And so, nearly a year to the day since I stopped updating this blog, I'm back. Even more coincidentally, I'm using the blog to record details of another overseas adventure. And who knows, maybe this time I'll even last more than a month before I abandon it this time.
So, where to start?
Well, I made it into London about a month ago, just in time to arrive right in the middle of the Olympic Games. Everyone's predictions about insane queues and packed public transport proved to be unfounded, which was a pleasant surprise. I managed to make it from the plane to the tube in about 45 minutes, and the train was practically empty.
There was a brief moment of concern when I showed my visa to the immigration officer, who promptly declared that he'd never heard of a Youth Mobility Visa before. However, he did follow up this statement by confiding that he was actually a hired security guard filling in for the Border Force over the Olympics, so there was quite a lot about immigration that he didn't know. While this particular revelation didn't do all that much to inspire confidence, after a quick mini-conference with another security guard he deigned to allow me access to the United Kingdom (I have a feeling that the next time I come through immigration, I may have a couple of slightly more interesting conversations to determine whether I was properly allowed access in the first place, but that's a problem for future Patto to worry about).
And so now, here I am, three weeks later, and well and truly entrenched in battle with the UK job market. Although it was pretty slow going for the first few weeks, I seem to have hit some kind of critical mass with my job applications, because my phone has been ringing fairly constantly this week. All of which makes me hopeful that I may actually have a chance of becoming gainfully employed again this side of Christmas.
In the meantime, Kat and Dale have been amazingly generous with their time, contacts, experience, and lounge room floor in helping me get on my feet here. I'm gradually getting established, with my application for a National Insurance number off being processed, a growing list of recruiters that are calling me and a list of potential suburbs to live in (speaking of, if you have any suggestions, feel free to sound off in the comments!).
That's probably all the major news for the moment. With any luck, I should have something to put up in a couple of days about the job situation (although that may just be wishful thinking on my part). Until then...
Yours etc,
Patto
P.S. If you were reading this last year, you may have noticed that the blog design has changed a bit. The plan is to start filling out the missing posts from last year, as well as adding photos to each post as well, which should hopefully be done sometime soon (If nothing else, it's a nice bit of procrastination from filling out job applications :D )