An Autumn in London

October - November 2009

So after arriving back into London we had booked 3 nights at a dodgy little hotel in the outskirts of London, near Wembley Stadium. We had done a little bit of looking for somewhere to live while we were travelling but it was just too hard to organise. Anyway, we'd, oops, I should say I'd done lots of looking on the Internet, and emailed and called a few people and set up times to go see places on Monday. We set off Monday to have a look at a few places, nothing very spectacular. One highlight of the day was turning up to one place, which was a 'tower block', code name for commission flats. We took the elevator up to the 9th floor and met the creepy guy who had a spare room to let out. He was mid 40's and incredibly simple.He thought it was really cool that we were Australian, and that he'd never met any Australians before (Which is kinda odd considering it was in Acton, where there is quite a large number of Aussies). Anyway we quickly said goodbye, and I just had to be out of the disgusting building. I didn't even wait for the elevator, we just ran down the 9 flights of stairs (The whole stairwell had a really strong smell of dope too) and out into the safety of outside. Yuk. I told Dan that he seemed to be the type of person that would come in and lick our toes while we were sleeping. Anyway, nothing turned up on the Monday, and I was beginning to get a little nervous as we had to be out of the hotel by Wednesday. Monday night (after upping our budget) I spent a while on the phone and organised another 6 or so places to look at on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning and the first place we looked at, no one turned up. The old man I'd spoken to on the phone had no recollection of speaking with me. We made a time for later in the afternoon, which meant that we'd have to miss out on a place that didn't sound that flash anyway. We spent the afternoon looking, nothing nice, or in a s***ty area. We were down to the last two places to look at. The first one was the one that we were revisiting. We really liked it, it was just a little contained studio flat in Kilburn, but the old guy managing it was a dick. It was vacant but wouldn't let us move in until the following week, because "It's just all too fast for me". We cracked the s***s at him and left. Down to the last place on the list, if it was as s*** as the other 10 places we'd seen we were going to end up homeless or having to book a few more nights at the hotel. The last place I had high hopes on, and it turned out quite nice. The landlord was cool and prepared for us to move in the following day, so we signed up then and there. Massive relief lifted off my shoulders almost immediately. After we left our new place we caught up with my friend that I went to high school with and later worked at the pub with, Alicia, who was going to be my new neighbour. Her place is about a 2-minute walk from ours. We did a quick walk around the neighbourhood, and then it was back to the hotel to pack up.

The following day we checked out of the hotel but left our bags, as we couldn't move into the new place till around 5 in the afternoon. We did some shopping then went back later in the afternoon to collect our bags then headed out to our new place in Acton. When we were on our way we got a phone call saying that the Landlord couldn't get out of work to come and meet us, but someone should be home at the house to let us in. By the time we got there, we knocked on the door and there was no answer. s***. We called Alicia to see if we could leave all our stuff at her place while we went out to Essex to collect the rest of our belongings from Matt and Jodie's. No problem except she was at work, but one of her housemates would be home. We walk over there, no one home. So we are stranded with 2 massive backpacks, two suitcase and countless shopping bags, and no where to leave them. In the end we asked at the hotel on the end of the street if we could leave them there. For £10 we were able to. It was off to Essex to have dinner with Matt and Jodie, collect our stuff then back into London. We eventually made it back around midnight. The landlord met us, let us in and fixed up our lease. We then had to go back up to the hotel to get our backpacks. We had to wake the guy up - he was not impressed.

So anyway, our room and our house is huge. We're sharing with 8 other people (2 Romanian brothers, an Aussie girl, a Dutch guy, a South African guy, a Pakistani guy and 2 Turkish guys), but we only have to share our bathroom with the two brothers. Our room is well set up with a bed, couches, TV, fridge, microwave and coffee table but sadly nowhere near enough cupboard space. We did a trip to IKEA to grab some cheap necessities such as plates, pots and pans etc.

We spent the next couple of days just getting the room sorted and getting ourselves organised with the teaching agencies so we could start working the following week.

That weekend we were off to Reading for the night to go and see Australian musical comedian Tim Minchin. We caught a late afternoon train there - it only took about 45 minutes - had dinner at a nearby pub, went to the show and went back to the hotel. The next morning it was back onto the train into London. We didn't really have much of a chance to check out the rest of the town. The show itself was really funny. I would highly recommend all of your to go and see him when he tours Australia shortly.

The day after we arrived back from Reading we were off to the O2 Arena with Matt and Jodie to go see the Chicago Bulls V Utah Jazz in a NBA match as part of the European series. The 02, previously known as the Millennium Dome, is massive, and quite nice inside; A bit of a mix between Rod Laver and Telstra Dome. Dan and I didn't manage to have dinner before we got there so we thought we'd just buy some stadium food. A Burger, chips and a drink set us back just over £20 (About $40Aus); A complete rip-off.

The game started with all the extra s*** that was to be expected with a NBA game; Cheerleaders, mascots, loud music and things being thrown into the crowd (We were miles up the back so had no chance of getting anything). That game ended up being won by the Jazz, who scored the winning point, right on the buzzer. A very fun night.

We then began work. We'd signed up with 2 different teaching agency's just to do some daily supply work. How it works is basically the agency will call us at 7-7.30 each morning to let us know if there's work available, and where it is. So we could end up working at 5 different schools each week. They try to place us in work in advance as much as possible, but it doesn't usually work that way. The first few weeks were fairly slow, with us each only getting a couple of days work each week. It worked well for me as I ended up with the flu and was quite ill for 2 weeks. Work has picked up for us both now, Dan's locked in work until Christmas at a Catholic school in Chelsea. I also had work at a school called Bacon's college, but I did a week, and hated it, so I quit! One of the great perks of supply teaching. I've now ended up with a full week at another school, so at least I'm working.

Other things that we've done over the last few weeks….

-We spent an afternoon with Belle (Old housemate Hannah's friend) in Regents Park, looking at all the orange leaves falling to the ground.

-We discovered the Aussie Pie Co. in Shepherds Bush which is a short bus ride from our house. The main attraction here is that they sell fried Dim Sims. Expensive but incredibly awesome. We've been back a couple of times now.

-We said goodbye at the airport to our old housemate Hannah who flew back to Australia, after spending a few last days with her and her mum doing more London things (Trafalgar Square, National Gallery etc)

-Celebrated Guy Fawkes Night at Alexandra Palace with about 25,000 other people. There was a massive Oktoberfest style German Beer Hall set up, complete with Bavarian Barmaids in Lederhosen, followed up with the most amazing fireworks display. I love that the British celebrate that some guy tried to blow up Parliament.

-And finally last weekend we ventured into Leicester Square to see New Moon with Belle. We thought that it would be cool to see a movie at one of the cinemas where the hold all the big London film premieres. Turned out to be a pretty expensive venture £26 for 2 tickets and £10 for some popcorn and coke. (About $55Aus all up). Movie was awesome though so it was worth it. Finished the night off with a nice dinner in China Town.

The weather has turned to s***. It's dark by 4pm and it's cold, wet and windy. No floods here, I think that's more near Wales.

That's about all we've been up to, sorry I've been so slack in writing this, but I've had better things to be doing.

We've just finalised our Christmas/New Year plans. We leave on the 20th of December and we're spending 6 nights in Berlin, 3 nights in Hamburg and 1 night in Bremen before meeting up with Matt and Jodie in Edinburgh for Hogmanay (Scottish New Years festival). We've booked 4 nights in a hotel and then Dan and I will spend an extra night with my cousin before flying back to London to start working and saving all over again.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Years. We miss you all lots, and we'll hopefully see you all next year!!!

xox