Hey guys,
Well it is with great joy and satisfaction that I can now tell you that we have a home! Yep after five weeks of being Gypsies, we have now hung up our clothes and ditched the backpacks - believe me five weeks is far to long to live out of your suitcases!!!!
Our sanity is slowly returning however, London being London still persists to drive us nutty!
Last week when Bev went to Hockey, I caught up with two of my oldest friends -and I mean playing on the rockinghorse, and exciting family trips to Cobb n Co old! Christine and Monique :o)
Again it was great catching up with some fellow kiwis -it always turns into a mock the brits session I must admit - but if we didn't I think I really would go insane! Anyway we went on a big walking tour, past my old mate Liz's house - otherwise known as Buckingham Palace, down a few famous Monopoly Streets - such as Pall Mall, Trifalgar Square, Whitehall and then out for dinner at a cheap but decent little restaurant - a fun time had by all!
Last week I wasn't working Monday and Tuesday, so I applied for heaps of jobs then I got rung up to go and work for National Women's Institute ie WI for any of you brits - yep its an old ladies magazine - target market is 50 to Dead haha! Maybe my ol mate Liz reads it??
Anyway, so my job uses about half a brain cell - although that could be contended - maybe one quarter of a brain cell....all I have to do is enter all of the castles and historic houses from the UK, from a book that has just been released into an excel spreadsheet! They are then going to write to these places to see if they would like to advertise in WI.
But I am not complaining, as one it is ££££'s and two, they think they can give me a job until the end of next week which is awesome(wow money two weeks in a row - I won't know what to do with myself!) - and three it is not helping disabled people to go toilet - long story, but some how telling a temping agency that you want administrative work means helping disabled people go toilet! Anyway..... And four, the people are really nice, and five it is quite a laugh, because all the readers are so old and they ring up for reader giveaways etc from the magazine or to tell the magazine writers that they have things wrong -haha these old people have far too much time on their hands and nothing better to do! I'm glad I don't have to deal with any of the readers!
This last weekend - yes I know while all you NZ'ers were enjoying a long weekend (Yep sux to be me) Bev and I moved into our new flat. It is a three storey building, we are on the bottom floor - so no stairs amazingly. The flat is thought to be circa 1870 - strange to be living in a house as old as my great grandparents! It also comes with all the delights of such an old house, like leaky toilets, blocked kitchen waste drains and the likes - so we are in the process of sorting out these pleasant surprises - now I understand why dad doesn't like old houses! And to think we could support a mortgage in NZ for the amount of rent we are paying for it - whew another thing not to dwell on!
It was nice finally setting up a room and unpacking our bags, we made use of that Argos store again - such fun, and the "Pound" store - where you can get 12 plastic coat hangers for £1 - pretty bloomin good. We then did our first proper shop at the supermarket, and almost couldn't carry the bags home - yep supermarket shopping totally sucks without a car - and as a result you buy little, lots, so you end up always at the supermarket - so annoying - especially when the amount of people at the supermarket is like Christmas shopping in NZ - except its like that everyday!! So if that isn't frustrating enough, imagine our blood pressure levels when the guy at the checkout decided to show how small minded and racist he is by exclaiming about four times how I was white, and Bev was pink(haha although we did find that bit a little funny - don't think asians usually get called pink!) and he couldn't get over that Bev was Chinese but not from China - honestly I could have hit this guy!! What I couldn't get though, was that London is like the most multicultural city in the world - and we can't have been the first mixed race couple this guy had ever seen - and to top it off he was black himself - so he mustn't have been adverse to racist comments himself?? What hole did this guy crawl out of? Where has he been living for the last 5o years??? And to make matters worse he took his sweet time handing over our change and receipt etc so we couldn't get out of there any faster! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Anyway...........and then to top off our high blood pressure few days, Bev went into the Bank before work today - no mean feat as the bank is nowhere near his work......and the stupid bank has sent our credit card stuff to NZ again!!! The second time in 5 weeks! Honestly!! So we still don't have credit cards!
