You know you're in England when you sign up for the Royal Opera House's online ticket purchase service, and your choice of titles includes:
Baroness
Brigadier
Commodore
Count
Countess
Dame
Duke of
Earl of
H R H the Duchess of
H R H the Princess
His Highness
HRH Sultan Shah
HRH the Prince
King
Lady
Lord Justice
Marchese
Rt Hon Baroness
Rt Hon Viscount
The Dowager Marchioness of
Viscondessa
...or simply, "The Venerable."
And what the hell is a Princessin?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
London Life: Take One
Today I commuted by bike for the first time. The ride from my flat in East London to the London School of Economics is 3.6 miles, pretty much a straight shot down a street that changes names about nine times. Last year my commute was 4.5 miles, so this should be a snap, right?
Wrong. It was harrowing. People do this every day? Good lord. I wore my helmet, donned my fluorescent pink biking vest and rode very conservatively, yet my heart was still pounding. I'm sure the veteran cyclists could tell by the look of terror in my eyes and the frequent, panicked glances over my shoulder that I'm a newbie. I know they're not going to hit me, if I'm not rude or stupid. I know that what I'm supposed to do is to ride out from the curb, perhaps a meter away, so cars and cabs don't squeeze me out but know that they have to give me space. But this is going to take some getting used to.
Everything else about living in London, though, is perhaps not as novel as it should be. London is already familiar turf to me. Yes, East London and the Whitechapel neighbourhood is new, and I love it - constant street markets, cheap and delicious Indian food, Somali translations everywhere, people of every hue. But the Tube is a pain, not a thrill; coming out of the Westminster station to see the Eye and Big Ben isn't exciting but just...is. Still, I'm no longer associating London with exhaustion, toting a big backpack, and harried dashes to catch a train or a bus, which is overwhelmingly how I remember it from last year.
I'm lucky to live near Regents Canal and Victoria Park - eight-tenths of a mile takes me to the canal and from there on out I'm on pedestrian-bike-only paths - and my runs are relaxing and gorgeous. The London Royal Parks Half Marathon is two weeks and two days away, and aside from the shin splints that are developing I'm feeling pretty much ready, and excited. The last of my five flatmates has moved in tonight, and it's shaping up to be a nice place. Best of all, Murray is staying in London and going to SOAS this year. Up until two weeks ago, we both thought he was going back to South Africa to take an internship, and that was going to be it for a while, and now he's about to move into a flat about a mile from me. It's very exciting :) (And the things we saw while flat-hunting on Monday made me very thankful to have already found a good place!)
Registration at LSE was today; I've got a student card, but I'm holding off on the "throwing myself into it" thing until classes really begin next Thursday... One more week of limbo, in which to finish my freelance work on 30-Second Economics, a book I'm contributing to - and celebrate my birthday on Sunday!
So that's what's up. I guess I don't write because part of me feels that it's indulgent, self-centred, to assume people want to read what I'm doing and thinking and learning. But I like reading my friends' blogs, so perhaps I'll make a bit more of an effort to record the trials and triumphs of my second year in England, my life in London.
Wrong. It was harrowing. People do this every day? Good lord. I wore my helmet, donned my fluorescent pink biking vest and rode very conservatively, yet my heart was still pounding. I'm sure the veteran cyclists could tell by the look of terror in my eyes and the frequent, panicked glances over my shoulder that I'm a newbie. I know they're not going to hit me, if I'm not rude or stupid. I know that what I'm supposed to do is to ride out from the curb, perhaps a meter away, so cars and cabs don't squeeze me out but know that they have to give me space. But this is going to take some getting used to.
Everything else about living in London, though, is perhaps not as novel as it should be. London is already familiar turf to me. Yes, East London and the Whitechapel neighbourhood is new, and I love it - constant street markets, cheap and delicious Indian food, Somali translations everywhere, people of every hue. But the Tube is a pain, not a thrill; coming out of the Westminster station to see the Eye and Big Ben isn't exciting but just...is. Still, I'm no longer associating London with exhaustion, toting a big backpack, and harried dashes to catch a train or a bus, which is overwhelmingly how I remember it from last year.
I'm lucky to live near Regents Canal and Victoria Park - eight-tenths of a mile takes me to the canal and from there on out I'm on pedestrian-bike-only paths - and my runs are relaxing and gorgeous. The London Royal Parks Half Marathon is two weeks and two days away, and aside from the shin splints that are developing I'm feeling pretty much ready, and excited. The last of my five flatmates has moved in tonight, and it's shaping up to be a nice place. Best of all, Murray is staying in London and going to SOAS this year. Up until two weeks ago, we both thought he was going back to South Africa to take an internship, and that was going to be it for a while, and now he's about to move into a flat about a mile from me. It's very exciting :) (And the things we saw while flat-hunting on Monday made me very thankful to have already found a good place!)
Registration at LSE was today; I've got a student card, but I'm holding off on the "throwing myself into it" thing until classes really begin next Thursday... One more week of limbo, in which to finish my freelance work on 30-Second Economics, a book I'm contributing to - and celebrate my birthday on Sunday!
So that's what's up. I guess I don't write because part of me feels that it's indulgent, self-centred, to assume people want to read what I'm doing and thinking and learning. But I like reading my friends' blogs, so perhaps I'll make a bit more of an effort to record the trials and triumphs of my second year in England, my life in London.
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