news of the hour

Well, good news is that I have decided to type with capitals again...(finally getting used to a PC keyboard) and slightly more prominent news, is that I've decided not to move to York.

Turns out that there aren't many rental/house shares available for professionals in York, as most are set aside for purely student housing so there are no council taxes to pay and I wasn't keen on staying in a hostel for a couple of weeks just trying to get the rare appointments to go and look at housing. Also, York on a second glance wasn't a big as I had first thought, and the lack of printing/graphic work in the area was also a turn off.
On top of that, I've been having hassles with the recruitment agency (apparently that's pretty normal) and I'm waiting on some mail to come from back home in Australia to get things where I need them for interviews.

So, my next step is to stay in London, try and find some temp work to get me through and some accommodation. I'm really keen to settle somewhere for a bit, but it's tough as I really don't want to stay in London for too long. Don't get me wrong - London is a great place, heaps to do and see on the tourist circuit, nice places to go out to dinner, the tube can be annoying but convenient most of the time and there's quite a few people to catch up with here. I just prefer something else. I'm still keen on Cardiff and also Edinburgh - hopefully after I get some £ coming in I can check these places out a bit more and explore my options.

On Saturday I met up with my friend Erica and her brother Rowan at Trafalgar square. We hung out for the day, mostly at the Tower of London. I didn't realize the history of that place, or that's where they kept the crown jewels and the royal armory museum. It was incredible.
I've heard it's good to go in the winter, as there's less people and you can spend time listening to the audio commentaries - but even with heaps of people around and just the three of us wandering, it was a great landmark to go and visit. I was suprised - didn't realize how large it was until I was inside, having unwittingly managed to avoid pictures and outright descriptions. I thought it would be a big high tower somewhere in the centre of London. It's more like a small fortress surrounded by higher walls and turrets with a few other buildings inside as well as rows of smaller housing apartments and a grass moat in between the inside and outside walls. I'll put some photos up on the flickr site soon.

We also had a bite to eat on the river bank and took photos of the tower bridge. I'll go over it at some stage, but hey - there are a few people who've said they'll be making their way over here at some stage in the next year so I have to save some tourist sites to see with them!