Mr X factor 4 - 20 August '05: Having a blast, but some not so easy things to work through...
Well Hello! The adventure continues over here, even though I've found a job and have been working for over a month. Working has been quite interesting & enjoyable, but some other stuff for me has not been great, so the first bit of X-factor No.4 is about some of the more difficult things I've been experiencing...
Unfortunately, a painful heel problem that I have struggled with for the last 2+ years has deteriorated quite significantly as a result of lots of walking over here. It started to get worse after about my first month, and opening heavy locks on the canals didn't help either. So that has been the source of ongoing frustration, pain & limitation (can't stand or even walk for very long without getting sore heels), and worry, given that the doctors haven't yet been able to offer a solution, and that it just continues to deteriorate :( Pretty despairing and soul destroying at times. Am seeing doctors, physio et.al. (again) over here in the hope that they'll be able to offer a diagnosis & solution that stops me being sore and enables me to do everything I want to be able to do as a tourist, but more importantly as a human!
Two things that have come out of this for me have been about hope and contentment. Hope that this will get better, despite not being able to see a way out, and contentment - to be content in all circumstances (that's not easy). There's been lots of prayer on my part, including some Psalm-like ranting & raving at God to get me out of this mess. So I am making the most of things, as best as I can and generally feel quite peaceful despite my predicament/uncertainty/being in limbo about how things will work out.
The three main things that have got to me most of late, have been my health (obviously), job and accommodation situations. Sometimes it all gets a bit too much, you wonder what you are doing over here, and it seems things aren't falling into place as you hope they would. You go through phases of uncertainty, every once in a while. So someone to chat with, who has been through it/still going through it, is always helpful. I realised phases of doubt on your OE aren't unusual, and that people over here, even after a year still go through it. Also, I read in my trusty OE bible, 'The Big OE Guide' by Bronwyn Sell - brilliant book for planning your OE - very, very informative, before I came over here, a quote from a Kiwi, who essentially said, no-one tells you about the difficult times. And another person I talked with soon after I got here said it took him 6 months till he felt settled over here.
So that's the other side to the excitement & adventure - not easy, but the flipside is that it makes the good moments pretty joyous, and its all about pushing through the difficult stuff and growing through your experiences. Given that I really can't walk much, to get around London I've bought a bike, and I am hardly using the tube at all. I bought it second-hand while on the canals and have really been enjoying cycling to and from work, and pretty much everywhere else! About once a week I get the tube or catch a bus, but mainly I'm cycling. In fact, each morning's bike ride to work feels like a stage of the Tour de France! My route to work starts at Lancaster Gate in Bayswater (immediately north of Hyde Park) and the cycle into work is takes about 20 mins. Get out your London maps folks! - I make my way to Marble Arch corner and then head down the willow tree-lined cycle path inside Hyde Park (beautiful!), adjacent to Park Lane. Then I get to Hyde Park corner, where I cross the road with the pedestrians and then cycle through the middle Hyde Park corner roundabout, and under the Wellington Arch memorial (just one of hundreds you pass daily around this city!).
This is where the Tour de France feel begins, as about 20 of us cyclists congregate at the pedestrian crossing waiting for the lights to change and the cars going round the roundabout to stop. As they turn red, we take off and start heading down Constitution Hill towards Buckingham Palace, spreading out as a peleton of cars catch and overtake us (briefly!). At the Palace we turn left onto the Mall, and head up to Trafalgar Square - it starts to get pretty congested as we head under Admiralty Arch, but we weave our way through the cars, around Trafalgar Square roundabout, and then head down Northumberland Ave (just Monopoly streets everywhere!) to the Embankment. Then I hang left at Hungerford Bridge and cruise along the waterfront to Blackfriars Bridge, where I turn left and head up to the corner of Fleet Street, turning right onto Ludgate Hill, where work is, just a minute's walk from St Paul's Cathedral.
Then I head into work, have a shower and start work about 8:45. Its been pretty inspiring cycling past tonnes of historical monuments, especially in the afternoon as I cycle back along the Embankment waterfront and look at the River Thames, London Eye, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in the distance - just SO cool.
