London Update

Wow where does the time go?! I have been in London now for almost 4 months and seeing as I am currently ill in bed I thought it is the perfect time to do a little London update. 

Where to begin... We arrived in London at the end of summer and enjoyed some lovely weather, apart from a few downpours that we were not prepared for, I quickly learned that every Londoner carries an umbrella with them at all times!
After arriving from Italy quite late we caught our first tube train to meet Sue, Dans second cousin who we were going to be house and cat sitting for the next two weeks. 
It was so nice to have a homely base when we first arrived in London, with so much to organise I don't think we could have done it without Sue who we ended up staying with for 4 weeks before we finally found somewhere to live. 

We decided to jump straight into the job search when we first arrived and within 2 weeks both Dan and I were employed! Dan in a permanent role as a software Engineer and me in a contracting role as a Bid coordinator. 
Next on the list was to find somewhere to live, this proved to be very difficult as all of the best houses we found had another 20+ couples interested, this was a very draining process as we were both working full time, finishing work and spending all evening viewing houses that we ended up missing out on, this went on for a few weeks until we finally got lucky with a huge house in Shepherds Bush sharing with 2 kiwi guys and Australian girl and a British guy thank goodness we could finally stop living out of our suitcases!

Since then I have worked in a couple of nightmare temp jobs until 1 month ago I secured a permanent position at a company as a Graphic Designer yay! 

Because it has been so long and I can't remember everything we have done I am just going to post some photos with captions and hopefully remember along the way!

first things first, shopping for shoes I can never wear in London... oops

The lovely leafy suburb of Chiswick

Being tourists in Trafalgar Square

And at the London Eye

At Notting Hill Carnival with Gem and Sally on one of the wettest days, Jello shots!!

Jello shots were terrible

So many restaurants to try! Brazilian Barbecue  

So many cocktails to taste!

London is making us fat :(

My cider vs Dans beer

Dishoom, a Bombay style cafe, one of the many restaurants ticked off my London list 

The British museum with its stunning Architecture (and the 2 Architects!)

Perfect sunny day in London exploring with Christchurch friends, what a treat!

Pub food, Pie and Mash

Having a drink before the Burlesque in Southbank

Sammy came to London for a week, the best week, Cocktail week!

So many cocktails

Up in the sky at Duck and Waffle

Food from the Borough Markets, Cheese toastie heaven

We have been doing lots of day trips since Dan has a car. Oxford put on the best weather for us to chill at The Trout and have lunch.

After exploring around Oxford University

Oxford

Windsor Castle

Found his department store in Windsor 

Rugging up with a Gingerbread latte, Windsor 

Fell in love with Cambridge 

 And all its bikes

At the roman baths in Bath

Bonfire night in Notting Hill

Winter Wonderland in Hyde park is insane! Packed with German style christmas markets and rides 

Dan won me a bear :)

London is now very cold but all the Christmas lights have been making up for it!

It certainly feels a lot more Christmassy when its cold.

With only a few more weeks left at work it is time to plan our next adventure... Austria for Christmas!! I am so excited to have a proper white christmas in the fairytale city, Salzburg. We are meeting Sammy and Reuben where we will spend 10 days exploring, eating, skiing and relaxing. 

xx