Friends take the gloom outta London

The last two nights have been spent with good friends, indulging in decent food, sharing bottles of wine.

On Wednesday, I jumped on a tube train or three and got out at Victoria Station, a short walk and a return ticket later, I was on the train to Clapham Junction. Here, I met up with Gareth and a few of his friends at a pub called "The Fine Line". One too many Grolsch's later, I found myself playing chicken with the cars whilst heading back to the train station, a spring in my step and getting weird glances from passer-bys. I blame the overly loud Queens of the Stone Age album screaming in my ears.

Last night was just as good. Its not everyday you can hook up with some old buddies and take off from where you left, as if time was immaterial. I hadn't seen Jennie for almost 5 years, and Chief for 2.

They made the move to London about 3-4 years ago and haven't looked back. It got me thinking about my time in London so far, which under the circumstances, has been quite poor. It seems job opportunities for my line of work are literally bursting at the seams. I'd be stupid to ignore them but could I really live here? Maybe I can earn pounds in SA :D

All in all, let's just say the last two days have been much better!

London itself, after a week.

Gloom, as I said earlier, has equal presence as the number of hot spanish girls. People draped in dark jackets and coats, the only bustle of colour coming from the odd tie or eccentric old bat. I've never seen so many suits in my life before.

The buildings look run-down and repeatedly restored plus rained-on for ages. Imagine mounds of dark red earth with visible erosion marks stretching from the top down. Now add a building image over the mound of earth. Get the picture?

The tree's leaves are just starting to turn red. With the office being directly opposite Green Park, it makes for a beautiful morning walk from Green Park station to the offices on Piccadilly Lane. That is, when I'm not dodging the other panic stricken pedestrians and the hell-cabs.

Tube stops are odd. The people on the trains dare not stare, smile (and therefore laugh) let alone talk to strangers. Instead, everyone is frowning at their own shoes, or trying to make it look like they're reading the paper. The busiest time I've been on the tubes has been at 6:30 and is NOT an enjoyable experience. Carrying a laptop on a crammed train left me checking my laptop bag every 10 seconds. There are ALWAYS people bumping into you. By the time you get off the tube, your nasal passages have been invaded by a black soot.

I haven't tried the buses yet and was told I should. We'll see, right now I'm happy being a creature of habit. :D

Weather has been good apparently. (Yes, Apparently!) Most of my time has been spent in the office, or sleeping, so I can't really comment :D It did rain badly the one day, which proved highly irritating. Thankfully I had my massive rain-jacket with me so avoided being totally soaked.