The first internal sign I had that my homeward journey is impending was yesterday… Throwing out some old t-shirts I had a small double-take when I realised I won’t be hitting the Brick Lane markets again… possibly ever. For someone whose working wardrobe consists almost entirely of t-shirts sourced at ‘UpMarket’ this came as a small shock. On the plus side, I also threw out about two-thirds of the clothes I brought here with me, most of them unworn… London’s definitely changed my approach to workwear!
The Internet is Your Friend!
Getting things done in London is a very different story to Canberra. Get an internet connection as soon as you can, you’ll find online shopping becomes second nature. Sites I found useful over here include:
Gumtree (accommodation)
CWJobs (online IT job searching)
LastMinute (For some spontaneous travel action)
Itunes (For having what I wanted)
TicketWeb (for getting tix before they sold out)
Don’tStayIn (for excellent clubbing info)
Amazon (for carrying the books I bought)
BT (broadband, phone, paying bills online)
EDF (paying bills online)
ThamesWater (paying bills online)
HSBC (for excellent online banking)
TV Links (For free online TV viewing from all over the world)
NineMSN (for up to the minute news from home)
The Language
A great thing about London is that you don’t need to learn a new language to come here from Australia. Watch out for some of the subtleties though… For instance, I ‘ve finally mastered an element of British conversation that’s stuck in my craw since I arrived 2 years ago… On the weekend I managed to ask for ‘Tomato Ketchup’ without stumbling over ‘Sauce’ on the way. Nice one! No more confused stares from the bar staff! It’ll probably stick with me at home, just in time to be mocked by my Aussie friends and colleagues. Other snippets of UK English I’ll miss include ‘Awright mate?’ instead of ‘G’day’, and ‘Flip-flops’ instead of ‘thongs’. They look at you funny over here if you tell ‘em you wore your things to the park. They think you mean ‘G-string’.
The Work
The IT sector, and my own small part of that – Flash Actionscript development – is extremely strong over here. I’d recommend contracting over permanent work too, the rates and flexibility are way better. Watch out for the recruitment agencies though… The vast majority are openly uncaring middle-men without a clue about what I do. It shows in the way they talk to you, ask you the same questions they did last week, call you over and over despite requests to be removed from their lists… Fortunately I found a good one only 2 weeks into my stay – Sean Johnston from GCS – and he’s made my professional experience here memorable and pain-free. I can also recommend Giant as an umbrella company… they cost a little more than it would to set yourself up as a limited company, but the convenience and reliability was definitely worth it to me.