London chapter II

Evidenced by an ever dwindling number of blog posts, my rigour and determinism to capture all of my foreign adventures in writing have obviously faded over the past months. Yet, given my present circumstances, I owe it to my future self to conduct at least a very brief capture of ‘London, chapter 2’. It has been well over three years since I spent 10 weeks here, working in the City and living in Whitechapel. When I was offered to start the new year with another stint in London, I needn’t think twice. It almost feels like I never left.

While work is busy and rather demanding, the absence of a commute makes that I still have loads of time to enjoy life here. My temporary home is in Bow Lane, a cute little alley a stone’s throw from the St Pauls Cathedral, which is buzzing with office workers during the week. In the weekends however the City is deserted, bar a few lost tourists who wonder why there is no one around in the heart of the UK´s capital. It’s a handy spot nonetheless, from where I can walk, cycle, or tube easily to almost any place in inner London. Returning to a city that is familiar to you, where you have lived (albeit briefly) before, and where some of your very best friends are, is a little bit like coming home. In fact, I am having such a marvellous time here, that the idea to stay here for a few more years is very tempting at times. But well, we will see about that. For now, let’s recapture the bliss of the past few weeks.

Last night I had sushi and cocktails with Dana at Brilliant Corners in Dalston, whereafter we went for a few more drinks at Ruby’s, a cool underground bar. The weekend had started well on Friday as I cracked open the first Peronis with Alan at Madison’s, which were followed up with drinks at De Hems with Aernout, Helena, Vasiliki and Alberto. I had met Aernout at Vasiliki’s and Alberto’s house warming party a few weeks earlier, and I really enjoyed going out for a few drinks with the four of them. We finished at a respectable hour this time, unlike at the occasion where I first met the guys, when a taxi driver dropped me off at my apartment close to six in the morning. Having finished the night at ‘Egg’, an underground techno hub, was definitely not my cup of tea, but nonetheless an experience worth coming out of your comfort zone for! My antidote to all this alcohol consumption are long runs along the Thames, as I did again today. Taking a train to Greenwich allows you to follow the river all the way back to the City, and these blissful 12km pretty much clean up my system for another week of enjoying the better things in life. In many ways the weekend already starts on Thursdays, as I had some beers with Bart-Jan last week, as well as with Alan and David the week prior. I met Bart-Jan at his own house warming party, which I happened to attend as Koen, visiting from the Netherlands with Mark and Inge, knows Bart-Jan from childhood. All very random, but I cherish these coincidences as the times I’ve been out for a beer with him in the weeks after the house warming were all very enjoyable. The weekend that I had the gang over featured more cool activities, as we went to see West Ham play an atrocious FA cup game at Upton Park, had lunch at Brixton Village and enjoyed the view of the City from –again- Madison’s. It would be a bit odd to describe a corporate bar as a ‘local’, but yeah, I guess this place would quality as mine. Apart from last night I see Dana once every fortnight, and it is a really good feeling to catch up regularly now that we’re finally in the same city again. This includes Vietnamese food in Shoreditch and amazing cocktails and jazz music at hip Oriole. The same holds for Vasiliki, who with whom I’ve been out for drinks a few times with always new plans in the making. Another blast from the past was invigorated as I met up with Natalie after six years of absence, the last time being in Tilburg in 2009. Beers with Scott were even more proof that Erasmus has its reverberations long after the final exams have been passed. It´s these and other things that make life here such a feast, and I will enjoy it all I can. As alas, also this stint is temporary and it won´t be long until I´ll have to pack my bags again and say goodbye for a second time. 

The End

As in the final shot of a disney cartoon, in black and white, with the roaring lion and watching children’s expressive disappointment for the fun to have ended, so does my adventure too, in a final roar of awesomeness of the best that London has to offer. It’s been a week now that I’ve been back in the Netherlands and I haven’t quite had the time yet to miss London, so busy with work, friends, family, and gf this week has been. Yet as soon as relative routine kicks in I’m sure my mind will start wandering off to sunny spells embodying capricious weather, the sunlight reflected in the Thames, the crowds to dodge when running across Tower Bridge, the vibe of The City, the infinite number of food stalls, bars, restaurants, pubs, and street corners to eat and drink, and the friends I left behind. A final capture of the last days is all that’s left for me to do, plus the continuous endeavour to trigger my employer to sending me across the channel again some time. Who knows.

