Aaron Around The World - Welcome to the ghetto!

Aaron Around The World    >>    Europe    >>    United Kingdom    >>    London, England

Jump to page: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 >>

Friday, 14 November 2008 - So long St Albans...

Back in July I relocated with work from Edinburgh down to a company-owned flat in St Albans, some 40kms northwest of central London. The deal was I would be down here for up to six months before heading back north again. However, for several reasons, I decided I wanted to remain in London long-term, as was always the plan anyway. I couldn't get a permanent transfer with work to London due to a lack of project work for me down here at the moment, and a month ago the decision was made by the powers that be that I would moved back up to Edinburgh at the start of November. So I had two choices: go back to Edinburgh, or resign from work to stay in London (despite the dire economic situation and unemployment being through the roof at the moment). I chose the latter. As much as I really miss it, I've done the Edinburgh thing and now want to do the London thing before I leave the UK. So upon handing in my resignation to work I had to get out of the St Albans flat and find my own (along with Katie). After a long and tedious search we finally settled on somewhere and are moving out of here tomorrow (and not actually to the place we settled on, but I'll get to that story tomorrow). The shot on the left is all my bullshit, minus the bike, the stereo, and pool table hahaha!

As for my work situation, I resigned with nothing else lined up, but I had no choice if I was to stay in London. Work were going to send me back to Edinburgh, and you can't properly job hunt and attend interviews and so forth in one end of the country while stuck in the other end. It was a very risky decision with unemployment climbing by the day, but it's not the first time I've done this. I quit my very first job in Brisbane after just three months, after it had taken about three bloody months just to find that job in the first place (because I was a graduate straight out of university). Again my hand was forced somewhat due to circumstances, but a week later I was in work again until the day I left Brisbane. So that worked out fine, and thankfully it has this time too! I took a punt that my experience and location (London) would be sufficient to mitigate the risks, and sure enough I've already got something lined up - phew! More on that later, but for now it's goodbye St Albans!

Saturday, 15 November 2008 - Hello ghetto...


Like I said yesterday, I'm moving out of St Albans and into London. I hired the cheapest, shittiest van I could find for the day and stuffed it all in!				This was my first time driving through London, and I'd be quite happy if it were my last - so much traffic that just goes nowhere! It would've been quicker to put my stuff in a trailer and tow the damn thing behind my bike!


Our new accommodation for the time being is a five-bedroom flat buried somewhere in a housing estate, and our room is not much bigger than can be seen here. This is in Elephant and Castle, a dodgy area (borderline ghetto) just southeast of central London. A total of nine people are crammed into the flat (all of them foreign I think), and I tell you what there's fuck all room in the fridge!		Some hours later Katie and I had managed to fit all of our stuff somewhere hehe - good effort! Thankfully this is only temporary for a few of weeks until the place we originally settled on becomes available in a few weeks.


Quick walk around the neighbourhood en route the supermarket to buy stuff that won't fit in the fridge. Housing estates as far as the eye can see. Welcome to London.				There was no doubt an entire bike attached to that wheel at some point hehe. Welcome to London.


I'm not sure how anti-vandal paint works but it must do because there was no spray paint anywhere, so the little bastards have just scratched it up instead hehe. Welcome to London.


Welcome to London. Who wants to come visit me?

Thursday, 20 November 2008 - Stonehenge!


This is how it used to look (apparently)...		This is how Google Maps / Google Earth sees it now...


And this is how I saw it today, in the middle of nowhere. My final day of work was yesterday and I don't start the new job until tomorrow, so I've got a some free time to kill.		Just like myself, look at all these people who've come to take photos of rocks ;)


Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument plonked in the English countryside some 150kms southwest of London. The exact timeline of its erection and its purpose are the topic of continued speculation. In other words, no one has a clue what these rocks were for. Some prevalent theories are that it was a site of burial, worship, and/or astronomical observing. If nothing else it makes a good perch for the birds hehe. It is generally agreed that Stonehenge had its beginnings around 3000BC.


