This evening I got to experience a little bit of life in London outside the main part of the city. Paul, one of the owners of 3 fish, was throwing a birthday party for his son and I was lucky enough to be able to tag along with some of the guys from work. Paul lives in Southwest London in the Richmond area. Unlike the flat-style housing which I had become accustomed to, this area was dominated by historic homes and more greenery. His son, Ralph, is probably the luckiest 10 year old in England, as his house is directly next to a common area with loads of space for playing and football matches. Last year’s intern Justin attended Ralph’s football birthday party, and the tradition continued as I followed in his footsteps. I was excited to be able to relive a little bit of my soccer days, as well as hang out with some of the 3 fish staff outside of work. The game was a lot of fun and I’m happy to say that despite my usual position at defense, I still managed to sneak in 2 goals 
I also must say, that it was a nice change of pace to have a home-cooked meal. While I do buy groceries and eat in every now and then, none of my heated frozen dinners come close to the pizza Paul’s wife made from scratch! It was incredible and I think I might still be salivating over it. Overall it was a wonderful evening, as I was in awe of the cooking, the beautiful architecture of the home, and the hospitality of Paul and his family.
This week I also discovered that Parliament has pubs within it, and since I have several friends interning with MP’s, I actually got to hang out there one evening! It was an unexpected experience I got to add to my list of London adventures, and I think I’ve found that I enjoy playing darts quite a bit.
On a completely random sidenote… The show/musical act Flight of the Conchords is very popular here. While I have heard of the group, I was told recently that they perform a song on one episode about epileptic dogs. Needless to say, my coworkers were very amused when I shared that I, in fact, have an epileptic dog.