Month: July 2004

It’s so hard to believe that it has been four weeks exactly to this day that I arrived in London. Scared, freaked out and ready to go home. Now after four weeks, though I still miss my family and friends, I am settled down. Still looking for a job and a permanent place to stay, but settled as one can get in such circusmtances.

I am back here at the job centre surfing the net for jobs and what not. AGAIN! I am so OVER interviews, but what can one do.

I spent the weekend hanging out with Crys (Christina), it was her last weekend in London, and Isabelle was pre-occupied with a visit from Ludavic her beau from France. So we were left to explore on our own….by BUS of course. Hehe.

We tried M.Tussauds but it was too expensive so we went shopping instead. Then on Sunday we went to Hyde Park to visit the memorial…what a waste of time and money that was. It was like a circle shaped slab of concrete. So much for my appreciation in art…hey to my defense if there’s art to appreciate, I will appreciate it. Unfortunately there was no Art quality with regards to this memorial. The money would have served better being donated to her favourite charity. Not to mention there was no water because apparently it wasn’t French Diplomat Clumsiness Friendly. A French Diplomat slipped and resulted to it being shut down for investigations. Ho hum! It’s almost funny. I took pictures of the signs they had for my own amusement.

Anyways…not much to report…Just that I’m sitting in front of the PC again surfing for jobs. Probably be doing the same thing tomorrow.

Hope you’re all good… love lots… MUWAHHHH!!!!

 

Hmm, I had such big plans for today but they got somewhat sidetracked as I got into one of my new books and couldn’t put it down. MY BAD!!! So instead of seeing Dicken’s house today as planned, I’m here at the Goswell Centre filling in applications forms for a job. Because I was at the dorm I received a call to come down, fill in some forms for a hospital switchboard position. Since I spent the whole morning reading, I figured I may as well do some work (job hunt work) so tomorrow can be spent completely EXPLORING.

 

My birthday turned out to be less depressing than what I had feared it to be. Being my very first birthday ALONE, it was inevitable that I be somewhat melodramatic, fearing the worst. I woke up after only a couple of hours sleep to a note tacked on my door from Isabelle wishing me a Happy Birthday, when I returned from my bathroom break Christina had also added her best wishes on the note. They’re cute. I met them after my Movie Marathon back at the dorm, and we headed out to grab our Pizzas. I blew out a cake that was made from a tower of muffins. It was fun. I celebrated the night with Isabelle, Christina and Lorena, whom I’ve only met recently but she has become a great addition to our lil community.

 

As previously BLOGGED, I spent the day watching movies, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Prince and Me. Mean girls was funny, but I really liked the Prince and Me. I guess that is the hopeless romantic in me. Not to mention my new found appreciation for Julia Stiles, though I liked her before, it was truly awesome to see her in action in Oleanna.

 

Yesterday morning I had my interview at the Waldorf Hilton, which was definitely la di dah! I want a job there!!! The position sounds promising, however the Human Resources chick thinks I would be better at this team leader role and will look into it further for me. She promised to get back to me by tomorrow at the very latest. As for the mortgage job, I’m still waiting for an answer. I’m supposed to know something by the end of the week also.

 

When I got back from Waldorf I had a phone call from Shordiff, the guy organising the mortgage job for me, he calls like three times a day. When I had mentioned this to Eileen (the resident receptionist aka Mother Hen) and added that I had to drop off a copy of my Working Visa, she grew worried and feared he was just wanting to meet me in a dark alley somewhere. LOL. No kidding she did. She demanded to have the address I was headed to as well as my mobile number. What time I was supposed to be there and what not. Then promised she would call me an hour after the designated time I was supposed to be there. I was highly amused but deeply touched at, in her words, ‘Mumsi-ness’, I guess after four weeks of seeing me every day and chatting every day, not to mention seeing what a wreck I was in the beginning, she adopted me as some form of a puppy needing looking after. Needless to say she sighed with relief as I walked through residence doors.

 

After getting changed out of the interview pointy shoes I headed off to Oxford Street for some birthday shopping. I ended up with new shoes for the bargain price of £30. It’s white and pink, my new favourite colour. I also got a belt because my jeans are getting embarrassing in terms of walking and sliding down. I bought new shorts. Oh but my best purchase was at Harrods on Sunday. They were having a massive sale, regardless I still couldn’t afford a thing, however we wandered around the perfume section and found that they were definitely on sale. I ended up with Issey Miyake (the round ball one that I had), a big size, with lotion and bath gel, for…. £17. How awesome is that. Even after you times it by 3 it’s less expensive than buying it there.

