Monday, 2 July 2007

The Beginning of the End...or the End of the Beginning?

Today and tomorrow are my last two days of Freedom. The end of my holidays and the beginning of a new career as a GIS Consultant - I have a job! But as I haven't received the contract yet, and I am supposed to start on Wednesday, I'm a little dubious as to the validity of the position it must be admitted! Anyway, I can hope - I have a starting time at least. Yay for me! I won't get paid until August though, so it won't seem quite real to me until then I don't think. Actual Pounds. Wow. Will be able to buy stuff... Mmmm... Stuff...

In the mean time I am looking for a place to live - which is proving more difficult than I had anticipated. This is more due to fact that I need to get my head around the amount of money I'll have to pay for accommodation (which is truly frightening!) and the difficulty of finding compatible housemates (people I can actually converse with in a language I speak) on the right tube line (so I can get into work in under an hour - honestly, it would be quicker to walk from some places!) and not within a neighbourhood which scares me silly (and there have been a couple I would just not feel safe living in) than actually finding a place because there seem to be loads...but then appearances are deceiving here. The process is interesting none the less.

I also visited some lovely places on the weekend. I went to the Borough Market with Richard on Saturday which was amazing - so many different vegetables! I hadn't seen a good majority of them in the flesh before, only on TV, so I was feeling very privileged to be able to touch and taste them -I wanted to buy samples of everything just so I could try them! I also got very wet for my first time in this country, as it absolutely poured with rain, so I feel like I've had a baptism of sorts and can feel myself truly introduced to England! I then visited Sarah and David (family friends) on Sunday and walked around Marylebone, visited the Farmers Market there and walked around Regents park (absolutely gorgeous!), and had tea in a lovely little cafe in the middle somewhere. So I'm now feeling more at home in this place. Have caught up with almost everyone I know here, but still have plenty of things I want to do, so it is all good.

So, all in all, I am quietly happy. I am scared of not finding a place and apprehensive about work and worried about money but I am also excited about visiting all the bookshops on Charring Cross Road, and amazed at being able to go to a different musical every week of the year and not repeat myself, and in awe that I can buy a ticket to go to Berlin next weekend if I so choose... I know for sure and certain that I am alive. And this is very, very good!

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