Random bus ride (1)

My boyfriend and me like to spend time at the weekends doing random bus rides, to see some other places in London. If the day is nice enough we like taking walks around the town centre and take some pictures.

Today we made our way on the Piccadilly down to Hammersmith and got a random bus down to Richmond and then another one down to Kingston. I really enjoyed the second bus ride as it took us past Richmond Park and the beautiful area around the German school in London. 

Shopping in Kingston is definitely very different, from shopping in Central London, with large areas being pedestrianised. They even have a Lush which is definitely one of my favourite shops. 

About 4pm we decided to get on a random bus to the next tube station, as it got really cold. We got on a bus at 5pm but traffic was horrible! We reached Wimbledon station at 6.30 and were back in Walthamstow at 8pm. It never took me soo long before, to get home. Now it’s time for tea. I’m freezing.

Shoplifting

I just went to the post office, to send some stuff to my mum BUT I didn’t have the right envelopes. Nothing special you think? Well…  I entered the post office walked around the shelves until I found size C with bubblewrap inside. Then I went to the counter and paid 55p for that. Address still missing I went back round the corner to put name and address on the envelope. I towards the entrance and started to queue:

“Hey you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah who else?? Don’t you feel embarrassed to steal something so cheap?”

It took me a few seconds to get what she was on about.

“Are you f***ing retarded? I just bought that envelope from you 5 minutes ago and paid 55p for it. Idiot.”

And then I just went on listening to music. I hope next time she tries to remember her bloody customers.  

Fun in Wood Street, Post Office, Walthamstow, E17

Goodbye Astoria

My first concert in London – 31/10/2008 Hanoi Rocks and Wednesday 13 at the Astoria.

The Astoria, located on 157 Charing Cross Road just above Tottenham Court Road station, was a live music venue since 1976. Since then it has hosted concerts by the world’s famost bands such as Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Oasis, Pearl Jam and the Rolling Stones, but these times are now over.

The Astoria has been sold in 2006 and it is due to be demolished to make way for the new Crossrail station.

Glad I made it in at least once.

Jonathan Creek

I have actually never seen something so weird but also so interesting, I love Alan Davies and Caroline Quentin.

Hm… Tasty?

Basic Cooking

Being back at my parents place. the first thing I noticed was that the fridge is so full of food. I don’t have much money but I do have a love for food. It’s not that my parents’ cooking was exactly healthy, but it was more or less cheap and it was tasty. I have just checked for recipes online, because I don’t have much money to spend and I am convinced that cooking fresh stuff is cheaper than buying ready meals all the time.

So I have to admit that I am quite shocked about the fact that I couldn’t find a page online with good basic and cheap recipes. To me a basic recipe does not involve more than 5 ingredients and it should be something you could prepare and eat within 45 mins at max. Is that so difficult?

Edit: I bought the student cookbook now… lets see whether that helps.

Stansted Express

I was flying to Germany from Stansted to save some money. Easy thing, go to Tottenham Hale, get on the train, arrive at Stansted.

So at 4.30 in the morning my boyfriend (who was going to Ireland for the weekend) and I leave the house to get the night bus to Tottenham Hale (£1 bus fare), as soon as we arrived at Tottenham Hale we bought a ticket to Stansted (£26,60 open return), when a woman came over to us looking worried. She pointed out the message appearing on the information screen. “No service… weekend engineering works … Stansted Express is operated by a replacement bus service throughout.” Reading this message we assume that there is a replacement bus service, but after calling the National Rail Enquiries we are informed otherwise. There is NO replacement bus service from Tottenham Hale at all. There is NO information about that on the homepage (says train service is replaced my bus, Tottenham Hale is not mentioned!). We then have to get a cab for £15 per person to Stansted. My flight costes £28 and I have so far paid about £40 for the journey!

I am really annoyed now that I have checked the homepage and the travelling conditions as they say that you can only get a full refund if a train was cancelled. As our train was NOT cancelled we are obviously not obliged to a refund. So they generally take a £10 administration fee, but I am not going to put up with that. I don’t think you can apply this if passengers are misinformed deliberately.

Feelings can be so strong and confusing

The last time that I felt as weird as I am feeling just now on the 1st of July 2008 when I moved to London, away from my family, away from my friends, away from my country. I was sitting on the plane and I felt… alone. When I arrived at the youth hostel I had a shower and then I felt ready to explore the city – but I just didn’t have anyone to share it with. As soon as I moved into my flatshare my whole situation improved a lot. I had a place to put my stuff and call it home. Then I met my boyfriend and now this became some sort of home to me.

On New Years Eve all of my friends came to visit me. It was a weird feeling, because suddenly all of my past came to see me, I enjoyed it, but I also noticed all the things that annoyed me about them. I felt sorry about it, but it was too much for me. I just couldn’t enjoy the time.

So now it was time for me to go back home and visit family and friends. I arrived in Germany on Sat morning and went straight back home. It was such a weird feeling. It didn’t feel right, I didn’t want to touch anything, and everything felt strange and different. I missed my boyfriend and my new home so much. Now after another day everything seems back to normal, it seems I have never left this place. The most wonderful months of my life seem to me like a faint dream and I feel like I am forced to go back to my own life. I just can’t wait to leave this place tomorrow and go back home.

Preparing for Germany

Just preparing for Germany, going back home for the weekend, time so see some friends and family. I was already told that it’s pretty cold and snowy… OH NO…

Stupid Excuses…

I will have to apologise to all my readers. I just didn’t feel in the right frame of mind to post anything, maybe that’s due to the gloomy weather, lacking financial success, friendships falling to pieces or just lack of general well-being. To cut a long story short, I’ve been quite busy in the last few weeks, working, changing jobs and working and changing jobs again, so I didn’t really go out and had nothing to write about.

Welcome back to the boring London. I hope I am a bit more creative in the next few weeks.