Saturday, December 01, 2007

The Tale of the Banarchitects

Beyoncè takes a tumble but gets right back up again. Badass!Well it has been a long first week in London. I have managed to open a bank account, make 4 new friends, find a place to live, move into a new place, take a walk through the west-end, have drinks in Soho, all of which while working full-time in my job. Yes, like Beyoncè's fall on stage, I have hit the ground running. My job is rather busy at the moment (well I was supposed to be here 6 weeks ago), so am struggling to keep on top. And I have been late a couple of times (in London a '12' bus is completely different to a 'P12' bus). All in all however am doing rather well I must say.

It is so strange to hear all the British accents. There are so many different ones as well. Some people sound like Eastenders extras, others sound more like Trisha Goodard. I am surprised though how friendly people are here. At first glance, everybody seems a bit cold and stand-offish, however once you start to engage them they are so polite and helpful.

Last Saturday I moved into my new place! I am now living in East Dulwich, which is delightful. While not very close to the city, it is near an amazing cheese shop, which sold me in the end. I haven't tried their Pecorino yet, but that will come. After the move, I had lunch with my new flatmate James. He is a carpenter who renovated the place himself, which is why it looks so fabulous. We went to our local pub and had roast something-or-other. Had my first warm beer (which kind of makes sense in this weather). The interesting thing about British pubs on a weekend is that children are running around everywhere, and on the way to the toilet, I almost tripped over a dog that was lying there. It certainly wasn't a guide dog, as it was so grizzled that it looked like it would need its own guide. It is a real family atmosphere, something that Australian pubs don't really have because Australians generally go outdoors more.

Bananarama before they suckedLast Sunday in particular was fun. I caught up with my Boss's brother and his partner, and we did a pub lunch (again) in Islington. It is a very nice area, and full of rows upon rows of houses looking the same. Reminds me a lot of the movie "Love, Actually" with the delightful Hugh Grant. Anyway, I digress. After our lunch, we walked back to S___ place and on the way, the boys showed me the place where Bananarama used to live! Yes, these icons had 4 houses built especially for them! But wait, 4 houses and only 3 bananas... something doesn't add up I hear you say. As it turns out, the fourth house was for their manager. I could just picture Siobahn needing some olive oil, and she races over to Keren's, who is baking muffins with Sara. Well, at least that's how I imagine it. Seriously, this should be near the top of the sightseeing on anybody's list of things to do in London. It really made my day! Just try not to look too much at the Banarchitechture, as they're not the prettiest houses...

Bababaaa

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"doing rather well I must say" ... sounds like you've acquired a Bri-ish accent already :) ... you missed a great early evening summer thunderstorm two nights ago (do they talk about dam levels there????)

See you in a few weeks.

Tom.

Margaret said...

Hi Michael, Grahame here (using "Margaret" as an alias).

I'm really impressed with the "banana architecture" you came across. I wonder if there is some "spice architecture" somewhere in London - you'll have to do a spice search at some stage...

And I'm most impressed that you hit the ground running like Beyonce. I knew you would channel that inner-diva in you! You go girl...

Lotsa Lockhart love,
Grahame