It does feel like it’s been ages ago though, and hence recalling the last events isn’t as straightforward as it may seem. The epic ending of a magnificent 10 week stay was without any doubt the business course organised by the bank every year, one in which I partook last year as a hopeful applicant, and one which I this year attended as a beaming trainee. Finishing in style at the Roof Gardens in Kensington was definitely the best clubbing I’ve seen in ages, and the preceding evening on Thursday featuring a decent dinner with subsequent beers in one of London’s countless pubs wasn’t a bad way to spend an evening either. Wednesday I had organised by goodbye drink, with colleagues and friends attending the fun at the Anthologist, one of my favourite bars around the corner of the Bank of England. Luckily I had finished all tasks by then cause my working day on Thursday was far from productive due to all the alcoholic beverages consumed the preceding night. Tuesday I had Joeri over and jointly we tried the all famous Byron Burger in Soho, and Monday was Mexican food with Marry and David.

As can be read in the previous post, my last weekend in London was all about hiking in the peak district, with Dana’s parents being fantastic hosts in their Sheffield suburb mansion. Stew and whiskey on Friday night after a four hour long journey from London, Saturday the fantastic and extensive hike through British country side, with some Vietnamese food and a relaxing movie providing the relaxing reward at night. Sunday sleeping in and going for Chinese for lunch, and the long journey back to London to top off the weekend with. Bliss!!

And what happened in between Edinburgh and Sheffield the week before that hike, I don’t fully recall. We did go out for Japanese dinner with Vasiliki, Gabri, David, and a pretty lady colleague of Vasiliki, yet for the remainder I don’t recall very well. No doubt I had an awesome time as well those days, yet the fact that I forget so easily already is a justification on its own for writing down these adventures lest they are forgotten forever.

So that’s all for two and a half months of London! Thanks for reading my blog, and I truly hope more will follow on a next foreign stay, be it for three months or three years.

The Best of Hiking with Dana

·         Slowest eater: Tony

·         Creepiest village: Over Haddon

·         Best dressed man: the guy on the train to Birmingham

·         Most demanding porridge: the guy on the train to Birmingham

·         Strongest resemblance to a Christmas tree: Dana on Sunday

·         Best newly learnt word: stile

·         Most painful injury: dana

·         Best stew: Friday eve

·         Most relaxing movie: snow-white and the huntsman

·         Biggest deception: dana’s Vietnamese soup

·         Biggest deception (2): the traffic on Sunday

·         Ugliest city centre: Sheffield

·         Prettiest city centre: Bakewell

·         Word of the weekend: unit

·         Quickest appearance: the ghost runner

·         Quickest disappearance: the ghost runner

·         Best parking: dana on Saturday

·         Worst parking: car-owning Sheffield on their public roads

·         Best part of the hike: magpie mine

·         Making the biggest mess: Dana and Tony in the bakewell tea house

·         Greatest hospitality: Dana’s parents

·         Most frequently spotted mammal: sheep

·         Most frequently spotted mammal (2): horse

·         Least allergy enhancing mammal: the dog in Dana’s garden

·         Worst navigator: Dana

·         Second-worst navigator: Tony

·         Weirdest meadow colour: blue

·         Least reliable: the British weather forecast

·         Plural of die: dice

·         Best story: the desert one

·         Best at solving (most) riddles: Dana

·         Toughest hindrance: the first barbed wire fence

·         Still somewhere in the countryside: Dana’s debit card

·         Most relaxing train journey: Birmingham – London

·         Least desirable company: the bum on Birmingham central station

·         Most desirable company: Dana

·         Best wine: from Tuscany (the first bottle)

·         Friendliest waitress: the smiling one at Little Hanoi

·         Most redundant information: spot the ash tree

·         Best shower: after the hiking

·         Longest perception of 5 hours: during the hike

·         Shortest perception of 5 hours: after the hike

·         Most futile attempt: finding the debit card

·         Best from afar: the manor house

·         Best weekend: This one! Thanks so much for the lovely time Dana it has been fantastic!!