We have noticed that the way British people deal with these blood boiling moments is to take it out then and there with the person, the manager of the shop, or anyone that's there to listen - perhaps we might be more like that when we get home!
On a funny note, at my work there are a couple of South Africans - (Yay for them for winning the rugby too - if we couldn't have it (AB's) I certainly didn't want the Brits to have it(nor would you if you had read their big gloats in the papers about how they are wonderful, and they'd be the first to defend and win the cup ever etc etc) - and especially when all they know how to do is kick! What a boring game the first half was! I did however feel a little sorry for the English when they did work out that rugby involves getting trys(shock horror what a revelation), and then the try wasn't awarded - at least the South Africans forced the English to play some good rugby - but the better team won on the day fair and square) anyway I got some lunch with one of the South Africans on Friday, and she was asking how I was finding London etc and I said I find the life fast paced but the systems so slow - ie banks, and everything, and she was like oh I find it to be the opposite - and it made me remember a South African guy from Mum and Dad's work saying that in South Africa if you post a letter it may take a week or two or three - you can never tell, whereas in NZ you can pretty much guarantee it will be to the NZ destination within two days :o) Interesting people's different views on this place.
Anyway, I feel after writing all of that my blood pressure is starting to level off :o)
We hope to head to Stonehenge this weekend so that should be exciting (with me working there is a few excess pounds to spend - YAY!) and perhaps I should start planning which theatre show we are going to see first - maybe the lion king....hmm
The weather here is starting to cool considerably - who's idea was the two winters again? Next weekend daylight savings ends here, so we go into darkness so that will be interesting!
Ok must go, would love to hear how things are at home, and what you all got up to for Labour weekend - I have realised having a blog can be convenient for you guys at home cos you can just read what we have been up to without any effort - please write to us!!!! Getting emails from home is a big excitement! I found it really hard not being home for Labour weekend, as it has such significance for being that first weekend just on the verge of summer when everyone goes to the beach and imagines what the coming summer is going to be like haha - (I hear the weather was cold and miserable - that made me feel heaps better :o) I am also very cat sick - I really miss my kitty, so if you have a cat or a dog, give it heaps of smootches from me :o)
I really need to find that elusive animal behaviour job..............
Lots of Love
Jam
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
The week that was.....
Hi! Bev here. I haven’t had Internet contact for almost a week now. I have been so busy with my new job, doing some overtime and trying to impress, so hopefully they can give me an extended contract. I haven’t worked out if I should use the internet at work for my personal use yet, I’m unsure how anal they are.
Anyway, last Friday (6th) we were jumping for joy that I had got a job. It was a bit of a sticky position in that the interview for this job was very early Friday morning 8.30am , but I had to get up at 6am to find the place. But I also was offered an interview for work at Cadbury in the IT department, but that was at 4.30pm, and if I got the bank one I had to make the decision asap as they required me to start on Monday!
The interview was in Canary Wharf, where the Speights pub has just landed by ship. WOW! What a place! It’s the financial hub of London, which looks like Auckland’s Viaduct, but with massive high rises of banks, and with big TVs outside showing financial news, and scrolling stock market stuff on the side of the buildings! I was blown away at the corporate-ness of the place. Everyone wanders around dressed in smart business clothes. Anyway, the interview went ok, and I had the advantage that I could start on Monday (the interview room had a nice view of London!) I got the call back just before I had to leave for my second interview, and accepted it……Whew! The weight came off my shoulders.
We were really stoked to see Corey last weekend. After knowing him for many years, who’d of thought we’d be having a beer together in the Northern hemisphere. Before we saw Corey, we went to check out some shops down the famous Oxford Street. We saw some extremes of prices, £160 for a jumper to £5 for a fancy handbag. And some cool gadgets like a James Bond like underwater propeller....how about £8000 for a full sized terminator? We also got to watch the reactions of the English and Aussies at a street pub during their quarter final....I wish I had my camera at the time!
