MAMMA MIA! Here I go again!...

WOW! What a week!.... Work was pretty uneventful last week... i didnt really have a whole lot to write about-- so I didnt! But this weekend, was very fun! Even though all of our friends were out of town (in Dublin and Barcelona, i couldnt go because i had to work--UGH!) my friend Ashley and I made the MOST out of the weekend... we went and saw the Saturday matinae (idk how to spell that!) of Mamma Mia! it was SOOOOOO good!... even better the 3rd time, haha! That was the main highlight of our week, other than the great food we ate! Then work started... Yesterday (Monday) FLEW by! I helped them put the new merchandise in to the computer systems so that it can be allocated in to the stores blahdy blahdy blahhh... here is where the fun part comes it.. TODAY! Today was a great day! I got to work and finished what I started yesterday, and then started helping the buyers (they are the ones that actually have hands on experiences with the clothing, they dont crunch the numbers)... anyways, I was helping them out with color samples, oh im sorry coloUr samples (they like to throw random Us in to words over here, but they just call us lazy for taking them out! haha), after I did that, I went and ate with 4 girls and 2 guys that I work with... we are AT THE PARK! I felt like a REAL Londoner today! That was the first time I have ever done that-- and I didnt complain ONCE about the bugs that were crawling on me!... I would have chosed today of ALL days to wear a dress... but i toughed it out, and sat uncomfortably the whole time so that I didnt flash anyone! After we got back from lunch, I helped this guy Ian work on the Autumn/Winter 08 floor plan. what he does, is he takes the CADS (the images of all of the merchandise that they are going to carry) and he places all of the clothing together that needs to go together, and decides where it is going to be placed in the store... I helped him come up with a brainstorm of ideas on how to visually merchandise the store, and while we were working on it his team leader came over to see how we were doing. She said I had some really great ideas on putting the clothing together and placing things, and by the end of the day-- she had asked me to do the ENTIRE floor plan for all 63 House of Frasers! That is the big project that I will be working on tomorrow! I CANT WAIT! They are going to take my work, and make it in to a guidebook, and they are going to send it out to EVERY store, and that is how they HAVE to merchandise their floors!! Too bad I'm not going to be here in time to see my masterpiece come to life!


I was SUPPOSED to go to Wimbledon today, but the group met at 4, and I didnt get off work until 5:45... therefore, I wasnt able to make it-- I contacted the guy to see if I could go late, but he said he doubted I would be able to get a ticket-- I am pretty bummed because all of my friends got to go (and they probably took a lot of cute pictures without me, HOW RUDE!!!), and I really wanted "strawberries and cream!" but oh well, you win some you lose some! It has been a relaxing night though, I have been taking it easy, and I ate a really good pasta that I got at the local grocery store! All in all, its been a good night... the only thing that could have made it better, would have been a TV! I may go insane without a TV for 8 more weeks!.... if you dont hear from me in a while... you know that i died of boredom!


This coming week is going to be a great one! My sorority sister Megan, and her cousin Neely are flying in on Thursday, and they are going to stay for 11 days! It is going to be SO fun! We have an extra room in my flat, so they will be staying there! We are going to Stonehenge and Bath on Sunday, Paris next Thursday, and Cotswalds on Sunday!... it is going to be an eventful next week-- so I should have LOTSSS to write about! I will keep all of you updated though!

(oh, and the image attached to this is the stage while we were waiting for Mamma Mia! to start!!!)

Mallane's Birthday Night!

My friend Mallane, (the girl in the very top picture with me) turned 20 on Saturday! We all went out to dinner at a place called Itsu for her birthday. Itsu is a sushi bar, which I DONT LIKE SUSHI! And not only do I not like sushi, I don't like it off of a conveyor belt! This place had all of these different sushi's going around the restaurant on a conveyor belt, and if you wanted it... you just took it off and ate it! And they charged you by the plate, it was sooo weird! I just ordered chicken teriyaki off of the menu, but it was awful! After we left dinner, we went to this place called On Anon... it was NO fun! And Ashley and I had to wake up at 6 in the morning for our Brighton Beach trip, so we went home after about an hour at On Anon, im sure poor Mallane didn't have THAT fun of a birthday, but I mean, it was probably pretty AMAZING since she was in my presence!!! duh! I am sure you would all agree!!!

