Two weeks in Reading

bryleeg — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:19:00 GMT

After 2 weeks in Reading I have learnt a few things:

1. The health system is much better organised in Australia

2. The class system over here extends to the hospital system (nurses have their own set of notes to write in, weird)

3. Medical ward patients are just as annoying here as they are in Australia.

Overall I have enjoyed my 2 weeks working at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Just a shame that I had to see patients! The Physio department here are lovely and looked after me very well.

Over Easter weekend Stace and I went to Bath to see the Roman Baths with a couple of Stacey's friends, Brook and Amy. Amy booked us at a B and B for the Friday night however when we got there the owners had written us down for the wrong night! And they turned out to be the most unhelpful people around, not helping us at all. Though we called most places, every room in Bath was full that night so we headed back to London. The Roman Baths were very cool to see though.

The weekend was filled with more tourist-y things including Portobello RD markets and shopping in Notting Hill. Didn't see Hugh Grant though.

Sunday involved a trip to a couple of Aussie & Kiwi pubs (Church and Walkabout). Whilst we met a New Zealander we did not meet any other Australians.

No more work for me at this stage. What a shame I will just have to bum around London. I think I'll go to the museums. They have free entry! Wahoo!

Laters!

First Couple of Weeks

bryleeg — Wed, 4 Apr 2012 04:19:00 GMT

After leaving Australia late on a Thursday night the flights over here were pretty much uneventful. However I did learn that ladies in Qatar like to spit on the bathroom floor. I realised this once I had reached to front of the line. However I did not want to risk the walk to the toilet once I realised how much saliva was on the floor.

Stacey and I arrived at our accommodation near Kings Cross Station. The room was tiny (1m of space on once side of the bunk bed, no space at the ends) and the Eastern Europeans next door did not help us get over our jet lag. Especially when they came home drunk. Needless to say we were happy to leave and head to Putney.

The one night in Putney was so that we could use the hostel address to open a bank account. After a couple of walks around Putney and visiting McDonald's for wifi we headed to the cinema. This was to help defeat the jet lag that was still plaguing us. Watching "The Hunger Games" helped us to stay up past 8pm.

The next day we headed out to Bayswater to stay in a room with our own bathroom. Luxury! Over the next few days we did some classic tourist things. These included heading to the West End for the theatre ("Rock of Ages" - awesome!) and going on a hop on - hop off bus tour of London. Also included was a trip to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels and where King Henry VIII liked to help people remove their heads. We headed out to Stonehenge on the weekend. It was smaller than I thought but still awesome to see.

Also during this time I was given a short contract (1 week) at Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. Stacey also had some success on the job front - one month receptionist job in Putney.

So that is where I'm up to at the moment. Will give an update soonish (once I have some news to update about!)

UK working holiday

Two weeks in Reading

First Couple of Weeks