Tag Archives: London

Overheard in the Bowels of St Pancras Station

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Men’s toilet, St Pancras station. A rather disshevelled looking gentleman enters the men’s room, adressing the silent row of closed cubicles

‘Oi, John?’

Muffled grumble from the cubicles

‘They f****** arrested Trevor! He was a bit pissed on the train and the f******* coppers came and f******* took him away’

More grumbles from the cubicles.

‘They f******* arrested Trev on some f******** terrorist thing. He was just f******** pissed, he’s not a f******* terrorist? I mean, he doesn’t look like a f*******Taliban, does he?

Does he?

John?’

Grumble from the cubicles: ‘There’s no John here, dude. Just us Taliban’.

Disshevelled man runs off, in an obvious panic.

Beautiful Stepney

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The East End of London has a pretty bad rep. Not quite without reason, but what people often don’t realise that how pretty the area is away from the grimy main streets full of fast food joints and mini cab offices.

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An abandoned pub, the Katherine Wheel has been converted into some flats. Shame. Looked like a nice boozer.

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St. Dunstan on a bright winter’s morning. Indeed, that too is the East End, just 300 meters from one of the major arterial roads. A quiet and friendly space that invites having a seat and contemplating about the change this amazing urban space has been going through over the last millenium.

Snow paralyses Britain

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Image courtesy of pineapplebun on flickr

Even though I have been living in this country for over 10 years, it still amazes me that a little bit of rain/snow/hail/kittens/leaves can severely disrupt the infrastructure. Today there has been what, 10 cm snow, and there are no buses in London, the tube is mostly shut down and all train companies have disrupted or no services.

What happened to British Engineering and why do the French/Germans/Dutch manage to keep going when its snowing?

Oh well. Me Johnny Foreigner traipsed for 45 mins through London this morning to make it to my place of work. Sod the tube.

Tomorrow I might take my skis.

The daily commute or how to keep yourself happy.

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Image courtesy of  Donjuanna on Flickr

I have discussed my daily commute before. As it is bloody cold, wet and dark at present, I have ceased my cycling for the moment and am relying on the combination of walking, train and tube again. Every morning when I stand waiting for my train, I marvel at the numbers of commuters cramming every 10 minutes into the train to London. These trains are not little 2 wagon affairs, now, they are appropriately 300 meters long and apparently have about 1000 – 2000 commuters  on it. As you can imagine, finding a seat can be very difficult, especially when the trains are late and everybody is trying to cram into the last standing space to be at work on time.

So, depending on the amount of space I have, I have devised an entertainment strategy to get through these mind numbingly boring 30 minutes in the morning (and evening)

What you need:

  • One Guardian (The Independent has become unreadable for all its ads and lack of content. It’s soon going to be extinct anyway)
  • One FM-radio enabled media player (or phone, in my case)
  • One media player containing podcasts and music
  • One book (preferably small paperback)

When the train pulls in, you quickly have to decide what will be the best way to entertain yourself, depending on the amount of passengers waiting with you and the amount of passengers already on the train.

A rough guideline would be:

  • Easy standing space (sharing the dedicated standing space in the middle of the carriage with maximum 4 middlesized men {women always find a seat. don’t ask me why. It’s a cosmic mystery}):  Fully extended Guardian plus some wake up tunes from the Ipod)
  • Moderate standing space (ca 6 men sharing): G2 and Music
  • Awkward standing Space: (ca 8 men sharing): Paperback and Music. This necessitates a paperback that can be held and used with only one hand.
  • Crammed standing space: (8+ men, no space to move whatsoever): Either Mediaplayer with a long podcast (30 minutes+  so you don’t have to touch the Ipod dial) or Radio 4’s “Today” show on FM Radio)

If you follow these easy guidelines, you too can have an entertaining and educational commute.

Just don’t forget to brush your teeth and use a bit of deodorant. For the rest of us.

A stunt and the subsequent letdown.

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Back in 2007, Speights Brewery in Dunedin set a lovely idea in motion: transport a pub around the world to supply the Kiwis in London with their beloved Speights. Indeed, a pub was fabricated out of a container, put on a ship and before you could say ‘Good on ya mate’,  the little pub was plonked on the edge of the river thames, just around Temple station. Speights obviously thought this was a good idea, and later transferred the whole idea of a Speights pub in London into a ‘proper’ building in Essex Street, just around the corner from the High Court. Being an associated Kiwi living in exile I thought it would be a good idea to pop aorund and have a drink. I was dreaming of a nice, cosy place with some kiwi music and spirit where I could sit and reminisce about the penguins on my front lawn in Kakanui.

Well, I was obviously too optimistic. ‘The Southerner’ is a  pub in a basement with cheap looking furniture devoid of character, overlit and soulless. There are some rugby paraphernalia on the wall, and there is indeed the whole Speights range available  (and a Mac’s Gold for 3 pounds).  In the sixty minutes I was there the music was standard fare without any reference to New Zealand’s vast musical heritage.  Barstaff made themselves rare and were not particularly keen to come out and serve. On top of that screens everywhere.

Disappointing, to say the least.