The first 6 weeks

We have touched down in London finally - after 18 months of planning we are finally at the place we will call home for at least a year. And we were lucky enough to be greeted by something we hadn’t seen much of at all in our lives - snow! Yes, going from a stifling 35 degrees in India to 2 degrees and snow in London is definitely a shock to the system!

We arrived with virtually nothing - just our rucksacks. No place to stay, no jobs but luckily money (which very quickly vanishes when you have Australian dollars paying everything in pounds). We looked on the internet at hotel prices - the cheapest we found was £54 near Russell Square - a ridiculous figure! After 2 nights there we decided to call Mark, a friend we had met on our Nepal trip. He had offered for us to stay with him, but needed to check if his house had interest from buyers. The good news for us was that it was available, so he took us in for a few weeks in his 5 bedroom house in Sydenham - about ½ an hour out of the city. Without Mark’s generosity, I don’t know how we could have managed for that first month. He didn’t want rent, just to keep the place tidy and feed his cats Jack and Tom. And surprisingly, they were the first cats that I hadn’t been allergic to. It was so great to have a base there at his home, we ended up being there for about a month. All he wanted in return was for us to buy a new record player for him. We spent the first night when he got it playing all his old record collection, it must have been years since he had listened to them. We got quite used to the surroundings as well - walking to Penge, Crystal Palace and Sydenham regularly. It’s great to experience the suburbs, rather than just the city.

Then it was time to start looking for work, which we did almost straight away - no time for sightseeing (we had seen the touristy things on our previous trips). We caught the bus a lot to get used to our surroundings and to get a better impression of the suburbs. We were told to first try Stoke Newington in the North, then Islington. We loved them both, but after we found out where we would be working, the north just wasn’t the right place. So then we looked around Hammersmith, out to Kew and Richmond, even Brixton. Then we found it - Putney. It’s about 25 minutes on the tube and we started to spend our time looking for properties. After an exhausting few days looking around, we narrowed it down to 2 - and put an offer on both. Eventually we decided on one that was about a 20 minute walk from the Putney High Street, but nice and quiet and a good size. We were shocked though that we had to pay 3 months rent in advance, all because we didn’t have any references from the UK even though we own our own house in Australia.

Work was fun. Shelley posted her resume on a few job sites and almost within minutes had recruiters calling her. She had about 5 interviews within a week all culminating to getting 3 job offers in one day (one of them she got the job without even going for an interview). The job market for accountants here is ridiculous. She eventually decided to take a job with Budweiser as an assistant accountant - initially a 6 week contract but we should hear any day if it will go permanent. She absolutely loves the job and the responsibility, she has never been more happy in a job, plus it is either a 25 minute walk from home or 5 minute train ride.

For me, I’ve entered the freelance video editor game. Before I left I sent emails to no fewer than 400 companies telling them when I would arrive. The first 6 weeks has been very promising, but so much to organise - new mobile, broadband for home (which we are still waiting on), limited company setup, national insurance numbers - each day I have a list of 10 things to do - but it’s finally easing off now. I straight away emailed the contacts when I arrived in the first week and slowly got some responses. One guy from Voytek had been waiting since November for me to arrive and I’ve been doing quite a bit of work for him. Another ex-pat Aussie has is own company close to home in Richmond and I’ve been really lucky to have been able to work there a few days a week. Then I received a call from another interested company that want me to be part of their team to produce a travel program for London - my dream job. My first project with them has already seen me travel to Mallorca in Spain - but more about that in another blog.

We have also been really lucky to have met Jenn on our India trip who also lives in London. She has been great and every weekend she has organised a social catchup. First it was a failed attempt to go to Scottish Cealigh dancing (ended up being a good night at the pub though), then a trip to China Town a few weeks later and then to see a comedian, then next up a concert to see Luka Bloom - an Irish singer who is popular in Australia as well. That concert was fantastic, at a place called the Union Chapel. Another trip with Jenn was a quick sightseeing trip of London - lunch in Soho, then a walk down to the Thames to lap up the sunshine and for me to point out where I would be working (yes, one of my jobs involves me working on a restored ship which I will have my own edit suite - right on the Thames opposite the millennium wheel!) Jenn has plenty more great ideas for socialising trips so we look forward to the next dinner, art gallery or even show.

We have also succumbed to an Aussie pub already - Putney is full of Australians and South African’s. We went to watch the Anzac Day game, which was a waste of time. Only a handful of people were actually watching, but we met a really nice couple who were from Ringwood! It was stupid of us though, at the end of the night we should have grabbed their details, it would have been great to catch up with them again - I’m hoping we will bump into them one day for a proper catch up. That’s one thing we might find hard here, meeting new people. Once we are settled, we plan to spend quite a bit of time down on Putney High Street just socialising and having a good time - we have never lived in a place like this before and need to take advantage. So many restaurants, bars and clubs - the place is absolutely buzzing every night of the week.

We have done a bit of sightseeing - the first few weeks were very cold, but we still got out. One day it was snowing so we headed into the city to see it under snow, Buckingham Palace looked great. Another day we braved the wet conditions to cheer on the marathon runners - dreaming that would be us next year. Most days we ended up in Oxford Street, we know that like the back of hand now - I must even look like a local as I’ve been asked to give directions and actually been able to help!

For me, I’ve had quite a few meetings with different companies so I’ve got to see many different parts of the city - I’m quickly getting my bearings. I think I will grow to hate the tube - yesterday it took 90 minutes for a 25 minute trip. Trains timetables will take a bit of getting used to, plus when we travel, Gatwick and Stansted seem miles away.

We have taken the odd day trip. One day we made it to Oxford - which was high on our list of places to see. It was full of tourists and was a great place. The best part was walking along the Thames and watching the rowing teams zip past. The next day I was called to do a job in Liverpool which was a 4 hour trip with a cameraman. We got 10 minutes out of town and got a call it was cancelled - so I spent an hour sightseeing through Liverpool - which is going through major renovations.

We are doing what we do best - walking everywhere. From our flat, there are so many great walks - to the city of Putney, the quiet woods towards Wimbledon or the Thames, they are all within a short walk. But we have just been settling in, so no big travel stories yet - they will be soon to come when we set off for big trips in summer.

The English language is a funny one - I’m determined to keep saying G’day until the day I leave, no matter how much I cop (Wojtek gives it to me all the time - especially the way I pronounce project). I had a meeting with Topshop and put together a sample DVD for them to view. One of the sections I called Pants - which in England means underpants! I didn’t dare tell them that we call flip-flops! There are also many other things that we have to get used to. Like never to order a half pint - or you will be treated like a girl - you must order a full pint, even if you only drink half of it - makes you look like a man. A client took me down to the pub last week and I saw the most ridiculous thing. They had one full pint, then ordered another half pint. Sure enough it came in a teeny half pint glass, but instead of drinking from that, they poured it into their empty full pint glass. I had to follow suit, and realised that’s the way to get around the ½ pint issue. Also the warm weather here makes front page news - getting to 25! It is not a pretty sight when all the tradies take their shirts off to expose their white pasty beer bellies. All the parks are chock full of people enjoying the sun - it’s a great atmosphere.

Our initial impressions of London is that we are going to love it. Things are already going really well and we can see a year in which we do everything we wanted to. Looking forward to meeting new friends and getting to know the city even better. We have been really lucky to have met Mark and Jenn, they have been fantastic to us.

There will be videos soon of our travels to India, Nepal and London, just search for my Youtube page called midaNshel, the library will be updated often.

Of course for those that we know back home - we would love for you to visit so we can be your tourguides for a few weeks.

To view video highlights go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzL5ORUyYTU

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