I seem to be getting frighteningly regular at this blog lark! Well it may not last. I finally have better things to do with my time. Such as earning the pound. That's right some of these £.
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Yes, I emailed some of you in my excitement about finally joining the taxed workforce and contributing to the GDP of Great Britain (and they do like to emphasis the GREAT part, having finished about 3rd on that Olympic medal tally thing), but some of might not have heard the good news! I am employed. As an Assistant Manager of Kathmandu. Doesn't that sound flash. Yahoo! Yup, after 2 interviews, each as laid back as each other, I am venturing back into the world of retail that supported me through my student days. I spent way more time getting to each interview, than I did being interviewed! I start at the Covent Garden Kathmandu store on Sept 8. Store hours are 10am - 7pm so am guessing my hours will be that or similar. Have a week of induction at Covent Garden and then they will decide whether I stay at that store or move to the Spitafields store. I will be pulling for Covent Garden as its on the Piccadilly line, which I can take from my local station and is only about 30 mins away. The Spitafields store will see me travel a bit further.
So it's not what I came here to do, but beggars can not be choosers. I will keep my agents looking for planning work for me (don't tell Kathmandu!) and if I secure any interviews I will have to come up with a suitable excuse for a couple of hours off work. One agent suggested I tell Kathmandu I am of poorly health before I start work, so that if I have some 'doctor' or 'dentist' appointments they don't begin to ask questions. I like the way he thinks. However, the interviews for planning work have been so few and far between I don't think I am going to raise any suspicions over regular 'doctor' appointments!
While I'm on the job topic, it would seem it never rains but it pours. (Though the drought in planning land continues). No sooner had I had my second Kathmandu interview, than the agency Ryan works through let us know that their secretary is heading home so a vacancy had come up, that I could fill. I spoke to the director of the company and provided my CV. The catch was they want someone for a year or more, and aren't very flexible for people wanting to take off for a week or long weekend or a van tour of Europe. They told me to think it over and decide what our travel plans are and see if I can commit to it. Then I got the call to say I had the Kathmandu job. So I told Construct Recruitment this and they decided that they could accommodate my travel plans and take me for 9 months or so (til we will be taking off round Europe) and did I want their job instead of Kathmandu. So I thought about it some more, and decided to stick with Kathmandu. Couple of reasons really. If a planning job doesn't turn up (heaven forbid, for the entire time we're here!) then there is more scope to move up the ladder at Kathmandu (good) and they have quarterly salary reviews (good) and they have exciting plans for world dominance (well at least mass expansion into the UK) so there is scope for more responsibility. Also Kathmandu has the fabulous uniform of jeans and t-shirt, meaning I don't need to splash £ on office work clothes. And staff discount will come in handy for travel gear!
So come the beginning of fall (i.e Autumn) I will be back to work. I think I may have forgotten how. Speaking of Autumn, we are a couple of days away from the end of a summer that never began. No really. August has been one cloudy day after another. Glad we didn't come for the climate. Can't begin to think what its like in winter. Do they dispense pills for SAD? You know, that seasonal disorder from lack of sun, and too much gloomy wintery-ness.
Ryan had his first 12 hour day yesterday. The beginning of two months. Its cos he's working on the White City Westfield, which I'm guessing (cos our flatmate Paula who works in a lingerie store is due to start retail work there in October) is under some pressure to be completed! In a backwards sort of way, the guys at Construct put Ryan onto the job to be nice to him - so he can make some great money.
Ryan's mate from school, Claire, who we went out with last Saturday, and I went to London Zoo on Thursday. It cost £17 which is comparable to the cost of going to Auckland Zoo. Auckland Zoo is better. But the London Zoo has an Okapi. Do you know what an Okapi is? No? Neither did Claire or I. It was my favourite animal just because I'd never heard of or seen one before! An Okapi looks like a cross between a zebra and horse and giraffe. Look it up on Wikipedia. Briefly it would seem that the Okapi is a relative of the Giraffe, and whilst it has a shorter neck, it shares the same unbelievably long flexible blue tongue (try 30cm). It can wash its eyelids, and clean its ears (outside AND in) with its tongue. It has markings on its back legs like a zebra, and the rest of its body is dark like a dark horse. It comes from some rainforest in the Congo, and while it was only discovered by Europeans about a 100 yrs ago (it was thought that it was an African unicorn) its been known to ancient civilisations for about 2500 yrs.
Aside from the Okapi, we also saw Camels, Gorillas!, Toucans, Warthogs (hakuna matata), Penguins, and giant Anteaters. These were other highlights, as hadn't come across them before. And the Meerkats were cute and funny as always!
But Claire and I were both a bit disappointed with the quality of the zoo and its enclosures, both size wise and quality of the replicated environments. Some notable omissions were Elephants, Baboons, Bears, any cats other than Lions and Tigers, any fish bigger than a penguin (Auckland has seals which are always great to watch swimming and playing). This zoo has a LOT of birds and monkeys. But it was a pretty good avo out anyways, and we still managed to spend 4 hours there without realising.
We're having a party at our flat this Saturday, so that should be good. And am getting super excited that its less than 3 weeks til Munich and Oktoberfest! Awesome!
We were also super excited to get the news yesterday morning that Regan and Nicole welcomed a gorgeous baby girl into their family! Thank goodness for the beauty of emails and pictures over the internet or we would feel so disconnected from all the exciting happenings back home!
Thats about it for now folks. I've got one more week before I start work at Kathmandu, so maybe now I will get around to writing a bit of a scribble on the backs of the postcards I have on my dresser for ya'll...
Rach and Ryan
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