circles...
Well, five $30 train trips to london, 4 banks and another 35 quid later and cam and I are finally on the way to having English bank accounts ... on the way that is, we don't actually have them for sure... yet
Turns out - just trying to sneeze in this country results in everyone assuming you are either a terrorist trying to launder money or - heaven forbid - another Aussie/Kiwi/Safa on a working holiday - without - gasp - a utility bill to prove where you live
As you can tell we've had a pretty interesting week. We've spent most of it walking aimlessly around London with various other just-arrived-Australians trying to find a place to live, searching through garbage outside a pub after a slightly drunk lauren has managed to yet again throw out her dental retainer, and generally (in the words of camo) "chasing our arses" trying to work everything out.
One thing is for sure though - nothing here is simple.
Aparently you need a utility bill to get a bank account, a house in which to have a utility service, a job to get a house, and a bank account to get a job. Which brings us right back to where we started - nowhere.
Anyway, very boring long story short - Cameron will be off to Europe in a few days to live it up on his Contiki and I'll be staying here in Southend (as the plans to move to London with our mates have been destroyed by the red tape that seems to have wrapped itself firmly around every corner of the London real estate market.)
In the meanwhile I spent today job hunting here in Essex and so far I've managed to be rejected from a cleaning job, joined two agencies, been grilled by the local subway owner who is "going to call me in a few days" and applied for a mini-lab position at the local "snappy-snaps" (Unfortunately I can't get a job in my area of expertise as the two local supermakets don't have any positions vacant - shame I really was missing all that scanning and "next pleasing")
But not to worry - I am sure that by the time cam gets back to London in about 3 weeks (and our various visiting mates will begin to arrive) I will have found a job, made bucketloads of pounds and found us a fabulous place to live in an awesome part of Central London (and then maybe a few pigs might start flying daily from Heathrow to Sidney Kingsford Smith and we can all slide down a rainbow with the leprachauns into a pot of gold!)
No but seriously - I am sure it will all work out - even if it means paying copious amounts of money to intermediary organisations (like the thieves who charged us 35 quid for a bank account!) - we will cut through the red tape and living it up in the capital of the Mother Country will truly begin.
So untill I have further adventures to moan about - that's all for now - and stop whinging about the winter weather in Sydney - I've been checking - and it still beats our windy rainy British summer :)
Lauren
Turns out - just trying to sneeze in this country results in everyone assuming you are either a terrorist trying to launder money or - heaven forbid - another Aussie/Kiwi/Safa on a working holiday - without - gasp - a utility bill to prove where you live
As you can tell we've had a pretty interesting week. We've spent most of it walking aimlessly around London with various other just-arrived-Australians trying to find a place to live, searching through garbage outside a pub after a slightly drunk lauren has managed to yet again throw out her dental retainer, and generally (in the words of camo) "chasing our arses" trying to work everything out.
One thing is for sure though - nothing here is simple.
Aparently you need a utility bill to get a bank account, a house in which to have a utility service, a job to get a house, and a bank account to get a job. Which brings us right back to where we started - nowhere.
Anyway, very boring long story short - Cameron will be off to Europe in a few days to live it up on his Contiki and I'll be staying here in Southend (as the plans to move to London with our mates have been destroyed by the red tape that seems to have wrapped itself firmly around every corner of the London real estate market.)
In the meanwhile I spent today job hunting here in Essex and so far I've managed to be rejected from a cleaning job, joined two agencies, been grilled by the local subway owner who is "going to call me in a few days" and applied for a mini-lab position at the local "snappy-snaps" (Unfortunately I can't get a job in my area of expertise as the two local supermakets don't have any positions vacant - shame I really was missing all that scanning and "next pleasing")
But not to worry - I am sure that by the time cam gets back to London in about 3 weeks (and our various visiting mates will begin to arrive) I will have found a job, made bucketloads of pounds and found us a fabulous place to live in an awesome part of Central London (and then maybe a few pigs might start flying daily from Heathrow to Sidney Kingsford Smith and we can all slide down a rainbow with the leprachauns into a pot of gold!)
No but seriously - I am sure it will all work out - even if it means paying copious amounts of money to intermediary organisations (like the thieves who charged us 35 quid for a bank account!) - we will cut through the red tape and living it up in the capital of the Mother Country will truly begin.
So untill I have further adventures to moan about - that's all for now - and stop whinging about the winter weather in Sydney - I've been checking - and it still beats our windy rainy British summer :)
Lauren
posted by lauren at 7:13 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home