We have found a place to live!

It’s a cosy little 1 bedroom place in Clapham, just off the main drag (from what I can gather, all main drags are called “The High Street”). It’s not huge, but it’s clean and has modern bathroom and kitchen facilities. I look forward to putting up some photos.

Anyway, here is a link to a site which will show you where Clapham is:

How exciting!

Nearly a week into our stay in London here are a few observations…

The tap water here is horrid. To me it’s a bad sign when you find a white deposit at the bottom of every glass… urgh… Fortunately bottled water is not terribly expensive.

I can understand how people say that London is horrendously expensive. And from a tourist perspective you’d be right, especially if you come over here with Aussie dollars and are spending pounds – that conversion rate’s a killer. However, I think that once you’re actually earning pounds, spending pounds is not such a bad thing – if you shop around there’s often a decent budget option.

Turkey meat is easily available in supermarkets – much more so than in Australia. This is a good thing as I like Turkey meat.

Decent Brie and Camembert can be bought for less than 1 pound per round – this is a very good thing.

Am yet to try any of the curries that London is famous for. I look forward to remedying this on Friday night.

British TV seems to be a lot more interesting than the telly back home. Or perhaps I’m just beginning to realise what i’ve been missing over many years of hardly watching the ABC and SBS.

We came over here expecting a coolish summer. What we got was what the locals are calling a heatwave. It’s not too bad compared to an Australian summer, but when you’re not used to it, a few days of 30+ days becomes quite oppressive. The locals are loving it, heading out to the park and sunbaking at every opportunity. It’s quite funny to watch.

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We may have found a place to live. Hopefully I’ll have something more to say about that and both our job situations by early next week. London ia beautiful – we’re having a ball. My cousin and her housemates have made our first week very easy and happy.

We have made it to London in one piece. Our seemingly never ending journey saw us start in Melbourne, stop at Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and Paris before we finally arrived in London this morning. Things got off to a strange start when Olivia’s sister pointed our the fact that our luggage was only ticketed through to Paris. I don’t need to express how relieved we both were to have that sorted before we left Melbourne rather than finding out the hard way once we had arrived here in London. Apparently it was all my fault because I didn’t specifically mention that we were going through to London even though our tickets clearly stated as such. I know that I as the consumer need to take some responsibility for checking things out, but really – please spare me that crap. Anyway, once that got sorted we moved onto what for me was a moving farewell.. I managed to hold it together until I said bye to my mum, then when it got to my dad… well… let’s just say it was really painful.

The flights were made all that easier for us as we managed to wangle seats in the emergency exit area on account of me being 6 foot 2. I had more leg room than I knew what to do with.

This internet cafe keyboard is really crappy and im sick of re-typing everything, so I’ll leave it there. We’re here, we’re tired, happy and safe. And my initial impressions of London this time around are “WOW”. I really like the feel of the place, but I might wait until I’ve been around more than 6 hours before making that call…

What a cool site this is. MINUTES of fun here… I managed to stump him with a guitar.

Onto more important things…. one week tonight will be our last night in Australia before heading to London. Things are reasonably under control from a preparation perspective. There is still a bit of stuff to pack, but we have the weekend for that.

Olivia returns from her five week stint in Albury on Friday night. I’ve missed her quite a lot. I suppose it’s a bit strange us getting married then not long after having this period of enforced separation.

Our farewell drinks are on this Friday night. In case you have lost the details – here they are.
Please come if you can – it should be a fun night.

I cannot wait to make it over to London. The land of many concerts. The prospect of seeing this show where Frank Zappa’s sons + band will be playing FZ’s music is just too exciting to contemplate. I’ll be there, scalped ticket or not!

Many people I’ve spoken to have told me how difficult it can be to open a bank account in the UK. I must be one of the lucky ones, things have been pretty smooth for us. The account is open, and our cards will be waiting for us upon our arrival. I just hope I’m not retracting the above once I’m actually over there and USING the UK banking system.

Wow people. It’s all a bit freaky. In just over a week I’ll be on the other side of the globe. I am going to miss my family and friends so much – it’s all starting to hit me. A few days ago I was channel surfing and I came across the film “Cocoon” – and towards the end when all the oldies decide to leave Earth and are saying all their goodbyes … let’s just say it got to me. Yes I’m being way too melodromatic. Unlike the oldies in Cocoon, we intend to return before too long. All the same, not having everyone around will take a bit of getting used to.