Edinburgh

Booking a ticket departing at midnight, arriving seven am the next day, saying “sleeper” on the ticket and on the train, I figured I would get a berth. Or a chair that would flatten. Or something that one can sleep on. In India the British legacy leaves a smoothly functioning train system, with three or four types of sleeper trains, the cheapest one features berths only, and the most expensive one providing pillows and blankets and wake-up tea and what not. So after drinks and dinner last Friday in The City, with David, Roswitha plus bf, and some friends of theirs, I headed well ahead of departure for Euston station, with the nice prospect of a good night’s sleep while thundering through nightly meadows and agricultural land to final destination Edinburgh. Well, the only thing that made this train a sleeper was that its passengers are provided with a unit to cover one’s eyes with when sleeping with the light still on. And that was it. Regular chairs, which couldn’t be moved, and the heating so strongly on fire that whenever I dozed off I wake up from the warmth shortly afterwards. So you may understand my physique Saturday morning when walking through the awakening Scottish capital wasn’t best prepared for an awesome weekend with my ex-co-trainees (Minke Julia Iris Quin Bob Roelant) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, almost two years back already. But apparently the torrential student’s rhythm that my body was once used to left a legacy of its own, as I felt great during the morning and afternoon and evening and night until I fell asleep at four pm, after a wonderful day out and about, cooking at home (@ Minke’s) and pubbing and clubbing until late. Climbing the mountain, pub lunch, catching up with our differently evolving lives since the time that we were all interns at BZ… Great times, great reunions, and the vibe was at it always had been, even though we hadn’t been together in this composition for well over a year. I loved it!!

The preceding week was a great one too. Sunday brunch and fireworks with Vasiliki and Michael, Monday watching Skyfall with David, Tuesday watching football with Martijn and Marjolein (Dutch colleagues from work), Wednesday running ten miles through nightly London, and Thursday muscle ache and drinks at the Australian High Commission (they don’t have an embassy). Each droplet of leisure time available is filled with great undertakings, sometimes alone, mostly in lovely company. Coming home from Edinburgh today already felt a bit like truly coming home, a most peculiar feeling I developed in New Delhi, Katowice, and Sanmenxia as well, and which is already materialising here too. Two months have passed, only two more weeks to go. Which I will enjoy to the fullest!

week seven

Massive train delays were responsible for the cancellation of my date with Dana on Monday, but Tuesday that was all made up for! The French restaurant that Dana had in mind was great, with a large variety of different small dishes to share, and exquisite wines. I notice that London still hasn’t grown used to me not tipping the 12.5 percent that is quasi blasé added to each bill, charged unless mentioned by the customer. The fun continued in a familiar looking bar that I yet had never been to, with beers and tequila (“surprise me”). This time I did feel a little drowsy the morning after, but naturally that was well worth it! And though I was very sure I wasn’t going to have drinks that evening, I was, with Martijn and Jochem and Marry and Thijs and some other people from work. Chilling out on Thursday eve and on Friday even some dance moves, the first ones in London! The real clubbing is saved for the very last night though. Today was sleeping in for way too long and watching Tottenham play Wigan in White Hart Lane! Superb! Even though the home-side lost 0-1 (the worst result for a spectator) I enjoyed being in a new stadium tremendously. And of course yet another scarf is added to the ever growing collection; the white and blue of The Spurs shall proudly be in my walk-in-closet among its functional souvenirs brethren from all over the world. Tonight either Tony-time at home or some drinks with David and his visitors, and tomorrow loads of Vasiliki! And it’s still sunny! See picture (that’s my apartment). 

night

The night feels a bit cold; a dark blue night sky dotted with fast moving clouds. I zoom on my Barclays bicycle past cars and busses, and well past peak hour I can cross most junctions without bothering about the traffic lights. Plenty of drinks enhance the joyful feeling further and make it seem I’m floating, through the night air, inhaling deeply and tasting the scent of autumn. Through the City with its remarkable configuration of skyscrapers, pubs and old churches. Two turns and crossing a street, leaving the river behind me the scenery changes swiftly, with train rails high on my left and ramshackle sixties’ building blocks on my right. Whizzing past a second hand car dealer, barbed wire and small towers of tires. The route feels familiar, the bike feels familiar, London feels familiar. The night isn’t cold anymore as I speed on, left turn, old warehouses turned expensive apartments on my right. Dodging the road bumps, crossing the last main road, stalling the bicycle and entering the apartment. I could almost call it home. 

week six

Monday the 22^nd

A beer and a bite after work with Marry, not making it too late, cause awesome stuff is one the rise and an easy start of an-awesome-to-be week is a very smart thing to do.

Tuesday the 23^rd

One of the last things I had expected to do here was to visit lectures of my political party. And yet I found myself, flanked by Marry, at the second floor of a pub watching Boris vd Ham deliver an entertaining speech about politics and people and history and what not. Some drinks during and after this lecture and an early ride home, as the week had only just started with plenty to look forward to.

