I Has A Job!

                Finally, after sending out an insane amount of job applications with no response (or at least no good responses), I was starting to lose hope. How long can Sarah and I stay in London if we are unemployed? On a frustrated whim, I applied for a job advertised on the BritBound website Wednesday morning. That afternoon they called me and we had a phone interview. I was invited to attend a group interview Friday at their offices. Finally! Some progress. The only frustrating thing was I had to purchase their standard uniform before the interview. Which meant Thursday Sarah and I ventured into Bromley to visit The Glades Shopping Centre and pick up the articles of clothing. Sarah was getting some too, as she had applied for the job shortly after I received my phone call.

                Before we began hunting for clothes we ate at a restaurant recommended by Imogen several weeks prior, called Belgo (www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk). I love mussels, which some people know better than others (my Mexico peeps) and I have been talking about wanting mussels for awhile now. It was the perfect opportunity. They have a ridiculously cheap lunch deal where you can get a half-kilo of mussels and a drink for £7.95.  Needless to say, it was delicious and I will definitely be going back. After a satisfying lunch we started looking for the items we needed: a black tie, a black long-sleeved collared t-shirt, and black pants. The pants and tie were found easily at Marks & Spencer. The shirt was difficult. First, it took forever to even find a men’s plain black t-shirt. Then we had to figure out the size. How do guys do it? And how do girls figure out their guy’s shirt size? I am not built like a man and I have these things called boobs. So after three different stores we found some passable shirts at Debenhams. They are rather bulky in places but I didn’t have time to get a fitted shirt. I had been dreading the price tag on the shirt since the last time I picked up a men’s shirt was when Sarah and I dressed like Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson for Halloween two years ago and it was expensive. Much to my surprise, the shirt was actually the cheapest item!

                Friday was interview day and I wasn’t actually that nervous. I am quite confident in my interview skills and I have had a group interview before. Sarah returned the company’s phone call (they called while we were shopping Thursday) and ended up being placed in my group interview, which alleviated the pressure even further. We had to head all the way to Knightsbridge for the interview and, as we tend to do, arrived quite early. We wandered around Hyde Park for awhile before heading in to the interview.

                I would talk about the job but I had to sign a confidentiality agreement. Sorry. Suffice it to say that we both got through the first part of the interview and were invited to attend an all-day assessment – the final stage of the interview – Saturday. From 9:30am to 5:00pm. In Camden. And the trains weren’t running again this weekend. Sigh. So we woke up really early and took a bus, a tube and another bus to get there. Early again. We finished at 3:30pm which was earlier than anticipated and nice. What was even better was that we both got the job! Yay for no longer being unemployed! The best part of the job is that it’s flexible and you pick your hours, which means we can continue our job search and even get another job on the side. It’s actually kind of perfect for right now. And we can find a flat!

                When we got back to the flat we both got emails scheduling us for shifts for the week. I’m more nervous about the first shift, which Sarah is not working with me, than I was about the interview. It’s also intense – I work two shifts in two different parts of London Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I guess I’ll really be getting the hang of public transport. And Sarah will have to figure out how to find places on her on. We should really probably get phones…

You would think we would celebrate getting jobs but we were exhausted after three days of preparation and interviewing and whatnot so we just ordered some pizza and watched Gossip Girl and went to bed before midnight. Because we are the coolest.

Sunday we stayed in the flat enjoying our last day of doing nothing. Monday we technically weren’t working but it was still a very busy day. We had to go to Camden for 9:30am again to do a training course required for our job. It was supposed to go from 9:30am to 4:30pm but fortunately ended at 2:00pm and was ridiculously easy and boring. After the session Sarah and I, along with our friend Jeremy who also works with us, went to Camden Market to try and find the last remaining uniform items. We were semi-successful and ended up wandering the entire market trying to find things. I’ve heard about Camden Market and it lives up to its reputation. They have the coolest shops and stalls. If I had money I would buy so much stuff.

Sarah and I were booked to view a flat at 7:00pm and we finished our Camden wandering around 4:00pm. We decided to pop into a pub to wait and we chose The World’s End. I don’t know if I mentioned this from the day we went to the zoo but we died when we saw it. For those of you that don’t know, The World’s End is a movie about an alien invasion pub crawl. It’s British, obviously. So the first time we saw a pub actually called The World’s End we died of shock. So it made sense to pop in there and have a couple drinks while we waited.

We then hopped on a bus to West Kensington. It was a bittersweet flat viewing. We knew ahead of time that, realistically, we couldn’t afford it. We were hoping it wouldn’t be that nice or it would be too small and we could justify it. We were wrong. The flat was gorgeous and all the furniture, bedding, utensils, etc. was included. We wanted it so bad but at the end of the day, do we want to be able to eat out or go to clubs or go to movies? Because if we got this flat it wouldn’t be happening. So the search continues…

Tuesday was my first day at work. Like I said, I can’t talk about it because I signed a confidentiality agreement. But it was not as worrisome as I originally predicted. The guy they had me working with is kind of my favorite person ever and most of the people are really nice. By Wednesday I was put in a position to boss people around, which I liked. It’s pretty exciting but I hadn’t worked in two months and worked ten hours the first day so I was exhausted by the time I finished. I’m shocked I managed to get back to the flat.

How I Spent the Bank Holiday Weekend. And Tuesday.

