Hi all. ....wish had time to write to everyone separately at the moment.....but i REALLY don't. Thank you for the letters and the amazing red Depot book and the cards....

(for people who didn't know me reading this.....are you wondering if I'm just making up all these people who care about me?..)

So straight down to the important stuff...

Friday night here is quite impressive.... Alex and I got off the tube at Camden last night (by the way... the tube is not huge and confusing, it is incredibly well organised, and well labeled....you would never see anything so sensible in NZ ever) and there is this big crowd of people gathered around these guys freestyle battling....they had mikes hooked up to a little generator (like this tiny baby generator)....there was a DJ spinning on the street with these little portable decks. .... it was awesome.... everyone knows rap sounds better with English accents... maybe French would be the best though....

The pubs are OLD and COOL...not like....designed last month with old furniture to look cool.....ACTUALLY cool and old. The architecture is of course amazing....all these art Nouveau curves and brick, brick, brick....(yes I had to look up how to spell Nouveau)..

I never thought I'd find a city where you walk into a pub and the first guy you strike up a conversation with can make intelligent comments on Jonne Donne and Commodore 64 gaming! ...

Thank bog for Flight of the Concords.... they REALLY upped our game over here....other wise its just 'lord of the rings'..no real street cred there....

My flat living is going O.K...I am wary of outstaying my welcome of course.... I'll just chalk it up to karma and have a bunch of you fools come crash on my couch when I get established here....

I also went to a casting call today to be an extra in a film about John Lennon....it meant I travelled all the way out to west London. It is VERY pretty....green parks and windyish roads and gardens.....cobbled lanes... and all the brick! (of course).

There were people on the streets with little carts selling flowers and sausages...HEAPS of salami and kransky...weird...what an impulse buy.....'here I go walking to the store and whats that? gotta buy a massive salami stick!!!'

For those of you who have been a bit cut up about my not having a return ticket........ I'll tell you a story... when the ancient Greeks sailed to war and landed on enemy shores the first thing they would do is turn around and burn their boats so all the men would know the only way home is to fight and win, returning a few years later with bounty and honour. That's a bit like me with my one way ticket. Its not a goodbye forever. (don't check that fact on wikipedia....ok? take it as a paraphrase if I'm wrong)--

this is such a book club huh? where are the photo's?......

-S

First entry....

Hi all, (pic of me and my uncle Roger during my airport goodbyes.... he came all the hellway down from Kaitaia to see me off and drove me to the airport. legend)

Things are going well, my friend Alex is looking after me, I have a warm place to stay and Alex and Jay (his gorgeous flatmate) are putting up with me in their flat....

I have been keeping the house to say thanx. 30 hours on a plane.. crazy crazy time.... weird sleep patterns.... flying royal brunei so got blessed by Allah about a million times... they sure love to prey. The food was brilliant.. I really don't know what everyone is complaining about. I had stopovers in Australia....(major security, nice airport), Brunei (Malaysia...tiny weird airport...saw the sun set on these huge black hills....its SO lush there and booze is illegal), Dubai (Arabic place...beautiful airport it was too dark to see outside) and then to London....6.30 am... my friend came out on the tube to pick me up... kept timesing the price of everything by 3 (NZ currency is a joke) so wouldn't buy a coke....

The one thing I loved about flying was the clouds.... they were incredible... now I know why they call them the heavens.... huge billowing sculptures spiralling into the sky....you fly past them, these giant amorphous shapes........amazing frosty cotton....so SOLID looking......so WHITE. All amass and rolling into each other....greys and silver but frozen in time as you pass by. Touched by white hot sunlight and bathed in azure.... just so beautiful.... London is brilliant... the water comes out the tap chilled....and I can wear all my boots again... my coats... MY HAT (await photo for those of you who havent seen this hat) potos will come soon....promise....

Alex is being very kind to me....when i got here i crashed all day then woke up still tired at 6pm at night... be took me for a breakfast burger and some nutritious breakfast pints of beer.... they were haagen something and tasted like bananas.... I wasted no time in getting myself sorted. In my few days here I have applied for, interviewed for and am being sent my National Insurance Number, got a U.K cell number (07768704021).... a bank account.. applied for several jobs doing extra work on films etc...(good easy cash while job hunting) and this coming week I'm looking up real jobs, researching the galleries they are for, visiting them etc....

I have also spent a bit of time standing around like a half wit at the supermarket trying to figure out what everything costs, what everything is and why jif turned into cif...

I've bought a copy of the Time out paper in London(thanks Paul, Sue and Jas) reading up on the art spaces getting my head around it, booking in openings of import. Trying to spend as few pounds as possible! London is amazing....I was just walking down to the shop and there was this old church and graveyard...just sat there all ancient stones and cat iron twisted gates...a giant crow was piking through a plastic bag....crows are HUGE they walk like dinosaurs. Its was like something out of Poe....except for the plastic bag...but that's London, ancient meets modern.

Cant wait to see the art spaces!!! you look up whats on and its like Murakami, Messager, Richter,....not to mention all the regular collections...and the big shows on Picasso etc...... Alex wants to take me out to see the night life too, come sat I will have earned it! Miss you all, Glad I have thermals and jacket and hat...when the sun (big grey ball of light) goes down it gets COLD. I love it though.-- -S