Still not dead! Actually, livin it up.

Well, I got a place. £85 a week (which is a good price for a place
with all bills included). I share with my friend, Justin. My
floormates are pretty cool too. We go clubbing and such together. Went
to the Walkabout on Saturday. It's an Australian club chain. Smaller
than what I was expecting, but it was still fun. The band was quite
good.

Work is fine. It's nice working in a small office. I meet the CEO
every day, and suggestions I make get taken care of immediately. Mark
and Steve (two guys from my department) must hate us by now. My
friends and I have asked them every possible question, and they must
have a negative productivity by now.

Went to Stonehenge and Bath on Saturday. It was lots of fun.
Stonehenge was a little smaller than I expected. Even more depressing
is that we were not allowed within 20 meters or so of it. I wanted a
picture of myself at stonehenge.

Bath was much more fun. It's probably the most beautiful city I have
ever seen. It's small and has a lot of hills and the views are
spectacular. The shopping was pretty good too. I got 3 shirts for less
than I pay for 1 in London. And a nice Jacket from a higher end store.
I wear it every day and it's very comfortable.

Sorry, but no pictures of Bath yet. I'm at work and the pictures are
on my laptop. I'll upload them later.

Cheers

My new job. The details.

Well, my new job is pretty kick ass. It's in the most expansive part,
of the most expensive city in the world. I mean, directions are
literally, take a left at the Ritz (which evidently sells tea for 65
pounds). There are a lot of nice cars in the neighbourhood as well. I
mean, I've seen one Ferrari in Canada. One in my entire life. I saw
about 30ish in that district over the past 2 days.

About the job. I am a customer service advisor for the parent company
of over 30 ISPs. My company bought out these companies after they fell
following the internet bubble bursting. My job is the email customer
service position, alongside 3 of my friends. The workplace is very
casual. 30 or so staff on the floor, which deal with everything from
business to web design. The staff is paid on salary, so the entire
company is laid back and stress free. Tomorrow is casual Friday, but I
doubt I should wear anything less than a nice shirt and trousers on my
second day. I might try something more casual next Friday.

My job seems uberkeen, so I think I'll have lots of fun doing it. And
by the way. The two guys working right behind me are on Linux systems,
and there are a few squash players in the company.

Now, I gotta find a flat. See you all in 3 and a half months.

Your employed friend,

Paul

Time to Partay!

Guess who got a job! Come on. Guess! Justin, Brett and I all got jobs
at Brightview Internet. We start tomorrow at 9am. The job consists of
us replying to customer emails. Brightview is the parent company for
several ISPs, and my job is to help customers. Well, the guys and I
are going drinkin. I've gotta go have a shower.

Trip through London

Rather than call mom on mother's day, I decided to hit the town and
see the sights. Chris and I started out seeing some crazy
archetecture, visiting the British Library. Afterwards, we headed to
see St. Paul's Cathedral. I chose not to go inside, due to the intense
hate that I have for the heads of the catholic church. After seeing
that, Chris and I decided to hit the tower of London and see the
bridges. I'm very surprised at the prices for food near the Thames
River. The prices are often cheaper than outside the tourist area. I
guess the currency exchange has screwed everyone over enough.

Following that, we bought some tickets to "The Tempest", and went to
see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, which is closed on Sunday.
Buckingham palace was nice. Chris didn't understand why he wasn't
allowed in the palace. I ended up going back to Buckingham palace
today, while waiting for a job interview closeby, and saw the changing
of the guard by chance. It was neat, but I had a crappy view (I didn't
even know it was happening until it actually happened. I was just
there because the area surrounding the palace is peaceful and would
let me relax before my interview). Only got a couple pictures of some
mounted police.

All in all, the day was eventful. It's the last time I'll see Chris
for a while, if ever, since he now has a job as an au pair (live in
nanny) for a wealthy family farther from the city centre.

