Isn’t it funny, it only seems like yesterday that I was saying that I had reached the two month mark in London – and today is month 3!!!
Anyway, I have taken the cranky pants off and, after the rant on Sunday night, I am back to being my usual chipper self. And I must say that, despite a blog entry that would appear to be the tirade of a somewhat demented and deranged mad woman, life here on the whole is treating me well and, I am slowly settling into as much of a routine as London will allow – whilst obviously trying to experience as much of London humanly as possible in the small amount of spare time that I actually appear to have.
Now, having seen some of the entries that I have posted over the last three months, I have realised that I really haven’t told you much about London. So………..
London itself is a city that people generally tend to love or hate – me, I love it (but I am guessing you all know that given that I decided to move back here!!!). I guess I can understand why some people don’t like it. For a start, the building are very old (and I don’t mean 1970’s old, I mean 17th Century old) thus, the majority of buildings are made of stone (whilst there are glass buildings in London, they are definitely not the norm). This means that in winter the magnitude of the “miserableness” is multiplied ten fold by the greyness and, that in summer, the stone buildings retain the heat of the day – so 30 degrees here feels a lot more oppressive than 30 degrees back home. I have also heard people complain about the streets – “they have funny names and there are all these little alleyways – you never go the same way twice to get to a place – it is confusing”. Personally, I think that this is part of London’s charm and I could explore all the little alleyways (and the shops that are hidden in them) for hours. I also have to confess that I love all the old buildings in London. I was about to say how regal and majestic they were – and then realised how dumb that sounded given where I am!!! I also think that London in the spring and summer time is such an amazingly pretty city. There are a lot of beautiful parks (I live near hyde park and Kensington Gardens) and there is none of this drought-starved-browny/green-bindy-infested excuse for grass. It is a soft, lush emerald green – and when all the tulips are in bloom and the squirrels are running around (they will come right up to you and eat out of your hand if you want them to) it really is very picturesque.
As for lifestyle here, I think that it is far more affordable than Sydney. Now I can hear some of you drying foul already – “But Emma, when you first got there you kept saying how expensive London was!!”. Well, what I have learnt is that a) everything is expensive when you have no income and b) once you learn where and how to shop in London, it does actually work out cheaper than Sydney – with some items that is even when you take the exchange rate into account!!! (For all you MGSM Bods, I am having flashbacks of Bill Shields giving lectures on parity). To give you an example, I walked out of Waitrose’s last night (one of my local supermarkets) with a loaf of bread, 250grams of raspberries, a “posh” top of the line desert (deserved it after the hard work I have been putting in at the gym), and a carton of juice – £5 – which equates to about $12 – $13AUD. Tonight I bought some crusty bread, some organic celery and greek dips – £2.20!!! (ie $5.00) To give a better idea, a decent bottle of antipodean wine here can be picked up for a fiver, a burger king burger is 99p, you can eat out at a decent restaurant for £20 easily – and all this baring in mind that, whilst I do not earn pound for dollar, I am pretty much close to it. Now I must confess that I am apparently on a good wage and, I have no idea what the average London income is – I have a feeling that it is about half of what I earn – maybe even less. I have also set myself up a company so that I am paying approx 20% tax if that…..
But there are also definitely things that I miss from back home… there is not the café culture here that we have back home. The closest you will get to coffee here is that crime against humanity that is otherwise known as Starbucks – yep, all the coffee places here are chains and the coffee is made by pressing a button – at which point black stuff that has been stewing for several hours/days/weeks/years pours into your cup. There are no real baristas and the only people here that understand what a flat white is are those fellow countrymen who are also craving a decent coffee! So, you guessed, I have pretty much given the stuff up!!!! And my current mission is to find a Sunday morning breakfast place that is almost like the palces that I used to frequent back home……
And when you speak of London, you can’t forget the side trips and the theatre and all the other things that are going on……
I mean what a great place to base yourself for travel. I am a three hour train trip to Paris and a short flight from most places in Europe – and travel here is CHEAP. A return flight to Spain or Italy is cheaper than going from Sydney to Melbourne (comparatively speaking anyway) – and there are ALWAYS deals. Whilst I am not in a position where I can do this just yet, the plan is to start taking a long weekend every 6 or so weeks so that we can hop over to “The Continent” and discover a new city. In September Helen and I are going to Lisbon and, we have discussed maybe going to Prague in November.
And as for the Theatre – I cannot think of a better way to get up close and personal with big Hollywood names – and see what they are really made of without the help of an editing room and constant re-takes! I have already picked up cheap tickets for two weeks time – We are going to see The Iceman (yes, girls, that is Val Kilmer) in The Postman Always Rings Twice. I am also keeping my eye out for cheapies for A Few Good Men as Rob Lowe is playing the role that Tom Cruise played in the movie. Other Hollywood names that are out here “doing a bit of theatre” include Ewan McGregor (does he count?? Isn’t he Scottish??), Brooke Shields and a whole pile more.
One of the problems that I have found in London is a sheer lack of time – I am buggered if I know where it all goes. I am positive that chunks of time just go missing (and not due to alcoholic blackouts either thanks very much!!!). On an average when I don’t have plans after work, I tend to wake up at some ridiculously stupid hour, kick myself for not closing the shutters the previous night (the sun rises at about 4am and sets after 9.30pm), close the shutters and go back to sleep. After then hitting snooze one too many times, I drag my sorry, and very tired, arse out of bed and am out the door by 7 at the latest (unless I end up in one those early morning/late afternoon conversations with one of you kiddies back home!!)– although I have been known to leave the house just after 6 on a regular basis…Then I work – and work, and work, and work. Lunch has become a foreign concept – I tend to run downstairs to the JPM 125 restaurant (all the brokers here have restaurants in their different buildings), grab something that passes as relatively healthy and go back to my desk – where I continue to work, and work, and work……… I can usually make it down to the late gym classes after work – and I really do try to get the one prior to that as well (the day I can make it for one of the first classes I think I will start to worry about my job!! Oh the days of making a 5.45pm class……). So, by the time I finish at the gym, shower and get home etc it is about 9.30pm. Get my stuff ready for the next day, have some dinner, mumble to the flat mate if she is in, throw on a load of washing, look at my email inbox and decide that “Yes, I will answer some of these on the weekend” – despite having said that last weekend….. And it is then that you look at your watch and realise that if you pass out straight away, you may scrape in 5 – 6 hours sleep max. Throw in drinks and/or dinner with friends, a show or two and it is enough to kill a girl! What is that saying – it is a tough life but someone has to do it.
Anyway, I think that I have probably written enough for now (if you have gotten this far you must be really bored at work!!!). Now that things have settled down a lot, I will probably less often however hopefully the entries will be a little more interesting than just the general day to day entries……
. Anyway, Paul and I finally met at about 7 and had a few drinks and a lot of laughs (and yes, Kara, they were all at your expense!!! C’mon you’d be disappointed if we didn’t). Or at least that was until it I went up to the bar. Now I have always regarded myself as a very capable and independent young woman that can usually accomplish what she sets out to achieve without too much consternation. That was until I tried to order a rum and coke…. Seriously, the amount of questions that were fired at me regarding this seemingly simple drink was enough to confuse and overwhelm even the most self-assured person. I think the only question that I was able to answer with any confidence was “Is that a double?” “YES”!!!
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