Loose in London.: Umemployed and cashless

After the thrill of Amsterdam, the shock of reality started to settle in. Here I was, unemployed and cashless, in one of the most expensive cities in the world. All I had were some interviews lined up with recruitment agencies. Not real job interviews, but just meet and greets - "Hi, I'm from Australia, here is my CV, I have these transferable skills and I'm worth this much, find me a job that is exciting and pays extremely well.", and their reply "Hi, I see people like you everyday, you haven't done this and you want to do that? If your lucky, I'll find a bunch of jobs that may or may not match your skills, dependant on how much I'm listening and the level of care factor I have for your situation."

Well, I must say, the recruitment agencies weren't that bad. An hour after my first 9am agency meeting, I got my first call about a job. That fast. And, that's how I spent the next few days - battling through an array of various job offers, from Tesco to Royal Bank of Scotland.

I even got to the stage of knocking back jobs that didn't tickle my fancy. One of the first ones I knocked back, came back to me 2 hours later, offering me more money. They lined up an interview immediately for Friday morning at 11am. I accepted the job at 3pm, ready for a start on Tuesday. They don't muck around.

I then relaxed a little and left the comfort of my laptop. (Ash's laptop)

Thought I better see as much of the city as I could before being chained to a desk again.

I visited the Tate Modern, an amazing art gallery filled with modern art.

This is their latest exhibition. A big huge crack. It's about 2 foot deep running the length of the building inside. People keep complaining because they are breaking their ankles thinking it's a painting. Idiots.

I found the eye and that's Big Ben in the back. Haven't been on it yet. I can only doing free things.

I saw the Tower Bridge.

I stumbled upon Buckingham palace. Wow.

I made a new friend in Trafalgar Square. Isn't he cute? Nothing like my Kitty at home.

I chased a squirrel in the park.

I found London's attempt at the Arc de Triumph. Notice to amazing blue sky. Who said London winter is bad?

I even found Piccadilly Square.

I wanted to call someone to speak of what I was doing, but the phone smelt too badly of urine. Where are those Dutch urinals when you need them?

I went to see the Templar Church, built by the Knights Templar. This is THE Knights Templar mentioned in the Da Vinci Code. These knights actually invented personal banking, and got extremely rich by doing it over centuries. King Philip IV of France got a bit jealous of their wealth and with some sneaky and clever planning, had all the prominent leaders killed, across the whole of Europe, all on Friday 13th. See, I even learnt some things.

I tried some shopping, But not your average shopping experience. I went to Argos. No visual merchandising needed in this shop. You walk in, look through the catalogue, write down the number of the product you want, pay for it, wait a few minutes until they call your number, and they bring you your items. I was buying pillows, and when they arrived, I thought I had ordered the wrong thing. They were tiny. I tried to return them and the lady laughed at me. She said they were shrink wrapped to save space. That's the Argos policy. And, that's a good example of British customer service - she laughed in my face. No 6 steps of selling here.

Tiny shrink wrapped pillows acutually suited me - easier to carry home on the bus. Pity they flatten after a few nights.

Since I spent so much time alone, one of my new friends, Lily, cooked a roast for the boys and I. I think it was the best meal we'd had in ages.

We got absolutely smashed on the '3 for the price of 2' on New Zealand wine deal from the local Offie (Off Licence or bottle shop) and we did some team building. I love the constant flow of 3 for the price of 2 deals everywhere.

I got a new nickname - Musty. (Boys just don't appreciate gold op shop finds. Or, musty op shop finds.) We were all so drunk, that Leigh turned green.