Visiting the big smoke

This week has been a busy one as I’ve travelled to Save the Children’s London offices in Farringdon.  Thursday morning demanded a 4:45am start (not great, I’m not a morning person) to catch the 6am train to London from Cardiff.  After a relaxing doze on the train I arrived during rush hour at London Paddington station, and braced myself for the tube journey to Farringdon.  Whilst I don’t suffer from claustrophobia it was possibly the worst tube journey I’ve ever made as I found myself sandwiched between two strangers’ armpits!  An experience I would rather not repeat in a hurry.

However, tube journeys aside, the visit has been really fun and it’s been great meeting everyone at the London offices.  Yesterday I had training with Andrew about our database systems and I also met with Joanna in the Events Team to chat about Save the Children’s 90th Anniversary.

I stayed overnight at a hotel near the office, but managed to get lost on my walk from the office to the hotel as snow and my woeful observation skills caused me to walk past the street that the hotel was on.  As I drifted down Old Street in a state of confusion a snowball appeared to drop from the sky smacking my umbrella onto my head (don’t panic reader, I am ok).  For a moment I thought the sky might be falling in, but then realised (due to peals of laughter) that the snowball was actually courtesy of some kids who were bombarding passers-by from the overhead vantage point of a flat’s balcony.  Thankfully uninjured (apart from my pride) I managed to locate the hotel and enjoyed a blessedly uneventful evening at a Vietnamese restaurant having dinner with a friend who lives in London.

This morning I had a great meeting with Emilie from the Schools Team who explained all about Friendship Funday, Student Enterprise, and the School’s Emergency Fundraising Network.  Then I had lunch with Monique to learn about the different resources we provide our supporter groups, and opportunities for developing Welsh language materials.  And last, but by no means least, I met with Rebecca this afternoon to talk about blogging for Save the Children.

I am about to head home to Welsh Wales and I can only hope that my journey is direct and snowball free. Hwyl fawr.