Thursday 3 November 2011

Next...

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I last decided to write, so here goes another long one...

As I said in the last "blog" I had work for the following day, so on the Thursday I went in to a Year 1 class (5-6 year olds).  They were so cute...due to it being two days before they were due to go on school holiday they didn't have too much to do so we just wrote a few words and did some colouring. They were a noisy bunch, but no more noisy than you'd expect for about 25 five year olds! There was one little girl who had the most hilarious and yet cute little dialect...she was very VERY Cockney, "me muvver read me a book larst nigh, yea, it was abaat this rabbid, yea" (she didn't say that, but it was an example). The normal teacher for the class called in sick for the Friday too, so I went in and surprised the children some more.  The school was nice, i'd go back, if they'd have me!

Those two evenings were pretty cool too! On the thursday Sean and I met my friend Jackie for dinner.  We met at the Waterloo station which is everso near the London Eye and the River Thames!  It was so nice, We saw Big Ben too! You wouldn't believe I was born in England and lived there for 18 years...it all seemed so new to me.  On the Friday Sean and I went to Emily's for Indian food...there was soooo much food! It was great!

That brings us to the weekend...Infernos...a huggge club that played pure pop music, bands that Em and I grew up with and loved, 5ive, Spice Girls, B*Witched! It was good fun, til my feet started hurting and it got so crowded that people bumped in to me every two seconds! Then I became a grump so it was time to leave...

The next morning Sean, Em and I walked to Chelsea and Sean and I had a delightful breakfast (at midday) surrounded by pigeons...the kids on their scooters had figured out that I was petrified of them and decided that it would be fun to let the birds sit for a while and then run after them, weith their scooters, so the pigeons flew at me and I whined. Not fun! The day concluded with a bit of grocery shopping and a lot of sleeping.

The following week was job application week...every day Sean and I would get up, apply for jobs, eat, apply for jobs, eat, apply for jobs, sleep and do the same thing over and over...I couldn't stay home the whole time so it was cut up for me by walking to town and back once a day.

Friday, we met my friend Adam for lunch at his work...he works for a brewery. and then for dinner too! They had a charity event and Adam invited us.  It was fun, Emily came and we sang karaoke...Jamelia- Superstar.  Saturday evening...we watched scary movies...just two, one of them being Paranormal Activity 3!!! I loved it!

On Sunday we went shopping for clothes for Sean, he had an interview on tuesday and needed an outfit to wear.  I also ordered boots online.  Monday I worked in the pm...teaching Reception (4-5 years), they were amazingly adorable.  I would jump at the chance to teach that age again! But since then, no more work. :-(

I sent Sean off on Tuesday, which was also his birthday, to his interview...he looked very smart and handsome...he came home, very nervous and told me that they would call him that afternoon, he was veryyyyyy confident they'd give him the job, but still wouldn't eat til they alled.  The job is for a salesman at a Skandinavian, furniture company called, Skandium.  REally, it's his ideal job, he's Scandinavian and totally obsessed with furniture, he'd be able to sell it easily!   Well he got the job and we went for a delicious, burger dinner...I looked for the healthy option...aubergine (aka eggplant) and goats cheese with no mayo....but, you know how it is, they decided to DEEP FRY the goats cheese....ah well. But the evening was wonderful and we went home to watch Psycho.

Yesterday, Wednesday, oh what a day....no work...I was very disappointed....then we had to go to the Job Centre Plus to discuss with them claims and wow, I have never seen a more disorganised place...no one seemed to talk to anyone about anything...I ended up leaving with about three more appointments to go there. Ridiculous!

Wow, this is boring....

Wednesday 19 October 2011

A New Beginning...

Many of you asked me to start a blog when we moved, so here it is.  I'm sorry if it bores you, but as it happens our lives just aren't that interesting!

Sean and I have been here for over a week already, now I say here and I mean England and not London...there is a difference and a very big one as Sean found out this weekend...

