Free room for lovely caring girl

Reports of a snot-riven, mascara-ruined post-first day meltdown aside (I'll get to that...) this crazy and exhausting city nevertheless continues to beguile me. Don't get me wrong, it's fucking mental a lot of the time but then occasionally something charming or completely left of field happens and you get to pause and have A Moment. And then someone shoves you out of the way and you get on with it. But there are moments to be had - discovering a ferris wheel in the middle of Regent St was one. Appreciating the lush green expanse of Clapham Common on the stroll to the tube was another.

Thank god for The Moments though because it has been a crazy couple of days. I had my first day of classes yesterday. No packed lunch and no parent to drop me off but several lovely emails from friends reminding me that sarcasm and self-deprecation are well and good but perhaps not on the first day.

I think it's going to be phenomenal. Scary as all get out but challenging and interesting and the steepest of learning curves. There are brilliant, enthusiastic lecturers, trips to the north of England and Germany (oh and Venice next year... sigh...) and some really great girls who I'm really looking forward to studying and playing with. It wouldn't be replete of course without a handful of "daddy's going to buy me a gallery" types but then what better way to bond with new friends than by having a scurrilous bitch?


A good first day by any account (dorky awkward introductions now thankfully fucking over) but a strange and overwhelming one too. No more income, no more clocking off at 5, no comfort of familiarity and routine. Add to that two glasses of wine, a crap night's sleep and a need to start house-hunting and you've a god-given recipe for a total toy drop. In truth I was expecting it to happen - just not for another couple of weeks. I'd like to put it down to new-found efficiency that I just got it out of the way early but who would I be kidding?


Today was a new day though and a great one at that. Not least of all because we had an excursion to the Tate Modern.


Sorry. Was just taking A Moment. Such an incredible institution - and such a mind-blowing work of architectural re-invention. Pretty thrilled by the knowledge that we're going to get to know the place intimately over the next 14 months. Was an interesting assignment today - in small groups we were allocated an artwork in a specific wing of the building - in this instance the "Material Gestures" wing - and given 40 minutes to work up an interpretation of it and a context for it within the room and the wing at large. Oh and then to verbally present our ideas to the rest of the class. An intimidating prospect but I got so much out of it - just learning to really look and to bounce ideas of each other. And in truth I rather enjoyed getting to stand in the hallowed halls of the Tate Modern and say that I felt the gesture of 'material gesture' was essentially an up yours...

And then it was lunchtime and the school day was over.


Spent the afternoon catching up with old special friends - had another Moment sitting under Waterloo Bridge near the open-air book stalls watching this nutty old man play the violin and dance like his pants were on fire - and then went to look at a room for rent.

Having trawled online the past few days I don't doubt for a moment the horror stories you hear about trying to find accommodation in London - and then surviving said accommodation when it turns out by "cosy" they mean bottom bunk and 14 fellow Australians on the couch in the hall.

Am not sure if I'll manage to get the room I saw tonight but it was a lovely room in a good flat with two really great girls. A positive start if nothing else. Because "Free room for lovely caring girl" kinda gives me the creeps and I really hope it doesn't come to that.