The first week ends

Well this is the end of my first week (albeit a 4 day working week) as a runner and woooooo! I can tell ya... this is one knackering job! The picture above is the kitchen, this is basically where the runners operate from. The guy you can see at the far end is Reece, he was standing in as head runner this Thursday and Friday as Kirsty has been away. So thats where I work! I'll try and get a few more pics of other areas as time goes on, give you a full virtual tour!

Wednesday and Thursday were very similar to Tuesday, nothing particularly interesting to report from work or evening time! On Wednesday I saw Noel Fielding as I was on a run, but was carrying burgers so couldn't exactly stop and strike up conversation, and apparently the following day one of the other runners spotted Barbara Windsor around Soho too, so apparently you never know who yer gonna walk past!

Probably the most exciting thing from my working week is my current favorite choice of lunch venue. We get a £5 lunch allowance each day and the runners have a good recommended list of places to go to get the most bang for yer buck as it were! Out of all the ones I've tried so far I Camisa is definitely in the lead, out of the 4 days I was working this week I ate from here twice!

The reason?

LOOK AT THIS SAMMICH!

 Spicy Chorizo, Rocket, Tomato, Pesto and some form of deliciously strong hard cheese who's name escapes me - all in a fresh Ciabatta... bloody lush!

I've been spending my evenings doing a fair amount of photoshopping, just because I feel like the more practice I get with that then the easier I'll find it to learn that side of Smoke/Flame - which are basically the same but with moving pictures instead of stills... I really enjoy it and end up with some nice results sometimes too =)

On Friday night I came back from work, quickly showered and ate and then headed straight back out to go see Ellie before she heads back to folkestone. I'm starting to learn that trains can be a lot less reliable than I'd like as the one I needed to get to Richmond was delayed by half hour. However it didn't seem to matter too much as my train eventually arrived and as I pulled in to Richmond Station Ellie and her sisters arrived in a car to come pick me up! After a quick trip to Tescos to get some booze we went to "Greyskull" (basically Ellies friends flat!) where Zombie Drinking Games were the order of the evening!

We watched Night of the Living Dead and Day of the Dead all the while drinking whenever anyone on screen drank, smoked, got bitten, killed a zombie with anything other than a gun, engaged in physical violence with another human... etc etc... basically we drank A LOT during the two movies and by the end of the second film a very sauced Ellie and I made our departure!

Saturday brought sad times as Ellie was leaving to go back. She had a party for one of her flat mates to attend in Sevenoaks before heading back to Folkestone on Sunday. We spent the morning lazing around, watched Labyrinth and then I was dropped back at the station by her very kind mother. It was an ace morning, but I hated leaving knowing it would be another 2 weeks at least before I see my lady again...

When I got to the station it turned out that the train I needed to get back has been closed for the weekend so I had to take a different route going through central. After arriving at Waterloo I decided to go on a bit of a wander as I had nothing else planned for the rest of the day! I strolled up to South Bank where I found another batch of street performers (none as good as what you find in Covent Garden) and I also found the site for the Udderbelly Festival - the e4 sponsored comedy festival thing.

 There seems to be loads of good acts on at this, but all are paid events, and from what I can find online all the really good acts are already sold out (no Tim Minchin tickets left at all!)

I wandered up to Charing Cross and started my tube journey back home but instead of doing a straight switch at Baker Street I decided to pop back up to ground level and see if I could find the residence of one Sherlock Holmes!

Its not as I'd imagined it, but then again I'm not quite sure what I was expecting to find. Looks like quite a good museum though and at £6 entry I'm sure there is quite a bit to see inside. 

Saturday evening comprised of sitting around in my room finding stuff to do, I couldn't be bothered with Photoshopping, and the PS3 didn't appeal so I ended up playing silly games on my phone whilst watching the entire first series of Red Dwarf!

The highlight of my night was putting my first wash of clothes on in this new flat... Took 15 minutes of swearing at the machine until I realised the damn thing wasn't plugged in...

My finding of 221b Baker Street helped me decide how to spend my Sunday, I would go on a Geek Pilgrimage to find the locations of two of my favorite british comedy's, the shop from Black Books and the house from Spaced!

Leigh Street - just round the corner from Russell Square station. Sadly the shop wasn't open so I couldn't go for a look inside, but was still fun to find!

On my walk back to the Russell Square tube station I wandered past this which I had to take a photo of... I didn't realise my uncle had his own pub, or that he was now a Lord!

23 Meteor Street, or infact 23 Carleton Road in Tufnell Park - the location used for all the external shots of Spaced! The guy you see out front lives there and looks nothing like Tim or Brian... I was most upset - although probably not as upset as he was that I was standing outside his house taking pictures!

After finding these two comedy landmarks I started back home, stopping off in Camden for a wander round the markets and then again at Primrose Hill where I'd been told to check out "the best view of London". Sadly my phone camera does this no justice, but I can agree with the statement - the view from the top of Primrose Hill is magnificent.

Well that concludes my first complete week in London! Its been a funny old week, I'm really enjoying my days at work, I'm constantly busy and in a really enjoyable environment (even if the actual tasks aren't that interesting). But my evenings are a touch boring, I miss my buddies and being able to see my girlfriend. I'm sure as time passes I'll get used to this, and once I start figuring out my cash flow over the next couple of months I'll be able to actually get out in the evenings and do stuff, but so far the "London night life" that I've heard so much about has yet to be seen!

Onwards ever onwards!