Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Random London bits #2

You can always spot an Aussie labourer in London because they're the ones wearing boardies and wifebeaters with their fluero vest in 1-degree temperature.

One of the more interesting things about London when it gets cold so far: walking through carparks in the morning and seeing cars carrying a nice, chunky 30cm-thick frosting of ice on top, making them look like giant cupcakes with tyres. Yes, you get it other places in the world quite regularly, but it surprises even Londoners when it happens here.

The matched-pair pub names here continue to impress. The Slug and Lettuce, The Horse and Gentleman, the Hound and Hares, The Barrowboy and Banker etc. Am on the lookout for The Knee and Groin, The Chav and Shiv, The Priest and Altarboy and The Banker and Bonus.

Loud Eaters on public transport - you have ABSOLUTELY got to be kidding me, right?!? Every single day I get some too-self-absorbed-to-care w*nker sitting next to me on the train who's trying desperately to get as much oxygen into their mastication as possible. If I can hear you, I damn well know you can hear yourself. Seriously, shut your goddam mouth when you're chewing 30cm from my ear, Gobsworth, before you choke.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I saw a wild fox not 10 metres from me lazing on a patch of lawn in a housing complex tucked behind a shop and between industrial sheds in the midst of the busiest, most built-up part of Croydon last Wednesday (aptly called Fox Hill). Ol' Basil Brush got up after awhile and trotted to his burrow under the hedge that formed the lawn's front boundary. Amazingly cool unexpected experience.

Off to Dublin on Friday morning for Halloween and the weekend. Dress-ups should be interesting in the cold snap hitting Ireland and the UK right now.........

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