So here we all on Sunday night well into the 3rd leg of a 3 day drinking event to celebrate Steve's imminnent departure to Spain, Tom and Karen wedding and just general party feelings. Its was a fine time indeed.
We played some cool board games, Tom , Karen and Sarah cooked some great food on, we got to meet Steve's (ex) work colleagues and see how much they loved him :-) and for me, best of all, I just got to spend 3 days with all my old friends, its doesn't get much better than that.
James pushed the boat out and made some fantastic roast lamb for Sunday night and here we all are in the garden enjoying the rest of the evening.
But anyway , on to the point in hand. After 3 days of drinking and not much sleep, I made a brief visit to my old colleagues in the city and then jumped on the SAS flight out of city.
I got back to Stockholm about 10pm and basically was completely shagged. I'd parked the car at the airport but I was buggered if I could find it. I ended up wandering round the back arse end of nowhere airport car parks blindly wondering whether I was a tired idiot with no memory, or whether the car had been stolen (answers on a postcard which is most likely)
anyway - 30 minutes later - I did find it and managed to drive slowly and carefully home.
Great weekend though. Roll on september
Showing posts with label london life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label london life. Show all posts
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
How complex can it be to sell a house?
So - my house sale must be as simple as it possibly comes.
I'm looking for a quick sale - have no chain - have left country and am desperate to sell. There's no holdups , no structural problems, no nothing.
My buyers also have no chain, they're first time buyers with money in the bank renting a house down the road.
We've both been ready to do the deal since about mid May - and yet its now nearly the end of July. This week we resorted to phoning the solicitors and the estate agents at least once a day, just trying to find out what the fuck everyone was doing, and what the possible delay could be.
It seemed to eventually turn out that basically both solicitors were just completely lazy and useless and the only reason they haven't exchanged is that they just couldn't be arsed. Frankly I'm unimpressed, but they kinda half me by the balls I guess. To change at this point in time would be pointless and they're now assuring us that they're gonna exchange this week, but by god its been painful. I hate to think how it would have been had either of us had somewhere else in the chain....
Its continues to stupify me how difficult a relatively simple process can be made. I suppose I could bang on here now about how easy it is to do such a deal in Sweden, but that'd just be pointless eh? I guess we should have just spent alot more time alot earlier in the process ringing them every day trying to make it happen, but frankly I'm paying them so why would I want to do their f'ing job for them...it's like "Have you phoned the other solicitor" - "well no" - " well do you think that maybe you should"...god its frustrating. Why they think its going to magically happen without them actualyl doing any work is beyond me....
I think that it would also be far fairer to note that Sarah has done all of this, and showed extreme patience in the process. i think I would have just called everyone a complete fuckwit by this point in time, and alienated any hope of the solicitors every getting off their fat arses to earn their money.
respect to sarah...
bollocks to solicitors....
Anyway - roll on us being given a huge sum of money - we're nearly there....
I'm looking for a quick sale - have no chain - have left country and am desperate to sell. There's no holdups , no structural problems, no nothing.
My buyers also have no chain, they're first time buyers with money in the bank renting a house down the road.
We've both been ready to do the deal since about mid May - and yet its now nearly the end of July. This week we resorted to phoning the solicitors and the estate agents at least once a day, just trying to find out what the fuck everyone was doing, and what the possible delay could be.
It seemed to eventually turn out that basically both solicitors were just completely lazy and useless and the only reason they haven't exchanged is that they just couldn't be arsed. Frankly I'm unimpressed, but they kinda half me by the balls I guess. To change at this point in time would be pointless and they're now assuring us that they're gonna exchange this week, but by god its been painful. I hate to think how it would have been had either of us had somewhere else in the chain....
Its continues to stupify me how difficult a relatively simple process can be made. I suppose I could bang on here now about how easy it is to do such a deal in Sweden, but that'd just be pointless eh? I guess we should have just spent alot more time alot earlier in the process ringing them every day trying to make it happen, but frankly I'm paying them so why would I want to do their f'ing job for them...it's like "Have you phoned the other solicitor" - "well no" - " well do you think that maybe you should"...god its frustrating. Why they think its going to magically happen without them actualyl doing any work is beyond me....
I think that it would also be far fairer to note that Sarah has done all of this, and showed extreme patience in the process. i think I would have just called everyone a complete fuckwit by this point in time, and alienated any hope of the solicitors every getting off their fat arses to earn their money.
respect to sarah...
bollocks to solicitors....
