Winchester

Today we had such an inspirational research day for work! We met up at Waterloo station at 8:15am and boarded a train to Winchester which is an hour or so out of London. We headed to Winchester College of Art which has an incredible library filled with every design and fashion book / magazine you can think of and we were fortunate enough to have access to old archives of fashion design patterns dating back to the 1920’s! It was so nice to be back in a studying environment for the day – I realised that it has been 3 years since I left my studies behind and when your studying day in and out you forget to appreciate aspects of uni life like having access to libraries like this!
We went out for some lunch and found a cute cafe with delicious jacket potatoes so we tucked into one of them followed by some hot drinks! On the way to lunch we came across a car park that was named after me (haha) and also a traditional sweet shop which of course I immediately jumped in to try the free fudge samples (you wouldn't expect anything else from me huh!!)
After lunch we went to a shop called The Hambledon which is now one of my favourite shops ever! It was filled with beautiful interior / craft books, really unique and traditional children's toys, high end beauty / toiletry products, a gorgeous range of clothes (I really wanted this beautiful Orla Kiely coat but at £400 I gently put it back....) and a really stunning Christmas section so yeah it's really the kind of shop that I would dream of running myself one day...
Winchester in itself was a really quaint town and I would recommend stopping off to check it out should you ever cross its path!

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is one of the most amazing cities I have seen since being away. Its is so full of history and incredible buildings and Edinburgh castle is definitely in my top 3 favourite landmarks that I have seen in Europe! Apparently its one of the most haunted cities as well and I walked through graveyards at night time and went on ghost tours of underground vaults where people lived and died centuries ago. My Auntie took me out for the day and I couldn't have asked for a better personal tour guide - her knowledge of the city was impeccable and I learnt so much! We went to Edinburgh castle which was way bigger inside than I thought - you need a full day in there to see everything. I saw my great Uncles name in the book of war heroes that had died in action - I forget that I have family history in Scotland and was so proud to see his name in the book. We saw the 1pm gun go off and boy did it go off!!! Nearly dropped my camera!! We followed that by a hot lunch before heading to Mary Kings Close which was like a movie set and one of the highlights of my trip - its hard to believe that its a real place its just so old! As quoted from the website:

http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/

Buried deep beneath Edinburgh's Royal Mile lies the city's deepest secret warren of hidden streets that has remained frozen in time since the 17th century.

For hundreds of years the true story of the Close has remained untold - until now! In the company of an expert guide, you can explore this unique site and experience what it was really like for the people who lived, worked and died here.

So I really recommend doing this if you ever get to Edinburgh! The ghost tour was really freaky too, you do that at night time and a guide takes you round showing you where witches were killed / the stories behind it and then stories of the ghosts that haunt the underground vaults (which you are in when being told!!) so yeah it was just fantastic!

I had an afternoon exploring myself and made it to a printmaking workshop that I wanted to see but I ended up getting lost and heading back to my Aunties a bit earlier - I shouldn't be alone in a city even with a map!!!

Saturday night I got to catch up with my Kiwi friend and we went to a traditional Scottish party where I was persuaded to take part in the dancing side of things…. after a rocky start of being spun too fast and falling flat on my butt (which more people saw than I would have liked haha!!!) I ended up getting the hang of it and had a blast!

So all in all I had a fantastic time away and I can't wait to visit this incredible city again!! 

Family Reunion

After 18 years I finally made it back to Scotland where the majority of my family live on my Mums side. I think that until you have lived away from your family or in my case grown up without them you can't really understand how strong family bonds are - like you know you love them but until you have been apart its hard to understand just how much they mean to you. I know this cause I've known my whole life how much I love and care for my parents and brother but now that I am away from them its just something else. So when I went up to Scotland as a 25 year old Kiwi woman to see a family that remembered me as a 7 year old child with an English accent I couldn't  help but wonder what it would be like. But that family bond kicked in instantly and it was like I had never left - I could see the children I knew in my cousins now adult faces and when we were together it was like I had never been away and I just had an absolute ball with them! I met all my gorgeous second cousins and again with them it was just instant love and for the first time in my life I had more than a couple of family members around me and it was one of the best feelings I have ever had - I waited so long for it and wasn't disappointed. I have never laughed so much and it was nice to be looked after for a week (my Aunties are like duplicates of my Mum!!!) and it was so interesting to see all the similar traits they had, learn about my family history and see where my Mum grew up. My family are barking mad but you just have to dive right in and become part of the madness which I did without hesitation - I really can't wait to go back up and see everyone again!!

