It's been a few weeks since we got back to the UK to our respective family homes after our months of travelling, and I've decided to write about my experience of London during the first week back.
On my arrival to London on the 13th September, I went straight into my old job the next day, on a temporary contract basis, while in London. My work skills came back to me within hours of stepping into the office, which was quite surprising, seeing that I haven't even thought about work for six months. In the evenings, I took it easy by London standards, choosing to go out only every other night. For the first couple of nights I came home after work, to settle back into living with my parents and find some autumn clothes in the stowed away bin liners full of my clothes. On Friday night, I met up with a few friends quite locally, and we had a few drinks. It was nice seeing everyone, and it was quite a chilled local pub night in Hammersmith. Total spent: £22 The following day I took the train down to East Croydon to meet my friend Ruth. We had lunch, then a hot drink in a cafe, and lots of catching up. It was a lovely sunny-then-rainy day, and East Croydon has surprised me with its modern upgrade of a Box Park and lots of new office buildings and new built flats. It looked like a mini Shoreditch, which is the 'rough on the edges, trendy and modern in the core' look I'm guessing they were going for. Total spent: £15 (approx)
The new Box Park with pop-up restaurants and bars in East Croydon
On Monday I popped into my Taekwondo club in Pimlico, the hall I've been going to since I was 14. It was great seeing so many familiar faces, and a few newly promoted black belts among them. Total spent: £10 On Tuesday I met up with Brett for our usual curry night in Brick Lane. He knows a couple of establishments there, where he developed a good relationship with the staff, so he always manages to get us a £10 deal, consisting of a starter, a main, a side and a pint of beer. Can't go wrong with that for a tenner. After a hearty (and later farty) Indian meal, we came across this short films event, called Shorts on Tap, where you pay a £4 entry, and get to enjoy a number of independent short films, created by new directors trying to get their talent out there. I really enjoyed the three films we stayed to watch, and would definitely come back there again. Total spent: £18. On Thursday I met up with Barbara in Soho. We went to Busaba for dinner, then to my favourite Blues Bar, called Ain't Nothin' But The Blues. Entry before 9pm is free and they're open with live music seven days a week. The band on stage was a band from Barcelona, and they played lots of energetic happy music full of positive energy. Some people even got up from their chairs to dance. We pushed through to the front, so got a good view of the show. We only stayed for about an hour, but really enjoyed the band and the happy atmosphere. Total spent: £25.
Ain't Nothin' But The Blues Bar Walking through the streets of Central London in the evening, you're hit with a concoction of all senses all at once. The smells of exotic cuisines ooze from various restaurants: Thai, Mexican, Greek, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean... You loose track of all the places you bookmarked to come back and check out later. Smells of expensive perfumes on passers-by fight for your nostrils. The smells intertwine with the noises from hooting cars, buses, taxis and motorbikes. Laughing tipsy people all around you break the noises with their happy excitable voices. And finally colours, colours and lights from every direction - the massive billboards on Picadilly Circus, colourful shop windows, shutting down for the night, but keeping their windows on show, people dressed in going out clothes, tourist clothes, showing off their brands. The lights, music and excitable voices spilling out from every restaurant and bar, with people inside and outside of such establishments, standing, smoking, laughing, talking, taking selfies... This is London. Full of electricity, hope and fun. It is a life of fun. A life of irresponsible, innocent, exciting fun. You look around, and think - I can never get bored of that. If you wanted to go to a new bar, new restaurant, new venue, every week for the rest of your life, you could do so without ever repeating yourself. However some patterns pleasantly remain among all this temptation of all things new and wonderful. My curry nights in Brick Lane, the Blues Bar evenings with Barbara, Taekwondo on Monday nights... Some patterns are nice to maintain among the chaos of such variety.Â