Anyway - roll on us being given a huge sum of money - we're nearly there....
Friday, May 05, 2006
I hear that its hot in England
Well its pretty damn warm here as well, 21 degrees today and sunny with it. The weekend is meant to be the same and I reckon we're gonna head for the outdoors, taken some sausages and grill them by a lake. Nice! I'm sitting here at the moment eaten prawn mayo salad type of thing on crisp breads, which is kinda like toast skagen (spent slightly differently but I can't be arsed to find the swedish character set currently and I'm on the UK laptop), which is a classic (I think) swedish starter. Smoked fish and salad to follow....tasty.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Last night in the UK - Sunday 9th April
great memories - thanks guys. This is one of out better photos as a group eh?
Categories: londonlife, friends, moving
Categories: londonlife, friends, moving
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Farthing Downs in Spring
Our last day out walking in the UK for a fair old while, but what a day to go. We walked from the old house at Coulsdon, up farthing downs and then out past chaldon in the Downlands Circular Walk. As you can see the weather was spectacular and when we reached the farthest point, on the north downs way itself, we could look back towards London and see all the way to the West end and Docklands. Along this walk we saw many things that encompassed the thoughts and feelings of the past 7 years, 2 houses, working in the city, much beautiful outdoors, and a lot of silence and thought, setting your mind ready for the next stage. Its wierd I've spent all my time walking here in the last few years, thinking about what life may bring me as my mind wanders and meanders along, in a totally relaxed state, and now here we were realigning our thoughts for relocation and a big change. We then looped back the the fox for lunch and then the last few miles home. About 12 miles in all and a great great way to say goodbye to the UK. It doesn't get much better than that. Then its off to the weddings and to say goodbye to everyone.
Categories: londonlife, walking
Categories: londonlife, walking
Monday, April 03, 2006
The final BNY leaving party
So here it is - number 7 , the last blowout. The question here is, Am I?
1. celebrating a Crystal Palace goal from the game coincidentally on in the background of the bar we were in.
or
2. Attempting a ghost impression
3. dancing in a very drunken fashion
answers on a postcard....
Categories: londonlife
1. celebrating a Crystal Palace goal from the game coincidentally on in the background of the bar we were in.
or
2. Attempting a ghost impression
3. dancing in a very drunken fashion
answers on a postcard....
Categories: londonlife
Friday, March 24, 2006
Cocktails, dinner and shots
4 of us from work went out last night for the latest round of my continuing leaving party. This was round 5 from work. The previous rounds consisted of:
1. Long boozy lunch at Plateau in Canary Wharf
2. Lunch an Ubon in Canary Wharf
3. Dinner at Aubergine in Chelsea
4. another lunch at Plateau
Its been a fine time indeed. Last night we went to the Oxo Tower for a quick cocktail, followed by dinner at Tas in Waterloo. It'd been a while since I'd been to Tas, but it was as good as ever, always worth a trip, and always such incredibly great value. We had the £10 set menu plus a couple of extra mains cos we were feeling. (You can see the photos of the food in flickr). So after a couple of bottles of wine we piled into the Wellington pub just opposite Waterloo and then got a bit outrageous drinking all sorts shots late into the evening. By the end all semblance of respectability had been dropped and we were drining black vodka, absynth, whiskey, and aftershock (washed down with a few fosters for Dom with typical Aussie style). What we didn;t realise was that they have a late licence there now - so we didn;t get chucked out til after midnight, by which point we were a bit of a state, and I had to jump in a taxi all the way home.
Frankly though a great evening, and that's what leaving parties should be about.
Parts 6 and 7 of the leaving do are to follow next week, with part 7 being the final blow out with the majority of my colleagues next Friday night in Canary Wharf. This time I've got a hotel room booked......
Categories: londonlife
1. Long boozy lunch at Plateau in Canary Wharf
2. Lunch an Ubon in Canary Wharf
3. Dinner at Aubergine in Chelsea
4. another lunch at Plateau
Its been a fine time indeed. Last night we went to the Oxo Tower for a quick cocktail, followed by dinner at Tas in Waterloo. It'd been a while since I'd been to Tas, but it was as good as ever, always worth a trip, and always such incredibly great value. We had the £10 set menu plus a couple of extra mains cos we were feeling. (You can see the photos of the food in flickr). So after a couple of bottles of wine we piled into the Wellington pub just opposite Waterloo and then got a bit outrageous drinking all sorts shots late into the evening. By the end all semblance of respectability had been dropped and we were drining black vodka, absynth, whiskey, and aftershock (washed down with a few fosters for Dom with typical Aussie style). What we didn;t realise was that they have a late licence there now - so we didn;t get chucked out til after midnight, by which point we were a bit of a state, and I had to jump in a taxi all the way home.
