Archive for the ‘london’ Category

Haemorrhaging money by the second

Monday, October 3rd, 2005

I just got off the phone with my lawyer. Wow, I’ve waited a long time to say that. Apparently I have a “fair” chance against my ex-landlord. I just had to pay a stupid sum of money just to get them to send a letter to him trying to settle out of court with both parties dropping their claims. Unfortunately, if it goes to court, my legal fees will far outstrip any money I stand to gain. Shit. So it’s either:

1) Pay my ex-landlord a pile of money that’s claiming unfairly

or

2) Defend it in court and have to pay huge legal fees, with the risk of having to pay the landlord money anyway, plus his legal fees.

Not impressed.

Canary Wharf Sucks

Wednesday, September 28th, 2005

Barney (a friend I met at university) posted a message to his blog cursing his “British skin”. He’s on holiday in Mexico and managed to get sunburnt, you see. Well you’ll get no sympathy from me, sunshine. (See what I did there?) Try being a redhead. I once managed to get mild sunburn on a mostly cloudy day in Wales. Wales! Surely Barney your impressive fluffy head of hair would have served as a makeshift sombrero?

While we’re namechecking people off my course, Marek is also on holiday at the minute. He’s living it up in Japan, and seems to have a radar for punk/ska bands playing in parks and such. Also, has developed a penchant for traditional Japanese bathrobes, it seems. Curious.

Not to leave anyone out… Liam is doing a PhD, something to do with peer-to-peer networks, so will eventually be officially the doctor of piracy. I have kindly requested that he makes me a super-user on this new-fangled network, allowing me to leech as many DVD-rips as I can. I will then burn these to disc. Despite asking me every day for about a year, I most certainly will not lend these discs to anyone.

YuppieToday’s fact of the day is: Canary Wharf tube station has more tossers per square inch during peak hours than anywhere else in the world. Stop getting in my fucking tube carriage, harping on about Mike in Accounts and your 5-grand Golden Hello! I Hate Canary Wharf. At least at rush hour. During the day (when the suits are being fisted by the corporate machine) or at the weekends (when they’re in their warehouse conversions, snorting charlie or having heart attacks/nervous breakdowns aged 27), Canary Wharf is quite pleasant.

Tying in nicely with this mini-rant, here is an actual conversation overheard (read: “eavesdropped”) on the Tube sometime last week. I am providing a transcript here – as best as I can remember it – for your amusement, though nothing will do this justice really…

Setting the scene: Two suits get in at Canary Wharf, carrying briefcases. Both are aged late-20s/early-30s. One (let’s call him “Tosser”) is about 6’2″, wearing so much aftershave my eyes sting, and has one of those faces you’d like to punch. Permanently smug. I can imagine him being told he has cancer and still looking like Mr. Big. He doesn’t walk, he strides, and is almost certainly called Piers. He is accompanied by a shorter, portly guy. We’ll call him “Bored Colleague”.

Tosser: “So, yah, Edward says I’m on track for the third quarter bonus. To be honest I was there at the beginning of August…”
Bored Colleague: (Staring intently at the floor and not moving his eyes up to acknowledge the conversation) “Really?…”
Tosser: “Oh yah, yah. Should go towards the motor that Carrie’s been after. Women, eh?”
Bored Colleague: (Feigned laughter) “Yeah…”
Tosser: ” Yah, so, er, yah. So, David’s off to pastures new, then. Think I’m in with a chance there. I could do with the extra 20k a year” (Guffaws to self)
Bored Colleague: “I don’t think so.”
Tosser: (I couldn’t see the guys face, but I imagine it dropping) “What do you mean?”
Bored Colleague: “He’s offered it to me.”
Tosser: “Oh…”
(Silence for the rest of the journey)

How’d you like them apples, dickbag?

Diamonds aren’t forever

Tuesday, September 27th, 2005

So the Missus just calls me while I’m at work to cry down the phone at me. Seriously, it took me about 10 minutes so get any sense out of her. What is it with crying women? That scene from Friends got it so right. Not that I watch that drivel.

Turns out that one of the diamonds in her engagement ring fell out. That’s what you get when you buy jewellery from Argos.

Predictable punchlines aside, it’s no biggie. Math was smart enough to insure the thing. Problem is, I now have to go back to Ernest Jones on Oxford Street and, presumably, fill in a shitload of paperwork. Fun.

I remember when I bought the ring in the first place, the guy serving me went out of his way to assure me that I could bring the ring back “if it doesn’t fit, or for any other reason you no longer need the ring”. Translation: “No woman would ever marry you, you ginger freak”. Prick.

Tube justice

Thursday, September 15th, 2005

If you’ve ever tried to get the Northern Line from Waterloo in the morning, you’ll know it gets pretty crowded. Thankfully, as I’m rarely in a rush, I can afford to wait the tortuous 60 seconds extra for the next train to arrive.

The same cannot be said for a smug-looking rude boy on the tube this morning. Train pulls in, and everyone shoe-horns themselves into the carriages except me and this guy. He’s too cool for that. He struts on to the edge of the carriage after everyone else. He’s looking at me with a smirk on his face, as if to say “I’m so cool, I’m not even jostling for space, and I’ll get where I’m going before you.”

Then the doors close on his head. Prick.