London as I thought it would be

Rain, like fish and chips is something that is kind of synonymous with London, its forever wet, dull, and grey. But since I’ve been in London the only time it rains is at night when the skies are already black, and then the occasional rain during the day, but this is not too often.

Today is a typical London day as I expected every day to be before departing from my sun blessed country. I remember watching a movie at the Labia in Cape Town (how I miss those times) with Oliver before I left, and seeing those London skies made me want to leave cape town even more, today is the first time that those skies have made me think of the movie. I think the movie was called ‘Swimming pool’, it was pretty good, although Oliver had to explain it to me as I was having a dumb moment and didn’t quite get it.

The worst part about the rainy day, is that the oceans leave their natural habitat and pitch up on sidewalks unsuspectingly, this results in your leather work shoes being drenched in dirty cigarette but ridden water.

Even though this may sound rather grim, I quite like these days, after all there are always the pub lunches with good looking ladies to look forward to. Drinking a pint during your lunch hour (informally extended on Fridays) over here is considered the norm, so like they say (who exactly are ‘they’) when in Rome…

Photo Update

Merchant of Venice

I know I wrote about being at the premiere some time ago, but I found this photo, so thought I’d put it on the blog. This very professional looking photo (ha ha) was taken by Chris Lategan, he’s very good with a lens.

Table Mountain

It’s strange how when you see something every day of your life, it just becomes part of the background, you don’t really notice it anymore. How many of you back home actually stop and look at Table mountain every now and then? I do the same thing with the tower of London and Tower Bridge, I see them every day of my life as they’re basically a stones throw away (at least for someone with a strong arm). People come from all over the world to see the tower of London and I work right next to it…every day.

The same applies to table mountain, one of the worlds biggest tourist attractions, we live right there, yet we take no notice of it. I guess this kind of thing happens everywhere, I know French people who hate the Eiffel Tower, one girl in specific was so stereotypically (what I believe to be the stereotype) French it was scary. Although friendly towards me, she came across as being extremely arrogant and very disapproving of tourists. In a female French accent now: “Ze Eiffel Toweh? Ah, it is hideous! All ze tourists wis zer cameraa’s and ze click click?! And ze blinky lights on ze top of ze tower? O, so ugly”.

I felt like pointing out that the Eiffel tower brings tons of money into their country and that she was in fact a foreigner in this country, but decided against it to avoid a possible face-slapping.

So bottom line, every now and then stop and look at what we have, it really is amazing.

Me seeing Al Pacino

Around 18:00-19:00

Table Mountain from Blauwberg Strand

Communication Collapse

Living in Cape Town, one would have very little reason for falling out of touch with a friend. Most people have their own car, and most people live really close to their friends. Everyone has landline telephones in their homes, cell phone credit is cheap and there is always a network of friends to communicate through if none of the above is available, i.e. if you live in the bush.

London doesn’t, at least not for me. As great as my new house may be, there is unfortunately no land line, my cell phone credit gets stolen from dodgy ring tone companies that steal credit without permission (this has now been stopped at the cost of a prime-time telephone call) and signal/reception is mostly crap.

Although I have friends (no, I’m not a sad lonely person) there is no network, but more of an adventitious root type relationship with them i.e. they’re not all connected and I see them on separate occasions, through no fault of my own, it just works out that way.

Tube rides take a minimum of 35 minutes for me to get into central London, signal failures and people lying on the tracks aside. Add another 30 minutes and you’ve got the time it takes to see my semi-fictitious ‘incestuous’ family as Chris puts it.

When pissups and ‘other’ plans don’t block you from seeing friends, a self pitying feeling of being homesick surrounds you and you turn down potential ‘good times’.

For a 1st world country and one of the most cosmopolitan, urban and happening cities in the world, communication surely sucks.

Maybe that just comes with the territory or maybe its just me not being able plan properly, calling up 30 minutes before you want to go for a pissup in Cape Town is normal, in London its not.

Hopefully sometime this week myself, Chris, Dayne and m-a-r-c-i-a, (did I spell it right) can get pissed somewhere.

(Before you start judging me for referring to being pissed alot, I haven’t been sufficiently pissed in a good couple of weeks now)

Grey Happiness

When asked ‘So what’s your favourite colour?’ most people will say red, or blue, or yellow (taken from Non-existent Statistics Inc). I can’t think of anyone who would say grey, if you’re out there feel free to post your comment here. Grey is one of those colours that looks good on paper, or on a business suit, or on an elephant… but not in the sky for 364 and a half days of the year!

Blue skies, as I may have said before make me jump for joy, I love them, I miss them, I crave them. In London grey=good, blue=bad. This, like dodgy chicken, doesn’t agree with me.

When I was still in Cape Town planning my journey to the other side of the world, everyone kept telling me about how crap the weather is in London. My answer was always simple, ‘I’m not much of a weather person, so I don’t think it’ll bother me too much’. Never have I been so wrong in my life, I hate the grey skies with a passion! Well maybe not hate, as much as extreme dislike for most of the time.

