Day 58, 59 and 60 - London!

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London Baby!!!!!

OK, so I arrived on Saturday morning, around 6.30am. Breezed through customs and immigration. Didn't even get asked why I was visiting or how long I was planning on staying. I guess having one of those ancestry visa thingys negates the need for all those pesky questions! Thanks again Grandmum!!! xx

Collected my luggage and caught the first of the three trains I needed to catch to get to Jean's place. Firstly, the Heathrow Express. Then off at Paddington and then the tube to Kings Cross St Pancreas, then one stop (I think, from memory) and I was at Angel. A bit earlier than planned (I blame immigration for being so quick!), but luckily Jean came and collected me no worries at all. Thankfully she lives just around the corner from the station. Not so thankfully she lives on the fifth floor of a building that doesn't have a lift and in fact, has outside stairs, made of metal that you can see through. So, with my 20 odd kilos of luggage strapped to my back and Jean thankfully carrying my laptop bag, I made record time* and got up the top.

Then a rather busy and quiet day followed! Jean and I made our way to a few places, collecting some mail for me, a replacement laptop cord so I can use my laptop here and some food, then I had a sleep!!!
After that though, it was time to go out and help Jean celebrate her b'day. This we did with her sister and boyfriend (who she also lives with), Marissa and Justin and some friends, Elizabeth and Kelly.

We basically did a bit of a pub crawl around the Angel area, which was pretty great actually. I was spared the painful experience of experiencing the Walkabout on my first night in England and instead we stuck mainly to non Australianised pubs!
by midnight I had totally had it though, which worked well, as so had pretty much everyone else!

Sunday was another fairly quiet day. I slept in until 12 - the first time in at least 8 weeks that I've slept past 9am - bliss! The afternoon was spent essentially slothing, except for a bit of food shopping.
That night Marissa had some friends over for dinner, which was my first proper home cooked meal in over 8 weeks! I had no idea how much I'd miss home cooked food! Then after dinner was a board game (can't remember the name, but Jean and I won!) and a fairly early night.

Monday I had an appointment with a recruitment agency (yes, 3 month contract only, I promise thats what I asked for) and then I caught the train out to Ashford International to be met by Jen, one half of the lovely English couple that I met in China. They are also the poor sods who are putting me up for the forseeable future! Just goes to show you, you never know how your life is going to change when you go on holiday! Who knew they'd end up with an Aussie living with them when they signed up for that Geckos tour in China... If they could just change one thing.....

That evening was the first of many wonderful home cooked meals that I was to enjoy throughout the week...

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