14 Jul 07 New mode of transport
Last week I bought a lovely bicycle, and however tempted I was to go with the ‘Princess’ bike with the front wicker basket, I chose this more practical ride made for city commuters. This London summer has so far been dogged by outbursts of rain, but I’ve managed to avoid the bad weather and have been riding regularly. I still need to get lights for front and back for night visibility, and Matt strongly suggets I get a helmet too. Where will I find a subtle helmet that doesn’t appear to be made for either Tour de France riders or for use at the roller derby?
To be cautious I have tried to ease into the experience of riding in major traffic, especially as I need to learn how to properly ride in the left side of the road. If I’m unsure of what to do I just cross through junctions as a pedestrian and start pedaling again when I’m comfortable. In reality I have adjusted quite well and have no trouble cycling to and from home via Commercial Road, even with its multiple unexpected obstacles including impatient motorcyclists who weave round cars at high speeds, and of course the mad lorry drivers! Cyclists share the bus lanes here so there’s more room for safe travel.
Traveling across Tower Bridge on a cycle is especially lovely, though the two-way skinny lanes make crossing a bit squeezy and I have possibly already felt the brush of a side-mirror on my arm. Drivers do seem to be aware and courteous of the numerous cyclists in the roads though, which is good.
Now we just need some sunny days so I can take leisurely 20-mile rides west to Richmond…
22 May 07 A little bit of paradise
We’re all moved in and unpacked but with one slight problem - we’ve got no furniture! For some reason standard delivery times are two to eight weeks, depending on what you get and where you get it. The bed won’t arrive for up to 35 days, so the Aerobed is in semi-permanent position. The sofa comes by first of July. Then there’s still stuff to order like shelving and blinds.
There isn’t much storage space, so until we get some serious shelving set up (an entire wall in the livingroom) some boxes remain packed with books and things.
The waiting wouldn’t seem such a hassle if we didn’t have visitors showing up today for a two-week stay! Such is life.
The flat is great though! Overlooking the cemetary is fantastic, like a bit of paradise actually, especially compared to our last location on a major roadway. Now the prevailing sounds include chirping robins, the intermittent powering-up of the boiler in the kitchen, and an occasional airplane coming into city airport.
17 Apr 07 Arrivals
Visitor season is in full swing now at our flat! The Aerobed hasn’t even been packed up, it’s still in the livingroom awaiting the next guest arrival :D
This is a picture of a military helicopter flying around Stonehenge. It’s incredible that this ancient monument has highways on two sides about a hundred feet away maybe. Fields of sheep make up the other nearby space.
Some of you may have visited the blog last week and discovered strange-looking advertisements in its place. That’s because I accidently let my domain name expire and nearly lost it after four years! I’m pleased to have been able to sort out the problem within a day or so, and things move along.
4 Apr 07 Sofa shopping
Is this sofa smiling? I can’t tell what’s up with it.
Since we’ll need furniture when we move I’ve checked out what’s available online. For some reason I am anti-Ikea when it comes to buying a sofa, especially those of the fabric-covered variety. There’s not much out there for reasonably priced and lovely sofas, but maybe one of these two will do the trick. I prefer the second plum-coloured one, which means I have super taste (it’s the cheaper one).
Oh yeah… and not having a car in London makes Ikea shopping rather difficult, and I hear their delivery service is a shambles. Capitalists with vans have solved that problem! Like this one called Unflatpack that shops for your items and delivers - they’ll even assemble furniture for you for £30/hr. We plan to get a little wild with Billy, creating an entire wall of shelving, but we’ll piece it together on our own.
30 Mar 07 New Starbucks
As I mentioned in my last post, Starbucks has now opened a shop in Whitechapel Road. It really is quite a big deal, as indicated by the BBC.co.uk front page story today.
Protestors claim that the new Starbucks store on Whitechapel High Street will damage the East End’s unique character
They put these posters up on the storefront
meanwhile…
Tower Hamlets Councillor Ohid Ahmed, the Lead Member for Regeneration in the borough, said that the council wants to encourage regeneration by promoting outside investment from companies like Starbucks.
