SRowell in London

[Eeyore]

Right people. My day is being super hectic so before i go and try again ill share this.

So for those who dont know months ago I accepted my job offer to work for IBM in London Southbank. I live in Ipswich so not wanting to commute 5 hours a day I have decided to move to London.

Yesterday I dropped off my first load of possessions at my room. Its £400 a month in eastham. Double bed and its quite a large room which is all good. Landlord seems very relaxed... so relaxed in fact that the living room stinks of weed as he seems to come over a few nights a week and stay in the spare room D: So yeh it smells funny and my room is on the ground floor which isnt great but Ill deal with it. Im living with one of my friends so thats a good thing I guess.

Today... Ive packed all the rest of things including my drawers and desk and had to say bye to my gf of two years. Ill be back once a fortnight to see her and hopefully she will come see me. On the way to dropping her off I had a puncture at 70mph. Pulled over and had to drive with it flat to get off the dual carriage way. Wheel swapped but seeing as I have another 300+ miles to drive on a crap spare I have now returned home to put on an entirely different set of cyclones.

In the next 15 minutes I will now be leaving to get to London to unload the car. Then pack for southampton where my induction is for the next week. I have a travel lodge room booked for the night so will probably end up there just before midnight! D:

So yeh sorry for the long winded story but Im a bit lost now that Ive had a bit of bad luck and having to leave everything I know behind.

Pros:
Its London
Decent job
Cheap Rent
Large Room with Free parking in a half decent area.

Cons:
Need to be in london in the next 3 hours.
Need to be in southampton in the next 6 hours.
Blow out and odd wheels :/
First day in the job tomorrow! D:

Blahh. if anyone has any motivational stuff for me please let me know. Now that Im in london ill be able to come to the Ace meets etc. Cheers guys.

[Niall]

Well if you ever need any help with anything or just fancy meeting up, me, grant and samass are a hours drive away and Scott is an hour in the other direction. Ace is also nice and easy for you to get to as well. Just hop on the north circular and job jobbed.

Good luck with it all and as i said, if you need help with anything or want to know where anything is, just ask!
Oh and dont forget the Congestion charge and dartford toll. CC is very easy to forget to pay so if i was you, i would pay the £10 and sign up to auto payments to avoid the £60 fine. Dartford toll, if you ever need to use it is £2.00 each way but is only cash. Ive been caught out before and forgotten cash and its a £60 fine . might be worth getting a dart tag if you will be using it often.
And finally, just be cautious driving in London. There is a camera on every junction and every set of lights you can imagine. You really need to be on the ball to make sure you dont stop in any box junctions, turn where you shouldnt, not use bus lanes etc.

[cully]

lots of colours in london not just your favourite

[Eeyore]

cheers Niall. ive finished dinner and I am now about to leave. Hopefully i will make it more than 10 miles this time! There is no internet set up in the house so I only have my crap phone (after dropping my nexus 4) which Ill be using for internet. Gas and electricity is included. Hopefully all my things will still be in my room!

---

lots of colours in london not just your favourite

shhhh

[306Puggy]

Congrats on the job dude (I only read that far). Now that is what I call a proper job. Unlike me.

[Jonny81191]

Best of luck mate! Hopefully I'll be down south soon as well, albeit a couple of hours away.

[Dum-Dum]

Pftttt, tips for London, hmmmmm,
Get an oyster pass for the tube and that and wear a watch otherwise when someone asks you for the time you'll pull your phone out and they'll disappear off down the road with it.

Oh and if someone asks you if you want to buy something just say no.

[bigcheez2k3]

Congratulations...you're now the nearest member to me :p

Not congratulations; You now live in East London

[Niall]

Congratulations...you're now the nearest member to me :p

Not congratulations; You now live in East London

Yeah east london is....errrm unique?

[Jonny b]

Ha ha ha rowel in London!!! f*cking lol

[Jonny81191]

Ha ha ha rowel in London!!! f*cking lol

You've just reminded me..

Sam, these people will not tolerate your racist comments. So think about what you're about to say!!

[WiNgNuTz]

Ha ha ha rowel in London!!! f*cking lol

You've just reminded me..

Sam, these people will not tolerate your racist comments. So think about what you're about to say!!

I was about to make this point. A mate of mine once dropped a clanger in the middle of Brixton as a bus "full of c**ns" drove past. Wanted the ground to swallow me up, we were stood at the front door of Brixton Academy Nightclub at the time!

DON'T do this.

[Dum-Dum]

Ooh I've got a tip, if your going for a night out there aint no party like a gay bar party an the drinks are usually stupidly cheap in gay bars too.

[Jonny81191]

The birds are alright too, Eh Chris?!

[Dum-Dum]

The birds are alright too, Eh Chris?!

TBF lots of birds go to gay bars cos they wont get chatted up by annoying chav blokes all night so you'd be surprised about the amount of hotties in there.

[pugvivant]

Hahahah in east ham, thats a bleeding joke if you have never been exposed to the ethnic majority rofl.
East ham is a hub mate, my word of advice is just be careful and be weary of your surroundings.

