Starting to get a routine

A tourist shot - Big Ben

Well the rest of my week last week was filled with training for me so nothing too exciting to report for work yet. The team are lovely and I haven’t gotten lost back-of-house yet!

The weather has been really hot – 30 degrees over the last couple of days. We had a fantastic weekend

Enjoying Sunday afternoon at the pub

enjoying the heat. On Saturday morning we tried to watch the rugby but the Walkabout at Shepherds Bush was just to pack so you couldn’t seen the screen. Instead we sat at another pub and dad regularly sms’d the score through – thanks dad!

Saturday afternoon we had a farewell for one of David’s friends who is heading back to Australia.

David on Brick Lane

On Sunday, some of David’s colleagues took us to Coalfields to visit the markets and have a great lunch. We headed to another pub to enjoy the afternoon – enjoying the Pimms!

And now, a word from David…
I went to my first London .NET Users group on Thursday – 65 Guys and 1 Chick – Nerds are the same everywhere… Its basically mandatory to go to community groups events at the company I am now working for. They are trying to be a “Google light”. For instance they have Friday afternoons set aside for the permanents to work on Opensource projects and they are heavily involved in the Agile, .NET and Java users groups within London. My boss has informed me that I need to do a .NET talk in the next couple of months so that will be interesting…

Somewhere to call home

Today was my second day at work. Yesterday I had a full day of induction at the Hilton Park Lane (very nice) and today was my first day at the Metropole. Lots of training to do. The hotel really is huge and I think it will take me a bit of practise to remember all the room names and locations. I have quite a bit of training over the next couple of weeks so that will be good to ease me back into working – it was nice having a bit of time off!

I spent Saturday shopping in Harrods and Harvey Nicolas with Erin. It was fantastic as the sales we on – I was very restrained and only bought one skirt and a bowl for the cat. I had to spoil Prism, we thought it was too funny to buy something from the Harrods pet store – there were dog collars that were so expensive that they were locked cabinets!

One Friday I went to the Petrie Museum. It is a dusty old museum in University College London. It is a fantastic collection of objects used in every day Egyptian life – the rooms are just packed with thousands of objects from pots to vases to the words oldest dress. It was a fascinating way to spent the afternoon – http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk.

Next week we are moving to a lovely garden flat in Fulham. We have it for three months while the owner is in Spain for work. Looking forward to moving somewhere with some more space and finally been able to unpack our suitcases.

We have been having a bit of fun and have come up with our 10 first impressions of London:

1. You have to complain about the weather, people are disappointed if you don’t!

2. Cars plus bike riders without helmets are not a healthy combination.

3. David though the bureaucracy in “Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy” was a satire but he now realises it was a documentary.

4. The banks are archaic.

5. Sunlight until 10pm is great, except you forget to eat dinner.

6. You haven’t been to markets, till you have been to Camden (not Paddys)

7. Love Pimms!

8. If they don’t pack your groceries at the supermarket, what’s the point of a check-out chick…….

9. Property Porn (yes this is the technical term http://www.aboutproperty.co.uk/diy/property-porn-addiction-$8708091.htm)… 50 different shows about buying/selling/renting have been on UK TV during the last 5 years.

10. Law & Order is not on TV every night. Not to sure what we are supposed to watch instead.

Hope that everyone is well. Would love to hear from you.

Washing Day

 

Just a quick update:
I have been offered two jobs this week, one with a small PCO and the other with a hotel. After quite a bit of deliberation and some interesting spreadsheets (thanks David!) I have made a decision today. The job that I have accepted is at the Hilton Metropole in their large events (over 400 delegates) team. The hotel is rather large – over 1000 guest rooms and three ballrooms and a ton of function rooms, so the venue is huge to say the least! I am really excited about the role and start on Monday which is great. http://www.hiltonlondonmet.com/

Off to the laundromat now – oh tis an exciting life I lead……

Bright Patches

Well, we are starting to settle into London life. David started work last Wednesday and that has been going well. It is a small company (about 25 people) and he is enjoying the work that they are doing.

We went to a play last Thursday, a comedy called “The 39 Steps.” The play was based on a Hitchcock thriller but they had turned the play into a very funny comedy! The cast had only four people but they played about 12 different characters throughout the play – it was very clever and hilarious in the way it was all put together. http://www.musicomh.com/theatre/thirty-nine-steps_0906.htm

I had a heap of interviews last week and I will have some news on that soon!

On Saturday we went to a very pretty town call Oxted in Surrey. We met up with Sara Camier and Lucy who are over here visiting family for a picnic. Not ideal weather for a picnic but the wind was invigorating… Great to see Sara and Lucy, I can’t believe how big Lucy is now!

