Success is Sweet

I finally have a job!!! Unfortunately, it’s not as well paid as the last one, but more fun, less boring, and more stable. It is fantastic being employed again. The company is a small finance firm, and a contrast to the big ugly bank. It’s nicer being in a place of only 100 compared to 20,000. It’s located between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar square and the area is old money rather than pretentious young bankers like in Canary Wharf. The atmosphere is not dog eat dog, but a friendly family environment, so it’s quite refreshing. They even have ping pong and darts competitions at lunchtimes! The job is also an IT one, so that is fantastic.

Last year we got all the way through a very cold winter, and it wasn’t until April, of all months before it snowed. Well, we will moan no more! This year we got the awesomest dumping of snow, the most London has had in 20 years or more, and it was so heavy it stopped approximately 6 million Londoners going to work – how awesome is that! It was just so magical as the snow started falling, and the fresh snow started to gather on all of the hedges and paths etc. As I had only just started my new job, I thought I better be disciplined and at least try to get to work (as many of the trains were cancelled too), and I eventually did manage to get to work, however I did take advantage of the snow “delays” to take my time and take some photos of central London covered in snow.

Jam didn’t have to go to work, as her work told everyone to work from home, however as she had an event the next day in Birmingham, she had to travel up the night before, so left in the late afternoon, but she also managed to get there with no major issues or delays. However, snow is only cool when it is fresh and falling, and when you have to walk everywhere anyway, the resulting ice from snow is a real pain in the butt! We were so over the ice by the time it finally all melted!

The light dumping the night before

The next morning
Day off for the bus's

Trafalgar Squre and frozen waterfeature

Big Ben and Westminster under snow

Seagulls on a frozen lake at St James's Park

One of thousands of snowmen built that day in London

Unfortunately having a flat to ourselves, had to come to an end as we could only stay for 2 months to get ourselves on our feet again, while the owner was away on an extended holiday. After a small amount of flat hunting, we found that this is really a small world. The 1st flat we checked out was with an Aussie and a South African guy. We later worked out that we had met the Aussie guy on the Monopoly pub crawl we did last year. The next flat we checked out had a kiwi couple, in which the guy happened to be a guy who lived a few doors from us in our hostel in 1st year uni! On 12th February Jamie (Jam’s brother) arrived. It’s so cool having him here. We’ve been having fun showing him around the London tourist sights and getting accustomed to the London culture. Since he has been here, we have seen Tower of London, Madame Tussauds and Jam and Jamie went out to Hampton Court as well. The crown jewels at the Tower of London were quite impressive, but what was more impressive was the size of the vault doors that locked the jewels inside...some serious defence there!

White town at Tower of London

Jam and Jamie with a Beefeater

Nice view

Guard

One of many displays at the tower

Jam with George

Jam with Jonah

Jam with the Royals

Jam with the Queen

Me and Britney

Jamie and Mr T

Two weeks later, our 2 month stay in our own flat came to an end, and we moved in with the Aussie and Saffa. It’s pretty cool living in a SANZA flat, now we can give each other crap during the Tri-nations. The two very best bits about our new flat (despite us mourning the comfort of living on our own) is that we get a big sunny room (I know sunny, in London you say? yep!) and the flat is right beside our tube station, so it is literally a drop out of bed and you’re at the tube – awesome!

With two incomes at long last, we have now booked a 10 day road trip to Ireland for St Patrick’s Day, so we look forward to that!

Until next time

Bev and Jam