Options, Opportunities and Ozzies

A couple of pics from the first couple of days in London have been uploaded - nothing outrageous at this stage but we're working on it!

Well we've been here for just over a week now and I've already had my first return trip to London - and I've got to say I'm torn between my options at the moment. I had been envisaging a polluted, expensive, difficult, somewhat overwhelming experience in London that I could avoid by staying and working in the country with the odd visit into the big smoke. But after seeing some REALLY polluted and disorganised cities, London is a like going for a stroll down some quiet lanes. Security is supposed to be high - but unless they decide to frisk us with sub-machine guns in our backs a la Bogota, it really seems just adds a little fluro yellow to the backdrop of tube stops, red buses and the most diverse array of human beings I have ever seen. Every day that I spend in London I see something different and interesting, I've been here before, but perhaps it is with different eyes that I look at the melting pot of cultures that live together. I can walk through Selfridges (swanky department store) beside women wearing berkas (spelling?) who are buying expensive handbags and then step onto the street and hear several different languages spoken by groups of people bustling past. The enormity of London is also exciting - as Lucas mentioned, it is a 'world' city - every tube or bus stop has something different to offer from it's surroundings and a day trip to a previously unvisited suburb is like a day trip to a different country - not to mention the ease with which day trips to other countries actually is.

I still miss South America and I'm always on the look out for Spanish speakers or a latino quarter in London, but my mind is racing assessing all the options I have for work here and the opportunities and experiences that each one can open up. At the moment my three main choices are - Government work (any area), assistant chef in Lucas's pub, and the manager training course for B&Q (cross between Bunnings and Freedom). The B&Q option aroused my interested when after I had applied for some floor work they rang and informed me I would be bored with admin work and maybe I would like to go through their manager training programme (-mme - good old DOFA spelling still), B&Q have offices all over Europe and...CHINA, so maybe my evil plan may yet come to fruition.

No hurry though - Feeling relaxed and unhurried, I have a very healthy tax return in the works and am starting to get that burning desire to haul the metal around again - my goodness I will be weak - but still will be fun to put myself through the gruelling diet and exercise plans that I love to give other people - we'll see how I cope....

To anyone who still reads this post - thanks for making the effort to follow my adventures - other peoples travels are always much less exciting than your own and it can be a bore to hear them go on about what an amazing time they are having blah blah blah. I hope it has got the travel juices flowing in some people so that I can see some of you in the UK or possibly other parts of the world should fate deem it so.

I'll see if I can't get on the news or get arrested doing something exciting. Any ideas??