Valentines Day movie premiere and Valentines Day

On Thursday night Jess and I went into Leicester Square to see the red carpet arrivals for the movie Valentine’s Day. The movie includes a whole list of stars, the big question was which celebrities would turn out for the premiere. We spent all afternoon waiting out the front of the Odeon cinema with hundreds of other people waiting for the guests to arrive. I had been in the UK for almost a year and still had not really seen any celebreties therefore I felt this was my best chance to see someone famous.

As we waited the carpet fitters came by and laid out the red carpet, the media began setting up their cameras, the road was blocked off, the security guards took guard and the sun went down and it began to get very cold. Rumours began flying around about who would be coming and the autograph hounds in front of sorted through their thousands of photographs to have them ready for the stars.

Ashton Kutcher and wife Demi Moore were the first to arrive and the crowd started getting very excited. Ashton started signing autographs and posing for photographs as Demi did a few quick interviews before heading inside the cinema out of the cold. Jessica Alba, star of the Fantastic Four movie, and Topher Grace, That 70’s show and Spiderman 3, where the other big names to arrive. They all went around the crowd posing for photos, signing autographs and undertaking interviews with all the television crews who were set up on the other side of the red carpet directly opposite us. The director of the film Garry Marshall who also directed Pretty Woman was also there.

Fighting the crowds every time the stars came close wasn’t much fun but luckily as I am tall and most of the fans were small teenage girls I was able to get a few photos. Jess being shorter than me was trying to hold her spot but kept getting pushed around by all the fanatical fans or autograph hounds who you could tell were just planning to sell on eBay whatever they got signed.

On Valentines Day Jess and I went for a cruise down the Thames on the Thames Clipper giving me a view of London I had not yet seen. We began our journey at Embankment then cruised down to the O2 arena at North Greenwhich before returning to Embankment. The O2 is a large white dome shaped tent with yellow spikes poking out of it. I knew it as a great place for live concerts but I realised it had a lot more to offer than just being an arena. It also houses a large number of restaurants, cinemas and museums.

The Thames cruise was fun and a little disorientating because the Thames snakes around almost in a semi circle when you get near Greenwich.

Job hunting

I spent basically two weeks on the internet and walking into shops applying for jobs and was getting very disheartened because I had received nothing even close to a job offer. I did though stop the job hunting for one day of celebration on Australia Day. Jess and I spent the day at the pubs in Fulham, an area of London dominated by Australians. It was a good afternoon but my enjoyment was minimised as I kept thinking about how I was spending money I really didn’t have.

On the 1^st of February I started a two day trial delivering pamphlets to letterboxes throughout London. The job didn’t pay well and it was difficult walking around the city in the early morning thin layer of snow, but it was a job and I was happy to be making money. I had finished work at the Glenthorne in late November, therefore it had been over two months since I had last worked. My first day went ok and I returned for a second day where I spent the day walking around St Johns Wood area delivering pamphlets to the million dollar plus mansions. It was a good way to see a different part of the city.

Over the two days I had delivered over 1500 Domino Pizza vouchers and although the job was not great I was happy to continue. Disappointingly though the company emailed me to say they did not need staff. Not sure why they took me on in the first place but it meant I was again back to no job.

I had also secured myself a place in a group interview to work as a retail assistant at the London Eye. The interview was interesting a fun. It was the first time I had ever been a part of a group interview in that kind of environment and although I felt I had done well I will still not sure I would get the job.

I then had another interview at a travel and outdoor shop which was going really well until I was told the manager was only looking for part time staff which would not be enough to pay rent to live in London.

Last week I had still not heard anything from the London Eye and the bank account was getting desperately low and I had already borrowed money off Mum and Dad so I figured it was time to look for live in work again similar to what I had been doing at the Glenthorne in the Lakes District. I figured if I stayed in London I would spend so much on rent, travel, food etc I would not be saving any money for the travels I wish to do before I fly home.

Life in Leyton

When you live in London your location is as much determined by what line of the underground you live by as the area in general. Jess and I are living about two minute walk away from Leyton station, east on the central line about a twenty minute ride into the centre of London.

