All These Things I've Done (in London) [1]

So I thought it would be cool to introduce some more personal posts onto the blog and that a great way to do that would be to talk about the stuff I get up to in my new city :) (I hope you like the title, it made me giggle).

I've been living in London for just over a month now and it's been pretty eventful! Obviously I started my new job which I love. It's gotten to the point now where I feel like I'm getting into the swing of it and my new colleagues have been amazingly supportive. I feel so fortunate that I've not only gotten my first job in publishing but one in the exact area I want to work in.

I've also moved house! When I first moved to London I was staying with my aunt and uncle but I managed to find a house much quicker than I expected to. My house is lovely and big and my housemates are lovely and there is a stray cat who I have named Snaggle and I feed him/her.

On the 4th of July I went to the Cassie Clare/Jamie Campbell Bower/Sarah Rees Brennan event with Casey from Dark Readers, Liz from Planet Print, Rachael from Rachael Reviews All and my friend Eleanor. Casey and Rachel got there suuuuuuper early and queued for ages which means when I eventually managed to get there after work I didn't have to queue forever! We got pretty good seats, I still couldn't see much (not enough to take pictures) but it meant we didn't have to wait too long for the signing which was awesome! Casey managed to get this picture:

AND a video of JCB *SINGING*

He's pretty good and raaaaather attractive ;)

 I *finally* got my SRB books signed:

and we got cupcakes! Nom

So it was a pretty cool event and they were all very funny and it was all totally mental and everyone was dressed as shadowhunters (and I went dressed in a dress I thought Kami from Unspoken would approve of) and then I bullied some girls into buying Unspoken...

Just when I thought my time in London had reached a pinnacle of awesome only a fortnight in, I was invited to attend Sarwat Chadda's launch for the third book in his Ash Mistry series with Sarah Rees Brennan. I'll just say that again. WITH. SARAH. REES. BRENNAN. Only, you know, my favourite author. It was totally cool. Sarah is the funniest person ever and I had lots of conversations with lots of bookish people and then Sarah and I got the train home which involved a wait at the train station where she huggled me so I wouldn't freeze to death (note to self: take a cardie out at night even if it's hot in the day) and we saw foxy babies (I tried to take pictures, they were blurry) and Sarah regaled me with gossip and spoilers from her next books. Then offered to buy me a sandwich. Basically, she is the coolest person alive. So thank you, SRB for inviting me, thanks Sarwat for the amazing launch, for signing my book and for buying me a drink!

I know what you're thinking. Can my time in London possibly get any better? Well the following weekend I went to stay at a family friends place in Milton Keynes. They own this amazing, 5* BnB and we had a fantastic time basically eating and lounging in the sun. I got to see my family and my boyfriend for the first time since moving to London and we played the Pointless boardgame where my years of watching the Eurovision Song Contest *finally* paid off, hello questions on obscure European countries. I recommend the board game, it's hilarious. 

Then, on the Monday I met up with the lovely Stacey from Pretty Books. We went to a lil cafe and had cake (and you know you've found a friend when they don't even bat an eyelash when you order 2 slices of cake) and chatted and chatted. I think it's clear that we both like to chat. But we got on really well and she is very awesome (and has a lovely blog) and hopefully we will do lots more fun things together in the future!

The weekend just gone my boyfriend came down to London to visit me for the first time which was really good. We went to Tate Modern which we've been talking about doing since before I even moved down to London as we both really like modern art. Here are a few of my faves:

So I *totally* failed and didn't take pictures of the lil thing that tells you the artist and about the work, but I can tell you that the last picture (which looks to me like women sitting at a table) is by Dorothea Tanning. 

I've also being trying to cook a lot and eat more healthily. I'm quite enjoying just buying ingredients and seeing what I come up with (I made quesadillas for the first time and they were yummy) and I've developed a thing for using leftover ingredients in creative ways to make different meals out of the same stuff. It's kinda fun. 

And there we have it! The highlights of my first month in London :) I hope it wasn't too long...I'll try and take more pictures next month ;)

Cait xx