Vintage Shop

Today we left work at 10am, jumped in a black cab (oh yeah we did!) and went to Holland Park where we spent an hour in a collectors vintage shop. The drive there was so nice and the surroundings were quite like Ponsonby in Auckland! We were greeted by a beautiful dog that kept hitting me the whole time I was there if I stopped patting her… there were such gorgeous one of pieces of clothing there as well as drawers filled with lace, trimmings and scarfs all from the early 19th century! Nice way to start the day!

My Placemat in John Lewis

Popped into John Lewis today to buy some stockings and got a photo with the placemat design I did all the way back in New Zealand! So cool seeing it there! Of course I bought a set for the house :) On the subject of stockings, when I arrived back at work and announced what I had bought there was some excitement from the boys in the office and I then learnt that stockings in England refer to the naughty thigh-high lace kind and that I must refer to the kind I got as tights and only tights (hehe). So thats trousers instead of pants, tights instead of stockings, wellies instead of gumboots.... 

Kempton Park Markets

5.30am on Tuesday morning, my lovely alarm goes off. That morning I got up early to head south of Wimbledon to Kempton Park to meet my fellow work colleagues and explore the vintage markets for inspiration for the next collection. So with my Starbucks in tow, jacket and snood I set off on the train at 6.45am. These markets were just fantastic and there was so much to see! Times like that I really wish that I owned a house here and could fill it up with all the beautiful furniture that was there. I found a beautiful large mirror with an incredible antique detailed frame for only £35!!! You'd pay more than that for a cheap nasty one from Ikea! There was so much nostalgia there, I saw a series of Beatrix Potter books which brought back such nice memories, there was real knights armour / swords, antique guns which my brother would have loved (that sounds bad haha) and just lots of beautiful handmade clothes and accessories. Vintage and antiques aren't really my thing but after visiting these markets my thoughts on that have changed and you just really admire the handy work and talent that went into creating all the pieces there. I even nabbed an angora / wool handmade cardigan for £5!! It was a cold drizzly day but we had delicious hot jacket potatoes for lunch, I have a new found love for food since I have been here especially hot food! Will have to watch the waistline over the next few months…. yeah, right!

Regent Park

One of things I'm really pleasantly surprised about with London is the beautiful parks that can be found throughout the city. I have one near my work and when the sun is out (emphasis on the word 'when' haha) its really nice to have a walk around or eat lunch there. Hyde Park is also beautiful and it was the first park in London I went to with Kate (miss you!!!!!) when we first arrived here in May. Last weekend I ventured to Regents Park with a friend from NZ and it was just stunning, the Autumn leaves were in there element and I have never seen such beauty in the Autumn before. So if your planning on coming to London its worthwhile to venture into a few parks, have a picnic and see some squirrels too! 

V&A

We also went to the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) http://www.vam.ac.uk/ which was by far my favourite place that I have been to in London. William Morris is one of the most well known English textile designers and has been such a huge inspiration to my design work and I can't describe how fulfilling it was to see his original work in REAL life and not through the pages of a book. We had lunch in the most beautiful room that was designed by him and it was a real 'take a moment and absorb it all' experience for me. The V&A have excellent exhibitions and the ones we saw were The Power of Making which was really interesting and focused on crafts and making things by hand and not with machines - there has been such a boom and re-focus on handmade items over the past few years and it was a really worthwhile exhibition to see. The second was called Postmodernism - Style and Subversion 1970-90 which was focused on fashion and accessories. Such a worthwhile place to visit even if design isn't a key area in your life - you'll be inspired no matter what field you work in!

