A different universe....

Here I am in London! After 6 months of travel I hardly believed this time would ever eventuate, but it has. Does it bother me that such a great journey has come to an end, am I sad to lose that freedom, those cultures of such depth and diversity? Hmmm, yes sad, but not depressed. I am glad that it is over for now. I felt that I had travelled enough, each new experience was becoming less and less confronting, inspiring and amazingly enough less 'real' or was it more real? That world was becoming my world, I was growing accustomed to crazy things... so much so that crazy was becoming normal and normal becoming crazy..... Well London aint normal! It is definitely CRAZY!!!!

The last week of travel is a bit of a blur.... as much of the time was filled with anticipation for London, what to expect, where to go, what to do.... all that kinda stuff... which I admit is a bit silly as I wasted my last days of the journey thinking about the future not living in the present ("here and now boys!" - cries the birds of Aldous Huxley's 'Island'). But that's me in general, always thinking about something... and afterall how exciting is the future with all its uncertainties! Also my time in Miami offered me something different too, which involved stepping out of time for a while… an experience well worth it :-)

Miami was hot, humid and American... but also very Latino too.... I have this feel that although US culture is dominating the world, the US culture itself is heavily influenced by the Latin culture.... plus every culture of the world.... So I harp on about the spread of the US culture around the world destroying cultural diversity in its wake but US culture is nothing more than a collection of the world's cultures. From Africa to China, Italy to Cuba the people of the world have influenced the US.... Leaves me a bit confused.... What is the US? Why, if they are a mesh of the world, do they feel the need to go off and destroy the rest of the world when afterall all the US is a mix of people from every corner of the world. Two possibilities: (1) The US that goes out conquering the world is the Govt. not the people, given only 40% vote (mainly anglo-saxon decent ~ note the massive generalisation), few of which are black or Latino etc... the Govt. represents the views of the 'old American', the patriotic person who would have the whole world with it's 6billion people die to ensure the 'American Way of Life' OR (2) The people of the world once joining the US as citizens get caught up in it all... and forget their roots, from then on they are happy to be ignorant to the plight of the rest of the world (as the traditional US citizens have always been ~ big assumptions here.... but hey that's the way theories start, right?). But either way the days of the US empire are numbered and it has served it's purpose.. has helped stopped the rise and dominance of fascist govts. (well that's not true..... and hey the US is a fascist Govt. in a way too.... so strike that one)... so what did they do that was so good? Umm.... well Sienfeld was awesome and so were the Simpsons.... and ummm well hey it gives us in Aust, Uk and the rest of the world in general someone to blame for all that is wrong with the world... and afterall if it wasnt them it would have been someone else.... You can tell I have lost my head of steam for criticising the US…. I know the truth about it so that’s enough for me for now… and hey besides given the fact the Yankies on average are ten times dumber than they would have us believe, it is up to us to be the mature sensitive ones and let it slide… for a while anyways…

So now to the times at hand.... The flight over from the US was comfortable, half empty plane which was a nice final experience of transit after 6 months of all extremes of getting from A to B via X, Y & Z. But didn't sleep on the flight and arrived in London at 7am on Wed morn.... so I now have my first case of jet lag... I ask myself why I didn’t I have it after the trip to Rio from Sydney and I realise that (A) it was 84hrs of transit so i had no idea what time it could be and hence my body accepted what it was given time of the day wise, and (2) I got so wasted on my first night in Rio time ceased to exist for a while and I was ready to start again on South American time... So this morning I have dragged myself out of bed at 7am after getting to sleep between 3-4am this morning, in a final attempt at riding myself of the lag... if I fail now it's sleeping tablets all the way!

Airport was fun (esp for Nick, who had to wait at the tube station for 4hrs whilst George and I found my box of clothes from Oz and proceeded to experience the joys of the Uk Govt. as I got it cleared through customs...). Yep 4hrs of time plus £37 extra to get that box into my hands.... was it worth it??? Hmmm well it was as I now have 4 suits, which will come in handy.... but it was a tough start.... two days with no sleep, trying to be polite to staff at the airport so I could get my box which was sent by another party (my mum) and I had no letter of authority from mum to allow me to pick up the box.... well Aussie charm does work on the Uk people.... yes!!! So it's not just those in South America!

After the stuffing around I got into my new home (wow, realising that entries will be of the 'I' and 'My' variety now, no more 'us' and 'we'.... this is going to be weird I think. Nick and I have grown so close over the past 6 months, I am going to truly miss him..... hopefully he decides to live in London. But for now it's just me, alone in my fight for a place in the world..... well it's about time I became independent... see Jess I finally am doing what you demanded of me 4yrs ago!) the Thatched House in Hammersmith, London.... lovely place, pretty fancy and cool people. I almost passed out that afternoon from shear exhaustion.... had an arvo nap and then went to Nick's brother's house for a lovely meal and good conversation and an insight into a life in London, which didnt seem too bad to me.... Then back home to find all the bar staff drinking etc and the fact that our first night here allowed free alcohol and well the rest as they say is history.... guitar songs and stories and then finally at 4am sleep..... rest assured I woke up with the worst headache of my life..... first time on the beer since Oz and man was I feeling it! So my second day in London was a painful one (after I woke up at 1pm...). Had my meeting with the recruitment agency at 5.30pm, so yep had to drag my body/mind out of the pain of why why why did I drink last night(???!?!?!), and be on the ball for the 1.25hr meeting.... but at least I got the impression these guys are interested in helping me find a job (hmmm so I wonder what their commission is?!?!). So had my first solo tube experience, and really after getting a bit lost first up and dealing with the fact that the directions I got from the agency involved getting off at a tube stop that is now closed due to the July 7 (why do we refer to terrorist attacks by their date?) thing, so yep had to walk between three tube stops, work out where i was and find the place, which was right smack bang in the middle of London.... got there on the dot of 5.30pm!

Vibe is: London is way way cool.... will be a bastard in winter and they work hours that are stupid too.... but this is what I want.... like weights and climbing mountains... pain is weakness leaving the body and I plan on getting rid of a fair bit of weakness here..... long hours for a year wont be so hard I don't think.... And it is part of my plan anyways... Not really for the money... rather the experience in what seems to be a 'world' city.... this is not the UK rather it is the EU and man does this place have a lot to offer people.... I doubt I will have time to get bored here I think.... fingers crossed I find a good job with good people.... but hey I think I can handle pain too..... but rest assured there will be some London posts that are deeply cynical and depressive, seems to be what London does to people, will I be any different??? Time will tell....