 

Tomorrow I’m going to explore all of Tower of London or check out Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle’s house, which is what I was going to do today. Oh well, we’ll see. Hope all is well with everyone. Love lots… muwahhhhhh!!!

Happy Birthday to meeeeeeee!!! Okay, I got that out of my system! Hehe. Well at quarter to midnight last night I received my very first phone call from Ate Grace. Followed closely by Winnie whom for a moment I was ready to disown because I thought she had forgotten. Then my Ats called, my Mom, my Aunty Esty. So safe to say that I didn’t get much sleep last night. I had intended to go to Mass this morning but I woke up late, and by the time I would get to church the mass would be finished….however I went last night just in case I couldn’t get there today.

 

I had brunch at Mickey D’s no less. Sad isn’t it? Come all this way and eat McDonalds for your birthday? Oh well. I had no plans for today except loiter around, maybe shop. I’ve been wanting to watch a couple of movies and I thought why not today. It’s half price and it’s probably the only time I’ll get to do it, so here I am having my very own movie marathon. Look, as sad as it may sound, it’s fun. I haven’t seen TV for like four weeks so it’s a TREAT to see a big screen. I watched The Prince and Me, and as Ate Grace said it would be, it was a really cute, kilig movie.  I’m killing time before the next movie. I might watch Mean Girls. Ann and Jes said it was good.

 

Afterwards I’m meeting the girls back at the dorm for a PIZZA night. I haven’t had pizza since Phils so I’m definitely looking forward it.  I’m enjoying the day. It’s definitely different than normal, but hey I came to London for new experiences right?

 

On Friday I went to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to watch a matinee of Romeo and Juliet, it was really good. Aside from the whole standing for three hours thing. Towards the end I found myself muttering ‘die already, die die already!’ Afterwards I hung out at Leicester Square, which has become one of my favourite hangouts. Wandering around and what not.

 

Saturday was a killer day. We woke early to explore. Isabelle, Christina and myself. We left at 9:30am, headed for Whitechapel markets….by foot. Of course it rained, and of course we didn’t have an umbrella, therefore I had to invest in one. Needless to say as soon as I did, the sun came out and it became a sunny day. Which was good because we went to see the Tower Bridge, we didn’t go into the Tower of London because we wanted the whole day to do it.

 

We headed home (by foot) for lunch where we rested for about an hour, before heading over to Camden Markets….by foot. Are you guys getting the picture? We arrived home about 8:00 and yes, aside from the lunch break, the rest of the time was spent WALKING. We were literally DEAD and DELIRIOUS by the time we made it to the residency.  We SLOWLY got dinner ready, after which I took my shower and collapsed on my bed.

 

The next day we had plans on going to Harrods and visit Hyde park, but we got only as far as Harrods because we got separated. From there Christina and I walked (slowly – still suffering from the previous day’s hike) around Oxford Street. When we were too tired we called it quits. I headed for Hillsong, and she headed for the residency. When I finished at Hillsong I went to Ate Fe and Kuya Dodie’s to pick up my mail.

 

Yesterday I had an interview with the Chelsea Building Society and it sounds promising, but we’ll see. I’m not counting my chickens yet. I have an interview at the WALDORF hotel tomorrow….yeah it’s a little LA DI DAH! So hopefully one of these interviews will materialize into a job. I have extended my stay in the dorm, I figured, job first accomodation later, just so I knew where to look for a place. Ate Fe’s place will remain my mailing address, no matter where I move to.

 

Thanks to everybody who messaged me for my birthday. It meant a great deal to hear from you guys. Vlad and Val sorry I missed your call. Thanks for calling though. I miss you guys heaps also!

 

Ummm…that pretty much covers it.  I’ll keep everyone posted with latest happenings….job wise, accomodation wise, sam wise….sorry, I was on a roll there. All Jeswina’s fault. She started it. Anyways… thanks again for the greetings and for remembering me on my birthday. It feels weird because it doesn’t feel and different from any other day….I guess I am getting old huh?

 

Oh well…gotta go…the clock ticks. Take care… love lots…

 

 

After a frustrating day…yet another. The afternoon has been good. After preparing and getting ready for this STUPID interview that JERK WONDER decided to cancel half an hour before it began on Monday, I arrived there after an hour on the bus (3 buses later) at Paddington only to be told by Manners Challenged Boy Wonder that he couldn’t do the interview. I was so close to punching him in the face and not feel any qualms about it. I was warned of RUDENESS in this place but that was UNBELIEVABLE. He held no remorse for the huge INCONVENIENCE. I was overwhelmed with

“Oh why I oughta…” before punching him in the face. GRRRRR!!!!

