London - Decision Time!

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Monday - hopefully my last interview! Well, for now - as I have to make a decision this week!!

I got up early and headed to Waterloo Train Station. On my way I got a call from my agent at RGB following my e-mail to him this morning. He assured me that the place I was going to were not just land contamination experts, but also did general engineering as well. Anyways, it was too late to pull out now.

While I was waiting for my train I grabbed a sandwich and received a call from James in NZ. We chatted for a while on the train to Guildford and told him how my interviews were going so far and also got an updated of all the news back home.
I arrived in Guildford with only a little time to spare. However, after getting lost I had to get to taxi to QDS Environmental to make the interview on time.

It turns out they are more of a land contamination contracting company.
After doing my best to answer difficult questions that I didn’t know the answers to, I finally got out of the interview about an hour and a half later.
To be fair, I thought the interview went a little below average.
I had a little look around the shops and then caught the train back to London.

I called the tour company to try and pay for the rest of the Paris trip in November to see the All Blacks. Their credit card system was still down (what’s the point of having the technology if your not going to use it!) So had to write out a cheque and walk down to the post office to send it off.
On my way there I got a call from Natalie, she is expecting to get an official job offer from Mouchel Parkman tomorrow! So now I have to decide between them and MWH! Arh!!

I had dinner with Irene who taught me how to cook some yummy garlic pasta stuff. We got chatting and decided last minute to go salsa dancing!
We got ready and jumped on a bus to Tottenham Court Road at 10pm and meet some of her friends at Bar Salsa.
It was really good to get back in to dancing again, even though I felt like I had forgotten a lot!

Tuesday I embarked on drafting up a bit of a financial budget - and it wasn’t pleasant, but can only get worse with no income!

I got call from my… ahh… lets just say ‘not-so-switched-on’ agent.
It turns out I got the job from the interview yesterday - haha! crazy.

My agent didn't even seem to 'get it' that he sent me to a place that doesn't do anything that is connected to what experience I have, or what I told him I wanted to do.
He even asked me to explain to him what the difference is between a contactor and a consultant. - My gosh! no wonder I was having trouble with him!!

Then along came Wednesday - The big decision day!
I did a bit of cleaning and spent most of the day sorting out and trying to re-order all the hundreds of photos from our Pacific Cruise in January.

I got the call from Natalie, and had confirmed with her which job I wanted to take. I told her I wanted to accept the job offer from MWH although it was a very hard decision to make! - I’m all very excited now!
Natalie is going to draft up a letter for me to take to the bank to show that I have a job, in order to get an overdraft to bridge the gap between now and when I get paid. As I had to put this week’s food on my NZ credit card - things really are getting tight!

I got an unexpected call from Kate (from Greece) on Thursday, her and john are coming up to London on Friday and want to catch up!

At lunchtime I met Beth and the new NEXT store by her work that had its grand opening today.
I got an e-mail from Natalie saying that its all official - I now have a job with MWH! Starting on Wednesday at 9am! - Its all rather exciting!! 😊

After dinner I called home and had a long chat to Dad for a while, who still thinks I’m my sister when he answers 😊
Then called my sister, Laura, to wish her “Happy Birthday!”

I got up early on Friday, and called my sister to have a proper chat with her before she went to bed.

I headed down to Liverpool Street Station, picked up the letter of Natalie and managed to arrange an overdraft at HSBC - Hiphip Hurray! I can afford to eat again!

To celebrate the windfall of money that I did not have, I embarked a little shopping at the local shops. On my way back home through Liverpool Station I noticed a monument dedicated to the people who had died in the war who (I guess) also worked at the Eastern Railways. There were both someone named Dobby and Milton, which are the family names on either side, neither of which I think are that common.
I decided to get off the tubes a little early and walked home through Hyde Park.

I had a little bite to eat then went shopping along Oxford Street. I found two lovely winter coats - but couldn’t decide if I should get one, and if so which! So I thought I’d leave it for now and decided to head home before I spent any more money.

I met Kate and John outside Debenhams later on. They came back to my place to have a drink and a catch up at my local pub, The Victoria. We caught the tubes over to Leicester Square and walked around for ages trying to find somewhere to eat. We settled on a place called ‘Spaghetti House’ near Leicester Square, which was quite nice.
Then said goodbye as they had to catch their train back to Surrey.

I caught up with Beth, Helen and Glen etc at a place called Bar-Room-Bar in the China Town area near Leicester Square. Helen and I walked back up to Oxford Street to catch a bus home. We got so far to my place that I decide to walk the rest of the way and got to bed about 2am.

I had to get up at 5.30am on Saturday (no that wasn’t a typo!). I jumped on the tubes and headed out to Heathrow to meet Brian (a good mate from Beca, my old work in NZ) who was due to arrive at 7.30am.
His plane was running a little behind schedule and landed at 8am. It took about another hour for him to get though customs etc, but finally came out.

We said a big “Hello!” and then headed to the tubes - Brian’s first train (and I dare say, sign of civilisation) for a long time! - he seemed quite excited 😊

We had a big catch up on the tube ride to his friend’s Aarons house hear Holloway Road, where they feed us with a nice big Brunch.
Then I headed back home via Hyde Park and got a call from Leah who was dancing to ‘Pump it!’ at the Empire! (Where else?!)

I spent the afternoon shopping with Helen, spending more money that I don’t have 😊
After a mammoth day of shopping, it was starting to get quite late (and dark) and Helen needed to get home for dinner. We ended up running along Oxford Street trying to beat a bus in the traffic that she could catch home - the only problem was we didn’t know which were the right bus stops for it - and we kept just missing it! We finally managed to catch to it a few stops later. I was so close to home, I decided to walk the rest of the way.

That evening I headed over to Camden Town to meet Mel (from Oktoberfest) at Belushi’s for Dan’s leaving party and meet heaps of new people. Mel left early so I stayed hanging out with the other people until it closed and caught a night bus home with them. I got to bed at 4am - almost 24hrs after I got up!

I had a bit of a (well deserved) sleep in on Sunday and meet Helen by Regents Park in the afternoon for a wander around.
It was quite a nice park, with little rooms of green space dotted around it. Quite different to the vast open space of Hyde Park.
The park had tennis courts, an open air theatre, lots of water features including a large pond and the Queen Mary’s Gardens (rose gardens).
We found a nice café on the edge of one of the lakes and had afternoon tea: scones and hot chocolate - yum!
We walked over to Primrose Hill - possibly one of the only hills in London. Even though it wasn’t very high, we got some quite good views back to the city.

On my way home I got a call from Irene to say she had locked herself out of the house - just as well I was already on the bus home!

I quickly had dinner and headed over to Shepherd’s Bush. I met Beth, Rowan, Wade, Michelle etc at the ‘WalkAbout’. I bumped into Mel and some of her friends that I met last night as I walked in the door and Helen met us there a little later. There was a live band, and heaps of people - it was going off!

We left about 10.30pm and I caught a bus home. While I was waiting, I was very naughty and bought McDs! - haven’t have McDs in over two years!! (what was I thinking?!) … Shortly my bus arrived and presented a very good question: Why don’t buses have cup holders??!!

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Photos

Mel & Hanz
Leaving Drinks in Camden Town

Primrose Hill - Hannah
A few of the distant city buildings from one of the very few hill's in London

Check it out - Its a Hill... In London!
... Thanks to my assistant Helen :)

The Shey Bu Walky
Beth, Michelle, Helen & Hannah at the Walkabout - Shepherd's Bush

Anna, Mel, Hannah
Belushi's, Camden Town

Glen & Helen
Bar-Room-Bar, Leicester Square