Exploring London with Work

After a hugely full on month with fashion week we were able to have a bit of down time and go and see some beautiful art galleries and exhibitions in London. We saw so much inspirational work and got a lot of photos for future reference. We went to Tate Modern http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/ and saw an inspiring exhibition by Gerhard Richter and there was so much more to see - 5 levels of exhibitions so I have to head back there at some point. We also visited a gallery and saw original art works by Picasso, Magritte (who I did a study on at uni) and Andy Warhol, the prices were through the roof (£10 million a piece). I also saw a sculpture that looked exactly the same as one I had seen at Vatican City a few months back only this was a flat circle not a sphere shape like the other and when I read the description it turns out that they were both made as a series and the chances of seeing them both in a lifetime are pretty slim so that was pretty cool too!!!! 

Ikea

Oh Ikea, how we have grown to love and hate you at the same time!! Over-priced cheap quality furniture that you have to put together yourself yet its conveniently set up in show rooms so you can see how it looks when made and is delivered to your house… which is kind of essential when you don't have a car and depend on public transport! Its a one stop shop - you can go there and in one visit order everything for a perfectly functioning house! Thanks to handy-gal Nikki I got my chest of drawers set up no problems, the only 'oops' was the base ended up upside down so you can see the speckly wood instead of the smooth surface wood but we just like to think it was made with love and love has its imperfections!! I'm pretty sure they are opening one in Auckland which at first will be exciting but I say stick to The Warehouse and Briscoes! How we miss those stores!

Origin Craft Fair

http://www.originuk.org/

I forgot to mention this incredible craft fair that I went to a few months ago with my friend from uni. We were both so inspired and left with so many ideas that we wanted to focus on / work towards in the future. My friend Emma from work was exhibiting there and her stall was just fantastic! You can check out her website / blog at http://emmabradbury.com/. The fair is located at the Old Spitalfields Market and is only on once a year. Its really close to Bricklane as well which has fantastic (and super busy) markets every Sunday - theres also great restaurants there and I still have to go for a curry there one night!

WOOP WOOP HERES TO THE ALL BLACKS!!!

In some ways it sucks to be away from home during the Rugby World Cup but in other ways I'm so proud to be in London representing my fellow Kiwi's!! So excited for the final this Sunday, Dan we miss you and the close up's of conversions and penalty kicks just aren't the same without you.... But anyway, life goes on, heres to the final this Sunday!!!

GO BOYS!

$$ The cost of living in London $$

London is a very expensive place to live. I have found that what you pay £80 for over here, you can get for $80 in New Zealand. I am struggling to find a good pair of affordable boots and a good winter coat that doesn't disagree with my bank account. Where is the Number 1 shoe warehouse? Where is Glassons for all the merino wool basics, and Jay Jays for my yearly purchase of ugg boots? If you may remember in my earlier posts when I was talking about saving, I mentioned that I sold a lot of stuff on Trade Me to make some extra money. Don't do this! Well, not your winter things anyway. I worked out that for my parents to send me over a few of my coats, wool cardigans, thermals, gloves, scarfs and jumpers it will cost £60. It will cost me £80 to get just one coat over here and even at that it will be like 40% wool and you really need at least 80% to stay warm over here. How ironic that in NZ the jackets are half this price with more wool in them? You would think the colder country would be more ideal for buying coats in the winter... apparently not. A pair of leather boots that you could pick up for a cool $90 (£45) is infact £90 here ($180). So before you get the idea in your head that London is amazing for shopping - which it is in some respects - keep in mind that its generally only the rich and famous that can afford to shop in one of the worlds most popular fashionable cities! There are definitely cheap shops around here but the quality is obviously rubbish and will not keep you warm. I'm having to order ugg boots off Ebay as they predominantly seem to have Australian uggs here which will set you back $150-300!!!!!! Madness! I'm hoping Mum will chuck in a packet of milk bottles and pineapple lumps for me when posting my things over (hint hint) :D

