Aaron Around The World - London, it's full of weirdos

Friday, 16 July 2010 - Angry old men are awesome
This will be me one day: the Winnebago Man

Saturday, 17 July 2010 - If nothing sticks to Teflon, how does teflon stick to the pan?

My flatmates moved out last weekend, so since about three weeks ago I've been putting ads up on various flat-hunting websites to find replacements. So far, this is what I've had come through the door (or almost come through the door) for viewings, I shit you not:

32yo Kiwi chick, with a 22yo Columbian-born Spaniard boy-toy who turned up looking like a total playa and conducted himself accordingly.
Shree, mid-twenties from the Middle East somewhere, spoke at all of about 10 decibels and gave me the impression she had phobias of loud noises.
Ben, 26, English, suspect he was high on crack.
Natalia and some other drongo (didn't catch his name - I couldn't understand a word he was saying, in fact I'm not even sure he was speaking to me in English, or any language), a Brazilian couple in their late-twenties. She seemed nice enough, he looked as though he had learning difficulties and probably walks into walls.
Carol and Rosheen, Irish pals in their mid-twenties who have just moved over from Dublin and who I initially suspected were lesbians until they asked if we could get two single beds in to replace the double. Never mind. Seemed nice enough but decided there wouldn't be enough space in the room for all of their shit, to which I must say the room is massive and how much shit do two chicks really need for fuck sake?!
Simi, of some other ethnic origin, apparently got mugged on the street outside my door before she even stepped foot inside the building. Needless to say she was no longer interested.
Samual, a short bald fat African pushing 50, barely spoke English and instead brought his chums to translate. Not an ideal match I felt.
Anna and Ramondo, Italian couple in their late-twenties. She definitely wore the pants and belittled everything he said, and he gave me the impression he had phobias of her.
Dwayne, got lost coming from my nearest Tube station round the corner, and after half a dozen phone calls I gave up and turned my phone off.
Laura and Faye, mid-twenties English pals who I initially suspected were not lesbians until they refused the offer of two single beds in favour of leaving the double bed in the room. Score! However, they appear to have disappeared off the face of the planet as neither me nor my landlord can get hold of them, which is a shame because we were both very keen for them to move in ;)

So in short, this city is chock-a-block-full of weirdoes, and after three weeks I still haven't found anyone I would want to live with. I've got a few more coming for a look tonight. Can't wait.


After another pub feed we wandered around and ventured along the River Thames for a ways (the Thames is actually really nice until it hits London hahaha!).


Wee rural English cottages dotted around.		After a while we found this...


...a wedding, and we happened to get there just as they were grouping together for a photo so we all stood up the back and photo-bombed it hahaha! With me in my board shorts and Anna there in her track top etc., people were looking at us but nobody said a word hehe. I also ripped a tiki torch out of the ground waved it round for a few photos - shame we'll never get to see them ;)


Orgies don't just start themselves.		After inviting the ref out for a post-match beer, New Zealand player Reid didn't take it well when informed the rest of the world had never even heard of Lion Red, let alone South Africa.


Driving in London - why people put themselves through it is beyond me. It makes for some good fun for me on the bike though, I love playing in it, but you've gotta wonder about people don't ya.


This dude managed to close an arterial tunnel under the River Thames for half an hour when his turbo blew part way through and filled the whole tunnel with smoke. Fire engines and ambulances and cops all got involved thinking there had been some major explosion in there or something, but no it was just this dude and his clapped out Ford. It's not obvious here when he's stationary, but it really did look like a chimney once he started moving.		Elsewhere this guy managed to lose it on a roundabout and take out a pole before wandering off and just leaving the car there, complete with the pole still sticking out the front of it hahaha! Driving in London - why people put themselves through it is beyond me.		Anyway I did an 80km burn out to Thamesmead today, a rather odd place 15kms east of central London on the south bank of the River Thames. Thamesmead is supposedly the fraud capital of the UK, and at one point an entire street in the town existed where there was evidence of people being involved in fraud at every address hahaha!


As part of the ongoing mission to get the hell out of London at least one night a week, we found another random little pub in another random little part of the country. This is Henley-on-Thames, plonked right (as the name suggests) on the River Thames about 60kms west of London. Thanks to the traffic that I mentioned above on Sunday, it was almost friggin' dark by the time we eventually got there, so all we had time to do was devour some meat (well I did) on the riverfront.


Another gig tonight, this time Bombay Bicycle Club in Union Chapel (very cool venue in a big old church!). Bombay Bicycle Club (named after a chain of Indian restaurants in London) are an indie rock group from north London and have been around for five years now, having formed the group at the age of 15. Video here of one of their better-known songs.


On Tuesday Katie and I drove to Henley-on-Thames after work for some pub grub outside of London, but didn't get a chance to see any of it thanks to it being dark by the time we got there due to London's traffic. So we got a couple folk together and came back for round two. Nice enough place :)


I was tempted to grab some food and wine while we were there but I refrained hehe (for once).		In other news, do not enter the clothing bin (just in case you were thinking about it).


True to form it's been another one of those weekends where it's going to piss down at any moment, and is therefore one for spending largely indoors. That being the case, something slightly random here - BAPS (whatever that stands for) Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, or more simply known as Neasden Temple. This is a Hindu temple located in Neasden, a crap hole in northwest London. Back in 2000 Guinness World Records recognised it as being the biggest Hindu temple outside of India. This impressive thing is made of some 2,800 tonnes of limestone and 2,000 tonnes of Italian marble. Over 1,500 craftsmen in India carved more than 26,300 individual pieces which were then shipped to London and the building assembled like a three-dimensional jigsaw over two and half years. Construction also involved the biggest ever concrete pour in the UK, when 4,500 tonnes was put down in 24 hours to create a foundation mat 1.8 metres thick. All up, construction cost around the £12 million mark, and was completed in 1995. Photography is strictly forbidden inside, so I had to flog a few shots from good old Google Images, and smuggle a few with the camera on my phone hehe. Inside she's just as impressive as the outside, and is mostly full of Indians praying to statues of various Gods.