Browsing Category: "London Living"

Homelessness in London, the debate goes on!

Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | London Living with No Comments »


Yep, you guessed it. I am a big softie and I am trying to change the world, well, I am trying. Earlier this week I watched a show on BBC about homelessness in London and what they go through. This made me think a lot about the subject because I for one do not want to become homeless ever as it must be a bad place to be in your life. One thing does bug me about homeless people and I suppose the few bad apples give them the bad rep they carry around with them. Whenever you dig into your pockets and hand someone money, they end up splurging it on either booze or drugs and that makes me furious as to why so I give away my hard earned money?

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 Anyway, thinking about the show made me realise just how cruel people can be and that we should really try to make a difference in someone’s lives even if it is just temporary. There are hundreds of homeless people living in London and so many more from Europe end up on the streets in the hunt for a better life. I always tend to see large groups of men in summer time sleep in the small park close to my work. There is a smaller group that tend to sleep on the church steps from time to time. Then I get to see something good happen at other times where a charity delivers food and a hot drink to these homeless people at around 7am in front of Charing Cross Police Station.

 

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I still have mixed feelings about homelessness but that would not stop me from buying someone food if they ask me for it but they won’t see a penny!

Gamers, Get Ready to Drool!

Sunday, June 28th, 2009 | London Living with No Comments »


A hidden treasure was discovered in Central London a couple of weeks back whilst doing another round of sightseeing. Yep, believe it or not, we still have a lot of sightseeing ground to cover, even five years later and there is always something new popping up. London is really amazing in that respect as it is ever-evolving into something new and exciting. This hidden treasure was in the famous Trocadero Centre in Piccadilly Circus.

 

The Trocadero Centre is already famous for housing a massive arcade on three floors, a bowling alley, sports bar and cinema. Ripley’s Believe it or Not moved into the building recently and tourists and locals have been enjoying the Rainforest Café for years. Now Trocadero opened their doors to Gamersbase where people can sit in pure “gamers luxury” and play on their networks and their games. Gamersbase have teamed up with HMV and boy is the setup sweet.

 

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Whether you love playing LAN games or just curious about the latest games coming out before buying them, pop down there and give it a whirl. This set up is perfect for people who want to meet more gamers or test out games without forking out a fortune for it. If you have ever played in a LAN, you will know that it is great and not to be missed.

 

 

South East London to Heathrow Airport

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 | London Living with 1 Comment

Yup, the impossible has officially been done, mark this day! As most Londoners know, travelling to any of London’s airports in the middle of the night can be quite costly because the Underground terminates at 01:00 and so do the trains. You will need to rely completely on night busses or by booking a taxi to get there. Now, the night busses can be a bit scary at night so if you decide to take our advice, please take caution.

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The Night Busses in London start at around 01:00 each morning and most of them will run twice within the hour. I would check the information on the bus stop before taking that as gospel as it might change in the future. When using Night Busses, I would avoid sitting way at the back all alone; sit closer to the driver or another group of people. Best advice, act like a moody teenager, people tend to leave them alone, hehe!

 

Anyway, we travelled to Heathrow Airport from Norwood which is close to Croydon by taking a Night Bus straight to West Croydon Bus Station and switching there to catch one of a few express busses to Heathrow Airport. It cost me nothing more than my normal bus pass I had loaded onto my Oyster Card. Compare that now to taking a taxi to Heathrow which would have cost me around £70 because it was 03:00 in the morning and I stay way on the other side of London. I thought that we would be the only crazy people travelling that time of the morning, boy was I pleasantly surprised to find a lot more people out there.

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To be honest, I do not feel any safer by taking a taxi that time of the morning but I suppose some people do. So, here is a thought… explore all the options before you do something, there can be a cheaper, faster and better way to experience London!

Got any questions?