So considering the fact that everyone's been obsessed with the royal family surrounding the wedding (they even had one of those cardboard cut-outs in the Cayman Islands, see image below) I've decided to use this blog to allude to the similarities between myself and Kate Middleton.

First of all, on our return from the Cayman Islands/Tennessee we moved into Victoria, which is less than a 10 minute walk from Buckingham Palace- not too shabby at all! It does mean that all of the surrounding pubs have ridiculous names like 'The Queens Arms', 'The Kings Arms' and no doubt 'The Duchess of Cambridges Arms' by now. It does also mean that all the lovely parks are very nearby, you just have to go round the corner and down Buckingham Palace Road and you're there! Both Jenny and Susan had family visiting this weekend so I spent Saturday sitting in Green Park reading a book- Kate's dress was on display in the palace this weekend so St James's park was mobbed! Last weekend we discovered we're also walking distance from Harrods, where Kate was apparently spotted eating sushi with her parents not too lond ago! If all of this wasn't enough I finally got round to buying a ring with money my dad had given me for my 18th birthday and apparently the one I eventually chose was insipired by Kate's engagement ring. Coincidence? I think not my friends! It has been a long time coming- while we were in Tennesse we had a bbq at the Executive Vice President's house (see previous blog) and his wife had a master plan of running over Prince Harry's girlfriend so I could make my move- oh how she would be proud!

In other (and more relevant) news, our project at Giles is coming along nicely. I feel like we're at that stage that I get to with every report/essay where you are so involved in the work that you almost lose sight of the bigger aim; you want to start seeing results and wonder how you could've spent so long doing so much work and have only gotten this far. We are getting there though- I feel like we really are very comfortable with our project after the trip to Greenlight Re in Cayman and we're at the stage where we are challenging our supervisors in the questions we ask them. I don't know at what point I started to understand all the insurance talk (well maybe not all of it yet...) but it's nice to finally know what's going on after 8 weeks! We're giving something of a presentation next Friday to Wholesale MD Mark Addis, who is heading the project, and Group MD, Sarah Lyons, is also going to be there- so no pressure! The aim is that we will present what we've found so far with pretty tables and graphs to see if Mark is happy with the assumptions we've made and the angles we're looking at, and to take any feedback he or Sarah has to offer in order to ensure our final analyses match up to what they're expecting. The only problem here is that we have a fundraiser in aid of the Saltire Foundation planned for the day before, including drinks after work at a nearby pub... Luckily Sarah's already told us where she keeps her stash of Berocca!

This week also saw my second insurer visit: a full day at Groupama in London, headed by Knowledge and Systems Manager, Barry Hawkins. This started with meeting the Head Actuary and getting an overview of Groupama and was followed by a number of presentations/talks from various people in the company to explain the workings of an insurance company. Furthermore I had an introduction to the computer systems they use at Groupama to store and monitor their data before Barry talked me through how he had produced the data Groupama had given me and I had a chance to ask questions about what other information I could access. I also had the chance to speak to an actuary who had been there as a graduate, had managed to complete his actuarial exams in a mere 3 years, had already been promoted and was only 24: this is why I want to work for a smaller company! My final insurer visit is with Axa in London- I had a conference call with them on Friday to discuss the data and so I think they're just working out when the best time for me to visit is. It's amazing the amount of contacts I'll have by the time this internship is over!

Socially, this week has included a few cinema trips (Harry Potter and Bridesmaids- both amazing!) and Dylan Moran at the Hammersmith Apollo, which was followed by 3 Scottish girls getting over-excited by the Happy Hour offers that we don't get at home anymore! One of my friends was in London this week on business (check us high-flyers) and had tickets to We Will Rock You so that was another fun night! I also finally got my visit to the Tate Modern on Friday night which was amazing- the walk from work passes St. Paul's Cathedral and you need to cross the Millenium Bridge to get there so it was a lovely evening! As well as being by the river there are lovely views of the Gherkin and all the big buildings around my work from the bridge, so it was nice to see how everything fits together.

Anyway for now I'll leave you with this...