Anyways…I went back to the dorm where Eileen from reception pretty much got as wound up as I did when I told her about it. (I am in and out of that place so often that I have gotten familiarized with the staff) So I went back upstairs and got changed out of my ‘proper clothes’ and into my unironed (don’t tell my mother) cargo pants, shirt and jacket and headed for Leicester Square with every intention of making the day better by wtaching a play that I really wanted to see called Oleanna. I went to Leicester Square and lined up in one of those half price places and got a really good seat for half the price. I was syked. So after my Happy Meal (which I was craving for) I headed over to a CHEAPO internet cafe to check my e-mail for details on upcoming interviews….I have two tomorrow.

I digress…the play was AWESOME. Julia Stiles was really good and I loved it enough to look for the play at a book store once I have finished My Life – Bill Clinton which I am over half way to finishing. Seeing the play kind of reminded me of why I’m here. To see and do things, I can’t necessarily do if I am back home. I have plenty of others I want to see. Like We will rock you, Fame, When Harry met Sally, Phantom (again), Mamma Mia (again) and the girls want to see Les Mis but I don’t know if I can justify seeing it for like the fourth time. Twice in Sydney, and once in Broadway. We’ll see how the budget is.

I had a phone interview today which I am currently waiting it’s results. I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket during the play and I missed it…obviously!

In the last couple of days. The last 24hours in particular I have began to question whether or not I could really do this, and I gotta tell you, some days are so frustrating that I think packing it up, traveling the remaining days may be a good idea. But I decided I’m not ready to accept defeat just yet. I am however looking into checkking out France for a weekend just to get a taste of traveling. I have to make a decision by next week. If nothing looks promising, I may just jump on a train and travel with what I got. Then come back and try it all over again. We’ll see.

Well, tomorrow is another day. I have another interview with another Recruitment Agency, hopefully they’re a lot more helpful than the last one, instead of just being a bunch of snooty people. Then afterwards I have an interview with a Marketing Campaign, which sounds interesting…we’ll see what that entails.

Thanks for reading my babbles and what not. Hope all is well with everyone.

Take care and Love much…

Greetings and Hi de ho…

Week three of London. The weather, still bites, but you know. You make do with what you got. After if-ing and ahh-ing about whether or not I should venture out on Saturday, because of the lovely weather, Christina and I bravely ventured out after lunch. We headed for the ever famous Portobello Markets in Notting Hill. I was so syked, I get to see where they shot Notting Hill. I was experiencing flaskbacks of Julia Roberts standing in front of Hugh Grant,

“I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy. Asking him to lover her…”

Was repeating itself over and over again in my head. After a log bus ride there we finally arrived. We walked up and down, to no avail. Finally we asked and I was devastated to find out that not only does the famous Travel Bookshop NOT EXIST. They had three locations to shoot the one scene. It totally killed it for me. We got to stand in front of the blue door, which is now black. Needless to say I felt a little jipped by the experience, but oh well… HOLLYWOOD right?

After we headed home, cooked dinner and got ready to go out. My first night out in London. Christina and I met with a couple of her Italian friends and we ended up at a club in Camden. The music wasn’t bad, and it was a pretty good couple of hours. The trek home was an experience to remember. There was no direct buses back to our end of London…of course. So after a lot of walking trying to look for a suitable bus stop to get us home, we finally got there. We arrived just before 3am.

Sunday was spent reading and pretty much just bumming out. I had a migraine so I was trying to sleep it off. That evening I went to Hillsong London which was pretty cool. It made me miss my IPOD more because I didn’t have access to my Hillsong stuff.

Monday turned out to be a GARFIELD ‘I hate Mondays’ day. The interview sort of flopped. They were after someone with UK experience, blah blah. The second interview decided to postpone it half an hour before it started…I was so NOT happy!

I quickly went home, got changed, and tried to make it for the 5:30pm Mass at Westminister Cathedral. I barely made it. Afterwards I went to Ate Fe and Kuya Dodie’s for my mail. Where I was fed and sent home with a full tummy.

Today was laundry day. So that pretty much killed my morning, but its always good to have clean clothes…hehe…This afternoon I’ve gone back to job hunting and so forth. I’ll be looking at a flat in Chelsea this afternoon, so we’ll see.

Anyways, that’s about it for me. Hope everyone is well. Peace out! Nanu nanu!

