something you can bank on...

The last few days I have been a busy little diva, persistently persisting at completing the lengthy list of things to be done and have finally been successful in escaping England's finest bureaucratic loops-I have opened a bank account! I never imagined it would be so difficult to enlist an institution to take my money (although I do recognize one slight issue- I have no money to put in said bank account at the moment lol). I was so excited I almost jumped across the desk and gave this lovely HSBC woman a Canuckified hug to show my complete and utter gratitude of having finally found the loophole in the system (I now recognize it as one that goes like this...we would LOVE for you to come to the England, but make things just beyond your reach, just to prove you really WANT to be here. I call that trial by fire!) So after that got sorted, I skipped out of the bank and walked the blustery 2 miles back to the train station to go pick up my phone from the unlocking phone guy in the dodgiest part of Walthamstow. The guy was brilliant though, and unlocked my phone for £12 and a £1 SIM (one thing about England I love, mobile things are so cheap!) His shop was one of those shops that you werent really sure what they were actually used for as it was filled with everything imaginable including computers which operated as a kind of 'internet cafe'. It looked a bit like it was under construction as the carpet was made of cardboard boxes, but seeing as there were no tools around or visible improvements for that matter, I safely assumed it was just that-carpet. The best part was under the glass of his countertops where 3 dated glamour shots of the shop owner where carefully and prominently placed right under customers noses. It was a very Napoleon Dynamite-esque move and I wondered what exactly they were supposed to accomplish other than make me wonder just where exactly can you get those done?! So after having quite the successful day I was happy to have gotten so much accomplished in my first week in London! In case anyone feels the need to send me well wishes, gossip, and general Canadian tidbits you can now send them to me on + 011 44 7864 204 038. Yay! In other news, I am thisclose to moving into my new flat, am ridiculously excited, but again, I must really want it as the lengths I have had to go to prove my trustworthiness makes me feel like I should be buying a house! Not to mention the letdown I felt after having opened a bank account only to find out that I have to go to my home branch (RBC Canada that is) to wire transfer £2600 into my HSBC account to pay for my first 4 months rent for my new flat. (For those of you who aren't familiar with the rates, its about $5000, a price that will leave me eating rice and potatoes until I get some good old sterling in my bank account!) The solution? Withdrawing £500 a day from the cash point and stashing it in my sock drawer, ahem, suitcase, until I walk in with a huge wad of cash looking more like a dealer than a renter and dropping it off on the agents desk hoping I'll get a small living space in exchange. For my troubles, I figured although it was an extra expense, I deserved to keep the t.v./broadband package as a slight consolation for having been homeless for so long, plus its a hockey-watching bonus for Ben. I am hoping that this week will be full of promising job leads and interviews and now that I am so close to having my own place I will be able to focus more on money making things than living things. I did meet with a recruitment agency yesterday and went in dressed smartly (despite the temperatures hovering around zero-all I really wanted to to was wear pjs and drink tea!) yet relitavely unprepared for the little test they give you at the beginning of the meeting. The agency recruits administrative workers and despite my business education it seems I have fallen out of the loop as it were. Surprisingly, I did relitavely well on the typing bit (thanks MSN messenger training!) at 58wpm spelling I managed a 98% (I was the most annoyed at that I think, I was sure I had it aced haha) and MS word, which I butchered my way through as I selected the wrong year and was trapped using the 'new and improved' version, not the fossil I was trained on back when Y2K was still fresh in everyone's minds. So having done all that I was offered to be put on for temp work should it arise. So thats one angle covered-short contracts, gain experience, move ahead. Today is blog update (obv!) and CV updating, and employment attack time!  Oh, I almost forgot, I managed to be a good little navigator, having taken the train and the tube to Holburn, walked to the British Museum (where, yes, there is free entry...another reason I love it here!), then took the tube, during rush hour (you have no idea until you have been in it-you are basically moved along by a sea of people), back to Liverpool St. and walked to Ben's office to meet him and after he finished work. The pictures I am posting are of some of the things I saw while at the British Museum yesterday and thought I would pass them along! Next up, a job-hunting I will go...
your diva abroad x

your diva abroad x