A Life Change.

Hey everyone!I know that I've been a little (i.e. A LOT) neglectful of you of late which I can assure you is not without reason. So, a little thing happened, whereby I MOVED TO LONDON!

This is literally the biggest adventure of my life and it's one that I'm so so excited about. After spending a year at home living with my parents in good ol' Wiltshire, I've finally flown the comfortable nest (for the second time)and found myself in the big smoke. It's a massive deal for me and I really hope that it's a decision that I will never regret!

Just over a week ago my lovely parents drove me and most of my worldly possessions away from the countryside and my friends and my dog and helped me set up my life in my new house in west London. I now live with two other girls, one from Hong Kong and one from Poland. My landlady lives downstairs and is also a good egg. I have my first ever double bed (yes I did starfish) and my room is beautiful;

     

I can tell you, finding this room was not without it's stress. About a week before I was due to start my job, I was on the brink of having to sofa-surf. I decided to go house hunting with my Dad on the Saturday a week previously on the very edge of panic - I had 0 time. Through a combination of pure luck and blaggyness, this room was the first I viewed. Needless to say I was relieved. Crazy days.

Anyways, back to last weekend, saying goodbye to my parents was quite emosh and as they drove off it dawned on me that I was going to have to be independent again. Also that aside from Jess and a couple of other assorted uni peeps, I knew no-one in this giant city. It was a relief to find out that my landlady was is an avid X Factor fan and that I was quite welcome to watch it with her downstairs. This was made an even bigger relief because, not only could I do with the company at this point, but also I forgot the power lead to my TV. 

On Sunday I mooched around sorting out the remained of my things and registering my Oyster card (who even knew that you had to do that?! Not me). Turns out that my section of the underground was closed, including my tube station and the overground station. Buggeration. I ended up getting a surprisingly efficient bus replacement service to Shepherds Bush in order to sort it all out. And since you know, it would be rude not to, I had a bit of a peruse around Westfields Shopping Centre. I had to really.

After that, I went home and started to have those pre-new-job-I'm-shitting-myself kinda nerves. Despite my amazing bed, I slept really very badly thinking about meeting my new workmates and starting my PR career. Scary.

After my first commute with my Metro, during which I felt very professional and commuter-ish, I got off at Covent Garden and went forth to meet everyone. Turns out, all the worry was for nothing - my new colleagues at Fire PR are all so lovely and put me straight at ease. I spent the day doing all of those first day adminy type things. I got my shiny work iphone 5 (?!), familiarising myself with the clients and all of that other new-person stuff. 

After work I went to meet the bestie for cocktails in Soho (oh have very metropolitan of us)  and en-route I walked past the comedian Steven Mangan (you know, as you do). Having a chinwag and a catch up was an ideal way to spend my first working evening in London.

The next couple of days were a whirlwind of press calls, pitching and learning learning learning. On Tuesday I called America and I saw Dr Adam Trueman from Casualty. On Wednesday I went on an impromptu mission to Canary Wharf, where I felt very small...

Before I knew it, it was Friday night and my first working week was over. To celebrate, Jess and I went out for dins at Strada in Soho.

Jess and her standard chicken rissotto

Ice cream, espresso and Amaretto - what more could you want from a dessert?!  

After this we were going to go and watch 'About Time'. We ventured out to the Everyman Cinema in Maida Vale, which is a really lovely art-house cinema with sofas instead of normal seats. However, us being us, we were late and we would have have to have sat in the front row and for £14.50 each, this was just not going to happen. Instead we went to the Tesco garage and bought a bottle of wine and went back to her flat (after first getting lost). Standard.

The next day I decided to gatecrash Jess's uni-friend gathering and hung out on the Southbank for the afternoon.

The beautiful and unexpected rooftop garden on the South Bank Center

Needless to say, I've had a pretty crazy/scary/amazing week, I've met some great people and I really hope for it to continue! Although I know I'm going to miss my family, friends, dog and beautiful countryside back home, I'm really excited to have finally started my career in PR. Bring it on London-bebs.

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Madrid - A Fickle Friend

My experience of Madrid was certainly a tale of contrasts. I thoroughly enjoyed the food, the hotel and the grand plazas and parks, I even begrudgingly enjoyed some of the mammoth art gallery we trudged around for several hours. What I didn't enjoy, however, was the moment that I became a genuine bone-fide victim of crime (more on that later).

