13 April 2009

Being a bum in London

It turns out this recession thing is kind of a big deal...

The title of this post is not 100% accurate... infact it more like 50%. Rochelle has a job! She starts work tomorrow in a small cafe in Fulham. The money is not amazing and she didn't want to work in a cafe if she could avoid it... but thats the way the cookie crumbles. At least now we will have some pounds coming in - which will help to stem the torrent of Australian dollars that have been pouring out of our account since we got here.

I have been searching high and low for work. We even walked around town handing out CV's to anyone that would take them. The problem being that even for a job in retail - you need experience. While I have some a few years ago - employers have become very selective in who they take on. And it is no wonder when you have (literally) 200 people applying for a run-of-the-mill retail position. At the moment in London there are 60 people actively seeking work for every open position. Those are some tough odds... The fact that we have work visa's is working against us also. Employers are in for the long haul so are looking for people that are going to be with them for many years. Even though I may be the best person for the job, many employers/recruiters will disregard my CV as soon as they know I am on a temporary visa.


We don't really have a back-up plan at the moment. I guess it is fingers crossed and hope for the best. Worst case scenario I guess we end up back in the Southern Hemisphere a little earlier than anticipated. But I really hope it doesn't come to that. There is also the option of moving out of London and trying to get something - but I dont know that things are much better elsewhere.

Apart from the job hunt, we have been fairly boring really. Not having money to burn being the main reason. We get out and about most days and we are discovering lots of cool areas around Wimbledon. We have also caught up with a few old friends which is really cool. We are going to make an effort to stay in touch and meet up again soon. Hopefully we can catch up with Malcolm and Sharne again sometime soon too.

Unfortunately due to a stuff up by our travel agent we have lost a couple of our stops on our ticket. This absolutely sucks and understandably we are pretty p*ssed off. The only flight we have left now is Bali>Brisbane - so we have to get flights to Bali. I guess it is not soooooo bad though - as now we have no real insentive to leave. If things are going well here we can stay for the full two years. If not, we will just leave as planned. It also allows us to see a bit more of the world on our way home - places like the Greek Islands, Turkey, Egypt, Dubai and maybe India which we may not have seen otherwise. We still plan to travel through Thailand, Vietnam, maybe Cambodia and Bali.

I really cannot wait until we have two wages coming in - mainly for the travel. It is insanely cheap here! I can see us doing a lot of trips in a couple of months time when we have replenished the savings a little.

Not many pictures this time around. Just a couple of me playing with Malcolm and Sharnes hamsters. They were awesome!

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