                It was yet another Bank Holiday weekend in England so we were once again faced with a long-weekend. Unlike Easter Weekend, however, we found ourselves in the position of actually having things to do every day.                

                Friday marked our one month anniversary of being in London. Things haven’t worked out exactly as planned. We are both still unemployed. Contrary to everyone’s opinions in Canada, it isn’t because there are no jobs available. There are thousands of new jobs listed every day. The issue is that the competition is fierce and we lack experience. Who knew that getting a university degree would actually hurt your employment chances? But Friday was also the day of Sarah’s first job interview. I am still an unemployed couch hobo so I went down to Kew with her. We left ridiculously early but it was a good thing because there was a lot more walking involved than we had originally thought. I can now say I’ve walked the entire exterior of Kew Gardens. Originally I was just going to hang out at a pub while Sarah had her hour-long interview, but the pub next door was closed. Fortunately there was a shop across the street called Ceramic Café. It’s one of those shops where you can paint pottery. I love doing that so I painted a butterfly jewelry box while I waited.

                On Saturday we planned to see the new Seth Rogen movie, Bad Neighbours. We originally meant to attend the 1:00pm showing but we were bequeathed with the delightful news the trains weren’t running. We were instructed to wait at a bus stop for a replacement service. After about ten minutes of waiting with a growing crowd but no sign of the bus, I remembered there was a neighborhood bus that took us exactly where we needed to go. The only problem? It would take an hour to get there, which meant we would be seeing a later screening. Then the bus wouldn’t go past the second last stop as the driver had gone over their allowed driving time. Fortunately, the very first time we’d seen a movie there we had taken the tube to Canada Water, so we knew the walk. Had we not, though? We would have been super lost and definitely would have missed the movie. For the record, Bad Neighbours was hilarious. We then had to take another hour-long bus ride back. Doing two hour-long bus rides really makes me appreciate the ten minute train rides it usually is. Never not work again, trains.

                Of course, that wasn’t going to happen. At least I knew in advance the trains would be down on Sunday. We planned to go to Shake Shack and take pictures of us crying over burgers. Because we love this actor Dane Dehaan and he was on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon telling a story about a time when he hadn’t had a burger in four months and then started crying in a restaurant. So, with Sarah and I being as weird as we are, we were totally going to replicate that. The bus was only supposed to take thirty minutes to get to Covent Garden but it took more like an hour. Once again, the driver was going over their time. It didn’t affect us at all but there were people on the bus absolutely freaking out, saying it was because she was driving too slow. The bus ride was slow, yes, but from what I could tell it was because there was loads of traffic, not anything to do with her. So we had our delicious burgers from Shake Shack and we took our crying pictures nobody understands and then we went to the British Museum (www.britishmuseum.org). It was a quick walk there from Covent Garden. We didn’t stay there very long. The museum is huge and it was a weekend, which meant tourists everywhere. Especially Asian tourists who just stand around in huge groups taking pictures of literally everything. We definitely went around the back side of the Rosetta Stone and made funny faces as people were taking pictures. Photobombing is fun. We kind of sped-walked through the museum. We saw the Egyptian, Mexico and mummy exhibits and some cool exhibit about money. But ultimately we decided to leave. We had a quick drink at a pub before hopping back on the bus to head back to the flat.

                Monday was an unexpectedly awesome day. Last week when we were in Liverpool I saw on Facebook that one of my favorite music artists, Ed Sheeran, was playing secret shows on Monday. I had made a joke to Sarah about how wouldn’t it be cool if we could go but there’s no way we will get tickets. Then I kind of forgot about the whole thing. Friday afternoon Sarah was sleeping on the couch when my phone went off: a twitter notification with the link to the tickets. I clicked it and saw they were only £6. Without even asking Sarah I grabbed two tickets. When she woke up twenty minutes later I told her she owed me money…because we were going to an Ed Sheeran secret show Monday afternoon.

                So Monday arrived. The secret show is to promote his new album, Multiply. The premise of his secret shows was exactly that. He played a thirty minute gig in Ipswich at 11:30am, followed by an hour long show in London at 4:00pm, followed by a full concert in Dublin at 9:30pm. The doors for the venue, Koko, were to open at 2:00pm. Sarah and I headed down there early to grab some Nando’s before the show. We got to the venue around 1:30pm and the line was huge. This was my fifth time seeing Ed Sheeran and every time has been completely different. The first show was in Phoenix last February. He was just starting to get famous but had already announced his tour and ticket prices. I figured paying $25 to see him in a smallish venue was fair. The next two times were in Edmonton where he opened for Taylor Swift. I met him at the second concert, which was amazing. The most recent show was in New York, when he played to a sell-out crowd at Madison Square Gardens. I’d gone to that one because I thought it was really cool to be able to say I saw him for $25 at the beginning of the year and at MSG at the end of it. And now here I was, having paid £6 to see him play in front of about 500 people. It was insane. I have now seen him more than any other musical artist with the exception of Alexisonfire. He’s catching up to them. But what was really cool was the crowd. For Phoenix and New York City it was 80% people who like The A-Team and nothing else and for the Taylor Swift shows it was all girls who liked Taylor Swift. But this crowd was different. It was 80% diehard fans, like myself. Lots of us had t-shirts from the different shows we had attended all over the world. People were sharing stories about the different concerts. It was really cool to be surrounded by people as passionate about the music as myself.