Jess and I are sharing a room in a large seven bedroom house, living together we figured was going to be the only somewhat affordable way to live in London. Over time we met our housemates, all male and from all over the world. One Italian, one Irish, one New Zealander, one French and another Aussie.

The house isn’t exactly new and it wasn’t exactly clean when we moved in. Prior to Christmas there had apparently been over 15 people living in the seven rooms. Jess and I spent a while cleaning the house and making it more liveable.

I spent the first few days exploring the local area and soon discovered Leyton is a close neighbour to Stratford. Stratford, I learnt, will be home of many events during the 2012 London Olympic Games. Therefore everywhere you look in Leyton and Stratford there is building and construction. Currently being built in Stratford is the Olympic Stadium, Aquatic Centre and London velopark as well as the Olympic Village. Apparently the cost of London hosting the games and building all the new venues will be over £9 billion. On the couple of visits I have made to Stratford I have found it to be extremely busy therefore it will be interesting to see how they cope with the influx of tourists during the Olympics.

Leyton is a very multicultural area and just a few minutes walk away from our house is a huge ASDA store. ASDA is the English version of Wal-Mart and the equivalent of a Big W and Safeway together. It is the busiest store I have ever seen. Every time I have been there it seems there are thousands of customers. It is handy for us because it is open 24 hours and it is cheap.

Leyton is also the home of Leyton Orient football club who play in league one of the football league. On days were the team play at home the streets become packed with fans and police.

After moving into our new place I went out and caught up with a university mate of mine Campbell Wedell who was in London for the night after studying in Sweden for six months. It was alot of fun to catch up with a good mate I had not seen for almost a year.

Moving to London

Following a few unsuccessful days job hunting in Bath, Jess and I decided the best option to find work was to move to London. So we got on a bus and headed back to London. After checking into a hostel we set about house hunting.

It did not take long for us to find a place suitable. Really we were happy to take anything reasonably cheap and comfortable. We contacted a guy who organises houses in the North East as he seemed to be offering the cheapest in the newspaper. After showing us a couple of real dumps he showed us a room in a house where we could see ourselves living and at a cheap rate. So we signed on the dotted line.

The reason we signed so quickly was because we really didn’t want to spend days searching for accommodation. The room was £55 a week which included all bills, free wireless internet and sky TV. We would also be paying month by month rent and we would only have to give two weeks notice to get out of the contract.

To celebrate Jess and I went to see the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. I have wanted to see the musical ever since i arrived in England and I really enjoyed it. Although it has been playing almost every night for almost ten years it still attracts a large audience. The songs are familiar and the costumes are great. Well worth the money and a great way to begin our time in London.

We went back to the hostel and stayed the night in a ten bed dorm. The fire alarm went off just after midnight then continued to go off randomly throughout the night. Not because there was a fire just because somebody had drunkenly smashed the fire alarm. The following morning we were very excited to be checking out of the hostel and into our own room in our new place in Leyton.

I enjoyed unpacking my bag for the first time in a over a month to rediscover clothes I had forgotten I had, for the last month I had been wearing pretty much the same clothes every day. It was good to be able to wear something different.

Snowy Stonehenge and beautiful Bath

The morning we were due to leave Newport the UK was in the middle of the big freeze. Outside the snow was quite deep and still falling. It was the most snow I had ever seen and the most the UK had experienced for some years. The news were reporting all sorts of road closures, school closures and major transport disruptions.

Luckily for Jess and I we were able to leave Newport and reached Bath just over an hour later. The snow cover had made everything look great and the very old streets of Bath were covered in a thick layer of snow. Many of the shops were closed with signs on the doors reading 'Due to adverse weather conditions this store is closed.'

The snow cover had left the city looking very photogenic so I decided it would be interesting to go and visit Stonehenge and see it in a layer of snow which rarely occurs. Jess had not seen Stonehenge and I had visited the site one time last year on a rainy day. We caught a tour bus out to the stones arriving a few hours later after driving very slowly along some snowy roads.

