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| Me on Tower Bridge |
I made it through my first week of work in almost 5 months, doing accounts at Deluxe 142, a media company based in Soho that do post-production on films and TV shows. The people are all so nice and made me feel part of the team straight away, and the boss even declared it was Krispy Kreme Friday yesterday. Yum.
A part of working that is hard to get used to (apart from the early starts) is the commute at peak hour. Even though I have been staying in Essex, that isn't the bad part of the commute. Since it is just coming in to spring here, I am still wearing my super warm Kathmandu jacket around everywhere. As I travel down the escalator's my scarf comes off, the jacket get unzipped and I prepare myself to get squashed in to the carriage with what feels like 1000 other people. I look around and everyone else seems to be quite content in their winter wear with no such thing as personal space as you're standing there with people leaning on you from every direction, and here I am probably sweating more than I would after running a 10km fun run. The other part that gets to me is that if someone is leaning against the tube doors, the tube will stop. You will not believe the amount of times that this happens on one journey. Oh, and one other part that gets to me is that chivalry is well and truly dead these days. You'll have males pretty much pushing you over so that they get to a seat before you do.
I managed to get in a bit of sight seeing before starting work, and got to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, and now I have itchy feet and have decided that I will try and get away somewhere in a few weeks, and then perhaps head to Amsterdam for Easter weekend. I also got out to see some of Essex last week, and some of you would know about a quite tragic reality TV show called "The Only was is Essex". It is comparable to a train wreck, terrible to watch but you just can't turn your head away from it. Well - as I explored Buckhurst Hill and Loughton last week, I got to see them doing some of the filming of it, and I probably walked past a few too many times and then sat awkwardly at a cafe out on the street, with my head peeking around to watch for a bit too long.
Last weekend I got to see some more area's around London, as I went and had dinner with a group of Kiwi's (and Pete, who is the only Australian of the group) in Clapham on Friday night. Was a great night of Mexican food and wine and discussions of doing a road trip sometime soon. Catching one of the last trains home I was literally across the road having a catch up with Melissa on the phone, when a guy and a girl stopped me and asked me if my accent was Australian (I've been getting that a lot since I've been traveling... weird). I explained that I didn't have an Australian accent and Melissa did, so she ended up talking to N on the phone (which she would have loved as she is accent crazy). While N was on the phone to Mel, I talked to his cousin T, and she said that they were heading home, but since there was a pub right across the road asked if I wanted to go for a drink. I decided that I had nothing else to do so we said our farewells to Mel and walked across to the pub. After that closed at some stage, we walked back to T's who lived just across the field from where I was staying and we had another couple of drinks (where N kept insisting he take me on a date, which I eventually agreed to). Saturday I awoke with one of the worst hangovers I've had in a long time, I blame the absence of any alcohol during the past week for it. I managed to survive the hangover enough to head to Fulham to have a pyjama party at Jess's (which was a very big mission as part of the central train line was closed, so it took me over 2 and a half hours). We planned to have a bottle of wine and get Hell's Pizza, but we ended up getting 4 bottles of wine and eating cheese and grapes instead, having a very funny night with her flatmates. The next day we went down to Putney (such a cute area) and met a few people for a beer, and then I embarked on my painful 3 hour journey home. During the week I had my date with N, which was very nice as we went to Wild Wood in Loughton and then walked down to the Hollybush pub for another beer. A lovely evening.
Today I am moving from Essex where I have been staying with my friend Richard (where I have been spoilt by him and his Dad, and their dog Archie) to the East end to take up residence on Rick's couch. I am actually procrastinating packing as I write, trying to avoid having to pack.
I managed to get in a bit of sight seeing before starting work, and got to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, and now I have itchy feet and have decided that I will try and get away somewhere in a few weeks, and then perhaps head to Amsterdam for Easter weekend. I also got out to see some of Essex last week, and some of you would know about a quite tragic reality TV show called "The Only was is Essex". It is comparable to a train wreck, terrible to watch but you just can't turn your head away from it. Well - as I explored Buckhurst Hill and Loughton last week, I got to see them doing some of the filming of it, and I probably walked past a few too many times and then sat awkwardly at a cafe out on the street, with my head peeking around to watch for a bit too long.
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| Westminster Abbey |
Last weekend I got to see some more area's around London, as I went and had dinner with a group of Kiwi's (and Pete, who is the only Australian of the group) in Clapham on Friday night. Was a great night of Mexican food and wine and discussions of doing a road trip sometime soon. Catching one of the last trains home I was literally across the road having a catch up with Melissa on the phone, when a guy and a girl stopped me and asked me if my accent was Australian (I've been getting that a lot since I've been traveling... weird). I explained that I didn't have an Australian accent and Melissa did, so she ended up talking to N on the phone (which she would have loved as she is accent crazy). While N was on the phone to Mel, I talked to his cousin T, and she said that they were heading home, but since there was a pub right across the road asked if I wanted to go for a drink. I decided that I had nothing else to do so we said our farewells to Mel and walked across to the pub. After that closed at some stage, we walked back to T's who lived just across the field from where I was staying and we had another couple of drinks (where N kept insisting he take me on a date, which I eventually agreed to). Saturday I awoke with one of the worst hangovers I've had in a long time, I blame the absence of any alcohol during the past week for it. I managed to survive the hangover enough to head to Fulham to have a pyjama party at Jess's (which was a very big mission as part of the central train line was closed, so it took me over 2 and a half hours). We planned to have a bottle of wine and get Hell's Pizza, but we ended up getting 4 bottles of wine and eating cheese and grapes instead, having a very funny night with her flatmates. The next day we went down to Putney (such a cute area) and met a few people for a beer, and then I embarked on my painful 3 hour journey home. During the week I had my date with N, which was very nice as we went to Wild Wood in Loughton and then walked down to the Hollybush pub for another beer. A lovely evening.
Today I am moving from Essex where I have been staying with my friend Richard (where I have been spoilt by him and his Dad, and their dog Archie) to the East end to take up residence on Rick's couch. I am actually procrastinating packing as I write, trying to avoid having to pack.
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