Romanian will get the title. Which one, I have no idea and I don’t care. I’ve seen them both live this week, they play some of the best tennis they ever played, they both deserve to win just as much but I won’t take sides. I am so happy they made it there and I am so proud of them. They had my full support throughout the year, I can’t wait for the 2016 season to start so I can say “here we go again”. Respect guys, you are amazing! (not that any of them will ever read this post but if I run into them at a tournament I will make sure to tell them that. Until then, above is a picture of the guys with the No 1 trophy, credit to whoever took it and put it on Getty Images).

To make it even better the singles final is Federer against Djokovic. They meet again, after the match they played on Tuesday. You can read about it here. It’s gonna be a fun evening tomorrow, I hope my plane lands on time for me to take the train home and catch both matches. Yes, tomorrow I go back home. I don’t really feel like leaving London though but maybe this time I am going to make it back here sooner than 3 years. I miss Stockholm though. And my research projects waiting for me at work. And my U2 book sitting on the table next to my bed. And my Swedish lessons. And the list can go on.

 

With me back in school mode, my tennis holiday is over. My time in London is not and with every day I spend here I remember why I like it. This city is full of life. But I am aware that this might happen because I moved to a place where I lived before, I even remembered how to get to my hotel and managed to take the correct exit out of the tube station, and besides that, I spent my day in Westminster University.

Tomorrow is a big day, I will present part of my thesis in front of people that are not my teachers and classmates so I am quite nervous about that. The funny thing is that today I actually met people with the same research interest as me, more or less.

Other than that I really miss going to the tennis matches, it’s semis day tomorrow and both our boys are playing. If they both win, which I really hope, they will play in the final against each other which would be awesome.

In other stories, I spent the evening walking around London from Oxford Circus to Waterloo, back to Embankment and home on the Bakerloo line. It’s quite cold here in London but everything seems possible after two glasses of wine. I took on the streets without a map, again, listening to my music (thanks Spotify) and eating Milky Way. I had a dilemma  there: should I eat Milky Way or Maltesers? The chocolate bar won. It’s funny because I’ve only been in London in November and, even if I was expecting it to be horribly rainy and cold, it’s been actually really nice. That might also be because I like colder weather and because I spend more than half of my time here watching tennis.

The city is in full Christmas spirit and it is awfully contagious. The special Christmas coffee drinks in the cafes are really tempting, I am really sorry I can’t drink more than two or three every day. I still think I have time to try them all. And speaking about coffee, in the past two days I bought coffee and breakfast in a very small and shabby looking boutique somewhere near Aldgate East where just the salesmen made it worth buying things there. I must say though that the sandwiches were really good and the double shot coffee was delicious. Yes, double shot coffee because the regular coffee in London is not strong enough for me. It is good but being used to the Swedish coffee… And this morning, when asking for a coffee, the man who handled my order remembered that I want a double shot late with no sugar, darling (read this with a British accent).

A few days ago when ordering my breakfast I was a gorgeous lilly. And all the men ordering were “sir”. Besides their good products, they sure know how to make themselves liked by customers and they have plenty of those. One morning there were 5 of us in the queue. All of us got out of the shop with what we ordered in about two minutes, and I think there were only 3 men working behind the counter. If I ever go around there I will surely pay them a visit and have my breakfast at their place.

I’ve been in London for the first time 3 years ago. After returning home I decided to apply for a Masters programme in Stockholm which now led me here again. It is, in a way, amazing because here I was tonight, under the London Eye, listening to Big Ben strike 21 hours, watching the water and the lights just as I did 3 years ago. The difference is that 3 years ago I ended up doing that by accident, now I went there with this purpose. And now I am in a hotel room writing this and watching BBC News. And I think I will go for the Maltesers before I doze off.