three out of four

Nathan told me I now have three of the major four things sorted: uk bank account, cellphone, and a flat!!!! Just need a job. Yep got a flat and I move in tomorrow! Sharing a room with a kiwi chick. Will post some photos of it when I get settled in. In other news, forgot to tell you about going to Camden Markets. This was a cool day, except it was cold and raining! This is an area of London where the influence of the Sex Pistols is still evident. Good to see some real subversive punks are still here. It was fun, lots to see and some cool little vintage clothes. Even this area that was full of stuff for dance raves and clubs, like tee shirts with little lcd type things on the front with messages being sprawled across. Funny!
Also saw a cool movie if you are interested: Lucky Number Slevin. It is pretty cool!
I've decided since I'm currently at a loose end, apart from sight seeing, that I would start a band. I met this blonde called Melody and a cute black called Valerie. We have a pretty super cute name: I'm the lead so I take the title. Here's a photo that we've been using to promote ourselves. I've always had a dream to be a popstar.....

hunting:me, flats and jobs, pigeon, crumbs and worms

The Pigeon: two tone of grey with a malevolent bent, the pecker stalked his prey: the tiny crumb from the sandwich, carelessly tossed aside from the human, to become vulnerable to the pointy black beak of The Pigeon...

WHO THINKS IT'S TIME JOSIE GOT A JOB?

Haven't been doing anything that exciting since I got back from Paris mainly because I am trying to save money. I have to put down a massive bond and forward rent soon on a flat and that will take most of my savings, so for now just quietly reading the newspaper at my local library and a coffee at the cafe down the road is my daily life. Which isn't all bad. Yesterday I looked at 2 more flats. One was a bit more expensive, with 4 girls, German, Portuguese and American. The other was cheaper with a kiwi and Australians. So pluses and minuses with both. I have lined up another to look at tomorrow night as well so will hear back from some of these soon I hope! This weekend Becs and some of her friends and I are going out for a dinner, should be a fun night. Kara Bonnevie, who I used to work with at the New Plymouth library is arriving here on Friday and I am going to catch up with her on Sunday afternoon. Then it's also not long til Sam arrives and also only a couple of weeks til Steve and Rosie come too! Very exciting, friends!!

