Sat, 21 Dec 2002

author Tim	location Golders Green, Greater London, England
posted 11:01 GMT 22/12/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

House Photos before Driving North ( 4 photos )
The weather was finally good enough this morning for me to grab shots of the front of what I guess we should call our "home", just before we set off for the long drive north to Carlisle.
We did this via Peter's "secret" route, which is the M1, then A50, then M6. He had heard that yesterday was supposed to be the worst possible day for travelling in the Christmas build-up period.
But, we are not sure whether it was the route that was right or the news that was wrong, as we had a fantastic drive, easily the best so far. Fairly close to a five hour drive, with two half-hour breaks, before we arrived in Carlisle for Christmas.

author Tim	location Golders Green, Greater London, England
posted 19:12 GMT	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

News on the Work Front ( No photos )
The last few days have been pretty hectic - getting more things organised for our room, having Margaret over for dinner, and of course Liz and Margaret going for a two-hour shopping trip through Tesco, dragging me along.
What has been interesting, however, is that I went for a job interview today. Even more interesting is that I got the job.
However, I turned it down. Basically, they wanted me to be on call for the Christmas period, at a fairly low rate of pay. This would have meant that I would have been sitting around down in London, and missed out on the White Christmas up in Carlisle at Peter's place.
So, I got my first contracting role here and said "no" on the same day. I intend to look at the supposed rush of New-Year contracts as they occur.
In other news, it must be getting pretty cold here, since there is a pretty thick layer of ice covering Percy every morning, and piles of the stuff on the paths and stations. Have to be pretty careful. We haven't seen actual snow yet, but are hoping that the reported -4 temperatures up in Carlisle pay off when we arrive there on Saturday.
Liz is once again doing an all-night shift at the same place, and this may be her last one. She has heard un-officially that her nursing registration has finally come through, however the idiots have sent it Second-Class post.
For the non-British audience, over here you can either get guaranteed next-day or the day after delivery, known as First Class, or you can save about two pence and get Second Class, which might get there someday. Maybe. But perhaps not over Christmas.
So, despite having spent several hundered pounds on her application and waited nine months to get thus far, when it finally comes through they are too cheap to spend up for First Class post to let her Agency know about it. Grrr.
Only Vicky will be at our place over Xmas - Liz and I are of course going North, Ryan and Chantelle are heading to Austria, and Taija is off to San Francisco. So many places to go, so much time...

author Tim	location Golders Green, Greater London, England
posted 00:27 GMT 17/10/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

A Change of Scenery ( 6 photos )
I have again moved a little further on the job front, and again have nothing concrete. It's quite possible that I will have to wait until the new year for work to eventuate - most hirings are understandably on hold. At least a number of places have said that I have a strong CV, but how many candidates do they say that to? If IT work falls through, I have an interesting plan or two for non-IT work to bring some money in...
We of course ate out at several places around Beckenham and in at Leicester Square over the time we spent down there, some good and some not so good. The Ye George Inn, Pizza Hut and the Local Kebab Shop (complete with kebabs which are supplied as what can only be described as a pile of ingredients) come readily to memory.
We are going back up to Carlisle on Saturday to meet with Peter for Christmas, and plan to stay around a week. If anyone in London has any suggestions for New Years, we are all ears!

author Tim	location Golders Green, Greater London, England
posted 00:27 GMT 17/10/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

Move Complete! Jade's Birthday ( 8 photos )
So we've moved in to our new home! The move went fine - we were most suprised at how little time it took us to get here (granted it was on a Sunday), and how little went wrong.
We are really enjoying it here - the single room in the B&B was getting a little claustrophobic. There's lots of new things to learn about - which cupboards are ours in the kitchen, which part of the fridge, which jobs you have to do in your section of the housework. At least it makes it nice and simple for everyone here with a few reasonable ground-rules.
One of the most useful things about the place is that it has 24hr fast internet access, meaning you can feel free to email, ICQ or just generally contact us as you wish!
Even though it's been a little while since our last update, not a huge deal has been accomplished besides the move. Liz has done a couple more nursing shifts, still in the same place she was before. She is not over-enthusiastic about the work, but it is money coming in which is greatly needed. She is actually working a night shift at the moment.