London update + working for Daks

http://vimeo.com/30673367

Click on the above link for an awesome video showing the behind the scenes experience of Daks at London fashion week (where I was work). London continues to just get more and more exciting (and more cold for that matter!) What an amazing experience though, who would have known when I left NZ nearly 6 months ago that I would end up in such an amazing job and be backstage at London fashion week. Fashion was never what I had in mind for myself as I have always been drawn to homewares (wallpaper, wrapping paper, patterns, mugs, linens etc) but its all easily adaptable to clothing and fabric is quickly turning into a favourite of mine. It's interesting seeing my design style evolve as I grow as well, I have always loved florals and decorative complicated pieces and now I see myself moving into a more simpler style of design and its just so exciting being able to have the opportunity to continue to grow and explore the creative world in more ways than I could have ever dreamed of. My research can consist of looking through fashion magazines, exploring London and checking out the latest shops and trends and as well as hunting through fashion websites such as Vogue and style.com. I will also be working on a new homewares collection soon enough as well. The role I have is not just focused on one area of design - I get to work on a variety of projects and am alway doing something different which suits me perfectly as I love learning and extending my skill base.

Everything is going amazing at the flat as well, my room is finally set up for the first time in 6 months I finally have a bed again! Only now its harder to get up in the mornings... living in London in general is quite draining at times especially cause we don't have a car so we have to walk and take public transport everywhere. Everything is go go go and if you stop in the street to look for something in your bag someone will knock into you - guaranteed! Its very different to Auckland thats for sure.

Homesickness eases after a while, first few months were the hardest really. Then sometimes it will just hit you out of the blue, like this morning at work, talking to my brother on Facebook chat and I just got really upset and ended up having a bit of a cry for a good 10 minutes at work!! I think thats only the second time I have cried since I have been away from home though so I guess I was due for some tears but didn't expect it to happen at work! But hey, I'm in London so I just went shopping at lunch and cheered up pretty fast :) Oh that reminds me of another entry I must get onto! Thanks for reading!

Hello Full-Time Employment - A Job Hunting Story

Where to start? Well first of all I have officially been offered a full time role in graphic and textile design at a very well known British fashion designers - and accepted! BOOM! HELLO LONDON FASHION WEEK! What a whirl wind.... job hunting in London is not that fun, especially when you decide to move into a house first like I did - there is way more pressure on you to secure a job asap but at the same time I needed a place to live so I didn't have a choice. It was incredibly daunting to say the least and looking back it was one of the most worrying periods of my life... lets start at the beginning...

My plan as most of you know was to head up to Edinburgh and live and work there. When my two Kiwi friends txt and said they needed a third flatty in London I jumped at the opportunity - there were at least 6-10 exciting design jobs advertised a day in London that I wanted to apply for and about 5 a week in other areas of the country - so no comparison. You have to be prepared when you come to London - on average it takes 2-3 months to secure a full time job (from what I have heard from others that have moved here and recruitment agencies). I didn't have that choice - I had 6 weeks to land a job in order to make my bill payments and that was the maximum amount of time (as I mentioned earlier - stress!) but I did it!

Its an incredibly isolating experience moving to one of the biggest cities in the world, populated by over 10 million people - and you only know about 5. I started applying for jobs 3 weeks before I left my Uncle and Aunties in Chester (who have now been officially dubbed 'The Foster Parents') and continued to apply for my first two weeks in London. Over here most jobs are advertised for a month so you have to allow four weeks for the closing date, one week for them to sift through all the applications - there will be 1000's in most jobs - and then IF they are interested you get a phone call, an interview will be set up for the following week, then you have another week to hear back, and thats 7 weeks gone.
The strongest advice I have is to SAVE. Consider everything - bond and agency fees for a flat can be anywhere from 1500-2000 pounds, you need money to stay in hotels / backpackers if you don't have a couch to crash on (thankfully I did) plus food, travel (about 32 pounds a week for a travel pass) and theres more along the way, so thats about $6000 to get set up (when converted), feed yourself and travel around for a few weeks - and boy does the money go fast! You might as well just stand on the street throwing cash away.

