I first went to live and work in London in 1969. I shared a flat in Ealing with an old schoolfriend for a while, then met up with another crowd, on the edge of Chelsea including lots of great Aussies.
Never for one moment did I regret the good times there, although I became fed up with the job, but that's another story. The pubs were great places, especially on Sundays, when I even played rugby for The Scarsdale Tavern with a monstrous hangover from far too many pints the night before...
Later, my various work was centred on London, and I usually drove the sixty-odd miles there and back on a daily basis, as the companies provided a decent car, and I was nearly always on the road!
Since I retired three years ago, I think I've been back once, to help a chum out with some work, and it really isn't the same any more. Successive liberal-left policies have strangled the place in my opinion, and when you consider the insane stance from maniacs like Ken Livingstone in the seventies, and now that silly little guy, Khan, it's much nicer to say 'no' to anything on offer in our once-proud capital city. Blood pressure remains normal, and I breathe fresh air all day!
It's becoming a badge of success that I don't ever have to add to the income of any shop or firm up there, and travel remains purely local with a happy Senora O'Blene in a small VW Golf, a small dog, and an electric bike.
So well done, London liberal-lefties, you can keep your benefit scroungers and serial stabbers, I don't need you any more!
Well said, Sir, couldn't agree more. My family lived in south London in the early years of my life and it really was a great place to grow up in. We had beautiful, well maintained parks and commons - Tooting, Clapham and Wimbledon - all nearby (10-15 minutes on a bike - and it was safe and generally healthy and the people were polite, knew what the word 'queue' meant, and all spoke English (often quite badly!) and kept a general eye out for other people's kids.
ReplyDeleteThe rot set in when the Windrush docked and ninety percent of the passengers settled in Brixton, Peckham and Balham - and it was downhill from there ever after. The traitorous idiots Blair and Brown, and the rest of that totally incompetent Scottish mafia, added to the rot with the arrival of untold numbers of khat chewing foreigners. So literally the day after I retired, and having already arranged for a local estate agent to sell our flat in Sutton, we flew away. Now we only live about 8-9000 miles away so it is a bit difficult to just drop by!
But living here has the great advantage, apart from lovely constant warmth, of being several hours ahead of GMT so it is possible to catch the midnight flight out which gets into LHR between 6 and 7am. That means it is possible to do whatever you have to do in and around London and then get the 11pm flight back out - which is exactly what I did some time ago when I popped over to attend my best friend's funeral in Canterbury. I had no desire to spend any extra time there.
I might have to make a slightly longer trip next time as my passport expires a week before Brexit deadline day, a journey I now have to do since the aforementioned idiots stuffed everything up for us expats by centralising passport issuing back in London instead of as before, being able to get it all done in a few days at the local diplomatic mission. I understand there is an'express' same day service which I might look into some time before then.
Not quite sure who lives and likes London today, I spent some great times there as a muso in the early eighties but there is absolutely nothing that could ever get me to visit again especially with children. As a northerner and a scouser I never did consider it as our capital though, just a big semi foreign sort of place and so I felt as comfortable in New York as in London, more so now.
ReplyDeleteI agree, London is grim. So overcrowded that a major form of transport is underground where it isn't even worth looking out of the window.
ReplyDeleteI do envy your far-off benefits, Reevers, I suspect that where you are is probably a much more considerate area than this awful place. There's no pride here any more, just maniacs like Blair and Major and co trying to obfuscate what was purely a loss for them, and they just can't suck it up!
ReplyDeleteOur village is a haven well away from the real scum,but it's not good reading the news these days, and of course, the BBC have really tanked with their disgraceful attitudes and opinions. Nobody I know even bothers to watch or listen to them any more - utter dross.
For a great pick-me-up, read https://biasedbbc.org/! Fabulous comments, and some good original observations too!
I've never thought of London as anything but a big mixture Thud. The nearest I got to your area was Warrington, and the chap I met there gave me a bottle of Cloudy Bay back in 1994,and I never ever got to Liverpool - more's the pity!
ReplyDeleteI could easily drive to Manchester and back in a day back then (business with the Co-Op), but wouldn't want to now...
London's out for both my lovely Senora and me. We're staying well away.
The underground used to be expensive but efficient when I used it regularly, AKH.
ReplyDeleteI gave my Oyster card to a daught, as it had twenty quid on it and I was damned if I was ever going to use it again. She often has to work late and we're becoming more paranoid about her coming home to another village near us, but still not close enough...
I wouldn't go to London if you paid me in exceptionally rare coins! I have absolutely no desire to travel all that way only to feel like a sheep being herded into various "must see" places at an extortionate price. I would love to visit the National History Museum where mummies and other relics of the past are on display, but I fear it would be too much for a little Goosegirl who, due to her rather miniature height, would probably have to stand on someone's shoulders to see anything whilst keeping her bag somewhere under her underwear. Nah! Give me the peace of my home, garden, Graudian cryptic crossword, a good feed and dear friends around me and I will be more than replete.
