harden up, princess...

walking walking walking. you know that the bus costs 90p, which is the equivalent of something like $2.50? the Underground (tube in the local vernacular) is 2Pound. as a result, there's been a lot of walking. when you walk into the Money Changer and $2700 in hundreds turns into 945 Pounds (and you had to haggle to get it up from 870) you do start to freak the fuck out.

yesterday was entertaining. we caught the bus up to London Bridge, at which point we realised we were near to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre so we went and found it. we were actually headed for the Tower of London, but what the hell. just near to The Globe was the Millenium Bridge (erm... yeah. about that...) which crosses over right up to St Paul's Cathedral. being a sunday, it wasn't open for tourists, but we found the steps where the children in Mary Poppins want to feed the birds. onwards now, we managed to find the Tower without too much trouble and did a bog-lap around the outside rather than pay the P18 to get in. we had a quick lunch nearby, and this was the point at which i made Lou walk. we walked along the Thames all along the north bank to Embankment Station (google it), then across, past the London Eye and then further to Vauxhall Cross then back past the Oval to where we're staying (you can also google Crewdson Rd, Lambeth if you're bored.

oh, the whining.... of which there was actually very little. i've been making her walk quite a lot since we got here. my philosophy is that unless we're in a hurry to get from here to the next point then we might as well save a quid and leg it. that, and we've seen some rather entertaining stuff we'd not have seen otherwise if we'd been in the tube, like the eqyptian obelish and sphinx's which were pillaged by some englishman and set along the Thames. regardless, i've taken to telling Lou to "harden up, princess" whenever she starts to speak of hardship, or you know, sore feet. it's amused us both a little, and the laugh usually keeps us going for another kilometre.

in other news, it's now day 5, and it's starting to feel a little less like a holiday. today has been spent either applying for jobs, speaking to agencies or looking at places to stay. we've had one inspection so far (which was on an estate and... well, we'll see how desperate we get before we live on an estate, let's put it that way) and another two to come in an hour or so. with any luck one or the other of these ones (both of which are walking-distance from here... mua ha ha ha!) will be decent and we can consider ourselves sorted. a chunk of the float i exchanged today has been reserved for deposit and rent in advcance, etc. it's not going to last particularly long, but that's what it was for so i'll not complain too much.

i just need to hold onto my accent and i'm sure we'll all be find. a couple of times i've found myself starting to mimic the locals and this has been... unacceptable. i don't know, maybe it'd be nice to be able to put on a genuine english accent when i get back. while i'm here, on the other hand, i'm happy with mine thankyou very much. the other night, out on the town, i uttered "bloody oath" at... something. the enormous screens in Piccadilly Circus or something and Alex remarked that she'd expected a "strewth" out of me which is the ONLY reason why, a couple of hours later, i gave her one at the length of the line outside a club called "TigerTiger". i'll not use it again, i swear... unless the situation calls for it, i suppose.

gotta go now - photos to label, rooms to see. we're biting the bullet and looking at rooms, rather than flats. we COULD get a nice place in the area for 195Pound/week, but... well sod it. not when we can pay 120 and get all bills and internet etc included in the cost. power, i've been told, is EXPENSIVE here. the folks in the place we're staying turn everything off at the wall to save juice so i'm going to assume that it's superfucking expensive.

much to see, much to do... not that it seems like i'll be getting to see or do much of it in the next couple of days with the the work involved in getting a job in this town. still, all part of the adventure...