london - Rob, Rambling

16.03.10
12:58:00 - Comments (View)

picture, graph, geography, london, new york, finances,

Yep, London is still an expensive place to live, according to the Economist’s latest estimates. Admittedly, not as expensive as Paris or Tokyo, but still pretty damn expensive. For what it’s worth, New York gets a score of 100, against which all the other cities are ranked.

I get the feeling though, that this is more to do with exchange rates fluctuating rather than any particular fall in the cost of living in each city. The pound has tanked against the dollar in the past year, which probably explains how London has gone from 8th most expensive city to 16th.

12.03.10
15:31:00 - Comments (View)

photo, london, buildings, weather, arty,

2 notes

It’s a lovely day out there…

Ely Place, EC1, London

10.03.10
21:16:58 - Comments (View)

photo, london, street art,

3 notes

After seeing that Banksy film the other day, I’ve spotted some bits and pieces of street art here and there as I’ve been wandering. This one was the other night just near King’s Cross Station, specifically here. As you can see from the Streetview, it’s pretty recent. There are a few more Space Invaders around London, most often round Covent Garden way.

26.02.10
17:50:00 - Comments (View)

photo, work, london, landscape,

4 notes

Still daylight when leaving the office? Wow!

00:00:00 - Comments (View)

picture, reblog, london, family, university, memories, drunk post,

6 notes

I’m going to assume that agirlcalledhenrietta took this photo of the inside of the Barbican complex, because it’s a fucking awesome shot. It reminds me of when I had my graduation ceremony there a few years back.

I spent 4 years at King’s College London to do my law degree, minus a year in Germany when I was 21, and it culminated in a ceremony at the Barbican with gowns and certificates.

My parents didn’t trust me to make it to the ceremony on time from my then abode, so booked me a hotel room neighbouring their own, for two nights.

I have to admit that my final year at uni was a slog; my friends had all graduated, and I couldn’t be bothered to make new friends. I just wanted the whole university/poor period of my life to be over and done with, and to get out into the real world.

For my parents, however, it was all about the ceremony, because I’m the eldest grandchild in the family. I still feel like a bit of an outcast because I couldn’t introduce them to X hundred friends.

For them, it was one of those moments of recognisation of the money that they’d put into my education, although maybe not quite the recognisation of how it had made me the man I am today.

It’s still one of those moments that will forever be engraved on my memory.

I just wish that I might’ve felt differently at the time, and maybe REALISED just how important it was to my parents, even if it meant fuck all to me.

Reblogged from: agirlcalledhenrietta
Originally posted on: a girl. her world.

21.02.10
19:23:00 - Comments (View)

photo, london, chinatown, chinese new year, landscape,

1 note

Chinatown always looks amazing at this time of year. Busy too!

18:29:00 - Comments (View)

text, food, london,

3 notes

Any place with a pink neon pig and the word BBQ in the window is ok with me. Especially if it serves pulled pork by the pound…

Bodean’s on Poland St, Soho, Londoners.

12.02.10
10:51:55 - Comments (View)

text, random, subway, food, work, london, maps, so very very sad,

3 notes

Something else that I have achieved this morning: Using the Gmaps Pedometer to calculate the distance to the three Subway sandwich shops near my office, to find out once and for all which is the closest.

Quite sadly, I did it for two different parameters: an office-Subway-office round trip, and a gym-Subway-office route for when I go to the gym at lunchtime and grab lunch straight after.

The results show quite conclusively that the one on Holborn Viaduct is much closer than the others. The round trip is 400m shorter than the next closest shop, and 250m less when going there from the gym.

This is science in action, people, SCIENCE!!!

For the time being, it’s actually all in vain, as I have a little book of discount vouchers and am spreading myself across the three shops equally so as not to appear addicted nor cheap…

11.02.10
17:47:21 - Comments (View)

text, question, girlfriend, relationships, london, valentines day,

2 notes

So, it’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday, and I’m wondering what to do with the girlfriend. We’re going to be getting back to London around 2.30 in the afternoon from my parents’ house, giving us the whole afternoon and evening.

I don’t particularly want to go out to dinner and get absolutely fleeced in a restaurant, so am trying to think of something a bit different.

My current idea (if the weather’s ok) is London Zoo, which I think will be quite fun. We don’t really make enough of all that London offers as it is, so this would be a good chance to do that. I’m a kid at heart, and so’s she, so wandering around looking at animals could be a good laugh.

Any other ideas?

10.02.10
12:55:28 - Comments (View)

quote, london, home life, transport,

1 note

In a wider sense, south London is a provincial city hidden inside a metropolis.

OK, so most of Simon Jenkins’ column on how harshly south London is treated politically is a bit over the top and incendiary (“South London is to become Britain’s Gaza Strip”, for example), but it’s a good read for an exploration of exactly how south London is very much the lesser half of the city.

I’ve lived in south London since 2005, first in New Cross and Deptford, and then in/around Wimbledon for the last couple of years. When I first moved to London, I was up in West Hampstead, north of the river, and it really is a bit of a culture-shock to cross the Thames.

Things are just different here. The Tube is practically non-existent, and everyone uses proper trains to get around. That, and the ubiquitous buses, which are everywhere. As the article points out, there have been numerous mooted plans to extend various lines south, but nothing has ever really come to fruition.

But I love south London nowadays. It just feels more like a home, a community, and there’s less of the isolation which it’s easy to envelop yourself in in other parts of London. Where I live now, it’s very green, which is a bonus, but still has that London feel to it.

Now, if only they’d build a few more Tube stops…

Rob, Rambling - A lot of things interest me...

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