When and what are just two questions; the third is how! Stonehenge was produced by a culture with no written language, and they probably grunted and said "ooga booga" a lot. There is little or no direct evidence for the construction techniques used by the Stonehenge builders, but I'm guessing you wouldn't want to pick a fight with any of them. Various authors who were stuffed in their own lockers during their school years have suggested that supernatural methods were used, usually asserting that the stones were impossible to move otherwise so it must be those damn aliens again. However, conventional techniques using Neolithic technology have been effective at moving and placing stones of this size. Be that as it may, I still wouldn't want to pick a fight with them.


Mystery aside, Stonehenge is a pretty spectacular sight.		You can't please everybody though. Texas Joe here wants the henge put back into the public domain (those are some pretty pictures he's drawn there), as opposed to the English Heritage charging £6.50 to see it up close.

Friday, 21 November 2008 - What the hell is wrong with some people?!


This is Peter Connolly, or Baby P as he is more commonly known to the nation.		And this is P's resting place beside Islington Crematorium in North London. He was murdered (tortured to death more accurately) at 17-months old. Who did this? His mother, aged 27; her boyfriend, 32; and a lodger staying in the house, 36. As far as I can gather, the father had limited custody.


Early last week, news stories began to appear about Baby P due to charges having just been laid against the mother, boyfriend, and lodger. Several facts sparked a massive public outcry throughout the nation. P was "used as a punchbag" over an eight month period, finally resulting in his death. The 17-month-old boy suffered more than 50 injuries, including a broken back, broken ribs, a ripped ear, bite marks and had fingernails and fingertips missing. No murder charges have been laid; all three have instead been found guilty of "causing or allowing the death". P was well known to social workers, so well known in fact that they had visited the family no less than 60 times over the eight months and yet this was allowed to go on. No sackings or resignations have been made by the local council responsible for social workers. That council initially refused to even apologise for their blatant failings. Two days before P's death, some useless Pakistani doctor refused to examine the child because he was 'cranky'. Had it not been for this piss-poor excuse, the doctor would (or should) have discovered P's broken back and ribs, but instead two days later P was found dead in his blood-spattered cot.				There has been no shortage of random membars of the public who have come to pay their respects. How could anyone, let alone a mother, do this to a toddler?!

Sunday, 23 November 2008 - In the ghetto!


Keep in mind this is only temporary, but for now this is my street, and my neighbourhood (my flat is on the right, with five bedrooms split between nine people, and only one fridge).		And this is the next street over. Lovely.


It's got something resembling a playground.		It's a good place to just chill, day after day, after day, after day.


It's clean and tidy.		It's secure.		Neighbours are paranoid, I mean careful.


And the animals just love it (including those that walk on two legs and call this shithole home). Who wants to come visit me?

Wednesday, 26 November 2008 - Aaron vs. London Pedestrians
Three months ago I bought a little video camera for the bike, and in those three months I've collected several video snippets of my constant battle against the completely ignorant pedestrians of London. I was going to collect a few more shots before putting them on here, but something too priceless finally happened to me just the other day for the first time in 15'ish years of cycling. Before you watch this I just want to stress that I do not run red lights on the bike, I do stop at pedestrians crossings if someone is waiting to go, I don't bike on the footpath, I wear bright and reflective clothing, and I don't go out of my way looking for this shit to happen - it just does because Londoners seem to be off with the fairies and blatantly step out in front of me or don't get out my way! As a (reluctant) pedestrian I too ignore the little red man at the traffic lights and so forth, but I sure have a bloody good look for traffic before I step foot on the road. Evidently that's just too hard for some people to comprehend and this is the inevitable result.

Anyway I hope you get a good giggle out of this, and there will no doubt be plenty more to come in the near future. Enjoy :)

Sunday, 30 November 2008 - New Zealand, rugby, and bar fights


Yesterday I crammed into a sports bar central London to watch the All Blacks embarrass the Poms. The Australia vs. Wales game was also playing in the bar, and shortly after a Welsh try late in the first half it was all on as a classic bar brawl broke out right next to where I was standing hahaha! Unfortunately I couldn't get a shot of it as my camera wasn't to hand, but shit it was funny! It lasted a good minute or so between a group of several 40-somethings (one wearing an England rugby shirt) who clearly have nothing better to do than to get lippy and pick bar fights on a Saturday afternoon. After a couple of bloody noses and a few exchanges of choice words (that definitely were not the Queen's English) it was back to the game - great stuff! I was a little surprised nobody got glassed as that seems to be the growing trend of late for resolving differences of opinion, but maybe that's more fashionable out in the suburbs rather than town (much like stabbing - more of a suburban pastime).


