I have only just arrived in London, and, even though I am English, I
haven’t lived in England for a while. For the past 5 years I have been
living in France and New Zealand (which was very nice) but now I am
back in the capital to try and get to grips again with the English way
of life……sadly, I am not doing very well.

Let’s start with why I am in London in the first place. It probably
seems odd that after living in such a sunny and relaxed place as the
south of France, then moving to an under populated and beautiful place
such as New Zealand, that I would choose to come back to live here in
London, of all places.  I mean it’s really rather grey, depressing
and over crowded, if you think about it. It smells rather peculiar too
and the colour of your bogeys is quite worrying after a ride on the
tube, the Northern line is the worst (just try inspecting one, but only
when you are drunk and don’t care if anyone sees and thinks you are
gross). But, I chose London as I think that I just simply couldn’t live
anywhere else in England. I knew I needed to be somewhere fast paced,
cosmopolitan, and stimulating, a place where things happen, and really,
there is no better place than London to fit these criteria.

I arrived about 2 months ago, pretty much straight off the plane from
New Zealand. I was very excited and hopeful about what prospects London
would have to offer me. I had a good job in NZ and thought I would
easily get another one here, and finding a place to live would be
relatively stress free as well. If you live in London then I don’t have
to explain to you why I then proceeded to get the biggest wake up call
of my life. Let’s just say that in my optimistic outlook, I forgot to
consider that literally thousands of other hopefuls were also going for
the same job as me, and hundreds of others were going for the same flat
as me too. Anyway, I started off by searching for a job on the internet
and applying online as well. I now realise this was my first fatal
error. I would honestly spend days filling out the same online
application forms and writing excellent covering letters only to get
the same standard response of "unfortunately, you are not suitable".
Or, if I was really lucky, I wouldn’t hear back from them at all. It
would be appropriate now to mention that my job hunt was only worsened
by a more than drastic flat hunt. My stomach reels when I think back to
the hell holes the estate agents were actually seriously suggesting I
lived in. I soon learnt that before viewing a property you should
enquire if it is ex-local authority (council houses). If so, the next
vital question is "Is there any likelihood of having my hand bag stolen
on the way to the shop?", or worse, "Am I expected to use a frequently
out-of-order communal lift that smells of wee?" If the answer to both
these highly important questions is "I don’t believe so" then it is my
advice not to take that ‘particular’ flat hunt any further, as what
estate agents ‘believe’ is not always what is ‘true’.

On a more positive note, I finally found a job in the same field as
what I was doing in New Zealand. As soon as I learnt that I had to
basically force myself and C.V upon potential employers to even get
noticed, a job offer is what I finally got. I also, eventually, found a
very nice, but small flat in Kensington. Coincidently, my flatmates are
from New Zealand too. So, with a little stretch of the imagination, you
could say that I have almost found a home from home. So now that I have
got myself sorted out, all I have to do now is explore this amazing
city and what delights is has to offer. It’s all very exciting! I will
keep you posted on my progress. Until next time.