Anarchy in the U.K.
The highs and lows of moving country and starting anew.
The highs and lows of moving to a new country. The crazed emotional roller coaster that is searching for accommodation. The actual physical pain that is lugging bags of belongings across the vast landscape that is London City and it's boroughs. The horrible sinking feeling you get when your other half goes out to do a day's work, and you're left alone with only your thoughts and your joblessness. These are just a few of the challenges you can experience when moving aboard.
Fact number one being unemployed is horrible. Nothing in this world is a bad as trying to 'put in' a day on your own (especially when you're trying to fight off a mild depression and general lack of motivation). Don't get me wrong there are lots of activities and things to do in London, but it's hard to do them when you don't feel up to it. It gets particularly depressing when you see wave upon wave of besuited hurried young business types rushing around taking life by the scruff of the neck, shiny laptop tucked under their oxters, skinny latte in one hand animatedly bladdering into a mobile or tablet of some sort in the other hand. While you sit there twiddling your thumbs trying to pass the long minutes and hours.
Nothing Neanderthal or sexist in my thoughts, just my male pride and ego having been stung but it's wholly disheartening to see your finance taking the role of the breadwinner. However I've been here before, I spent more than half my time doing temporary a-day-here a -day-there jobs in Australia. Somedays wishing your soul away to work other days just giving into a lazy, negative attitude. I've been down before, but you can't let yourself stay down, you can't let yourself wallow in your own self-pity. It's takes nothing to acquire a job in today's modern world you just need the right attitude, you can't take no for an answer, you have to be thick-skinned to survive and more important than anything else you cannot afford to take things to heart. I'm having a bad Thursday, but I'm going to make sure it's my last 'bad' Thursday for a long time unemployed or otherwise.
Now for the other topic we've (my fiancé & I) been experiencing of late, house hunting (or flat hunting, or studio hunting, or hovel hunting you get them all in London) and all the soul-searching questions that come along with it. How much is it weekly?, How much is it monthly? Whereabouts is it? How much is the deposit? Who are we sharing with? Have we our own bathroom? How long will the commute be? There are no two ways about it house hunting is a massive pain in the proverbial bottom. Hopping from tube to train, train to tube, line to line, bus to bus to get to a viewing on time. There is a, however, a sense of adventure in it all, a sense of adventure in the chase. Just what will the next landlord/tenants be like? Will they be young or old? Weird or nice? Will they be willing to haggle? To lower their demands?
An ad we created on spareroom.co.uk turned out to be our lifesaver. No thralling through endless almost identikit ads for us. Like salmon darting upstream into the hungry waiting jaws of a grizzly, they came hopping into our laps. After a search of four days, we have our own place, our own one bedroom apartment, our own shining beacon in the madness, the jungle that is London Town.
There's a certain amusing irony in needing to use the internet to search for jobs, housing, to get your fix of your favourite social media, to feel loved and being unable to afford a visit to an Internet cafe. The endless search for wifi hotspots and connectivity. There is only so many cups of tea or coffee you can go through just so you can continue the privilege that is using Starbucks or Costas free wifi.
There is no doubting moving to any new city or place especially somewhere as vast and exciting as London can be challenging and at times a daunting and overwhelming experience. However, it should also be a terribly exciting period in your life. At the end of the day, you are challenging yourself on many a mental and physical front. If you don't challenge yourself in life, then what's the point of existing? A bit of disappointment and failure now will make the successes you'll eventually experience all the sweeter in the long run.
The highs and lows of moving to a new country. The crazed emotional roller coaster that is searching for accommodation. The actual physical pain that is lugging bags of belongings across the vast landscape that is London City and it's boroughs. The horrible sinking feeling you get when your other half goes out to do a day's work, and you're left alone with only your thoughts and your joblessness. These are just a few of the challenges you can experience when moving aboard.
Fact number one being unemployed is horrible. Nothing in this world is a bad as trying to 'put in' a day on your own (especially when you're trying to fight off a mild depression and general lack of motivation). Don't get me wrong there are lots of activities and things to do in London, but it's hard to do them when you don't feel up to it. It gets particularly depressing when you see wave upon wave of besuited hurried young business types rushing around taking life by the scruff of the neck, shiny laptop tucked under their oxters, skinny latte in one hand animatedly bladdering into a mobile or tablet of some sort in the other hand. While you sit there twiddling your thumbs trying to pass the long minutes and hours.
Nothing Neanderthal or sexist in my thoughts, just my male pride and ego having been stung but it's wholly disheartening to see your finance taking the role of the breadwinner. However I've been here before, I spent more than half my time doing temporary a-day-here a -day-there jobs in Australia. Somedays wishing your soul away to work other days just giving into a lazy, negative attitude. I've been down before, but you can't let yourself stay down, you can't let yourself wallow in your own self-pity. It's takes nothing to acquire a job in today's modern world you just need the right attitude, you can't take no for an answer, you have to be thick-skinned to survive and more important than anything else you cannot afford to take things to heart. I'm having a bad Thursday, but I'm going to make sure it's my last 'bad' Thursday for a long time unemployed or otherwise.
Now for the other topic we've (my fiancé & I) been experiencing of late, house hunting (or flat hunting, or studio hunting, or hovel hunting you get them all in London) and all the soul-searching questions that come along with it. How much is it weekly?, How much is it monthly? Whereabouts is it? How much is the deposit? Who are we sharing with? Have we our own bathroom? How long will the commute be? There are no two ways about it house hunting is a massive pain in the proverbial bottom. Hopping from tube to train, train to tube, line to line, bus to bus to get to a viewing on time. There is a, however, a sense of adventure in it all, a sense of adventure in the chase. Just what will the next landlord/tenants be like? Will they be young or old? Weird or nice? Will they be willing to haggle? To lower their demands?
An ad we created on spareroom.co.uk turned out to be our lifesaver. No thralling through endless almost identikit ads for us. Like salmon darting upstream into the hungry waiting jaws of a grizzly, they came hopping into our laps. After a search of four days, we have our own place, our own one bedroom apartment, our own shining beacon in the madness, the jungle that is London Town.
There's a certain amusing irony in needing to use the internet to search for jobs, housing, to get your fix of your favourite social media, to feel loved and being unable to afford a visit to an Internet cafe. The endless search for wifi hotspots and connectivity. There is only so many cups of tea or coffee you can go through just so you can continue the privilege that is using Starbucks or Costas free wifi.
There is no doubting moving to any new city or place especially somewhere as vast and exciting as London can be challenging and at times a daunting and overwhelming experience. However, it should also be a terribly exciting period in your life. At the end of the day, you are challenging yourself on many a mental and physical front. If you don't challenge yourself in life, then what's the point of existing? A bit of disappointment and failure now will make the successes you'll eventually experience all the sweeter in the long run.
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