I THINK I HAD THE PLAGUE

Well, I felt like it was WAY worse than your average cold. I was sick for five days, completely bedridden and miserable for nearly two. During my worst night I was lying awake in bed wearing socks, thermal underwear, flannellette pyjamas, my dressing gown and a beanie, covered in a doona with the central heating on, shivering like crazy. I started to feel a bit better Saturday but was still quite shattered so acted very responsibly and stayed home to rest. By Sunday I'd had enough of being sensible so I went to the pub. That was good.

Have lots more interesting things to write about but I'll save them for next time I make the hike to my friendly neighbourhood internet cafe. I'm starting a new job tomorrow, so I need to try and get to sleep before 1am for a change.

Cheerio!

A LONG TIME BETWEEN DRINKS

The subject above is metaphorical of course, referring to the passage of time since I last wrote an entry here. If you actually took it literally, you either (a) don't know me, or (b) are under the mistaken impression that travelling half way across the world and having no money would cause me to ration my alcoholic consumption. No, alcohol in England is just as much my friend as alcohol in Australia - although not quite as friendly as the alcohol in Vietnam. That probably doesn't make sense, and before you ask, no I'm not actually drunk right now.

What have I done since the last entry? More wandering around London and drinking in pubs. I've met some great new friends over here who enjoy walking around exploring new places, drinking relentlessly and hypothesising on the state of the universe as much as I do (some of whom felt aggrieved that they weren't mentioned in more detail in my earlier entry about the cultural pub tour). I've also been able to spend more time with some of my favourite friends from the Vina-years. It's so good to be on the same continent as them, although it does mean I'm a million miles away from the rest of you back in Australia . One Aussie friend just landed in Heathrow last Monday and is almost all settled in to the scene here. If anyone else wants to relocate, I can highly recommend it!

I'm well and truly settled, and for the past couple of days I've even been doing some casual work. I'm not going to say where (for fear of internet-stalking psychopaths) but I can give some hints I guess. Basically it's the London office of the place that I used to work for in Canberra. Didn't think I'd end up going back there, but it's easy work and I'll probably just stay there a couple of weeks. I still have my four recruitment agencies scouring the job market for opportunities for me, so hopefully something else will come up soon that I can take instead. Not that it isn't good working there - it's in a really beautiful building. Can't say any more though. Stalkers.

In the meanwhile, I'm having heaps of fun. Totally loving London. It's also been really warm here - sunny and 18 degrees yesterday. I hear rumours of an icy wind on Sunday, but that's ages away!

IT'S ART, DAHLINK...

I went to a play last night at the Soho Theatre. It's called An Oak Tree, and the concept is that one of the two actors in the play has never seen the script before, has no idea what the storyline is or what part they will play. It sounded very interesting, however at the end of the hour-long show, I still didn't really know the deal was with that tree. It was very bizarre, with the lead actor/writer/director giving stage instructions and lines to the other actor while also playing a part himself. It was really hard to tell which parts were scripted and which weren't, as I'm pretty sure that some of the sections that were supposed to sound improvised were actually scripted. The whole thing was strange, but interesting.

I was much more comfortable earlier in the day, whilst undertaking another cultural endeavour. A few of us went on a walk around Hampstead and spent some time inspecting more closely some of the historically significant buildings in the area. It just so happened that all of these buildings were pubs. Don't get the idea that this was a pub crawl though, it was definitely cultural because we had a book.

I only remember one of the historical stories in the book (a woman murdered her abusive husband outside the pub and was hanged "with indecent haste") but I remember very clearly which beer I tried at each place. And you can't get a more cultural experience than drinking warm beer, now can you?

MY UMBRELLA BROKE :-(

It was sooo windy, the umbrella kept flipping inside out and now one of its spokes is bent (are they even called spokes?). It felt like that scene in Mary Poppins when the nannies fly away up the street with their umbrellas and skirts flapping wildly, while Mary Poppins floats serenely across the London skyline. I'm revealing myself as quite the Disney movie addict aren't I?? Mary Poppins is showing at a theatre in the West End , I wonder if I can drag anyone along to see it with me?

I also wouldn't mind seeing Equus, the Peter Schaffer play where Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has some weird issue with horses and also has a nudie scene. Apparently he's quite good in it, and given that I think his acting in the Harry Potter movies is complete rubbish, I'd like to see him in the play and see if the critics are just being nice to him.

With more and more plans on how to spend money I don't really have, I've finally got my act together, stopped dithering about and enjoying myself and started applying for jobs. I have two interviews with recruitment agencies tomorrow, and I have some applications for super-cool arts jobs currently out there circulating in the ether.

Hopefully I'll get something fabulous and exciting, although I'd also be happy with boring and well-paid. Surely not too much to hope for??