Anyway, back to the job hunting. Its very scary not hearing a peep from anyone that you apply through - you think surely they have seen my CV and want to call me - nope - all CV's get sent to a receptionist and put in a pile and at the end of the four weeks they are passed onto management. After four weeks of not hearing anything you start to self-doubt yourself big time. I spent most of my first few weeks in London sitting inside just applying for jobs and it drives you insane - but as Dr. Phil says 'If your not working full time then by golly, your looking for a job full time.' For some reason those words have always stuck with me! So after 5 weeks since first applying the phone calls started, agencies calling wanting to chat about the type of work I was after etc by the 7th week I was on board with four really good design agencies. After six weeks of applying for jobs, I received a phone call about a two week freelance job with a leading fashion design brand to design a textile print for a new handbag. Of course I jumped at the opportunity! I was then asked to stay on for another week and then was officially offered a full time position yesterday! Its a dream role and most importantly ticked all of the boxes for what I wanted in my new job. Everyone in the team is just fantastic and I get to look at fashion and home design magazines as part of my research and explore London for new up and coming trends - time to pinch myself I think???
I also had an interview for a stationery company that I have followed frequently over the last four years and when I was in New Zealand I would literally day dream of one day visiting this company and possibly working for them so to have an interview was beyond me. However I found out that the designs are actually imported and the 'designers' simply place existing designs on product. My flat mate / friend Nikki described my disappointment perfectly - like a child finding out Santa wasn't real.

Anyway, I actually landed my dream role without realising it was a dream role before I came to London. Isn't life full of exciting surprises? I would have never seen myself working for a leading fashion company and attending fashion week in London when I left New Zealand in May. We have a beautiful home in Wimbledon, I live with two fantastic Kiwi friends, now have an amazing job and we are all excited about living life here and planning our travels over the next few years.
In regards to moving into our flat we had nothing - we ate our dinner on the first night using a beach towel as a table cloth on the floor and drank wine from plastic cups - all part of the fun! We have been here a month tomorrow, we have a TV, outside furniture as our lounge furniture (the couches should be here soon) I am still on an air bed and will be until November / December and my clothes are all in piles on the floor as I have no where to put them but you know what? I couldn't have asked for a better start to London. Yes its scary, yes you feel isolated / stressed / lonely / homesick - sometimes all at the same time - but if you want it bad enough you can make it happen and I'm so proud of myself for everything I have accomplished over the past few months!

So whats next for me? Im going to start a new blog called Living Life in London (go figure), hopefully make it up to Scotland soon to see my family and meet my pen pal, re-open my Etsy shop with a new set of prints, continue exploring London and just making the most of our time here. By December I should be financially back on track and I want to save for a flash camera to keep working on my photography - as well as do night classes in cooking and web design - phewf!

Homelanz - Kiwi Day Out in London

First of all, apologies for not writing in a while - London chews up your time! We have been having a great time here and 3 weeks after I arrived in London we went to Homelanz - a Kiwi festival in London! It was so fun, we ate Kiwi food ($6-7 for a bag of Pascall lollies!!) and drank and chilled to good NZ music - Katchafire and Ladi 6. And whats best? It didn't rain - bonus!

Thinking of Traveling Europe? Read on for Tips!

Theres probably a whole bunch of things I could suggest but here is what I can remember at this point in time!

When planning for Europe we thought we could get away with 20-30 euro a day (about $60 NZ) - this is not going to happen. I would say the minimum to budget would be 50 euro - on the odd day you will only spend 20 euro but then next you may spend 80-100 so 50 is a good balance to aim for.

Extra costs we didn't think about:

Washing machines and dryers - these can cost up to 7 euro a wash (yes, $14) and the dryer can cost the same so its a good idea to team up with someone and do a wash together. Your clothes will shrink and get destroyed on this trip (we'll blame it on the tumble dryers - not the amount of food and drink were consuming!) so don't take your best clothes!