ReplyDeleteThis was supposed to go on your previous topic but I seem to be a robot! Anyway, here it is.
ReplyDeleteAh Michael! Yes you're right and we have been a bit, er, extravagant in our choice of party venue but Phil loves Tom Kerridge's recipes and so we went for it. Your party venue for Mrs O'Blene sounds just as good and will let you both rave as much as you want and will also oblige you with silken tasselled cords on the bannister stairs so you can locate your rooms afterwards!!
The truth is that I still love London. I've only ever known the black version of it. I actually like the Mussies, most of the coons - anyone who wants a laugh, wants to graft and who is peaceable. I like most lezzas, homos... they are a real hoot in the main.
ReplyDeleteWhat I hate is LEFTIES !
Do gooding fucking LEFTIES.
This Stephen Lawrence reprisal. What else could stoke up frictions than a revisit ?
And surely it's a measure of the success of multiculturalism that the Left can only cite ONE case of white on black murder and even in that instance the racist intent is in question.
CUUUUNTS !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1lIPVD1EB4
ReplyDeleteand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRItYDKSqpQ
For EK - in case you missed it....
ReplyDelete... and the rest of us 3 or 4 gallant scribes. Worth passing on to your younger re;latives too.
https://going-postal.com/2018/04/this-septic-eye-ch-6/
I don't give a monkey's **** what country they come from, what race, religion, colour, dress habits, sexual orientation and IQ they have. I take people as they come. I respect those who keep their values and way of living when everyone else seems to be losing theirs, their family loyalties, standing up for what they believe is true, having the courage to "come out", their bravery in living with racist comments, and lots of other tripe that they have had to endure. I hope you can read between the lines what I'm trying to express. Examples:- I worked with two Asian lads whose attitude to work and manners would put many others to shame, yet someone once said to me over a meal that they are "not acceptable" so I retaliated and didn't even give a thought to what they thought of me. I have also worked with a couple of people who I would dearly loved to have seen stoned to death. Is it not possible to live and let live, talk to each other to gain an insight into their culture, to give the gift of understanding to those who don't "fit in" what we call "normal" and what the hell is that anyway? Though I've never met a lezzie I've known a few homos and they were great chaps! When will people-bashing stop? When all those who are deemed as unsuitable for our future country are just ignored i.e. those with genetic mental and physical disorders (they'll cost too much in our NHS system as it is), and anyone else who speaks out for what we sane ones know is morally right. We are in danger of living in a world where we become robots to work for "those who know best" and "free will" will be no more. What does that remind you of??
ReplyDeleteNot good for normal people at the moment, is it!
ReplyDeleteThe 'elite' seem to be in control of the handles, but there's despair of the main section of our race, because they think they're in carge1
But they ain't and so we tell them constantly, and when they eventually listen, they may well understand. Until then fuck'em.
For Carge read charge, and for the number '1' read '!'!
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd let you all know...
ReplyDeleteIt's the hypocrites I don't like. My motto (generally) is live and let live. You don't bother me and I won't bother you.
I worked on and off in the middle east for going on 12 years - and I never once met an Arab who did not like a beer or a glass of Johnny Walkers. But if one was offered, they would always look carefully around them first just in case anybody was watching. I once flew from Kuwait to Bahrain, a flight of about an hour. Seated in the row in front of me were three Kuwaitis, all of whom I knew, dressed in their dazzling white full length nighties and tablecloth head-gear. When the trolley dolly appeared with the drinks the one in the aisle seat asked for "three Carlsbergs, please". Naturally, or rather naively, I assumed that order was one for each of them, but no, the one in the middle piped up "and three for me, please" as did the one in the window seat. They happily glugged the lot before we landed. They must have had very strong heads!
Also when flying out of any Arab country, withing half an hour of take off, there will be a row of bin bags making their way to the loos - only to emerge 5 minutes later as very colourful butterflies draped in designer clothes, new make-up and ready to face the nasty wicked, full of temptation west. The reverse happens on the way back.
Oh, and just in case any of you are going to Morocco, a "Coke Marocaine" is a whisky and Coke. Just so you know...
Ha - like that drinks scenario! I too hate hypocrites, know-it-alls, theft of any kind, bigots, bullies and devious controllers, and anyone who tries to do you down because they're jealous of what you've managed to achieve. They are usually lacking in self-esteem so they put on a façade instead of just being themselves. It's a thin veil that most people can see through and once you do, you know how to combat their behaviour towards you. Actually, their actions make you a stronger and a wiser person.
ReplyDeleteEK's right actually, it's the blasted councils and their fumbling members who are making London such an awful place. Sorry Kev, but the cops aren't doing much either.
ReplyDeleteNaaaah, I'll stay here - forget the other place whenever I can.