So what's my job? Well, temporary work has worked out reasonably smoothly, which has been really good. After I got back from canalling (start of July) it was job hunting time. Found most big temp agencies didn't want to know you if you didn't have office experience or couldn't touch type at 50wpm minimum (am forcing myself to learn now!). So once again I turned to my super OE guide and discovered The Kiwi Agency - sounded like me! - so I gave them a call and went in for the usual MS Word, Excel, Access & typing tests, and a chat. Got on really well with my agent (v. impt!), and he got me a job starting the following week at the Crown Prosecution Service (check out www.cps.gov.uk) in the city. So 8 days later (after security clearance stuff) I was in at work for a ten day assignment, which involved nothing else apart from mind-numbingly boring and repetitive filing! BUT it was a start, some income to stop my finances haemorrhaging, as they tend to do in London, and has turned into much more interesting work.
After a week of possibly the most boring work I've ever done, I got a call from my agent saying there was a job going on the 2nd floor - a month's work (has turned into 7 weeks) in the CPS Press Office. I had my CV on me when I went upstairs for the 'meet & greet', and they must have been impressed with it and thought that my Social Sciences teaching background would make me well suited to the job, because I got offered it over another Kiwi girl who was going for the same job. I found out last week that I will finish on 2 September, by which time I will hopefully be better at touivh typing (sorry, couldn't resits that!), have almost two months work experience in the civil service, a line manager who will be a good referee, and vital (even if overrated) 'London experience'.
The CPS Press Office has been in the thick of it recently - they deal with all the media inquiries regarding cases where the Crown is prosecuting people so with the London bombings, related arrests, extraditions, tragic accidental shootings, Muslim cleric hate preaching treason charges, as well as the numerous and rather frightening amounts of murders that happen over here, and all other crime, its never short of something going on. The job is varied and interesting. The six colleagues (including a Kiwi from Ngati Porou, who left Poverty Bay 17 years ago) in my immediate office are friendly, appreciative & work well together, so its a nice vibe.
Each day consists of a mixture of the following: photocopying & distributing Press Cuts (summaries of CPS related articles in each daily paper), distributing the morning dailies (national and local - London has tonnes of newspapers, about 15 different papers come in each morning, taking/transferring phone calls for the Press Officers, with details of the case, date, caller and query (this is the most important part of the job - I get calls from CPS regional offices & national/regional news agencies,all round the country, as well as places such as the Home Office, Attorney General's chambers etc...even had the Oprah Winfrey Show call the other day!, filing case summaries, updating computer files of cases, emailing/internally mailing out reports and briefings, summarising journal articles from weeklymedia/law/police magazines.
It's been busy at times, but not really busy compared to teaching (which I keep reminding myself when things get a bit busy and stressful). And in a way, its very good that it has been quiet at times, because there has been a certain cricket series happening, which I've been able to watch a lot of - at work! Any Press Office has to keep up with breaking news. So there are 3 TVs on all day in our office (tuned to BBCNews, ITV News, Sky News). But the one less than 5 metres from my desk has 'somehow' been 'stuck' onto the fascinatingly competitive Ashes cricket series between England and Australia, pretty much whenever it has been on (unless there's a big story breaking). So I'm pretty much watching ball-by-ball coverage of each day, as well as a bit of work in between overs (I was right about these cushy office jobs!). As Richie Benaud would say, 'Quite marvellous really!'.
Some of my colleagues aren't too sports-oriented, so I'm trying to educate them. In fact, one colleague who talks mostly about shoe shopping, saw the TV on Friday - and next to the bowler's name on the screen, it said 'Left arm orthodox'. She asked me 'is that his religion? !!!!!!!!!'. But now she's taking the note of the score a bit more, must be something to do with England actually putting up a decent fight.
So that is work, and I feel I've made a good start and that better jobs will come from this/or the experience I've gained from it. Through just talking with other temps I may have found another agency that could get me work for longer periods and at a better rate of pay, so I am investigating that as things wind up with this job. I have only applied for 2 permanent non-temping jobs thus far: as a truancy officer in Nth London (would I really want that!?) and as a tourism development manager for Sunderland (a place hardly mentioned in the Lonely Planet, so I'd have my work cut out!). I taught tourism for 3 years Tawa College, and have thought about getting into that industry before, so am still waiting to hear back.
I finish at CPS in 2 weeks time and have booked my first trip onto the continent, the following week! Am heading to the south of France with Glenn & Lynn Irving + 2 others. We have hired a house in Bagneres-du-Luchon up in the Pyrenees and are going to do some mountain biking, and general exploring and relaxing (there's a swimming pool there). It sort of came about by perfect timing more than anything else. They mentioned it about 2 months ago, and when my finishing date at work coincided, how could I refuse!!? So I am really looking forward to it and will dusting up on the 3rd form French 'J'a¡ tres ens', 'J'habite a Wellington', and all that!
