3 Years

Love London Print from Weavers of South Sea

I'm leaving to go back home for the summer in a week and it's strange, I've basically been living in London for three years now. It's all gone pretty quickly. It's been a lot of fun and sometimes stressful... being an adult can be very annoying (even then, I don't feel like much of a grown up) The thing I hate most about living away from my parents is the amount of time I spend thinking about bills. It's the most boring thing to think about in the world. That said I've had some experiences that I don't think you could get in any other city. I've had my standard drunken uni experiences but I also accidentally hit David Blunkett on the head with a plate (he was cool about it don't worry) and worked in some amazing places. I've made some good friends and met Richard here too. And I honestly don't think I would have gotten back into drawing/painting if I had gone anywhere else.

So for my 3rd year of London Living here's a few things I would tell my pre-London self-

People aren't as unfriendly as you think they are:
I mean yes, generally people keep to themselves but I've had strangers help my with my luggage at the tube station and on two occasions have people in front of me in the queue let me go in front of them because I "looked rushed" (i'm not sure how I managed to "look rushed" whilst standing still). Bus drivers have just waved me on when the oyster machine wasn't working I could have sworn they would make me pay, It's always nice to get a free journey.

That said, people can still be a bit shit:
I made the mistake of walking around central at night with my iPod out. It was quite stupid of me really. I'm just walking to a bus stop and and EIGHT YEAR OLD tries to snatch it off me. Luckily I've got a death grip and the little bugger couldn't get it off me and he ran away before I could figure out what the hell just happened. Lesson learnt.

The Jubilee line is so damned cool:
Especially at Westminster. It's so futuristic looking... It makes me feel like I'm in space with out actually having to go into space (which would be terrifying).

Prepare to cry when you hear how little other peoples rent is compared to your own:
All this money to get a degree in Philosophy????? I remember going up to one of my best friends house in Newcastle. Her house was huge! One of the rooms could have been a ballroom and she still pays about half of what I pay for my house. She doesn't have a sort-of conservatory though! BAM.

You will always stand to the right (on escalators):
Basically in London -mainly on the underground/trains (possibly only on the underground/trains)- when you want to use the escalators but are feeling lazy you stand to the right, if you're feeling sprightly you walk up on the left. So everything works out nice and organised for city that is literally always full of people...
The only time I ever feel like a semi-ish kind of proper Londoner is when I use escalators in any other place. One time when I was back at home at top shop, I was taking the escalators down stairs and I automatically to the right and then some one else came on and stood to the LEFT right beside me. It was absolute anarchy and I was genuinely weirded out and thought he might be some weird person and try and talk to me or something. Then I realised where I was and calmed down.

Art everywhere!:
It's London so it's kind of obvious that there's going to be Arty stuff about but it'm going to mention it anyway. When we got off at the train station today we were treated to a display of a gold fish bowl, a rubber chicken head and a batch of muffins. I really wished I had eaten a bit of the muffins and not listened to Richard and our friend when they told me not too. I don't think they had been there for that long... anyway there's also this display window close by which has some pretty freaky displays in them, the first time we saw it it was filled with the creepiest dolls, I wish I had gotten a picture!
Makes getting off a train slightly more interesting.

That's all I could think of, It's definitely been an interesting few years.
Hope everyone's enjoying their week!

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