Bottled water - this can vary from .30 euro to 4 euro a bottle, depending on where you are and when its hot - and it gets very hot - you are drinking up to 4 small bottles a day. You can save by getting the big bottles but then you are lugging it around.

Public toilets - Oh Europe and your public toilets!! I swear some countries don't even have them, Paris was the worst, I remember seeing one on the whole day of walking! You do have to pay for them in other countries but its a maximum of .50 euro so its not that bad.

Snacks at gas stations - if you do a bus tour you can stop at a gas station for toilet breaks / food stops up to 3 times a day and snacks all add up. Its a good idea to stock up on food at the supermarket when you can - just don't eat it all in one go!

Optionals - Beware the optionals on bus tours!! Most tour guides get a commission from you eating a restaurant that they recommend - the deal is they bring all of their bus tours to that particular restaurant then they get a percentage of each meal bought. We caught onto this pretty quickly and the food was not good at all. The most disappointing dupe of all was the 'amazing' 5 story night club in Prague - again we pay, tour guide gets a cut. Imagine a huge public toilet block, put a dance floor in the middle of it and disco smoke and thats the 5 story club in Prague. The best example of the optionals occurred in the Swiss Alps though. We stayed in a small town with not a lot to do (so we were told) and the options we were given were sky diving which was hundreds of dollars or a 2 hour train ride up a mountain to see snow and views of the mountains which was the equivalent of $170. We didn't want to pay that much so went for a wonder around town. What did we find? An 8 frank gondola ride ($11) which took us up a mountain where we went on a stunning hour and a half walk seeing the most spectacular views and had lunch at a village that was full of restaurants and cafes, then took the 8 frank gondola ride back down. Were we told of this? No. Why? Because the tour leader would have made no profit. Moral of this story is DO YOUR RESEARCH. Just because the tour guide recommends it it does not mean that that is the only option or that you'll be missing out on an amazing experience - cause chances are you'll find a better one just around the corner at a fraction of the price.

Transport on free days - every second day you will be off the bus so you have to find your own transport. You can get a tube day pass for around 6 euro a day or catch the bus which will be cheaper. If your exploring a smaller city its always best to walk cause you get to see more and save your cash.

Smoking - Having gotten used to the no smoking law in New Zealand restaurants and bars I forgot that this didn't apply to the rest of the world and everyone seems to smoke in Europe! So when you find a restaurant make sure you check it out first before you sit down to eat - theres nothing worse than eating your food when someone on the table next to you is blowing smoke your way!

What I found handy that I packed:

Micro towels - debatable - they are quite small so they don't cover much! And they didn't dry as quick as I thought they would but it was still probably faster than a normal towel.

Take mirror if your a woman - Imagine the following scenario - you have to up, showered, dressed, packed, have eaten breakfast and sitting on the bus by 7am. There are four girls in your room - and one bathroom (insert shock / horror face here) so I recommend that you take a small mirror so you can either do your make up on your bed or the bus.

Kathmandu toiletry bag - I love my toiletry bag! Its sizable enough to fit everything you need in it but small enough to pack away nicely - it also has a handle on the inside so that you can hang it up in the shower - genius!

Walking shoes - this is the most important in my opinion. You are doing so much walking when your traveling so its a necessity to invest in a good pair of walking shoes. I bough a pair of Nike Airs and it was the best thing I bought for the trip - I have literally worn them everyday for the last 3 months! Wait till you get to England though cause there cheaper here! Also try and get a good pair of sandalls cause we got really bad blisters from wearing ours around!

Flask - I didn't need my flask in the end. I thought that I would make a flask of coffee or tea in the morning and take it with me on the bus. Reality is the first toilet break isn't for 2-3 hours so drinking a flask of tea is not ideal unless you have a bladder of steal!

Food intolerance's - I was surprised by the amount of gluten free food I found in Europe and Top Deck provided gluten free lunches and dinners when they were providing a meal for us (you get about 6-8 Top Deck made dinner and lunches on the trip) and it was the best food - much nicer than most of the restaurants that we visited. The only struggle was breakfast so its good to have some rice cakes on hand if there is no yoghurt or fruit available. Top Deck will re-enburse you if you keep the receipt for foods that you buy to do with allergies so that was also a bonus. Apparently its harder if your lactose in tolerant but its advisable to call whoever you are traveling with before you leave incase you have to stock up before hand.