Anyways, I've gotta head out. Must find a job soon or I'll die of
disappointment.

Paul

See! I have class!

I forgot to mention this. On Sunday, Brett, Justin, Dave, Carly,
Robert and I decided to hit the theatre to see "The Tempest".
Normally, I'd save the money, but it was a Shakespeare play, in
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (not the original. That one burnt down.
This one was built closeby and has been built as a replica of the
original), AND it was only 5 pounds to be a groundling! Needless to
say, it rocked my socks off. Brett has a degree in Fine Arts from the
University of Idaho, so he filled us in on the details after the play.
I understood most of it, but it was 3 characters playing 12 parts,
with few props. It was quite evident that you needed to know the story
beforehand to understand their interpretation.

All in all, the play was good. It was 2 hours of standing in a throng
of people, but it was good times.

Poker Night

Well, my friends didn't get the dream job they thought they were
promised, so they decided to get drunk. Nothing like a depressant to
chase the blues away! The night consisted of Dave, Justin, Bret,
Ashley, Robert and myself getting drunk. Of course, poker was involved
too. Texas Hold'em, their game of choice was played. They figured a 3
pound buy in was fine, which I was not ready to pay (since they would
almost definately take easily from me. Especially after spending 35
pounds on a cell phone charger that someone stole from me). After the
game, they decided to just split up the cash and play again. I ended
up joining, since money wasn't involved. I ended up winning, with a
little help from a more experienced player. Their strategy was quite
obvious, so I played to screw them all up. It worked.

On the left is Ashley, holding a can of Fosters, with Dave on the
right. I drank Fosters and Strongbow, an English Cider (Also the stuff
I drank on my first night here). Nearly 3 pints that night. It was
enough to make me a bit tipsy. I guess I'm not the heavyweight I
thought I was.

Anyways, I'm off to go drinking again. Heading to the Wellington Arms
tonight, I think.

The job hunt

So far, I've sent my resume to about a dozen places looking for temp workers. I'd prefer an office type job, but I realize that is unlikely, so I've applied at a few pubs too. I've been to one interview and have had a phone interview from a country club in Scotland.

In the news. Tony Blair is reelected. What does that mean for me? Nothing really, since by the time the changes (if any) will take effect, I'll probably be gone.

Scotiabank really sucks. They refused to send me my financial information, so I got my dad to go into the bank. Since he's had several problems with them in the past, he was quite well known to the staff. After 3 days of calling and pestering, I finally got my financial information sent to me. I need it to open a bank account, and I need a bank account before I can get a job.

Getting the hang of the city. My PocketPC has become an invaluable tool. It tells me the name of every street and alley. They've got a lot of alleys here. I spent half an hour looking for a Brittania Row. It turns out I walked past it a few times but thought it was a driveway.

I haven't been sick since my first night here. Been doing the pub crawl, but have missed going the past few nights, due to the lack of finances. Stuff here is expensive and all. I've budgeted something like 70 pounds for this week plus accommodation. Tesco, the major supermarket has a small location near here. I've been eating lots of their premade food (since I have no place to cook in a hostel). I have yet to buy any extras, as I don't even have a place to keep it.

I'm starting to get concerned about my laptop. It's a little scary being in a room with no locked storage.

There is a lot of graffiti here. I got a nice picture of it in the most remote place a person could get to. TOX13 seems to be the most common thing wrote. Still haven't found out the significance of that. If it's some form of gang, it's probably a bunch of 13 year old kids trying to be cool or something.

My first week here in London has been fun. I don't have a server to store pictures on, or I would upload some photos to the blog. Hopefully I'll find something soon.

Your good friend,,

Paul


Cheers

Drinks with Bret

Well, I met a guy named Bret yesterday (the day I landed). He's a 23 year old from Idaho who just finished school. We decided to head out for a beer to celebrate our arrival in London. After wandering aimlessly for a cheaper pub, we found one called the Green Man, close to the hostel.