OO Baby, I'm back

So!!!It has been a long time between posts. I have been busy! And by busy I mean international travelling. Yes I went to Paris! Long time I have waited to visit this city, and boy did it live up to the dream.
But I get ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning...
Last Saturday was the London Triathlon. No, I didn't compete but Crystal did the sprint (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run), Nathan did the cycle leg of a sprint team of which their friend Tim Sullivan swam. The event was massive, so many people. It turned out to be a really hot day, and long! It was fun to go to, and it was hilarious that it was sponsored by Michelob, a beer company! In the water for the swim, the bouys to swim around were massive inflatable beer bottles! A big group of us came along to cheer along the competitors, it was quite fun. Crystal did very well - in her event out of 600 women she came 8th!!! In her wave she was about 30th or so out of the water, and then during the cycle she went up to 5th place, and then some girl passed her on the run. All in all a super effort, in a time of 1hr20mins. She dominated on the cycle, very impressive, and stood out amongst most of the competitors men and women as a better athlete. Crystal=athelete? who would've guessed?
And coincidentally, Rebecca (Becs) Bragg was there and we caught up! Funny times. I mentioned her before but I met here in Sydney at the LaSallian leadership thing in 7th form. She is good and says hi to Natalie and Felicity, natalie -we even joked bout Jack liking you there funny!! Her and I caught some trains home together and we plan to catch up again soon - there's nothing like the feeling of making friends. I am nothing without friends.
Saturday night I went out to dinner with Crystal, Nathan, Katie Stringer and her boyfriend Mike to this mexican restaurant in Clapham. It was fun we drank (well, Katie and I drank) sangria.
I can't remember what I did Sunday now, so shall skip to Monday!
I got up early and went into town to open my bank account. Rosie I walked past that toy shop on regent street that you told me about! It looked awesome next time I am there I will go inside. OPening the account was bloody easy - all that work at Travellex on Colombo street in chch was worth it. I even got another credit card! After all the hassle with TSB about getting one and here they practically shoved it in my hands.
So we packed (we being Crystal and I not the royal we) and got ready to go on the train through the chunnel to Paris. Exciting! I was excited. Very. mainly because I got stamps in my passport!
We arrived in Paris at about 9pm local time. Our little 2star hotel was located in Pigalle, which is the sex district of Paris, at the foot of the hill where Sacre Coeur and Montmatre are. The metropolitan signs at the top of the stairs are just as cool as when you see them in pictures. We went for a walk up to Sacre Coeur that night, and from the hill could see down on Paris all lit up. The Eiffel Tower looked so amazing, and S-C itself was impressive with the lights. I was a bit overwhelmed, it was so cool, and I felt very happy and alive.
The next day we walked everywhere. From Pigalle we walked past Moulin Rouge, to the big old Opera House, then to the massive Galleries Lafayette, this shopping complex that had an enormous leadlight dome ceiling. So much more beautiful than Harrods. Here I perused the new season Chloe range, o so cool, and with a hefty price tag to match! From here we walked down Boulevard Haussmann, where Marcel Proust lived at no. 26. This led us to l'Arc de Triomphe. And didn't that just look amazing. Sitting proudly in the middle of the place de charles de gaulle, this Arch commissioned by Napoleon was a classics lesson bought to life. I opted not to climb up, but circled it, and walked under it and went ohh and ahh which the occasion neccessitated. Pretty cool stuff. From here it was down the Champs Elyssee. In Paris they don't seem to have car yards, but actual flash shops with cars in them. BMW shop, Range Rover shop, etc. Funny. This walk led us eventually down towards the place where the Obalisque is, this big phallic tower with hieroglyphics on it. Don't really know much about that. Anyways, we finally got to the Louvre. It is shut on Tuesday, but it was cool enough from the outside and we had decided to look inside another day anyway. The pyramids are cool, and I felt very Sophie Neveu. Near the Lourve is a statue for Joan of Arc, that was neat. We then went over the river to Notre Dame. This extremely gothic cathedral is amazing. I didn't see old Quasimodo, but did see his tower. Inside this is one incredible church. Really amazing. Crystal and I lit some prayer candles, which was special. Then we went to the Musee d'Orsay. We saw there some Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Gaugain, heaps more. That night we went up Montmartre to the Place de Tertre which is a little square where artists sell paintings and heaps of little restaurants. We ate at le Cremaillaire, or something like that. Very cool. Paris has a thing with dogs, I saw so many little dogs, but that night I also saw a rabbit on a leash! Crazy!
Wednesday - up early and to le Tour Eiffel. From the Trocadero gardens you get a great view. It really is a beautiful piece of architecture, in my mind. Something about it's shape and it's global identity really moves me. We got their early enough so that the wait in the queue was only hour and half. We went right to the top. the elevator to the top was freaky!!! I was bit scared, thought I might throw up, but once up their I was merely breathless. The city spreads out around a nice shade of white. Great view. Worth the wait.
After that we went back to the Louvre, and had a look around. There's too much there to see, so as the Lonely planet said, just choose one or two bits and pretend the rest isn't there. Incredible statues, and paintings, and loads of stuff, just too much too take in really. Saw the Venus de Milo, and ye olde Mona Lisa and some other stuff, was great. The building that houses all this stuff was amazing too. There was a section that was Napoleon's apartment, just the rooms put in there in tact. So ornate and beautiful. I read a letter there too, the original letter from Marie Antoinette to her sister, the last one she wrote, contemplating her impending death. It totally stretched my brain to read it in french but I think I understood most of it. Such history, unbelievable, it's a cliche but isn't NZ young??
That night we ate dinner in the Latin Quarter. I didn't know this, but it is thus called as it is the student and university section of the city and for a long time the students and the lecturers spoke to each other in Latin. We had a walk around eating cheese and salami crepes and looked in the little souvenir shops. We then walked up the road to the Pantheon there, where Voltaire, Emile Zola and some others are buried. It was pretty neat, and then we sat at a little bar and had a drink, with the spires of Notre Dame in the distance.
Thursday morning had a coffee at a cafe, yea, parisienne cafe. Was fun. Then we caught the Metro to the Pere-Lachaise cemetery, where we walked around visiting the graves of Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Jim Morrison and Modigliani. The cemetery was huge, with cobbled roads and mulitudes of graves and crypts.
We left Thursday late afternoon, and it was kind of sad. Now I'm back in London, I miss the french bill boards, the sights and the city of Paris. But c'est la vie, back to reality. Not that London is tremedous, it's just on high terroist alert and that's not fun!
Still looking for a flat and still looking for a job. But happy and smiling still and that's the story. Missing people heaps and wish I could share all this with you.
will from now get back to more regular posting.





Sorry that I haven't written much about it in detail, it would just take so long! I saw so much and would love to tell you everything. These are just some of the photos, and hope they represent well the trip. Hope you like it!

my phone is on...someone text me!!!!

