Monday 24 March 2008

City vs Canal

Having spent the last few days working in Central London, I am absolutely, 100% convinced that the canals are the best place on Earth to live. OK, so London might have a Starbucks on every corner supplying luscious white mocha for the extortionate sum of £3.30 a go, but the air is dirty and most people in the street completely blank you as you pass by. On the towpath, passers by are usually greeted with a friendly "hello" or "good morning", or at the very least a welcoming smile. Here, I feel horoured if they so much as look up from their newspaper to avoid walking straight into me in the train station.

The trains and tubes are a very odd place, with their own strange culture. This morning, my train was cancelled and so I was lucky enough to experience the replacement bus service instead. The 7:30 bus turned up 20 minutes late - a blessing, I thought, as I got straight on that one instead of waiting for the 8am one. With hindsight, I may have been better off waiting for the next bus, as mine got lost about 6 times en route, with the driver stopping to check a map and turn around every few minutes. Of course, we missed the connecting train by about a minute and were forced to stand out in the cold waiting for another. I did feel sorry for the driver, as he was only given the job yesterday evening and the hand-written directions which he had been given were no use to anyone who didn't already know the local area. Surely, in this day and age, the companies involved could afford to splash out on a few Sat Nav systems for these types of situations?

Anyway, end of rant, I will be back home very soon now. If anyone who knows me ever hears me so much as contemplate working in London at any time in the future, please remind me of these comments. Working here is a novelty for a day or two, but any longer and it turns into a dirty, expensive version of hell. As nice as the white mochas are, I would much rather be on my boat and out in the fresh air.

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