The grey skies can at times be comforting, an example of these rare occasions is when its not raining, or when the grey clouds disappear to reveal the blue skies only to let the contained heat out at the same time. So either way you cant win, unless you’re here for the 2 hours of summer that all Londoners enjoy.

Blue skies in Cape Town normally mean heat, even during winter our sun is hot, as one would expect a giant ball of burning gas explosions to be. Sun in the UK is not hot, I’m still trying to find out if maybe they have a different sun to the southern hemisphere, or if it is the same, why on this beautiful blue & green earth is it cold in England?

So aside from my moaning about the pleasures that the grey skies bring to my heart, at least London isn’t as cold as people make out to be. There are times when thermal underwear would help, but they are few and far between.

The Move

Would you believe me if I told you that I knew people that didn’t understand what the words ‘happy’ or ‘smile’ meant? Well I’ve been sharing a house with a couple who since my arrival in the house of fun, have not smiled or laughed once. I honestly believe that these words do not feature in their vocabulary. Things like crumbs left on the cutting board seem to bother them to such an extent that I can only laugh in their face, which results in many false accusations and red faces with me laughing even more. This is however what I like to think of as the good times, as any other time that they are home; it feels like a miserable dark cloud has descended over the house. Basically we had many disagreements, mostly as a result of their pettiness, and lack of social interaction (TV is their only friend).

It may be possible that if someone could stomach there horrible attitudes for more than 10 minutes and find some good qualities in them (highly unlikely) they may be able to make a friend. This is however highly unlikely.

So now that the ‘venting’ is done, I can move on to happier times.

Last night I had the great pleasure of dragging, kicking, and being kicked by my luggage from one dodgy part of London to another dodgy part of London. This was due to my departure from the house with the ‘grinches’ (one of the nicer names given to them). I have now moved to a place where the houses don’t tower over you like in some twisted cartoon. The place I’ve moved into now has space and doesn’t leave you feeling dwarfed by the ugliness known to (east) Londoners as houses.

The first trip wasn’t too bad, other than my bag hitting the back of my legs every two or so steps, it went ok, and I did it in what I’d like to think was good time.

The second trip was a somewhat different experience, I realised that doing this on my own would just take too long, and I really didn’t feel like walking back and forth to the bus stop, my new flat, bus stop, old flat etc etc. So I asked my good and faithful friend Chris to lend a hand, literally, as by the end of the night foul language understood only by a select few in this world were flying from his mouth. Okay not flying, but there was the odd funny Afrikaans swearword. Chris had decided to carry the many heavy plastic packets, and opted out of carrying my suits, jackets and
un-ironed shirts in one big bundle. So I bunched them all together, and while still hanging proceeded to lay them over my folded arms, which worked quite well until I had to ask some random African looking lady to ‘please push the pillows back under my chin, oh and could you please just tuck those pants back in my hands, and one more thing, could you please put my bag back on my shoulder?’ I’m so glad she had a sense of humour and did it with a smile. All this while the plastic packets were much to Chris’s discomfort, digging further and further into his hands. If we hadn’t missed the bus stop, it would have all been alright, but at 8:30 the skies have been black for half the day already and the tinted windows on the bus don’t help much either, so because of me not being able to distinguish which bus stop to get off at, I took the safe way out and went all the way to the station. Excuses aside, my mistake resulted in an extra 10minute walk being added to our journey.

Now that you’ve finished reading this really boring story about my move to forest gate, which is right around the corner from West Ham FC, you can go back to doing what you were doing.

Table Mountain, taken from Durbanville

Playing Hackey sack on Tottenham court Road
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My old housemates

This picture was taken at Chris's birthday 31 October 2004. from left to right is Marsha (not marcia), the canadian girl who is dating Dayne the lookalike wolverine/hugh jackman on the far side, hes probably the maddest but coolest aussie I know. In between is Kasia, the polish girl who laughs everytime I open my mouth, I would get a complex about his but she does it to almost anyone who isnt polish, maybe its the accent. Then theres Imran, the guy who owns the off license (bottle store) around the corner from Chris's place.

It was quite unusual as unlike my usual self, I had too much to drink at Chris's bday and passed out. This was of course after providing very 'interseting' conversation to people from all over the world. I have to say it was the most mutli-cultural party I have ever been to: South African, Australian (the obivous ones at almost any party in London), Canadian, Polish, Finish, French, Italian, and of course the odd englishman.

It was a pretty good party, just wish I could remember more!

Oh yes, I used to live with these people, except of course for the off license owner, so far theyve been the coolest housemates I've had (in comparison to all 2 of the places I've stayed). Without embarrassing Chris and Dayne, the housemates seem like one big family, its really cool, as I'm like the cousin who comes to visit. OK Dayne, feel free to insert jokes here.

Houseshares in London arent always as nice as Lancaster road.

Marsha (not marcia), Imran (Bottle store owner), Chris, Kasia, Me, and Dayne

I really miss this!
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Africa/South_Africa/West/Western_Cape/Cape_Town/photo49125.htm

Chris and me outside Picadilly Circus, before joining Adam & Dayne 

Adam, Myself and Dayne, 2nd night in London @ Leicester Square 

Movies 1

I didnt know what to write today, so I thought I'd list some movies that I think everybody should watch if they havent already seen them.

