My New Home

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Well after the scintillating weather from Spain and Portugal, it was a bit of a surprise getting into England on two fronts. Firstly the weather had plunged from early 40’s and perfect blue skies to early 20’s and almost permanently overcast. And the second major surprise was that people here spoke English. Although that might appear blindingly obvious, it took a week for my mind to adjust to the fact that if I started speaking English to people here, they would understand me. Usually anyway.

My first impression of the city was straight away I loved it. It was so busy and there was always something happening. Some people might see this as a negative thing, but I enjoy it. The majority of my two weeks here was spent sorting out stuff I had avoided thinking about for the past few months. Mainly a job, and a place to stay more than a few nights. So after a bit of a splurge at a bookstore with books in English (I know! What a surprise!), I got myself a brand spanking new suit and had several interviews with recruitment agents and started tentatively looking for a flat.

Despite that, I managed to get a bit of sightseeing done, including spending most of the first two days in Bond and Oxford Streets. During my first weekend Hannah took me on a bit of a walking tour past the Duke of Wellington Arch and NZ War Memorial, which was cool to see a bit of Kiwiana. Next was a stroll through Green Park past Buckingham Palace, which looked different to what I expected for some reason. Then it was through Regents Park, past Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament over to Southbank, where the London Eye lives. After a bit of lunch at Giraffe (apparently a favourite over here) we went down over Millennium Bridge (the one they had to close two days after opening it because it swayed too much. Sounds like the engineers drink too much over here as well) over to St Paul’s Cathedral, which was pretty amazing, but as I have mentioned, once you have been to Rome and Vatican City, no cathedral will ever compare.

During my last week in London, I managed to get a few more interviews in as well as catching up with Clay and Ange for dinner. I also went out and had a look around the Tower of London (from the outside as I’m not allowed to go inside until Leah gets back from Morocco) and Tower Bridge. Then Saturday came around very quickly and I was off to the airport for the long flight home, back to the land of BBQ’s and L&P for a quick 2 week splurge.

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Photos

Duke of Wellington Arch
With the goddess of Victory, Nike sitting on top of it just opposite Hyde Park.

Obsessed
This is the queue of people that lined up 3 days early to wait for the release of the last Harry Potter book. The people at the front had come from Belgium and the Netherlands! Mad!

NZ War Memorial
At night it lights up into the the shape of the Southern Cross, pointers included. Very cool, and it also has bits of history of each pole.

Outside Buckingham Palace
Another big statue flanked by a couple of lions.

Buckingham Palace
Looks better from 100m up (ie postcards) but as I can't fly (yet) this will have to do. For some reason I was expecting it to be a burgundy colour. I don't know why.

St James Park
Over the Lake and you can see the London Eye in the distance.

Downing Street
Where formerly Tony Blair, and now Gordon Brown live as Prime Minister of Britain.

Houses of Parliament
With Big Ben sitting in there on the left.

Looking down the Thames
Towards the London eye and the Millenium Bridge in the distance.

Back over the Thames
From Southbank back towards the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.