I have been pretty well provided for with accommodation for the last month. Had a mate who went to Russia and offered me his room in his flat to use for a month - fantastic - and a real godsend, as I was getting sick of moving every week or so. Am working on a permanent flat now. Bayswater is right in Zone 1 and on the Central line. Living further out will be difficult to handle after this spacious, central apartment experience!
My most recent, 'exploring England' experience has been Birmingham. Spent a special weekend there with my parents and sister Nics, on 30-31 July. This is where my Dad grew up, so it was a personally guided tour with accompanying stories, courtesy of Dad, through the NW Birmingham suburb of Walsall, which included the schools, sports clubs, and various places Dad used to hang out at. Our family visited here in 1982, when Dad's mother was alive, so first time back for me since, and a few distant memories remained, but mostly all new.
Particular highlights were the street and house where Dad grew up (good old 25 Peakhouse Road), family friends a few doors down who nursed his Mum in her latter years, and also (actually the first stop of the day) a compulsory visit to Villa Park, home ground of Aston Villa FC (1982 European Cup Champions - when have Chelsea done that!?), where we went to the replica shop (I bought a Villa scarf and hat), and then, very excitingly, into the stadium, pretty impressive (holds 40,000+ I reckon, pitch like a billiard table and everything neat and coloured Claret and Blue). And man the seats are so close to the pitch - I'm too used to the Stadium in Wellington!
In the last 2 weeks a few Kiwis have visited here - have caught up with ex-flatmate Tim McKenzie, on a LOTR work trip, and I watched the All Blacks beat the Aussies with Mark and Abby Vink, at Clapham Junction last Saturday, then hung with a couple of other Kiwis in Putney, who I got to know briefly in NZ before I headed over here. Always good to catch up with people from back home!
That's plenty for now. Looks like an interesting election coming up, sad news about Lange, and hopefully we can win our home matches in the Tri-nations and win the whole thing!
Hope this finds you well.
Dave
Well Hello! The adventure continues over here, even though I've found a job and have been working for over a month. Working has been quite interesting & enjoyable, but some other stuff for me has not been great, so the first bit of X-factor No.4 is about some of the more difficult things I've been experiencing...
Unfortunately, a painful heel problem that I have struggled with for the last 2+ years has deteriorated quite significantly as a result of lots of walking over here. It started to get worse after about my first month, and opening heavy locks on the canals didn't help either. So that has been the source of ongoing frustration, pain & limitation (can't stand or even walk for very long without getting sore heels), and worry, given that the doctors haven't yet been able to offer a solution, and that it just continues to deteriorate :( Pretty despairing and soul destroying at times. Am seeing doctors, physio et.al. (again) over here in the hope that they'll be able to offer a diagnosis & solution that stops me being sore and enables me to do everything I want to be able to do as a tourist, but more importantly as a human!
Two things that have come out of this for me have been about hope and contentment. Hope that this will get better, despite not being able to see a way out, and contentment - to be content in all circumstances (that's not easy). There's been lots of prayer on my part, including some Psalm-like ranting & raving at God to get me out of this mess. So I am making the most of things, as best as I can and generally feel quite peaceful despite my predicament/uncertainty/being in limbo about how things will work out.
The three main things that have got to me most of late, have been my health (obviously), job and accommodation situations. Sometimes it all gets a bit too much, you wonder what you are doing over here, and it seems things aren't falling into place as you hope they would. You go through phases of uncertainty, every once in a while. So someone to chat with, who has been through it/still going through it, is always helpful. I realised phases of doubt on your OE aren't unusual, and that people over here, even after a year still go through it. Also, I read in my trusty OE bible, 'The Big OE Guide' by Bronwyn Sell - brilliant book for planning your OE - very, very informative, before I came over here, a quote from a Kiwi, who essentially said, no-one tells you about the difficult times. And another person I talked with soon after I got here said it took him 6 months till he felt settled over here.
