First Weekend in London

Friday Night

I almost cried saying goodbye to my folks on the platform but luckily I kept my cool enough to get seated on the train and silently wonder what the hell I've actually gotten myself into. 

I was literally sat there on a one way train with my bags steaming towards London at 60mph with no return date! I don't know if it was the sudden realisation of what was ahead but I sat watching Toy Story wishing I was about 15 years younger.

 The train journey itself was pretty boring, 5 1/2 hours of being uncomfortable and not being able to get my laptop on the folding tray without having it digging it into my stomach but hey ho, we can't have it all, at least the guy meant to be in the seat beside me had the decency to not turn up.

My trains arrival in London took my mind off the reality of what I was actually doing (For a start it arrived early-a clear sign I wasn't in Scotland anymore.) Within 20 minutes of dragging my bags across Kings Cross at 1am I found myself stuck in a traffic jam longing for a cup of tea and my bed even though I was only going to get 5 hours sleep.

Saturday-The work started straight away.

Less than 9 hours later I was on my first tube journey to Shephards Bush Westfield Shopping Centre to start my first retail job in London after a quick and surprisingly easy transfer from my shop back home. There was literally no time to ponder the fact that I was running on 4 hours sleep and actually starving from a lack of time I had to get breakfast. It was just hard work from the get go, tube, store, customers, sales, tube, dinner and bed.

Sunday  

Sunday was my first lie in after days of bare minimum sleep so I decided to go by myself for a bit of sightseeing. I'd convinced myself that if I was going to live in London I'd better not be ignorant and actually get some knowledge about the place, basically the worst excuse ever to book myself onto a bus tour for the day...and a boat tour.

I've done the Original Bus Tour's yellow route 3 times before now but it never gets old, I'm pretty sure I could actually host one now! If anyone gets a chance I really suggest taking a day to go and do it cause you really do go home feeling like someone who aced history in high school.
One thing I wouldn't suggest though is to do the open top bus tours on an empty stomach because some of the food I was smelling was torture! Hot dog stalls at Marble Arch and roasted chestnut vendors by Buckingham Palace literally followed me around and by the end I wanted to go into every food place on the way back to Mile End.

When I walked home I decided to round off the night by popping into a pub I always pass on the way to the tube and have a drink.
Now, I knew that alcohol prices in London were steeper than Scotland but when the barman asked me to give him £8.45 for a double vodka cola I actually nearly wet myself. Lesson learnt, sobriety here I come, went home pretty gutted!

With Monday being a bank holiday I got another day off which was basically my lazy day, by midday I hadn't made it out of pyjammas but had managed to drag my arse off the couch long enough to finally sort my suitcases out and move the hoover about the livingroom in a half-arsed effort at housework.

In the afternoon Amber came over to start my training for my new job for the next day and amazingly I managed to stay pretty calm considering all the stuff she was throwing at me, I'm praying to god I manage to pick everything up pretty quickly since I'll be repeatedly doing it 5 days a week.

In general I've been quite calm since arriving here in London but I think it has to do with the sheer amount of work I've had to be doing. At some point, possibly when I start the new job, the panic will seriously hit me...Either that or I'll fail miserably at budgeting and leave myself up creek with no paddle.
After a full week here I'll definitely start to feel more settled, my family back home don't seem to be missing me yet anyway so I'll be here a while, Mums already booked plasterers to come and redo my bedroom walls...

2 nights to go...

Sometimes, after 3 nights of very little sleep, it takes a bottle of Brut from your work to get those precious 8 hours...

I'm moving to London

(This post comes to you from a very tired blogger after two weeks of crazyness and excitement.)

 After some of the craziest weeks in my life I'm absolutely beside myself to say that I'm achieving something I've wanted for years and moving to London for at least 4 months while I do an internship. While I am absolutely buzzing to start something completely new and exciting I have to admit that the preparation to ensure that I can survive while I'm there has been exhausting to say the least and in a way has forced me to make some very grown up decisions. (I've surprised myself if I'm being honest!)

I'm so lucky to have family down there who are understanding and supportive of this opportunity so much that they're allowing me to live with them for the duration and without them it's safe to say this wouldn't even be happening and it's been the key factor in my decision to go through with all this. Basically I'll be paying them back for their generosity for the rest of my days.

So here's the breakdown of how the last two weeks have went...

Just a little over 2 weeks ago my cousin advertised a 4 month internship vacancy at her work. Now I am never one to take risks and the fact that this job is only temporary weighed heavily on my mind before I made any kind of decision about applying for the job. However, after a chat with family and assessing my own feelings towards where I am in life and in my career just now it was decided that I'd have to take the leap to really achieve what I want. Cue a mixture of immediate excitement and panic.

As it turns out, I got the job so taking the risk has paid off but now I was faced with the prospect of moving to London, saying goodbye to my frends and family and somehow packing all of my bedroom into as few suitcases as possible. This is where I had to seriously make sacrifices and mildly began to panic.

In the following week I decided that my main aim was to make as much money as possible to ensure a smooth transition to living in London, the last thing I want when I move is to have to phone up my folks and ask for money, it's not exactly the new responisble Hannah I have in mind!

 So in order to maximise money making potential I've basically sold everything I possibly could. I've sold clothes, furniture, old playstation games and DVDs, my friends have helped me clean out my room and in turn they walked away with a few items each that they like and that I won't be able to take with me. The car has been loaded up with older items to be recycled and I've even sold some of my Harry Potter items to help give me that little extra cash for when I get down there. That part sucked. The good thing is that my room is now so empty that I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with all the packing!

To also ensure that I make as much money as possible while I'm living in London I decided right away that I was going to have to get a second job. Luckily this turned out to be one of the easiest things I've done in the run up to the move, my current work have transferred me down to a store in London to work at the weekends and it only took a 10 minute phone call! At this point the panic started to subside and was instead replaced by doubt, things were working out all too well for my liking... It all seemed a bit too 'easy.'

So I write this to you on a Monday as I prepare to move on Friday to tell you all that it really does pay off to take risks, I'm extremely lucky that I have family down there to help get me on my feet but the bottom line of the next 4 months is that I'm moving to work not to have fun and go sight seeing. I will be working 7 days and simultaenously trying to save up for what happens after. I've not even moved yet but a lot has had to be sacrificed in the short term to help in the future and overall I genuinly do have a great feeling about this. I think it'll be important to constanty remind myself of why I chose to do this and risk everything on a 4 month job but at the same time be thankful that my current job will provide me with a more long-term financial security. I've already come to terms with the fact that I could be heading back home to Scotland in 4 months if it all doesn't work out but the experience of working in London is all too good and too valuable to my career in the future to pass up. 

I think to round this post up I'll just say that this journey is something that's going to continuously be documented on this blog and I look forward to writing about the internship and how it develops. Whilst I feel like I'm currently in a great headspace where I'm ready to grab work by the balls and really pull my weight for the next 4 months I also have slight negtive niggles in my mind as anyone would when they move to a new city and essentialy lose such close connections to family.

I guess we'll see where this chapter in my life takes me!

Wish me luck!!