Monday was a very big day. Both Grant and I had appointments about
possible work opportunities, so after more than two months in jeans we had to
get dressed up. As you can imagine, I
enjoyed this a lot more than Grant did.
My appointment was in Kingston upon Thames,
supposedly a forty minute drive from Mark’s place. I had to be there for 10.15, and everyone was
warning us that traffic is reliably awful.
So we left just after 9. The
first part of the trip wasn’t too bad but as we approached Kingston upon
Thames, the traffic came to a standstill and we spent most of the rest of the
trip in 1st gear. We got
there and parked with time to spare.
Grant escorted me to my interview and then went off in search of coffee.
My interview went pretty well. The TimePlan people were very friendly and
positive, and completely up-front about the fact that there is limited supply
work at this end of the school year – seniors are already preparing for exams. They were very optimistic about finding
something suitable for me come September though. I filled out numerous forms and got the ball
rolling for a British police check so the things will run smoothly in
September.
We had heard that Grant’s interview had been
deferred from 3 until 4pm, so we decided to take the car back to Addlestone and
train from there into London. We just
missed the train we wanted to catch in Addlestone, but there was another going
to London that we jumped on anyway rather than wait for 30 minutes for the next
train. It was the scenic train that we
caught. Instead of the whole train thing
taking about 45mins, it took us close to two hours.
When we got to London, we caught the Tube to
Blackfriars which was close to where Grant’s interview was. We still hadn’t managed to find any lunch and
it was about 2.30. We found a sandwich
bar, and then went off exploring. We
found that we were very close to St Paul’s Cathedral and so we wandered around
there. They had put up a temporary fence
around the entrance and there was a crowd of people holding banners with a
strong police presence. No one was being
allowed in to the cathedral. Slightly
disappointed, we wandered around the outside in the drizzle anyway. It is a massive monument to cool
churches. The architecture is beautiful
and it really is an amazing building.
When we circumnavigated to the other side of St Paul’s , there were
television trucks as well. We took
refuge from the rain (yes it is still raining over here) while Grant consulted
his phone to find out what sort of protest was going on. I glanced back up at the church steps to see
a large security contingent coming out of the cathedral with the bishop and the
Dalai Lama. We kind of understood why
they had closed the cathedral to the public now. Sadly I didn’t try to take a photo until they
were descending the steps and all I got was some plonker’s umbrella as he
walked in front of me.
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| A plonker and his umbrella completely obscuring the Dalai Lama |
We still had plenty of time before Grant’s
interview, so we went to find the little old pub in Fleet Street were we would
be meeting Nick and Fleur for a drink later.
Fleet Street is beautiful, so many wonderful old buildings. We found the little pub (Ye Olde Cheshire
Cheese) and then opted for a scenic route back to Grant’s interview. This scenic route took us (quite accidentally)
past the Temple Church, the one in The Da Vinci Code that used to be a Knights
Templar church. I have always been
fascinated by the Knights Templar so that was a seriously cool find. We didn’t have time to go in but we will go
back!
While Grant went to his interview, looking very
smart and dapper, I wandered off to look around what had appeared to be a big
shopping centre. Either I didn’t go in
the proper way or it wasn’t big at all, quite disappointing really. And by now, my feet were seriously protesting
being back in smart shoes for the first time in months. In the end I found a café, got coffee and
settled down with my book. My feet were
much happier that way! Grant came and
found me there after his interview.
Grant’s interview went ok. The agency is more used to dealing with people
with a couple of years’ experience and most of the positions are in the tax compliance
area. While they tried to push him into
a role writing a manual for some tax software, he politely declined. They may have something in the future though,
it is just wait and see.
We then wandered back to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese to
meet Nick and Fleur. We were a little
early but had plenty to talk about. The
pub is tiny (because it is so old) – a visit to the loo puts one’s head in
serious jeopardy; I hate to think what it’s like for someone who has had a
few. It was rebuilt in 1667 after the
great fire of London. We had a lovely
evening chatting, and something Nick said had us realise a) part of why car
insurance is so expensive over here and b) why it was imperative that we got
that sorted. We forgot that England
doesn’t have anything like ACC, so if someone is injured in an accident they
then sue the person at fault for medical expenses. And of course in every country there are
horrible people who take advantage of that and make malicious claims. So it’s not just about the value of the car.
We sat and talked for ages before remembering that
we still had to catch a train home. We
finally made it back to Waterloo in time to catch the 9.20 train to Weybridge,
so we didn’t have to take the scenic route this time. It had been a very long day.
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| A dragon marking the edge of London City |
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