And things just keep gettin' better?

So I've arranged to meet with my prospective script editing employer on Sunday night for an informal, in-person interview. We'll see how that goes!

In an amusing turn, it looks like I am going to get to see Bristol on Tuesday night through to Thursday night as that is where National Rail is paying (hotel/transit) to send me for training in their database program. During the days I predict....monotony? But I'll have a couple of evenings to check out an English town I've never been to before so what the hey. Plus it is two less nights spent in the tinier room at my building-to-be until the dude in my room shuffles off on the 22nd.

So hot crackers, if you will!

Anyways, it will be at least a week and change before I get an internet connection set up at my new place and given that it is the holidays it will probably be longer than that. I'm moving this Saturday so, from that point until I get reconnected, don't be hurt if I'm total crap about correspondence.

But when I get hooked up, I will have a place, a job and a steady routine for the first time since July. So, theoretically, I will finally be back on top of correspondence like I used to be.

Ta ta!

My Heart Was Not Programmed For Such Joy

I

Got

The

Job!

Which means I also have now been able to secure the apartment in Islington!

ALSO

Though I had to leave a message, I imagine I will hear back from the woman who is interested in paying me to work on her script (not much, but so what? It's film experience and the data entry will do plenty to keep me fed). So that qualifies as a film lead, for sure, on top of some beginnings of contacts which I will be able to develop more fully upon being in London.

So this means that I am succeeding in the goal I set myself, even the bit about my first or second job being one where I can wear fancy pants. This is the exact opposite of a non-day, today is...I don't even know what term could accurately describe a 24 hour period in which everything just went right all of a sudden.

Obviously this is not the end of Difficulty, but it's a glorious launch into something I have dreamed about for literally years. I have done at least three ridiculous victory dances, with absurd and obscene lyrics to accompany, and I still haven't been able to completely calm down since the job confirmation from an hour ago.

Welcome to Orgasm Town...

...population ME.

So today was pretty awesome!

1) I finally got my UK drivers licence in the mail, thus alleviating a good deal of worry over whether I had cocked something up and lost both my Canadian drivers licence (which you trade in) and a 41 pound cash note in postal limbo.

2) Though tube trouble hilarity rendered me a bit late, I felt that the interview with National Rail went incredibly well today. I think it's always a good sign when the interviewer starts asking you all sorts of questions about your personal life and how interesting he assumes it is! Luckily, because it is a contract and not a long-term thing, I was able to get away with using my film experience in answers to certain questions (ex. Have you ever had to co-ordinate several people on one task?) and this only lead to further fascination with my obviously amazing, star-struck lifestyle.

Ahem.

But whatever, I'll take it! On top of that there was also an attempt on their part to sell me on the position in regards to how fun it could be to deal with various train company people at all levels (Mmmhmm) and how when I come near the end of the contract (27th of April, 2007) I would be in a good position to not only find more work with National Rail but to find a different position which I might enjoy more in a location that would better suit me. Thus, if regular film work is still not in my grasp by that point then I could consider myself reasonably well taken care of anyways. This all is kind of amusing in that one of my Grandparents (Dad's dad) spent the majority of his life working for National Rail after good old double-you double-you two.

3) After the interview I went and had a look at an apartment in Islington and was pretty impressed. For 128 pounds a week (all inclusive) I didn't expect a rathole per se, but I certainly didn't have the highest of hopes. In the end, it was a third floor room about the same size as my old apartment with a private washroom and a double-bed included. The second floor has two people's rooms (one actor who is "never around" and an Italian girl who could work harder at looking ugly) and on the first floor is another washroom and a shared kitched. Apparently a cleaning lady comes by once a week to take care of the majority of gunk across the building.

I was also expecting a house or maybe some moderately maintained tenement building from the 1970's. Oh no, this is a pretty nice....I guess compound is the word, the stone wall and gate which surround it causing me to lean towards the term. The building is a sort of cresent which is in turn split up into several house-sized chunks (in the previous paragraph I described just such a chunk). In the middle is a courtyard with some trees and a parking lot which isn't too horrid to look at. All in all, a rather safe, clean and livable looking place to be.

The nearby pub is called "The Hercules", bless it's little soul.

So I laid a small holding deposit on the place, feeling that I had struck it lucky as I had with my place in Ottawa, and the exciting conclusion to all this nonsense will come by "sometime Friday", which is when I shall find out about the National Rail job interview result.

Finally....

4) I heard back in regards to some script work, paid - though at the amateur/indie/whateverthefuck level, and tomorrow I shall call the person back on that number. A nice little touch which is in no way dependent on the National Rail results, so even if that fails I could come out at the end of the week with more than what I had at the start.

HOORAH!

Yesterday I took a long walk along the Thames...

...and I actually remembered my camera! Here are a few choice pictures that I took.