My little corner of the world

I am starting to feel really settled, which is great. To celebrate, I have bought some coathangers and a new shirt for work - huzzah!

I quite like my flat - it's great to be flatting with a friend, and the transport is really close. This morning, a fox turned up to the back door. They are a lot like dogs, but when this one ran up with its tail in the air showing it was ready to play I screamed like a big, big, big girl, closed the ranchslider and ran upstairs. It then sniffed around the lawn a bit before doing a very doggie thing in a patch of weeds and clearing off to eat squirrels.

Anyway, here are some shots of my little corner of the world, sans fox:

Cue Coronation Street theme:


Stuck on the end of the street - perfect access for cats and cat burglars:


The view from my tastefully appointed room:


And our little 'lawn'. Note the days-old washing kept on the line to retain the student flat feeling:



I think one of the reasons I enjoy this spot so much is the London weather. It hardly ever rains, and was 28' yesterday! I keep being able to sit outside in the sunshine.

Of course the itchy nose, murky sky and smelly work clothes remind this is all probably the result of pollution and global warming...

This time....

At last - photos are working again.... I now wish my pictures were more interesting. Anyway, here is how the guards are changed at Lizzy's place:

Oh, poor wee soldier. He looks very lonely...:


Hurrah!, here come some friends... with trombones!!!
(Three or four civilians also dropped by to say hello.):


Everyone says 'Hi, fancy meeting you here...':


Then eight soldiers leave:


Honestly, what a underwhelming experience. I am not sure it was worth sitting in one spot for two hours beforehand...

Oh well, some nice German girl took my photo so I can prove I've seen this before if anyone tries to make me go again. I don't know why I was smiling....:


On the more interesting news front, my temp contract people asked me to apply for a permanent role there. I think this is great, but hope to decline in favour of another role.

The phone calls for interviews have started coming in.... so, more good vibes please.

Once a librarian....

I started my new job today.

The work is undemanding - and my team are friendly. It was interesting to be back in a big law firm, and reminded how little librarians are appreciated; the library is next to the mail room and photocopying department. (Perhaps I am under-appreciating the contribution of photocopyists and mail staff?)

However, a big plus is the subsidised restaurant, where I ate a huge and healthy meal for less than two quid. This is good news, because the firm is in an expensive part of town.

Learning a new job is always tiring, but thankfully Kelly has cooked me dinner and I am able to just relax a bit before sending in more job applications tonight.

I wanted to post some photos, but it isn't working. Damn.

So, guess I better do more of that hunting stuff....

More from off-shore

Here are the last of my London "highlights"... at least for a few days. I went to the changing of the guard and a few other tourist things in between interviews, so will have photos of that later too.

Oh, how sweet, the place where Christchurch was born....:


Hanging with my philosophical homies at the British Museum (Socrates is the dude on the left):


Amy Greenwood, pictured about to BREAK THE LAW at the Diana Drain:


But, really, is this memorial any better? Stuck between the elevators at the Harrods Department Store...:



Onwards....

A little look at London...

Hello all. In our continuing series, we find our heroine valiantly charging the UK job market head on. The future is looking good, but nothing is certain in this harsh new world.

In the meantime... we return to the past...

Having done a zillion cool things in New York it was time to head to London. The flight was fairly boring, so I went Wales Watching:


A bit closer to the ground; This is Tower Bridge (the Tower of London is off-camera to the left):


A lovely corner inside The Tower. It looks pretty now, but this green is where the queens had their heads chopped off. If these walls could talk...


"All the world's a stage, the people merely players"- the gorgeous interior of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the banks of the Thames:



Look out for more adventures, coming soon. Same bat time, same bat channel.

A bite of the Big Apple..

As I suspected, job hunting is what I mostly do, so it is lucky I have these in reserve to amuse you all....

Highlights from New York....

One of these women is the Statue of Liberty:


Inevitable tourist shot from the Empire State Building. The Financial District is behind me. The Twin Towers were in the spot directly beneath the fifth rail from the right - you can kind of see the gap:


I want, I want, I want (from the vast collection of yummy things at MoMA):


A different kind of pretty and shiny. These are the actual windows from a house that stood in Chicago, but they now live at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The design is called 'Celebration' and I have a copy of the one on the left, which is 'Confetti':



Right, until next time....

From the lens of ABG...

Proudly presented in conjunction with the MS Society of NZ (thanks again for the camera, team!)......

I am delighted to bring you the fantastic feature length blogging...

"WAY BACK WHEN"

In which, you get to see photos from my trip completely out of sync with when I wrote about them... but still in order, because I am a geek.

(Note - Click on the picture to view a larger version.)

First up, Washington D.C...

A Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in the Natural History Museum:


Cool, Dorothy's slippers in the American History Museum:
("There's no one like homos, there's no one like homos.")


Sadly, the Washington Monument isn't really so big after all...


Okay, maybe it is....


And finally, the really rather tranquil World War II memorial fountain:

24 hour party people

Kelly and I went out, and stayed out. We began our adventure in Soho at a club called Candy Bar, where the dance floor was postcard-sized, and packed from 10pm. Kelly is very good at meeting people, so we soon had a new friend called Sarah who was lovely and local.

Too much RnB makes my knees sore - so we left with Sarah to find a techno bar. We ended up in 'Ghetto', which was mostly full of gay men taking E, but had great music. My favourite mash-up was 'Ride on Time' with CnC Music Factory's 'Gonna make you sweat'- a bizarre early/late nineties mix, but the DJ pulled it off superbly.

I can tell you that out of context (i.e. without fried chicken, sunshine, posh houses and a parade) Red Stripe is the foulest beer I have ever had - Jamaican or otherwise. I am sad to report that I went back to drinking water (everything else besides beer being too expensive), and may have achieved world record status for lowest blood alcohol level ever recorded during a night out in Soho.

Kelly and I (and Sarah and other random friends we had made) closed the bar and went in search of somewhere (anywhere!?!?!) still open. Determined to be out until the tubes reopened, Kelly and I ended up on a night bus to Clapham. We met up with British Rail and got a train back to Central London as the sun came up. Lovely.

Since then I have slept a lot, set up my new room and splashed out on:
- a washing basket
- a towel; and
- 7 frozen meals.

It appears to me that the line between being on holiday and being unemployed is getting thinner and thinner...

Short and sweet...

Apologies, but I am in the middle of a job hunt and time for typing is short...

Westminster Abbey was great; I am glad I decided to go. The entrance fee is high, but (as with The Tower) the history just cannot be reckoned with.

Essentially, the Abbey feels like a huge burial ground. There are tombs and memorials all over the cavernous interior. The various fashions of the mourners depicted in the statues helps to date everything, but the tomb of Edward the Confessor needs no fanfare- it is smack bang in the middle of everything.

A highlight is the Coronation Chair - made in 1301(!) for afore-mentioned heir and still in use. Likewise, the Poet's Corner made a big impact. I have studied most of these authors at some stage, and felt some of them deserve more recognition than they get. For example, the Bronte sisters have a tiny plaque hidden in a corner underneath a massive scupture from some other benefactor of the Abbey.

Anyway, after seeing a roman coffin from the 4th century in the Abbey's museum, there was nothing else that could feel old enough really... So, my aunt and I had a picnic besides the Thames in a sunny spot near Queen Vicki's Tower. I really like the area by the Houses of Parliament - although there is so much noise being made in the British media about Blair leaving that it would be nice to get away from the whole thing...

Having lingered probably longer than I should, I have come back up town to be a good girl... Thanks for all your kind wishes- there are plenty of jobs that appeal, it will just take a while before any start interviewing.

I am having my first night out on the town this evening, so shall consider it my duty to get into some sort of interesting adventure.... makes for a more interesting blog.

Anglican Aerobics

LONDON TIP #178: Money!
Allow me to illustrate the expense of this city. A new graduate might earn £18K at their first job, giving them the equivalent of a New Zealand $36K lifestyle - whilst they are actually earning $NZ54K. That is how damn pricey this place is.

Thus, my wallet and I are delighted to report that I will start a month-long contract in a law library on the 20th. So, I am now super-conscious of fitting in a few more touristy things... This morning: St Pauls Cathedral...

It is a long story, but bringing the baby meant we got in free (thanks Ronan). The cathedral is as gorgeous as one would expect- and made even this atheist consider the glory of God. In a very English and Anglican way regular loud speaker announcements were made to highlight the various prayers being offered, but the announcer always made sure to thank everyone for listening.

We split up to explore on our own, and I made my way up the 530 stairs to the 'Golden Gallery'. Better than any gym workout I've had... The first two galleries were lovely - one gave internal views over the cathedral nave, the second gave the promised good view of London. However, the horridly high climb up to the third gallery at the top of the church made me green. Even worse - the tower is unidirectional and one had to go up to go down...

Once back down (and tempted to kiss the dirt) I was given the joyous job of watching Ronan whilst Adele had her climb and Marianne joined in the Eucharist. My Aunt is one of the faithful, and I think she was really pleased to be able to take Communion whilst we were there. As for me, Ronan waited until I was all alone before making the most of the building's exquisite acoustics and doing that crying thing that still scares me about babies... His sense of timing is perfect, and he quitened down just as Marianne and Adele returned... but I love him anyway.