Upon arrival the site was closed off. Visitors couldn't enter which was disappointing but we were able to snap some photos from the outside of the fence and as we left at around 3.30pm the sun was setting leaving a very memorable image.

Visiting Dylan Thomas' boathouse

I was intrigued to learn more about the life of Dylan Thomas, a famous Welsh poet, who I knew little about except that he had the same first name as me. Dylan Thomas grew up in Swansea where there is now a information centre dedicated to his life. He also spent a bit of time living in a boathouse in a quite seaside town called Laugharne. I had read in the book '501 must visit destinations' that this was a must visit destination.

So we headed to Laughharne it takes a couple of hours on the bus and train to reach Laugharne from Swansea and when we reached the town the sun was shining as we made our way past a castle along the edge of the beach to the boathouse.

Upon reaching the house we read a sign which stated it was closed due to ice in the pipes. Not really sure what this meant but what it did mean was that we were not allowed inside. One of Dylan Thomas' most famous pieces 'Under Milk Wood' speaks of a town called Llareggub an imaginary Welsh town. Llareggub read backwards is Buggerall and many people believe it is based upon Llaugharne because it doesn't have a lot to offer, as Jess and I discovered while waiting a couple of hours for the next bus to take us back.

Thomas when writing about Laugharne said he got off the bas and just forget to get back on. Jess and I definetly remembered to get back on the bus. While spending all day getting to and from Laugharne we had missed our chance to visit the Dylan Thomas centre in Swansea. Therefore I left Swansea knowing almost nothing more about the poet than when I had arrived.

It was time to head back to Newport for a couple of days to make up for the nights we were still due before leaving Wales and making our way back across the border to Bath.

New Years Eve in Wales

One of the downfalls of booking hotels online is not really knowing where the hotel is located or what it will be like. We found this out while trying to book a hotel in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and finding out the hotel we booked was in Newport. A city with nothing much to offer and at least thirty minutes away from Cardiff.

Jess and I decided it was much better idea to stay in a hostel in Cardiff on New Years Eve than try and commute from Newport. So after a little negotiation with some hotel managers who never seemed to be at the hotel we freed ourselves up for New Year and checked into a really flash hostel with a window view from the room overlooking the river and the Millennium Stadium.

While in Cardiff Jess and I visited the castle, took a walk around Cardiff Bay and spent New Years Eve at the Walkabout, the Aussie themed pub chain which put on a good New Years Eve party.

After a few days in Cardiff we decided to move on and instead of heading back to Newport we continued west to Swansea to check into yet another dodgy hotel. The hotel was located just across from the beach, all the hotels in the area seemed to have been untouched since the 1970's and considering there was a layer of ice on the sand I was not ready to go swimming. Swansea was also a friendly city with a bit to offer for a weekend visit although one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Swansea was to discover more about the life of Dylan Thomas.

Christmas in Bristol

A delicious (or maybe not) food van kebab in a Bristol hotel room for Christmas dinner. Not exactly the three course meal I am used to but that's one of the downfalls of being on the opposite side of the world to the rest of your family.

What lead to me eating a kebab in Bristol on Christmas Day was the decision that Jess and I where to spend Christmas together. We had planned to get to Wales for Christmas but instead found ourselves in the more affordable Bristol just on the England side of the border. Bristol is a very nice city and we were able to amuse ourselves for a few days while there but on Christmas Day pretty much every restaurant, shop or any place which sold food was closed. The only places open where very expensive restaurants and of course the food van.

I enjoyed my time in Bristol and a few days is enough time to have a look around the city. The highlight though for the time there was a chance meeting in McDonald's on our second last morning there. I happened to spot a mate Hugh who I worked with at a summer camp in the USA and had not seen for over four years. It was crazy! I knew he lived in Bristol but when trying to contact him had no success. We spent the morning together before again saying goodbye without knowing when we would ever see each other again.

Leaving Bristol we decided it was now time to go to Wales.