After the 5 hour journey up from the Murcia region (much of which I napped through - there's only so many farms and dusty wasteland I can force myself to find interesting) we arrived at the Madrid Atocha station. From here we went directly to the hotel, noting along the was that the temperature was mind boggling 44°C. 

Our hotel was beautiful - just the right amount of luxury whilst at the same time not showing my friend Jai and I up in the posh stakes.

That there with the swanky glass elevators is the Reign of Sofia

That evening we went first to the Plaza Mayor, the largest plaza in Madrid and it's most famous. It's absolutely massive - I mean, see how small I look!

 

Onward from there, Jai introduced me to one of the best places I think that I have ever been - San Miguel Market. Part Tapas bar, part market, part pub, it had an incredible, vibrant atmosphere and the food was divine! With Sangria at €2 a glass, we couldn't go far wrong!

That place is truly divine!

It was en route back to the hotel that we saw some of the stranger aspects of the city:

Casual Segway city tour

Not entirely sure what this jiggling tinsel goat was meant to represent?

Pretty sure that they didn't think this through.

Apparently this protest had been there since 2009 - you'd think they'd give up and go home already?

On day 2, we got up with every intention of getting the art gallery over an-ehem, I mean of going to get cultured by visiting the Reign of Sofia, only to find out that it was closed for the day. We therefore decided to go shopping. It was at this point that everything went rather titties up!

Despite the fact that the Grande Via is definitely no Oxford Street, I had come across several tops that I considered going back and buying later - so all seemed to be well. It was whilst waiting for Jai to try something on during which time I was wandering the shop, touching the clothes (as you do if you are a woman - even if the clothes are hideous) that it all went wrong. I was looking at a dress in a particularly lurid shade of pink when I realized that there was someone standing uncomfortably close to me. I could pretty much feel them breathing on me they were that close (ew). Anyways, I didn't really think much of it at the time, except that they obviously didn't understand the very normal concept of personal space. 

Following this faintly awkward incident, I was browsing in another shop and I decided that I wanted this fab tassely necklace. When I went to pay, I realized that that sneaky bastard had not only been 'all up in my grill' as it were, they were also relieving me of my purse. Along with the remainder of my Euros, they took my drivers licence, my debit card and my room key. Cue me having some kind of public meltdown/ panic attack and calling my Mum so that she could calm me down and tell me what to do. After this  briefing from my ever-amazing mother and some frantic texts to my dear papa, off to the police station we went. After some initial confusion, I found myself speaking to a lady with a very heavy Spanish accent on a phone with a terrible line connection. Believe me when I say that I could not understand a word she was saying, hence more confusion. Following this, the police told Jai (in Spanish) that their printer was broken and to return later.

So went back to our hotel, the staff of which were really very helpful, especially the fun bald reception man, who I think felt really sorry for me. I cancelled my debit card and rang my insurance company and all of the other trappings of becoming a victim of crime on holiday. 

Later that afternoon we returned to the police station to officially report the theft and get my crime number. Enter Mr Hot Policeman into this tale, one part Shayne Ward to one part Michel Roux Jr. Now, I'm not saying that this fine specimen of a man made the theft worth it, but it did add a glimmer of silver lining to the whole debacle. It was with him that we went through the details of the incident. It was only after we left (lets face it, I was a little distracted) that we realized that bad-phone-line-Spanish-lady had, in fact, noted down that I live in 'Deboses'. I do not. Ah well, I thought - I just hope it doesn't effect my insurance claim (it didn't).

It was decided that Jai and I would share her remaining moneys for the last day and a half and that I would simply have to pay her back upon return to England. 

And so endeth this portion of my Madrid experience, and as you can see, thus far, the city has been very fickle with me indeed. Stay tuned for the second part of this crazy city tour, whereby I survive an entire modern art gallery and nearly have a barney with a member of airport staff!

On a personal note, feel free to comment etc in the box below - I'd love to hear from y'all lovely people! =D

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A Casual Jaunt to Murcia, Part 1.

So yeah. My friend Jai and I went on a trip to Spain last week on a girly venture to boost tans, chillax, eat, drink and get a bit cultured - this is what happened!

