London calling (Simon)

I haven't written here for a wee while. This is not because I have been cowed into a socially disengaged coma by the sheer size of London. Although it is enormous.
Rather, London has been great thus far, and I am trying to take it all in. Because we are going to be here for the medium term I am trying to re-establish a routine, and so far it is working out mighty fine. More below the fold.

In terms of the obvious (flat and job), our arrival was helped immensely by our friends Katherine and Daniel -well mostly Katherine- finding a fantastic two bedroom apartment for the four of us to share. The move in date was a week after our arrival in London, and it is within three minutes walk of Kings Cross St Pancras tube/train station. There is an alcove off the lounge which is ideal for friends to doss in, so if you are coming over to London for a visit (say from your house just outside Greytown) you should look us up.
In terms of our immediate surrounds, there are a number of takeaways, bars and a supermarket within a couple of minutes walk.

I found a job fairly quickly working for an IT recruitment company (where I don't have to wear a suit or tie), and Marie has just started as a conference researcher for a publishing company. I am on a four month contract at the moment and Marie has a permanent role, so from here on in we should be pretty sweet. Both Marie and I are able to walk to work in 20 minutes, so we don't have to endure the indignity of rush hour Tube trips.

For a month on the ground I think that is pretty good going. The only tourist attraction we have done thus far is the London Eye, on the grounds that we will have time to see the rest of them next year. I have signed up for the waiting list to climb up inside Big Ben, hopefully we can do that in the new year...

One thing I have noticed about London is the anonymity. I have been walking most places for a month, and I have seen one person I knew. I think this is one of the things which makes NZ appealing- yes in NZ I saw people I knew when I was hungover in the supermarket looking for orange juice, but this is reassuring in hindsight. I don't know why.

A large advantage of living beside Kings Cross is that there are direct trains to Paris in just over two hours, not to mention the rest of continental Europe and all of the United Kingdom. I have already made a booking for a Parisian restaurant the weekend of my birthday, so that is something to look forward to in February. You can get on a sleeper train in the evening and wake up in Venice, so that will be a nice weekend at some point next year. We were going to get the fast train up to Edinburgh for Christmas, but the train tickets were twice as expensive as either flying or hiring a car. Why is it that the most environmentally friendly mode of transport is the most expensive?

To sum up, life is pretty sweet. The only minor downside I can think of is that it gets dark at about 5pm, but that just gives me an excuse to buy a new heavy coat with my first paycheck. And a scarf and some gloves.