Thursday, January 17, 2013

London Calling


I only arrived yesterday (yes, the day that a helicopter crashed in Central London!), but it feels like I've been here for years! It's different to enter a city for business purposes or just for travel. I haven't seen much of London yet, and feel a bit guilty when I walk by the museums, churches, galleries and shops. But I just simply don't have time for that. Why am I here? To meet people! I probably scheduled too many meetings in a day, but it all works out well.

I want to start talking about three power ladies who all deserve a mentioning. Sandra Anido, general manager of a five-star Hilton Hotel The Bentley in the heart of Kensington. Sandra is Dutch and lives in London since 1998 as she fell in love with an Albanian boy and decided to stay. She started working as a receptionist of a hotel and now is general manager.

Then the Dutch-Turkish student Derya Yilmaz. We met through twitter, as she is a fan of Texas, she started following me on Twitter. Two years ago she studied International Business and Marketing in San Antonio, then returned to Holland but would do anything to get back to Texas. And in the meantime she decided to get her master's degree at a University in London.

Today I finally got to meet Meral Hussein Ece, whom I also met through Twitter. Baroness Hussein Ece is an English Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. She is the first woman of Turkish Cypriot origin to be a member of the house of Parliament. We met today at the House of Lords and discovered we have so many things to share: politics, biculturalism, women's rights, Turkey, Cyprus, Europe and of course motherhood. It's always wonderful to meet someone with whom you can talk in so many languages. A real power lady (and she has power too!)

Tomorrow hopefully I am going to meet Jennifer Howze. Jennifer is the co-founder of BritMums, Britain's largest and most influential parent blogging network. Previously, she was the online lifestyle editor at The Times, where she founded the newspaper’s Alpha Mummy blog. She also co-founded the CyberMummy conference, which debuted in July 2010 and ran for two years. In short, she is an entrepreneurial journalist, just like me :)

Tonight I am invited to a reception hosted by Member of the Parliament Nick De Bois in the House of Commons,an event organised by the Centre for Turkey Studies and the International Forum for Democracy and Peace (IFDP). The keynote speaker is Tuna Bekleviç, Founder and President of IFDP. The nice thing is that Tuna and I are both alumnis of the International Leadership Visitors Program. (The US State Department connects through IVLP current and emerging foreign leaders with their American counterparts through short-term programs).

I see that it's almost 6 pm, I am already running late.

So, no, except for the fact that I am sleeping in a hotel, I don't feel like a visitor at all! I am really looking forward to meet more active Londoners and internationalists!