This is MUCH more like it

So today was a GOOD day.

I officially have been offered a job at Apple, details TBC, but most likely about 20-25 hours a week at the Regent Street store

AND I have a place to live! I move in tomorrow to a beautiful big room in Manor House.

It’s a bit odd, because if i think about who i am, then it’s kinda perfect, a quiet house, with three studious and sedate girls, 2 in publishing and one doing a Geology PHD, but that’s kinda why i was a bit reluctant. I’m trying to break out of my comfortable self so was hoping to live somewhere a little more lively. BUT I guess i will just have to create my own liveliness! Besides it’s a three month let to start so there’s always room to move (LOL). I will post photos of my new room and house tomorrow, including my garden 🙂

I’ve been staying with Bronwen, a friend of Ren’s who has been ABSOLUTELY wonderful and has put me up last night and tonight. She also gave me wine!

I have to also thank the lovely girls in Stoke Newington who made me feel quite at home for my first 4 weeks in London. Becca, Lucia and Loukia you are lovely! and Penny, thanks for letting me live in your room!

this is how i celebrated today…

I went and saw The Pirates: An Adventure with Scientists and the icecream was Turkish delight and Pralines and Cream. NOM

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Well Today Was Shit…

For those playing along at home you will know that last wednesday i took a short let (that i didn’t care much for) as a safety net incase i couldn’t find a place to live after the place i THOUGHT i was going to live fell through.

Having seen 18 places over the last 8 days, I am still homeless. I was waiting on 3 places i’d seen wed, thurs and fri to get back to me, hoping one would be THE one (would happily have taken any of them). but no. One i’m pretty sure was just because i didn’t have a job and that otherwise they would have taken me, so of course now i’m super fretting about that

(although on that front I do have a final interview with Apple on Tuesday)

And then just to really make today the worst day in London so far… the sublet fell through. yup. despite paying a 2 week deposit on a 3 week sublet, because she knew there was a possibility i wouldn’t need it, she gave it to someone who has paid all three weeks – without calling or texting to say she was doing that to check with me, even though i said i  WOULD need it unless i said otherwise. I realise she’s trying to cover herself, but OMFG seriously? wtf? why would you do that when someone has put money down! She’s giving me my money back, but that’s hardly the point.

So as of Wednesday, unless something pops up for a short let, I will be homeless and resorting to couches. I have lovely offers from Bron and J and D and i’m sure i can manage between them. The girls here have said i can leave some stuff here so i’m not bogged down. One of the girls is almost always here, so not too much trouble accessing stuff. But still…

I have been bawling today, of course.

I have, in the last hour, contacted about 4 short let places, 10 regular places and am seeing a place in 45 minutes.

I have now worked out what i want… it’s a matter of finding a place that i want that wants me that will actually TAKE me.

but yes, today is the first day i’ve thought ‘maybe i should just go home’

which is a pity, because i have an audition on monday for a stage show of 1984 and a job interview tuesday. and another 4 weeks of meeting casting directors. so really, it WOULD be a shame. Also. Ed fringe.

but for the love of whatever-deity-you-wish-to-insert-here I WANT SOMEWHERE TO LIVE so i can stop feeling so temporary!

(also, it’s EXHAUSTICATING)

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Quick update

the place in tooting did fall through so i am desperately hunting for a place before my sublet runs out in a week and a bit.

Am quite annoyed, frustrated, stressed and panicky.

I’ve contacted one short let place to see if they have their room free from march 28th til around april 10th, just in case.

I’m looking at a friend of a friend’s place tomorrow which sounds really promising, although it’s a little more than i wanted to pay.

I’ve at least narrowed my search to N1, N5, N6, N4 and N16. that’s sort of helpful.

I’ve contacted at least 5 or 6 really promising places i think i’d fit into really well and they just don’t get back to me!

seeing 2 places today and 2 tomorrow. Have a potential place from yesterday – nice room, ok price, nice people, just further out than i want really. (although i’ve just found out it’s near some friend’s of mine!)

It’s funny how quickly you settle into an area! I’m really loving stoke newington -easy to get to, diverse, good pubs. So yeah, i think i’m a north (east) girl. But not tottenham. that’s just too much lol

still.

PEOPLE, GET BACK TO ME! I’M AWESOME!

 

(and upset stomach/heartburn/stressy tummy please go away)

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Highs and Lows

are to be expected of course

but lets start with the highs…

Last week i had an interview for Apple retail. I have a second interview next week. this is very exciting and i have to do homework for it! however, it does mean that i have slacked a bit in other ‘looking for work’ activities because dammit, i want this job!

Yesterday i had my first UK audition. I sadly did not get the role, but still, within 2 weeks, with no agent, i had an audition. at the MOTHER FUCKING GLOBE! it was for their education unit, doing beatrice for a minute long ‘choose-your-own-shakespeare’ thing. very exciting. would have LOVED it (also, PAID!) but still, points to me for even GETTING an audition in 2 weeks for paid work doing shakespeare at the Globe.