                The doors were supposed to be opened at 2:00pm but we actually didn’t get in until more like 2:45pm. We grabbed some drinks and checked out the t-shirts, which were disappointing. I definitely would have picked one up if it had the date on it. But I really could care less about a generic t-shirt. I’m only shelling out money if it’s got the actual event on it. We could have been halfway to the stage but I like to be able to move, so we found a pole in the middle of the room and hung out there. It worked out perfectly because nobody tried to take our spot, we could take turns leaving to grab drinks, and we had a perfect view of the stage. We also know where to look in all the pictures his manager posts of the audience.

                Ed came on promptly at 4:00pm with a shortened version of my absolute favorite song of his, You Need Me I Don’t Need You. You want to appreciate his talent? Watch a live version of that song. I’ve seen him play a twenty minute version before but obviously that wasn’t going to happen if he only had an hour. He then moved on to Lego House followed by one of his new songs. He then played I See Fire from The Hobbit movie, which I was really hoping he would play. I recorded it on my phone because artists don’t tend to play their movie songs very often in concert. He then played what is so far my favorite song on his new album, One (the album drops June 23^rd). Sarah had run to grab drinks during that song and all of a sudden he started playing her favorite song, Drunk. This was Sarah’s third time seeing him live, but the first by himself (she came to the Taylor Swift shows with me). He never played that song with Taylor. I started freaking out and she made it back just in time. He then played Give Me Love, which he always used to open his shows with. I love hearing that live because he changes the way he sings the course and it’s just heaven in my ears. He next played The A-Team, obviously, and finished the hour with his first single from the new album, Sing. I don’t really like that song. It sounds very Justin Timberlake-y and like he’s trying to get his music played at nightclubs. He’s still crazy talented, though. He is probably the best artist to see live. His albums are great but him live is just insane and indescribable.

                The show took exactly one hour, just as Ed said it would. It was still definitely worth £6. I’d pay twice that just for one song. He’s playing the O2 arena in October so I’ll definitely see one of those shows. Or all four. We’ll see. After the show we went to a pub to grab some food but the kitchen closed at 6:00pm. How is that a thing? The kitchen should be opening at that time, not closing. Ultimately we ended up back at Nando’s because we have a problem.

                After a lazy Tuesday morning we had to head back to Kew to pick up my pottery. It’s not the greatest work of art in the history of the universe but it will do for something I hadn’t been planning on doing in the first place. The walk was a lot hotter than anticipated and I ended up getting heat exhaustion because I’m awesome like that. It was actually kind of freaky. I thought I was just hungry but when I tried to get off the train at Waterloo I had the shakes. We ran in to a Costa Coffee at the station and I sat in the shade and had a drink and a muffin. It worked and we were able to continue on with our day.

                We were seeing a play at The Globe that night so we decided to kill the hours before then exploring the South Bank. We first walked through the Royal Festival Hall. It was very posh and I bet it’s gorgeous when there are events. There are six levels to explore but it was quite intimidating. We couldn’t really tell where we were allowed to be. Also, there are bars literally every few feet, which I found amusing. Then we found the greatest place ever, the British Film Institute (www.bfi.org.uk). I am seriously considering a membership, because it’s only £40 and you can go to all sorts of screenings and get tickets to the London Film Festival in the fall and they have all sorts of monthly members-only events. For example, next month there is someone coming in to do a lecture before a screening of 2001: A Spacey Odyssey. The second I have a job and am making money I am getting this membership. The building is really cool. There’s a couple bars and several screening rooms. There is a library full of film literature. I really want to check it out and see how much of it I had to read in school. It’s free! There’s also their mediatheque room. They have thousands of film titles from the National Archive that you can watch. FOR FREE. You can go every single day but you can’t stay longer than two hours. It’s pretty much become my goal to watch every single title. We got a ticket for half an hour so we could check it out and I put on 24 Hour Party People for Sarah to watch while I checked out the different titles available. It’s pretty cool. We definitely don’t have stuff like that in Canada.

                After our movie ended we continued walking down the South Bank before eventually reaching the Globe shortly after 5:00pm. Our show wasn’t until 7:30pm but we were both fairly hungry so we started looking around for a place to eat. We first checked the menu at The Swan (www.loveswan.co.uk), which is the restaurant attached to The Globe. It looked pretty tasty and smelled delicious but we had time to debate our options so we continued down the sidewalk. We didn’t find anything that seemed as appetizing as The Swan so we quickly returned. We were a little disappointed initially to find that the menu they had shown us was not available if you were attending the play. We had to order off of a pre-set three course pre-theater menu. We decided to just go for it and definitely did not regret it! For our starters Sarah had pea soup (which I did not try because ew) and I had some salmon with bread and pickles. I don’t usually eat salmon but I thought it sounded the best out of the options. For our main Sarah picked her selection solely based on the fact she felt like eating broccoli. It ended up being served alongside some kind of fish. I tried a piece of it and it was actually really good! I had macaroni and cheese, which sounds childish but I have found that macaroni over here is delicious. It was served alongside a salad that was bitter and somehow very addicting. For desert Sarah had a strawberry something and I had chocolate mousse. It was such a large serving of something so rich it made it a little less enjoyable than the rest of the meal had been.

