The year is 2003, and two fresh graduates from Southampton roll into London to take it all on. Unfortunately they have no idea what they’re doing, which is why they’ve ended up in Acton, West London.

Who cares? I had a tasty meal at a reasonable price in a pleasant environment. It was precisely what I wanted.

We have all lived in some places. Where have you lived, Julie Bee?

Quite good: Victoria Hannan’s portraits of London cab drivers, with stories. My favorite: Ray (pictured above). “Ray’s been driving cabs for 16 years. He thinks it’s the best working class job there is and that there aren’t many others that let you work every day of your life if you want to.”

A job that lets you work every day of your life = best job. :(

(Another favorite woke up at 4 a.m. everyday for three years to study The Knowledge, “a test which has been described as a bit like having a mental atlas of London in your head.”)

This obituary of Pamela Jennings, a professional beggar in Soho, London in The Telegraph is a delight.

A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.

Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government’s Work Programme.

Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.

—Some people had a terrible time in London during the Jubilee. You see, they were supposed to work without pay, and also apparently without sleep or food or toilets. Your unpaid internship doesn’t sound so bad now, hmmmmm? (It’s still bad.) (But not this bad.) (Let’s not compare things, shall we?)

My internship was with a literacy nonprofit in Central London. I worked four and a half days a week, which was a real adjustment for my undergrad self, especially since before I left I was working in a supermarket deli. It was my first time working in an office for more than a summer break.

From London to Nevada, blueprints in tow.

I need to get some new stationary. I'll put that on the to-do list (I don't have a to-do list).