Home » Archive by category "London" (Page 19)

G20 Protests in London: a thinly veiled satire

1 Apr 2009

In case you hadn’t heard, anarchy and chaos descended upon central London today. Or, at least, that’s what the media would have us believe. Here’s the real issue of the day: I had to change my entire commute to avoid the police blockade, the closed Tube station I usually use to get home from work and thousands of protesters (many peaceful, a small handful not). When a handful of hippies decide to get up in arms about some bank bailouts, thus disrupting my carefully timed morning and evening routines, I get upset.

Because I’ve been staying up late and waking up early, my sleep patterns have already been subprime and there has been some negative amortization of useful hours in my day thanks to a serious lack of moral hazard on the part of government-sponsored entities (namely Transport for London) and the fact that I may have missed one or two trains here or there. I’ve been dealing with effectively short sales of my budgeted time and although I really know I should be taking better care of myself, I haven’t really made much of an effort. I have paid for my hectic schedule with some highly toxic derivatives (my nose has been running for a week now). I’m sure I’ll be back on my feet in no time, in fact I am fully confident I can write up a plan to get out of this predicament. All I need is a bit of a bailout – in the form of a government provided holiday. Please don’t get angry if I give myself a bit of a bonus of a few extra days off. After all, you really can’t blame me for being tired or getting sick.

So please don’t think it’s selfish to make these protests all about me. They are disrupting an already precarious situation (related to my health and commute) and sure, the protesters might have some legitimate reasons to be angry – after all, their pensions are gone and their homes are being foreclosed on but really, is all this necessary? I’m sure it’s all one big budget misunderstanding.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to stay up late tonight to edit some blog posts.

London Calling

24 Mar 2009

It’s been a pretty crazy, not to mention physically and emotinally exhausting, last few weeks.  To be fair on myself, since I returned to London after the visa ordeal (which I still haven’t had the strength to blog about in its entirety yet), it has been effectively like moving to a new country all over again.

But tonight, in the chilly darkness walking along the Thames between City and Westmister, somewhere between St. Pauls gleaming marble, the OXO tower, the neon of the London Eye and Big Ben’s glowing faces it all came back to me.  I really love London.

Book and Comic Exchange in Notting Hill

22 Mar 2009

A week or so back I wrote about my wish to find a mind-bogglingly inexpensive used book store in west London and to my absolute delight I found one without even trying yesterday while on my way back from the Portobello Road market. I had gone to the market with the dual intent of people-watching for the afternoon along the busy street and getting some replacement pieces for a damaged earring from a bead and craft store in the area. On my way back, I happened to pass Book and Comic Exchange just around the corner from the Notting Hill Gate tube stop. Not having had much luck with the quality of previously visited used book stores, I wasn’t entirely optimistic but decided to poke my head in.

Photo courtesy of Google Street View

I have one major complaint about the store – the number of interesting and engaging books in that shop was so ridiculously high that it would have taken at least a day to properly browse them all – and I didn’t even visit the basement section! As far as I could tell, all of the books I saw were in great condition (many of them were proof copies so hadn’t even been read). I didn’t see a single volume priced over six quid and the majority were two or three. I got stuck in the a-z literature section – a floor to ceiling collection that stretched along one entire wall of the shop – so didn’t even begin to look at genre fiction, non-fiction, comics, movies, music, games or movie memorabelia.  It was a lit-lover’s dream come true as far as I was concerned and found myself leaving with over 1500 pages of fiction for less than a Starbucks coffee. I highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area.

Book and Comic Exchange
14 Pembridge Road, Notting Hill, London W11 3HL
0207 229 8420

Super Social

11 Mar 2009

Had a lovely evening catching up with Ann (my co-resident in the Top Floor Flat for those who have forgotten this blog’s characters over the last three months) and gossiping about our various jobs, extra-curricular activities and social networking grumbles. As we hadn’t had a proper sit-down since I returned it was great to just relax and chat.

In fact I’ll be doing an unusually large amount of socialising over the next few days as my cousin Erin will be arriving in London tomorrow evening and her friend Christine the day after that. I’m so incredibly excited to see Erin – I’m leaving right after work to meet her at the airport and can’t wait to show her all around London. I’ve already got our walking route planned out and hope to include a map and pictures in an update on the weekend. I think we’ll also try to visit Windsor Castle as well, something that will be exciting for me as I haven’t been yet.

Between showing off London, hanging out with my cousin and her friend, catching up with Ann and a coffee date with my new friend Em, this weekend of socialising might just force me to get out and meet more people in this city! Can’t just have museums and famous landmarks for company, can I?

Book Hunting

9 Mar 2009

After my eventful Saturday at the Science Museum, Sunday turned out to be fairly low key – I went to morning mass at the Catholic church I had discovered on my neighbourhood walk the day before and spent the afternoon reading next to my window while a fantastic thunder and lightening storm took place outside. I also put up some posters so the hills of San Francisco have joined me in my room.

My next task, I’ve decided, in my exploration of my local area, is to discover a ridiculously inexpensive used-bookstore. Now before you all start yelling “library” at me, I am a member of my local library and am incredibly disappointed with their collection. Now, I’m sure there is a bigger library in my network somewhere around, and I suppose it would be worth trying to figure out if there are any Hammersmith and Fulham libraries with more than the complete collection of Stephen King and six shelves of romance novels but I miss having my own collection available whenever I need a good read. Therefore I’m going to build it up book by book – for as little cash as possible. I know Alan Venning has had great success with a used bookshop near their east London home, I’ve got to be able to scrounge up something near me. Worst case scenario, I’ll troll the stalls at Portabello Road and Camden markets and see what turns up.

I’m looking forward to a bit of book hunting.