My love / not so love relationship with London

"Hate" is much too strong a word about this great city. London is such a unique, vibrant, diverse and bustling city and I've really enjoyed living here the past 9 months. So I thought a little summary about what it's like to live in London might be timely - the goods and the bads!

The walk to work

So some of you know that I live in East London, which is walking distance to work. After hitting my snooze button 4-5 times I'm usually running late, so I always leave the house feeling a little flustered. In an attempt to regroup and get a little zen before arriving at the office, I always take a deep breath in to relax...

...only it's London and there is tonnes of traffic next to me and the air doesn't smell so good. And that's on a good day. Every few times I take that deep inhalation, I happen to be walking past one of those red old-timey phone booths that someone has taken a piss in. Yep, I take a big gulp of piss air.

On the other hand, walking to work can be great BECAUSE of the traffic. Back home, one of my favourite things to do was to sing in the car. No-one could hear me (although my family know a highly embarrassing story that proves that's not always true) and so I could sing to my heart's content. Now that I have no car, I live with house mates and in a high density area, I don't have anywhere private to sing. The unexpectedly good thing about noisy London traffic is that I can sing on my way to work and no-one can hear me!! It puts me in such a good mood:

The weather

Well you all know what I'm going to say here, though I really didn't expect it to be this bad! Because my room is so small, I only have room for two season's worth of clothing at a time, which I alternate. In June I optimistically swapped over to my "summer clothes" in anticipation for some much needed Vitamin D and warm weather. I can tell you that NOT ONCE did I wear any of my summer dresses, let alone shorts - I mean what was I thinking by bringing out my shorts? This is a better description of England in summer:

On the plus side, the UK does the holiday season really well. When I was studying here last year, I was amazed that Bridget Jones Christmas jumpers are actually a thing - it wasn't exaggerated in the movie. And this man proves that you can still be handsome in a ridiculous Christmas jumper.

Another great thing about winter in London are the ice rinks - there is one opening up right near my work! I started to think about how my life will be infinitely better now that I have my own personal ice rink to go to after work. But then I remembered that I work in a law firm and that I'll most likely be inside watching the holiday goers laugh their stupid laughs and have their stupid fun and I'll longingly gaze at them wishing I could have some of that:

The tube

I can't post an update about London without mentioning all that is weird and wonderful about the tube. You see some really great characters there. My favourite was definitely a guy in his late-20s, with some serious dreads, who brought his own old school boom-box on the tube at around 11.30pm. Everyone was really lifted by the music and were smiling embarrassed smiles. It didn't quite have the effect that The Lonely Island said it would, but it came close!

On the other hand, there's also so much potential for awkwardness on the tube. There's the squishing onto the carriage during peak hour, not knowing where to hold onto, you take so long to make a decision that the tube starts moving and you jolt and instantly grab onto the nearest thing which of course happens to be another person's hand. 

That's nothing though compared to my experience last weekend. I was sitting on an almost empty tube and I had forgotten to bring something to read. I glanced over at the guy reading his newspaper next to me, and was intrigued by a headline, so I leaned a little closer and kept reading. I might have leaned in a bit more. He realised that someone was breathing heavily right into his ear, turned around slowly and we locked eyes:

It was horrible. 

The other thing that I can never seem to get right is to remember to take out my oyster card when I'm about to get to the ticket barriers. Stepping off the tube I always elect to walk up the escalators (it of course counts as exercise for the day) and I walk up those steps focusing on not appearing too puffed and sweaty and like I'm regretting my decision. As soon as I reach the top, I reach casually for my oyster card before I realise that I have no idea where it is:

I end up having to awkwardly shuffle out of everyone's way before I can have a proper dig through my handbag. 

London's little mysteries

There are still some things that I want/ need to figure out before I leave this city. At the top of my list is to find out the identity and purpose of this one man who works in my area. On my way to work I sometimes choose the quieter option down narrow, hip Old Street lane ways. When I do, I pass by a particular window and this same white-haired man is sitting right in the window typing on a laptop. Who is he? And why is he working at 7.30am in the morning? And why does he never look up - his location is perfect for people watching and yet he is so dedicated to his computer. Yesterday was a revelation to me, because I SAW SOMEONE ELSE IN THE ROOM. I will get to the bottom of this if I have to knock on his window myself.