Officially Living In London

Hello Again!!!

So Here is the story. Since I got here I had that feeling of excitement, but that soon after turned into a sick to my stomach feeling. Not knowing if I could financially survive here actually began affecting my health physically and mentally. I had thoughts of packin up my things and traveling around the rest of Europe where my dollar would stretch a bit further. Since I got here I have started looking for a place to live and let me tell you, It is quite a task. The first two days I had no luck at all looking for a place after doing it all day long. Everything I looked at made me feel like I was in the US during the great depression...closet like rooms that were dirtier than some of my friends mouths (tony, behave yourself, huh?). After Travel on the Tube (what they call their subway) for nearly all day, both days, my calfs are so sore I was getting real turned off by London and any hope of living in this city.

I met up with a guy that my buddy Troy hooked me up with, who also oddly enough lived in Boulder for the last few years. He is a musician (jazz, hip-hop and such...he plays the bass clarinet, the flute, and the sax) for a band called the Break Mechanics, and like me, he came to London with not much of a plan for anything except for getting involved in the music and art scene here. He grew up in New Zealand (kenner!!! YO Buddy) and moved to Colorado when he was about 11, he's now 28). He lived in a commune for the first part of his life! Crazy, but we have more in common than most people i've ever met. He is not only an artist (musician), but he does web design as well. It works out that he does all the aspects of web design that I lack (flash, and other quality multimedia programs), and I am skilled in what he has no idea about (graphic design, layout, web design, java...etc). I met him the second day I was here and he had been here for nearly a week looking for a place. He was getting as frustrated with things as I was and after looking at a few places, we were both quite discouraged. We had to buy calling cards just to call people who were offering places.

We finally got ahold of someone who actually picked the phone up (apparently, when someone list an apartment in London, they would rather NOT lease it). This landlord picked us up in his blue jaguar and drives us on the wrong side of the road through London to the same place where I ended up finding a hostel to stay in (this hostel cost the equivalent of 36 dollars a night!!! JeBUS CHRISTO!!!). The area of London is called Shepherds Bush (located in the west end of London, Zone 2, and it is probably, by what I've been told, the hippest place for music in London. When we got to the apartment, which is actually in a house, it made me feel as though I was going to walk right into Mary Poppins...but I didn't...hehe! By that I mean, It is what you would think of when you think of London, and surprisingly enough, most of London doesn't resemble your thoughts) We walked inside and the room was a double. Two beds, one room, really clean and nice. There are two washing machines, a community kitchen, 3 bathrooms, what they call a garden (a backyard for you dirty americans), and a nice front stoop. Having a place to chill outside is not very common apparently. The room was on the 3rd floor, the top, and it was by far the nicest thing I have seen here.

We ended up signing the lease in the blue jaguar (imagine the accent, lovin' it :-) ten minutes later. Good times. We moved in right away. So as of 52 hours after arriving in London, I had found an apartment in the sickest (in a good way g-pa) part of town, a great guy to be roomies with. All of a sudden the sick feeling turned into a per-ma grin! The whole house is full of girls too, did I mention that, I don't think I did, but now you know.

So now your up to date (Wednesday, September 8th, 2004 ;-). j/k

Anyway, I love you all I'm sure. Please email me, or if you feel so inclined, call that bastard you call "Blake."


Later On You Wankers!

- B

First Days In London

Hello To All My Family and Friends,

As of right now I am sitting in a hotel room of a few guys that I met on the plane. They are here writing and recording a new album for their band Barefoot. I got pretty lucky to meet them seeing as they just got signed to Geffin and EMG a few weeks ago and they have already been sent abroad to work with the top European Producer. Anyway, I have yet to be here for 24 hours and I already have a cell phone. The number to the phone is 001-07891-670249. I think 001 is the country code, but I'm Not sure, call the operator to find out I guess. I can receive calls at any time for free and talk as long as I like, but making calls on it is pretty expensive. It's a prepaid thing so you guys know how that works. So place a call to your Londonite friend Blake anytime you feel like it, I promise, I won't mind at all! I think one of those 10-10-whatever numbers work really good for super cheap overseas calls. L.a. time is 9 hours earlier than London.

This place is so expensive I think I might die! :) The exchange rate is at 1.94 right now and that pretty much means that when you give them 100 US Dollars to exchange, they give you 50 Pounds. Crazy Business I tell you! I think I'm going to be on a diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a while. That's ok though, I do like them...for now anyway. It does feel really great to be here though, it's finally real and I still can't believe it. I went and had dinner with the guys I met last night and got some alright food actually. I am already looking for an apartment and I think I might of found one, if you can believe it. That is the one thing that surprised me in terms of how much it costs to live here. I found that most places aren't much more than 55 pounds a week (which comes out to about 100 a week, 400 a month) if you live in a room with other people. Mostly australians live in areas like this so that should be interesting for sure.

I have a feeling of excitement over my whole body at this point which at times feels amazing, but other times its almost overwhelming. I have no clue about any part of this place, and let me tell you, that doesn't help when you are asking questions and the answers contain things you have to ask more questions about. Kinda Crazy!!! I already miss everything I left behind but I feel as though this will become a defining time in my life and I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world.

In terms of supporting myself while I am here, I am working for clients in Boulder that are keeping me on their payroll while I am over here. I don't know who was in charge of making that decision, but I really do dig whoever that was. I will be doing web design for them as well as a few other companies out of Boulder, but I am still looking for work, so keep me in mind if you hear of anyone in need of a graphic artist and web designer.
In terms of my artwork and creative outlets, I am going to constantly be shooting photos while i'm here. I'm trying to get involved in the local UK rock scene as well as anywhere else that is rocking! I am soon going to have a new website (other than BJNart.com) called BJNrock.com where all you guys can check out the progress I have made in that industry. We shall see, right now I don't know how things are going to work out but that is pretty exciting. I am also going to have an online journal within the week that will allow me to avoid all these mass emails where you can read about what I'm up to, as well as check out some shots of London and such that I take while I'm here.

ALRIGHT! So for now, this is Blake. :) Email me back, I will write you, I promise. Hope to hear from all of you soon. It will make my day I'm sure. Love you all!!! Cherio you Blimey Bastards! (i have no clue if I spelled any of that right!)


Love,

Blake J. Nolan