                Overall dinner was amazing, though, and we had a great time. The restaurant is situated right on the Thames and from my seat I could see St. Paul’s Cathedral and the bridge from Harry Potter. I ordered a half-bottle serving of wine so as to avoid having to order by the glass and save some money and Sarah and I laughed at how the waiter poured two glasses. Because I am so Canadian I didn’t want to bother him so I just took turns drinking out of both. It was pretty funny. We also enjoyed eavesdropping on our table neighbor, who we nicknamed Dr. Shakespeare. He decided to give a complete synopsis of the play we were about to see to his dinner companions while adding his own personal tidbits of (false) information. Seriously, I studied Shakespeare. He was so wrong.

                We still had some time before the show so we went and grabbed our tickets from the box office before it got busy and had a drink outside while we watched the sun go down. For our drink we went to the outdoor section of The Swan, which is only for ticketholders, as it has direct access to the theatre. It was a really cool set up in the courtyard. They have it themed like the theatre would be in Shakespeare’s day, with cleverly named substitutes for burgers and beer. It kind of reminded me of A Knight’s Tale, to be honest.

                Ten minutes before the show they opened the doors and let us in. The show we were seeing (Sarah’s first at the venue) was Titus Andronicus. It is one of the few Shakespeare plays I have not read or seen some version of. We always knew we wanted to see a show at The Globe, sooner rather than later. When posters advertising the production made comparisons to Quentin Tarantino films, it peaked out interest. We still neglected to buy tickets, however, until after the show opened last weekend and it made the news because audience members kept fainting. Because that is what seals the deal for us. I have seen a play here before, Henry VIII, several years ago. I got standing tickets for that show. It’s a cool idea. Basically, because poor people in Shakespeare’s day stood in the center of the theater, they sell really cheap tickets if you feel like standing. I’ve done it once and I really don’t need to do it again. Standing for three hours or more is hard work and even if you can do it, it’s still in the back of your mind that your legs are getting cramped and tired. For a sold out show they put nine hundred people in the standing area. Sorry, but I will pay the extra £10 to sit. Which is what we did. We were right on the side of the stage, in seats referred to as ‘restricted view’. The thing about The Globe, though, is that all the seats are restricted view in some way or another, because it’s almost a complete circle. You will never be able to see the full action. In our case, there was a pole holding up the roof of the stage that was in our way sometimes. Not a big deal.

                The story of Titus Andronicus is not one of Shakespeare’s best. I like my tragedies with some substance, personally. Titus Andronicus returns from war with a former queen who marries the Roman emperor. She’s basically the devil and her sons rape Titus Andronicus’ daughter and cut off her hands and cut out her tongue. Titus Andronicus decides to get revenge but cuts off his hand because that’s apparently helpful. There’s also a black guy who is having an affair with the psycho queen. And a bunch of people die at the end in a scene that definitely can be described as Tarantino-esque. Mostly because there’s dancing involved in the murder. All it really needed was Stuck in the Middle With You. That’s what I would have done. But we weren’t really expecting substance (I’ll save that for Hamlet). We did have four people faint in the audience so we got what we came for. I think North Americans must be really desensitized to violence, though, because Sarah and I didn’t even bat an eye at the parts that made people faint. I didn’t even realize people had fainted because it seemed so tame compared to what I was expecting.

                Side Note: When the show ends all the dead people get up and do a dance. Seriously. Slumdog Millionaire style. Fortunately Sarah and I knew about it because they told us on our tour of the Globe last month. Apparently it is done because, in olden times, people were really upset. And if people were upset they wouldn’t recommend the play to their friends. So it had to end on a happy note, even if everyone was dead.

 It was still a fun experience, though.  I think this is when it finally hit us how awesome London is. Where else in the world can you see an Ed Sheeran Secret Show for £6 on a Monday afternoon and the next evening see Titus Andronicus performed in an exact replica of Shakespeare’s Globe? 

"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." - The Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever

                Last Friday Sarah and I decided to take a break from job-searching and get out of the city for a day or two. We ultimately decided to go on an overnight trip to Liverpool. In the UK they have this company called Megabus (www.megabus.co.uk) who offers ridiculously cheap fares on bus rides all around the country. They’ve even expanded to include some European destinations! I had taken them several years ago to Manchester and back. We were able to get return tickets for Liverpool for only £14 which was pretty sweet.

                We decided to go up on Tuesday which meant waking up at the wonderful time of 5:30am to catch the bus. We didn’t go to sleep early the night before either because why would we do that when we could have an Andrew Garfield marathon? The London Tube was striking Tuesday and Wednesday which meant the train the Victoria was going to be crazy. We were lucky enough to get on near the start of the line and actually got seats but it filled up fast and I felt like the devil for having a suitcase. To be fair, I was trying my best to keep it out of the way but when there’s a million people crammed on a train it’s going to feel like an elephant. After a torturous thirty minutes we arrived at the Victoria train station. We had forty five minutes before our bus was due to depart but I would definitely rather be early than late, especially on tube strike day. Our bus ended up leaving fifteen minutes late because of European driving laws requiring that drivers rest for forty five minutes (the previous bus had gotten in late). It wasn’t a big deal but one lady going on a bus to Nottingham was flipping out. Seriously, if fifteen minutes is affecting you that much, maybe you should have planned better.

