I know what you must be thinking, surely looking on the bright side goes against the whole grumpy thing. But I thought for once I'd give it a go to see if it makes me feel any better, seen as how generally I'm quite prone to wallowing on my own misery and just generally feeling sorry for myself a lot. Not just myself either, I read a lot of depressing news articles and tend to despair about the state of well, just about everything else in the world. I am also good at making other people feel really miserable, not the best way to make friends. Although sometimes I'm not sure I want any friends, being social requires a lot of energy and usually money too. It's a conundrum, it really is.
Anyway, on with looking on the bright side... I recently read an article about how to gain self confidence and to feel better about yourself and happier in general. One of the things they mentioned was to make a list of all the good things in your life, achievements, and the such. Then to look at the list when you're feeling down to remind yourself of (supposedly) how great your life is. So I've been thinking this over and, yes it's been very difficult and I may slip back into moaning here at any moment, but here goes... oh and this may end up having to be an ongoing thing as I am likely to get bored of writing and/or need more time to think of other "good" things in my life.
1. London
I really do feel very fortunate to be living in London. It's one of the biggest and most multi-cultural cities in the world and even though it's RIDICULOUSLY expensive to live here I really think it's no worse than say New York or Tokyo or any other of the major cities. For the extra living costs you get the benefit of having 2 of the largest hub airports in the world, I can pretty much get anywhere quickly and (relatively speaking) cheaply, not to mention the Eurostar which means I could go from the centre of London to the centre of Paris in less than 2 hours for around £50 (around $75).
The arts. Any exhibition you want to see, any play or musical, any band, any film no matter how obscure or art house - will undoubtedly be in London at some point. Not just that, but say I do want to go and see a film, I won't have to visit a large multiplex cinema that smells faintly of piss and is overrun with unruly teens (although if I wanted that I could go to the Vue in Shepherd's Bush), instead I could go to The Ritzy in Brixton where I could also enjoy a nice cold beer during the movie and have a wonderful home made pizza in the cafe afterwards, or I could go to The Prince Charles in Leicester Square, a cheap divey repertoire cinema where you either have to sit at the front or the back because there's a strange dip in the middle, and where they'll give you wine in pint glasses because they've run out of clean alternatives. On top of all this we have the BFI, great annual festivals such as The London Film Festival, The Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Frightfest, Raindance, not to mention literally 100s of others (for example, currently The Gypsy Film Festival is on at The Ritzy). London has so many museums and art galleries... The Tate Modern/Britain, The National Gallery, The Science Museum, The Natural History Museum, The V&A (to name just a few) and all free to get into. Even on the outskirts of the city you have wonderful places like The Horniman Museum in Forest Hill (again, free) which even has it's own mini aquarium.
Just a quick glance at Time Out shows me I could go and see Taj Mahal at Ronnie Scott's, or The Doves at Brixton Academy, Chas & Dave at The 100 Club or even Pink at the O2 and that there's such as place as the Dulwich Ukulele Club! I could go to late night magic shows at Madame Jojo's or cabaret shows like La Clique, free Burlesque shows at Cellar Door, Jimmy Carr doing stand-up... and that's all just tomorrow night.
There is the shopping, everything from Bond Street to Spitalfields to Camden Market, and of course Topshop.
The food. Restaurants serving everything from raw food to wagyu beef. There is Borough Market, Brick Lane, The Japan Centre etc... not to mention that The Fat Duck is only an hour away. You'll pretty much never run out of places to eat - or drink for that matter. You've got a Sam Smith's pub on every corner, where a pint of organic vegan friendly (and very drinkable)lager comes in at around £2, or you could have expertly made classic cocktails at The Hawksmoor or champagne at Amuse Bouche... and these are just a few off the top of my head.
Even though I truly hate my job, and a little piece of me dies every morning when my alarm goes off at 6am, there aren't many places in the world like Foyles. That's for sure.
On my lunch break the other day I saw Mike Leigh walking down the street.