Today I had not much planned. If anything I just wanted to stay in teh dorm, read, sleep, and laze about. I was waiting for phone calls for interviews and have finally reached the not caring stage. Well, the less STRESSED out stage. After my Mom’s phone call this morning, instead of getting ready to go out, I went back to bed and read, played with my faithful gameboy, (which I know my Ate Nelle, Ate Sol and Kuya Jet are missing – more than they’re missing me) I received a text message from Trisha aka Bot-Bot, who’s my childhood friend. She was in London, just arrived yesterday from Malta and she is only here for a week or so. Anyways…we agreed to meet for an early lunch at Leicester Square (I swear everytime I am anywhere somewhat familiar I feel like I am playing Monopoly)…I digress…Well after messaging her back I uncharacteristically fell asleep again. Oooops!! By the time I woke up it was like 10:40 and we were meeting at 11:30am. After a quick shower and three bus changes later I made it. She looked EXACTLY the same. She was EXACTLY the same. It was good. We talked like no time had passed. Even if it has been about 7 years since we had last seen each other. It was so nice to have a familiar face.

Trish was one of my very first friends. We are family friends. When we arrived in Asutralia, they arrived shortly after. Her family, mine and another (Aimee’s) spent almost every weekend together for the next decade. Our families know each other’s family dramas. It was like growing up with extra cousins, and as I look back on our childhood, the fun times includes sleepovers, dancing around in front of the TV while Trish introduced us to the latest dance moves of YTT! SAD!!! The mention of Martika will always make me chuckle.

Anyways after lunch we walked about for a little while and headed off to Oxford Street for some window shopping. When I said that I hadn’t even been to Harrods, we headed for Knightsbridge…so I have not only seen Harrods, I also got to check out the ring that Dodi got Diana.

We headed for home afterwards and agreed to keep in touch via text messages. As well as spending a good day out I received a few calls regarding job interviews so I am looking forward to those. I have one tomorrow and two on Monday. This weekend I hope to look for places to live.

Hmmm…London is definitely growing on me. I’m loving it. I hope all is well with everyone. I still miss you all very much. Take care and Love much… MWAH!!!

At 1:30 early this morning, we were rudely awakened by an LOUD, ANNOYING alarm. For a moment I thought I was back home and I had set my alarm for an ungodly hour wake up call to finish deadline, or assignment. Despite how along ago I had graduated. The noise was constant, and irritating. I reluctantly ducked my head out of my door to find Christina and Isabel’s head hanging out to with the same confused and dumbfounded expression as I had on mine. As other doors flew open in annoyance, we glanced at each other and decided to head downstairs. There could be a fire. As we headed down however people were headed up, so we went back to the rooms only to be advised to leave the building immediately. I looked down at my flattering attire of 3/4 pyjama pants and old T-shirt, shrugged followed with a sigh. I picked up my jacket and headed down the stairs with the girls. As soon as we got outside I felt the breeze and realised I was somewhat under dressed for the summer evening. WELCOME to LONDON!!! Grrr!!! Of course when one is dressed ever so daggy, with her hair standing up in so many directions, she runs into good looking tenants of the dorm, whom she never runs into when she’s dressed and looking somewhat presentable. *sigh* Isn’t that always the case. So we stood around for a little while, socialised with neighbours we have never met, nor known existed. If we weren’t so tired and in shock, the three fire trucks waiting outside the building would have been alarming. But it seems all it was, was a FALSE ALARM…well that’s what they said last night, but today we found out that someone had accidently set fire (a small one) on the fifth floor. Comforting isn’t it? After the dramas we were able to go back upstairs, and needless to say, I could no longer sleep. GRRR!!!

Today was a pretty laid back day. I headed for the Job Centre again, and though the systems were up and running, it was packed and they had no staff to assist. So I left, dropped off applications and headed for the dorm. Upon arriving I made my lunch, read and had it. Now I’m here, in yet another Internet Cafe, surfing for accomodation and Jobs. After over an hour my eyes are becoming blurry so I thought I’d post last night’s festivities.

Tonight shall be a quiet night. As usual Christina, Isabel and I will be making our low budget meals for dinner, and having it in the communal kitchen.

Hopefully tomorrow I will hear back from some of these people I keep e-mailing. Tomorrow I’ll be spending the day in the phone booth ringing around for accomodation. What fun! Anyways…hope todays post brought a chuckle. It certainly was an interesting night last night.

PEACE OUT!

I have come to the conclusion that I am having a BRANTLEY FOSTER series of moments. In saying that I realise my sister would probably be the only one who will realise what I am rambling about…If she remembers…at the tender age of 31 she’s getting to be more and more forgetful.

Brantley Foster was the leading character in one of my most favourite movies of all time…The Secret of my Success. Brantley goes to NY to test out the big city and is hit with a series of dead ends. But in the end, he succeeds. I WILL TOO!

As frustrating as it is trying to go from one agency to another, it’s okay. I am beginning to enjoy London. My new found friends at the dorm make the small confined space a more liveable place to be.

