When you graduate from university, you think, "Great, time to clear out the ol' overdraft". Right? WRONG.
It's been six month since I graduated and there's a few things that have happened which have been unexpected to say the least.
Firstly, I haven't yet cleared my overdraft. That's the price you pay for living in London, which is the second thing I was going to come to. I have never imagined that I would live in London, certainly not pretty much out of university.
The summer was pretty rad, living it up in Manchester. Working every day, going to shows, getting ripped by the engineers at work. Then BOMBSHELL, "You're moving to the Brooklands office". Shit. I'd asked for more work, I didn't have enough cash to go traveling in September so was holding off until Christmas. However, moving to London was not on the agenda. I thought hey, just embrace it, it's another city, you've done this all before.
I can safely say that the first 6 weeks were the most difficult I have ever faced when moving to a new city, and I have moved a lot. (Glasgow, Newcastle, Melbourne, Manchester, London in past 4 years). Work was difficult, taking over a project which was already in dire need of some serious re-engineering. However the mental Irish woman I was living with was the one who made my life a misery...
What kind of person emails you at work with house rules and telling you they didn't want anyone to move in but they had no choice? Way to make a gal feel welcome. To shorthand all of that, I had a very shakey few weeks where I was rather emotional, and relied on phonecalls to Liam and bottles of wine with Lauren whenever we could just to get by. Lauren was my rock. Incredible girl. I'll never forget how good she was to me the last three months, and I'm glad I could return the favour when she was in trouble.
Moving in with the Scottish professor was a life saver...Gav was typically Scottish...in that, he loved a bargain and loved a good pint. My type of house mate.
Then came Dublin...
In the time that all of this had been happening I'd been planning my next trip to see Liam. Third time to Dublin this year which was rad, the weekend was a great release for me, and seeing Liam was ace. Another great thing happened that weekend, which was seeing Joebreaker again. We'd been in touch on myspace etc, and I'd really wanted to hang out as he'd been at a show when I'd been over in June. To say the least, we chatted most of the night in Whelan's, then Liam invited him back for a party at his in Tallaght. Something I'm pretty sure would have scarred the poor lad for life, due to the fact that good old John was writhing around to Britney when we walked in and Liam's house mate Stephen began forcing Tia Maria down our throats as soon as we walked in.
See Joebreaker's blog for the fantastically well shot video of John in drag doing Britney.
London Baby
Back in London, I realised that I hadn't actually done ALL that much except go and drink in Kingston, and go to a few gigs. In steps James, native Londoner and Nando's enthusiast.
There is actually so much to do in London, and every time I'm wandering around Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square I feel like I am on holiday. London has a very strange atmosphere sometimes which is difficult to describe as anything other than giving you that feeling that almost anything can appear out of nowhere. It can be simultaneously the most amazing place, but the most depressing place. It's so big and impersonal at times, which can make the people appear to be the same. As someone used to Glasgow and the friendliness you get there, London can be quite alienating until you are used to the way Southerners act. Once you realise this, there are so many amazingly nice people to be met. I think some people view Londoners as the worst kind of people, which isn't exactly fair. Living in a city whose population is larger than that of the whole of Scotland...well, it's not difficult to see how it can become impersonal.
Anyway, so while I was here, there was an exhibition on by my favourite artist; Joan Miro. I first discovered him while in Barcelona about 18 months ago. Surrealism is an amazing form of art, one which I can get totally lost in. Artists like Miro and Calder really appeal to me. However there are some which aren't to my taste at all, much like some of Miro's early works.
During the same day, which was dubbed my "Day of Culture" I went to Fortnum and Mason's for the first time. The cupcakes are ridiculously expensive but SO worth it. Since then I have become slightly obsessed with cupcakes...
This is getting long, and I've got a few more things to say about the last few months. I'm just back from my fourth trip to Dublin...I'll get around to writing about it sometime.
Anyway, as per the title, I'm settling back into the slow lane...i.e. Dumfries, or home if you will. Unemployed, by choice I might add, I'm having some time to myself for the first time in a long time.
I thought I'd have a lot of time on my hands but there are things that creep in everyday to take care of.
Or just getting lost reading the Twilight series...ahem.