I've also sold a DVD to/met out and about somewhere:
Pamela Anderson
Dita Von Teese
Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Brian May
Stella McCartney
Cher
Jarvis Cocker
Damon Albarn
Chris Cunningham
Pedro Almodovar
Guillermo Del Toro
Gael Garcia Bernal
Alfred Molina
Christopher Lee
Michael Caine
Gwen Stefani
Slash
Natalie Portman
Joan Collins
and a host of other z-list celebs that I care not to mention and maybe some more cool ones I've forgotten.
I've also seen someone smoking crack on the tube, and someone having a wank in public (more than once, although thankfully it wasn't the same person).
Although it's over priced, the public transport is great. Just on my bus ride to and from work I see The London Eye, The Houses of Parliament, St. Paul's Cathedral, The Old Vic, Waterloo Bridge, The NFT & BFI, the gherkin, Trafalgar Square, The Hayward Gallery, The Royal Festival Hall... oh and Elephant & Castle...
There are seriously so many crazy people in London. Makes for good people watching and regular discomfort.
For a large industrialised city there is still so much greenery and loads of lovely parks.
30 mins on the train and you're in Brighton, by the sea.
I see and learn something new every day.
I almost never bump into people I know, and my business stays my business because nobody gives a fuck. I love the fact I've lived here 8 years and still have my privacy and anonymity. But, at the same time I've made some of my closest friends whilst living here.
Ok, so I know you could say most of this about New York... but that's in America - where you have to pay for healthcare and where you'd be lucky to get any paid holiday days off work or sick leave and where they have all kinds of lax regulations on what kinds of hormones and antibiotics are in their meat, and they're all fat. I could go on. Really, I do quite like America, but I don't think I could live there unless I was rich.
Of course there are downsides to London (Boris Johnson, house prices, pollution, etc) - but I'm trying desperately to focus on the positives!
Now I am bored of writing. I shall recommence at a later date.
Anyway, on with looking on the bright side... I recently read an article about how to gain self confidence and to feel better about yourself and happier in general. One of the things they mentioned was to make a list of all the good things in your life, achievements, and the such. Then to look at the list when you're feeling down to remind yourself of (supposedly) how great your life is. So I've been thinking this over and, yes it's been very difficult and I may slip back into moaning here at any moment, but here goes... oh and this may end up having to be an ongoing thing as I am likely to get bored of writing and/or need more time to think of other "good" things in my life.
1. London
I really do feel very fortunate to be living in London. It's one of the biggest and most multi-cultural cities in the world and even though it's RIDICULOUSLY expensive to live here I really think it's no worse than say New York or Tokyo or any other of the major cities. For the extra living costs you get the benefit of having 2 of the largest hub airports in the world, I can pretty much get anywhere quickly and (relatively speaking) cheaply, not to mention the Eurostar which means I could go from the centre of London to the centre of Paris in less than 2 hours for around £50 (around $75).
The arts. Any exhibition you want to see, any play or musical, any band, any film no matter how obscure or art house - will undoubtedly be in London at some point. Not just that, but say I do want to go and see a film, I won't have to visit a large multiplex cinema that smells faintly of piss and is overrun with unruly teens (although if I wanted that I could go to the Vue in Shepherd's Bush), instead I could go to The Ritzy in Brixton where I could also enjoy a nice cold beer during the movie and have a wonderful home made pizza in the cafe afterwards, or I could go to The Prince Charles in Leicester Square, a cheap divey repertoire cinema where you either have to sit at the front or the back because there's a strange dip in the middle, and where they'll give you wine in pint glasses because they've run out of clean alternatives. On top of all this we have the BFI, great annual festivals such as The London Film Festival, The Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Frightfest, Raindance, not to mention literally 100s of others (for example, currently The Gypsy Film Festival is on at The Ritzy). London has so many museums and art galleries... The Tate Modern/Britain, The National Gallery, The Science Museum, The Natural History Museum, The V&A (to name just a few) and all free to get into. Even on the outskirts of the city you have wonderful places like The Horniman Museum in Forest Hill (again, free) which even has it's own mini aquarium.
