Unemployment, Tattoos, and Robert Downey, Jr.

I'm jobless again, after twelve straight days of work. Thankfully, I still have a large chunk of my savings left, since I've been frugal since I arrived here, and I've earned another £1,000 or so in the last two weeks--so I'm not in dire straights. It's just bizarre not having anything to do but sit around at home and apply for jobs, once again, especially after rushing around for thirteen hours a day!

I had a fantastic weekend. It started out with a wander around Sloane Square (preppy-ville) and Camden with Natalie on Saturday before she had to head to Heathrow for her flight home to Boston. Let it be known that we tried black pudding, and it was indeed as terrible as it sounds. I'm gonna miss that girl, and I feel kind of bad that I didn't get to hang out with her as much as I'd have liked this week, but I think she had a good time, regardless!

(I also popped in to a couple of Camden-based tattoo places to see if any artists would be willing to do a white ink tattoo, which is what I'd like to get on my wrist at some point while I'm here. One group seemed confident of it and knew all of the standard warnings to tell me about white ink, e.g. that it could look pink or yellow depending on my skin type, etc. Daniel, meanwhile, advised that I go anywhere but Camden, since Camden tattoo shops charge tourist prices, so I'm still in research mode in finding the right place.)

Yesterday, Daniel and I slept the heck in and then went for a long walk through central London, through Covent Garden, down to the river, past Parliament, into St. James's Park, and then toward Oxford Circus, which was really lovely. Some days I feel like the luckiest chick in the world here, and I hope the feeling lasts. (The weather's actually been gorgeous the last few days as well, to the point where it feels like June--but in October. I'm pretty pleased in that regard, too, since sun automatically makes me incredibly happy.)

Then as we neared Regent Street, we spotted a huge batch of parked trailers that looked remarkably like those you'd see near a film set. Once we read "Catering for the Film and TV Industries" on the side of one, I bolted for the nearest security guard there to ask what production they were working on. Turns out that it was Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey, Jr., so I chatted up a couple of security guards and waited briefly to meet with a production assistant there. The key set PA came out to see me, and I didn't want to take up too much of his time, so I handed him my business card/calling card and said I was available to assist on set if need be. He looked a little surprised that I was being so forward (as we brash Americans are), but otherwise seemed pretty nice and said he would pass my information on. I can't really hold out for anything, but it sure would be nice to work on a feature again, especially of that calibre!

We finished up the day by hitting an arcade (where I won a prize in a claw machine, finally, and we then took a cheesy-awesome photo booth picture, below) before seeing How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Again, stellar weekend.



Here are some of my plans for the week, aside from the never-ending job search:

• Go grocery shopping for the first time in nearly two weeks (that's a great facet of working in film/TV: all your meals are covered while you're on the job, so you don't have to buy food).
  
• Contact my great uncle and aunt here and plan to visit them this weekend.
• Go zorbing, finally (Sunday).
  
• Possibly catch The Dark Knight in IMAX, since I didn't do that back in Boston.
• Watch a Red Sox game in a bar/pub here somewhere, since they've made it to the ALCS.
• Go to the BUNAC pub meet on Wednesday to meet some other Americans and Canadians.

You'll be hearing from my lawyer me again soon! Stay well, folks!