More work!

It is with great interest that I can report on the status of Rhiannon's job hunt - she has been offered a role that she starts on Monday with a recruitment firm in Watford. It's exactly the sort of role she wants, and is very excited about it.

So yay, we can do some more travel next summer.

bah, it's just money.

Once we got back from Paris, we sat down, worked out how much money we had, and a budget. Last night, we set a definitive date when we would have to pack up and run home with our tails between our legs.

That date was defined as October 31st. It's about the only point where we can afford to get back, and still have (some) money to try and settle back in Melbourne.

Down and out in London...

is actually a biographical story by George Orwell. Things are looking up on the interview front for both of us, so it's just a matter of time now. In particular I'm getting much more interest than I was previously. So, we're not down and out yet.

Back on the hunt...

The fact of being back in London means two things. One, we have very little money left. Two, we need jobs. Rhiannon's applying for Admin and HR/Recruitment based roles, as a bit of a change, and will still be doing casual supply teaching in the mean time.
I'm back on the same old band wagon.

The train in Spain falls mainly... in it's standards

Horrible Spanish train! We were in first class, which was full of seats like scratchy material lounges from the seventies. All brown and orange and yuck. Very slow train. We didn’t get reservations because we didn’t think they’d be necessary. They weren’t required on the last Spanish train we were on and we couldn’t book reservations when we first tried.

Our first born....

Is what Switzerland requires to buy a serving of chips from a street stall. That, or 8 Swiss francs. For real ?

Switzerland is possibly also the only country in the western world, where you can see single military guys catching trams, with the public, with their weapons just slung across their back.

Anywhere else, it'd get stolen...

A note to hotels

Here's a note to hotels, in line with my rant regarding offering free wireless.

coffee and tea equipment, including kettles, is not something that should be excluded from a hotel. It especially shouldn't then be offered back to customers for a 5EUR a day fee. Get fucking real. For 5 EUR, I could buy at least 2 real coffees. It's just fucking tight.


I'm looking at you, Mercure Arthur Frommer. Loss of a quarter of the room space due to slanting roof, then you want to charge me for a fucking kettle?

Thank you Accor.

This is a little offtrack - I know we still have lots to post about our Cruisaversarymoon, but this needs a side track.

Thanks to Accor hotels, we've booked something like 40 of our 59 nights over the Summer, at an Average cost of $AUD74 per night.

More Free London

Living in London is expensive. I'm sure I've discussed this before, by mentioning cheap/free things. Today, (or, Saturday as the case may be...) we decided to avail ourselves of some more of these free things. Nothing like getting out and about, and seeing the city you live in.

May Fayre and whiling away the aftenoon...

London is an expensive city. One of the most expensive in the world. With limited funds, that can sometimes make it hard to do things. Yesterday though, we stumbled on something to go and observe at Covent Garden. May Fayre!

It's only for a few weeks....

At least, that's one way of looking at it. You see, I've had a recruiter call to discuss a role with me. But it's a 24x7 rotating shift job.

At least the weather is Sunny...

Because, as previously mentioned, I still haven't had much luck in finding a job.

The Irony...

never ceases. This week-end is, obviously, the Easter weekend. And we'd planned to go away, up to the Isle Of Man, and then over to Belfast, and then around Ireland. I'll tell you more about this in future posts, however we haven't really planned much beyond the IOM transport and accommodation, which is possibly a good thing....

Doctors and nurses...

Once again, we're discovering how different things like GPs and the medical system are over here. I've already posted about the need for an NI number here. We received an NI number each - Rhiannon on Friday, and mine on Saturday (Yes, mail gets delivered on Saturday!) so in my absence of any work, and Rhiannon having a free day, we thought we'd go down to the local surgery, as we need some scripts re-issued for the UK chemists...

Booking Trains...

Those aware of our plans (in so far as we have them) will be aware that in late May, we're flying BA to Rome, staying a night in Rome, then getting an overnight train from Rome to Venice, to board our cruise. (Choose the 7 day, Greek Isles cruise). Then we're staying a couple of nights in Venice, hiring a car, and driving around Northern Italy for 8 days, before flying back again in early June. This trip is both our honeymoon, and our 3 year anniversary, so we're pretty excited.

An NI number...

Is one of the essential things you need to work (legally) here in the UK. It's kind of a cross between our Medicare and Tax File numbers back at home, except, it's both.
NI stands for National Insurance...

To keep money...

One must have a bank account. Getting a bank account in the UK is notoriously difficult. There's also quite a number of differences, and gotchas, particularly with Australian bank cards, which I'll explain below.
You should also bear in mind the difficulties involved in communicating with banks when you're in a different time zone, and that you can't go into a branch to sort things out. Changing institutions is going to be very difficult, unless you're created a power of attorney (which we discussed, but did not do. Damnit.)

Job hunting...

Ain't all it's cracked up to be. I'm hammering off heaps of applications, and I've had a couple of agents come back here and there seeming interested, but so far, not-so good. Rhiannon has already started working, so we're not totally bereft of money so far - in fact, we calculated before we left that even if I didn't work, if she got 5 days a week (which is looking pretty likely) then we'd have enough to survive without touching our savings. I'm getting bored though.

So much so, that I applied for a temp, part time IT support role on Gumtree yesterday. It was an.... interesting.... experience.

Our little flat...

So while Rhiannon is off at work, making money so we can eat and all that, i'm sitting at home being a little house wife husband in between hunting for jobs.

I got a little bored today, and decided to create a video of our little unit/apartment/flat/studio/whatever – so you can see what $AUD290 a week gets you in north west London.

The London Pass

Ok so, London is an expensive city. There's no doubting that. Here's a few prices for amusements and touristy things - per person. And remember to convert backwards, at a rate of about 1:1.6...