Day 1

First off, as much as a Spanish summer holiday is totes worth rising at 2.43am for, forcing myself up off of Jai’s sofa bed and stumbling across the room to turn off my teeth-grindingly awful alarm after about 10 minutes worth of sleep is not the one. Hair askew and coffee in hand, I slapped on some makeup (don’t ask) and hauled my suitcase to my car and pro-plussed it up, ready to depart. After several minutes of trying to shoe-horn the suitcases into my tiny yet trusty Daewoo Matiz, we set off towards Bristol Airport.

All was running smoothly and the Sat Nav was behaving up until the moment we reached Box, where the roadwork people apparently felt the need to be a complete pain in the arse and send us on a massive detour, not providing nearly enough diversion signage for my liking. Eventually we managed to figure out how to get to the motorway and we made it to the airport with only a few minor hiccups.

Once there, we were surprised to see that the shops were, in fact, open, which allowed us to indulge in a Starbucks brekkie and browse the duty-free, looking through things which the airport though we might need for our journey. 

Nothing particularly exciting happened on the plane, unless you count the commencement of my puzzle book, bought in the airport WHSmith which should have been made of gold for the price they wrangled out of me for it. Other than that, all was of the norm and we got off the plane, experiencing that marvelous hit-you-in-the-face-heat-feeling most of us crave before our holidays. 

We were collected from Murcia airport by the loverly Scottish Carol, the key holder of my Parents house in the small Colsta Calida town of Balsicas. She took us to a supermarket in the town of San Javier so that we could get some water and food for the 5 days that we were staying in the region. It was here that we found some magnificent seafood for only €5 which later became a delicious Paella. We also found these, which are quite a lot like straight yumyums, with a equally comical name...

After this, we headed to the house and aside from a bit of a kerfuffle derived from my Dad not giving me all of the keys that we needed, we settled in immediately and were by (and in) the pool by 12am (TAN ME!). 

Following this we decided to have paella, cooked by Jai using the aforementioned bargain seafood and we settled down with some homemade sangria and a high brow film (I'm kidding - we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

Day 2

After a long and leisurely lie in, we got up, had pan au chocolat (because you have to, even if you are not in France) and readied ourselves for the beach. This all took a mysteriously long time, meaning that by the time we got to the bus stop, it was siesta time and there were no buses. Handy. Considering our lack for hire car (as we are both giant wusses), we decided to defer the beach idea and instead did much as we did the day before - sunbathe, eat and be merry.

(I'm reading Miranda Hart's 'Is it Just Me', by the way, which is HILARE)

 

 

 Jai also took this opportunity to take some scenic photographs of the floor...

Bit weird.

That evening, we decided to indulge in the local culture and Spanish cuisine by going joining a whole host of other brits at the Wok Buffet, a wonderful (and bargintastic - all you can eat for about €10) Chinese buffet where you choose your raw ingredients and take them to the chef. They also give you free shots at the end of your meal which is a bonus!

 

We were planning to go to a bar afterwards which didn't end up happening due to an unfortunate amount of Spanish Brandy, causing me to almost fall over and being very silly around the fit, Ricky Martin-alike taxi driver with lovely tattooey arms.

Day 3

And on the third day, the lord made the water park. In this case, this water park/ zoo combo in Murcia (very easy to get to on the train from the village and then a taxi). It's a bit pricey at £25 per person, but it's great fun and the tickets are valid for 3 days, so you can do the zoo on a separate day if so desired (we didn't on this occasion). Despite the annoying kids in the lazy river (I'm such a pensioner), this childish day out was a bit of a giggle, and it did wonders for my tan (although it did give Jai sun stroke) as it was HOT up there on the hill. We also got a bit of a workout by taking part in a pool Zumba class (it seems a lot more acceptable to thrust around in public if it's in the name of fitness). 

After this mini adventure, we went back to the house and decided to go out in the village for a drink. After about 20 minutes wandering around looking for somewhere nice to go, we plumped for a nice little Spanish bar with an outside seating area. Cue very strong, cheap drinks and Jai flexing her Spanish language skills, leaving me spending much of the evening looking flabbergasted and confused and a bit drunk! Very impressed by her bi-lingual-ism however, especially considering I dropped French in year 9. Go Jai!

 

OK, so that's probably enough for this little escapade for now, as I can tell that you have either already stopped reading or you are currently praying for this to end! Stay tuned (actually don't, that would be a bit pointless and tedious) for the next installation to this marvelous tale. 

Until next time my dears =).

  

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