The Queens After Party

Invite To The Party

Today was the big day. We went to the Queens Garden Party at Buckingham palace - Justin dressed in his best borrowed suit and me in my TK Maxx dress and M&S hat. Two other ladies were wearing the same dress as me. I wasn't surprised.

The Classy Couple?

We were told cameras weren't allowed and phones had to be turned off once entering the palace, but when we got there we realized it was ok to take a few pictures if you were subtle, and the rule mainly applied to taking photos of the royal family. As such we have some pictures of us enjoying the sights, but none of the Royal family, whom we got VERY close to.

The Queue Outside

We queued outside the palace for about 20 minutes and then were let in through the front gates and lead through two rooms in the palace to the back garden. Tents were set up for tea service and chairs and tables were in various areas of the massive green space.

After wandering around the garden and grounds when we first arrived for about an hour, and drinking some lemon and barley, we gathered around the garden terrace for the family to arrive. We knew the Queen was going to be there but the other members of the family alternate between the three days, and so we didn't know who else to expect. At about 4:00 the family was presented on the terrace and that's when we could hear people murmuring that Prince Charles, Camilla, and Kate Middleton were there, which everyone was very excited about.

View From The Terrace

Ushers in top hats made us form rows for members of the family to walk through the crowds, each one going down a different lane. We had no idea who would be coming down our lane, but we were standing in between two with a good view of both, so we figured we had a chance of seeing someone important up close.

Important pre selected people were strategically placed in the first rows of each lane, and we were in between two important groups of people. I figured it would be a great place to stand because we would be just as close, but not have to have a nerve wracking awkward conversation. And it was.

Royal Tea Tent Guards

Rumors were circulating about which lane Kate would be going down, and everyone seemed to have a different expert opinion. We heard the Queen was going down a lane quite far away from us, but we stood our ground hoping for the (second?) best. We saw Prince Phillip first in a lane beside us. He looked very old, which I think he is, but he chatted quite a lot with the guests he was introduced to. And then we saw Prince Charles, Camilla, and Kate heading our way. Prince Charles chatted with two ladies directly on my left: he was handsome, with a dark tan and bright blue eyes. He was charming and charismatic and seemed lovely indeed. I don't know what I expected but he really surprised me. Camilla was next down the lane talking to someone a few people away from us. She was surprisingly attractive, I didn't hear much she had to say though. Kate was last and talked to two people standing to my right and slightly in front of me. Basically my big head was right in between them directly facing her. I saw her famous engagement ring when she moved her hair from her face and it was stunning and huge. She was every bit as pretty in person as you would expect, with a brilliant smile and a few wrinkles around her eyes showing she has lead a happy life. She held a pleasant conversation about charity work until she was ushered on by her staff. I didn't expect to find them all so lovely and was quite pleasantly surprised by the whole thing.

After the meetings we went and stood in the queue for tea and little sandwiches. We walked towards the Royal Tea tent where all the important people were socializing. There was a pretty big crowd around the roped off area just hoping for a glimpse of someone special. It's was quite zoo like. We finished our tea and baby sandwiches then rushed to get a glimpse of the queen leaving. She was wearing a lovely purple skirt suit and hat and looked quite sweet and very old.

It was a once in a lifetime experience and I think both of us really appreciated the whole thing. We were a bit uncomfortable in our outfits and with all the formality but it was fun, interesting, and pretty special indeed.

Now off to Paris tomorrow...
Gen

Differences Part 3 - Personal Differences

We've wrote a couple posts about differences between London and Vancouver but haven't included many personal differences. Here are some:


We use transit for everything and they use a re-loadable card system here that you tap in with at every bus or tube station.

Justin does at least half the cooking.

We don't ever turn the boiler on so we live without hot water. (The shower has a separate heater).

It takes about an hour for both of us to get to work. 

We drink in public legally. And it's awesome.

Justin drives a super tiny car. 

We eat Indian food often.

We sleep at least 7 hours a night.

People make fun of how we talk. 

We can pay for things with exact change because tax is included in every price.

Justin usually leaves the house first in the morning. 

We look forward to seeing live music from up and coming bands.

We live without a microwave - It's actually ok, except for re-heating leftovers.

We don't drive through the city because it would take longer than transit.

We go out to watch football (soccer) games.

We drink lots of cider. 

We live with very minimal belongings in our home.

We have maybe 5 friends. 

If we want to go meet up with people we generally travel at least 45 minutes. But it's worth it to see one of your 5 friends.

Genevieve drinks instant coffee at home, not just when camping.

We wear the same clothes over and over again because we don't have many.

We hang our clothes to dry.