Hockey: I had my 1st look into a club on Wednesday night, took me ages to find the place by foot (this has taught me to not take owning a vehicle for granted!) I had my 1st game yesterday. It’s a very different structure here, and I still don’t understand it after many explanations. We had a team made up of half British, 1 Aussie, 1 Saffa (South African), 1 Dutch, 1 French and me. We won the game and looked liked we had played together for the last 5 years. We went down to the club house for dinner and beers before watching the English vs France semi final….where I got hassled heaps for being an AB’s supporter!
Work: My title is an IT hardware engineer (sounds like a cool name, but the job is easier than it sounds). Working on a trade floor is a weird experience. Its one of those places you see on the movies but never thought you’d ever be at. The floor is massive and open and littered with 4-6 computer screens at each desk, with big digital clocks hanging from the ceiling of time zones of major city times on them. You quite often see traders treat their job like a game, and also hear people yelling out to each other in many different languages. It’s also quite a daunting thought about making mistakes when I’m working on managing and executive directors computers. But most of them seem down to earth…..mind you I haven’t made a mistake yet! Security is huge, inside and outside, even in the mall at Canary Wharf.
The canteen is the coolest place! The breakfast selection is huge, and Lunch selection is even bigger. They have heaps of sections, like a food court, and you can grab something from any section you like and pay for it at the end. They have a pizza and pasta section, a deli sandwich bar, bbq grill, stir fry, roast carvery, baked potato, soup, fruit, and massive salad bar. They also have a theme section, where it’s curry Thursdays and fish n chip Fridays and the other weekdays are other continental themes. Each section there is a huge choice of toppings, fillings of the freshest meats, breads, veges, and fruit of the highest quality! I just can’t explain how cool it is, it is so awesome that the canteen alone is an incentive to keep working there! On my 1st day I had a bbq chicken breast burger, and the quality was as good as the burger we had at GBK the night before! Paying for it was a weird experience. We had to load £ onto our security card, and it gets taken off that.
I had to laugh at something funny the other day. Most people’s work places have a regular lunch or food guy come in each week, e.g. At Anne and Wayne’s work place in Hamilton, they have a sushi guy bring sushi on a Wednesday. But where I work, they have a shoe shiner come in each week! It is a good market for him, as I saw him shine at least a dozen shoes for a good $10NZD a pop!
Last week I kept getting calls from agents who had found my CV online and wanted to get me an interview, so it’s a nice feeling that I can still pick up work else where when this job ends….I hope it doesn’t, I love the food aspect of it too much.
After this last week, I have realised how much I should be thankful for the experiences of working for Concord. I am thankful for being dropped into the deep end and working long and funny hours (as much as I hated it at the time), as it has made me more flexible and given me heaps of experience and knowledge to put on my CV and it’s helped me impress at work…..Cheers Concord!
The funniest event happened on the tube on Thursday night coming home from work. The tubes are known for minimal eye contact and lack of being sociable. This tube I hopped on was the opposite. There was an English supporter dressed in white, face painted and he wore the English flag as his cape, cricket pads, gloves, and had a rugby ball. He was getting hassled by some kiwi guys, and he was giving it back as he was hopping off the tube. Everyone on that carriage was cracking up at the silliness of it. After he had hopped off, a French guy decided to have a go at the kiwis. This was a crack up too, but by the time we got to the next stop, it got personal….the French vs ABs calls started coming out. As the French guy got out, the last call one of the kiwis made was “So what! The only thing you French guys are good at is beach war fare!”. The carriage went silent….
Today we are just laxing out and again doing all our chores, and again, we are still gypsies. Hopefully we will have heard by tomorrow as to whether all our stinky references have been checked and approved so that we can move into this house we have put in for - we aren't holding our breath - as I am sure they will find another of roll of red tape to dispense as soon as we jump this hurdle! Grrrrrrrrrr!
Anyway, last Friday (6th) we were jumping for joy that I had got a job. It was a bit of a sticky position in that the interview for this job was very early Friday morning 8.30am , but I had to get up at 6am to find the place. But I also was offered an interview for work at Cadbury in the IT department, but that was at 4.30pm, and if I got the bank one I had to make the decision asap as they required me to start on Monday!
