Saturday 14 September 2013

Post-Transition


OK I'm starting to get into the swing of things. We've gotten a lot of the boring stuff out of the way like getting a national insurance number (like a tax file number) and opening a bank account with Barclays. Now, it's time to have a bit of fun.

All it took, was the weather to turn bad and suddenly I felt, yeah, this is starting to feel more like London. Getting into the London groove has entailed countless warm hours at a cafe, sipping chai lattes and chatting to old friends. Also I went speed-dating! Don't panic, Kevin and I are still going strong after celebrating our 9 year anniversary. No, this was for housemates. It's run by spareroom.co.uk and basically you wear a sticker with your name, price range and the area you want to live in and just meet other people who you could possibly share house with. You get a red sticker if you are looking for a room and a white if you've got a spare room.

I wasn't actually looking for a place yet since Kevin's sister has kindly shared her apartment with us rent free til we find a place of our own. So since there's no pressure we figured we'd find jobs first so we can look for places nearby work. But a friend of mine was going to this gig so I figured I'd come along and be her wing-woman.

Well it turns out that I too found some lovely people that would actually like to live with Kevin and I, so we might be moving out sooner than later if they have a decent place for us all. I guess when opportunities like these arise you got to be flexible with the 'plan'. 

I also discovered that London's first cat cafe (following the success of those in Tokyo) was opening up soon! Ten minutes from where we live! I think we all know by now how much I love cats so this is certainly right up my alley and I am so excited about it I'm hoping to be involved with it somehow. Toni Nguyen, cat hostess. Has a nice ring to it. Anyways, they will likely be recruiting within the month but tomorrow I'm heading over there to help out with some of the set up stuff so hopefully more opportunities arise. Otherwise it's back to being a vet for me. They both involve cats so it's all good.

Anyways, I'm really excited about London now and after speaking to some other Aussie expats it seems completely normal to feel a bit of shock/depression/displacement once arriving here so I'm glad I had the support network I did and now I can finally relax and enjoy myself. More from me soon.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

The Transition

I've been a lost soul since arriving in London. Unable to write the numerous NYC posts I had planned. Constantly tired and overwhelmed. Admittedly I've been feeling a bit depressed. New York was the final chapter to our grand adventure now I've got that sad, empty feeling you get when you've just finished the best book you've ever read.

What now?

There's an mounting pressure to return to reality. We've had to face a growing pile of paperwork in order to prepare to re-enter the workforce. And find a place to live. And do our taxes. Thinking about everything on this 'to do' list stressed me out so much in my first few days here I would wake up in a flurry throughout the night and my stomach was always in a tight knot.

Today, it feels as if I did nothing as I mostly lounged about the house, eating jack fruit and reading Eat, Pray, Love. But in fact, I spent a large part of the day re-writing my resume that I submitted to be part of the opening on London's first cat cafe. I'm unsure that anything will come out of it but the point is that it was something and I was really excited by the prospect. 

It likely would have been easier if we had gone straight from our Sydney life to this London life, but having absolute freedom for the past 6 months has made our current lifestyle here seem lack luster. I'll give myself a two week grace period from life in general to process this change and then I'll get around to rebuilding life here. We'll see what happens.