Interviews, Soho, Camden Town, live bands and more..

Monday 7/5/07

Monday night I headed out with my housemate Katie and her friend Woody (aka Mark pictured in the photo) into London itself into Soho which I discovered is kind of well – gay central. First of all we went to a bar called Trash Palace, then to a club called the Ghetto (how appropriate). A live band called Language played there who were actually really good – you can listen to their songs on their site. And being in a gay nightclub was somehow strangely comforting because I didn't have to worry about being hit on - I was just there to have a good time!

Anyway, I had a bit of a boogie after the band finished. Songs that got me up and dancing (and jumping around lots) were LCD Soundsystem – North American Scum, Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name Of and Muse – Hysteria (god I love the guitar solo toward the end of that song..). Needed a good dance. On the way home, I saw the giant gold Freddy Mercury statue where We Will Rock You is playing, Big Ben, the London Eye and a few other things which got me excited. Didn’t go to sleep until about 3.30/4ish. Yikes.

Tuesday 8/5/07

Today my long awaited second suitcase of stuff from home was arriving by courier. There was no way I was leaving the house until it arrived. When it finally came mid-afternoon – it was like Christmas opening my suitcase –I’d forgotten what’d I’d packed because it seemed so long ago. Of note, I had my big fluffy towels, my warm and daggy tracky dacks, my pink flannelette leopard print pj pants (very attractive), my bathrobe, my duck down doona (yay!), and a picture of Kiddy which I stuck on my wall. I slept very happily that night all rugged up in my doona – was nice to have some things that made me feel “at home” again. Oh if anyone feels like sending me Promite or Aktavite – email me and I’ll give you my address – can’t get either of them over here!

Thursday - Friday 10-11/5/07

Thursday was my “planning” day. I had to figure out how to get from Brixton to Staines for an interview on Friday. The job wasn’t actually in Staines (it's in Feltham where their Data Centre is), but that’s where the interview was. And after finding out it was going to cost 70-80 pounds to get a taxi there, I quickly decided public transportation was my only option. After doing various searches on tube and rail websites, I had to get the tube, 2 trains and a cab from the train station to the interview (whoa). I made it from the tube to Victoria train station where fate was actually working in my favour – it took a good 5 minutes lining up to buy my train tickets – there was a huge queue (I hadn’t put this into my timings), but luckily my train was delayed by 5 or 10 minutes – if it hadn’t have been I would’ve missed it and the connecting train that I had to transfer onto and the cab waiting for me at the other end.

So I made it to the interview and I was actually early. The job was for a Technical Author (it’s a SharePoint related job) working for T-Systems – I think the interview went well – it went for a solid hour - was quite intense and they're a huge company. I’ll find out next week what the outcome is I'd say. I also have another interview for a different job lined up on Wednesday in London itself – so we’ll see what happens. After the interview I made it all the way back to Brixton, went for a chai latte at Cafe Nero, got home and out of my interview clothes and stupid high heels (ow).

I plonked myself on the couch in the living room and listened to Queen – A Night at the Opera – which someone dear to me from home recently recommended that I download and listen to it (I love Queen incase you hadn’t figured out yet). In particular, I was told to listen to “You’re My Best Friend” (and a few other songs) – because they’d been thinking about me on the other side of the world (click the link to read the lyrics). Now I've heard and I'm sure everyone else has heard this song a zillion times before - but I sat there and *really* listened to the lyrics and I cried for the first time since I’ve been here. Music makes me cry sometimes – it’s powerful stuff.. It was a happy and sad moment in one. Beautiful and heart felt words and lyrics..

Oh, I forgot to mention that on Thursday night I ventured out to Camden Town with Josh – a friend of a friend from home to see some live music. I have to say, all this getting around on public transport, catching the tube and trains here and there has really boosted my confidence knowing I can get from A to B (via X, Y and Z). I was kind of mentally “scared” of doing these things initially – but now I know it’s nothing to be scared of at all. I have my tube map, the public tranport websites are great, there’s signs everywhere and having an Oyster card makes things even easier (it’s a swipe card you put credit on instead of buying tickets and you can top it up online). Anyway, Josh’s brother was in a band that was playing at the place where we were going to in Camden Town. The lead singer - her name is Amy and she’s in the photo with Josh – turns out before she was a singer, she was a dancer and was in the Muse – Our Time is Running Out music clip – there you go!

Anyway, that’s all for now, hopefully next time I post another blog entry there’ll be more / good news on the job front. Oh also, I have a really good phone card offer at the moment - I can call Australia for free on Saturdays during May from my midday to midnight - which is Saturday 9pm to Sunday 9am Brisbane/Australia time - so if you have a landline, email me your number so I can call you (I seem to mostly have people's mobiles - doh!) - but it's for May only (and other random months during the year). Speak to you all soon – and someone please send me Promite and Aktavite!! Oh and I saw my first squirrel and fox the other day too! Manda :)

Oh PS: I found out Mogwai (one of my favourite bands) was DJing in a local club here in Brixton – but it turns out it was last weekend – I missed out – damn! I am definitely living in the right place for music though! Bye! And PPS: If you see photos of food / dinnerplates on here - I like taking photos of dinners I cook at home when it looks fab / yummy. AND PPPS: good luck to 2 special people who start new jobs on Monday :)