Once again I left my rellies to keep up the tourist effort on their own and have come back to Paddington to look for job advertisements....

I will take up the religious theme again with a visit to Westminster Abbey tomorrow - having decided the free trip to St Pauls justifies the £10 Abbey Admission.

Her Majestic gilty goldness

So, Queenie's place this morning....

George IV was responsible for most of the grandeur (code word for gold plating everywhere), but Vicki fixed it up a bit and Liz herself added a few choice pieces of art. I am more of a minimalist myself, but I liked the way the green silk wallpaper matched the green silk fire guard, which matched the green sik couches.

A selection of Liz's gowns were on special display in the drawing room, and they were lovely. A sign fawned 'Her Majesty is most fortunate to be able to wear almost any colour.' I liked a grey and pink flouncy frock from a 1960s visit to Nova Scotia the most. One particular set of jewelry called 'The Cambridge Emeralds' included a tiara, necklace, drop earrings, bracelet, wrist band, ring and brooch. W-O-W.

The small section of the grounds that were on display looked very English, warm and inviting - with small lakes and lots of geese. Signs everywhere warned against picnicking, but there were exceptions made for icecream from Her Majesty's supplier. After a pleasant two hours I parted from my cousin/aunt/second cousin and have come back to Paddington to continue with the job hunt.

Tomorrow I am visiting St Pauls for the (allegedly) best view of The City.

The silence of the tourist

I should possibly change the name of this blog to 'Eat, drink, sleep, sleep again'.

I have had four relatively empty days, which have been good. I am currently based in Paddington with my friend Laurinda and her husband Cam. Paddington is on the North side of Hyde Park, and is understandably posh and lovely. There are stables right around the corner and pony girls take the horses out to the Park each morning.

Needless to say the flatmates are New Zealand and Australian, which has been good for advice on London. This is particularly good this week as THE JOB HUNT BEGINS !!!! I had an interview yesterday that was fairly horrid, but (thankfully?) only the first of many.

On the tourist side, I have visited the Victoria and Albert Museum. I enjoyed this rather much, especially the 7m x 4m paintings by Raphael on loan from Her Majesty's own collection. I also ducked into Harrods, where I have never felt so poor and out of place in my life. (It helped that the cashier checked my money for counterfeiting.)

The Diana and Dodi memorial statue is far less offensive than I expected, but the first floor's separate display with the engagement ring Dodi bought the day before the accident was gold-plated yuckiness. I gave some pence to the charity fountain to try and make it all go away.... no luck.

Without a doubt, the best thing so far this week is hanging out with my Aunty Marianne, her daughter Adele and Adele's new human Ronan. I enjoyed seeing Regent Street, Carnaby Street and Chinatown with the three of them - we have plans to see Buckingham Palace tomorrow. Hopefully Ronan's cuteness will have some magic effect on queues and the grumpy English service people who control them.

A nice slow day...

I think I do too much! Every few days I find myself flagging an early start, pulling the blankets over my head and missing breakfast....

So, instead of seeing Buckinghan Palace I bought a mobile phone. This was something of a massive achievement as the English people in shops can't understand my English. Finally I found an Irish girl and got it all sorted. So, I have a phone number - of course I haven't brought it with me (too sensible), so I will share it at a later date.

After that little adventure I met my friend Clare in Hyde Park. Clare has just been through Eastern Europe and to Cairo. We had a fantastic catch up, and I think I have been missing the NZ perspective on life.

We strolled around, both feeling like we were in Hagley Park, and found Princess Diana's memorial fountain. It is more like a memorial drain, but on this very sunny day I enjoyed paddling in it. Of course, fun is not allowed, and I was soon asked to get out by a ranger. The toffee-nosed brats out with their nannies enjoyed that - there is nothing like a chorus of wellspoken English four year olds parroting the ranger's 'paddling is not allowed' to make one feel chagrined.

After that we found Speaker's Corner - but the Speaker was doing so for a film, and repeated the same sentences over and over before being chased by a journalist down one of the paths. Funny the first time. Not funny the tenth time.

By then it was getting late, and we headed for Park Lane Station - only to find the real Speaker's Corner overrun with religious fundamentalists (how predictable), and without the raging debate for which the Corner is intended. Everyone there seemed to be in total agreement.

Later that evening Jo and I went to the movies. 'Miami Vice' was a horrendous £9.50, but it was nice to be low-brow for an evening before falling into bed after a suprisingly tiring day.

This morning I am checking out of my hostel to go and stay with friends for the week. I probably won't be blogging until Monday or Tuesday, but by then I may have found a job :-)