The interview was in Canary Wharf, where the Speights pub has just landed by ship. WOW! What a place! It’s the financial hub of London, which looks like Auckland’s Viaduct, but with massive high rises of banks, and with big TVs outside showing financial news, and scrolling stock market stuff on the side of the buildings! I was blown away at the corporate-ness of the place. Everyone wanders around dressed in smart business clothes. Anyway, the interview went ok, and I had the advantage that I could start on Monday (the interview room had a nice view of London!) I got the call back just before I had to leave for my second interview, and accepted it……Whew! The weight came off my shoulders.
We were really stoked to see Corey last weekend. After knowing him for many years, who’d of thought we’d be having a beer together in the Northern hemisphere. Before we saw Corey, we went to check out some shops down the famous Oxford Street. We saw some extremes of prices, £160 for a jumper to £5 for a fancy handbag. And some cool gadgets like a James Bond like underwater propeller....how about £8000 for a full sized terminator? We also got to watch the reactions of the English and Aussies at a street pub during their quarter final....I wish I had my camera at the time!
Hockey: I had my 1st look into a club on Wednesday night, took me ages to find the place by foot (this has taught me to not take owning a vehicle for granted!) I had my 1st game yesterday. It’s a very different structure here, and I still don’t understand it after many explanations. We had a team made up of half British, 1 Aussie, 1 Saffa (South African), 1 Dutch, 1 French and me. We won the game and looked liked we had played together for the last 5 years. We went down to the club house for dinner and beers before watching the English vs France semi final….where I got hassled heaps for being an AB’s supporter!
Work: My title is an IT hardware engineer (sounds like a cool name, but the job is easier than it sounds). Working on a trade floor is a weird experience. Its one of those places you see on the movies but never thought you’d ever be at. The floor is massive and open and littered with 4-6 computer screens at each desk, with big digital clocks hanging from the ceiling of time zones of major city times on them. You quite often see traders treat their job like a game, and also hear people yelling out to each other in many different languages. It’s also quite a daunting thought about making mistakes when I’m working on managing and executive directors computers. But most of them seem down to earth…..mind you I haven’t made a mistake yet! Security is huge, inside and outside, even in the mall at Canary Wharf.
The canteen is the coolest place! The breakfast selection is huge, and Lunch selection is even bigger. They have heaps of sections, like a food court, and you can grab something from any section you like and pay for it at the end. They have a pizza and pasta section, a deli sandwich bar, bbq grill, stir fry, roast carvery, baked potato, soup, fruit, and massive salad bar. They also have a theme section, where it’s curry Thursdays and fish n chip Fridays and the other weekdays are other continental themes. Each section there is a huge choice of toppings, fillings of the freshest meats, breads, veges, and fruit of the highest quality! I just can’t explain how cool it is, it is so awesome that the canteen alone is an incentive to keep working there! On my 1st day I had a bbq chicken breast burger, and the quality was as good as the burger we had at GBK the night before! Paying for it was a weird experience. We had to load £ onto our security card, and it gets taken off that.
I had to laugh at something funny the other day. Most people’s work places have a regular lunch or food guy come in each week, e.g. At Anne and Wayne’s work place in Hamilton, they have a sushi guy bring sushi on a Wednesday. But where I work, they have a shoe shiner come in each week! It is a good market for him, as I saw him shine at least a dozen shoes for a good $10NZD a pop!
Last week I kept getting calls from agents who had found my CV online and wanted to get me an interview, so it’s a nice feeling that I can still pick up work else where when this job ends….I hope it doesn’t, I love the food aspect of it too much.
After this last week, I have realised how much I should be thankful for the experiences of working for Concord. I am thankful for being dropped into the deep end and working long and funny hours (as much as I hated it at the time), as it has made me more flexible and given me heaps of experience and knowledge to put on my CV and it’s helped me impress at work…..Cheers Concord!