Christina is Italian and Isabel is French, while I am the Filipino/Australian. We make an interesting bunch. They’re great to be with and because we are all away from our homes, we sort of make each other feel homey. We eat dinner together and makes plans for the following days.

London is beginning to be less scary, even exciting. So I am getting there…yesterday we attempted to brave the crowds for the F1 parade, my brother would be proud but after being squashed for almost an hour with no hopes of seeing anything, we called it quits and headed for home, where we hoped Isabel would be since she got separated.

Anyways…that’s all for me. I have to run for an interview. Hope all is good with everyone.

Well today started of with such high hopes of accomplishing many things. Opening a bank account, doing laundry, mailing my Ipod, etc etc.

Instead I have accomplished NOTHING! I left the dorm later than usual after having a great talk with Val. My Mom called this morning as per usual and miraculousy no tears were involved. My Ats and I tried to connect but my credits run out. But I spoke to her last night anyway.

Anyways…I left the dorm feeling a lot better. London didn’t seem as scary anymore, now that I knew which buses to take, where to take connecting buses and so forth. I was ready to Open my bank account. I had all the necessary paperwork, etc etc. So I get to Victoria and the lady says that my supporting documents are fine, however the letter verifying my address needed to be formatted, so I called Kuya Dodie and asked if I could go there and get it fixed. So I hopped on two buses to get to Chelsea, disturbed him, got him to reformat the letter as requested and take another two buses back. I got back close to 1-ish and they informed me after all that, that one of the supporting documents were outdated, therefore I need to go back and get another one, or ask Ate Fe to write another letter, this time only under her name. Unfortunately Ate Fe was at work and won’t be home till after 6 tonight. Fine dealt with that I will just come back later.

Now after mailing my Ipod and returning home, I realised I shouldn’t have mailed my IPOD under normal mail. I know I know, brain flew out the window. So after talking to my sis, it was decided that I should just take the mail back. Which luckily enough you could do here. I called the people, and they were willing to hold it for me. So here I am rushing out the dorm room again…to catch the mail people. When I get to Victoria I realise that I got off a few stops before because I forgot I walked around for ages. GRRRR!!!! So here I finally am at the mail store thingy and they let me take back my Ipod. No refund therefore I got myself another (because I had bought one earlier) book of international stamps, and one hour internet as equivalent to the mailing amount. Give or take. So here I am, trying to consume it.

I am EXHAUSTED, FRUSTRATED and what not. I wasted £10 and a day. I realise I may have just saved myself the $400 I paid for my Ipod but after all the drama of the day it just sucks! Not to mention it sucks that the stupid thing just died for no reason.

Anyways….on the UP SIDE, and yes it was hard to find one… London isn’t so scary anymore and little by little my nerves are settling down. I’m still worried about the job hunt and accomodation. I miss my family like mad, but I’m getting there.

Also today I went pass a recruitment agency and signed up, not to mention I dropped in an application form to a prestigious hotel. I’m hoping they’re looking for admin clerical staff. If I get something around here in Victoria it’d be great, since this is around the area I would like to find a permanent place at.

Yesterday I went and met Kuya Jay’s sister Ate Fe, and she and Kuya Dodie were great. They were way helpful. They also reassured me. It’s not the same, but at least I don’t feel quite as ALONE anymore.

When I got back to the dorm last night a few of us girls hung out at the kitchen just chatting and what not, I got back to the room after 10 which is an achievement from someone who was in bed by 7:30pm last week.

I don’t think London will ever be HOME, but I am slowly getting excited at the possibilities. If only I could get a job already.

On Saturday Alison, my new friend from Adelaide, and I went to Heaver, to visit Henry VIII’s castle. That turned out to be fun. Especially the train ride, for it had a very Hogwarts Express feel to it.

Anyways, I think that is my hour almost up. Imagine £4 for one hour of internet use. Talk about RIP OFF…especially when you’re x by 3.

Signing off… take care and God Bless to all..

Love and Missin much,

d’cookster

Well, today is a little brighter than yesterday. Though it sort of didn’t feel like it started out that way when I spoke with my Mom on the phone and was in uncontrollable tears.

I made it to my 1st Contact orientation and got all the info I need for Banking and all that. It was extremely helpful, and once I have a permanent residency I can open my bank account.

Also today while killing time at an internet cafe I met a girl who was in a similar position as to myself. We’re meeting up later for coffee or whatever. It makes me feel better to have met someone. Though we live at opposite ends of London at the moment, it’s still nice to know I’ve met a potential friend and buddy.

Though I am still pining for HOME in a major way, and still could burst into tears for no apparent reason, today’s a better day.