So that's the other side to the excitement & adventure - not easy, but the flipside is that it makes the good moments pretty joyous, and its all about pushing through the difficult stuff and growing through your experiences. Given that I really can't walk much, to get around London I've bought a bike, and I am hardly using the tube at all. I bought it second-hand while on the canals and have really been enjoying cycling to and from work, and pretty much everywhere else! About once a week I get the tube or catch a bus, but mainly I'm cycling. In fact, each morning's bike ride to work feels like a stage of the Tour de France! My route to work starts at Lancaster Gate in Bayswater (immediately north of Hyde Park) and the cycle into work is takes about 20 mins. Get out your London maps folks! - I make my way to Marble Arch corner and then head down the willow tree-lined cycle path inside Hyde Park (beautiful!), adjacent to Park Lane. Then I get to Hyde Park corner, where I cross the road with the pedestrians and then cycle through the middle Hyde Park corner roundabout, and under the Wellington Arch memorial (just one of hundreds you pass daily around this city!).
This is where the Tour de France feel begins, as about 20 of us cyclists congregate at the pedestrian crossing waiting for the lights to change and the cars going round the roundabout to stop. As they turn red, we take off and start heading down Constitution Hill towards Buckingham Palace, spreading out as a peleton of cars catch and overtake us (briefly!). At the Palace we turn left onto the Mall, and head up to Trafalgar Square - it starts to get pretty congested as we head under Admiralty Arch, but we weave our way through the cars, around Trafalgar Square roundabout, and then head down Northumberland Ave (just Monopoly streets everywhere!) to the Embankment. Then I hang left at Hungerford Bridge and cruise along the waterfront to Blackfriars Bridge, where I turn left and head up to the corner of Fleet Street, turning right onto Ludgate Hill, where work is, just a minute's walk from St Paul's Cathedral.
Then I head into work, have a shower and start work about 8:45. Its been pretty inspiring cycling past tonnes of historical monuments, especially in the afternoon as I cycle back along the Embankment waterfront and look at the River Thames, London Eye, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in the distance - just SO cool.
So what's my job? Well, temporary work has worked out reasonably smoothly, which has been really good. After I got back from canalling (start of July) it was job hunting time. Found most big temp agencies didn't want to know you if you didn't have office experience or couldn't touch type at 50wpm minimum (am forcing myself to learn now!). So once again I turned to my super OE guide and discovered The Kiwi Agency - sounded like me! - so I gave them a call and went in for the usual MS Word, Excel, Access & typing tests, and a chat. Got on really well with my agent (v. impt!), and he got me a job starting the following week at the Crown Prosecution Service (check out www.cps.gov.uk) in the city. So 8 days later (after security clearance stuff) I was in at work for a ten day assignment, which involved nothing else apart from mind-numbingly boring and repetitive filing! BUT it was a start, some income to stop my finances haemorrhaging, as they tend to do in London, and has turned into much more interesting work.
After a week of possibly the most boring work I've ever done, I got a call from my agent saying there was a job going on the 2nd floor - a month's work (has turned into 7 weeks) in the CPS Press Office. I had my CV on me when I went upstairs for the 'meet & greet', and they must have been impressed with it and thought that my Social Sciences teaching background would make me well suited to the job, because I got offered it over another Kiwi girl who was going for the same job. I found out last week that I will finish on 2 September, by which time I will hopefully be better at touivh typing (sorry, couldn't resits that!), have almost two months work experience in the civil service, a line manager who will be a good referee, and vital (even if overrated) 'London experience'.
The CPS Press Office has been in the thick of it recently - they deal with all the media inquiries regarding cases where the Crown is prosecuting people so with the London bombings, related arrests, extraditions, tragic accidental shootings, Muslim cleric hate preaching treason charges, as well as the numerous and rather frightening amounts of murders that happen over here, and all other crime, its never short of something going on. The job is varied and interesting. The six colleagues (including a Kiwi from Ngati Porou, who left Poverty Bay 17 years ago) in my immediate office are friendly, appreciative & work well together, so its a nice vibe.
Each day consists of a mixture of the following: photocopying & distributing Press Cuts (summaries of CPS related articles in each daily paper), distributing the morning dailies (national and local - London has tonnes of newspapers, about 15 different papers come in each morning, taking/transferring phone calls for the Press Officers, with details of the case, date, caller and query (this is the most important part of the job - I get calls from CPS regional offices & national/regional news agencies,all round the country, as well as places such as the Home Office, Attorney General's chambers etc...even had the Oprah Winfrey Show call the other day!, filing case summaries, updating computer files of cases, emailing/internally mailing out reports and briefings, summarising journal articles from weeklymedia/law/police magazines.
