Landed in London

Ajay Kumar Singh · Post by **Ajay Kumar Singh** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 5:30 pm

Dreams come true, finally saw the London in reality.
Quite busy now a days in draining money outta my pocket. Will post more interesting stuffs later sometime when i get settled. A lotta interesting stuff to tell.

cheers
Ajay

hk_007 · Post by **hk_007** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 5:44 pm

Congrats...now comes the actual test. Soon you'll appreciate how small things like getting a bank account, a debit card etc. bring joy and brighten up your day ':lol:'

Have fun and all the best!!

Sampan · Post by **Sampan** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:19 pm

Congrats AKS !

Your experience will help ppl like me who is going shortly to London under HSMP category.

Thnx again.

Sampan

Chess · Post by **Chess** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:40 pm

Ajay Kumar Singh wrote:Dreams come true, finally saw the London in reality.
Quite busy now a days in draining money outta my pocket. Will post more interesting stuffs later sometime when i get settled. A lotta interesting stuff to tell.

cheers
Ajay

Ajay

Welcome and all the best....

.....good luck with the job hunting

JayGee · Post by **JayGee** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:41 pm

Ajay, I am extremely happy for you - soon (9 Oct) I'll be arriving and hopefully would be more experienced by your experience if you care to share them with us.

What, if I may ask, is draining you financially?

Chess · Post by **Chess** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:45 pm

JayGee wrote:What, if I may ask, is draining you financially?

Possibly trying to convert everything into rupees before making a purchase - big mistake!

just live and let live

BTW, JayGee - I was sorting out car insurance the other day - and guess what, the call centre handling my quote was in Cape Town

JayGee · Post by **JayGee** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:49 pm

Tx Chess

What can I say - Cape Town is on the map buddy..

bashir2003 · Post by **bashir2003** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 7:28 pm

well come jeeee in the land of uk...

zara sambhal ke, zara hat ke,,, ye hai london meri yaar...

babu... hope u carried pound to rupee converter with u...

wish u all thebest.

Papafaith · Post by **Papafaith** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 12:20 pm

Cograts Ajay.

Rajan · Post by **Rajan** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 5:33 pm

All the Best, Ajay !!!

Keep posting abt yr experiences of job hunting & others...

Rajan

Ajay Kumar Singh · Post by **Ajay Kumar Singh** » Sun Sep 12, 2004 9:17 pm

Okie got some time free so lemme tell a story.

I started from Bangalore on 3rd september, had to take up BA flight on 4th Sept. Well it was a bad time everything was going bad on that day and i didn't consult my astrologer

So it was bound to happen BA flight was cancelled due to some technical problem and i gotta stuck in Mumbai for 2-3 days. I almost last the sense of time. Then they stuffed us in Malaysian Air and send us to KL. From KL again 14 hours journey to London.
And the mess BA people created on airport and after that is really horrible.
Decided never to travel by damn BA again.

Any way landing was smooth and saw London. Landed at LHR terminal No. 3 and what a welcome to London.

And what a welcome. I never saw such bad airport outside India. Inside was hot an oven no AC and it seems whole world was landing there. Waited 3 hours for immigration and then waited 2 more hours for medical.

I decided not to take chest X-ray and it was not a bad descision. Even if you take the chest X-ray you have to wait in the queue to reach the medical officier who will finally take ur X-ray. So whether u carry X-ray or not you gonna have to wait in the queue.

So cheerup don't spend money to take chest X-ray. And yes saw the first Rude brit. The man handling the queue was rude.

Well i got screwedup because it's a student season now a days and plane loads of students coming to UK. May be other time there will be less crowd.

Took Heathrow Express to Paddington and my hotel was 1 min walk from station. £ 65 per day includeing breakfast for 2. It's costly but okie nothing to comlain about.

Well still not getting into the messy world of opening a bank account. I was busy in giving interviews, still no job offer, companies here are very specific for requirements and in profile matching, no relaxation. Gonna be tough but not going to giveup after all i'm tough too

Got weekends free and had an excursion of London. So almost saw all famous spots in London. Now searching a studio/1 bed apartment.

London seems to be interesting and discovering London more and more daily. Saturday I was walking on Tottenham Court Road and got a Brand new Laptop Toshiba M30 in £ 785 in a sale

So keep walking while u r in London who knows what is waiting for you

But the only thing which is of great concern is prices. It's really too costly here. I wish i could have stuffed more items in my suitcases.

For those who are coming here, get everything you can get, even i suggest paying fine for extra weight

Lemme see how i gonna spent 2nd week.

cheers

Ajay

JayGee · Post by **JayGee** » Sun Sep 12, 2004 11:26 pm

Ajay - well done man, you passed your first week - interesting news.

Tell me, what time did you arrive in UK - am/pm?

Also what medical do they do (except for the X-RAY) - hopefully not the surgical latex glove treatment??

Tx - your news are inspiring and buddy go slow on the spending - btw isnt £ 65 too expensive - I am only paying £ 17 per night - but then again in hostel...so hopefully the 7 nights aint that bad...I did say hopefully did'nt I?

Tell me more - yes tell me more Ajay.....

Ajay Kumar Singh · Post by **Ajay Kumar Singh** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 8:03 pm

Tx JG,
Well man i told i lost the sense of time lemme try to remember ...
Well it was eveninng i suppose yes it was evening around 6-7 PM.
Medical just they took X-ray that's all. For 1 minute job i had to wait for 2 hours.. pathetic..

