First Week in London

As I waited for my Dublin bound plane at JFK airport I decided to entertain myself by going to the terminal’s Irish bar. How appropriate, an Irish pub in the terminal that connects New York to Ireland. In fact, most of the people at the bar were actually on the Dublin flight.

My flight to Dublin was smooth, but then my flight to London was delayed. It was somewhat concerning when, whilst taxiing to the runway, they said that one of the engines wasn’t working and that we had to head back to the terminal. But I eventually landed in London safely.

From Heathrow I quickly reminded myself of UK public transport and made my way to South London to meet my Aussie friends Amanda and J, who I’d be staying with. No time to rest though, we were off to the West End for dinner and a show. A good first night in London.

The next day, Saturday, was the last day Londoners could legally drink on city transport. Most civilized countries around the world have long disallowed drinking on public transport but the new London mayor had just decided to bring that in; much to the disgust of young Londoners. Said Londoners decided to organise a massive party on the underground ‘circle’ line to protest, so I decided to join in and make history – I attended London’s biggest and last tube party. It was a big hot sweaty drunken mess, where stations were eventually evacuated and supposedly police assaulted, but it was good fun, the British way. I felt pleased to be back in London – where there’s always something to do.

The rest of my first week was spent recovering from backpacking, catching up with friends and getting ready for working life (like buying work clothes and attending job interviews).

I have spent some down time just chilling out watching TV. There are quite a few Australian shows on Sky TV here, including:
- Neigbours (a British favourite)
- Home & Away
- Water Rats
- Secret Life of Us
- Border Security (except they call it "Nothing to Delcare")
and, soon to air
- Summer Heights High

Of course TV isn't the only thing that has lots of Australians. There are a lot of Australians in London generally. My friend from back in Melbourne, M, took me to a regular Wednesday night gathering to eat pizza at a great pub in Islington. Apparently various combinations of friends and friends of friends attend that night from week to week, but when I was there, out of about 8 people, there was only one non-Melburnian! (who was in fact Czech so I had something in common with him too)

The weather here is reasonably warm (no New York heat though yet), the beers and ciders are cheap and plentiful (and, yes, they are cold) and I’ve had a great time with my mates introducing me to all their favourite hangouts.