You right?

As it has been some time between posts, here's a few more London thoughts, following on from our previous effort...

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While not our first choice of a place to call home Shebu suits us for the moment, it's close to the tube, close to the gym, and for all those early morning Australian football matches we are about 1 minutes walk from the Walkabout... yes it has come that that :(

Aimes arrives at one of life's crossroads

In fact, a couple of weeks ago the Super 14 final provided us with our first opportunity to partake in the fabled 'beer before breakfast', as we joined hundreds of young kiwis clutching our plastic pints of beer at the very respectable hour of 8:30 in the AM. While there was something initially off putting about taking our first mouthful of the amber nectar (as Fosters likes to pretend we call it ‘downunder'), as the bar rapidly filled with smoke and the footy kicked off... we started to get the handle of it...

After this we have become much less discerning and the idea of entering a smoke filled pub and downing a beer before lunchtime now seems all part of the sacrifice you have to make for footy!

Portobello Road

Importantly for our ability to eat we have both had some success in the job market, with Hobbes signing his life away to a cold heartless multi-national and Aimes doing some temp work until the head of marketing at Universal decides the time is right for the hand over of power. This in itself has been an interesting experience as it required Hobbes to complete his first week of work in 9 months… although on the up side this also resulted in his first pay check in almost 12 months.

Aimes at 0 degrees longitude

View of a grey London from Grenwich Observatory

As we have arrived just in time for the commencement of summer we have been fortunate enough to witness the very English method of embracing of this new found warmth. We had our first introduction to the English love affair with the sun when we were blinded by something very white and very bright while wandering through a park in Dollis Hill. As we continued we noticed that these brilliantly white domes were scattered all over the park. It was to our horror that we eventually discovered that the source of this was numerous locals who had decided that 25 degrees was too good an offer to not strip down to your undies and sun yourself in a park.

Subsequently we have been witness to numerous similar efforts whenever the sun decides to peek out from behind the clouds for more than 10 seconds. Even the lovely Shepherds Bush Green, located perfectly between three main roads and usually the private retreat of numerous wino's (and surely countless used syringes) fills to overflowing with near naked pasty white bodies at the slightest hint of solar radiation.

Who's a lucky man?

Aimes, Gerg and Rohie, London Field

In this context it was much to our delight that the BBQ we recently attended was located in the East End where it appears they have a more conservative approach to their park activities – sticking to the proven recipe of alcohol only! On this subject, another English past-time we have embraced is the park. While initially seeming a very poor replacement for a beach, on a sunny weekend the London park experience really is the goods. As people pack every corner armed with their disposal bbq’s, beers and footys it really has a strong community feel and ends up seeming like one big backyard. And to think we haven’t even had to survive a winter to enjoy it!

When the BBQ's over...

8pm, London Field - Love that Day light saving!

Being over here has also given us the opportunity to catch up with heaps of people we hadn’t seen for ages, in fact there are so many people over here it feels like there can’t be many back home? Perhaps our view has been skewed by having lived in Vietnam and not being used to having so many people around?

Overall people don’t seem as rude as we were expecting, people have offered us directions a few times, we’ve seen at least one person offer their seat to a pregnant woman on the tube and what’s wrong with sitting at the bus stop while some paramedics wait for an ambulance to take a body away anyways? Going by the tabloid newspapers and police statements posted at the tube stations you would think it was an every day occurrence – it probably is!

City Hall and Tower Bridge

Just to prove our first impressions wrong, London did finally decide to turn on the sunshine for the past week. Though this in itself has caused problems as they definitely are not set up for the heat, on the news they refer to 26 degrees as ‘hot’, which is probably quite accurate as the buildings and tube are not able to cope with even this – bring on the rain and cloud! In place of aircon, even the newest of buildings just have ‘cooling’ which seems to be what we call a ‘fan’ at home. Though it does present the city in another light, everything looks much nicer, and you have to get used to colour rather than just shades of grey.

Aimes in Richmond Park

Not sunny

Although it has been hot, when you find yourself on a balcony of a bar by the Thames in the warm sun of the afternoon (or evening since it doesn’t get dark until 10pm), the hot and sticky tube ride home doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. Yes the brown Thames is starting to seem like a second rate substitute of Sydney Harbour…

Some of Borough Market's produce

More from Borough Markets

Another of the London-must do’s that we have knocked off is a trip to Fabric, where a line up of Freestylers, Stanton Warriors and Plump Djs is the kind of thing you can only dream of in Sydney but is a weekly occurrence over here. Freestylers live has got to be one of the greatest things we have ever seen! On the music front Aimes also made it too Foo Fighters in Hyde Park, we did a Cuban Festival on the Southbank and have Massive Attack back in Hyde Park this Friday. By the time that’s over it might be about time to start lining up for next years Glastonbury?

Daz.

Anyways, June offers to be an interesting month with the Uber-nationalism associated with England’s efforts to repeat their greatest (or perhaps more importantly, sole) effort in the world cup. This will add to the upside of living in Aussies-ville as we can to some extent avoid the constant coverage of St George’s cross without standing out too much.

Tower Bridge

It's London innit

Having been in the land of sunshine for over a month now, and being somewhat incorporated into the world of full functioning adults again, it is probably as good a time as any to provide a bit of an update on what’s been going down and to start making some unsubstantiated judgements of this place we've decided to call home.