Yeh that's costly but we r 2 people and that includes breakfast as well, i looked around other hotels as well they are almost same rate or may be 10-20 £ cheaper. But we liked this hotel hosts are good and nice breakfast to start the day.

What else to tell..
Today i went for studio hunt and settled in the second viewing.
May be tomorrow i gonna shift in studio apartment. Got it in 650 £ per month, this rent includes Council Tax. Other taxes i have to pay. It's in Zone 2-3 border in North of London.

Since i didn't have any references so i have to pay extra 3 months deposit. Yeh that's way of life in London.

On job front still no success.

And weather yeh it's raining

less or more it's raining now here goes London...

cheers
Ajay

Sampan · Post by **Sampan** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 4:12 pm

Thank you Ajay !

Got many things and many tips from your experience.

Though you will be bussy in future for job hunting...searching apartment..etc..etc..plz keep us with your experience.

Thank you again.

lightpace · Post by **lightpace** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:44 pm

Hi Ajay,

it's so great of u to share your fresh experiences with the house which goes a long way to smoothen the path of others still coming up.

pls keep up the good works, i intend to do same if hopefully hsmp comes out favourable..

anishpadela · Post by **anishpadela** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 12:27 pm

hi.. while coming out of India, Do Indian Immigration asked for any formality like PAN no., PAN card or something else...?? Few days back, someone said Immigration officer asked for PAN no. first...

Ajay Kumar Singh · Post by **Ajay Kumar Singh** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:20 pm

Anish,
They didn't ask anything at all.
I had 2 immigrations, remember my flight was canclled and i had to go thru again for second time immigration. First time was easy just was aksed why i'm going to UK and my answer was simple and ready made "To Live and work in UK", which i repeated as many times as i was asked

Second time some goddamn knee cap was sitting there and asked all the questions he could .. why the flight was canclled. and this n that but again he didn't ask about PAN or anything.

But i was carrying my F-16 as proof for PAN number (I don't have PAN card but i do have PAN number)

cheers
Ajay

anishpadela · Post by **anishpadela** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 7:18 am

Thanks Ajay. Have a great time out there...

sharat · Post by **sharat** » Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:06 am

may be this is not applicable to Ajay but in the interset of other migration seeking qualified people arrive in seeking to work in UK (HSMP or work permit )

** Your first aim is to find a job:

Not luxury. So forgive luxury for the time whatever your lifestyle was being is till you find a secured job and switch back to normal mode. This means you may have to go to a students life mode.

accomodation:

For family people I would suggest sharing an appartment with another family till you can afford staying your own.

costly peripherals :

A laptop costing 800 pounds is by all means is wasting money. What is your need of a laptop - connecting to the internet, logging on to your email, browing/searching applying for jobs. Do you need a high configuration and polished one for this ?. I would buy only a 150-200 pound decent one from the second hand market.

Best regards

Sharat.

JayGee · Post by **JayGee** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 8:30 am

I agree with you Sharat - as a matter of fact I was going to follow exact route.

Firstly - staying in cheap accomodation to save cost - no luxury - I just need a place to sleep and store my stuff.

Secondly - eat and live cheaply-further travel economically and buying a monthly travel card - savings on the long run.

Finally - I was wondering about notebook - shall I buy here or there - dediced against it - cause once you find a job - do you still need it afterwards - secondly Internet Cafe's are inexpensive and some companies offer their facilities free until you find a job and somehow you pay them back later - works for me.

tgs · Post by **tgs** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 9:25 am

JayGee wrote:
Finally - I was wondering about notebook - shall I buy here or there - dediced against it - cause once you find a job - do you still need it afterwards - secondly Internet Cafe's are inexpensive and some companies offer their facilities free until you find a job and somehow you pay them back later - works for me.

One thing about buying a computer, I will not buy in SA. You will find a it hard for support.

I agree 2nd hand laptop will save money, but a desktop is half the price of a laptop. Laptops are only good if you going to travel and really need it while you traveling. What you might need to consider is getting yourself wireless connection. Have a look at
http://www.btopenzone.com/products/ Because I'm a BTYahoo Broadband user I get a 3 month trail period for free

Also look at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/18 ... _wireless/

is that

JayGee · Post by **JayGee** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:08 am

TGS how's things on your side?

tgs · Post by **tgs** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 11:12 am

JayGee wrote:TGS how's things on your side?

Very good. Remember when I entered the UK I already had a job. Been here since April. Myu contract expires the end of October, so I have to look for another now. Have a few possible offers.

Two of my friends also join me the same time, they didn't had any jobs when they entered. One storugled a bit because over commited himself financially but he managed 3 months on his own, just he took heavy strain financially. The other one was very carefull with his finances. And manage for 2 months before getting a job.

JayGee · Post by **JayGee** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 12:07 pm

How does one over commit oneself financially whilst in the UK?

tgs · Post by **tgs** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 3:41 pm

JayGee wrote:How does one over commit oneself financially whilst in the UK?

- You buy yourself a big laptop.
- You move in with a friend and the two of you share the rent, cost you £400 a month (= 6000 Rand a month) instead of a hostel
- then you only look for jobs in area, because you can't drop your friend.
- spend money on clothes that you don't really need
- phone calls to your home country because you miss you friends
- not planning your travel.

and basically very bad planning.

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