Drinking alone, on a weekday afternoon

I think I've earned it.  In the past 13 days my main goal was to get a job before classes got going here in London - important not only for my budget but for grounding myself socially in an entirely new environment.  

I've spent more hours than I want to admit looking at TimeOut online for places to work, then putting on my best hipster things and keeping a positive attitude while they tell me they've just hired 2 people the previous week, the standard response synonymous with "We don't know you, go back to the States please".  Things were looking dire when I got a call yesterday from celebrity chef Roxy Beaujolais, who I gave my resume to in her well-reviewed pub, Seven Stars.  When I asked her if she was hiring, she looked at me sideways and said "Wha, yoou?" but followed with conversation about how her other restaurant, The Bountiful Cow, was going to be opening on Sundays and needed someone.  I thought she was just making conversation, but as I said, she called me yesterday.  She told me to go see Cveta, her manager at the Bountiful Cow, today.

As I rode towards the address on Eagle St, all character seemed to drain away from the buildings.  The only neon sign in view happened to be the place I was headed for.  I walked in practicing my back-up speech that "I'm just waiting on one other place to call me back, but I should be able to start this week" - suitably non-committal in case it turned out this is where I was actually going to work.  I found Cveta, who is actually a really sweet woman from Macedonia - I can tell that I would enjoy working with her.  But the wood-laminate tables suggested that I might not enjoy it there.  Despite the lunch hour, there were 3 customers in the place, one of which was an elderly regular getting drunk at the bar.  Cveta offered me £6/hour. 

I tried to convince myself that it could work. I rode to Hyde Park for the first time and tried to go in the Serpentine Gallery, which was closed to the public for the opening of a Richter exhibition.  I opened my A to Z ("zed") - detailed London map that is a must-have for newbies and long term residents alike - and realized I had circled the location of a bar that my friend Tom sent me an email about.  Tom went to school here last year, kind of in the same way I am doing - and the email listed the locations of the "In the Pines" music events.  I thought I would try again at The Harrison.

I found my way there and asked a nice (shocker! he looked me in the eye even after he heard my accent) bartender Daniel if there was a manager around and whether they were hiring.  To my surprise, he said "probably" and went to get Paul, the owner.  Paul was very cut and dry, which I didn't mind at all because he was actually interviewing me for a position!  He asked me what music I liked and I said "all kinds" which I now regret - such a wishy washy answer, but it's true!  Anyway, he seemed to like me well enough, and said they would try me out.  I'm expecting a call from his assistant tomorrow for scheduling.

It looks like the London sky is about to open in to the non-committal rain that it's famous for...  I'm inside and enjoying not scouring the internets or the streets for one more bar that I could possibly apply to.  Fingers crossed, as they say.