London : Traveller's Bulletin!

London : Traveller's Bulletin!

Hi all! It has been a while since Steve and I have written a kind of personal blog about what has been going on with our lives here in London on a day to day basis. We've mainly concentrated on writing to you about our tourist type excursions, the cities we have been visiting in England (Oxford, Bath & Manchester) as well our fabulous trip to France (Paris, Cannes & Monte Carlo.)

We think it is time, we talked about some of the more recent events. As you can see by the picture we've added to this blog that after we came back from our wonderful holiday in France, we reassessed our living situation. Thoroughly sick and tired of our shoebox studio apartment in Queen's Park (and the lease ending very soon), Steve and I started to look for new places to live. Our search took us back to the original neighbourhood we began our adventures here in London in - Willesden Green. We found a 1 bedroom flat, that is fairly spacious and we have much larger rooms to live in. We have a complete lounge room, with a couch (and sofa bed), a couple of retro looking armchairs and some other pieces of funky looking furniture. The bedroom has plenty of storage space in the way of large cupboards and we finally have a King Size bed that we can have a good night's rest in and not be squashed in like we were in our mere Double Bed size sleeping arrangements in Queen's Park. We also have a washing machine, that is situated in our roomy kitchen where I can actually cook a half decent meal in (which reminds me, there is Lasagna in the oven!) Overall, the place is comfortable and we found it by sheer luck via a website called Gum Tree. We didn't have to pay any estate agent fees. In comparison to the Queen's Park flat, we are paying £5 more in rent here in Willesden Green for a roomier and more homely feeling place.

The neighbourhood is much safer as well and we are only 5 mins walk from the tube station. We have everything we need in the way of day to day living, a supermarket, banks, tube station, places to eat, polish delicatessen (but the food will never be as good as yours MUM!) and we are also close to one of the major shopping centres in Brent Cross (about a 20 min bus ride). Even though, home is back home in Australia, Willesden Green feels almost like a home and I personally feel much safer here so I am happy with that.

Jobwise - things changed for me. When I got back from France I realised I was truly fed up with the job I was doing at the salad bar. The following Wednesday on my way to work on the tube something snapped in me and I realised I just couldn't bear to work another day there, so I walked in that morning and just quit. Why? Because I can. Steve and I have this theory that even though we are here to work, this trip here is also a holiday. Why work in a job I was unhappy in when there was a world of other things out there I could be doing that would make me happier? I think I did the right thing quitting - I felt so liberated afterwards and the stressful burden I had of working with people of questionable maturity was lifted.

I have to admit that the time I had off between jobs was actually enjoyable. I spent about 3 weeks out of work, when I had a bite from a job I had applied for on the TNT Magazine website. To cut a long story short, I now work as a Receptionist/Office Administrator for a Physiotherapist. At the moment, I work two days in Wembley Park and the other three days in her clinic in Islington. It is a job that is mentally challenging and requires alot of thought. I am learning alot and am picking up valuable skills for the future. Steve is still working in the same job he was in Fleet St and seems pretty happy there and has had an extension with that company until the start of April (I think!).

When we went to Manchester in November, we came across an outdoor ice skating rink and thought about strapping on some skates and having a go. The both of us chickened out that day and seemed to regret it since. So, a couple of weekends ago Steve and I got all our courage up and decided to go to Somerset House and have a skate in their Al Fresco rink. I think what inspired us was an article and a fabulous picture in the London Lite in the evening on our way home from work. We had a lovely late skate at like 10:30pm (which was the only time they had free places) outdoors on a chilly London evening. Actually, we were very fortunate because it was not raining. It had threatened to rain during the day - but held off for our ice skating experience.

Steve and I both were impressed with our skating skill level. Neither of us fell over once. For me, it may have something to do with the fact that I refused to let go of the rail... but there were so many people there, that maneuvering without letting go of the rail proved difficult. So, I had to sum up all my courage and just let go... before we knew it our one hour skating session was over.. Awwww! We didn't take the camera because we were both worried that one of us would fall and crush it. We wish we had taken the camera out that night because Somerset House looked so beautiful all lit up with a huge Christmas tree.

Our more current news (which most of you know) is that Steve and I are going on a short little vacation to Italy before Christmas. We fly out of here on the 15th December (and I do hope I find my wings again) to Rome. Most of you know it is my birthday on the 19th and we travel from Rome to Naples on my birthday. We then get to spend 3 more days in Naples and then we fly back to London directly from Naples on the 22nd of December. So, keep your eyes posted to this blog and the picasa website for more fabulous updates.

Christmas at this stage is going to be a pretty quiet one. Just Steve and I. Our New Year plans are open as well at the moment, but I figure that in a city like this one, we are surely to find something fabulous to do to bring in the New Year 2008... We'll see what we can come up with!

So, until we next get a chance to write something interesting here, we hope that everyone back home is well, happy and keeping up to date with our blog and photo's! So as always.... Stay Tuned everyone!

Popular posts from this blog

Paris : Le Tour Eiffel!

Image
Paris : Le Tour Eiffel! On Tuesday morning (18th September) Steve and I checked out of our hotel at Garè De Nord and migrated our belongings to our new home for the day/night at a hotel near Garè De Lyon. On arrival we discovered that the dècor in our new hotel was particularly girly... purple infact! LOL.. oh well after a few hours I figured we wouldn't even notice the colour of the walls! After a little rest in our new hotel room, Steve and I set out on foot for our daily dose of exercise and a visit to the Eiffel Tower. That particular day Paris gave us some nice cool weather (after our drenching the night before), I found myself rugging up in a couple of layers. After the nice sunshine we had in Paris until then, feeling a bit cold was a bit of a surprise. Steve and I walked along The Seine River for what seemed like FOREVER to reach the Eiffel Tower. We passed the Museè D'Orsay (which we had been told to visit and was apparently well worth a visit!) and eventually found ...
Read more

London - British Museum

British Museum! On Saturday (9th June), Steve and I after a nice lazy lie in which is an Australian tradition on Saturdays.. *yawns and stretches* we took ourselves to the British Museum! Obviously, this post is a bit out of date, but to keep the time line real of when we actually went, I'll keep the date of this post as the 9th June. Right, so we finally made it to the museum around 2:30pm in the afternoon, giving us 3 hours before they closed their big doors! We were first overwhelmed by its architecture just from the outside, we hadn't even made it inside yet. In 1794, the museum acquired something called Montagu House, in Bloomsbury and it remains on this site today. The Great South Front of the museum, was designed with inspiration from Greek Architecture by Sir Robert Smirke in 1823, but not completed until almost 30 yrs later. Since then, there have been numerous additions to the museum to accomodate its expanding collection (and what a collection it is!) Indoors, we wer...
Read more

London - Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus!

Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus! On Wednesday (the 6th June), Steve and I found took ourselves to Covent Garden for a pre-arranged meeting with another mysterious internet friend. Turns out Joel wasn't so mysterious after all and really friendly! After some confusion on my part on the tube, we made it to covent garden late and really HUNGRY! Covent gardens being an area we were not familiar with, Joel took us to the market square for lunch, which is really rich in fabulous places to eat. Opting for Italian Cuisine, Steve and I ordered our favourite dishes and before I had a chance to blink my eyes, Steve's plate was empty! ;o) It was very busy in the Covent Garden market square, they had several stalls relating to their promotion of Malaysia Week 07. They had some lovely cultural stalls with Malaysian made traditional clothes, jewellery, and some ladies weaving big rugs of sorts. As well as this, there was a fashion parade displaying current fashions in th...
Read more