The Top Floor Flat

Another long stretch without a proper post. And I don’t even have a good excuse this weekend as I was fairly lazy.

Weekend Stuff!

Alright, starting with last Thursday night. I had press tickets to see The Waifs, an Australian folk band that I love, perform at a very cool venue right near my flat. I had two tickets so my flatmate Ann came along and she seemed to enjoy it alright (at least I wasn’t inflicting my country/folk tastes without letting her know what she was getting herself into – she had listened to their music before we went!). I got the tickets because I was going to write up the event afterwards and the article is here: The Waifs on Spoonfed.

Friday evening was incredibly low-key which was good as on Saturday, I got up early to head off to Portobello Market (which is known for its vintage offerings but also has a ton of produce as well) to get produce for the week. I got:
– 2 baskets of strawberries (which I actually had to throw out most of because they were moldy at the bottom  )
– About 30 Clementine oranges
– A pound of apples
– A pound of tomatos
– A head of broccoli
– A pound of mozzarella cheese
– A loaf of homemade whole grain bread
– A pound of onions
– Half a pound of cherries
– One fig (which was also slightly rotten – or I didn’t know how to eat it properly)
For £9. It was pretty unbelievable and I definitely plan of making more use of the farmers markets around London. I probably wouldn’t buy meat (although there was some tempting fresh fish) but for stuff that comes from the ground, I think it’s quite a deal!

Then, after the market, I went home to try to find something I could wear for the fancy dress bachelor/bachelorette (or as they call it here Stag and Hen) party of my friend from work. She (and her fiancé) are Australian and so are having their party together because they don’t know many people here and this was their main celebration in the UK. It was a pub crawl that began at 2pm and carried on until the wee hours of the morning (although I headed home around 10pm!). The theme was School Uniform and I was pretty hopeless (no skirts/shorts/knee-high socks/ties or anything!) and had to make do with grey trousers and a button down – so basically I just looked like I was going to work. It was a ton of fun, though, and I met some really nice friends of theirs. I think the entire afternoon/night could probably be summed up in these picture, though:

Let’s just say that people were all very generous about buying rounds of drinks for everyone else. Regardless it was a great day.

Sunday, in the morning I met with Mimi to talk about her business plan and in the afternoon I was going to play tennis but it ended up raining so unfortunately I was out of luck. Hopefully we’ll have some good weather over the next couple of weekends.

Relevant Important Stuff!

My big(-ish) news is that Spoonfed has offered me a longer-term job and is willing to sponsor my visa (a generous offer as that’s both a hassle and an expensive process) to stay with them until at least June of next year. I’ve been a little stressed out (in a good way! I don’t have any bad choices!) about trying to figure out what to do as I have three wonderful options:

1) Stay in London with Spoonfed
Pros: it’s London, I like the people at Spoonfed, it’s England, David Tennant’s Hamlet will be coming to London in December, everyone likes Doctor Who, it’s a central hub of travel, they’ll give me a pay increase, I’m getting settled and making friends here, I love my flat and flatmate, I’m working with an exciting startup in a good position, awesome accents
Cons: London is a big city (which I am not loving to death – I’m a suburb girl I think), it’s beyond expensive… which means travel is difficult/impossible until I get a pay raise, a year and a half is a long time to be away from home, I work long hours and the commute sucks

2) Move to Ireland for four months in December when my UK visa expires (this is an option provided through BUNAC – the group that sponsors my current visa)
Pros: it’s Ireland, I could work and write my novels, live in another country, really really awesome accents, I’ve always wanted to be in Ireland
Cons: I have to start this whole process (job, flat, social life) over again, it’ll be cold and dark all winter and then when it starts to get nice I have to leave

3) Go home and possibly get a job with IMVU
Pros: it’s California, it’s free housing for a while, I really like everyone at IMVU, family is there.
Cons: I’m not here, I miss out on possibly awesome and rewarding startup experience, I’m not near extra cool European travel, people don’t have awesome accents, it’s silly to go there now when I’m going to go back in less than a year regardless of what I decide

I think I’ll be able to make a decision that’s good for me, and Spoonfed has been very nice in giving me a couple of weeks to make up my mind. I do miss home sometimes but I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. Additional pros and cons for any of the three options are happily accepted in the comments section below.