Homeless, but not quite jobless
Well, things are looking up. Kind of. I’ve now been in London about a week and a half and I am earning money, if only for a few days. After hours and days of searching and sending out my CV to anybody and everybody who I thought might look at it, I was contacted by a few different temp agencies and I went in to register and find some work. As it stands now, I have worked a couple of days at a place called Donaldsons and earned a little bit of money. Not too shabby, really. Unfortunately, after tomorrow I don’t know what work will come around next. That’s the thing about temp work, you just cannot know when you may work again. It’s keeping me on my toes, but not in a very reassuring way. I’m hoping to get a permanent job as a secretary, but I won’t know about that until tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Kelly is here now and I am so glad for it. I was doing fine handling the whole job situation, but now that we’ve progressed to house hunting, I wouldn’t want to do that alone for anything. It is just an absolute nightmare, there’s no other way of putting it. NIGHTMARE. Friday and Saturday we spent hours looking through newspapers and scouring websites online, looking for anything that looked habitable. I wish I had a house to sell here, because the market sure is booming. Houses listed to let in the morning will be gone by the afternoon; good for the owners, not so good for us. We found several options and spent Saturday running from place to place. We saw a place in Battersea (south of the Thames), which was nice, but practically unfurnished; we saw a place in posh West Hampstead, except the house was down a little alley street butt up against the train tracks; we also saw a place in Dalston that could most definitely be classified as the ghetto–and I’m not talking ghetto fabulous, either.
Then us Goldilockses found the house that was just right, in an area in west London called Acton. It is a massive house compared to most, and is really in fantastic condition. There are hardwood floors throughout, and the kitchen is enormous, as is the lounge. Apart from one teeny tiny bedroom (which still has a double bed, so nobody’s complaining), it is awesome. The only downside is that it is on the border of zones 2 and 3, but what can you do? The area is nice enough; Kelly and I went out again yesterday to have a look and see what sort of area it was. There’s a Silverlink train that goes directly into Paddington in 7 minutes that is just down the street, so that’s not too bad, even if it is a bit further out than we wanted. We already found the Wetherspoons, so we’re set. All that’s left is to show Becky and meet with the owner to give them our paperwork. Then, hopefully, we will be able to move in by Thursday or Friday of this week. Again, fingers crossed!
I am so excited about the idea of having my own room again. Our hostel hasn’t been the world’s greatest, and I’m positively sick of living out of a suitcase. I want a shelf, I want a bed, and I want to not have to be sick with worry about where I’m going to be living night after next. It looks like we’re on our way. Then, once we’re settled, I’ll be able to make my rounds visiting all the people who I’ve been waiting to see for ages. So far I’ve got a trip to Nottingham, Stevenage, Northampton, and Coventry in the works. Fun times!
And number one reason for looking forward to having a permanent address…so my mom can mail me the DVDs of season 3 of The OC , season 2 of Lost, and the last few episodes of Big Brother!!! I am so excited, you’ve no idea!
Tags: Acton, house, job, London, Working
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