Since Bret is a beer connoisseur, I asked him to choose the beer. Our first beer was a cider. Probably the best beer I've ever had (not that I have much to compare it to). Bret had a LOTR shirt on, which had his name written in one of the language of middle earth. I told him he'd have a better chance at finding someone who knows Klingon than someone who could actually read his name on the shirt when he admitted he actually knew Klingon. This was of course when I realized I was with uber star trek geek. His excuse was that he's from a small town and there's little else to do. I understand where he's coming from

For the second drink, we tried a lighter coloured beer (when we asked for the darkest non Guiness beer they had). The beer was very good, but not quite as good as the cider. Over the course of the night, Bret and I talked about theatre (his passion and education), politics, history and London tourism.

So after 2 beers, we decided to go back to the hostel. I quickly realized that I was drunk and would therefore have to slap myself for being a lightweight when I sobered up. That night, I threw up. I blame my light weightedness on the having not slept in 30 some odd hours and the plane ride (which I was definately not feeling well for. Lets just say I started feeling sick, then all of the sudden woke up on a pretty girl's lap).

The building manager laughed when I told him I needed a new pillow. I take it he gets a lot of this type of thing.

Anyways, I'd better go. It's Monday morning, which is May Day (a national holiday). I've still gotta sober up. Hopefully it's after the loud Italian women leave the hallway outside my dorm (I don't think they can register distance. They seem to speak as if they were 100m away from each other, even though they're standing right next to one another). I'm gunna check out some sites, as the businesses will be closed so I can't start the job search.

Hope you all are having fun.

P.S. Paul is a happy drunk

Confusing London

London is the most confusing city I have ever seen! It is an old city, and therefore not a grid city. Also, it is a Sunday, so I most non-tourist stores are closed. Well, I can't afford anything anyways.

Canadian money isn't getting me very far. Everything is the same price in pounds here, as in dollars in Canada. This means that I am paying 2.5 times the price here. As a result, I have started budgeting everything and buying in the supermarket (The one decently priced place. Still more expensive, but cheap compared to the overpriced restaurants).

The subway system (known as the tube) is in fact a very good system. 3.80 pounds buys a day pass (which really isn't a day I think, because it swallowed my pass after 3 trips). Considering the size of the city, I think i'll be using the tube often. The lack of a grid makes it nearly impossible for me to navigate in the city though. A compass is useless when streets aren't perpendicular to each other, or at least in some form of simple intersection. It's just too time consuming to actually do the math unless it's a grid.

Things I like about London:

The people are friendly.
The tube is very useful.
Nice architecture. Beautiful historic shops and uniquely modern buildings line the streets.
At each intersection, it tells you which way to look (since there are many one way streets).
My hostel is very clean. Had to buy a pin for the internet, but now I can use it all I want.
I saw an ad for my favourite TV Show, Drawn Together, on the tube wall.

Things I don't like about London:

It's a labyrinth
Everything costs a huge amount.
Food costs even more if you sit down to eat it.
Less washrooms than I am accustomed to. Had to search for a while before I found one.
Less signs telling you where to go and where washrooms are.
Little family here.

All in all, I'm enjoying myself. Hope you all don't miss me too much. Sarah and Stacie will get one hug for each day I am gone.

Not dead yet!

Well, I've arrived in London, England. It's 22 degrees here and I'm sweating buckets. Once I arrived in the airport, I was in fact interrogated (or close to) by the customs official who apparently did not understand the meaning of a work vacation visa. After about 15 minutes of her asking me the same questions repeatedly, she finally let me go to let the other people in line proceed.

After collecting my luggage, I went to find the bus that would take me directly to my hostel. I searched for about half an hour before I asked an official, who promptly stated that it had stopped running. First hurdle. How do I get to my hostel? I don't know where to go? I finally figured out how to get there, and 2 hours later, I arrived at the hostel..

Not dead... yet