January 2014 – Where is Phil now?

Wednesday 29 January 2014.

It has been an awful long time since I lasted posted, or even wrote a blog post. Time just seemed to pass by so quickly and the very few things that happened that were note worthy have all become memories as I didn’t have the time or the inclination to type them after they happened. The main thing that has happened, and the number one reason for not writing – or more realistically – doing anything worth recording, is that I have been working !

Now, there is no immediate need to get all excited in thinking that after six months or so of looking that I have landed myself a cushy IT job worthy of my experience and paying me the salary to match ! Nope, I have been working in a pub – earning just over minimum wage pulling pints and pouring glasses of wine. It is work I have sort of enjoyed, but work I am going to cease at the end of January when main bit of news number two happens – a trip back to New Zealand.

To back the truck up a bit – I had become a bit dispirited with applying for IT Management roles and not getting much of a response from the recruitment firms I have to deal with for most of the roles I am interested in. As I have mentioned before, there are plenty of interesting vacancies, but there an awful lot of people applying for them. I guess my two year ‘sabbatical’ is not being seen as a positive by some. I am using that as the reason for the lack of interest in hiring me anyway.

El saw a post on FaceBook from the Queens Arms, a pub near her home in Walthamstow looking for staff for their newly renovated and about to be re-opened premises. I popped in on a whim and ended up being offered a job on the bar with a start a few days later. Not having worked in a bar before I was quite excited about the whole thing.

I have leant an awful lot working there, the work is harder than it looks and I have found it to be physically exhausting. I have met some very nice people there and have had a few good laughs, but a couple of weeks ago I realised it was not for me and have now resigned and will finish up when I go to NZ. I do have renewed respect for those who work in bars and restaurants – some make it look so easy ! I guess I will just go back to being on the other side of the bar in the Queens upon my return.

What else has happened? I have reached a few anniversaries in the past few weeks.
Two years since I left my last IT Management job at PMP.
Two years since I left New Zealand on my travels.
One year since I first met El.

I cannot believe so much time has gone by and while I feel I have not done much in the last wee while I have achieved a huge amount more than I expected when I started to think about leaving work to go travelling, thirty or so months ago. I will have to confess that my original plan, which was to tour Europe in the summer of 2012, has not actually happened yet, I got distracted on the way !

One of those distractions was of course meeting El, we first met on the 25th January last year and we have had some good times since – hopefully with many more to come. Tomorrow we head off on a two week visit to meet my family in New Zealand – via a quick stop in Sydney on the way. El has not been to either place before and I am very much looking forward to showing her around, and of course introducing her to my family and friends. It will all be rather exciting I think…

Then back to the excitement of finding a job again when I get back in February.

A quick summary, I just needed to get this out of the way !!

Here is a photo of El I took at a Christmas night walk of Kew Gardens back in December. It was great fun and was worthy of a blog post. I just never got around to doing one…

28 January 2014 – London

I have not logged into here for ages and have just noticed the date of my last post – wow, it has been such a long time. I do have a post in the wings, a general, sort of quick wrap-up of those missing months, but it has been in the wings for rather a long time. I must finish it in the next day or so as I am heading back to New Zealand for a holiday tomorrow and I do not want to have old blog baggage hanging over my head…

Rather than finish that post off I am going to procrastinate on it further by doing this post instead.

I took a brief walk along the south bank this afternoon, I went to have a look at the Landscape Photographer of the Year photos on display at the National Theatre. I was suitably impressed, and also depressed at my lack of out-put this year, plus the fact I really am going to have to get the Canon or the wide angle lens looked at as the images are really ‘soft’ and I am not sure why.

The secondary purpose of the walk was a vain hope of getting a sunset – though the forecast was for showers, it had been reasonably fine all day. I have been following a couple on Instragram who have been coming up with some great London images lately and I had been looking to them for some motivation, and sunsets always make for some great images.

There was no sunset… But I did like watching the clouds come in from the south and skip over the Thames so I took a few photos of that instead. The light was quite flat and the sky grey so I have converted and them all into monochrome.

Trees by the IBM building.

Rain starting to fall as the clouds cross over Waterloo Bridge.

I was going to walk over to St Pauls as the light was looking quite good and there was the possibility of some dramatic shots, however as I walked up the Millennium Bridge the rain started to fall – and the Big Issue seller scurried away soon after.

I took a few shots of St Pauls over the arch of the bridge, before calling it quits and walking home.

This is my favourite shot from the walk, the clouds were sweeping in, slowly filling the clear patches of sky.

It was good to get some practice in before my New Zealand trip, and I have now decided I will take the Canon rather than the smaller and lighter Panasonic. A decision I had been pondering on for a few days. Whew!

Month: January 2014

A brief overview of the last three months…

Millennium Bridge