winter

Whenever I’m feeling a little down or sad I always think back to rowing training; it’s full of so many happy memories.

I don’t think about beautifully warm regatta days, or a perfect outing on a Saturday morning when there is mist over the sea and the water is like a millpond. I always have a very vivid image in my head of running around the long common on a winter’s night, wrapped up warm with several layers including a hat, knowing that after the run the warm boat house will be there to greet me and that after the rest of training I will cycle home in the cold weather, but when I get home I will enter into a warm house full of friends enjoying themselves.

It’s such a happy image and it’s hard to explain, but even just thinking about it fills me with content and happiness.

In fact, one of the most odd things is that when I think of times that make me feel warm inside they are nearly all set in the winter time when the weather outside is cold. There is just something very comforting about being wrapped up in lots of layers on a cold winter’s night.

londres

So there it is. I’m working in London!
Had a very manic and crazy first week and a big thank you goes out to everyone who looked after me last week.

Whilst me and Mark are house hunting I am now living at home and commuting, not the easiest of journeys, but luckily I can sleep anywhere.

My job is an ideal fist job, working within the market research/analysis department for a large asset management firm and I get to work with some really nice people who have been very kind to help me settle in the past week and a half.

It’s nice that I have a few friends in London and hopefully soon I will get to meet more, but one good thing is that not only is Mark trying to get a flat with me, but there are also several other people from home and Uni looking to move to London within the next few months, so London may become like a home from home.

Things aren’t going too bad at the moment, but could always be better. One downside about work is that they have blocked online messenger services and Gmail. The buggers.

SICK' FEST 06

Sicklesmere played host to the annual festival hosted by Tom which was full of farmer types (including George trying his best to look like one) and plenty more people including us lot.

The rain certainly didn’t stop the football and swing ball which continued for several hours in the rain. There were even a number of dedicated supporters!

Classic night, but pleased I moved into a tent and didn’t continue the sleeping under the Gazebo – Howard and Ando got wet, cold and no sleep!

Since Sick’ Fest I have accepted a job offer for a graduate scheme that I was offered and start Monday 21st(!!) so need to find a place to stay pretty sharpish otherwise it’s hotels for me. Hopefully Davies is making the move to London in the near future so we can find a larger place to stay.

Fingers crossed it all goes according to plan.

coffee coffee coffee

Yesterday was a good day (for once).

Leon kindly let me stay with him for two nights at his pad in Lee, just next to Blackheath.

Had a job interview in the morning, but the interview was over by 11am, so the rest of the day was spent filling in the gaps between meeting Alice for lunch, then Leon for lunch, followed by dinner with Alice. I had a few things I needed to buy, but I spent the majority of the time buzzing from coffee shop to coffee shop and racked up 6 large coffees in the end, including one which tasted like warmed up dish water from Planet Organic. Needless to say, I was a bit jolty.

A two hour après dinner walk around London slowly making our way to Charing Cross gave me the chance to diffuse some of the caffeine and I arrived back at Leon’s to be greeted with dinner and a beer. Perfect way to end the day and was ready for bed after my two lunches, two dinners, six coffees, two hour strole and two beers.

mento!

Everyone has seen videos on youtube of what happens when you combine mento’s and coke.

The other day, without realising what I had actually done was to consume half a box of mento’s followed by a 500ml bottle of coke. – not good for the stomach.

where the hell are you...

Kester has been away for a couple of weeks and he provides nice round-up emails with shorter follow-up emails to provide information about his evening antics.

What the hell is Ian doing? He left for New Zealand months ago. Haven't heard a word.

that's life

Things aren’t brilliant at the moment. The worst thing is, the only person to blame is myself; which makes dealing with everything so much harder as there is no one else to blame.

I managed to ruin the best thing that ever happened to me because of my own stupidity and short sightedness. Although I know things will get easier with time, for the time being anyway they are definitely getting worse and I feel everything is just at a standstill.

Your mind can play terrible ticks on you, especially when tired or just lazing around in bed. Luckily I am fairly active. I run and cycle everyday and of late have been swimming too, which helps to take my mind of things, plus as always Kester’s stories from his travels have me laughing.

I know things will work out in the end. Probably not how I want them to, but things will end up being OK. I am excited about moving to London, which should be within the next few weeks and Leon has already offered me a place to stay for a couple of weeks while I look for something more permanent.

I would like to refer back to a recent past blog in which I described Uni:

[it ends] Thursday, June 22, 2006 – “Alice, the most wonderful girl I have ever met, and would have never met if I had not studied at Portsmouth”

If there is one positive thing I can take away from everything it is that I had a brilliant time at Uni and at least I have met the most wonderful girl in the world. Not many people can say that.

I think that’s enough of the feeling sorry for myself stories. Time to actually do something this Friday: Town > Coffee > Frisbee > Swimming.

Hopefully normal JT will resume soon.

jobs

I have been trying fairly hard to find a job in London since leaving Uni, in fact I was looking to find one at easter too.

I hadn’t heard from the agencies that I had registered with for about a week, although I had had a couple of interviews a fortnight ago. Today however, three of the agencies whom I am registered phoned me and each of them had at least one role they want to put me forward for and one of the agencies had two ideal jobs for me. Let’s hope I get called for some more interviews.

We shall see. Fingers crossed.
I need to keep busy.

adsl

My internet hasn’t been working for almost two days and I have been connecting to my next door neighbour’s wireless.

I thought that the problem might simply be a small snag with Virgin as the problem that was occurring I had had before with another service provider. … Anyway, it still wasn’t fixed this afternoon, so after an hour on the phone to the support people who informed me there were no service issues and that the problem must be at my end, I informed them of the procedures I had been through in order to rule out different pieces of software/hardware.

They [Virgin] politely told me that the problem was at my end, but they would look into it, but they hastened to add that they doubt they would find a problem at their end.

10 minutes later, my internet if running fine.