1. Cold Mountain
2. Last of the Mohicans
3. Blow
4. Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
5. Family Man
("Virgin Suicides" needs a mention)

Theyre probably my favourite movies, but then again I love loads of movies so its difficult to make a list, as Chris and I have tried doing on many occasions. Every time we start, we come up with new rules/guidelines as to what can and cant be included. There are numerous reasons why movies may get excluded, i.e. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is absolutely brilliant, but if you include all three movies, so many others get excluded, LOTR gets an 'honoury' mention as does the original Star Wars trilogy, some films are automatically on your top 5 list, so they have to be excluded for space reasons etc.

What are your top 5 films? list them in the comments section, and dont be boring, do it! this is supposed to be an interactive sight, at the moment is pretty much I write and you read, so comment.

The Comm's animals

This morning I made the mistake of mentioning the word 'blog' around one of the people that work upstairs in the communications department. I now have to give her the address, otherwise have to face constant nagging, which I've been told can lean on the annoying side. I was also told that photos that apparently werent taken of someone at new years eve will be shown to me in return for the address, I hope youre not bluffing!

So to all the comms guys and girls, not mentioning any names, Narelle, Charlie, Tony, Jeanette, Lindsay, Viv, behave yourselves on this blog, young innocent minds read this, and beer is the only evil they know.

Cape Town Vs. the World

When in London you’re constantly comparing things to back home, is this better? Is that better? Etc. There are the obvious differences, such as Cape Town actually having sunlight! And stars! But then there’s the pound, things are more affordable over here, however I don’t suppose DVD’s can fill my stomach when I’m looking for proper food. The food in England is deprived of flavour.

But that’s beside the point, last night on Channel 4, I was watching this program on the worlds top 20 property hotspots, according to the British. They were all really attractive, every city or country side they showed made me think, ‘ooo that would be nice’ but I kept wondering how Cape Town would fare on this chart. Countries such as Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, Australia, and the USA all offered the most beautiful of cities, countryside and beaches. Think Tuscany (stunning rolling hills and tranquillity), Florida (beaches and the high life), Costa del Sol (the non stop sun filled beach life), Sydney (o.k., maybe not that attractive when compared to Cape Town).

Every new destination they showed made me want to move there, until it got to the top 5 and I thought Cape Town had to feature in there somewhere. As the numbers fell away, I was starting to think that maybe Cape town wasn’t as hot as I thought, but then… No 2!!! The most beautiful of all the cities, we’ve got beaches, wine lands, city life, clubs and the list goes on, when you see it compared to some of the worlds most attractive destinations, there’s no denying how lucky we are to be living in Cape Town.

I forgot what number 1 was, didn’t seem important enough.

To borrow a few words from Chris taken from his blog upon returning from cape town for his second year in London:

When living in Cape Town your entire life, you don’t pay much attention to people telling you it is arguably the most beautiful city on the planet. But, when you move far away and return to Cape Town…believe me…YOU SEE IT! The mountain watching over the city, the trees interwoven with the homes and buildings, the soft sand on the breathtaking beaches, the cascades in the sky during the various stages of every exceptional sunset, the hilltops lit up by the utter clarity of the moonlight, and the star studded dark-blue sky that twinkles over the city at night. Even the city structure and architecture is something to be adored and appreciated. The city is reminiscent of an Elvin metropolis if only judged by what pleases the eye. Be appreciative of what you see everyday, Capetonions. It is uniquely beautiful.

Post-Christmas update

I hope everyone back home had a good Christmas, ate heaps of good food, and opened up lots of presents. Unfortunately we didn’t get any snow, something I was really hoping would happen, like most South Africans, I’ve never had a white Christmas, and like many South Africans, I still haven’t had a white Christmas.

We did get thick frost though! As if that’s supposed to make up for the lack of cold white powder covering everything in sight. Other than the lack of snow, Christmas in England was pretty good, I spent the weekend at my uncles place in Bedfordshire, felt like I was back home, proper food (cooked not microwaved), presents under the Christmas tree, good people and much laughter. It was nice catching up with my cousins, they’re pretty much still the same, just ‘more’ of what they were, if that explains anything? I mean they were exactly like they were back home, just newer updated versions of themselves; I’m not making any sense now.

On the 23rd I went out with a few friends from work, they said they were going to a club in Soho and asked if I wanted to join, so naturally I agreed. Upon arriving in Soho and following directions without being given the name of the place, I was greeted with a bright pink neon ‘Escape’, guess what kind of bar it was? It was all good fun though, something to tick off on that list of ‘things to do’ that was never really on it. I recommend everyone go to a gay bar at least once in their lifetime.

Basically Christmas was good, new years wasn’t too bad either, went over to Nico’s, had lots of Castle lager (well not that much really) and watched Goodfellas, one of my favourite movies, before watching the fireworks display on the London eye. My week off was good, relaxed a lot, watched lots of DVD’s, played lots of Xbox, and avoided the rush of the January sales.