Speaking of rugby, this big inflatable rugby ball has been sitting beside Tower Bridge for the last couple weeks to promote New Zealand hosting the next Rugby World Cup in 2011.	Inside they put on an awesome multimedia show to showcase the people, scenery, and culture of my beautiful home. I was warned before I went in that it would only make me incredibly homesick, and they weren't kidding.



Obviously the rugby got a good mention, and Dan Carter 'kicked' us back to dirty old London.		What do you say UK? 100% better than Britain!

Wednesday, 3 December 2008 - Brrrr!
Winter is well and truly here in the north, so here's a nice little something to warm you up. Enjoy :)

Saturday, 6 December 2008 - Goodbye ghetto!


After three weeks living in a south London ghetto, Katie and I are moving to a much nicer part of town to flat with a couple mates (Davydd and his girlfriend Marzena) - sweet as! So once again I hired the cheapest, shittiest, nastiest van I could find and stuffed it full of my bullshit.


Davydd made an emotional goodbye to his accommodation for the last several months while I stuffed the hunka-dunka with all of his bullshit too.				Third stop was Marzena's flat to pick up several suitcases that weighed about as much as a small car hehe.


After another round of fun in the London traffic, we finally made it to our new home in Maida Vale, northwest London (far nicer!).


We're two storeys up and the staircase is pretty narrow, so unloading the van (including Marzi's half-tonne suitcases) was fun, but not as much fun as my pool table hahaha! There're now a few marks on the walls that weren't there yesterday, and the tyres on my bike will add several more before I'm done with the place ;)


Unloading done, I returned the van and caught a bus back only to become stranded for about half an hour at the Oxford Street / Regent Street intersection in central London. This area is a shopper's paradise, and with the Christmas rush in full swing it had been closed to all traffic all day. My bus was apparently one of the first to come through here after it was due to reopen, but like I said 30 minutes later we were still here thanks to thousands of relentless pedestrians and Santas hahaha!

Sunday, 7 December 2008 - Making a house a home!


The need for bedding in the new flat brought me here - Westfield in White City. This monster just opened a couple months back, and is now the largest shopping mall in Europe.


This place caused traffic chaos during its opening few weeks, with cars queuing for around an hour just to reach the car park. I work with a guy who was in the queue one day, and when he made it to the front 45-minutes later he was told the car park had just filled to capacity and he'd have to go elsewhere hahaha! Londoner's are nuts like that; there are two Tube stations within five minutes of here and several bus routes service it but they still insist on driving in.				Hehehe!

Jump to page: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 >>

Page Comments

I just saw your page about Baby P who was murdered by his mother etc. That is FN gut wrenching. A very sad truth about the human race. You ask who could do such a thing? Well that pregnant slag on the previous page smoking might be a starter.

You know what, regardless of some of our oddball family members, no one would fit into this category. You need to be thankful for that.

- Dad

You love it ;)
- Aaron

Yeah we've had to carry it up or down three flights of stairs six times since!!
- Katie

So how many more time will you have to move that pool table?? It was bad enough trying to carry it up the stairs at Dundonald ;)
- Ba'y

i fucken hate shopping malls and the concept of them!
- davydd

Big Baz!! How are ya mate??
I sent an email around the social mailing list. I thought it included most everyone but maybe not :)
- Aaron

Hi Aaron,

Just reading your blog, didnt know you were leaving B&D.

I hope it works out for you m8, good luck
- Barry

You were a cherry once...
- Jimminy

Yeah well, when wit and charm alone don't cut the mustard a man should have a plan B. "Hey sheila, look what I can do with my tongue!!" You should see me eat a cherry ;)
- Aaron

Look at this fulla! Apparently this move pulls all the chicks.
- Jimminy Cricket

Loading image...

Yeah seems legit. We've seen the flat, we've seen the room, we've spoken to the dude who is moving out (is Polish and returning home), landlord wants him out anyway because he's apparently been a pain the ass, so yeah...
- Aaron

So you could end up leaving notes like these around your new Ghetto..
- Ba'y

Loading image...

hmmm are u sure this guy in elephant and castle hasn't scammed you?
- davydd

Go Ghetto No.1 !
- Paul