You might think if someone asked you ‘You right yeah?’ an appropriate response would be ‘Yes thank you.’ Apparently not. After being greeted with this for over a week now we’ve learned that this is a friendly greeting – kind of like G’day or Hi. We’ve found answering back with ‘Hi’ seems to do the trick.
Bloody Poms!
Since arriving in England we have become familiar with the social phenomenon known as “The Chav”. Chavs (or Scallies) can be identified easily by their “fashionable” track suits, white shoes and bling.
Check out this site for all the information you could ever need regarding Chavs.
After spending our first weekend in London job and flat hunting it was time to go on another holiday. We packed up the car with food, luggage and some new friends and headed out on Easter Road Trip 2005.
David, Michelle’s uni friend had organized our weekend. His two good friends, Laura and Katherine, along with Michelle and I, decided to be adventurous and tag along with him. We hired a 7 seater Vauxhall (Holden) Sophia wagon and headed up to Yorkshire for our first stop. Yorkshire is north England and David had some wonderful distant family there that put us up in their house for 2 nights. The weird thing was that not only did they provide accommodation for us but they also left for the weekend and provided us with plenty of food. I say the British are a lot more hospitable than any Aussies I know.
The next day we all headed out for an explore around Yorkshire. Unfortunately Michelle was ill and spent the day in bed – damn these northern hemisphere colds. Castle Howard – an estate that proves that some English families are way to wealthy was first on our list. It is a beautiful castle and estate. Daisies growing everywhere. After that we decided to check out what are known as Moors. Moors are basically dead, decaying, balding, horrible hills. Nothing worth the effort to checkout – that’s for sure.
On Easter Sunday, we opened our Easter eggs before packing the car up and driving across to west England. The drive was long and winding but extremely beautiful as today we passed through what are known as Dales. Dales are the complete opposite of Moors. Green, lucious, beautiful. We arrived in Blackpool that afternoon. Blackpool is known to many Londoners as a skanky dive city. Kind of like a sin city that’s trapped back in the 70s. It’s a coast side city with amusement parks, trams, lots of pubs and too many skanky girls who were practically wearing only their underpants in 7 degree Celsius temperatures.
We went to Blackpool for a laugh and had a great time out at the pubs that night before retiring to our olden style B&B with rooms that smelt like a forest fire. It was then Monday, time for the long drive back to London with the other 17 million cars on the road that weekend. We managed a safe trip home and couldn’t have spent a better weekend getting to see a bit of England and making new friends.
This week Michelle and I have been familiarizing ourselves with London in many ways. We’ve made several trips into central London both for exploratory, social and survival purposes.
We’ve managed to checkout David’s new digs at Wapping, a nice two bedroom flat with a seperate living area and kitchen. Last night we met up in town with Jaimee and her boyfriend Damian. He is a nice funny guy. Can’t wait to catch up with him again.
In between the social gatherings we’ve been busily searching for jobs and places to live. Michelle and I have both had meetings with a recruitment agency and I just received a phone call 2 minutes ago for a telephone interview this afternoon. I’m a bit nervous. Haven’t interviewed for a couple of years.
Tonight we’re checking out a 1 bedroom flat in Islington – mainly for reference purposes ie. to get an idea of what you get for your buck.
And yesterday, I trekked back out to Heathrow to clear some luggage we had sent over seperately to our travel. It was an involved, expensive process but worth it. Ray and Maree (Michelle’s Parents) surprised us by placing some delicious lollies and nuts and some newspaper clippings in there. Thanks. Much appreciated.
So anywho, that’s our life at the moment. Tomorrow we’re heading off for a road trip around England – up to the Lakes District and what not. Yay!
Happy Easter everyone.
Hi from sunny London. We’ve finally made it.
After catching the red-eye from NY to London we were greeted by Jaimee and Lucy at the airport. A short trip from Heathrow to Vauxhall and we were freshening up at Jaimee’s place before we met up with David and did a short stint of sight seeing.
We were jetlagged and tired so everything we saw looked like a blur. I especially was a zombie. I couldn’t make sense of anything and I was feeling overwhelmed at the realization that our holiday was over and that I had to make a life in this place.
After catching a good nights sleep though, things started to clear up for me. We headed out to Regent St and activated our bank accounts before buying a mobile phone sim each. We then had a quick look at London Tower before making our way to an internet cafe to apply for jobs.
London so far is short of wi-fi hotspots that are cheap enough to connect to, so it may be a while before I’m posting any photos :(
Anywho, I’m glad we’re here and it’s super great to catch up with our friends Jaimee, David and Lucy. Plenty more friends to still catch up with.