Ahhh, much better.

So yesterday I headed off to my interview. I wanted to look professional, yet look comfortable and keep cool, since it was warm. I went with a Victorian-style cream top and brown dress pants and pulled my hair back into a french braid. I almost twisted my ankle walking up the sidewalk in my heels to work. I am so embarrassing.

My boss, Jenni, seemed really nice, although I would never pinpoint her as the type to be the editor of a huge, jewellery-based magazine. The room where I'll be working is really big and is actually shared with three other magazines. There were about four computer stations and each desk was piled high with proofs and papers and magazines. She said I'll start out doing proofreading, which I love, and that she'll teach me to do page design. Since this magazine caters to merchandisers in particular, they just put out their Christmas issue!

I work 9:30-5:30 four days a week (no Wednesday because that's for field trips), and she said punctuality is extremely important. Bugger. However, the particularly good news is that the magazine will pay for all of my transportation. She told me to get a three-month tube pass, which means that ALL my transportation here, both work AND leisure, will be taken care of. That is a huge amount of money, so I'm really happy about that. I start work on Monday, September 11 (yikes), and I change stops at the tube station that was bombed in 2005. I really hope I don't die on my first day of real work.

When I got back from my interview, Jon, Diana and Nichole were all about to go shopping so they invited Katie and me to go. Diana needed trousers for work (pants = underwear here) and Jon had heard of a REALLY cheap store named George's where she could find some. It was 2.3 miles and no one could figure out a way to get there by bus so we walked. Huffing, puffing and panting, we arrived at George's to discover that it was - drumroll please - a British Wal-Mart. No joke. We almost cried.

That was really the beginning of the end of our good day haha. We were starving after shopping so we went to a pub where we were informed that all of us had to have driver's licenses in order to be served. Excuse me? Diana only had her school ID card and I clearly don't have my driver's license, so we had to leave. Does that make any sense? Even if you don't order alcohol, you have to have a specific ID in order to sit down. The drinking age is 18 here anyway, and we were all told that it would be best to leave all forms of ID in our rooms for safekeeping. Very strange.

We ended up eating at a British fast food joint. There's nothing quite like traveling 4,000 miles to eat a cheeseburger. We thankfully found a bus that brought us almost all the way home, and we staggered up to the top of the bus and collapsed into our seats and pretty much glared at each other for the duration of the bus ride haha. We were quite the happy bunch.

We all hung out last night in our usual spot - our lovely, balcony-side living room. Someone had left chocolate biscuits downstairs for all the residents, so I brought them up for us to munch on. Jon brought us drinks and did our dishes while we girls sat back and read the newspaper hehe. I knew we kept him around for a reason!

And that's that! Diana got her hair cut yesterday. It was shoulder-length before and she decided that she wanted it much shorter, so it's somewhat spiky now and the back goes to about her chin. It's really cute on her. I'm getting a little tired of my long hair, but there's no way I'm that gutsy!!!

I'm trying to figure out what to do today, as right now, I'm here by myself and I have no idea when the others will get back. I might get ready and head down to the Catholic Church to find Mass times. Harrod's and TopShop are also calling my name, so I might go off to Knightsbridge and Kensington. I better enjoy these free days while they last because I'll be a working girl here before too long.