                I was pleasantly surprised to see that Megabus has updated a lot since my trip to Manchester. The first time I took them it was a double-decker bus, completely full. There was very little leg room and no amenities besides a washroom. This coach had seats with extra leg room, plugs to charge laptops/phones/etc. and free WiFi! It was great. Sarah and I watched the saddest movie ever, a Belgian film called The Broken Circle Breakdown that I absolutely love. Then I read half of The Fault in our Stars, because obviously the previous movie had not upset me enough. The bus made two stops, one in Leicester and one in some university town, before arriving at Liverpool One Coach Station at 1:35pm.

                Before touring we went to check in to our hotel, The Sir Thomas (www.sirthomashotel.co.uk). Originally we had planned at staying at a hostel. I’ve stayed in hostels before and they are fine as long as there’s no curfew but it’s still a pain having to share a washroom and bring your own bedding and stuff. I had checked out the hotel deals on Expedia for fun and we actually got this hotel for just £3 more than the hostel! I’ll take that. The hotel was lovely and if you go to Liverpool I definitely recommend seeing if they have cheap rooms available. It’s perfectly located just off the main shopping district, at the corner of the Cavern Quarter. We literally never had to take transit because everything was walking distance. The staff were really nice and the rooms are clean. Yes, they are small, but it’s what we expected. We also got two beds! We have been sharing a couch bed for so long it was nice to have a night in a bed to ourselves. There was wifi in the hotel and really good curtains (it’s the little things that help).

                We’d been travelling since 7 that morning and hadn’t eaten at all so before heading out we grabbed lunch at the hotel’s restaurant. They were having a lunch deal of one course and one drink for £7.95 so we took advantage. I had some penne pasta that I think confused itself with a salad but was still pretty tasty. Finally, we were ready to head into the city. Tuesday’s stop was The Beatles Story (www.beatlesstory.co.uk), which is basically a museum dedicated to The Beatles. You can get an added package taking you to some Elvis museum but we really could care less so we got the cheaper ticket. You get an audio guide and it takes you through several rooms. It starts from their early years to how they all met. They go into detail on their various managers and drummers and acquaintances. Then it’s the stuff we all know about: Beatlemania, the break-up, etc. It’s really interesting and we were fortunate enough that it wasn’t very busy. After we were done we headed back up to the hotel. We got to walk along the Albert Dock, which is one of Liverpool’s most famous landmarks. We took a different route back to the hotel which allowed us to walk down Matthew Street, the self-proclaimed ‘Home of the Beatles’. That’s where The Cavern Club is located.

                We rested for a bit at the hotel while trying to plan our night. We hadn’t gone out for a night on the town since arriving in England so it was really fun to be able to get all sparkly and put a skirt on. We went to a restaurant down the road called The Living Room (www.thelivingroom.co.uk/liverpool). It was supposed to be kind of posh but relatively affordable. They actually had a really good supper deal going on but I wanted something outside the selection. Sarah and I split a bottle of some amazing Italian Cabernet (Banfi or something is what it’s called). I had duck spring rolls to start followed by gnocci as my main. Both were delicious. For dessert I had chocolate fondant with some Bailey’s on the rocks. The restaurant itself was very nice, though it was quite empty when we were eating. But, to be fair, it was only 7 on a Tuesday. They were incredibly quick: we were on our main course by 7:30!

                From there we headed to the legendary Cavern Club (www.cavernclub.org). You know the place. If you’ve ever seen a picture of The Beatles playing, you’ve probably seen the Cavern Club. It’s not just famous for The Beatles. Many other bands have played there over the years. Nowadays it’s more of a tourist attraction, unfortunately, though that’s to be expected. It’s so cool being able to stand in such an epic spot and everything is just like you imagine and then you look next to the bar and they are selling t-shirts and postcards. The bar is mostly populated by tourists who wear backpacks and are just there to say they went in. There were a few people who were doing like we were and clearly had put effort into going out. We actually picked an excellent time to go. We arrived shortly after 8pm, which is when these two young guys with guitars who call themselves the Nowhere Boys (haha, you’re so clever…) started their two hour set. They are a Beatles cover band, in case their name didn’t clue you in. You’d think I would find that lame since I find everything touristy lame but I actually loved it. There was no better way to experience The Cavern Club than by listening and singing along to the songs of The Beatles. They played a wide variety though sometimes they confused us (like saying they didn’t know how to play ‘Yesterday’. Who doesn’t know how to play ‘Yesterday’?) but ultimately it was a lot of fun. Sarah requested that they play ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ and they did and we were freaking out and singing all the words but nobody else seemed to have any clue what the song was. They should be ashamed of themselves.

                When the set was over we left and headed closer to the center of town to go to a club called Popworld (www.popworldliverpool.co.uk). Now, we chose to go here because it was the closest club that was open on a Tuesday night and not a gay bar. We were very disappointed. We showed up around 10:30pm and it was empty. Like, we had been expecting it to be pretty quiet initially, since we assume when clubs are open until 4am people probably don’t really start going until midnight. But this place was empty. Literally just us, a DJ and a depressed bartender. We actually felt sad for the place. Things were not boding well for our night out, after such a good beginning.

