It has been a while since I have updated my blog and I felt moving to London was a great time to post.
In April I began the interview process for a position here in Greater London. I flew out in early June to meet the team and see the estate to see it would be a fit. I fell in love with the estate and the company. While here I was able to attend a football match in Wembley Stadium. What an experience! Shortly after my visit I accepted the position and began the process of applying for my work permit and figuring out how to move here. Getting me here was easy but getting Luna here was not that easy.
I began reading up on how to get Luna here and I was super confused. I did a quick Google search for how to get Luna here and found Starwood Pet Relocation Services. I was assigned an amazing rep, Sarah. Her and the team were amazing and walked me through the process and managed all of Luna's travel. They worked with my vet to ensure Luna's vaccinations, tests, chip, and paper work were all in order. This may seem like a small thing until I the vet tech decided he knew more than the pet relocation service. The paper work the vet supplied got flagged by the UK and I had to go back to get the paper work fixed. Luckily Sarah and her team helped get it all fixed and in order. The service picked up Luna from the apartment in San Jose and took her to her flight. They sent updates as her travel went but sadly my flight didn't have WiFi. Can you believe it! No WiFi on a 787 Dreamliner with British Airways. I asked if the WiFi wasn't working on the flight and I was told the plane didn't even have it. I was trying to track Luna's flight since we were on different flights. When I landed in London I received all the updates from Starwood and Luna arrived safely and I was sent a picture of her arrival, and poor little Luna was hiding under her bed. She does this when scared. We arrived out our new apartment around the same time and when I brought her upstairs and home she didn't want to come out of her hiding spot. She is now doing well and adjusted. In fact she is giving me the eye right now that she wants to go to bed.
My new job is amazing and I am loving the team and the organization. I am so lucky to have this opportunity and I can't wait to crush and it and grow here. The estate is amazing and I am so honored to be a part of the journey to create this amazing space. My apartment or flat as they call it here is gorgeous. I still can't believe I am living and working in the UK! Opening a bank account here is a different story. It is difficult! Barclays bank makes it very difficult to open an account with them and they asked if I wanted to come back later and open an account when I could proof who I was, I said no thanks.
I am starting to explore London a bit and loving walking through the city. This weekend I met up with Emily and she took me to Grind and the Borough Market. The Grind had bottomless margaritas for 25 GBP and they gave me one to go! We then explored the Borough Market which was so lovely but you do need to aware of pick pockets there. Later in the evening I went to celebrate my birthday and my friend Will's. We started at the Radio Rooftop then made our way to SoHo! We had an amazing time.
Well it is now my bed time. I wanted to be well rested as meet with our CEO tomorrow. Cheers for now and can't wait to see you all here in London.
