Nothing in life is free. Except the occasional lentil soup.

I don't think I have jet lag, just insomnia - and it may kill me. I have been passing out cold for like two hours, and then waking up in the middle of the night for three hours before I can go back to sleep. Hoping at some point it will catch up with me and I will get a solid 8 (10??) hours of sleep, but that's neither here nor there.

Grabbed lunch at a local spot yesterday, only to find my corporate card got declined. (Turns out it was a bank issue and all of the travel and entertainment cards were getting turned down. Unfortunately for the Accounting department, all of the execs - and me - are traveling right now, so I'm sure they had some fun emails going back and forth.) I pulled out some cash to pay for my soup, but the nice man behind the counter (shout-out, Antonio!) told me it was on the house. Embarrassing and flattering, all at once. #storyofmylife

Walked down to Big Ben/Parliament last night and had "dinner" (aka yogurt parfait and a latte) - hey, when the company isn't paying, I'm barely eating. Am I right. Tonight, my former boss is taking me to a nice dinner with an amazing view, so that should make up for last night's sad dinner. Near the London Eye I noticed a souvenir shop with these hats in the window:

I mean, I thought about it for a half-second.

On the homefront, I left my sweet Charlie with my friend Jon, and all I asked was that he keep her alive. He sent the following photo yesterday:

Apparently she has taken over his dog Ace's bed, and won't move. She sleeps there and stays there all day. So although clearly severely depressed, at least she's alive. And I'll consider that a win.