While Liz was on night shift, the timing worked out for me to go into the infamous brb Bar in London (we have been there a couple of times before), where I met with friend from Sydney Jade to celebrate her birthday. I met a huge number of new people, mostly also in IT, and with the exception of one, all from Oz or NZ. Strange how that happens on the other side of the world. We wandered randomly around Chinatown afterwards and eventually ate at a Chinese Restaurant of some description.
My journey home involved becoming acquainted with the night-bus system, which is considerably more confusing than the one in Sydney. Also, nobody at the station had the vaguest idea how it worked, and sent me on a wild goose chase attempting to work out how I would get home.

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 21:45 GMT	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

-7 celsius! ( 19 photos )
Well, that's the temperature when you include the wind chill factor. It's around 2-4 if you don't - the winds are truly cutting. And it's only just started being winter!
The last few days have seen a few things get better. Liz has done one shift at work, doing what they call "Escorting". Basically, she helped a well-to-do old resident of a well-to-do nursing home place into and out of a taxi, pushing the wheelchair around, etc. while he had to go to a hospital for a test.
She must have impressed, she's got three more shifts out of them already - Friday, Monday and Thursday nights! Remember, she hasn't got her actual Nursing Registration through yet (come on, it's only been nine months), so this is slightly more menial tasks. However, the money coming in (well, when it does) is a lot better than none at all. Especially in pricy London.
Oh, and when she was in the taxi, the driver noted that it was snowing! Sure, you wouldn't know unless someone told you, but it's still snow!!
I've made some progress, actually getting to have a decent conversation with a few of the phone-drone recruiting people, and one actually understood what it is that I do! There's one job in my "strong lead" pile at the moment, and a few more on the way.
In case you're interested in the ever-exciting insurance saga, it's now all sorted out. Maybe. Since our second cover note had expired this morning, I decided that waiting two months for the two return phone calls I had been promised was getting a bit much, and rang them back. At the end of it all, we've settled on a reasonable (but not amazing) price, whereby they ignore any past no-claim bonus. It was just all too hard for them, despite all the paperwork we had organised. We were quite close to selling the car and giving it all up this afternoon, but that was averted.
As a celebration, we took Percy for a drive for the first time in two weeks, albeit only to the other end of Beckenham in search for something new to eat. We settled on a Spanish Tapas Bar, where the food was great and suprisingly cheap.
Other things we have done recently include me today finishing up my look around the Museum of London, another trip to Bromley, a visit to Covent Garden and the Covent Garden Walkabout pub (an Aussie pub chain, complete with Aussie beer and plenty of Aussies - nice to see now and then).
We're relaxing watching TV tonight, and soon "Extreme Ironing" is coming on TV. Yes, it really is what it sounds like. Truly Bizarre.
We are of course looking forward to moving into our new place on Sunday.

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 21:45 GMT 10/12/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

Wander through London ( 2 photos )
A general wander through London late at night.

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 21:45 GMT 10/12/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

Baritone Band and Knightsbridge ( 13 photos )
Margaret led us into town today - first to the Royal Festival Hall to see a great free lunchtime jazz conert by the Baritone Band. While watching this concert by four barintone saxophones, I got talking to a couple of old blokes there who invited us to the 100 club at 100 Oxford Street where they have Jazz every Friday lunchtime. One said that he'd buy us a drink if we ever turned up! Can't argue with hospitality like that. We intend to take him up on that offer sometime soon.
Next it was into Knightsbridge to see Harrods and Harvey Nichols. These were of course just huge expensive shops, where I have to say you could easily get very lost for a day and enjoy it, but I think they were quite over-hyped. The alley out the back where the Bentleys sat waiting complete with chauffers summed it all up for me.

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 21:45 GMT 10/12/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

Trafalgar Square Xmas Tree Lighting ( 21 photos )
On Friday we all went into Trafalgar Square with another from the endless supply of Margaret's friends, Debbie. This was for the lighting of the Christmas Lights on the big tree. This is donated each year from Norway, as part of a long-running tradition. Like so many other things here! Afterward we tottled off to Porters, the English food restaurant nearby.

author Liz	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 11:18 GMT	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

It's getting chilly ( 4 photos )
Well, the last few days have been quiet. Tim has a bad cold and so we have not been very active.
We went and met our prospective housemates (oohh...just like Big Brother!) on Monday night and they are all really friendly. There will be six of us in the house, with just one bathroom, but they assured us it usually works out just fine. An hour after we left their house, we received a phone call saying they'd love us to move in.
We are both very excited, and can't wait to move into our new home. Roll on Saturday week!
Apart from that, we have found a replacement for Tim's glasses which he lost on Sunday. They are the really cool flexible ones that bend into bizarre shapes without breaking. As an added bonus they really suit Tim. Now that he can see again I think I'm going to drag him to the latest Harry Potter movie later today.
Up until the last day or so, the weather has been cool, but not too bad, but now there are freezing winds blowing in from Russia (-10 degrees C or so), which are starting to make things very cold. We aren't too bothered at this stage though, as it simply means there will probably be more snow, which means we get to build a bigger snowman at Christmas :)

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 11:18 GMT 04/12/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

Dog Walking Again ( 1 photo )
Another walk with the dogs today!

