One Year on!

This week has been pretty dull really. Were both working hard, getting home late, after a slow and dirty tube ride, feeling pretty tired, having a few drinks in the common room and getting ready to do the same all over again. Live for the weekend, well almost, Damo had to work Saturday. Well he was asked to work and said he would, getting paid a daily rate so every little bit helps.

Saturday Christine met up with Julia and headed to the markets under London bridge. Lots of good food apparently. We all met up at about 5pm, in the cold, wet and dark. We headed to the closest pub we could find where the girls warmed up with hot mulled wines, and Damien had a few pints of Guinness.

Sunday was our first wedding anniversary! Guess what, it rained in London and Melbourne, just like one year ago! Our plan of heading to Hyde park was cancelled, instead we went down Oxford St for a bit of shopping. After getting a few basics and nothing exciting, we were driven out by the hordes of people!

We had a lovely dinner at a modern Thai restaurant called Mango Tree. Christine looked smashing and Damien wore his work clothes! This started with cocktails at the bar and then after being seated and staring at the menu for 10 minutes we ordered the same as always, Pad Thai and Green Chicken Curry! A few wines and then a dessert which was pretty average.

Is there a better way to end a nice night than to have to walk in the freezing cold rain back to the station before jumping on a dirty over crowded train?

London working couple!

Hi Guys!
Been a big week over here, both of us have been working which is great! Christine is still getting 4-5 days a week supply teaching, and has been all over London working in different schools.
Damien started work on Tuesday. Monday morning he signed up with an admin temping agency to get a days work here and there. This was kind of painful, taking a good 2-3 hours. Then at about 2.30pm, he got a call from one of the accounting agencies seeing if he was interested in a 3-4 week contract. Everything was finalised by about 7pm, starting 9am the next morning. Its located near London Tower in central London, helping out with reconciliations of accounts including an 18 month review of the bank accounts. Not all that different to some of the work at Accru.
Other than that we spent Saturday in London, there was a parade for the Lord Mayor and free guided walks. There was supposed to be fireworks at 5pm (yes its dark a bit after 4pm here), but these were cancelled due to the weather, suprise suprise!

London – The first week and a bit!

Anybody hear any London news lately? Big story this week, a man stood on a bridge for 4 hours before finally jumping, into the river below. Sure, it’s cold, grey, wet and unfriendly here, but it’s not really that bad!

Were staying in Bayswater, in a medium term hostel. It’s a great location minutes from two tube stops and short walk to Hyde Park. Looks like we will be here a bit longer than the 2 weeks we originally thought, but it’s not a bad place, full of aussies and kiwi’s who are all pretty friendly.
Christine’s agencies have been great, finding her 2 days work in the first week and a full week in two schools this week. Damien has spent most of the week online looking for work, as well as running around London for meetings with accounting recruitment agencies. They are quite mixed in their views, some say it won’t be to long before something comes up, others a bit more skeptical. Fingers crossed, here’s hoping sooner rather than later!

Other than that we haven’t done a great deal, we spent our first weekend visiting Shepherds Bush, to see the big shopping centre and watch Australia beat England in the rugby union , in a pub. We also headed down to the markets at Brick Lane to meet Kieren and Elise (Damien’s cousin), for lunch, since they were in town for the week. They have been living and working in Denmark, so it was great to see them before they head home for Christmas.

London

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the big gap in Blogs, we have been going a hundred mile an hour, which has been fun, but we have also had a lack of internet. I will be going back and filling in the gaps in the next few weeks so stay tuned.

As for our current situation we have arrived in London, we are in a medium term hostel at the minute, its not too bad, bit crowded in the kitchen at night, but the rest of the time it is fine. Big bonous is the cooked breakfast each morning, although once we start work we will miss this, unless I can find a job that lets me start work at 10am!

Cheers

Damien

Dublin

Our third stop in Dublin was to be our last and that is so disappointing as we love it here and it means we have to leave Ireland, after having so much fun! This time we stayed at Kinlay House backpackers, as that is where we were dropped after the tour and a few of the other people were going to be staying there. The night we arrived the hostel had some Irish dance lessons in the lounge room which we joined in. This was great fun but a decent work out or us unfit travelers. After our dance lesson we met up with a few people from the tour and a couple of other people from the hostel and headed to a pub in the Temple Bar district. More Guinness, dancing and good times!

Monday was our last full day in Ireland, so we made the most of it, just walking the city and doing a few of the things in Dublin we hadn’t seen yet. We started with a bit of shopping and going to the “Temple Bar”, a famous old pub. We wandered through the gardens at the Trinity College and saw the Molly Malone statue (also known as the ‘tart with the cart’). We ate lunch in a pancake restaurant which was nice and then headed to the Kilmainham Goal for the tour which was really good, lots of history and stories of prisoners.

After a short nap, we headed away from the touristy areas of Dublin in search of a little local pub. We didn’t really find it, but we did find a pub, had a hearty stew, Guinness and a bit of a chat to some other people, most of whom were from out of town. Strangely we met an English guy, in Ireland, whose parents live near the Wheelers Hill Pub in Melbourne, small world!
Tuesday morning we were supposed to be meeting up with Alana from our Halloween tour, but at the last minute she bailed. Her uni residence was on lock down because of a swine outbreak, how rude! She is studying in Dublin and was going to take us to one of the art galleries in town. Instead we went for a walk along the River Liffey. We did end up having a look at the gallery also but the exhibition wasn’t that great. Then it was back to the hostel to collect our bags and head out to the airport. In true Irish style, we were sitting on the public bus to the airport and met a couple of really nice locals. We chatted to them for most of the way to the airport, before they got off at their stop.
That has really made this place, the people, and the Guinness! Everyone we have met has been so friendly and willing to help out. We have loved it here in Ireland and are kind of wishing we could stop here to look for work, rather than head back to London.