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Just getting to the place is an absolute joke! Ive been pricing up the train (thinking about the environment and all..) and its an hour journey from Northampton to Londons Euston Road so logic would suggest that a train would be cheaper than owning a car and driving that distance… and you know what, you’d be dead wrong!!

My good friend James lives in Northampton you see, and rather than jump into any old shithole (as Im sure there are many in London) I asked him if I could stay with him until I find Amy and I a nice 1 bedroom apartment that wont involve me having to subsidise my salary by giving handjobs on the subway to afford. I know it will be a ballache but as its short term (and half the time I spent on the road getting to and from Leeds) I know I can cope.

But the sheer expense of the train journey is shocking. I emailed Silverlink yesterday to inquire to the pricing of a pass for the “season” which range from week passes to a full year and here was the response…

£92.70 for a week?!?!?!?!? What in the living piss is that about?!

I knew London was expensive, but I assumed the transport to it would be relatively cheap.. you know, to encourage people to visit the capital! A weeks railpass for the whole of the Japanese rail system is about the same as that, and I can travel the length of Japan on that!!! This is extortion of the highest degree..

So… why is the UK promoting the use of public transport when it is far cheaper for me to own and drive a car that distance (maybe not into London thanks to congestion charging, but Im talking about distance wise)?? Diesel, even by UK standards would be a maximum of £5-7 a day, plus car insurance, the car, maintenance etc so why in the hell is a train that holds hundreds of people going to cost £19.85 a day?!

Not to even mention the overall inconvenience of trains… I mean UK trains are dirty, smelly, full of chavs and terrorists, and the winner of all, always (and I mean always) delayed/cancelled/late. The UK has some of the worst public transport in the world… why oh why is it the most expensive. I have to walk to the train station in the morning (the UK is hardly Spain or Italy where this might actually be pleasant at 7:30am… and its probably 15 minutes) and then from Euston Road I can get the subway for 4 stops (more expense) or walk approximately 20 minutes to Regent Street… fuck the environment, give me my nice, comfortable, cheaper car any day of the week.

I died a little more inside today… this country… i mean jeez!
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London; the city of dreams.. a place of big business, high flying jobs, vibrant city life and brilliant prospects. What a load of bollocks!

Just getting to the place is an absolute joke! Ive been pricing up the train (thinking about the environment and all..) and its an hour journey from Northampton to Londons Euston Road so logic would suggest that a train would be cheaper than owning a car and driving that distance… and you know what, you’d be dead wrong!!

My good friend James lives in Northampton you see, and rather than jump into any old shithole (as Im sure there are many in London) I asked him if I could stay with him until I find Amy and I a nice 1 bedroom apartment that wont involve me having to subsidise my salary by giving handjobs on the subway to afford. I know it will be a ballache but as its short term (and half the time I spent on the road getting to and from Leeds) I know I can cope.

But the sheer expense of the train journey is shocking. I emailed Silverlink yesterday to inquire to the pricing of a pass for the “season” which range from week passes to a full year and here was the response…

Thank you for your enquiry,
Season Tickets between Northampton and London Terminals (for Euston) will cost £92.70 for one week, £356.00 for one month, £1068.00 for three months and £3708.00 for one year. You can purchase your season ticket online, or at any staffed mainline station. To purchase a season ticket, you must have a photocard. These can be obtained from any mainline station, by taking along a passport size photograph.

regards
Barry Cochrane
Season Ticket Helpdesk

£92.70 for a week?!?!?!?!? What in the living piss is that about?!

I knew London was expensive, but I assumed the transport to it would be relatively cheap.. you know, to encourage people to visit the capital! A weeks railpass for the whole of the Japanese rail system is about the same as that, and I can travel the length of Japan on that!!! This is extortion of the highest degree..

So… why is the UK promoting the use of public transport when it is far cheaper for me to own and drive a car that distance (maybe not into London thanks to congestion charging, but Im talking about distance wise)?? Diesel, even by UK standards would be a maximum of £5-7 a day, plus car insurance, the car, maintenance etc so why in the hell is a train that holds hundreds of people going to cost £19.85 a day?!