We have also been out looking at some short term lets for three months and should have something finalised by tomorrow – fingers crossed.

While David was working I had planned to do more sightseeing but I have been kept busy with interviews. I have the rest of the week free so am planning to see some more museums over the next couple of days.

No photos this week as interviews don’t make for interesting pictures.

Hope everyone is well and not being too annoying!

Pick me, pick me, pick me!!

Just a quick update – David has a job!! He starts tomorrow in a fulltime role for a company that does credit card processing. Hmm, sound really exciting doesn’t it…… Actually it is quite a diverse company that is doing some exciting work (according to David) so he is looking forward to the job. We are really relieved that he has found a job, to give you an idea of how tight the market is, this morning (and it’s only 10am) Dave has received four calls from four different agent regarding the same job.

Still no work for me. Dare I say it, but I am actually missing work and our studio is really not large enough to facilitate a stay at home housewife. No matter, something will come up soon.

Off to buy some cheap theatre tickets for a matinee today.

It was 28 degrees…..

 Busy, busy week for us. There weather at the start of the week was great – Tuesday even got 28 degrees (just the temperature you want when you are moving) but we will not talk about today’s miserable weather.

David relaxing in Hyde Park on our M&S purchases (sheets and stuff)

Last Saturday was spent in true London style, soaking in the sun in Hyde Park – it is amazing how as soon as the sun comes out the city just comes alive. No SPF 30+ here, the strongest sun cream we could find has been about SPF 10.

We also caught up with Ged, Erin and one of David’s old uni friends, Daniel, over the weekend which was great.

Me in Greenwich

We have no idea what we did last Monday, but whatever it was I’m sure that it was lots of fun and obviously very memorable…. Oh now we remember! We spent the day in beautiful Greenwich, amazing buildings.

Looking over Greenwich from the Observatory

We also went to the Planetarium – I had never been to one before so I was like a little kid with excitement. The show was so amazing, lots of fun!

David standing on the Meriden Line

Aww, cute!

 

 

 

 

  

I have had a couple of interviews with agents over the week and a couple more this week. They have been quite positive so am keeping those fingers crossed.

On Tuesday, we moved to a studio in Hammersmith that we have for a month.It is quite cosy and in the attic of the block so our bed is literally in the eaves – you don’t want to sit up to quickly in the middle of the night. It’s good though, as we have somewhere comfy and affordable to base ourselves for a month while everything gets sorted out.

One of the interviews I had this week was down in Richmond, after the interview we went for a walk along the Thames (very pretty) and were asked to take part in a documentary on park benches – basically we sat on a bench and had to look wistfully at the view – without laughing which really was the hardest part of it all!!!

We also visited the National Gallery this week which was great.

David and I in Hampstead Heath

On Friday we did Camden Markets and Hampstead Heath. The markets were fantastic – I had no idea that punks still existed!! It was also beautiful walking on the Heath and the houses around the Health weren’t too bad either. As much as we were trying to explore and randomly walk around the park we kept coming back to the same spot – all roads lead to……….the sports ground. http://www.camdenlock.net/stables/index.html 

 

The gargole is picking his nose - hehehe

We had a fantastic day yesterday in Oxford. We had planned to go to Canterbury for the day (no we didn’t get that lost) but there were no trains running to Canterbury. Instead we headed out to Oxford, it is a beautiful town and we did a very funny tour with an almost-grumpy German tour guide. She was very good but kept telling herself (and the noisy Italian school kids) off which was amusing. We saw some of the Colleges and chapels – basically saw “sets” from Harry Potter, The Golden Compass and Inspector Morse (including where he died for anyone interested). Unfortunately the cathedral at Christ Church College was closed so we will have to head back to Oxford another time, not a bad thing. http://www.visitoxford.org/

We went to Argos today (had to buy iron, exciting stuff), now that’s a catalogue! Basically it’s like Ikea without having to get lost in a store for 4 hours. You go through a massive catalogue, write down the code of what you want and give it to the shop assistant- 5 minutes later they bring you what you want – very impressive. Thanks for the tip Michelle. http://www.argos.co.uk

Great address (not ours) - but if this is the house number, does it mean they only have 1/2 a house?

Having a relaxing Sunday afternoon today, David is off to the driving range with Ged. David also has a very promising interview on tomorrow so hopefully something comes from that – it is amazing the contacts you can make at the local pub on a Friday night.

“If at first you don’t succeed, redefine the criteria”

Hope everyone is doing well and our love to you all.

The front of our building

The gourmet kitchen

Our bed in the roof and David