Posts Tagged ‘london’

The crudest advances ever

15th August 2014

The following conversation just happened to me (pretty much word for word) while standing at Hackney Central waiting for the bus.

Random guy:
How old are you?
Me:
Why do you wanna know?
Random guy:
You’re beautiful.
Me:
Erm… thanks…
Random guy:
How old are you?
Me:
37
Random guy:
Do you have a boyfriend?
Me:
Can you please leave me alone?
Random guy:
You’ve got big tits!
Me:
(unbelieving pause)
I know!
Random guy:
Why do you have big tits?
Me:
I was born with them… Can you please leave me alone?
Random guy:
Do you have a big arse?
Me:
I don’t know… it depends on the definition.
Random guy:
(walks around me to have a look himself)
You do have a nice, big arse… You can do lots of things with that!
Me:
(thinking he can’t be so crass and genuinely thinking he would say something unexpected)
Like what?
Random guy:
Have sex!
Me:
Everyone can have that… Can you please leave me alone!
(I wanted to say “You seriously don’t need to have a big arse to have sex!?” but didn’t.)
Random guy:
Do you wanna have sex with me?
Me:
No, thanks!
Random guy:
We can make baby.
Me:
No, thanks!
Random guy:
We can make baby here and now!
Me:
I’m not interested. Can you please leave me alone?!?
Random guy:
(goes silent and catches his bus a minute later)

I didn’t feel harassed as a) it was so short, b) he wasn’t sleazy but casual, c) he kept his physical distance and d) it was more funny to me than anything. But next to me was a woman with two children, which makes this conversation a bit less fun. It also makes me wonder what the chances are that any woman might say Yes to such crude advances (in broad daylight, while not being drunk)? He must have had success with that at some point in the past otherwise he wouldn’t do it!?

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South Ealing Cemetery

29th December 2009

Last month I have been to one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to in London: The South Ealing Cemetery.
The cemetery has an extremely atmospheric older part and a quite boring younger part. The western older part seems rather rural with cats, crows and a lot of squirrels roaming the place — and I have even seen a fox! (But unfortunately I was not quick enough with my camera.) Many of the graves are so old, they are often overgrown and either askew and lopsided or half sunken into the ground or completely gone with a few fragments of broken stones as the only remainder of a life long gone.
I often felt like I could be in the middle of the graveyard in Godric’s Hollow …

If I wanted to be buried (which I don’t) then I would love to be buried in a similar place. And seeing all those kitschy angelic statures, I would love to have a stature with a sappy angel (with wings and innocent look and all) as the upper half and a Manneken Pis as the lower half. 😀

Enjoy a selection of the photos I took:

(more…)

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London vs Berlin – The tube

28th February 2009

I would like to start a little series: “London vs Berlin”
As I am a nice girl and I really do not think any city would win over the other in the end, I will try to balance these posts.

Let us start with …

The tube
London Berlin
accessibility bad good
cleanliness good bad

Yes, it is really that simple. There is nothing more to add to that.
Well okay, I will explain a bit …

Accessibility

Let some hard facts speak for themselves:

  • Accessible tube stations in Berlin (BVG zone A): 47 out of 96 = 49%.
  • Accessible tube stations in London (TFL zones 1+2): 17 out of 132 = 13%!

I do not know the perspective of a wheelchair user, but I once had to move a very heavy suitcase from Willesden Green to Plaistow and had to change twice. There were a lot of stairs, hardly any moving ones and no lifts at all (minus one point for the public transport system). But there was always someone to help me carrying the suitcase up and down the stairs (plus one point for the Londoners).

That could not have happened in Berlin. (Ambiguity intended.)

Cleanliness

Whenever I mention to Londoners that the London tube is so much cleaner than the Berlin tube, they are very surprised. Most Londoners find the tube in London very dirty indeed. But they obviously do not know the Berlin tube, especially not when it runs through Kreuzberg. Where else can you see garbage, vomit, condoms, broken bottles and blood stains all in one compartment?

I wonder why the tube in London is so clean.
Is it the extreme security? After all, every piece of garbage could potentially be a bomb.
Do they have more money to hire more cleaning staff? Possibly.
Or do Londoners just behave themselves? Highly unlikely. 😉

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