Hello dear people. I am in a house once again. It's in Cork, Ireland. And what have I been doing for the past few weeks? London-ing.
Lots of things happened to me in London. I did some work, but not as much as I wanted to do; I ran out of money again; I went to 1,000 galleries and museums and wandered down countless charming little streets with colourful shop fronts and cosy pubs; I went to the Borough market, repeatedly, and ate some of the best food I have ever tasted: meringues the size of a cat's head, superb cheese, mulled cider, apples that were more fragrant and delicate-tasting than any I've had before; I was mistaken for an Australian more times than I can count; I talked about New Zealand a lot, mostly to people who have never been there and have some seriously mistaken ideas about what it's like. Here is a typical conversation:
Other Person: So where you from?
I (wearily): New Zealand. (pause - have they heard of it before?) It's just below Aus...
OP: Ah, New Zealand! Beautiful country! You have a good life there!
I: Oh, have you been there?
OP: No, no. But I would like to, I would really like to. It's very warm, no?
I: Well, actually, we have a lot of micro climates and...
OP: Like Australia?
I: No, more like England actually. Where I live it's wet and cold.
OP: Oh... (puzzled) but you have kangaroos there, right? do you eat kangaroo meat?
I: I'm a vegetarian, and no, we have no kangaroos. Or koalas, or in fact any native mammals. Well there's a bat, but...
OP: Oh. (starting to doubt their knowledge of New Zealand a little) But you speak English there, right?
I: (my accent is that bad?) Yes...
Yes, no predatorial and/or scary animals, space, beautiful scenery and vegetation, space, good living standards, friendly population, large houses, social security, low crime rate. Some people can't believe that such a place exists. So when I've explained it all to them, they next question is inevitably:
OP: So why do you come here?
But the concept of cultural isolation is as difficult for them to grasp as the notion of having a city full of people living in comfortable detached houses with gardens. And from our perspective, this is kind of good. Keep it on the down low - because all the things that make Home such a great place to live stem solely from a low population density.
Here's some more London: Polish jazz quartet - Camden markets full of junk and fun - mummies at the British Museum - a roaring fire in the Tudor era kitchen at Hampton Court Palace - meeting up with Couch Surfers - Soho shops and cafes - rampant and terrifying consumerism on Oxford Street (two storey Disney shop, my god..) - Egyptian food on Edgware Road - working for a night at the Royal Ocean Racing Club, served ostrich and springbok meat..... stuff. London is a city of stuff, lots of it.
So now I am at my friend Leon's house in Cork, but Leon is not here. And very very soon, I will see all your lovely faces again. Make sure they're nicely washed 'n' smiley for it, yeah? Looking forward to it.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Big Black Smoke
'Current mission: not to die in a London gutter'. I put that on my Couch Surfing profile. Does it sound too desperate? Yes? That's because I am.
Owing to an unfortunate chain of events, which I probably should have seen coming, which I will not relate here - they involved lots of eye-rubbing, teeth-gritting, near-phone-smashing and heavy-calm-down-sighing - I found myself on Saturday nearly literally penniless in the sprawling oversized bacterial colony that is London. Thankfully I had money on my cellphone, the number of my mother's godmother and her family, and a day travelcard courtesy of a gentleman from (I think) Bulgaria. So I went to throw myself on the mercy of a family I had never met. It's times like these that you're glad that New Zealand still has some ties to the 'motherland'.
Audrey (mum's godmum, very old friend of Granny's) and her daughter Belinda, and her daughter Venetia, have been incredibly good to me. I'm still at their house, but anxious to move on and not impinge any further.
Miscellaneous trivia:
- I have been growing a wisdom tooth for the last few weeks, and recently it has started to feel rather intrusive in my already crowded jaw.
- I went to Camden Town today, and some supernatural being must have heard of my moneyless state, because I got a free haircut from a student hairdresser.
- The people in the hair place all spoke Spanish.
- In the first house/hostel I was in, I met a Canadian who'd spent the last 10 years in Barcelona, a Romanian ex-boxer, several Bulgarians, a Lithuanian, an Estonian, a man from Bangladesh whose family was paying for him to study in the UK, and several French guys who let me have some of their crepes with Nutella.
Tomorrow, everything should work out. My money should emerge from the depths of cyberspace, thereby eliminating the most pressing problem. And after that, the city will be mine.
Owing to an unfortunate chain of events, which I probably should have seen coming, which I will not relate here - they involved lots of eye-rubbing, teeth-gritting, near-phone-smashing and heavy-calm-down-sighing - I found myself on Saturday nearly literally penniless in the sprawling oversized bacterial colony that is London. Thankfully I had money on my cellphone, the number of my mother's godmother and her family, and a day travelcard courtesy of a gentleman from (I think) Bulgaria. So I went to throw myself on the mercy of a family I had never met. It's times like these that you're glad that New Zealand still has some ties to the 'motherland'.
Audrey (mum's godmum, very old friend of Granny's) and her daughter Belinda, and her daughter Venetia, have been incredibly good to me. I'm still at their house, but anxious to move on and not impinge any further.
Miscellaneous trivia:
- I have been growing a wisdom tooth for the last few weeks, and recently it has started to feel rather intrusive in my already crowded jaw.
- I went to Camden Town today, and some supernatural being must have heard of my moneyless state, because I got a free haircut from a student hairdresser.
- The people in the hair place all spoke Spanish.
- In the first house/hostel I was in, I met a Canadian who'd spent the last 10 years in Barcelona, a Romanian ex-boxer, several Bulgarians, a Lithuanian, an Estonian, a man from Bangladesh whose family was paying for him to study in the UK, and several French guys who let me have some of their crepes with Nutella.
Tomorrow, everything should work out. My money should emerge from the depths of cyberspace, thereby eliminating the most pressing problem. And after that, the city will be mine.
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