This is my old patch, i grew up around the area in the 80's and 90's . Born in forest gate, done my rounds in most E postcodes. If you like indian cusine and fast food and dont cook much then your on to a winner. If you like a drink then you got a few boozers from the overdraft, the denmark and millers well which is a wetherspoons.

If you need advice on the area and surroundings gimme a shout happy to point you in the right direction.

[devils_fuel]

Congrats on the job Sam !!! London is a funny old place mate from what I've experienced, not an area I'd choose to live in BUT it's all a learning curve so enjoy

Most important thing I can say is...think about everything you may do or say as you offend someone and it may escalate

[r3k1355]

Pros:
Its London

Thats a pro??

my room. Its £400 a month

Cheap Rent

ROFL

[mcglynn]

I ended up in london in southall to buy a mk2 golf one time with a mate, scary as f*ck.

Im not racist but there wernt ANY whites, there was cops, swanky 5 series and range rovers, amd guys being chased in the street.

Had the cash too for the car, absolutely shitting it!

[Niall]

I ended up in london in southall to buy a mk2 golf one time with a mate, scary as f*ck.

Im not racist but there wernt ANY whites, there was cops, swanky 5 series and range rovers, amd guys being chased in the street.

Had the cash too for the car, absolutely shitting it!

Southall is filled to the brim with indians but its actually a very peaceful area in comparison to most parts of London. As with all areas of London, certain people have set up home there. You will find certain parts of East London will be full of people from the Caribbean and Africans.
London really isnt as bad as people make out though for violence. Again, its all the media making it out to be a complete shit hole when in fact, most are just there to go about their own business.

[Toms306]

It's no more dangerous than the countryside, difference is you cant just bury a body on a farm in the middle of London.

Good luck Sam.

[mcglynn]

Yeah I was fine with the ethnicity, the guys we bought the car off were awesome lad's, punjabi themselves.

But upon getting to the trainstation we had no mobiles as they both had died. Had taken down the guys phone number earlier knowing the phones would die, and the pay phone in the train station was down, so we walked to a fast food place to borrow a phone. No english at all and very confused looking to see us lol..

Went on down the street and into a supplement shop, where an indian guy was VERY reluctant to let us use either his landline or mobile, or him to dial the number for us for that fact. He directed us to 4 more payphones, all of which where out of order.

so we went back to the supplement shop, on our way back a guy barefoot ran past us and a huge man shouting after him lol. We were pretty scared by this point and went back to the shop and said we'd buy supplements or whatever in return for using the phone, again reluctant insisting the phones were working but finally dialled the number after some persuasion. He spoke first to the guy and then passed us the phone to finalise the call.

Guy said to meet us at the train station where we seen a guy and a girl dragged out by the police for being out of it lol.

The guy selling the mk2 wouldnt stop at the trainstation and instead told us to walk out of the centre to a petrol station.

May sound silly but I was out of my comfort zone by far and was absolutely shitting bricks lol!

[THE_Liam]

Jesus, £400 for a room is cheap?!?! My mortgage on a 2 bedroom semi is less

Been to London a few times and honestly I couldn't live there, I can't do with the speed of the place, the whole place is in too much of a bloody hurry. Also, everything is expensive, there's not enough space, too much noise, and don't even get me started on driving, I've never known stress like it. I mean Leeds is a big city, 5th biggest in the country, but the city centre is a doddle, there is a one way system but it's easy to get around, and there's not that much traffic in the actual centre...

Best of luck mate.

[Scott]

Yeah that's far too accurate Liam

[Dum-Dum]

I think generally London is alright in the suburbs, the 1930s semi detached houses sort of areas, its the rest of it that is bad.

[Poodle]

Dear diary... :p

Congratulations on getting the job fella, sure you'll be fine in london. If you fancy a decent meal tonight drop me a pm, im not far out of southampton and it'll be a damn sight better than sitting in a premier inn on your lonesome.

[Eeyore]

All the neighbours either seem to be old or families so should be okay. 400 is far more than o was paying in Liverpool but obviously its London. All bills included so its not too bad.

Just woken up in my travel lodge and just getting suited up. Headache from the stress of last night as the satnav decided I needed a tour of london. I have to say driving in central London is definitely shit. The lanes go everywhere and some are wide and some aren't wide enough. Driving past the London eye at 11 was not my plan!

[C.A.R.]

£400 is cheap! Especially inclusive of bills. Is it a bedsit?

Best of luck with it mate, try not to stress yourself out about it. If it's lots more money than you're used to, try to get started with saving right away. One thing I struggle with is being able to put any money into savings, as rent, bills and groceries annhialate my wages every month! If you put the money away after your first pay cheque, you won't 'miss' it next time around. Online banking often allows you to set this all up on the fly, rather than having to enter a bank in person too.

Just a pointer, I wish I had savings now!!

[Eeyore]

Right quick little update. First day went well. Lots of people who are more qualified than me but still feel good about it. Right now I'm in a 3 or 4 star hotel in which ester. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good.

Got my free work laptop and bag. Its alright. I5 and 8gb memory etc.