We don't eat typical North American fast food.

We're starting to pick up some British slang, and we're not taking the piss.

Genevieve walks twice as fast as she did in Canada but still slower than everyone in London.

We very rarely have people over at our house.

Cooking is more difficult because we have few knives, pots and pans.

We have to remember that CCTV is everywhere.

Just a few things... basically everything is different here but it's hard to describe exactly. We'll keep trying!

Gen & Justin

More Work Than Holiday

The term 'Working Holiday' has been leaning a lot more to the work end of the spectrum the last 6 months. This was to be expected, when you travel without the funds to dick around as you please working is an unfortunate inevitability. I've been hesitant to write about my experiences with work here because it's tough to find the humor in a situation while you're still drudging it out every day. Having just started my third job here, and I'm cautiously optimistic this one will see me through til the end of our time here, I figured I could share how the first 2 went without going off on an expletive laden tangent.

When I decided to become an electrician I didn't really want to do any kind of work at all, and I still don't, but as I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth, I have to work. This is an alright job that keeps the mind and body occupied during reasonable hours/days of the week for a reasonable pay, good enough. So I came to London not too worried about finding work, everybody needs a sparky eventually. Sure there's a recession and times are tough here, but I thought if I just tried harder to find work than anyone else I'd be alright, and I did, and I was... sort of.

After doing as much online applying as I could I started cold calling every company in the phone book. Eventually I got an interview, which happened to be in some guys garage office, and he had gold teeth and corn rows. Good start. He wanted me to show I knew what I was doing, which I only kind of did as things are a fair bit different here. So he insisted I do a half day with him for free (Something I would laugh at back home). I obliged and went with him to install a couple kitchen appliances in the most disgusting council flat kitchen I've ever seen, no problems. The next day he said he wanted me to do 3 more free days to show I can work with the crew and do other stuff. I explained to him that in any economy people exchange their goods and services for money, and anyone who fell for his game was an idiot.

Second interview came from gumtree. This one was in an actual office with a normal looking person. The salary was low, but there was talk of bonuses and I figured it would be alright, so I took it. This was the job I had the last 5 months. Turns out the salary was for an expected 6 days a week, which was a point of contention between us the whole time, I maybe worked half of them, more than I should have. The work was fine, rewiring 2 Victorian houses, something new to me, a challenge. I was in a little over my head seeing as I had never done any work here and it is a fair bit different. Luckily enough they hired another electrician to do the permits and he worked a couple days a week on and off so I was able to ask questions.

Without going on too much, the owner continued to show his flaws as the job went on. I wasn't sure if he was malicious or just an idiot and I'm still not. People were frequently owed money, the owners were often lied to, the job is still going. It just wasn't a good situation in more ways than I care to mention. Over the last couple months the other electrician had been mentioning he had a job starting and would hire me when it did.

So 2 weeks ago that job started and I was able to quit the first one, finally. It was a long way away, 45 miles south, 3 hours of driving a day, and about £15 petrol a day. But I liked the guy, the pay was much better, and it got me out of a bad situation, so we bought a car (and then another car) and I started working for him. The work was fine for the first couple weeks as I sorted out my tax forms from the previous company and registered as self employed. Once that was settled and we again discussed my rate, this guy tells me he has shopped around and can get somebody cheaper. So basically I had put off my job search 2 months, bought a car, quit my job (shitty, but still a job) and worked 2 weeks before he decided to lower our agreed rate. This would be a dick move for anyone, but I actually trusted this guy and considered him a friend, so it stung, and still does. What he was offering was no longer enough to drive that far and pay that much gas every day, so that was the end of that.

My job search lasted all of 1 day, which was awesome, and the first sign of good luck of the job front so far. I started today, it's with a company of 80 guys and multiple jobs, similar to what I'm used to back home and so much more reliable. Everyone at the site I was at today was Aussie or Kiwi, and apparently the whole company is, so that should be funny. The pay is much better than the first two jobs (Finally surpassed the halfway point on what I made in Vancouver!) and the work is in Central London which is not such a bad commute and interesting to be right in the thick of London's work force. It's still early and there's plenty of time and ways for me to get screwed over again, but like I said, I'm cautiously optimistic.

I've tried to be concise, but work really has consumed the bulk of my time and thoughts here, and it's been an incredibly trying and educational experience. I've been the driving force for our staying in London the last couple months so I've really had to stay positive about my work situation. I guess I've been fortunate to be able to have any work, it could certainly be worse, but when it's so much easier back home it can be hard to make a convincing argument to stay here. It's been a very turbulent week, and a very interesting first 6 months of work in London, hopefully it's about to get easier.

-Justin