Officially Living In London
Hello Again!!!
So Here is the story. Since I got here I had that feeling of excitement, but that soon after turned into a sick to my stomach feeling. Not knowing if I could financially survive here actually began affecting my health physically and mentally. I had thoughts of packin up my things and traveling around the rest of Europe where my dollar would stretch a bit further. Since I got here I have started looking for a place to live and let me tell you, It is quite a task. The first two days I had no luck at all looking for a place after doing it all day long. Everything I looked at made me feel like I was in the US during the great depression...closet like rooms that were dirtier than some of my friends mouths (tony, behave yourself, huh?). After Travel on the Tube (what they call their subway) for nearly all day, both days, my calfs are so sore I was getting real turned off by London and any hope of living in this city.
I met up with a guy that my buddy Troy hooked me up with, who also oddly enough lived in Boulder for the last few years. He is a musician (jazz, hip-hop and such...he plays the bass clarinet, the flute, and the sax) for a band called the Break Mechanics, and like me, he came to London with not much of a plan for anything except for getting involved in the music and art scene here. He grew up in New Zealand (kenner!!! YO Buddy) and moved to Colorado when he was about 11, he's now 28). He lived in a commune for the first part of his life! Crazy, but we have more in common than most people i've ever met. He is not only an artist (musician), but he does web design as well. It works out that he does all the aspects of web design that I lack (flash, and other quality multimedia programs), and I am skilled in what he has no idea about (graphic design, layout, web design, java...etc). I met him the second day I was here and he had been here for nearly a week looking for a place. He was getting as frustrated with things as I was and after looking at a few places, we were both quite discouraged. We had to buy calling cards just to call people who were offering places.
We finally got ahold of someone who actually picked the phone up (apparently, when someone list an apartment in London, they would rather NOT lease it). This landlord picked us up in his blue jaguar and drives us on the wrong side of the road through London to the same place where I ended up finding a hostel to stay in (this hostel cost the equivalent of 36 dollars a night!!! JeBUS CHRISTO!!!). The area of London is called Shepherds Bush (located in the west end of London, Zone 2, and it is probably, by what I've been told, the hippest place for music in London. When we got to the apartment, which is actually in a house, it made me feel as though I was going to walk right into Mary Poppins...but I didn't...hehe! By that I mean, It is what you would think of when you think of London, and surprisingly enough, most of London doesn't resemble your thoughts) We walked inside and the room was a double. Two beds, one room, really clean and nice. There are two washing machines, a community kitchen, 3 bathrooms, what they call a garden (a backyard for you dirty americans), and a nice front stoop. Having a place to chill outside is not very common apparently. The room was on the 3rd floor, the top, and it was by far the nicest thing I have seen here.
We ended up signing the lease in the blue jaguar (imagine the accent, lovin' it :-) ten minutes later. Good times. We moved in right away. So as of 52 hours after arriving in London, I had found an apartment in the sickest (in a good way g-pa) part of town, a great guy to be roomies with. All of a sudden the sick feeling turned into a per-ma grin! The whole house is full of girls too, did I mention that, I don't think I did, but now you know.
So now your up to date (Wednesday, September 8th, 2004 ;-). j/k
Anyway, I love you all I'm sure. Please email me, or if you feel so inclined, call that bastard you call "Blake."
Later On You Wankers!
- B
So Here is the story. Since I got here I had that feeling of excitement, but that soon after turned into a sick to my stomach feeling. Not knowing if I could financially survive here actually began affecting my health physically and mentally. I had thoughts of packin up my things and traveling around the rest of Europe where my dollar would stretch a bit further. Since I got here I have started looking for a place to live and let me tell you, It is quite a task. The first two days I had no luck at all looking for a place after doing it all day long. Everything I looked at made me feel like I was in the US during the great depression...closet like rooms that were dirtier than some of my friends mouths (tony, behave yourself, huh?). After Travel on the Tube (what they call their subway) for nearly all day, both days, my calfs are so sore I was getting real turned off by London and any hope of living in this city.
I met up with a guy that my buddy Troy hooked me up with, who also oddly enough lived in Boulder for the last few years. He is a musician (jazz, hip-hop and such...he plays the bass clarinet, the flute, and the sax) for a band called the Break Mechanics, and like me, he came to London with not much of a plan for anything except for getting involved in the music and art scene here. He grew up in New Zealand (kenner!!! YO Buddy) and moved to Colorado when he was about 11, he's now 28). He lived in a commune for the first part of his life! Crazy, but we have more in common than most people i've ever met. He is not only an artist (musician), but he does web design as well. It works out that he does all the aspects of web design that I lack (flash, and other quality multimedia programs), and I am skilled in what he has no idea about (graphic design, layout, web design, java...etc). I met him the second day I was here and he had been here for nearly a week looking for a place. He was getting as frustrated with things as I was and after looking at a few places, we were both quite discouraged. We had to buy calling cards just to call people who were offering places.
We finally got ahold of someone who actually picked the phone up (apparently, when someone list an apartment in London, they would rather NOT lease it). This landlord picked us up in his blue jaguar and drives us on the wrong side of the road through London to the same place where I ended up finding a hostel to stay in (this hostel cost the equivalent of 36 dollars a night!!! JeBUS CHRISTO!!!). The area of London is called Shepherds Bush (located in the west end of London, Zone 2, and it is probably, by what I've been told, the hippest place for music in London. When we got to the apartment, which is actually in a house, it made me feel as though I was going to walk right into Mary Poppins...but I didn't...hehe! By that I mean, It is what you would think of when you think of London, and surprisingly enough, most of London doesn't resemble your thoughts) We walked inside and the room was a double. Two beds, one room, really clean and nice. There are two washing machines, a community kitchen, 3 bathrooms, what they call a garden (a backyard for you dirty americans), and a nice front stoop. Having a place to chill outside is not very common apparently. The room was on the 3rd floor, the top, and it was by far the nicest thing I have seen here.
We ended up signing the lease in the blue jaguar (imagine the accent, lovin' it :-) ten minutes later. Good times. We moved in right away. So as of 52 hours after arriving in London, I had found an apartment in the sickest (in a good way g-pa) part of town, a great guy to be roomies with. All of a sudden the sick feeling turned into a per-ma grin! The whole house is full of girls too, did I mention that, I don't think I did, but now you know.
So now your up to date (Wednesday, September 8th, 2004 ;-). j/k
Anyway, I love you all I'm sure. Please email me, or if you feel so inclined, call that bastard you call "Blake."
Later On You Wankers!
- B
posted by Blake J. Nolan | Wednesday, September 08, 2004
2 Comments:
Blakester:
Perm-a grin sounds better than the Edgar Allan Poe stuff you started with!! Hope you're having fun, and getting paid in Pounds by now. I can relate to your adventure -- I left all my friends to come to Colorado alone when I finished school. Had lots of ups and downs, and am still here 30 (yikes) years later. Maybe that's good or not, but it means Staying Power is a good thing -- it wasn't always easy.
SO -- Enjoy your adventure, and don't sweat the small stuff (and it's ALL small stuff). If you can find it, listen to a song by Jerry Jeff Walker called "London Homesick Blues". I roomed with the guy who wrote/sang it one summer -- Gary Nunn -- one hellufa keyboard player.
Stay cool,
Earl (Troy's dad, remember?) dodgion@amigo.net
Hey there Earl!
Of coarse I remember. I downloaded that song, not really my style, but I enjoyed it for sure. Lot of truth in there. Kepp reading my stuff and writing back. I love getting comments and emails. Take it easy mandinga!
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