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Published: December 17th 2006
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Bonfire night
AKA Guy Fawkes, at least here they are allowed real fireworks! We had a great night setting them off. Well it's been a while since I updated, mostly due to laziness and not really having fun news to write about. So I'll try to fill in what I've been doing without being too boring.
Right, so my last entry was when I had just got to London, so I'll go from there. I rang up a mate from my old flat and managed to get a room in a place called Stratford, which is in East London and pretty much reknowned for being a shithole where you have to watch yourself walking around at night. I haven't really had any problems, although I've been offered stolen goods a few times, "wana buy a sony viao mate?" haha, I don't know if you'd get anything more than mugged if you tried to actually buy one though...
I had a great deal of trouble finding a job here. I ended up running out of money and being rather desperate so decided to do a medical trial. Basically being a guinea pig for testing new medication. It was a good deal, paid £1500 for 2x 3 night stays in the unit and 4 one off visits. But obviously the money is
Rockets
Real fireworks. in relation to the risk... I went in the first time and got dosed up. The next morning I started to get a sore throat and by the time I left the unit I was in agony. Well 2 days later my throat was so swollen I couldn't talk, couldn't swallow and started to have trouble breathing, which was all a bit freaky. I ended up taking a taxi to A&E at about 10pm and after taking one look at me I was taken in an ambulance to another hospital in the city. I got an IV thing stuck in me and got antibiotics and finally some relief from the pain with a hit of morphine! I ended up in the hospital for 2 night and the antibiotics seemed to do the trick so I headed home carrying a bag of antibiotics to take.
The next day I got my first bit of good news when i was called by a recruitment company to come in for a first stage interview for a tech support call centre job. This was the first (and only) reply I had from 50+ applications! I went in and it all went very well
Vroom
More fireworks. with an interview and some basic maths and english tests. The lady told me that it was very difficult to get a job in London, and especially hard just before Christmas because people arn't hiring. It turns out they recieved over 500 applicants for the position! Of which they only called a dozen for interviews, so I was very lucky. They then set me up with an interview at the company which involved more tests a couple of interviews with different people and also getting the chance to listen to some of the types of calls I would be taking in the job. I felt really sick the whole time and actually thought I might faint at one stage during an interview, it was very distracting trying to say the right thing whilst struggling to stay concious! But it obviously went well because I did a test last thing (the whole process took about 3 hours) and after that the guy said he was very happy with everything and offered me a job! I asked if I could start not the next week but the week after as I was just getting over something, which turned out to be a
Hero park
If you've ever seen the movie Closer, this is the park. It has a wall with the names of people who died doing heroic acts. very good move because by that night i was back in hospital.
The throat had returned with avengence despite my taking antibiotics religiously. By that night I was back to not talking and could open my mouth only about 1cm. I took another taxi to a different A&E (I found a hospital closer) and again, after a quick look was chucked in another ambulance and taken this time to the Royal London Ear Nose & Throat hospital. The doctor I spoke to there said he needed to "drain the abcess". So sat me in a chair, said "open wide" and stuck a needle in my throat. Which has to be one of the nastiest experiences of my life so far! So he did that 3 times that night and once the next night. This time I stayed for 3 night and left again carrying a case of drugs to take. Luckily this time I actually recovered, so it seems the needle did the trick.
Obviously throughout all this I was thinking "what the fuck did those bastards give me!" and had told the doctors at the hospital who had to then call the clinic to find out what
Hero park 2
It was tricky to find the park, it's tucked in behind an old church. treatment they should give me. After I was well i called them up and asked what compensation they were going to pay out, only for them to tell me it was all a big coincedance... Which personally I don't buy, I still think that at the very least the drug must have stuffed with my immune system for a thing to get quite so out of control as it did. But anyway, I did get the full payout dispite not finishing the study.
So that was my drama. After that I started work and have pretty much just been working since. The job is for a company that provides phone, internet, mobiles gas and electricity at cut price rates by bundling it all. My job is just to answer calls to provide support for the internet side of things. It's all pretty simple, mostly just people who don't know how to use their computers or have forgotten their passwords, but it's a good atmosphere with really great workmates, so I'm enjoying it. Also the pay isn't too bad. A base salary of £20,000 and bonuses up to 25% depending on performance. The main draw back is that it takes
Hero park 3
Alice Aryes herself.
me 1.5 hours to get there via a tube & then bus ride. But that's London for you.
I've bought myself a new laptop with the medical money, even though i can't really afford it I figure, what the hell, I went through all that pain and anguish, I should at least have something to show for it. I'm loving having my own PC again and it's great to be able to put music on it and photos. I also am stealing my neighbours wireless broadband! Although the plan is to get our own connection at some stage. Next on the agenda is heading up to Newcastle for New Years. One of my flatmates is from there and has invited me up which should be good fun. I'm taking the train up with another flatty Melissa on the 30th and will come back on the 1st. I have no plans for Christmas so will probably spend it at home with my flatmates who arn't going home and we will cook up a big Xmas dinner. Other than that I'm just looking forward to when Michelle gets here on the 21st. It will be great to catch up with her
Guys Drug Research Unit
Where I got all drugged up. again and maybe do some travelling together.
I hope this finds everyone doing well, leave a comment or send me a message to let me know what you're all up to.
Take care,
Aaron.
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Haley
non-member comment
Ew!
The needle in the throat made me cringe that sounds so bad! Dodgy drugs companies hmmm. Hope you are all recovered and have a good xmas and new year, I'll be having a quiet one it goes without saying. Catch ya later, take care in your bad neighbourhood ;) Haley xxx