Wednesday the 24^th

With the five Dutchies (Martijn Jochem Marry David and I) watching Ajax beat Man City in a bar where every CL match is broadcasted on a separate floor was a splendid way to spend an evening. David and Marry couldn’t care less about the match but chatted away happily while the three of us discussed and watched the game, drinking our beer, and feeling satisfied as men do when they watch sports. One more drink after the game to make sure we’d all sleep fine, and tjop tjop onto the rental bike into the night that gets colder and colder now that autumn has really arrived.

Thursday the 25th

Waking up after a shorter night than what I am used to, with the world outside my warm and cosy apartment being cold and still dark, I had the greatest difficulty getting up let alone pack my running gear with the prospects of leaving a comfortable office for the sake of another exhaustive run. I thought of at least three good excuses not to go, didn’t pack my stuff, and left for the office, only to regret it a few hours into the morning as I was naturally yearning for some fresh air by noon. By half past five I called it a day and made my way to the Australian embassy with David for a drink organised by Vasiliki and her colleagues, a once-every-two-weeks event whereby the employees of the embassy gather in the basement and drink subsidised beer. Splendid! Met some nice people, took Gabri along who finally got to meet Vasiliki, two great friends being united, and around 9-ish we continued the splendour in a shacky but cosy Brazilian pub that served tasty but expensive carpehrinas, picking up Bo on the way as she had just arrived at the train station. Awesomeness continued until well after midnight yet the next day I couldn’t feel better and…

Friday the 26^th

… had a very productive morning at work! Should do that more often I reckon. Lunch at borough market with Bo, drinks with Marry, Jochem and his gf, Bo and me after work, and Vietnamese food for dinner later on that night. It may be a coincidental happenstance or rather I am getting aware of it but I find myself more and more often these days in places that the Harry Potter movies were shot at. Which means I find myself in places that look awesome. For instance, Hogwarts’ great hall is the main hall in the Australian Embassy, and the street where all the shopping is done in the film (I forget the name) was the location of our joint beer drinking Friday eve. London keeps surprising me!

Saturday the 27^th

This may very well have been one of the best days of London time so far. Sleeping in, relaxed wake-up, a long stroll along the river, teaming up with David and Merel (the gf) for wines and cheeses in the wine bar I have already mentioned numerous times, where we were very fortunate to find a table after a mere five minutes lingering around. You see, as the place is tremendously popular, due to among others its affordability and its uniqueness and its history and its general awesomeness, even on weekdays the tables are all occupied from four pm on. You will find the entire interior flocked with people, anxiously scanning the crowds dining and shining with delight at the tables inside, waiting for a chair to get available. The density of the queue in front of the wine bar beats the crowds at a random coronation ceremony of one of England’s past royalties, and the poor girl chopping up cheeses sees her queue disappearing through the door into the open. So yeah, pretty fortunate to secure a table upon entrance, and we fully enjoyed the variety of cheeses and two bottles of fine red wine. After two hours in ‘the cave’ we could do with some fresh air though and the stroll in the direction of the theatre at which we were planning to watch a play was a welcome one. So welcome indeed as until David told me that there wasn’t that much time left and that the theatre was well away and that we weren’t walking even in the right direction I figured it the opportune moment not to risk a third theatre visit in a few weeks time and we decided to grab a cab. After some detours an Indian rickshaw driver would be proud of the guy in the cab dropped us off nearby the destined theatre and off we went, tjop tjop, four ciders, here’s your ticket to the show, and into a tiny theatre in the basement of a snug pub where we watched a most enjoyable show in which the number of actors outnumbered the number of spectators. One of the best things I have seen thus far, honestly really. Butter chicken as a midnight snack, watching a movie in bed, and oh such a shame the bliss and splendour of a best Saturday slumbers into a deep sleep that trades awareness of its grandeur for the unconscious satisfaction of a night of dreams.

Sunday the 28^th

Waking up and realising our last day for another four weeks to come had commenced Bo and I decided to make the most of the time granted by an extra hour overnight and set foot to the tower of London. Trapped in flocks of tourists we cattle-like shuffled along the crown jewels, took a stroll around the main buildings, aaand that was enough of our one hour visit to take-at-least-four-hours-to-fully-appreciate-all-it-has-to-offer tourist magnet. Decent coffee in Soho made up for a poor lunch and that was the end of our time, Bo on the train, Teun back home, and off for some decent running to combat the vast amounts of food and alcohol that vanish daily into my mouth. Chilling at home and looking forward to a long night’s sleep in order to commence another week of bliss coming up, already number seven in my stay here that passes by much too fast.

Thanks for reading and until the next story!