New arrivals in London

We were very lucky to be given the emergency exit row on our multi-leg flight to London - Christchurch to Sydney, Sydney to Bangkok, Bangkok to Dubai and Dubai to London. The extra leg room made all the difference, but be were still exhausted when we arrived in London almost 40 hours after we had left Christchurch.
For our first two weeks in London, we stayed in an AirBnB room while sorting out the essentials - setting up a bank account, applying for an NI number, finding a job and most importantly, looking for a more permanent place to live.
I went for a job interview soon after we arrived (while still horribly jetlagged) and by the 12th of October, I had started work as a Senior Health Technical Officer for the NHS Blood and Transplant Centre in North London. Michael started working for a company called Elements who supply 5 star hotels with temporary staff - working crazy hours and often not getting home until 5am, just before I had to get up.
We also found a new share house in Leytonstone that we moved into on the 17th of October, along with 12 other people.Luckily, the house is huge, with 2 kitchens and

4 bathrooms so it doesn't feel like we are living on top of each other. We are also very close to the grocery store and a Tube station, not to mention a few goregeous cafes and of course a pub or two (or four).
While trying to get everything organised, we were also very excited to be exploring our new city - we went on a Royal London walking tour,
(Opposite: Coming in to land in London. Above - left to right, top to bottom: Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, The London Eye, impromptu night out at the theatre to see Wicked, our new house and working with a giant 4L pack of Red Blood Cell concentrate at work)

explored the South Bank on a particularly sunny afternoon, went to see Wicked at the Victoria Apollo Theatre and got to know some of London's darker history with a Jack the Ripper tour of East London.
The 2015 Rugby World Cup was in the beginning pool stages when we first arrived so we spent quite a few hours watching the games in different pubs all over the city. Unfortunately, Michael had to work on Halloween, the night of the NZ vs. AUS final, but I convinced two of our new housemates, Lauren and Cass, to accompany me to watch the game from the fanzone set up at Trafalgar Square. The atmosphere was incredible and we had such a great time before heading back home and quickly getting ready for a night out on the town dressed as zombies.
(Above-left to right, top to bottom: The Webb Ellis trophy, watching the game, the Haka, some of our housemates on Halloween)