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 08:19 GMT	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

A place to live? ( 7 photos )
Well, we have been galavanting all around London these past few days looking at places to live. There's so many to choose from, and a lot (though not all) of them are pretty good, with very nice people.
We have chosen a place up in North London in a place called Golders Green. It is two minutes drive from the M1 (major motorway into London), two minutes walk from the tube (which goes straight to Kings Cross and Leicester Square), and has a large amount of other things going for it.
We are heading up there tonight for a meet and greet with all the other household members (like everything else we can actually afford, it is a share house with four others - three Aussies and a Kiwi). The ones moving out however aren't planning on doing so for almost three weeks. Although the manager of the B&B (view out our window) is being great in letting us have this room for as long as we want at the current cheap price, it's quite cramped, and a reasonable distance from the Centre of London. We'll keep you posted with the progress, of course.

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 08:19 GMT 02/12/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

St. Paul's Cathedral Advent Carols ( 7 photos )
Last night the three of us went in to St. Paul's Cathedral for the Advent Carol Service. It was quite unlike any other any of us had been to before, and great so be able to say we have been to.
After wandering around Soho for a little while, dinner was then in Leicester Square, at one of the many chain Italian restaurants (we ate at another the other night), where the food was great, and not too badly priced, all things considered. Our brains are slowly coping with the cost of living over here.
On the job front, Liz's nursing registration is now looking a little better. We made the trek into the actual office that does them the other day, where they were quite rude, which was no real suprise. Her agency is jumping up and down on her behalf, which makes a difference.
With all the effort to get a house organised, I haven't spent a huge amount of time looking for work. I am sending off some more resumes now, and hopefully these will receive some response. There are some great jobs available, and eventually someone will have to crack and give me a chance.

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 10:48 GMT	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

Research, Planning ( No photos )
At the moment, we're about to go to the Internet Cafe to do some research on share housing, and jobs for me. We took the dogs for a very muddy walk in the local woods this morning, and have been trying to get them to play nice with each other back here. They are fine while walking but very territorial in the B&B.
We are planning a possible trip to Dublin between Christmas and New Years - Margaret has another friend over there, and Liz and I would love to meet up with crazy Gail I used to work with.

author Tim	location Beckenham, Kent, London, England
posted 10:38 GMT 28/11/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 3 ( all photos )

Nothing goes according to plan ( No photos )
(Continued from Lincolnshire)
You didn't really expect us to stick to all that planning, did you?
We set out with good intentions yesterday, motorway-ing our way around to London - note to self - make sure we do it in the middle of the day all the time. There was almost nobody on the M11 and M25, making it very smooth going all the way into Beckenham.
As Margaret said, we didn't expect to arrive back in London to sunshine - the weather is great again today, a pretty normal top of twelve or so degrees.
So Liz and wandered down to the local Internet Cafe to check out places to stay in Reading. We found the one recommended to us by Liz's friends there, got the details, lots of maps on how to get there, and came back to the B&B (the Goodwood, where we have stayed twice before) to ring them up.
After the phone had eaten plenty of our money, it finally relented and allowed us to talk to the recommended Inn in Reading. "Sorry, no rooms available tonight, and when there are, they cost £89 per room". Wow. That's a lot of money. So, we thought about it for a while, involving a trip down to the pub to think a little more over a pint or two. The outcome of that was that last night we stayed in the Goodwood, in their only spare room - a single room with a fold-out bed. The cost was somewhat more reasonable, at £25 for the room (not each) - that's the price of a hostel! So, we're going to stay here again tonight. When you are on a good thing, ...
So it looks like we may not end up in Reading after all. We wanted to be a little out of London, but in the end it may work out for the better:

• There's plenty more to do in London - the Lonely Planet doesn't even mention Reading
• Save £18 pounds or so train fare each day if I had to travel to London for work (which it seems is going to be the case)
• Wider variety of work choices for both of us
• Liz's nursing was proving quite difficult to organise in Reading - here she can go and yell directly at the Nursing Registration people and ask why a completely qualified nurse can't work anywhere when they are crying out for more nurses.

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