Frankly though a great evening, and that's what leaving parties should be about.
Parts 6 and 7 of the leaving do are to follow next week, with part 7 being the final blow out with the majority of my colleagues next Friday night in Canary Wharf. This time I've got a hotel room booked......
Categories: londonlife
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Here's some pictures of my journey to work
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
An unreasonably long journey
So, I'm standing at Honor Oak Park last night, waiting for the stopping train home. The first train gets cancelled (10.25pm). Ho hum we think, and defer back to the pub for another drink. We get back to the station for 10.55 train and its saying "DELAYED" on the board, so we use the help point to talk to the controller to see what's happening.
He informs us that there's a broken down train around Waterloo East and therefore there are no trains coming south currently, and they don't know when there will be. Getting home is starting to become slightly problematic, especially as I know I have to be up at 5.30 today for an early support shift.
So anyway, our only option seems to be to go back north again, into central London to try to connect to another train service somewhere, as trains are still running north. So off we trot back to London Bridge on the stopping train.
We arrive at London Bridge at about 11.15 - we're now an hour into our journey and all we've managed to do is go 5 miles in the wrong direction. At London Bridge there turns out to be total mayhem. There are no trains anywhere on the Croydon / Brighton line and there are hundreds of people standing around, getting just a slight upset at not being able to get home.
So 30 minutes later and we're still standing there having listened to a ridiculous selection of contradictory announcements which are based around the premise of "a train will be coming soon" - "oh no - apologies that train is now cancelled". Large synchronised groans can be heard from hundred of people after each successive piece of bad news.
Finally 11.50 a single train is found from somewhere and everyone is told to get on it, if they wish to go south to Croydon, from where in theory they can change to other services.
Unfortunately there are 2 fatal flaws in this plan:
1. Many people like myself have already missed their last train home even if they do get to Croydon.
2. There have been no trains south for about 90 minutes now, and there are now several hundred people equating to about 6 or 7 trains worth of people trying to squeeze onto a pissy little suburban commuter train.
At this point in time, I lose the will the carry on, go to the cash machine and find myself a black cab who will take me all the way home. I sit in the back and watch London fly by, at last heading in the right direction.
I get home at 1am, knowing that I have to be up in just over 4 hours, and head off to bed to grab what sleep I can.
At 4.45am the cat sits on my head and wakes me up.....
Categories: londonlife
He informs us that there's a broken down train around Waterloo East and therefore there are no trains coming south currently, and they don't know when there will be. Getting home is starting to become slightly problematic, especially as I know I have to be up at 5.30 today for an early support shift.
So anyway, our only option seems to be to go back north again, into central London to try to connect to another train service somewhere, as trains are still running north. So off we trot back to London Bridge on the stopping train.
We arrive at London Bridge at about 11.15 - we're now an hour into our journey and all we've managed to do is go 5 miles in the wrong direction. At London Bridge there turns out to be total mayhem. There are no trains anywhere on the Croydon / Brighton line and there are hundreds of people standing around, getting just a slight upset at not being able to get home.
So 30 minutes later and we're still standing there having listened to a ridiculous selection of contradictory announcements which are based around the premise of "a train will be coming soon" - "oh no - apologies that train is now cancelled". Large synchronised groans can be heard from hundred of people after each successive piece of bad news.
Finally 11.50 a single train is found from somewhere and everyone is told to get on it, if they wish to go south to Croydon, from where in theory they can change to other services.
Unfortunately there are 2 fatal flaws in this plan:
1. Many people like myself have already missed their last train home even if they do get to Croydon.
2. There have been no trains south for about 90 minutes now, and there are now several hundred people equating to about 6 or 7 trains worth of people trying to squeeze onto a pissy little suburban commuter train.
At this point in time, I lose the will the carry on, go to the cash machine and find myself a black cab who will take me all the way home. I sit in the back and watch London fly by, at last heading in the right direction.
I get home at 1am, knowing that I have to be up in just over 4 hours, and head off to bed to grab what sleep I can.
At 4.45am the cat sits on my head and wakes me up.....
Categories: londonlife
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