Not to even mention the overall inconvenience of trains… I mean UK trains are dirty, smelly, full of chavs and terrorists, and the winner of all, always (and I mean always) delayed/cancelled/late. The UK has some of the worst public transport in the world… why oh why is it the most expensive. I have to walk to the train station in the morning (the UK is hardly Spain or Italy where this might actually be pleasant at 7:30am… and its probably 15 minutes) and then from Euston Road I can get the subway for 4 stops (more expense) or walk approximately 20 minutes to Regent Street… fuck the environment, give me my nice, comfortable, cheaper car any day of the week.

I died a little more inside today… this country… i mean jeez!

Edgware is one of the outer regions on the subway into London, and this rather dismal and dirty town was what I expected of an outer London town; a relatively innocuous place with nothing of real interest there. The houses pretown center were rather nice though, and I felt secure leaving the Bora on a street with houses with Porsche 4×4s and 3 Mercs up the drive.

So I got to the Subway and the ripoff began, being charged £6.75 for a 40 minute return subway journey (although I am to believe with an Oyster card its half that, but thats still far too expensive). The tube station was filthy, the seats on board were grimy and in need of repair, and the comfort factor was just non-existent. For the price of the subway I would’ve expected it to be the best in the world (it must surely be the most expensive) but compared to other big cities I’ve used (Hong Kong and Seoul being the other 2) this was a big let down. It was functional, but considering both HKs and Seouls subways are younger, and far cheaper (40-80p a journey maximum) London really does need to do something about this.

In any case, I arrived at Oxford Circus at about 12:30, so I had so time to kill. I took a right out of the subway (which proved to be the wrong decision; Regent Street is LEFT out of the subway!!) and walked down Oxford Street in search of the building. After about 10 minutes I decided I’d headed in the wrong direction so grabbed a coffee in Starbucks (for a city it was standard price in fairness, £1.99 for the largest Standard Coffee) and pulled out the Sat. Nav for directions.

It couldn’t get a signal at all, so I just used is as a glorified map and found that I had indeed gone the wrong way. No harm, no foul… I still had at least an hour to get to the interview and it was all of about 4 streets away, so I just relaxed in Starbucks to the always chilled grooves, enjoying my coffee and my favorite pastime in cities of people watching.

It always amazes me, the colourful array of people in the city, from the Businessman in his Suit and Tie, to the tramps with crumbs in their beards, they all look like they have a story to tell. I wanted to pull out the D70 and take a few snaps, but felt it was a little inappropriate, plus I didn’t want it getting nicked so it stayed in the bag. I spotted this little Eskimo guy holding a billboard that made me think about Ben, and whether he had a decent job in London yet.. lol.. or whether he was still doing something as soul destroying at the little Eskimo dude.

He looked so sad in his parker and big mittens, with his hood firmly up. I wanted to take a long shutter speed photo of him stood there with people walking by him, it would’ve been a perfect example of workers being exploited for commercialisation in a busy world, but again, I was in a Starbucks and didn’t want to be clicking away with my (expensive) camera.

So after finishing my coffee I walked to Regent Street; the place I was being interviewed at was 3 stores down from Hamleys, so I killed the rest of the time I had wandering in there! If I was a spoiled brat its the kind of place I could imagine running riot in, certainly a place where childrens dreams are made from. I had to laugh as there were no sale items at all.. not surprising really, so I didn’t bother buying anything.

After that I went to stand outside the place for 10 minutes or so to get some fresh air and prepare myself for the interview. I was approached by a gypsy woman with some fake flowers, which she put in my top pocket of my blazer. She proceeded with some kind of sob story about giving money “for the kiddies” and when I gave her the shrapnel I had (all of 30p) she tried to kiss me. She had warts, boils and a beard, which wasnt the only reason I pushed her, but it was enough to try and prevent myself getting some disease. She said most people are giving about a fiver, which I LOLed at and gave her the flower back. *shudders* … dirty bitch!

So I went into the interview relatively confident; I’d done my Space Invaders demo for them, which they were very happy with so I had a good grounds to sell myself from… which I did to the best of my abilities. It went well in my opinion, and I left pretty pleased with doing all I could to try and secure the job.

Which they have JUST this second offered me! As I was blogging this, they called to offer me the position. They’re emailing me the details now and all I have to do is say yes! My fingers are crossed that the proposed accommodation isnt too scrubby, and that all the details and good, but I could be officially working on Regent Street sometime soon!