                We left after about ten minutes and started heading up the street where lights were flashing. We didn’t want to stray too far and fortunately we found a place at the top of the road. It was called Soho and it doesn’t even have a website. The music was Top 40 which is what we expect on a night out. It wasn’t busy but there were at least people. We sat outside until it got busier around midnight and then went inside to dance. One of the things I’ve always loved about going out in Europe is you meet so many people. Sure enough, I met some really cool people like Sasha and her boyfriend Chris who were, like us, coming up from London for the day out of sheer boredom. I also met these two guys from Switzerland, Danyal and somebody whose name I forget. They were actually at The Cavern Club and said hello when they recognized me from earlier. I talked to them for quite awhile, about everything from travel to music. It was really fun. We did not want to stay at the club until 4am so we tried to leave around 2am, like back home. We got back to the hotel at 3 so we were partly successful.

                The next day we awoke feeling good (I’m not being sarcastic) and got our stuff together to check out of the hotel at 11am. Our coach wasn’t leaving until 3:10pm so they were nice enough to let us leave our suitcase and backpack with them for a few hours. We had booked a tour at 11:30am. The tour was, of course, The Magical Mystery Tour (www.cavernclub.org/the-magical-mystery-tour). As one can guess, it was a two-hour Beatles tour. We got on the Magical Mystery Tour bus and our guide took us all over the city. It would be really hard to see these places outside of a tour, as they are quite spread out. We saw Penny Lane, George Harrison’s birthplace, Strawberry Fields, John Lennon’s home with Aunt Mimi, Paul McCartney’s childhood home (one of them, anyway) and much more. It was really informative and definitely a good way to kill time. The tour dropped us off at Matthew Street shortly after 1:30pm. We’d already done the Cavern Club so we grabbed some lunch, grabbed our suitcases and boarded the coach back to London.

                The only problem with Megabus is, at the end of the day, you are stuck on a coach for five hours. And that gets boring, even when you bring a book…and a laptop…and a DVD player…I watched Rebel Without a Cause and slept and messed around on the internet and everything but the time did still drag. It probably gets easier over time; it’s been nearly four years since I last spent that much time on a bus. I’m out of practice.

                That’s what is so awesome about living in Europe: you can decide last-minute to go on holiday somewhere for a day or two or a weekend and there’s always great deals. We don’t get opportunities like that in Canada, since there’s very limited ways of getting places. So Liverpool ended up being our first jaunt outside of the city. Can’t wait to see where we head next.  

Zooing it up a Notch

                Since we are still unemployed couch hobos we have to be productive, but we also have to get out of the flat once and awhile or else we will go crazy. What we tend to do is one day in and then one day out (for a few hours, at least). When we woke up today the sun was shining so we decided to visit the London Zoo (http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo). It ended up being the perfect day for it. The sun was out but it wasn’t too hot and a Wednesday in April means it’s not overly crowded.

                The zoo is massive and located inside Regent’s Park. We had taken the tube to Camden Town and got to walk through the area on our way to the entrance. There is so much to see at the zoo and we easily wasted several hours. We began with the aquarium, which I don’t really like because I am scared of fish. Then we moved on to the reptiles, which are awesome. Snakes are cool. It’s also where they shot the snake scene from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone! After that we saw some gorillas, which apparently freak Sarah out because they too closely resemble humans. Then we backtracked and saw some giant (and I mean giant) tortoises and the coolest thing ever: komodo dragons. Then we stopped by their Outback exhibit, which has kangaroos and emus. There were two kangaroos that went inside and were sleeping. They were super cute and funny. One of them was sleeping like a drunk.

                After that we went to the tiger area but there was only one sleeping tiger in the whole exhibit. That is because the female tiger just had cubs this week, so obviously they aren’t going to be on display yet. We stopped and grabbed an early lunch because if we waited until actual lunchtime we’d have to fight with the school groups and children. From lunch we went to the penguins, who are major famewhores. They want your attention so badly. After that we checked out some bugs (yes, there is an exhibit on bugs) and a butterfly tent. We got to walk around an open enclosure with some monkeys. We saw some lions. Then we saw the llamas. One of the llamas had babies on April 16^th and the babies were out. They were adorable and so cute! It’s probably the only time I will ever see a baby llama.

                Having conquered the main part of the zoo we went through the tunnel to the last few exhibits. Up first was Africa. We saw pygmy hippos which are actually kind of cute because they are little. I couldn’t help but laugh thinking of the lurking hippos during the Calgary flood. The giraffes and zebras and okapi (?) were all outside because the day was nice. From there we went to the rainforest exhibit. Supposedly there are sloths in there but I didn’t see any, which was disappointing. The chinchillas were adorable, though.

                The last exhibit of the day contained the cutest otters in the world, fruit bats, reindeer and meercats. Fortunately, the meercats were not having a bloodbath like the last time I was at the zoo. Having finished for the day we decided to walk through Regent’s Park and grab the tube from Baker Street rather than Camden Town. It would have been a more enjoyable walk had I not walked my feet off at the zoo. I don’t think proper footwear exists for me.

Easter Weekend

It’s Easter weekend in London and I’m sure there are loads of things to do but Sarah and I were too scared to leave the flat, for the most part. If London is crowded on a normal weekend I don’t want to imagine what it’s like on Easter weekend. Not to mention London always does engineering work on the trains at the weekend so getting anywhere at all is a hassle.        

