the adventures of pinkaholic girl

the best and worst of London

I'm in a list making mood, so here are my 5 best things about London:

1. The transport system is heaven compared to Sydney, even with all the weekend trackwork. When it's running well, you never have to wait more than a few minutes for the tube, and all bus services are pretty frequent - at least one every 10 minutes (usually more), which a far cry from the one-an-hour 963 service at home which stops running at 6:45pm.

1a. By extension, the Oyster card, which is your all-in-one ticket for most forms of public transport. You can buy your weekly online, monitor all your trips (and so can British Government I suppose), and even get your money refunded if your card gets stolen.

2. The TimeOut guide, which shows that there's so much stuff to do!

3. No dangerous bugs or creepy crawlies anywhere. The worst thing I've seen so far is a daddy longlegs spider in my wardrobe. This may change in spring, of course...

4. Marks and Spencer food, which is a bit like a gourmet supermarket with lots of upmarket ready meals as well as good raw ingredients. Delicious!

5. The work culture is much more relaxed here. If you turn up to work on time, you're already ahead of the pack. AND you can go home at the correct time and not be accused of being a slacker, because half the office is leaving with you!


5 different things about London compared to Sydney:

1. Free newspapers are everywhere, and are actually quite popular. People leave their newspapers behind on the tube for others to read when they've reached their stop, which could be seen as either socially acceptable littering or a public service depending on your point of view.

2. There are very few shopping malls! Most shops are just along the streets. Also, absolutely everything in London is part of a chain. Everything. All the pubs, restaurants, novelty shops, delis... even the cute little french patisserie run by an actual french couple down the road is a chain store. They just hide it better here than in america.

3. It's not unusual to have carpet in your bathroom.

4. In London you don't get wheelie bins, you just put your rubbish bags straight on to the street to be collected by the relevant people. It feels so uncivilised throwing stuff into the street!

5. London really caters well for singledom and travellers. The number of single-sized, traveller-friendly portions of food, cosmetics and toiletries available is incredible. I suppose a large proportion of London's population are people like me, but the amount of effort that has gone into producing products for that target audience is amazing. You don't need to cook for one in London if you don't want to, and you can still eat quite healthily. Most rooms for rent are furnished alraedy as well, so you don't need to start from scratch.


5 bad things about London:

1. Most supermarkets are only open for 6 hours on Sundays, from midday to 6pm or thereabouts. Don't ask me why, but if you haven't planned your Sunday meal in advance, you're in trouble.

2. Limescale. I think the limescale is responsible for everything tasting bad because you use the water in all your cooking :( Even tea, which should taste marvellous over here, loses its flavour.

3. People are allowed to smoke in restaurants, cafes and bars. This is going to change in July with the introduction of anti-smoking laws, which I am only too keen to welcome.

4. The de-layering and re-layering dance, which is performed every time you walk into or out of a shop or restaurant in winter. It might be 5 degrees outside, but every office building and shop will be a balmy 23 degrees for your comfort. Only it won't actually be comfortable, because your arms are awkwardly full of puffy coat/jumper/scarf/gloves/beanie.

5. Losing mobile reception when you go into the tube. It means that if you're running late or stuck on a train, you can't call anyone to tell them you won't be there!

I also think London is a very environmentally irresponsible city, much worse than home. The volume of rubbish generated every day from pre-packed sandwiches and free newspapers would easily bury Sydney. Even fruits and vegetables are pre-packed! If I want to buy zucchini (sorry, courgettes) I have to buy them in a plastic wrapped pack of three.

People use their clothes dryers at home if they have one, because there's no outdoor clothes line, and very little space indoors to hang your clothes up anyway. They might also have their gas heaters on 24/7 to combat the chill. Then there's the super-air-conditioned office buildings and shops, and all the budget airlines which are doing terrible environmental damage with their emissions (which I admit I will take full advantage of, so can't really talk on that front).

There are also shops like ikea and ASDA that sell household goods at insanely low, non-sustainable prices. I mean, spending 19p on a set of kitchen cooking utensils is ridiculously cheap - It definitely costs more than that to make them in the first place, at least environmentally. And it frustrates me that I continue to shop at these places and perpetuate the cycle, but I can't stop myself! I can spend 20 pounds on an item, or I can go to ikea and get it for 2 pounds. What will my kids say when they're living in a houseboat because the water levels have risen so much? :p

posted by d @ 9:30 pm