The funniest event happened on the tube on Thursday night coming home from work. The tubes are known for minimal eye contact and lack of being sociable. This tube I hopped on was the opposite. There was an English supporter dressed in white, face painted and he wore the English flag as his cape, cricket pads, gloves, and had a rugby ball. He was getting hassled by some kiwi guys, and he was giving it back as he was hopping off the tube. Everyone on that carriage was cracking up at the silliness of it. After he had hopped off, a French guy decided to have a go at the kiwis. This was a crack up too, but by the time we got to the next stop, it got personal….the French vs ABs calls started coming out. As the French guy got out, the last call one of the kiwis made was “So what! The only thing you French guys are good at is beach war fare!”. The carriage went silent….
Today we are just laxing out and again doing all our chores, and again, we are still gypsies. Hopefully we will have heard by tomorrow as to whether all our stinky references have been checked and approved so that we can move into this house we have put in for - we aren't holding our breath - as I am sure they will find another of roll of red tape to dispense as soon as we jump this hurdle! Grrrrrrrrrr!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
You win some you lose some
Hey kids hows it going?
Jam here, I thought it appropriate to address the large white elephant in the room first - how can the All Blacks be out of the world cup when it has only just started! And more importantly, how can the English still be in it (sorry to anyone supporting the English - but come on lets be realistic here!) All I have been able to read about it (the All Blacks)was the single page allocation the English newspapers gave to it!
We were in a pub watching the game (8pm Sat our time) and all the bloomin English were cheering on France - because they were too scared to want to play us - and to make matters worse, they had all put £10 bets on France winning! GRRRRR! Aaaanyway thats about all I really want to say about that!
However, on a far happier note (the win some that the title is referring to), Bevan scored himself a very nice and well paying job at a bank as their IT/hardware guy, so that is very exciting! And it started on Monday! This has now taken the pressure off our finances somewhat! This has therefore allowed me to ease up on the awful temping, so that I can apply for some jobs. This week I am only working three days, because the problem when you are temping is that you are so busy working there is no time to look for other more suitable, better paid jobs. However, I can't be referred to as a lady of leisure - as ladies of leisure can afford fancy lunches and outings to the theatre, and manicures...........haha and technically I am working!
We went out for dinner on Friday night to celebrate the occasion(Bev getting a job), to a nice local pub and then went to a movie. I ordered a wine and ended up drinking a very nice NZ Sav, and we were served by an Aussie! Only in London!
However, probably due to the fact that we haven't had a lot of money as of late, we haven't been eating much, so this uncharacteristic gorging in conjunction with a fast-paced movie with lots of camera switching led us to both feel very motion sick! Haha that will teach us! Talk about nana's!
On Saturday we went and checked out another flat with our British flat mates as the other one had fallen through, for some reason there seems to be a problem with two couples wanting to rent out a two bedroom house.....there is sooooo much red tape over here! We put an offer in on the flat - and have since heard we have it as long as our references are accepted, which is helped by Bev having a job, but still a little dodgy because of more red tape!
We then went to Hyde Park with them, and saw some more cool little squirrels flitting around :o) We bought Bev a few more work clothes, none of those scody grey polo shirts that concord insisted on!
We then caught up with Corey and Heike late Saturday afternoon, which was really cool to see someone from home. We went to the Tate Museum together, and then watched the unmentionable rugby game!
On Sunday we did all the usual household chores - made more difficult since we are still gypsies - we have to do our washing at a laundromat, and then we caught up with Corey and Heike for dinner - we went to a really nice burger place which is run by Kiwi's - called Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) so much better than Burger Fuel mmmmmm!
We also found the Kiwi shop (although it was closed) so will have to go back there and get some vegemite sometime - British Marmite tastes like bum, and is runny like honey - go figure! Also another thing that tastes like bum over here is their water - it is really thick like milk to drink ewww! And when you boil it you get this big scum collecting around the jugs element - one has to wonder why! It also doesn't get any better tasting after you have boiled it either. When we were in Edinburgh we drank so much water because they had really nice water. I hope when I get a job they have a good water filtering system!
