Tuesday 5 June 2012

Two Month Jubilee



The weekend marked our two month anniversary in lovely London therefore I thought it would only be fitting to update you all on the dirty deeds since day one, and by dirty deeds I mean eating our first meal in London on the floor in front of Mc Donald’s, sleeping in dirty hostels, finding a pack of Mentos on the floor and eating it, turning the 10 second rule into the 1 minute rule (no food will ever go to waste), doing our washing in the sink to save money on laundry, drinking ‘Cup Of Soup’ out of our old coffee cups which we dug out of the bin, getting our hands dirty at work when clearing food off tables and cleaning plates before giving it to the porters, and moving into a home that is made of dust, grime and dirt. Okay.... before I suck you into our world of unforgivable dirtiness I think I should start from the beginning.


Our adventure began at Cape Town International, all of our families and friends joined us for a long and sad goodbye. We were not off to the greatest of starts as we almost missed our flight due to one of the airport staff telling us our flight was delayed when in actual fact it wasn’t. The next leg of our journey involved a 9 hour flight to Dubai followed by a 7 hour flight to London. London greeted us with grey clouds and 10’C weather.


We checked into our back packers late that afternoon, to our surprise Brazen looked nothing like the pictures on the net but it was home for the first month of our stay, if you get past the smells, the dirt and bug invested beds it wasn’t too bad of start. We made loads of friends there, from Hungary and his tasty Tesco doughnuts to Scotty and his pint of beer in the mornings. Most of the nights were spent making microwave food in the upper kitchen where we shared a meal meant for 2 between the four of us (this was during our “WE NEED TO SAVE PHASE”). The rest of our meals for the past two months have ranged from Burger King's 'King of the Day', Mc Donald's and Subway to dodgy Chicken shops or Tesco/Sainsbury meal deals, healthy I know...


The Job Hunt: 

As we all know one cannot survive in a country without a job, so when we arrived it was game on. I applied for numerous jobs over the internet, sending my CV to various businesses in the fields of design, hospitality and administration. The girls and I even printed off our CV’s and handed it out to businesses in Wimbledon. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Nando’s was one of the lucky contenders I handed my CV to. After the trial shift, I never heard from them again, it’s safe to assume that my waitressing skills weren’t exactly up to scratch. In terms of my design applications, I got a call back for a job as an Adobe suite lecturer, I attended the interview and all went well. For a while I didn’t hear from them, however on the day I signed up for Elements, I got a call back saying I should come in for a trial shift as I was shortlisted for the position. I declined hoping that Elements would be the better option.

Before our shift at Hilton Park Lane

Elements is an agency which ‘hires’ you out to five-star hotels within London for banquets and events. Work varies from waitressing at weddings, serving drinks at buffets and my personal favourite doing room service at hotels. One of my favourite things about working for Elements is that you get to meet new people all the time, picking up friends along the way. From the awesome staff at The W to the crazy Auzzies/Kiwis we work with every day, each and every one of them keep me thoroughly entertained.


The things I have learnt from my job thus far:

  • Napkin folding and polishing cutlery/glasses is an art.
  • Silver service was invented to make you look like an idiot.
  • Australian men wear “Thongs” haha!
  • Never drop curry on a ladies bag or a glass bottle of water in a guests room because then you are an idiot!
  • Always dish yourself three servings of food at the hotel cafeteria in order to save money, and keep eating even when you can’t anymore.
  • Always say yes to free food, that’s why you doing this job in the first place.
  • Whoever invented court shoes should be repeatedly beaten with it!
  • Make sure you read the bus/tube maps properly otherwise you might end up in zone 5.
  • Make sure you ask someone how to use a bottle opener before you attempt to tackle the task yourself.
  • Always ensure that you know which celebrities are at the hotel otherwise you might be unaware of who you serving (as that look profoundly different in person).
  • You can carry 10 plates on one arm and 8 wine glasses in one hand.
  • Yeah... I'll rather stick to Graphic Design!

We haven’t shaped up too bad, we have a home and holiday plans for the up and coming weeks, I shall elaborate on these a bit more in my next post. I will also share my London site seeing with you and wait for it... my trip to Old Trafford which will be a post entirely on its own. The past two months have been an amazing adventure and I am looking forward to the new experiences with my Lundun Ladies!

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