                On Friday we mostly just stayed in the flat, minus leaving in the afternoon to walk to a giant Sainsbury’s in Sydenham. The walk is over a mile and on the way back I had at least ten pounds of groceries. I think I’ve done more walking in just two weeks in London than I did all last year in Calgary. Involuntary healthy living, I suppose. The walk there was nice; the walk back, less so. I don’t like hills with groceries. It’s just not happening.

                That night Sandra made us chicken (with soy sauce – who knew that was a delicious combination?) along with some Chinese rice I picked up on our shopping trip. We watched Diana with Naomi Watts which was really slow and not very good. One of the characters actually says “I don’t perform heart surgery, heart surgery performs me.” I kid you not. We took a small break to watch UK Master Chef. We’ve watched just about every episode of it since we got here. It’s really addicting. And makes you very hungry. I don’t know how the episodes work in North America but here it’s three episodes a week. And the judges are really nice! They actually give this thing called constructive criticism instead of just swearing and telling people to get out of the kitchen. It’s surprising.  It’s an actual competition not a spectacle. That’s probably why I have no issue watching it.

                Saturday we decided to brave leaving the flat but it was a very calculated decision. I’d been saying for awhile that we should head to Canary Wharf and check it out. I find it really pretty. It’s all tall buildings and water and architecture. The only problem is that it’s where all the big office buildings are which makes it basically impossible to visit during the week. I once got stuck there at rush hour and it was a nightmare. So many people trying to get on the tube. So you basically have to go on a weekend to have a stress-free visit. We were initially going to see this British thriller called Locke, starring Tom Hardy, but ultimately decided against it. Not only did they not start showing it until 4:10pm, they also weren’t selling matinee tickets. Matinee tickets are the best. They are significantly cheaper. Oh well, it’s not like we have jobs. We can go during the week.

                We left around noon. There were no delays with the trains which was nice. Personally, I love Canary Wharf. It’s basically the definition of a concrete jungle. It’s all tall glass buildings and random water areas and the occasional park. I’m a city person so I love it. We walked down Isle of Dogs and came back to Jubilee Place near the tube station where we had lunch at – you guessed it – Nando’s. It’s just so delicious. We went back to the flat after and watched movies.

                For dinner that night we went out to Le Querce with Sandra and Imogen. That’s the Italian restaurant in the neighborhood Sarah and I ate at on Tuesday and absolutely loved. It was another lovely dinner this time around. We laughed and ate good Italian food. I had a seafood platter to start, made up of prawns, clams and mussels (!!!). As my main I once again had ravioli. No dessert this time, though.

                When we awoke Sunday morning (Easter Sunday) we found rain. And grey. I feel bad for everyone trying to do Easter egg hunts at Kensington Palace and stuff. As it stands, we weren’t planning on leaving the flat all day anyway. But some sun would have been nice. Overall this was only the second really rainy day. I don’t know why everyone thinks it rains 24/7 because it’s absolutely not true. Does it rain more than Calgary? Definitely. Do we forget what the sun looks like? No, we just saw it Saturday.

Easter Sunday was one hundred percent uneventful. We literally watched movies all day. I finished American Horror Story: Asylum which I’m happy about because it sucked and now I don’t have to watch it again. I made rice for supper. My cooking skills are unparalleled. I Skyped with my parental guidance for the first time since I left, which was nice.

Monday is a Bank Holiday (that’s what they call them here) so it meant another day of lots of people out and about – except not us. I would just rather do things on days with less crowds. On a sunny holiday Monday everyone is going to be everywhere and I just really hate walking behind slow, stupid people. So it was another indoor day. I watched the new Game of Thrones and Mad Men, which was the least monotonous part of my day. Because I’d never seen them before. I finally finished reading Divergent…just the first book…it took me awhile. Only two more to go, so I should be finished sometime next year.

Despite our best intentions to stay inside we got restless and decided to walk up to the Horniman Museum (http://www.horniman.ac.uk/). It was much hotter out than expected and I was exhausted by the time we reached the museum. I dehydrate easily and was light-headed for most of our visit. The Horniman Museum, like many museums in London, is free. There are exhibits on animals, a temporary exhibit of photos of the arctic, and exhibits on music and Africa. If you pay you can get into the aquarium. It’s not the greatest museum of all time but it’s so close to where we are staying that it’s a nice way to waste a few hours. It also has gardens and a park. In the gardens they grow fruits and vegetables, which is cool. Most of them aren’t ready yet, though, so it just looks like trees. So, at the conclusion of Easter weekend we returned back to the flat like the cool people we are.

The Last Four Days

                This week we are going to start buckling down and stop our touring, for the most part. On Monday we stayed in the flat literally all day applying for jobs. We also did laundry which meant we had to buy laundry detergent and not break the machine. We didn’t and our clothes are okay. Hurray for adult life! We accomplished quite a bit amidst watching around six movies over the course of the day.

                The one other important thing I got done Monday was transfer my money to my UK bank account from my Canadian one. I was putting this off as long as possible because I thought it would be difficult, but it actually turned out to be quite easy. I used a company called CanadianForex (www.canadianforex.com). You tell them how much money you have to transfer and they give you a rate. Once you hit Okay, they prepare to transfer the money to you. In the meantime, you go on your Canadian bank account and pay them the money, essentially giving them money to give you money. Because I’m with RBC they actually show up as a Payee so it was relatively painless. It takes them about three days to get the money and about one day after that for me to receive the funds in my UK bank account, which is why I really wanted to do it at the beginning of the week. I did leave some money in my Canadian account, just in case. The only issue I ran into was minor. They have to call you to confirm the deal. Of course, they have my Canadian number. So they sent me this panicked email saying they had to get ahold of me before processing the transaction. So I gave them a call on my landline. The girl I spoke to, Hilary, dealt with everything swiftly and it was completely painless (I hate making phone calls). 

