Quintessential England

So after tiring of dreary London and its grey skies, we traded in a weekend of darts and frivolity at the Market Trader (our beloved former local pub) in favour of a bus trip to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and some Geordie confusion. The weekend started on Friday, rising at the ungodly hour of 8am to catch our 9:30am bus. After destroying bacon and egg rolls, we fell asleep almost instantly - conveniently missing the entire peak hour bedlam on our way out of London. When we woke up, it was to a completely different backdrop. Gone was the urban jungle of suburban London - instead, we gazed out upon rolling green fields, neatly edged with post-and-rail or stone fences (with or without thorny hedges) and dotted with postcard fluffy sheep and horses. Granted, the quintessential English landscape was a little soggy and waterlogged, but I'm sure in spring and summer it would be just gorgeous. We even passed what looked like an old royal estate - enclosed with high stone walls and terracing, with a herd of deer grazing on the forest's edge.

Newcastle is a pretty city that retains a medieval feel (especially in the city near the riverside), and is home to the Newcastle United F.C. and the Tyne and Gateshead Millennium bridges.

Saturday morning we spent ambling around Durham (a country town just south of Newcastle). This would probably have to be one of the nicest and prettiest places we've been to in England - loads of narrow streets and lanes full of quaint stone buildings, with the Durham Castle and Cathedral forming a magnificent backdrop to the whole town. At first it was freezing, but then the sun came out and made everything a lot more bearable.

Saturday night we took in the Manchester United v Everton game at a pub - unfortunately the highlight (lowlight?) of the night was our friend's car's handbrake giving out, sending it rolling slowly down the hill into a parked van. We have just about overcome the traditional Aussie habit of calling football "soccer", reserving "footy" for the far superior game of rugby league.. Can't wait to see if any diehards take the bait on that one :-)

Sunday we woke to freezing temperatures and blizzard-like winds - so of course, we went ahead with our plans to visit the beach. As it turns out, there actually IS a sandy beach in England!

Given the arctic conditions, we voted against kite-surfing and wetsuit swimming, instead agreeing over lunch that "lovely" and "cod & chips" can be used in the same sentence without forming an oxymoron.

Artistic inspiration

So in true London-on-the-cheap style, we've been hitting the galleries and museums around town. First stop, the Tate Modern - the national gallery of international modern art (ie. art since 1900). The gallery itself was created in 2000 and is housed in an old power station on the south side of the Thames. There's a few interesting collections and works by Dali, Picasso, Lichtenstein, Basquiat, Lipchitz, Georges Braque and Warhol (to name a few!), but to be honest, a lot of modern art is quite disappointing. Thanks to Steve and his borrowed membership card, we got into the Rothko exhibition for free. And thank god we did get in for free, because here's a sample of Rothko's work:

Yes, it's a red square, with some more red, and then a bit of some darker red. Maybe to a more informed or educated art critic, this has some meaning. But when there are whole rooms - 5 to be exact - all filled with paintings much the same as this - it's very hard not to proclaim loudly and clearly that these paintings are a complete load of shite.

Moving right along...

In complete contrast to the Rothko exhibition, the National Gallery was amazing. It's difficult to express in words just how brilliant some of these paintings are. The colours are so rich, the expressions so real, the emotion so distinct - it's almost a shame that photography was invented and that such art is no longer as prominent. There's all the famous paintings that you see everywhere in print form - the Monet's, Van Gogh's, Rembrandt's... and it's pretty amazing when you realise that you're actually right there, looking at the original artwork, still in pristine condition after being painted before the 1900's.

Kicking around

Well, between us we've visited or passed by most of the monopoly board, walked down Drury Lane (no muffin man unfortunately), and made friends with the owner of our current local pub, The Market Trader. Found a cool pub near Leicester Square with a giant wooden tree sculpture and about a thousand random levels (including a top level where you have to stoop to about 1.5m). We also invited the Queen over for afternoon tea, but she declined - so we kicked a footy around on her front lawn for a while instead.

Also visited the British Museum (which has some awesome artifacts on display, even if you can only see so many ancient relics in one hit).

On the job front, I've had two interviews with a follow up for the phone interview coming up. Lecky has a trial run on Monday at being a sandwich delivery boy on a bike - a job that definitely has perks. Though it's definitely hard to be enthusiastic about the prospect of going back to work, with Europe so close. I'm sure we have everyone's greatest sympathies on that too.. NOT.

PS. If you haven't checked them out already, there's some new pics in the first London album plus a new lot.

A place to call home (for now)

So we've just encountered our first (and probably not last) overseas scam for this trip. Whilst looking for accommodation on Gumtree, we found this kickass double room for rent in Marylebone, listed at 600 pounds a months, all inclusive (pretty cheap for that area). So we emailed "Emmanuella" asking when we could view the place. Turns out "Emmanuella" is currently living in Manchester, and would only come down to London if she had more of a guarantee from us - we were to get a moneygram of a month's rent plus 600 pounds security deposit, not made out to her, but to a "trusted friend", and then scan and send the receipt via email. Sound dodgy? Of course it does.. which is why we did a net search on accommodation scams in London - click here to see what we found! I guess it pays to follow that old adage - if it seems to good to be true, it is.

Anyway, after sussing out a couple of other places, we found ourselves a short term place in a really good location (right near 2 tube lines and heaps of buses). It doesn't look like much from the outside, but inside is warm and decent, and unlike most flats in London actually has a living room. We're sharing the place with 2 other couples who seem pretty nice - a Kiwi who came to London intending to travel, and is still here 7 years later, his Korean girlfriend (called Unar), an English guy and Scottish/Irish? girl (called Una - how's that for coincidence?). For those who know a bit about London, we're right next to Petticoat Lane and Spitalfields markets, and a stroll from Brick Lane. Anyway, we've got a home base until February, by which time we'll know whether we're staying in London or moving on.

No jobs yet... but I've had calls about 2 jobs that weren't paying enough to warrant going in for an interview. And although this may seem ungrateful to some, I'll put in perspective: the novelty of this cold, grey city will very quickly wear off without the promise of a big, fat paycheck that covers more than just the rent and a couple of pints at the end of the week :-) Hopefully I'll get some good news about the other applications next week... otherwise, southern Spain is starting to look very appealing!

First Impressions

So as I was standing in the street while it snowed this afternoon, I got to wandering how in the hell we of all people ended up chasing an endless winter. I do have to admit that although we are freezing our arses off (and of course Anita is sick) London is a pretty amazing city. There are a lot of things that are done really well that (believe it or not) makes things quicker, easier and cheaper....it's been such a long time since I could say that! The Oyster card (for travelling on the tube, buses etc) is awesome and saves heaps and the method of recharging mobile phones is better in my opinion. I guess its not surpising given they've had more practice at being a big city.

To date we've spent most of our time looking for and at places to rent. They have all been ok, one has been nice (but no living room), but we think we have found a place that we really like based on photos....now we're just trying to get the girl to actually show us the place...seems straight forward enough....but you'd be wrong. Will hopefully have it sorted in the next day or so though. Stay tuned...