Looks like our travelling is at an end for the next six months or so – we’ve moved into a wee flat in Finsbury Park, and our stuff from NZ finally arrived after three months (er, did they really say six weeks when I sent it off in August?!) Ah, was good really – it coincided almost exactly with our flat being available, so we had it delivered on the day after we took possession on the 18th of Nov. Up til then, from when we arrived on the 7th of Oct, we’ve been camping in people’s houses – first with friends Richard Theresa at Muswell Hill, who I know from school and Uni, and have been living here for three years now. But Richard’s sister and her boyfriend came down in late Oct – they’re travelling around the place working in pubs and stuff - so it was going to be 4 in the sofa-bed, so we moved to Simon's for a couple of weeks. Simon’s bought himself a flat near Waterloo station that is very nice, and is leading a great lifestyle. He’s getting sick of Treasury though and sounds like he’ll move on to, I dunno, whatever economist people move onto in the private sector.
The flat is quite nice – the area seems okay, there is only the occasional stabbing and mugging to contend with. Nah, it isn’t exactly Highgate or Sloane Square, but then again it isn’t Brixton either. Do you know the area? Seems to be quite liveable to me. The flat’s on the second floor of some terrace housing (or ‘Coronation Street flats’, as they say in NZ) and is the same sort of deal as our Brooklyn flat only it’s half the size and you get a view of Arsenal Football Stadium instead of Wellington harbour. (The stadium isn’t very close but you can see it!). The landlord just redecorated the place before we moved in and they’ve done a very good job – the interior is very nice. And, woo-hoo, it’s got a DECENT SHOWER – the first one we’ve found yet in Britain. Full mains pressure hot water and a nozzle you stand under, instead of some dribbly thing you have to wave over yourself while sitting in a bath. Lack of showers is probably the biggest mystery to me in the UK.
We’ve also both got jobs now – Angela’s been at hers a week and a half, and I start on Monday. Things were a lot more quiet than we were expecting – I’m very glad we didn’t listen to all the streets-paved-with-gold optimists in NZ, and brought enough money to cover ourselves. Basically there isn’t any contract work around at the moment, because everyone wants to work the winter, and no-one wants to offer jobs now because Xmas is smack in the middle of it all. So about 3 weeks ago Angela started looking for permanent jobs instead (since she can, with her Scottish mum ‘n all) and there were LOADS!! She was getting about 10 calls a day between when she put her name forward, and when she signed on the dotted line. She’s working for a group called Spargo Consulting, who just send her out to do work at various client sites. Me, I got a job YESTERDAY!! Woo hoo! I’ve got a 2 month contract with Andersen Consulting, upgrading an in-house system they’ve got to handle their logging of hours worked, to work with their new e-mail system. Should be straightforward – a bit of money in the bank and then off snowboarding in February!
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