Perfect London

Wow, this week London was perfect.
On Tuesday night, I went to an 'Introduction to Mindfulness' meeting. This was done by the Leith, who also runs the philosophical meet-ups on Friday night. It was really interesting to learn a bit about mindfulness, and to do some meditation. Unfortunately I cannot do Leith's Mindfulness course, because I will be going back to Holland soon. But it's definitely something I will explore more in the future.

After having a nice week at work, we got the Friday off! The weather was really nice so I decided to go to Camden and walk along the canal to go to Primrose Hill. Primrose Hill is one of my favourite places in London. It's a really nice park in London with, of course, a hill. When you walk up this hill, you have a beautiful view of the London skyline. Priceless.

At night, I was going to a philosophy meeting with Kirsten and Lauren again. When we arrived at the restaurant, Leith wasn't there. Due to a misunderstanding, he did not show up. So it was just Kirsten, Lauren, me and a lady from Colombia. She actually turned out to be a consultant/life coach for business people in big corporations. So she offered to be the facilitator that night. And we had such a good night with the four of us. Good food, some drinks, and good philosophical conversations.
We went really deep into the concept of different emotions, and how those emotions are linked to the past, the present, and the future. Turns out, most of the negative emotions were linked to the past and the future, and the positive emotions were linked to the present. So it should be easy: be in the present. But of course, it's not that easy. We are mostly thinking about the past or the future. We concluded that sometimes it is useful to think about the past, because we can learn from it. And at the same time, it's useful to think about the future, because we can prepare ourselves for what is coming. But when you are not learning or preparing: don't be in the past of the future. Be in the present.

With this in mind, I really enjoyed my weekend. After doing the usual Saturday stuff (laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping) I spent most of my afternoon and night in the pub. I have to enjoy the British pubs while I can, right?

Today was just perfect. After waking up with a minor headache caused by a few pints from the night before, Lauren and I made our way to Greenwich. And it was amazing. The weather was so good, and it felt like being on a holiday. Even though we had a view of the London skyline, Greenwich really doesn't feel like London. Lauren and I walked around like real tourist, and spend a few hours sunbathing in Greenwich Park. On our way home, we stopped at Tesco to pick up some nice food and wine. We ended the day drinking, eating and listening to music, while enjoying the last sunshine of the day on our improvised balcony. It was a perfect housemate day. Actually, Lauren and I are so much more than just housemates. She is really on of my favourite people ever, and I am gonna miss her so much when I'm gone.

So that's it, only three weeks left! Fortunately, these three weeks are filled with amazing plans. Read all about it next week ;)

Love,
Yolanda