Spare tooth brush - Take a spare tooth brush cause when you drop yours on a nasty as hostel floor and the only option is to get one at the next supermarket for $10 you will wish that you had brought a spare!

Student I.D discounts - If you have one, take it. You can get into places like the Vatican City for up to half price so you save a fair bit!

Medications - Make sure you pack pain killers and hay fever tablets if you get hay fever. In NZ spring time is September so I didn't even think that Spring time in Europe was April / May and I actually had the worst hay fever of my life. Luckily I had thought ahead and got heaps from the doctor but it was really to last me months so I didn't have to go to a doctor in England for it but I ended up using most of it in the first month I was away. Also remember that not only do they speak a different language in Europe - everything is written in a different language. So if you take specific medications get in before you go so you can actually read the packet!

Hope these tips help :)

London - Take Two

WOW 1,087 page views!
First of all a HUGE thanks to everyone who has been following my blog and keeping up to date with all my adventures! The last few weeks I've just been having downtime with the whanau in Chester and Sandbach and got to meet up with the rest of my Dads side that I hadn't seen in over 18 years as well as my Uncle and Auntie from Mums side so its been really cool just getting to know everyone again, your really re-building relationships when its been that long but it takes a second or a day max to get used to each other again, family bond is a funny thing, something you can't explain but its always there nonetheless. So yesterday I made my way back to London with all my gear in tow... its quite stressful really figuring out the tubes while your weighed down with everything you own! So while everyone else is in jackets and trousers (I have learnt not to say pants as this is underwear over here!) Im sweating like a mad man in a singlet and trakkies trying to carry my 20-something kg suitcase up and down steep flights of stairs in the railway station... I got on the wrong train, went up and down two flights of stairs that I didn't need to and broke the handle on my suitcase (the part you pull along, handy huh....) BUT I arrived at my destination in the end :) So now Im in Kilburn in London staying with friends until the 1st of August which is when I move into our new flat (well a terrace house, just like in Love Actually!) with Kristen and Nikki, my travel buddies and now soon to be roomies :) Were all so excited! Only catch now is the pressure is on to get a job. Its a tough one cause you have to make the decision to wait and get a job then have no where to live / find somewhere with randoms or get a place with your kiwi gals and then get the job after - which is what I opted for in the end. London is a HUGE place, its not like Auckland at all and I wouldn't feel safe hunting for flats alone, not to mention the cost of staying in hotels until you find somewhere - its extortionate. Its true what everyone says - you begin to appreciate things about your home country that you never really took notice of before, for example I didn't think that the reason we had SO much Asian food was because New Zealand is close to Asia (sounds blonde but you just assume that the whole world would have Asian food right??) London is definitely better on the food side but the rest of Europe barely had any Asian food available and I live off it! I also admire the sense of community that New Zealanders have - there is so much litter around in England especially at festivals and theme parks - I know there is litter in New Zealand as well but this is just above and beyond what I'm used to seeing. I know there are millions and millions more people here but still, its like when I travelled to the South Island I was just as respectful as I would be in Auckland if not more so cause its just a beautiful place - and its my country no matter where I am in it. But here its like people don't seem to appreciate the country as a whole, just the area they live in and its a bit of a shame to see really!
Anyway, tomorrow I'm meeting up with Kristen for dinner then were going to check out some bars! Saturday we'll just chill then were meeting up with our new friend from the Top Deck tour Laura who also lives in London (Laura and her brother were both on our European bus, Laura went to Howick College and her bro went to my old school Macleans College - small world huh!) Then Sunday is the Ben and Jerrys festival - the BEST ice cream ever! It's a music festival too so hopefully the weather holds up! Next week will really just be sourcing home insurance and internet / TV / job hunting etc etc so yeah thats the update! Hope all is well where ever your reading this! Peace!