I've nearly been suffering withdrawals from not doing this blog! hope you've all had something else to do while I've been slack. I must thank Flea for her very perceptive take on the whole cops on horses phenomenon. Make sense.
So what have I been doing? Certainly not sitting on my laurels. I went to a recruitment agency and had an appointment with Harvir, my lovely helper getting me jobs!! She is putting me forward for library and admin roles. I had to take these computer tests, sitting at a PC with head phones on and complete tasks on word, excel and typing. I was freaking out the night before this cause I have used excel for years and it's all to do with numbers and equations and stuff, very frightening. But no fear!! I did awesome - 80% in word, 69.9% in excel and my typing speed in 51wpm with 95% accuracy. She said I'll get an admin role easy. I'm glad to know that 3 years uni has provided me with the skills to file and type letters. Without the degree, I'd obviously be unemployable!
Have also looked at two flats. One was all the way out in zone 4, which is bloody miles from anything, and tooks forever to get to from Crystal and Nathans. The house was really nice, and in the garden they have a 9 hole mini-putt course! But the people, aussie and kiwi, were kind of unfriendly. So when they rang today to offer me the room, I was not all that keen. Plus, it was the first place I looked at and I needed something else to compare. So I went to another tonight that was much closer, in Acton which is west and full of aussies and kiwis I hear. This place was all aus girls, and while the house was much untidier and in more general disrepair the vibe was cool and the place was interesting. It has 7 girls living there, I'd be sharing a room with this girl Bre, which mum will probably read this and freak - it'll be okay, people do it all the time, and it makes it way cheaper. So FINGERS CROSSED that I get this place or another cause I turned down the first place. But that's good - first place wants me, I must be a kick ass first impression, even ginger haired.
Today I went to the play!!! Yay! It was very exciting. It was at the Apollo theatre, and I had an alright seat I only paid half price so I was happy. When the lights went down, and everyone was waiting for the curtain to rise, I had that awesome anticipation feeling, like being 6 and finding santas presents on christmas morning. I would love to be an actor, just for that buzz. Juliette Lewis, well, I had at first issues looking at her without wanting to laugh mainly because she was so good in that movie The Other Sister, in which she played a handicap. She is not a handicap in this play. Martin Henderson was horrifically charismatic and sexy. He had a massive Sawyer from Lost thing going on. He was wearing double denim for the role- excellent! Also reminded me a little of a younger Woody Harrelson. Maybe it was just the accent, and the longish hair. Fun though. A great play to take a novice drama person to as it was short at just 90 mins and only one act. Both did a great job, moving, involved and committed acting. 4 stars.

Here's a picture of me sitting on some deck chairs in Hyde Park. It costs like 2pound to sit there for four hours. I didn't pay, cause I just wanted a photo plus it wasn't sunny that day really and why sit there in the cloudy weather?








And these houses are cool. The doors below which are now usually garages etc were once the stables. The little balcony thing above was where the man would lean down with hay on sticks or something to feed the ponies. Funny eh! some of these houses had been done up but these ones here with the black doors looked really old. COOOOOOOL.

In Covent Garden Markets these people were playing music. Three violins and a cello. It was really cool. I wanted to get a photo of all the people and markets around but that was mission impossible. I nearly, nearly, offered to play violin with them, but then when I remembered that I only owned a violin for four years and that I didn't play it I decided against it.






This guy with the loud speaker was hilarious. He is standing right outside Oxford Circus tube station, at like 6pm when it's crazy busy after work, talking about God etc trying to hand out pamphlets to people. Very funny. He had a really monotonous voice, just dah dah dah dah and had little pieces of paper with scripture details that he was trying to hand out to people, so they could go home, find that gift from Gideons and read up about his rant. It was, I suppose, better than all these people like diabetes awareness et al who accost you in the street and try to compliment you into talking to them. I am getting better at not talking to them. It's just so hard to be mean!!! Some people will know about the time greenpeace got to me outside riccarton mall one day, and I felt bad enough to sign up to a direct debit thing with them! Thankfully this was when I still had a junior saver account with TSB so it couldn't be set up, apparently little kids accounts don't let you have automatic payments!! Although I'm getting better - an amnesty international person got the brunt of it from me. I like amnesty international, I like how they trying to help people before animals, and the sea. But man, don't try to suck money from me. So when this guy was angry-ish that I wouldn't talk to him and asked me "But what about all these people?" I was able to say back "they probably deserve it". that shut him up. And this comment probably reveals what you've all known about me for a long time - that I don't care, never will, and all those women in Nigeria can continue to get stoned for sex before marriage. JOKES!!!

I managed to find a quiet little cemetery today to have a sit down in and eat some lollies. I don't know why, but I quite like cemeteries. It's odd, but I kind of like the way they can seem eerily calming with the sunlight dappling through the trees. Also here was this church. This is what is cool - this church is awesome. There are so many cool buildings here and they are just the ordinary ones to everyone. This church is just the one in the Acton cemetery, who cares say the Londoners. Well, this church and the cemetery are just examples of the little grains of golden beauty hidden within the grey sand that is London. I luckily like to pan for gold.














Thanks to everyone for the support for the new hairdo. Drastic, I know, and I'm dreading the regrowth! Luckily, I can redye dark again then! I miss everyone terribly. I desparately wish I had more friends cause I don't get any text messages and seriously I miss my phone going ding ding ding over and over again. But soon, I shall have friends! O did I mention my wee trip next week? Je vais a Paris!! Je suis tres excite, finalement je pourrai parler le français en France! Aussi, je voudrais boire un cafe au lait et mange un croissant a un cafe francais! A bientot!