                Tuesday was another day at the flat spent watching movies and applying for jobs. The thing that nobody tells you is how hard it actually is to find a job. Your university degree is basically useless. Everybody wants experience – even entry level jobs. It’s a bit disheartening. And everyone is a telemarketer masquerading as an actual job. Sorry, but I know how my parents treat telemarketers and they are probably nicer than some people. Not happening. On the bright side, I received a phone call from Google to discuss future job opportunities. Not immediate, but maybe future ones. It at least broke the ice in terms of actually talking to a professional so no matter what it was a good thing.

                We decided to put pants on and go to dinner at a restaurant down the road called Le Querce (http://lequerce.co.uk/). It’s an Italian restaurant and not too expensive but what it ever delicious! I got the ravioli and some fries and Sarah got lasagna and we both were very satisfied with our meal. I also got some wine in a gracious amount, which is better than I’ve seen at most pubs. We got dessert. Sarah had ice cream and I had cheesecake. My cheesecake could have been better, to be honest. We definitely want to revisit this restaurant, and hopefully soon.  

                On Wednesday we took the train to Surrey Quays to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which we get a couple weeks before the USA. That doesn’t happen very often so we made the most of it. I loved it. Definitely better than the first and Dane DeHaan (who I love) was so good as Harry Osborn. A million times better than James Franco.

                Thursday we decided to actually go do something before our self-imposed isolation on Easter weekend. After we got up in the morning we went to Nando’s for lunch. I got the actual chicken this time instead of chicken wings and was not disappointed. I also had a caramel cheesecake for dessert which was just to die for! We then tried to visit the National Gallery (www.nationalgallery.org.uk). We wandered around for a little while looking at the art but it was quite crowded with tourists and school groups so we didn’t stay for very long. I’d really like to go back on a quiet day and spend the whole day there with an audio guide just completely nerding out.

                Side Note: I started watching American Horror Story because they have it on Netflix and I’m completely obsessed. I watched the entire first season in less than 24 hours. Evan Peters is amazing. That is all.  

The Day of Hiddles

"Oh, Hiddlesticks!" 

- Me, always

Today was one of my favorite days in London so far. Sarah woke up freakishly early but then passed out again but the damage was done – I was awake. So I took the time to find the season premiere episode of Game of Thrones, which was awesome, obviously. I forgot how much I can’t stand Jon Snow, though. How can anyone so pretty be so annoying…Anyways, getting off topic. Actually, much of this topic has to do with attractive men so maybe not so much. Getting there.

                At 12:15 we walked around the corner to eat at Babur (www.babur.info). It’s an Indian restaurant that offers a really nice Sunday buffet brunch. I ate there the last time I was in London and Sarah needed to taste some of that famous British Indian cuisine so there we were. It did not disappoint. I can’t possibly tell you what I ate but there was a lot of food. I grabbed a bit of everything to start and went back for more of what I really enjoyed. Overall it was delicious.

                After lunch we headed up to Covent Garden to see if we might be able to get spots on the red carpet for the Olivier Awards. Think of them as the British Tony Awards. We weren’t overly optimistic after Spider-Man on Tuesday but figured we should try anyway. If it was crowded we’d go home. It didn’t help that today was the London Marathon and the city was supposed to be mental. We needn’t have worried. We got number 186 and 187 and lined up for an hour before being led onto the red carpet. And we were not only right next to it, but also very close to the venue entrance and across from the international press. Specifically, Hello, so look for us.

                We waited around for another ninety minutes before things got started. We saw so many stars. We got autographs from Kristin Davis (Charlotte on Sex and the City), Bjorn from ABBA, Samantha Barks (Eponine in Les Miserables), Martin Freeman from The Hobbit and Sherlock and James McAvoy, to name a few. Some of the celebrities didn’t have time to stop as the red carpet was quite hurried but I did have brief conversations with Mark Strong and Ruth Wilson.

                Then there’s Hiddles. Oh, Tom Hiddleston, my future husband…he showed up late and had to give interviews so I did not get to speak to him. He did wave. He got pretty close. I can say he is actually even better looking in real life. The second I saw him down the carpet I absolutely freaked out. Like, people turned and looked. It was kind of funny. I was completely unaware of what I was doing. I just went to Crazy Town for a minute.

                Overall it was awesome. I love entertainment and stuff but I’ve never been on an award show red carpet before. There’s a lot you don’t see on TV, like the massive wave of people who enter at the beginning, as if just dropped off by a bus. They are non-celebrities who worked on the plays and musicals. I felt a little bad for them but also a little jealous. I just want to get dressed up and walk the red carpet once.

                We may have stood for over four hours but it was most definitely worth it, even if I didn’t meet Tom Hiddleston or Gemma Arterton (who is also breathtakingly gorgeous in person). Oh, and Hayley Atwell.  I’m making Sarah have a Hiddles marathon with me now.