I have, theoretically found a place to live (in Tooting, which will forever  make me laugh) but i am struggling to get onto landlord properly to make payments and set move in date! In the week since i said i’d take it and he said yay, he’s decided he may sell the house (he’s a Kiwi living in Kent) but i said i’m happy to take it for 3-4 months if they do decide to sell. also, they are not sure yet. it is frustrating the CRAP out of me, because i want to start using an official address for all sorts of things, but won’t until it’s confirmed (which to me is having paid deposit!) also, if i am NOT moving in there, i want to know ASAP so i can look for somewhere else!

it is making me want to tear my hair out!

In 2 weeks i have also taken a trip to France. I went to Hargicourt with my friend John to visit his great-great grandfather at the British Cemetery there. He wasn’t very chatty.

We stayed over night in Lille, where I spoke French to everybody who would let me, including a hilarious waiter who thought John and I should get married and come back with babies. which is never going to happen for oh so many reasons i couldn’t be bothered explaining. I also don’t actually know the french word for gay, so… hmm…

We had delicious local food though and i had a local beer and we wandered and saw many wondrous things…

It's the POST OFFICE for christ's sake!

The Palais des Beaux Arts (or the musee... it's a fine art gallery ok?)

This is La Porte de Paris, a monument in a roundabout outside the town hall - which is the bellfry you can see in the background!

The Place du General de Gaulle in the centre of lille - it actually reminds me a lot of Prague for some reason.

so… that’s what i’ve been up to – and also spending a large amount of time in bed while i can, figure once i get a job i’ll probably be working like a dog. also i have been fighting a mild virus which i *think* i might just have gotten the better of. also, i had a very busy few weeks before i left!

check in soon!

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I had forgotten…. (or why job hunting is bad for morale)

just how sucktacular looking for a job can be.

the last 3 jobs i’ve worked i approached and got no trouble. And i’m sure if i can find the right place to look it won’t be hard (call centre staffed entirely by actors anyone?) but i’m trying to find something a bit different and interesting, but still flexible.

It’s not the end of the world if i don’t find something straight away, have quite a bit saved up and a relaxed new landlord (if he ever gets back to me so i can pay deposit on the place!) who appreciates it might take me a while to find work.

But today just sucked it out of me. Fitting myself into boxes but still being open to new ideas, being definite about needing flexible work but still trying to appear hard working and industrious. (which mean the same thing. so sue me.)

The thing that really got me free falling though was this…

I applied for a tour guide position at a notable curiousity site type museum place (a well known address starting with 221b) and got the following response.

“As you have a diverse background of positions please let me know your ambition.”

Um. WTF? I wrote in my initial contact that i was an actor and that’s why i had moved to London and i was looking at that particular position because i enjoy working with people… I DON’T UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION!

more importantly, it got me on a brain-thought-path that i have long known does me no good. It’s all kinds of triggery. (not tiggery. that would be much better) Basically it boils down to the fact that i have a whole set of marketable skills that i, personally, don’t particularly value. While i’m pursuing acting, i have an excuse for not making any other kind of ‘career’ that i, personally, have more respect for, but i always worry that one day i’ll be in a job i neither respect or like out of necessity because i never ‘focussed’ on anything other than performing. Now these fears are silly for all sorts of reasons. for example, experience proves that when i’m in the right retail position i actually REALLY Enjoy it (even if i don’t particularly respect it… a little like a James Bond movie) and also there’s no reason i can’t, at any point in my life, go back and study something ‘respectable’ like Law or something else all my high school colleagues did straight off. The government would probably even pay for it, since it’s generally considered an upgrade from a BA. Also, my life experience in various roles, could end up being the thing that makes me write an award winning (or at least produced) script, or getting me a position lecturing or WHO KNOWS! so it’s all very silly to worry so.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop the gut-sinking feeling i’ve had since about 2pm.

The other thing is, the other task i set myself for today was to start contacting agents since my Spotlight Contacts 2012 book arrived today. But now my brain is off-side, so it’s all, who’d represent you, but what have you DONE, who are YOU to contact these people.

 

which of course leads me to think that this was possibly the worst idea ever.

I’m trying very hard NOT to think that, but i don’t want to just hit the distraction mode until i’ve at least contacted 10 agents.

On a more positive note, I’m considering temping – never really done it before, so new skill set. yay! and it pays about twice what retail does.

Oh and Apple have invited me to a Hiring Event tomorrow (what ever that is) having received and liked my CV.

And the casting director i met last week had only good things to say.

BAH. come on universe… I’ve taken a gamble, throw me a win…

 

(because that was completely depressing, here are some random snaps of london so far)

Covent Garden Markets

Trafalgar square

Telephone booths and just a little bit of sunshine.

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