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Published: April 11th 2006
Yes, I have finally found a job. No thanks to my recruitment agency but many thanks to Monique Metham! Monique and I studied social work together at Sydney Uni and she is currently working in the Islington Borough in London. A vacancy came up in the service Monique works for and so she recommended me for the position. Her manager agreed to interview me on Friday and they hired me on the spot (after a very scary interview process!). It’s great to have work and to know that some money will be coming in (woo hoo!) but on the down side the position involves front line child protection investigation. I’ll be working for social services assessing children who are referred as possibly being at risk of harm. Yes, it is the one job that I said I didn’t want to do here, but in the face of my recruitment agency (and the others I have since registered with) saying that there weren’t that many positions around suitable for my experience, I thought it was better to start with something and at least get some UK experience. Hopefully that will make me more employable in the current market!
On the way
back to Sydenham from the job interview I was feeling decidedly pleased with myself. I’d bought myself a beautiful bunch of tulips and decided to take a walk through Mayow park on the way home from the train station. I walked past a group of 5 or so 12 year olds and then suddenly felt a thud on the back of my leg. I heard a splash and then felt a slow seeping wetness through my pants. The brats had thrown a water bomb and then run off out of the park giggling wildly! Hmmm, I was not impressed. On the other hand, Kath, Graham and Beata all thought that it was pretty funny. Not happy Jan!
So as this was my last weekend of Freedom before starting work, Graham, Kath and I decided to road test a few of the local pubs to see which could win the title of favourite local. We didn’t make it very far having only visited the Dolphin and the Golden Lion so far. At this stage the Golden Lion is way ahead… what can I say it’s decorated with a plethora of paintings of large dogs and has a lovely beer garden.
Borough Markets
You can't tell from this photo, but seriously half of London was there!We were only able to peer at the garden through the windows (we would have lost a limb to frostbite if we had decided to actually go out there), but it could be a nice place to have a pint in the summer (whenever that gets here!).
On Saturday Kath and I visited the Borough Markets (made famous by Jamie Oliver doing his shopping there) to grab some cheap fruit and veg and check out some of the culinary delights London has to offer. All the variety of cheeses was mind blowing and the breads phenomenal. I tasted the best hot cross bun I think I have ever had. It seemed like half of London had the same idea and the place was packed, so we didn’t hang about for to long.
We definitely hadn’t had enough of the market scene, so on Sunday we headed over to the Spitalfields markets for some more retail therapy. This time instead of food being on sale it was handbags, clothes, music and stall after stall of jewellery. Needless to say, it was a very happy Sunday morning for me. After that we hooked up with some friends of Kath’s and
headed over to Tower Bridge to check out the exhibition there. After having a look around the bridge museum we started to meander back to London Bridge to catch the train home however we got drenched in a downpour. I know, I know, very unusual for England! We decided to shelter for a few moments in a pub, the Horniman at Hayes where we had celebrated Beata’s birthday a few weeks earlier. A few moments turned into five hours but we had a great afternoon/night.
Tomorrow is my first day of work and I’m really not looking forward to it. But I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes!
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Kathy
non-member comment
Congratulations!
Great news about the job. Hope it works out to be fun and interesting!