London, here we come!
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If you didn’t know, I had a job interview in London on Regent Street (yes, very lar di dar) yesterday so I had to travel down for it early doors to make it for my 2:40pm appointment. I set off at 7am and was surprised to only really hit 2 patches of traffic on the way down, taking a total of 4 1/2 hours to get to Edgware.

Edgware is one of the outer regions on the subway into London, and this rather dismal and dirty town was what I expected of an outer London town; a relatively innocuous place with nothing of real interest there. The houses pretown center were rather nice though, and I felt secure leaving the Bora on a street with houses with Porsche 4×4s and 3 Mercs up the drive.

So I got to the Subway and the ripoff began, being charged £6.75 for a 40 minute return subway journey (although I am to believe with an Oyster card its half that, but thats still far too expensive). The tube station was filthy, the seats on board were grimy and in need of repair, and the comfort factor was just non-existent. For the price of the subway I would’ve expected it to be the best in the world (it must surely be the most expensive) but compared to other big cities I’ve used (Hong Kong and Seoul being the other 2) this was a big let down. It was functional, but considering both HKs and Seouls subways are younger, and far cheaper (40-80p a journey maximum) London really does need to do something about this.

In any case, I arrived at Oxford Circus at about 12:30, so I had so time to kill. I took a right out of the subway (which proved to be the wrong decision; Regent Street is LEFT out of the subway!!) and walked down Oxford Street in search of the building. After about 10 minutes I decided I’d headed in the wrong direction so grabbed a coffee in Starbucks (for a city it was standard price in fairness, £1.99 for the largest Standard Coffee) and pulled out the Sat. Nav for directions.

It couldn’t get a signal at all, so I just used is as a glorified map and found that I had indeed gone the wrong way. No harm, no foul… I still had at least an hour to get to the interview and it was all of about 4 streets away, so I just relaxed in Starbucks to the always chilled grooves, enjoying my coffee and my favorite pastime in cities of people watching.

It always amazes me, the colourful array of people in the city, from the Businessman in his Suit and Tie, to the tramps with crumbs in their beards, they all look like they have a story to tell. I wanted to pull out the D70 and take a few snaps, but felt it was a little inappropriate, plus I didn’t want it getting nicked so it stayed in the bag. I spotted this little Eskimo guy holding a billboard that made me think about Ben, and whether he had a decent job in London yet.. lol.. or whether he was still doing something as soul destroying at the little Eskimo dude.

He looked so sad in his parker and big mittens, with his hood firmly up. I wanted to take a long shutter speed photo of him stood there with people walking by him, it would’ve been a perfect example of workers being exploited for commercialisation in a busy world, but again, I was in a Starbucks and didn’t want to be clicking away with my (expensive) camera.

So after finishing my coffee I walked to Regent Street; the place I was being interviewed at was 3 stores down from Hamleys, so I killed the rest of the time I had wandering in there! If I was a spoiled brat its the kind of place I could imagine running riot in, certainly a place where childrens dreams are made from. I had to laugh as there were no sale items at all.. not surprising really, so I didn’t bother buying anything.

After that I went to stand outside the place for 10 minutes or so to get some fresh air and prepare myself for the interview. I was approached by a gypsy woman with some fake flowers, which she put in my top pocket of my blazer. She proceeded with some kind of sob story about giving money “for the kiddies” and when I gave her the shrapnel I had (all of 30p) she tried to kiss me. She had warts, boils and a beard, which wasnt the only reason I pushed her, but it was enough to try and prevent myself getting some disease. She said most people are giving about a fiver, which I LOLed at and gave her the flower back. *shudders* … dirty bitch!

So I went into the interview relatively confident; I’d done my Space Invaders demo for them, which they were very happy with so I had a good grounds to sell myself from… which I did to the best of my abilities. It went well in my opinion, and I left pretty pleased with doing all I could to try and secure the job.

Which they have JUST this second offered me! As I was blogging this, they called to offer me the position. They’re emailing me the details now and all I have to do is say yes! My fingers are crossed that the proposed accommodation isnt too scrubby, and that all the details and good, but I could be officially working on Regent Street sometime soon!

London, here we come!