North of the Stupid Line

Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooome!

After spending 3.5 years in London, the Robster is now home for good.  You will have noticed from the Announcements to the right of this page that I will start a secondment from RAD at Hugh James in Cardiff from 2 January 2007, which means that I am no longer based in London.

Over the last two days, the missus and I have driven 386 miles in a hired car to and from London to move my stuff home from Laura and Oliver’s house, where I’ve lodged since June 2006.  We also threw in a West End show, Les Miserables, with Stagetext as well, and a nice meal in Chinatown.

The house is a tip now, so will be spending most of today sorting out my things.  Bloody pain!

But, at least I’m home!

I’ve moved again within London! I’m now living with Laura and Oliver at their newly-purchased three bedroom home in Orpington, Kent. Here are some pics of my new bedroom:

I have taken pics of the rest of the house, but haven’t transferred them to the laptop yet.

Why did I decide to move from Steve’s flat? Basically, for fiscal reasons. Living at Laura and Ole’s is £70 a month cheaper. It doesn’t sound a lot, but it works out about £840 saved a year, which I can spend on the house in Oakdale. To be honest, why fork out my hard-earned dosh to pay someone else’s mortgage when I have my own house to think about?

Anyway, this is my third week in the house, and I’m very happy to be living here. It’s very luxurious and I have settled in very quickly. It’s a bit strange though, as Laura has buggered off on a month’s travels around Eastern Europe, so it’s just me and Ole at the moment, but that is good, cos gives us a chance to get to know each other a bit better.

I’ve promised myself that this is the last time I will move in London -
the next time I move will be when I move back to Wales permanently next year.

I thought you would appreciate some up-to-date photos of the flat in Croydon that I share with Steve Dering, particularly as Steve has recently had a new kitchen installed.

NB. Apologies for the quality of the pictures – they were taken with my Sony Ericsson K700i.

Am I the only commuter in London who absolutely detests the Transport for London’s JourneyPlanner?

It is seriously pathetic. Okay, it’ll tell you how to get somewhere. But jeeeeeeez, I’m sure it tries to make you change as much as is humanely possible at this or that station, walk here, walk there, blaaah.

Another thing: it never tells you the easiest routes. I have found routes to places that TfL JourneyPlanner never even remotely comes near to mentioning. I usually find routes myself that require the least amount of changes to get to a certain place, and which are actually quite pleasant journeys. For example:

• Liverpool Street : TfL tells you to get a train from East Croydon to London Bridge, go on the Northern Line to Bank (one stop) and get on the Central Line to Liverpool Street (one stop).

I just get a direct train to Farringdon and get the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & Shitty Line or Circle line from there to Liverpool Street!

• East Ham : TfL tells you to get a train from East Croydon to London Bridge, go on the Northern Line to Bank (one stop) and get on the Central Line to Mile End (three stops) and then District or Hammersmith & City Line to East Ham.

I just get a direct train to Blackfriars and get the District line from there!

I wonder what TfL are trying to achieve. I don’t think they make more money out of making gullible fools change umpteen times; or do they?

The Robster is back in town! Yep, I’ve returned to London and to work. Whoopee (!). I don’t mind really, just back to the daily grind of commuting and casework, and back to missing Rachel and now missing our home as well. Ah well, it’s only until spring 2007, then got the rest of me life with Rachie.

I left Llwynon Road at 6.30am and was at Brixton about 9.45am, so it took 3 hours and 15 minutes to get here from Oakdale. It’s not very often I go back to London on a Tuesday morning though; usually I would go to Royal Oak on Mondays. It was worth it just to spend one more night in the house with Rachel.

You can see what Steve’s been busy doing in my absence during the last three weeks. Bless him, he’s transformed my bedroom from this to what you can see on the left and right. Massive difference, innit? This is my pad in London now until April 2007 when I qualify as a solicitor. I’ve had enough of moving around London, so will stay here (unless Steve chucks me out!).

I’m happy with the room at the moment; it’s nice and cosy and will be nice to come back to after a hard day at work in the law centre in Croydon (it’s only about 10 mins away!). It’s gonna be heaven having such a brief commute. Can’t wait.

It took me 55 mins to get to the flat from Brixton, which is an improvement on the 1 hour 30 mins it takes to get to Brixton from Hornchurch! I’m off to Romford tomorrow though, which should take 1 hour 15 mins. We’ll see!