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Why I love London

Hyde Park and Portobello, and cycling down Ladbroke Hill
the border between the City and Shoreditch
I could never be quite sure where in the city I am, always mildly surprised to pop out on a familiar street after having been completely lost,
mind, Heron Tower and 30 St. Mary's Axe do provide a descent reference point.
Prolific Mr Wren, eccentric Mr. Newton (I like to think that we share a church), overweight Mr. Wilde (I imagine I sit on the same bench in the park - unlikely, but it makes me happy, so there)
The best (arguably) ashtanga yoga scene in the world
Bloomsbury! need I say more

As with any obsession/ addiction I am not OK without it...
A pretty strong drug, init...
 
12863-11803-LB.jpg
 
Epona said:
It's not that bad, I just need a skip or 8 and the courage to throw out all the hoarded crap. I always thought I was a bad hoarder until I met my husband. I love him, but my god it's a job in itself to get him to agree to throw away shoes with holes in the soles that have been sat unworn for 5 years.

I am hoping for retirement somewhere more rural.
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This is why hording is better in fallout
 
Wilf said:
I like the idea of London, how it's described in novels, the idea of a living city, migration keeping the process of change moving etc. If I could walk better I'd love to do long walks, to get a real sense of place, all that malarky. When you come as a visitor though, all that gets taken over by how much of a pain in the arse the place is for getting round. Always a bit of a relief to collapse (pissed) back on the train at Kings X.
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the panopticon stresses me out, armed policemen depress me and I'm on lock keeping eyes open for theives and wrong uns
 
too many things to list

the dozens of little cafes and resturants i like.

cycling through hyde park each morning.

the fact that there are no bigots on my road, just people from all over the world.

that i will raise my child in a thriving, teeming city.

the fact that you can be as anonymous or as known as you want.

the walk from bermondsey tube to millwall, seeing the crowds heading to the ground, the sound of slamming doors as people leave their homes. the floodlights in the distance.

manzes pie and mash

teh fact my parents live 15 minutes away

the local lake - fishing it two or three evenings a week in the summer, hiding in a bush until the keeper locks up and i can stay until 2am, watching the stars come out and hearing the sound of leaping carp out in the middle of hte lake.

there's plenty to hate, plenty more to love imo.
 
BigMoaner said:
the fact that you can be as anonymous or as known as you want.
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this is not unique to london or indeed major conurbations. I mean outside of london its not like elsewhere everyones a curtain twitching nosy cunt and everone knows each other business. Near a decade in this sleepy market town and I know only one bloke on my street and even then only to borrow tools and hear his tales of ketterings olden days (he's got to be knocking 70 if he's a day)
 
Freewheeling down Augustus Rd in Southfields on a Raleigh Wayfarer.
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square.
Walking in "The City" during the early hours.
Opportunities to piss on statues of warmongers and other ruling-class shit-sacks.
 
DotCommunist said:
this is not unique to london or indeed major conurbations. I mean outside of london its not like elsewhere everyones a curtain twitching nosy cunt and everone knows each other business. Near a decade in this sleepy market town and I know only one bloke on my street and even then only to borrow tools and hear his tales of ketterings olden days (he's got to be knocking 70 if he's a day)
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no of course not, but little villages must get intense.

there's good and bad in almost anywhere you live on this island...london is not really superior in that regard
 
hash tag said:
London is an almalgamation of little villages :thumbs:
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as are most conurbations that led to city size. Even the New Towns like MK swallowed up villages. You can drive through Duston in Northampton (which is a very Old Town) and see row upon row, estate upon estate of new builds yet when you get into its heart theres a full village high street, cottages and the like. One day all britain will be a massive paved over expanse of high rises and low rise sprawls of cheap housing. Imagine streatham high road stamping on a human face forever


We'll be like Brit-Cit from the Judge Dredd comics
 
London is a good place to be different. I'm so glad I was in London when I transtioned.

And as a young person, with energy, and stamina, I had a few decent years seeing bands and exploring the place, but along with that I've also had tremendous loneliness and isolation, which I think in a place like
London seems a lot worse than in a smaller community. I found it difficult to connect with people because of the miles between, and I feel that if I lived in a smaller city with more manageable geography I might have avoid the worst of it and climbed out of it a lot sooner.

Now London exhausts me; I have a 90 minute commute into work, and 90 minutes home, on packed trains that often fail. I live on the edge of London, which I thought might be OK, but it actually seems to be the worst of both worlds. the public transport doesn't connect properly as its all designed to take people into London and not to the next Borough; and every thing is hideously expensive!

I am also being slowly priced out and the places I used to enjoy going to no longer seem to be there, or at least they've changed unrecognisably.

Where I live its true blue Tory and I do not connect anywhere. I feel like I'm being squeezed out, but tbh, I want to go and there seem to be endless insurmountable objects in my way. Every time I jump a hurdle another one pops up. but I will go. Still hoping that 2016 will be my last year living in London!
 
Orang Utan said:
Armed police men? Where did you hang out? I've only ever seen them in airports and the City
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its not like I only visited once mate. but no, not outside the city they aren't toting those H&k MP5s. Just the sheer cognitave dissonance of it. You barely see a uniform ever round here and when you do its dibble of dock green level 'warm night' copper. Not ones just casually fingering the weaponry
 
I saw armed cops in Westminster tube station a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what guns they were.
 
little_legs said:
@ Victoria Station this PM

Hx00zEz.jpg
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90% of fashions i quite like, i can sort of understand them all.

but the Hipster extremist i just cannot fathom.

does anyone here think that looks good/cool on any level?

i guess that's the point though. he probably bristles with pride when someone likes me can't work it out.
 
BigMoaner said:
90% of fashions i quite like, i can sort of understand them all.

but the Hipster extremist i just cannot fathom.

does anyone here think that looks good/cool on any level?

i guess that's the point though. he probably bristles with pride when someone likes me can't work it out.
Click to expand...

It's fucking grotesque. When I'm dictator I'm enforcing a clean shaved policy, apart from at weekends.
 
forest hill 'spoons c. 10.15PM tonight

hipster light blokes standing outside, smoking and drinking. One of them is sittng on the steps strumming an acoustic. badly

departin 'spoons customer walks past, stops , dumps a load of shrapnel at guitarists feet

guitarist stops

" fucking hell man, i'm not busking, I'm practicing...."

sarcastic guffaws from massed ranks of smokers and bus stop queuers
 
hash tag said:
For both men and women I take it.

So Forest Hill is now an enclave for hipsters ( or maybe it's the spoons they came for ).
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Not to my knowledge yet
Although I was in Hackney when it became so
Then tulse hill attracted the type
Then forest hill has got em while I'm here
I'm going to thornton heath next -expect hipsters there in a year
 
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