Today as I was walking down to the Laundromat to do some more washing it was raining, and a big truck drove past and it splashed through a puddle and totally soaked me on the footpath! So it really does happen like in the movies! Argh so disgusting!
Anyway thats about all our news for now, hope everyone is ok, and looking forward to hearing from you! (That's a hint to email us if you didn't see it through my subtlety!)
Jam :o)
Jam here, I thought it appropriate to address the large white elephant in the room first - how can the All Blacks be out of the world cup when it has only just started! And more importantly, how can the English still be in it (sorry to anyone supporting the English - but come on lets be realistic here!) All I have been able to read about it (the All Blacks)was the single page allocation the English newspapers gave to it!
We were in a pub watching the game (8pm Sat our time) and all the bloomin English were cheering on France - because they were too scared to want to play us - and to make matters worse, they had all put £10 bets on France winning! GRRRRR! Aaaanyway thats about all I really want to say about that!
However, on a far happier note (the win some that the title is referring to), Bevan scored himself a very nice and well paying job at a bank as their IT/hardware guy, so that is very exciting! And it started on Monday! This has now taken the pressure off our finances somewhat! This has therefore allowed me to ease up on the awful temping, so that I can apply for some jobs. This week I am only working three days, because the problem when you are temping is that you are so busy working there is no time to look for other more suitable, better paid jobs. However, I can't be referred to as a lady of leisure - as ladies of leisure can afford fancy lunches and outings to the theatre, and manicures...........haha and technically I am working!
We went out for dinner on Friday night to celebrate the occasion(Bev getting a job), to a nice local pub and then went to a movie. I ordered a wine and ended up drinking a very nice NZ Sav, and we were served by an Aussie! Only in London!
However, probably due to the fact that we haven't had a lot of money as of late, we haven't been eating much, so this uncharacteristic gorging in conjunction with a fast-paced movie with lots of camera switching led us to both feel very motion sick! Haha that will teach us! Talk about nana's!
On Saturday we went and checked out another flat with our British flat mates as the other one had fallen through, for some reason there seems to be a problem with two couples wanting to rent out a two bedroom house.....there is sooooo much red tape over here! We put an offer in on the flat - and have since heard we have it as long as our references are accepted, which is helped by Bev having a job, but still a little dodgy because of more red tape!
We then went to Hyde Park with them, and saw some more cool little squirrels flitting around :o) We bought Bev a few more work clothes, none of those scody grey polo shirts that concord insisted on!
We then caught up with Corey and Heike late Saturday afternoon, which was really cool to see someone from home. We went to the Tate Museum together, and then watched the unmentionable rugby game!
On Sunday we did all the usual household chores - made more difficult since we are still gypsies - we have to do our washing at a laundromat, and then we caught up with Corey and Heike for dinner - we went to a really nice burger place which is run by Kiwi's - called Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) so much better than Burger Fuel mmmmmm!
We also found the Kiwi shop (although it was closed) so will have to go back there and get some vegemite sometime - British Marmite tastes like bum, and is runny like honey - go figure! Also another thing that tastes like bum over here is their water - it is really thick like milk to drink ewww! And when you boil it you get this big scum collecting around the jugs element - one has to wonder why! It also doesn't get any better tasting after you have boiled it either. When we were in Edinburgh we drank so much water because they had really nice water. I hope when I get a job they have a good water filtering system!
Today as I was walking down to the Laundromat to do some more washing it was raining, and a big truck drove past and it splashed through a puddle and totally soaked me on the footpath! So it really does happen like in the movies! Argh so disgusting!
Anyway thats about all our news for now, hope everyone is ok, and looking forward to hearing from you! (That's a hint to email us if you didn't see it through my subtlety!)
Jam :o)
Friday, October 5, 2007
Rollercoaster week!
Bev here, me luv you not long time......or long time no see!