We started our journey from Toronto where we had a not-so-tearful farewell from our families and then flew up to Ottawa where we had an hour stop over...Four hours later we were still in Ottawa, on the tarmac, sweating our butts off as the AC on the plane had decided to die and we couldn't take off without it.  At around 8pm (Canadian time) we took off.  We hit ground in London Gatwick at around 8am (UK time)...a mere three hours before our train was set to leave to get to my grandparent's town, Ipswich.  When we eventually reached what was to be our home for the next few days it was after 1pm and we were aching for sleep. 

The next few days consisted of hanging out with my grandparents, being cooked amazing food, visiting a few places our family love (bingo-the "super fun game", Felixstowe- the seaside and two pennie machine place , the Shepherd and Dog- a British Carvery pub).  I'm pretty sure after all of our walks in to town Sean now knows his way to and from my nan's house to the centre already!  The saturday rolled by quickly...and my nan and grandad drove us to Tesco in Bury St Edmunds (my home town).  Now Tesco isn't the greatest place to be taken, it's a supermarket...notthing too special except here I had my first (for this trip) tea and scone (aka afternoon tea!).  It was delightful.  Shortly after this I directed (with only one left/right mishap) my grandad to Worlington (a tiny village in Suffolk),  where we were to meet up with Emily.

We didn't stay in Worlington for too long as Emily's sister's boyfriend, Jamie was cooking mussels for the girls for lunch and they needed to get to West Row (another tiny village).  Sean loved Jamie.  After they finished eating up the mussels, Jamie offered Sean a drink, then another, and another...us girls went to go get ready to go out for dinner for Emily's mum's 51st birthday and when we returned the boys were umm, very tiddly, to say the least.  We all headed to The Walnut Tree a small pub in Worlington, where the girls decorated the room and the guys continued knocking back the drinks...the food was delightful...a whole package of Camernbert cheese and bread for one starter, just as an example.  By 9-10 o'clock, Sean's drinking buddy, Jamie had retired to bed...and Sean, he'd been trying to keep his eyes open, but we stayed at the pub until 11.15ish...the poor guy had a looong trip the next day.

The sunday is really a blur, we went to visit Em's granny at a residential home, then ate some lunch, from there we drove to Ely, through The Fens (an extremely green, farmerish area) to get the train to London, where we met Ben at Platform 9 and 3/4 in London Kings Cross Station.  And from there we started our journey to our new home...

HERE I AM APOLOGISING FOR BORING YOU....SORRRY....YOU CAN STOP READING NOW IF YOU LIKE....

Flat 7, Stile Hall Mansions, 148 Wellesley Rd, London.

That's our address. That's where we're living, Sean, Ben and I! Haha.
On arrival we ordered the flattest pizza I've ever seen, from Dominos...and we marvelled at the lengthy hallway leading from our room to the sitting room, in addition to the size of our beautiful bedroom!  We unpacked, had some chats then went right to bed.

Monday morning we decided to buy some groceries...Sean was blown away when the total of our items amounted to just 41pounds!!! I had to remind him that we had bought no chocolate (for me) nor beer (for him) but still he was very impressed and I knew he'd want to do that again next week!

Monday afternoon was big for me, my meeting with the recruitment agency...Sean and I made our way to Tottenham COurt Road Station, using our crafty little Oyster cards to pay for the journey...nothing too fancy just a preloaded card of money for the London transport system.  When we got to our destination I headed straight to my meeting where the receptionist preceded to take a photo of me for my ID card for working, something I was very unprepared for, but thankfully it wasn't too bad. And two hours later I left the building to hunt down my very hungry boyfriend...by this time it was almost 4pm and all we had eaten all day was a tiny bowl of oatmeal.  We grabbed a snack and headed home...to make chilli with the groceries we bought that morning.

On tuesday we did some exploring...nothing too exciting...except, I received a call from my agency who offered me work for Halloween! An afternooon teaching Reception (aka Kindergarten). YES! Kindies on Halloween! Oh and I ate a Wispa chocolate bar and Sean had a beer, a little celebration had to occur afterall!

And today, is Wednesday, once again we did some exploring, but mainly we applied for jobs and I watched some UK telly! ;)  AND I received yet another phone call...tomorrow I start my first day of supply work...teaching Year 1 students at a school 40 or so minutes from our place (via public transport, of course). And now that I have bored you all to sleep I am about to watch a show about the high rate of unemployment of young people in England!

Good night!