Jobs and Flats

The place we found to live in temporarily was a kind of hostel/hotel in Shepherd's Bush ("She-Bu") - the obligatory stop for Kiwis and Aussies on their OE. We liked that breakfast was included in the deal, and although it was more expensive than a flat, we knew it was only short term. They only had a bunk room to start with, but assured us a double room was available in a few days. When we arrived, we hardly knew what to think - the room was tiny! And although we had our own bathroom, it was up half a flight of stairs. We decided to suck it up though, and when we got our double room it was a real Hallelujah moment with the sun streaming in and illuminating the huge room. There was an ensuite bathroom with this one, and all the rooms had a wee kitchenette with stovetop, fridge and microwave and a TV.









As it turned out, earning money was just around the corner. After giving up on my decidedly average recruitment company, I accidentally joined another one when I applied for a job online. This recruitment company had an extremely enthusiastic recruitment officer who would have done well working with the hard-of-hearing. She wrangled an interview with Village Vet - a large company with practices all around London. I must have impressed in the interview as they offered me work straight away (well to start in a few days) - at one of their branches at which the vet had fallen ill. The practice was in Ealing - very West London, working 9am-7am days. The work... lets say very quiet. But at £200 a day I was not complaining.

Rob found it a bit more difficult, probably due to the time of year - not many companies are looking to hire just before Christmas. But like a good little house husband he fed the starving beast when she got home from work.

Unfortunately the touristy aspect of our travels dried up at this point as I found myself either at work or travelling to and from work much of the time. We did manage to go and see our friends Katherine and Neill's new baby though - little Solomon, a real wee cutey! We also found time to go and see Buckingham Palace, unfortunately though on the alternate day to when the Guards did their Changing.

So we went round the corner to St James Palace and harassed the guards there... This day was the first day it snowed in London, which we got very excited about!








There was also the odd pub trip and trip to the movies in amongst this. Georgia invited us to a christmas party her extremely talented baker friend was putting on, and we managed to mix almost every drink known to man and end up pretty crook the next day. In fact, that Sunday was a write-off which was annoying as I didn't have that many days off to waste!
We went to see comedy in Chiswick which was very funny, went to see the christmas lights in Oxford Street and Regent Street, saw the amazing hippy balloons down Carnaby Street, went to the Hyde Park Christmas market with Debs and Mike and Mike's brother Andrew and his wife Tracey, went to Harrods (so packed we couldn't move), went to a rock and roll pub in Soho.

We saw the massive O2 arena when I went for a job interview in Greenwich and it actually had a christmas fair inside it, as well as tennis and exhibitions and all sorts of other stuff...

Over Christmas Georgia had planned to go home for 4 weeks and asked us if we'd like to take her room while she was away. We agreed and so ended up back in Bethnal Green. I had the serious job of looking after the 2 fish, because I was "the most qualified". This went well until the day before Georgia was due home. The little fish decided to get extremely ill and start floating on his side... Unfortunately he didn't make it until she got home :-(

Christmas day I had off, fortunately, and Debs and Mike generously invited us to their place to stay Christmas Eve, and go and have Christmas lunch with Mike's brother Andrew and his wife Tracey in Wimbledon on Christmas day. Debs and Mike are living in Wokingham, which is about 45 minutes train ride from Waterloo. It was a lovely day - there was still snow on the ground and we had a yummy croissant and bacon breakfast and then a roast turkey with all the trimmings for lunch, and played Wii afterwards to try and work off the yummy dinner.














Christmas day was the only day I had off between 21st of December and the 2nd of January - so unfortunately Rob and I spent a very quiet New Years Eve in front of the telly as I was exhausted from working so much and had work New Years Day... I went to bed at 10.30pm after watching a couple of DVDs. Ah well, next year will be better... It was worth it this year for the time and a half. £300 can buy us a trip somewhere!

We had great fun living at Georgia's with her flatmate Marianne, and her other flatmate's "replacements" Surani and Sarah, but of course we knew we needed to find somewhere to move on to. Rob had had a few interviews for jobs similar to what he was doing in New Plymouth (tertiary education marketing), and he had been hired by Kingston University, which is in Kingston, SW London on the border with Surrey. Because of the proximity he was really keen on living southwest. We looked at a few flats in Fulham, one really cheap one in Tooting, and the Putney Palace in Putney - a falling down old flat above a kebab shop featuring a kiwi artist who was a little eccentric. Finally we found a flat with a nice big bedroom, a lounge, a dishwasher, and Sky TV - and full of kiwis and Aussies! The main reason we took the flat was the lovely area (just by the river) and the nice flat - And it meant a 30 minute bus-ride to work for Rob. It meant an hour long journey for me but it was the same as what I'd already been doing so no great change. And I was still locumming, so could end up anywhere.

We moved in on the 16th. There is a kiwi guy who does IT, a kiwi girl who's a teacher, an Aussie couple - both teachers, a Polish girl who's a pharmacist, and us. And I mustn't forget Lola the Cat...


Its crowded but there are 2 bathrooms and 2 toilets so it works fine. We do stuff as a flat too which is fun - we went to the movies last Tuesday (cheap movies) and a pub quiz Tuesday just been. Rob's job is going well, and I am hating the long journey to and from work each day but still looking for somewhere closer to home. Village Vet seem to like her and keep giving her more work, which would be fine if they had any practices in South London...


Next on our agenda.... Egypt!