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Aimes sharing and caring as always

Starting at the beginning (which seems as good a place as any), after our slightly extended sojourn in Sydney (3 weeks somehow mysteriously becoming 8 through a mixture of work and playstation) we finally made it to a quite warm London. The home of football hooliganism, pasty white skin, bad teeth and page 3 girls, had decided to put on a 28 degree effort to welcome us to her shores. Unfortunately, it didn't take long to become clear that we were merely being mocked, as the temperature soon plummeted and our decision to leave behind the blue skies, beaches and surf started to seem somewhat insane as we became accustomed to day after day of grey skies, cold winds and drizzle.

At this point please note that incessantly harping on about the weather is part of our attempt to assimilate into the British way of life :)

Asiana delights

However, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, en route we had a brief stopover in Seoul which warrants at least a passing mention. As well as allowing us to see what DJ loved so much about the place, the stopover also allowed us to experience the ‘heated floor’ for the first time - a good idea until you find the melted cherry ripes in your bag…

The thinker

One thing immediately noticeable about the Korean members of our flight was the depth of their obsession with duty free shopping. It must be the first and only flight where most of the passengers spent most of its duration (when they weren't asleep) shopping. There were flight attendants constantly scurrying back and forth up and down the aisles delivering the recently purchased merchandise. This behaviour was to continue within the Icheon International Airport where the duty free shops were jammed packed as if they were all about to close down, leaving the rest of the terminal like a ghost town.

Other than this we didn’t get to see too much of the place, we did do a bit of a walk around town and fuelled up on some hot noodles and beer (reacquainting ourselves with the Korean beers we had been knocking off in Mongolia), but that was about all we had time for…

Hobbs' (sic) Pie and Mash Shop

So we eventually did arrive in London and had our first (second for some) experiences of the city we intend to call home for the next couple of years. Why we decided that moving to one of the most expensive cities in the world after having not worked for a year is anyone’s guess but here we found ourselves. Fortunately we had the hospitality of Pat and Emma, a recently purchased double airmattress from Argos (yes Argos, more about that later) and house of 20 other antipodeans to help us settle in.

These first few days proved a steep learning curve as we learnt the importance of the Off Licence, which of the 20,000 chicken shops are worth going to and that Fosters really isn’t that bad when you can get 8 cans for 5 squids innit.

Hobbs (sic) Barbers Shop

Basically much of our first couple of weeks has been spent walking, from Notting Hill to Earls Court, from Camden Market to Regents Park, from Euston Road to Islington, from Whitechapel to Old Street, from Shepherds Bush to Soho, from Greenwich to Canary Wharf you get the idea. We think there are about 6 locations on the monopoly board that we didn’t cover, but plenty of time for that during the forthcoming Monopoly Board Pub Crawl (when Hobbes learns to drink more than 10 pints that is). But it was a good way to get to know the place, not spend too many Aussie pesos and give the 20 other housemates a bit of space...

Hobbes, Ainslie and Rohie take on the English summer

Integral to our crash course in living in London we have been quickly acquainted with the many and varied ways to save a quid or two, among them being the wide assortment of oversized discount shops. Apparently at the top of the list sits Argos, where we have been faithfully assured that you can get absolutely anything you want, be it a length of garden hose, a plasma tv or an airmattress. This is not to mention Primark the home of the machine washable suit - it keeps on saving you money! With these chain stores on every second corner and the ubiquitous pound shops everywhere else, it soon became clear why all the spruikers out the front of the discount shops in Sydney are poms…

The white cliffs of Seaford?

Although it doesn't seem like we have done too many of the London tourist slights we've already checked out the Museum of London, The British Museum, the Royal Observatory, Hyde Park, Regents Park, Covent Garden, Camden Market, Westminster, Trafalgar Square - in addition to all the walking aforementioned. Though this has really made us understand why we are here – you can see all of this and have barely scratched the surface of what London has to offer!

Walking in the countryside - very English

Anyways, after a few weeks abusing the hospitality of not just Pat and Emma, but also Rohie and Ainslie down at East Grinstead (birthplace of L. Ron Hubbard for those Scientologists amongst us) and of Russell in New Cross, we found our own room in Shebu. For those of you not acquainted with Aussie life in the UK, Shebu is Shepherds Bush, a little piece of bogans-ville in London. Not only does it have a Walkabout, it has an Aussie Pie Shop and Pete Murray concerts on what seems a weekly basis.

A Greenwich pie shop

The boys cooking up a storm

The housemates (all 12 of them) are a pretty good group, even if they do manage to make us feel like ancient teetotallers most of the time. The can recyclers from Vietnam could probably retire after collecting one weeks worth of empty cans from our recycling. But you are never without someone to talk to and more likely someone to have a beer with. The boys splashed out on a pool for the backyard last week, and not some tiny wading pool, a 2m long, half metre deep effort – the first time either of us have lived in a house with a pool! Add in a couple of BBQs (not gas of course, this is Ingerland) and what more could you ask for?

The only bad thing about Shebu is that unfortunately it has far fewer chicken shops than Willesden…

Speakers Corner, Hyde Park

While down with Ains and Roh, we did a drive in the countryside, rolling green pastures, quaint pubs every couple of miles and newly born lambs made for a very English experience. We took in the white cliffs of Seaford and witnessed the crazy poms sunning themselves on the rocks below in the freezing conditions (wot, the sun were out weren’t it?). With the necessary bangers, mash and a pint thrown in to the mix it made for a great day and really sold us on the English countryside!

The Shebu pad