Sunday 20 August 2023

"The black snot thing ends immediately north of EN6"

 Oh, shit!  Is it my go?  
 Yes!
 Where's the rota?  Is it really my go?  I'm not ready!
 Oh, for fu-  Here, do one of Jon's laziest most efficient-type posts:


Nine common problems that can be solved by moving the f**k out of London

CAN’T afford a house? Can’t afford a meal out? Travelling six miles takes two hours and costs you £40? Have you considered getting the f**k out of London?

No affordable rents: With the capital full of other young professional housemates stealing your shampoo, have you considered living outside it? In provincial towns like Chorley and Sleaford where rent is low? They’ve got electricity and tapas, allegedly. 

No nightlife options: Restaurants and nightclubs in London are famous and famously expensive. Restaurants and nightclubs in the rest of the country are less so, and often called things like The Wheatsheaf Grill or Zanzibar’s, but you can go to them.

No affordable transport: A system of underground trains in a major city is expensive. Getting the bus in Barnsley is not. Riding a bike in Wrexham is practically free. And have you considered walking to work in Warrington? It can be done, crazy as it sounds.

Overcrowding: It’s impossible to find a patch of London park not commandeered by boot camp fitness twats, rowdy bored-shitless teenagers or mums playing ‘here we go round the Mulberry bag’ for a two-year-old’s party. Could it possibly be because there’s too f**king many of you in the same place?

No time to see friends: Lengthy commutes, long working hours and spiralling service costs mean that even in the same city, you only see friends on Zoom. Are you getting it yet? That the city is a nightmare and you could just piss off somewhere nicer?

Gentrification: Be the gentrifier. Take your fancy arsehole graduate job and go and gentrify Ashton-under-Lyne. All it actually means is buying a cheap house and making the area more pleasant. Is that so evil, or are your values horrendously warped?

Pollution: You know the black snot thing ends immediately north of EN6, don’t you? You sneer when your provincial friends come down and complain about it? Then what’s stopping you moving to Staffordshire? Fear of big cats?

I’ll never get on the property ladder: No, you f**king won’t. Nor will you ever buy in Manhattan, Tokyo or Sandbanks, so have you considered living somewhere you can afford like normal people do?

I can’t talk about anything but living in London: This one is absolutely solved after six months in Stafford after which you will, finally, get over yourself. Unless you move to Cornwall or the Cotswolds. It’s still the sole topic of conversation with the refugees there.
 

Of course.

31 comments:

  1. Wait! Are we supposed to be doing this on a rotational basis? How , where, should I get one of these rota thingies?

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    Replies
    1. You mean you didn't get your copy? I don't understa-

      Ah. I think Muriel said she'd take it for you. You'd better have a word.

      Delete
  2. My revenge when the "boot camp fitness twats" think the sidewalks in my neighborhood are their personal treadmills and they try to pass me by shouting "On your left" is to stop in their path, turn around and ask "what's on my left?"

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    1. Hah ha haa! I can imagine the chaos now. And also your smug grin after they extricate themselves from whatever piece of street furniture they became entangled with and run off!

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  3. Oh god, does this mean I have to have a 'go' as well????
    It's true about the black snot.
    Sx

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    Replies
    1. But, of course! Don't tell me you didn't get your copy of the rota either?

      Charmaine!!!

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  4. If I was to sell-up and move to London I could be Queen to this for 25k less this super luxury 2 bedroom flat.

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    Replies
    1. I wonder if the "super luxury 2 bedroom flat" seller will throw in the leopard print bed spread? And is that a wolf on the other bed spread?

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  5. Rota shmota ! Just Do your Sunday thing for heaven's sake !

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    Replies
    1. Do my Sunday thing in public?!? Are you quite mad, Mago?!

      . . .


      Oh, you mean the Sunday blogging thing, not the other "thing"...

      Delete
  6. Shake that thing ? Wave it, even ? To grunt and sweat ...
    (Why, oh why, does that photograph pop up in my head ? The waving wand ! greets from a distance, oh Ophelia, what a rotten wench you were !)

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    Replies
    1. I expect The Very Mistress is cackling away as we type!

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    2. Waving wand or WARTY WAND?

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    3. Brain bleach to aisle four, please!

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    4. The warty one was waving, sorry ...

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  7. Good grief. I go away for a five days - only five days, mind you! - and the flapping about over here almost disturbed my "breakfast Magners" at Café Trinity in Oudezijds Voorburgwal... Jx

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    Replies
    1. You must give us at least TWO YEARS NOTICE next time! We can't be expected to keep things running in your absence with such little prep time.

      P.S. Apologies about the cross-channel flappage.

      Delete
  8. Well someone had to carry on in Jon's absence.

    ps, I also sent you a funny email!

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    Replies
    1. Exactly! It's Ms Scarlet's turn next time according to the rota, and I think she's got the 'X Years Ago On This Day' thingy which requires a lot more effort than my relatively simple cut-n-paste job. Lucky Ms Scarlet!

      Oh! I ought to check my emails!

      Delete
  9. Avoiding London is extremely easy for me as I've never even been! Easy to recognize the same image over the river Thames as well that feels like a stock image for any movie or show set or beginning in London.

    I can't remember, did you get the chance to watch the show Peripheral? I'm really miffed it won't get a second season! Why do they put all this money into big, interesting fantasy world-building only to cancel them after the first season? The first season was split between future London and a less futuristic Appalachia (which is fitting since Appalachia always seems to be about a century behind.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, no, I didn't get to see it. I remember reading about it after you mentioned it a while ago and it sounded intriguing. Appalachia sounds a lot like Norfolk, so I think if/when I do see it, some parts will seem familiar!

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    2. Just the other day, I mentioned Norfolk, England to a fellow Canuck and she asked, 'Is that near the west coast? It's near Cornwall, right?"

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    3. It almost couldn't be further away!

      Although, to be fair, compared to Canada's expansive lands, Norfolk *is* "near" to Cornwall...

      Delete
  10. Ohh, all that wool ... feels prickly, doesn't it ?
    MsScarlet is at it again ?

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    Replies
    1. Good lord, the SIZE of it! It's going to topple Mr. DeVice's sideboard over.

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    2. It’s huge. It’s almost global!
      Sx

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    3. But my Sideboard's only made of chipboard and balsa wood! It can't take the strain for much longer!!

      Delete
  11. #1 champ at avoiding London!!! I have been to Rome, though. Fine, Rome Grocery. Just up the road from the Logging Rodeo grounds. And the dump. In Washington state. I'll just let myself out.....

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    Replies
    1. All good, fine, practical places to visit, Ms Nations. I desperately need to have a sort out and take my extraneous items to the dump.

      Delete
  12. Loved this Post... I think most of the biggest Cities have so many Urban Issues that it's far more practical to live elsewhere. Of coarse I say this as I live in Phoenix, which used to be a modest City in the 1970's when I moved here and now is the 5th largest American City becoz of all the transplants that have moved out of Cities like London and flocked here... now they're ruining our slice of Heaven.

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    1. I know just what you mean. Sometimes I think there are more Londoners in our village than actual Norfolkians.

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