Brighton Beach Trip!

We took a tour to Brighton Beach this weekend, it is hard to describe what we did, but here are some pictures I took while I was there! One neat thing we did do though, was tour the Royal Palace Pavillion that King Henry the 8th lived in! It was very neat, too bad we couldn't take pictures of the inside! The beach wasn't like any beach we have ever been too-- it was all rocks, looked very uncomfortable! Definitely not something you could sink your feet in to! We ate at this little cafe called Hells Kitchen when we got there, and it was SOOOO goodd!! I had an amazing calzone, Ashley had a baked potato, pasta, and this feta cheese and spinach fried thingy, and this girl Shannon had some brie and pepper sandwich... and this cafe was SOO cheap! I wish I could get every meal for only 3 pounds! We wandered around and saw some neat grafitti on the walls, and I found a place called "DejaShoes" where I had to buy a pair of flip flops because I have such bad blisters on my feet! We ended the trip at the pier, where there was a huge merry-go-round at the end... it was amazing! It was all in all, a great way to spend the day!

FRIDAY THE 13TH!!

Ok, so is it possible to have the BEST and WORST day of your life in the same day? Well let me just clarify that IT IS!!! I had the BEST night sleep I have probably just about ever had in my entire life last night (i finally bought new sheets and pillows-- my pillows by the way, are AWESOME!) and I figured that today would just be fabulous!... and it was, until about 8:30! I was walking towards the bus stop to catch my bus for work, and I realized that my oyster card (an oyster card is a card that you put money on it, and you can use the bus and the tube) was MIA... I had a mini panic attack! I ran back to my apartment, and tore it upside down-- still, NO oyster card! So, I had to pay 2 pounds just to take the bus to work! I was NOT a happy camper!So, of course, I get to work late! (well like 3 minutes late, but still.. I had been getting there like 15 minutes early!) I started out doing some more busy work, which I didn't mind... and little did I know, that it was a test! He had placed a few wrong numbers in there to see if I was actually paying attention to my work-- which I WAS!!! He didn't trick me!... and he was VERY pleased! After that, I went on a "Comp Shop" trip with this guy named Ian, to compare prices at our competitors stores! It was sooo fun and intersting.. but a few times, I thought I was going to get caught! Thank goodness I didn't! The only bad thing about that trip was the blister I got, that later became my nemis. I went back to work, and did some more work, where I caught another mistake in the papers, they were proud of me for that too!... I then started working with the merchandising team, and I helped put different outfits together... We made color copies of our work, and are going to pitch it to the head honcho on Monday, if she approves... they are sending those copies off to the stores, and that is how they will merchandise their stores! Now THATS my kind of project! After that I worked with the actual designers of the line Linea, and I helped design jeans pockets! IT WAS AN AWESOME DAY! until I had to try to get a new oyster card... that was the worst experience EVER, and in the process... I was having to wonder ALL OVER LONDON with a huge blister on the back of my ankle... I stopped at two different pharmacys to get bandaids, that was a waster! Because by the time I got home, they were bleeding! AND on top of all of that, I was freezing cold, and everyone on the bus smelled bad! It was just not the best part of my day! But tonight, I am going to a really neat place with my friends... SO that makes it better!!! I have to get ready.. they are yelling at me to hurry! BYE! love and miss all of you guys!

Second day of work!

