Louise goes to London (and Dublin, a little)

So I´m safely in London. I say "I" because Brian was unavoidably detained due to some last minute issues with his visa and will only be joining me on Wednesday. There was a moment of panic when we weren´t sure how long it was going to take but it all seems to be in order now.

The more trips we go on, the more I realise the limitations of the ¨Green Mamba¨ aka the South African passport. Everywhere we go, our friends with EU and other non-South African passports blithely stroll through passport control whilst we have to start sweating about a month beforehand getting all the necessary documentation together for whichever, inevitably ridiculously expensive visa we need. It doesn´t help that my brother has an Irish passport and I am not eligible for one.

In my opinion the next "Amazing Race" should be set in South Africa. Each contestant will be provided with a South African passport and access to certain documentation and then told to go and get a Schengan, Canadian and American visa. I would be willing to bet that none of them would be able to accomplish that in less than ten days.

Leaving SA was rather sad but luckily I didn´t have too much time to think about it as I was madly trying to sell my car, wrap up everything at work, see everyone before we left and do all the last minute admin that always seems to be far more time consuming than you originallly expect. Our farewell was awesome and the touch of Britannia theme helped us to acclimatise. We were obviously all on the same wave length because there was a tea cup, a tea pot and a queen!

I´m quite proud that I managed to get to London safe and sound without losing anything - you may recall my almost phone loss on the way to Chicago and the almost passport, credit card and forex loss two years ago. I did have a bit of a panic when I realised that I´d left my camera at the internet cafe and rushed back to get it only to find it wasn´t there. It ended up being a false alarm as it was still sitting ¨safely¨ at the bottom of my bag.

Our house is amazingly situated and is literally AT the Edgeware Road tube station ie. 20m away which makes travelling around a breeze. It´s a big old flat with high ceilings and more than enough room for Marissa, Jus, Mems, Brian and myself. Our house is also
* a 5 minute walk from Hyde Park
* a 7 minute walk from Oxford Street
* a 10 minute walk from Regent´s Park
* around the corner from a pub called the Green Man (for if we are feeling homesick although it is a good deal smarter than its South African equivalent)
* 50m from Marks & Spencers
* 150m from Tescos
* 250m from the second story of the building where Alexander Flemming discovered Penicillin in 1928 (according to the plaque)

The job search is going somewhat slower than I expected. The weather has being playing along nicely for all my missioning around with sunny skies and only a slightly chilly wind. My first priority was setting up a bank account and getting a cell phone (my new number is +447872167544 by the way). Setting up a bank account was infuriating as only bank bureaucracy can be. I didn´t have proof of my address in London so then had to prove my residential (not postal) address in SA. Now all my post got sent to my PO Box at work or emailed to me so I didn´t actually have anything sent to my residential address. Luckily after much searching I managed to find the little address slip that they put inside your ID. Although decidedly outdated, it seemed to do the trick. The irony of the whole thing is that I actually have a bank account at this bank already but apparently that doesn´t count as a proof of address- just smile and nod!

Then I had to go and find bedding and other essentials. My wanderings took me into Debenhams and when they announced over the loudspeaker that there were free giveaways on the fourth floor in the kitchen department I couldn´t resist. It turned out they were giving away free garnish knives with which you could make watermelon baskets and kiwi flowers. ¨Free¨ as in ¨free if you sit through this demonstration of our new and amazing, all-purpose vegetable cutter¨. I figured I was unemployed so I may as well sit through it. The sales guy completely enthralled me. He didn´t stop speaking for the entire demonstration and was so convincing that I almost bought the veggie cutter (it was a special price just for us you see). Luckily common sense and my unemployed liquidity prevailed. The whole experience ended rather messily that night when I gouged a huge whole in my hand whilst trying to impress the girls with an apple flower made with the surprisingly sharp garnish knife.

In regard to working in my chosen field, it turns out that 50% of the working population of London want to get into the area of Social Development/Corporate Social Investment. I´m gradually making progress but by the looks of things I might be unemployed for at least another few weeks.

I decided to take advantage of my unemployed status and pop over to see Dave and Lee Lee for the bank holiday weekend. I'm actually in Dublin at the moment but I´ll save those stories to regale you with next week.