“This place is the heart of London and obviously we encourage more investment. We’re glad to see more investment coming into this area,” he said.
13 Mar 07 Some more flat photos
Well these aren’t the best images, lighting is a bit poor, but you get the idea. I pulled them off the agent’s website.
Kitchen
Main Bathroom
Master Bedroom
Master Ensuite
Second bedroom
5 Mar 07 February gone
Well the month of February started out well enough, with a visit from a Vancouver friend. Karl was in London photographing hotels and having not seen him in two years, we all had some catching up to do. I took him on a whirlwind walking tour and showed him all the London sights in just an afternoon. He certainly remembers very little of the details - “We saw Trafalgar Square?” - but it was good fun nonetheless.
Early in the month I did a fashion/portrait photo session with a clothing designer from Manchester who was here for a trade event. We discovered some interesting locations around Kensington Olympia where she had her booth at the Londonedge show.
In-between days I trolled property listings and viewed the odd flat here and there - the keyword being ‘odd’. Not much to get excited about. One flat had a large hole under the flooring in front of the kitchen sink and the owner, who was home at the time, said the building had safety problems, which I verified on my way out by spotting the multiple deadbolt locks pocking the door.
February 13th there was a ‘little’ accident in the building next door where builders were renovating the interior. They were near completion of the work when something rather terrible happened - either a supporting wall had been erroneously removed, or their space was overloaded with boxes, we’re not sure which, but four floors of the front elevation collapsed. Luckily all the workers managed to get out safe and alive. Unfortunately the event caused a logistical problem for all powers that be who had to figure out how to clean up the mess, resulting in an 8-day road closure and denied access to other buildings in the block. We weren’t allowed home until February 21st which meant we had to stay with a friend down the road for 8 nights, unable to access our most basic necessities. Glad that’s over!
Chinese New Year (of the Pig) came around with the most enormous crowds I’ve seen descend into central London, causing small pockets of claustrophobic hysteria. I managed to get a few good photos, but it’s a difficult prospect to frame a picture when you can’t see beyond the person squished in front of you.
Since then I had a portfolio review with London Independent Photography, signed up for a Monday dance class (urban street jazz) and spent a record amount of time with Matt viewing one exhibition - the Gilbert & George Major Exhibition. These fellas have collaborated for 40 years and work in Fournier Street, not far from us. Many sites from Spitalfields and Brick Lane are incorporated into their art, so it’s a pleasure to recognise our neighbourhood expressed in their work.
1 Feb 07 Urban Love
Recently I’ve been receiving emails from friends asking me, “So do you like it there?”
It has been over a year since we arrived here, and perhaps my “End of Year” summary didn’t quite get to the poetry of what’s going on.
Living in London has so many negative aspects, you could summarize a few of them if you skim the last couple of posts here. Just like New York City there are far too many tourists here, more than 20 million each year, which causes difficulty when you want to go about doing normal things like buying an iron, or clothing, or even groceries.
Living in any major urban center means you live in a chaotic universe that’s organic, always changing. Some days you want to vanish, while other days you want to give up the safety of your home and live in the buzz of the streets. That could just be me…
A day like today in London is a Royal Treat! It’s sunny and warm, but the days still begin to end around 3:00pm. The sun just doesn’t ride high enough.
But today I took a break from flat hunting to do some shopping in Covent Garden then decided against traveling home underground as I usually would. Weekends we would normally walk home (last weekend we walked the entirety of Zone 1), but today I rode home in the bottom of a double decker bus and enjoyed what is one of the best tourist rides going - from Trafalgar Square down the Strand and Fleet Street past St Pauls church, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and jumped out at home. The ride took 20 mins.
I didn’t have my camera today unfortunately, but enjoyed watching Londoners be, watching the city go.
Not many places in the western world can you ride past thousand-year old buildings to your doorstep in a jiffy.
I love London.
18 Jan 07 First round
So far I have viewed three flats and spent countless hours scanning listings on the internet. Properties are selling faster than they are listed, so I’ll see something new and call in to be told offers higher than the listed price have already been received.
