London! The first days...

Well, after 18 months of floating about the most distant corners of the planet, Marco and I have finally got a fixed address again and are more or less settling back into ‘normal’ life. I’m proud to say that it only took us 3 days after arriving in London to find ourselves a little flat and move in... though in our case ‘moving in’ isn’t much of an achievement as all we have are the packs on our backs and a box of stuff we had mailed from home! None the less, it felt excellent to be unpacking for the VERY LAST TIME, putting things in wardrobes and on shelves in a room of our very own, instead of in some grimy hostel dormitory.

As I write, we have been in London for exactly 2 weeks. We have done some serious inter-continental hopping in the last month. We flew from New Delhi in India to Missouri in the USA (reverse culture shock, anyone?!) where we spent a very relaxing fortnight over Christmas with Marco’s family, and from there it was a skip, hop and a jump across the Atlantic Ocean to Heathrow Airport.  We are now living in East London in a very ethnic neighbourhood called East Ham. It’s a predominantly Afro-Islamic community, and we are renting a rather shabby little place above a real estate agency that we share with 4 Indian people, including an 18-month old baby boy. It’s a very old, ramshackling, Dickensian sort of joint that we live in, with tiny narrow staircases and pull-string light switches. Most of it is very cramped, but our room is nice and big and has a pretty little ornamental fireplace in it, so that’s the main thing.

So, with Item 1 (finding a home) ticked off the agenda, we’re now in the early stages of Item 2, which is finding a Job. Not a fun task in a city that was one of the hardest-hit in the global recession! We spend most of our days huddled down with our laptops in the 1 square metre of this apartment that gets wifi internet access, with our bar heater beside us sending out resume after resume, and getting response after response along the following lines:

“Thank you for your interest in this position. You are applicant number 205. We will contact you should you be shortlisted for an interview”.

So clearly, a very brutal job market indeed! Still, there is nothing to do but keep trying, and I feel sure something will come along before too long. Exactly what that may be I don't know, but something! We keep each other cheerful and proof-read each others’ applications. I have an interview next week for a waitressing job, which I have high hopes for and will at least be some pounds coming in to our brand spankin’ new British bank account! I’m gonna be the best qualified waitress around! J

You can only spend so many hours a day crouched over a laptop sending out CVs so I am also trying to make the most of having so much free time, as I know I’m going to look back on it with envy once I do get employed. I’ve joined the local library and have been doing plenty of running, getting to know the parks and commencing ”Project-Get-Miranda-Kerr’s-Tooshi”. I would love to be doing some proper cooking and baking too, but unfortunately this house is not well stocked in terms of even the most basic kitchen implements, and I don’t want to go buying a whole bunch of new kitchen stuff. It’s honestly bizarre – we moved into this house and there were already 4 people living in it, so with us that makes 6 people in total. And there is no toaster, no kettle, no sharp knives, no tea-towel, no can opener, and exactly 1 plate and cup per person. No cutlery at all, as their Indian heritage means they eat with their fingers. No trays in the oven or griller, meaning the only thing we can really use to cook is the burners on the stove top. But that’s OK really, as we are more or less subsisting on ham and cheese sandwiches anyway. So the 6 of us get by with a single chopping board, a single beat-up fry-pan and a single pot. We had to buy ourselves a cup and plate each, and a can opener.

It’s all rather ridiculously funny, and we’ve made a bit of a game out of it, coming to tell one another when we discover a new thing the flat doesn’t have. Because as much as I’m whinging and whining, it really is nice to have a place to call home again, and not to be unpacking and packing every other day. We’re in a really vibrant neighbourhood with everything we need close by, and all in all it’s quite a fun way to ease back into normal living.

I’m prouder than I can possibly say of us being able to travel around the world for 18 months on entirely our own savings, and after having seen so much real, proper poverty in the world starting from scratch again in London doesn’t really seem so daunting. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s all a matter of perspective. It would be very easy to get glum and depressed – after all, we’ve finished our trip, we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel of our finances, we’re living in a pretty dingy flat, and we have no real job prospects on the horizon. But I prefer to view it as an exciting new adventure – the kind of thing you read about in books. “I got off the boat with the shirt on my back and 5 pounds in my pocket, and I built a life for myself.” That kind of thing. We have no idea what we’ll be doing next week, and it’s all a big new journey. We have no money and no jobs, but we have each other and we have hope.

Is that too corny for words? Maybe it is but I couldn’t care less – I’m having the time of my life!

 Love you all, and happy Australia day!!!!!!!!!!!!