London Bierfest!!

After being at my job for over a month, I was starting to be more social in the office and my co-workers involving me in the usual office banter. I had heard rumours of London Bierfest ( www.londonbierfest.com) but figured because I was temping and no-one had actualy said anything to me about it, I wasn't involved.

But the Thursday came along and about 3pm they said there were spare tickets and asked if I wanted to go.... as if I wouldn't!! So we all left work and went to a this pub they had done up to look like I imagine it would in Germany, a massive hall filled with big picnic tables and the german girls walking around with steins giving them out to the thirsty workers. I knew enough people to start a few conversations with and after an hour or so, they were all asking about me, some didnt realise I was from NZ, so there was a lot to talk about (Lord of the Rings, the All Blacks etc). And then the dancing started! We got kicked out of there about 10pm I think and all moved onto this other bar around the corner where there was more dancing. The tube (the train) has its last run about midnite so I made sure I left about 11.30pm and got the last tube home. I was rather jolly when I got home but was glad to see my flatmates still up so we could discuss our nites out.

So it was nice to finally have been out with the workmates and they realised I was just like them. Work the next was a bit hard but we were all hungover together so somehow made it through the day. Was glad I went home when I did because some of my workmates got home at 4am! I couldn't have done that and turned up to work!

Living in London

I've tried to explore London's nite life as much as I can while being here, altho most of the big clubs charge £10-£20 (yes times that by 3 to get NZ dollars) just to get in the door, so I'm often happy with quiet nites at home every now and then with a bottle of wine and some good dvd's. I've recently been to The End twice for 2 different occasions and is somewhere I'd go again. Also found a nice club called Meet which has been great the few times I've been there! Meet is next door to Fabric, which is one of London's most famous clubs.

On Saturday 21 October I went to the Shepherds Bush Empire (about a 5min walk from my place) to see NZ dub group Solmonella Dub play with a group of friends. What we didnt know was that Concord Dawn were going to be playing after as well, what a bonus! Concord Dawn are one of NZ's best known drum n bass duo who I've seen several times and have reallly enjoyed recently. I'm sure the place would've been full with kiwi's and we all loved every second of it!

Heathrow Injection and partying

Heathrow injection. That's what they call it. Everyone seems to come here and put on a few kilos without even realising it. Including me!!

Being the social people that we are, we soon learn about the pub culture in Englad which basically means it doesn't matter what day of the week it is, it's fine to have a drink anytime!!

Last Monday for instane, my cousin Philip arrived from NZ and I went out to meet him at the Australisian pub called the Walkabout. So here I was dancing to dance music at 10pm on a Monday nite, I'm sure that's not right! So I went home. And I blame Philip entirely :) He's currently partying at the beerfest in Germany, lucky thing! I unfortunately didn't have enough to go as well and have been getting texts from people all weekend saying how good it is! And that they wish I was there, that's nice to hear :)

About a month ago, 4 more friends arrived in London. Michelle and Rowan (who I use to work with at my first job out of uni, Tech Pacific) and Robyn and Wade. I use to go out with them in Auckland so its great seeing them here! The first nite I saw them, I took them drinking at a moored boat along the Thames (next to the one I had lunch on with my Aunty Teresa) because I had another friend Jon here for a few days who had organised drinks there. I also invited quite a few other friends along and it turned into a rather jolly Thursday nite! I somehow got home and remembered to set my alarm for work the next day, phew!

I also went with Michelle and co to South West Four which was a massive outdoor dance party starting at midday. A nice way to spend the afternoon on a long weekend! Here's a pic of Robyn, Alain, Michelle and I are the event, was a great day! I had about 5 other groups of friends there as well and managed to see them all. We didnt want the day to end!!

There was also the Nottinghill Festival a few weekends ago, that was amazing! It last for 2 days and each float has about 200 people involved. Either they are on the float, or behind the float all dancing away in there amazingly decorated costumes, NZ just doesn't have anything like that!!!

I've also been to the Ministry of Sound nightclub as well. Went along with my friends Leigh and Glenn and had a ball. DJ's Kid Kreme and Junior Jack were playing. Seen them in NZ but was cool seeing them here on their home territory!

Last Saturday was a fun day, had 3 bday parties to go to! Helen and I trekked across London for my friend Veerals bday which involved homemade cocktails, yum! Then we trekked back in time for one of our dossers, Brendan, birthday dinners at this nice little italian restaurant, then it was across to a South African bar called Zulu bar for my friend Stu's bday drinks. What a nite! But was great seeing so many friends all in one day :)

I've also had a reunion of the trip to Spain. We all went to the Church one Sunday and had a good old reminise about being in Spain. We just all wished we could go back there! That has definately been a highlight of my travels so far!

4 jobs in 7 weeks!!

I have finally landed a 3 month job but in the time since I last had one, it had been about 4 weeks, so I am rather happy now I've got this one!

After going to Paris, I spent a good week or 2 getting in contact with all my agencies to see what work they had available for me. Because I had been lucky in getting a job after arriving in London after 3 weeks, I had only signed up with a few. But now I've signed up with about 7 of them and had to go for interviews with each one, which was rather tiring. But I'm quite good at telling my life story now :)

I am really trying to get a banking job (I worked at the National Bank of NZ back home) so am being a little bit picky about what jobs they put me forward for. Admin/receptionist jobs seem quite easy to come by and I finally took one at a law firm answering phones using a computerised switchboard. Now this was certainly not a huge career move but it was just for a week and was quite fun! I left that job to go to another law firm called Denton Wilde Sapte where I was a database assistant. I was pretty much updating their database when employees made changes in their contacts online. And also helping out with a huge mailout because they were changing their name. I learnt a lot from this job while I was there for a month but once again this wasn't a career move so took another job.

The next one was at Merrill Lynch which is a huge global investment bank, awesome to have on my cv. This was also a role updating a database and was fun again. I worked with some other cool temps and we got on real well. I was going to stay at this job for a month but another agency put me forward for a finance assistant position at a commodities trading company, which is where I currently am.

I haven't had that many great job offers but on the Tues and Wed of that week, I was offered 3 jobs, so I could actually choose! Agencies over here want the sale from you as well so help you every step of the way. I was lucky enough to be able to bargain my pay up as well, just because this other position was offering me more. I chose this one because it was a finance role, which I hadn't had yet, it's closer to home, it was more pay, and it's a 3 month position, which is nice security!!

The company is called Trafigura (www.trafigura.com) and I've heard that a lot of people came from banks like Merrill Lynch so its promising. I have so far done a lot of filing but I'm hoping there's more 'real' work next week!!!

Three other perks which I found about when I started are: unlimited coke, diet coke, orange juice, apple juice and orangina, its casual day every friday so I can wear jeans and jandels and I work with 2 computer screens, side-by-side. Not sure why I have 2 screens but everyone else does, and its quite fun dragging things from one screen to another (sorry if that doesn't make sense to some of you!!).

So I'll be in this position until the end of 3 months and then who knows from there. I'm hoping a position will arise out of this somehow but I won't know until later. But it feels like a step in the right direction :)