What did I view?
250k 1-Bed Flat
Approx. 475 square feet
Somewhat near a tube station (Bethnal Green) and amenities
Partial first floor of a small terraced house
Kitchen with no appliances
Unoccupied and finished in rundown hospital aesthetic
249k 1-Bed Flat
Approx. 550 square feet
Over a mile walk north from Mile End tube
“Split Level” meaning internal stairs to top floor of Victorian House
Small with expected old-house slopey floors
Occupied with offers higer than list price likely to be accepted
280k 2-Bed Flat
Approx. 550 square feet
No tube in vicinity, 50 mins commute from Hackney Downs to Matt’s work
Victorian conversion, top floor of house
Beautiful bathroom, nice floors, kitchen in a closet (a long, narrow one)
Two websites are quite useful for general searches - Findaproperty.com and rightmove.co.uk - but otherwise you need to keep up with individual sales agencies. Depending on the area you want to buy there’s a dozen or so useful ones, so property hunting is a time-consuming process unless you have the pounds to hire a relocation firm to work for you.
I am just now heading off to view a 2-Bed in a street about 20 mins walk from where we are now, though I have no idea what to expect. The listing essentially read “2-Bed For Sale”.
1 Jan 07 Best for 2007
Today is not only the beginning of a new year; it’s the first anniversary of our arrival in London! At this time one year ago we landed at Heathrow, took a taxi to our hotel near Trafalgar Square and dropped our bags in the room we would call home for the month of January. We set out to explore the city for the first time (for me) and enjoyed the enormous welcome parade, what would become the inevitable street celebration of each anniversary to follow. Yes, shortly we’ll get out and watch what is commonly known as the annual New Year’s Day Parade!
The past year feels like a just a few months and somehow longer than a year, too. Londoners’ accents no longer sound foreign. We’ve learned enough new regional words and slang to form a small dictionary (which eventually I’ll publish here). Instead of riding the tube we’ve crossed the city on foot a number of times, each time diverting down unseen alleys and snickleways, discovering historical oddities and architectural gems in many turns. We visit many of London’s quirky markets regularly, such as those in our own neighbourhood - Petticoat Lane, Spitalfields, Sunday UpMarket, Columbia Road, Roman Road - and some further afield like Borough, Camden, Portobello Road. Our memberships for the Tate galleries and ICA have been well used, and the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Photographers Gallery, the V&A, Barbican and Museum of London are all familiar with us.
In the past year we have entertained visiting friends and family and had travels in Paris, Barcelona, Edinburgh, and Wales. And being careful not to snub England in our adventures, we’ve seen Brighton, Lewes, York, Scarborough, Cambridge, and a few country parts where the wind could blow through the train station without resistance by humans. This one time while walking in the woods we even entered the Matrix (perhaps a story for another day). Oh and we’ve encountered many sheep.
Matt has been to work most weekdays at his office in Mayfair, which has been sufficiently challenging and enjoyable. He estimates he’s read about 40 books in his leisure time, while I’d nearly double that number. He has also enjoyed almost all of his annual 25 days off from work. Last week he saw Victoria Beckham in Saville Row with a swarm of paparazzi close behind.
In 2006 I shot many photographs, mostly of people and landscapes. I joined the London Independent Photography group, had work in their annual exhibition and just took on the role of designing their website. I participated in a Street Photography workshop at Tate Modern and regularly attended forums at Photographers Gallery.
Yesterday - the last day of the year - I found five grey hairs in my head!
All that’s a general overview of what 2006 was for us.
Already 2007 promises to be a full one. We are currently searching for a flat to buy, which is an extremely difficult and expensive venture in central London, particularly for first-time buyers. There’s no doubt this will be a frustrating experience, one which I plan to document here blow by inevitable blow.
There’s a strong chance I could start a full-time job next week, too. I had an interview before Christmas that went very well, and expect to hear a decision by the end of this week. I have mixed feelings about working again full-time, but it has been nearly four years since I did!
Well, here’s to an healthful and exciting 2007 for those of you reading!
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