Monday, January 16, 2012

The BIG move

L O N D O N. T O W N
So when I first thought of moving to London I thought pfffft this will be easy as cottage pie! Ohhh how I was about to get knocked off my High horse!  The first week we moved here we were still in holiday mode. Dining out, catching cabs everywhere, not knowing how expensive everything was and forgetting that we’ll probably have to live off the money that we had for the whole rest of the month. It was (excuse my French) FUCKING HARD!  We hardly knew anyone when we moved over, we had no support system, no family, no house and no job. Justine and I by that point had been travelling, sleeping and eating together for two months already and the only place that we had found to temporarily live for a month we had to share a small double bed between the two of us. I was over her snoring and she was over my late shifts at work.  
Finding a house: This was my least favourite part of moving over here in the first place! Both Justine and I were temporarily living in a small flat sharing with two very over opinionated Pommy men.  We were also working at different times of the day/night. So to organise to look at flats was hard enough! We didn’t have a high budget and we also had no past living references in London as we just moved there. The price you would pay to live in a shit hole surprised me big time! All I wanted was that cute little Carrie apartment off Sex and the City, was that too much to ask for?  Anyway we finally found a place in Clapham Junction for £545.00 each. 



Finding work: My initial thought of work was ‘it’s going to be so easy; I’ll just get work in a bar’. I’d love to meet the person who can live off £5.00 an hour! When I first arrived I started working at HIX oyster and chophouse, a restaurant owned by famous English chef Mark Hix. It was an exciting experience and first job to have. But by the end of the month it was starting to wear me down emotionally and physically. Working split shifts and getting paid peanuts. Having to serve banker wankers with bad attitudes every day and having them openly stare at my ass.  Missing the last tube and having to catch 3 night busses home at 13:00 in the morning and working with a bunch of Romanians that would constantly speak in Romanian.  All of these were the factors that made me storm out in tears in the middle of the shift and call my mum back home.  It was like one of those scenes on a movie, when she dramatically storms out in a big huff onto the street. If this had happened back in Australia I would have never reacted in the same way. But after a month of putting up with shit it was more like a release of all of my emotions.  After printing out a large amount of resumes I started my hunt for a job all over again. This time though I knew that I had to have higher expectations of pay! After all of my walking around the city, hundreds of lattés at star bucks and hours spent on gum tree I had landed myself a job at a reception management company. Now working on reception was not my ideal job because it’s an uninteresting monotonous occupation but to help set myself up a normal routine it’s was the best decision I had made since I had arrived in London!



The weather: Mostly overcast with no chance/low change of sun/snow L
A few life saving tips:
·         Bring your flats everywhere! I have never done the amount of walking as I have in London! With all of your time spent running for tubes make sure your bring comfy flat shoes!
·         You have to be pushy! When I first arrived I was too nice, letting everyone push in front of me to get onto the tube. By the time I got on the tube to go to work I had waiting for three other trains.
·         DO NOT STAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET- also one of my many mistakes I had made when I got here. I always thought how rude people were when they would huff and puff when I would stop to look at a building or to ask someone for directions. But now I understand how annoying it is when someone does the same to me. You spend so many hours out of your home travelling to and from work so when you finish all you want to do is get home. It seems as if  I’ve turned into a cynical bitch. But I’m actually just saying look up while you’re walking, it’s a much better view and you’ll avoid agro Poms having a go at you!


Soon to come- Finding a man!

No comments:

Post a Comment