I love my job! Today was long, and tiresome-- but very fun! I got to work, and helped the designer label team with some more of their work (they have a deadline of 12 noon tomorrow). I continued on the project I worked on yesterday, and then went back to my private label team! I worked with the design/buying side of my team today. I actually got to sit in on a fitting session. I got to see the Fall 09' Howick line! It was AMAZING! They had a male model in there that was trying on the clothes to see how they fit! I got to give my input and everything, it was SO neat!... I really felt like i was working when I was in that room! But once playtime was over, I had to get back to work! My team didn't have much for me to do, so I went back over to the designer label team, and helped them allocate their warehouse merchandise! It was pretty neat! They gave me a list of the different articles of clothing and how many units of that clothing were left in the warehouse... they also gave me another list of the different stores they were sold in, and how well that particular brand was doing. I had to take that information and place the remaining inventory in to stores that I thought would be able to sell it! I sure hope I did it correctly! I have met a few really nice people, and I am anxious to go back to work on Friday! (I don't work on Thursdays, because I have my internship class on campus) This one guy seemed very interested in my coming to London for my internship-- he actually studied at F.I.T in New York! It is weird to me to think that people from London want to study abroad in the U.S.. Not in Abilene, of course-- though I can't for the life of me see why they wouldn't want to study there! But it was neat to hear about his experience... and he liked my clothes, so he was my favorite! Before I was leaving, he and some of the other team members invited me out to the "pub" for a few drinks, I declined-- but took a rain check!... As I was leaving the guy I met (I THINK his name was Mark, but I am not sure) asked me if I had seen Hairspray, to which he said that he liked my "BIG Texas Hair!" SEE DAD! MY HAIR IS CUTE! :)
I have had a few different people tell me that my accent is SOOO strong, and others tell me they don't even notice it... but today I felt like SUCH a hick! I had just gotten out of the shower, and my friend Ashley told me to come over-- I told her I couldn't come over, unless she wanted me to come over naked, as soon as I said that she just busted out laughing-- I didn't think what I said was THAT funny, until she starting quoting me... "I can't come over unless I come over 'nekkid' "!!!... I don't think I am ever going to hear the end of that! She has already called me twice since then, and asked me to say "nekkid"! Oh well, she is just jealous I'm sure! I mean, seriously-- who wouldn't be?
Well, in a nutshell-- I LOVE MY JOB! And, I love being a Texas Hick too!!!

The Legend of the Bleeding Heart

The legend of Bleeding Heart Yard goes something like this....
Elizabeth Hatton was a 17th century society beauty and daughter of Sir Christopher Hatton. She was murdered in 1626, with her body being found on the morning of 27 January in what became known as Bleeding Heart Yard.
She had spent the evening of 26 January in the company of the Bishop of Ely at a ball in Hatton House. Later in the evening "Senor Gondomar", the Spanish Ambassador, is reported to have arrived at the ball. He had one dance with Hatton and then they both disappeared into the night. The courtyard in which her body was found was located behind the stables of Hatton House.
When found, her body was described as having been "torn limb from limb" and with her heart "still pumping blood onto the cobblestones".

We went on a walking tour of the entire city of London (and Westminister) and our tour guide took us to Bleeding Heart Yard, in Hatton-Garden, and told us the story of Elizabeth Hatton... I thought it was very intersting!

I started work today!

I was very nervous last night, and this morning when I woke up. I wasn't sure if i was going to know all of the things i needed to know for my internship. It ended up going fabulous! Everyone in the company is SOO nice, and were nothing but helpful! I got a lot of hands on experience, that I feel will really prepare me for the real world!... it may have just been busy work, but I have to admit-- I kind of like busy work! I worked with the private label brand allocator today, and he showed me spreadsheets that had every items information (forecasted sales, actual sales, previous year sales, amount spent on the item, precentage markup.. the whole 9 yards) I was afraid I wouldn't understand what he was talking about, but I actually remembered those things from my buying class! After seeing those spreadsheets, I was a little more relieved. Then it was time for my first "assignment"... I had to make sure that everything that was supposed to be marked down was correct in the computer's system. After I finished that, I was actually able to put the numbers in to the computer's system! I was using a computer program on the first day, that most employees haven't even used in their first couple of months! It was so exciting! I finished my three projects a lot faster than they thought I would, so they passed me on to another team (the desinger label team) to help them meet their deadline. Everyone seemed to be impressed with my speed, and with how willing I was to do the job!... this is going to be a GREAT summer!