| Berlin, baby! |
[Dec. 31st, 2006|09:07 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Berlin | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  content | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | top gear on youtube | ] |
Um, hello there Livejournal!
It occured to me today that it's nearly 2007 (in this country, at least) and many of you are probably uncertain as to what continent I'm currently on, let alone what I'm actually up to these days... I'd sort of been saving my next update for a big arse photo post with bells, whistles and a full choir. It's not going to happen just yet though, and something makes me slightly twitchy about finishing 2006 without one last update. Because what a year it was!
In short, I'm still with my Englishman, Paul. We moved out of his parents' house (thank god) and moved to London together, after a quick trip to Germany to visit his best friends. We have a flat in Golders Green now, in north west London near Hampstead Heath. Paul's back at Uni doing his second year of Russian, and I've been doing all sorts of things. When we first got there I picked up a waitressing job in an Italian restaurant down the street from our flat. It was interesting to say the least. Italians have a tendency to be a bit nutters, in my experience, and the place was an absolute madhouse. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes bad. And the pay was rubbish. So I stayed there for a couple of months, job hunting all the while. And what a job I found! If you're British you'll no doubt have hear of Fortnum and Mason. If not: heard of Harrods? Well Fortnums is like that, but more expensive, more exclusive and with oodles more class. And oh-so-British! The store is in Piccadilly, and I worked in the office on the fifth floor, answering the phones and taking orders in the run-up to Christmas. It was quite an experience. I spoke to Lords and Ladies, and took orders to be sent to everywhere from two doors down the street, to a small town in Singapore. Finished up on the 23rd of December, though, and spent Christmas in the village with Paul's family. It was uneventful but nice.
And now we're back in Germany - Berlin to be precise - to hang out for a week before heading back to London so I can start work in my new job in late January. I'm going to be...wait for it...a customer service assistant for...LONDON UNDERGROUND. That's right, the tube! I'm going to be helping customers to use the WORLD'S MOST USELESS AND EXPENSIVE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM. Yay me! It pays well, though, and when I say 'well' I mean absolutely mind-bogglingly, pants-wettingly so, considering my total lack of any real qualifications or non-hospitality experience. Plus I get totally unlimited free travel for myself and for Paul, which saves us upwards of fifty quid a week.
So all in all, life is good, my friends. More than six months on, and I'm more in love with Paul than ever. He's a friend and a sexy beast all in one lovely package of boyfriend. Quite simply, he fascinates me endlessly and makes me very happy, and what more could I ask for?
Last important point to mention: remember how I came over here on a one year round-the-world ticket that went through the USA? And how I left Australia last November? And how I haven't been to America yet? Basically I ditched my plane ticket, and put off Uni for another semester. The thing was, to get through the US in time to be back home in Australia by late November, I would have had to have left England in October. I've only been with Paul since May, and it takes months to really get to know someone properly and get a feel for what sort of a future you have together. And I knew I had something good and precious and rare...but how could I have possibly have left him then and asked him to wait for me? It wouldn't have been fair on either of us to pause the relationship at that early stage with no way of resuming it for around eighteen months. To stay together would have been odd and a little awkward, and to have broken up would have been painful and felt horribly inconclusive. To stay here until mid 2007, though, is to stretch our time together as far as it'll go, since a compulsory part of Paul's degree is to spend the third year of it in Russia. So come September, Paul's off to Russia for a year, and I'll be just back in Australia to do the last year of my degree in Perth. And after that...who knows. If there's money for a ticket I'll be over there like a shot for holidays. If there's not, well, I'll be miserable but I'll live. I know I want this to continue, though. I'm more certain on that point than I thought I was capable of. Of course the last word on how we play things next year is with Paul, but I'm happy in just knowing what I want - like I said, I'm not uesd to being this sure of something so big :)
Well anyhow, this was meant to be a quick entry, and there's much beer to be drunk by midnight. So I'll close quickly with a recap of the resolutions I'd made for 2006 and how I did with them: (Resolutions for 2007 will have to wait until I've given it some proper thought.)
2006:
1. lose the 5 kilos i gained since the end of semester. would like bra to stop leaving deep grooves in back flab after i take it off. I've lost exactly five kilos since last December :D
2. write and edit something of publishable quality. anything. a limerick, even. i just need to write more, and see my writing projects through. HAHAHAHAHAAA. Ha! Seriously, not even a wiggle in that direction. Ah well, much to busy living to write about it just yet. It'll wait.
3. make english friends to go out drinking with. Hm, to be honest, I'm a little surprised at how few friends I've picked up. I suppose the knowledge that my time here is limited makes me much pickier about who I give my time to. No point baring my soul to someone I'll have forgotten next year. I really value the time I spent in Dublin with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) thecoldacre, though, and need to make the time to see her again while I'm in this neck of the woods. She's fab - whatta find! I also picked up some fun drinking buddies amongst the other waitresses in Golders Green, and still keep contact with my two highschool friends who live in London and Devon. I'm planning to get down to Devon to visit Bec in the next few months, actually. I miss her, and would absolutely love to see the south of England.
4. shag lots of hot english blokes. Only shagged Paul in 2006, but more than made up for quantity of blokes with quality of bloke :)
5. fall in love. just a little bit. to see what it's like. Need I go over it all again? Mission accomplished.
Well the mad Russians across the street are filling the sky with fireworks, and we have several neighbourhood parties to make appearances at. I'd best be off.
I really hope you're all well. Happy new year my dear friends. Here's to a good one xx
Ps: just in case you're wondering, I've still been reading LJ even if I haven't been updating. So everything you've written in the last few months, I've read, never fear!
ETA: I get to see kateanguapotter in just a few days! I honestly can't wait - it's been far, far too long :) |
|
|
loved
hungry
just dandy
scared/excited/possibly mad