It's been busy at times, but not really busy compared to teaching (which I keep reminding myself when things get a bit busy and stressful). And in a way, its very good that it has been quiet at times, because there has been a certain cricket series happening, which I've been able to watch a lot of - at work! Any Press Office has to keep up with breaking news. So there are 3 TVs on all day in our office (tuned to BBCNews, ITV News, Sky News). But the one less than 5 metres from my desk has 'somehow' been 'stuck' onto the fascinatingly competitive Ashes cricket series between England and Australia, pretty much whenever it has been on (unless there's a big story breaking). So I'm pretty much watching ball-by-ball coverage of each day, as well as a bit of work in between overs (I was right about these cushy office jobs!). As Richie Benaud would say, 'Quite marvellous really!'.
Some of my colleagues aren't too sports-oriented, so I'm trying to educate them. In fact, one colleague who talks mostly about shoe shopping, saw the TV on Friday - and next to the bowler's name on the screen, it said 'Left arm orthodox'. She asked me 'is that his religion? !!!!!!!!!'. But now she's taking the note of the score a bit more, must be something to do with England actually putting up a decent fight.
So that is work, and I feel I've made a good start and that better jobs will come from this/or the experience I've gained from it. Through just talking with other temps I may have found another agency that could get me work for longer periods and at a better rate of pay, so I am investigating that as things wind up with this job. I have only applied for 2 permanent non-temping jobs thus far: as a truancy officer in Nth London (would I really want that!?) and as a tourism development manager for Sunderland (a place hardly mentioned in the Lonely Planet, so I'd have my work cut out!). I taught tourism for 3 years Tawa College, and have thought about getting into that industry before, so am still waiting to hear back.
I finish at CPS in 2 weeks time and have booked my first trip onto the continent, the following week! Am heading to the south of France with Glenn & Lynn Irving + 2 others. We have hired a house in Bagneres-du-Luchon up in the Pyrenees and are going to do some mountain biking, and general exploring and relaxing (there's a swimming pool there). It sort of came about by perfect timing more than anything else. They mentioned it about 2 months ago, and when my finishing date at work coincided, how could I refuse!!? So I am really looking forward to it and will dusting up on the 3rd form French 'J'a¡ tres ens', 'J'habite a Wellington', and all that!
I have been pretty well provided for with accommodation for the last month. Had a mate who went to Russia and offered me his room in his flat to use for a month - fantastic - and a real godsend, as I was getting sick of moving every week or so. Am working on a permanent flat now. Bayswater is right in Zone 1 and on the Central line. Living further out will be difficult to handle after this spacious, central apartment experience!
My most recent, 'exploring England' experience has been Birmingham. Spent a special weekend there with my parents and sister Nics, on 30-31 July. This is where my Dad grew up, so it was a personally guided tour with accompanying stories, courtesy of Dad, through the NW Birmingham suburb of Walsall, which included the schools, sports clubs, and various places Dad used to hang out at. Our family visited here in 1982, when Dad's mother was alive, so first time back for me since, and a few distant memories remained, but mostly all new.
Particular highlights were the street and house where Dad grew up (good old 25 Peakhouse Road), family friends a few doors down who nursed his Mum in her latter years, and also (actually the first stop of the day) a compulsory visit to Villa Park, home ground of Aston Villa FC (1982 European Cup Champions - when have Chelsea done that!?), where we went to the replica shop (I bought a Villa scarf and hat), and then, very excitingly, into the stadium, pretty impressive (holds 40,000+ I reckon, pitch like a billiard table and everything neat and coloured Claret and Blue). And man the seats are so close to the pitch - I'm too used to the Stadium in Wellington!
In the last 2 weeks a few Kiwis have visited here - have caught up with ex-flatmate Tim McKenzie, on a LOTR work trip, and I watched the All Blacks beat the Aussies with Mark and Abby Vink, at Clapham Junction last Saturday, then hung with a couple of other Kiwis in Putney, who I got to know briefly in NZ before I headed over here. Always good to catch up with people from back home!
That's plenty for now. Looks like an interesting election coming up, sad news about Lange, and hopefully we can win our home matches in the Tri-nations and win the whole thing!
Hope this finds you well.
Dave
posted by MrXfactor at
11:23 AM
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