Exploring London

London is obviously a large and varied city that you could spend a lifetime exploring. Following on from our time in Vancouver, we decided to get a set of wheels each and to begin the exploration. But first, breakfast. Mmmm, breakfast. Sweet French Toast and a tasty coffee.

First exploration was a ride along the Regents Canal. Some call it little Venice. I call it a canal. It's about 9 miles long and a great day out for a ride.
These are a typical example of the boats that are on the canal. Some people live in these permanently, others can be hired and some are just abandoned.Of course, there are markets along the route that have piles and piles of food. Savoury

Sweet
More shots of the canalThese canals are only a couple of feet deep. Most are pretty dirty, although people still fish in them. A Loch below.
As with all parts of the London. You can just look at the fascinating buildings that describe the city.
New and old. A school and a factory.

First Trip to the Continent

So we couldn't let the Summer slip by without a trip to continental Europe, so a friend from home being in Switzerland was all the excuse we needed. So off to Zurich we went.

We arrived in Zurich to a steaming hot Summer's day. It was about 30 degrees at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and the sun wasn't going to set until 10. However, we knew the weather was going to turn over the weekend so we rushed to our B&B, dumped our bags and headed out to explore. We were staying a little out of Zurich (because it was a little cheaper) but wandered back along the Limmat towards the middle of Zurich. The Limmat is the river that flows out of Lake Zurich. I think everyone in Zurich was well aware of the great weather and they were out swimming in the Limmat, BBQ'ing a few bratwurst or just enjoying the weather.
Outer Zurich along the Limmat
This is me swimming / hanging on trying not to get swept into Austria. Below is in Zurich looking out into Lake Zurich. They love a good tower in Zurich, and will probably put a clock on it.The sun finally setting around 10 ish.
A cool city to wander around and a real taste of Europe. Cool streets and alleys. High density of buildings but each manages to have it's own character. Plenty of money in this town being the home of Swiss Bank Accounts. It can't be Europe without turrets, cannons and cannonballs. Unfortunately this one doesn't have much of a history and they actually built it as a museum.After a couple of days exploring Zurich, we headed out to Viv's home town of Aarau. A cool medievil town complete with city wall. After a quick walk around there was not much more to do than eat, drink and talk.
This is the old part of town and these buildings date back to the 1600's. Very cool part of town with massive detail on the gable ends, as below.Alex, our tour guide. Wandering around, getting lost and getting found again.Of course food was high on the agenda too. Bratwurst, bread and mustard is so simple and so good. We also sat around and ate a massive cheese fondue. And of course, the cheese was good as well.
On our final day, we escaped the city and went up the nearby hills to get a great view of Zurich and the distant alps.Lake Zurich and the Alps
And to complete our Swiss expedition, we did manage to find a cow, that must think it is in heaven.Once again, more photos to look at in the album below.

Switzerland

Real World Update

So I guess I should let you know what is going on in our day-to-day lives over here rather than just showing the good times. We have been here nearly 3 months now and 2009 is quickly coming to a close.

The job market over here is completely different to anything we have seen before. There are a lot of jobs being advertised, but you are also living in a city of 8 million people, so each job gets a lot of applications. I am talking hundreds of applications for each job, no matter if it is a professional job or a minimum wage bar job. As a result of this, 90% of the jobs are handled by recruiters. This is a bad thing. I put recruiters right up there with real estate agents and car salesmen, never trust a word they say. It's always I was just about to call you about this, I have the perfect job for you, or the more common, you don't hear a word from them. Thanks to the internet, all jobs are now applied for over the internet. So you do up a cover letter and send it off with your CV, and as a result of the ease of applying, and being able to cut & paste and apply for a heap of jobs, recruiters get bombarded. As a result, they say due to the volume of applications we can not provide feedback. So the silence treatment is quite common. Combine this with English inefficiencies and the biggest financial recession since the Great Depression and getting a decent job proves quite time consuming.

Never the less, my amazing wife managed to obtain an interview and wowed the socks of them, and is now a Senior Policy Planner with South Bucks Council. It's just outside greater London, which means a bit of a commute (an hour each way). But the first two weeks have shown that the job is worth the effort. It was also worth noting that this job was not through a recruiter and she has not heard from a recruiter since she has stopped hassling them.

My story is not so successful. I tried a direct marketing job (which actually means door to door selling) but only lasted a week (to save my me from hating myself). Being 100% commissioned based didn't really excite me either when working 12 hour days. I found much more familiarity in a manual labour job which I have worked the last month. Once again it is always more complicated then it needs be. I actually work for a labour hire company and we get contracted out to events companies (mostly seating and marquees). It's not the best job but it is a job and I am thankful for that. I don't have regular hours and only find out about shifts a day or two before I work. It's all last minute and highly irregular. Although, when it is busy, it's busy. Last week I worked 53 hours in 5 days, plus commuting 4 hours a day, but now I am sitting back and don't know when I will be working next. The work is only going to last for the Summer, so it is only temporary as well. Needless to say, I am still on the seemingly endless treadmill of applying for jobs in an increasing array of job sectors.

To top this all off, both our current jobs pay on a monthly basis. So I have worked about 20 days in July and don't get paid for them until August 10. Bella started on July 20 and won't be paid until August 15. So our first 3 months in London have been on a pretty tight budget. Trying to survive on Bella's income from her cafe job and my 3 days work for my company I did in June. Needless, to say we have eaten into our savings, but that's what they were there for. At the light at the end of the tunnel is nigh. Only a week or two to go and then we finally get some significant pounds.

So yes, as expected, it has been a difficult getting established in London. But we are nearly on our feet and will soon be standing tall. We are starting to feel comfortable in London.