Just a quick glance at Time Out shows me I could go and see Taj Mahal at Ronnie Scott's, or The Doves at Brixton Academy, Chas & Dave at The 100 Club or even Pink at the O2 and that there's such as place as the Dulwich Ukulele Club! I could go to late night magic shows at Madame Jojo's or cabaret shows like La Clique, free Burlesque shows at Cellar Door, Jimmy Carr doing stand-up... and that's all just tomorrow night.
There is the shopping, everything from Bond Street to Spitalfields to Camden Market, and of course Topshop.
The food. Restaurants serving everything from raw food to wagyu beef. There is Borough Market, Brick Lane, The Japan Centre etc... not to mention that The Fat Duck is only an hour away. You'll pretty much never run out of places to eat - or drink for that matter. You've got a Sam Smith's pub on every corner, where a pint of organic vegan friendly (and very drinkable)lager comes in at around £2, or you could have expertly made classic cocktails at The Hawksmoor or champagne at Amuse Bouche... and these are just a few off the top of my head.
Even though I truly hate my job, and a little piece of me dies every morning when my alarm goes off at 6am, there aren't many places in the world like Foyles. That's for sure.
On my lunch break the other day I saw Mike Leigh walking down the street.
I've also sold a DVD to/met out and about somewhere:
Pamela Anderson
Dita Von Teese
Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Brian May
Stella McCartney
Cher
Jarvis Cocker
Damon Albarn
Chris Cunningham
Pedro Almodovar
Guillermo Del Toro
Gael Garcia Bernal
Alfred Molina
Christopher Lee
Michael Caine
Gwen Stefani
Slash
Natalie Portman
Joan Collins
and a host of other z-list celebs that I care not to mention and maybe some more cool ones I've forgotten.
I've also seen someone smoking crack on the tube, and someone having a wank in public (more than once, although thankfully it wasn't the same person).
Although it's over priced, the public transport is great. Just on my bus ride to and from work I see The London Eye, The Houses of Parliament, St. Paul's Cathedral, The Old Vic, Waterloo Bridge, The NFT & BFI, the gherkin, Trafalgar Square, The Hayward Gallery, The Royal Festival Hall... oh and Elephant & Castle...
There are seriously so many crazy people in London. Makes for good people watching and regular discomfort.
For a large industrialised city there is still so much greenery and loads of lovely parks.
30 mins on the train and you're in Brighton, by the sea.
I see and learn something new every day.
I almost never bump into people I know, and my business stays my business because nobody gives a fuck. I love the fact I've lived here 8 years and still have my privacy and anonymity. But, at the same time I've made some of my closest friends whilst living here.
Ok, so I know you could say most of this about New York... but that's in America - where you have to pay for healthcare and where you'd be lucky to get any paid holiday days off work or sick leave and where they have all kinds of lax regulations on what kinds of hormones and antibiotics are in their meat, and they're all fat. I could go on. Really, I do quite like America, but I don't think I could live there unless I was rich.
Of course there are downsides to London (Boris Johnson, house prices, pollution, etc) - but I'm trying desperately to focus on the positives!
Now I am bored of writing. I shall recommence at a later date.
5 comments:
I'm glad you mentioned London Transport. Londoners always complain about it but it's effing excellent. OK it's expensive and crowded and full of the type of niggles that send regular users off into paroxysms of rage.
But try getting anywhere on public transport outside the Capital. It's patchy, unreliable, and takes ages. If you want to go anywhere other than your nearest large-ish town you have to start by heading there, then change buses.
Sometimes I really wish that Shaun and I could live elsewhere. *le sigh*
I'm just so incredibly in love with Austin.
that is true. outside London you cannot get anywhere in public transport and if you do you might be super late/early or miles away from where you're originally supposed to be. hey! I like this. can u come up with more things that do not involve spending money though?
http://www.timeout.com/london/features/2892/Free_things_to_do_in_London.html - free things to do in London.
First of all, this is really beautiful, and the sort of list that all of us need to write and reflect upon. Secondly, those are exaclty the same reasons why I love cities, London being no exception. Despite all of the daily stimuli that distract us, remove us further from ourselves, we still need to be reminded why we choose our paths, and not to take the daily grind for granted.
Also, as much as I love the CTA and being able to get a lovely tour of my city for $2.25, it pales in comparison to the Tube.
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