What a long couple of weeks! We have been so busy that we have been unable to update this blog. It has been two weeks of ups and downs. For me, downs on not having any feedback from applying to jobs, ups on getting interviews, downs for failing interviews, ups on more opportunities, downs for still not having a job yet! For Jam, downs for not having a job last week, ups for getting temping work on Monday, downs for stinky temp work, ups for possible science job interview! For us, ups on finding some really nice and cool British flatmates(gumtree is a great thing - a website bulletin board where you can find flats and flatmates), downs for not having a flat yet, ups for going out to get our own bed (we have left Mark and Dees), downs for dodgy hostel, ups for looking forward to seeing Corey this weekend....yeahhhhh!
I have been job hunting this week and it has been frustrating. A tip for others coming over: We highly recommend getting a job before you come over if possible(although in our case it wasn't really possible). The funny thing is that I have spent countless hours applying for jobs, but have had zero reply from any of them. But have had 4 agents contact me for other jobs because they found my CV after I spent 15 minutes uploading them on jobsites!
Jam has been temping at a couple of jobs this week. Although Jam doesnt like her current job, it's got awesome views. It's at the St Thomas hospital by the Thames next to the London Eye, it is such an awesome sight! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera when I picked Jam up from work....but plenty of time to still be a tourist.
I did manage to find time to got to Tottenham Court yesterday after an interview....WOW! This street is a geeks dream! There is a massive street of shops that sells computers and electronics, and all the latest stuff too. I dared not to enter many shops because I would have wanted to cried! Im glad Jam had the credit card that day...in some respects!
Last week we got excited when we spotted our first Squirrel while flat hunting, to which one of our new flat flatmates and the letting agent thought we were nuts! Apparently they are pests, as we find possums in NZ. I guess the novelty of seeing them will wear off later on....I wonder what they taste like? Nutty?
The novelty of living here has worn off a little, mainly due to the fact we have no income yet to buy and try stuff. But once we're settled, we'll start going out and about to remind us of why we came here in the first place :) Bring on the money, and the London lifestyle minus the bad bits!
What a long couple of weeks! We have been so busy that we have been unable to update this blog. It has been two weeks of ups and downs. For me, downs on not having any feedback from applying to jobs, ups on getting interviews, downs for failing interviews, ups on more opportunities, downs for still not having a job yet! For Jam, downs for not having a job last week, ups for getting temping work on Monday, downs for stinky temp work, ups for possible science job interview! For us, ups on finding some really nice and cool British flatmates(gumtree is a great thing - a website bulletin board where you can find flats and flatmates), downs for not having a flat yet, ups for going out to get our own bed (we have left Mark and Dees), downs for dodgy hostel, ups for looking forward to seeing Corey this weekend....yeahhhhh!
I have been job hunting this week and it has been frustrating. A tip for others coming over: We highly recommend getting a job before you come over if possible(although in our case it wasn't really possible). The funny thing is that I have spent countless hours applying for jobs, but have had zero reply from any of them. But have had 4 agents contact me for other jobs because they found my CV after I spent 15 minutes uploading them on jobsites!
Jam has been temping at a couple of jobs this week. Although Jam doesnt like her current job, it's got awesome views. It's at the St Thomas hospital by the Thames next to the London Eye, it is such an awesome sight! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera when I picked Jam up from work....but plenty of time to still be a tourist.
I did manage to find time to got to Tottenham Court yesterday after an interview....WOW! This street is a geeks dream! There is a massive street of shops that sells computers and electronics, and all the latest stuff too. I dared not to enter many shops because I would have wanted to cried! Im glad Jam had the credit card that day...in some respects!
Last week we got excited when we spotted our first Squirrel while flat hunting, to which one of our new flat flatmates and the letting agent thought we were nuts! Apparently they are pests, as we find possums in NZ. I guess the novelty of seeing them will wear off later on....I wonder what they taste like? Nutty?
The novelty of living here has worn off a little, mainly due to the fact we have no income yet to buy and try stuff. But once we're settled, we'll start going out and about to remind us of why we came here in the first place :) Bring on the money, and the London lifestyle minus the bad bits!
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