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 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.

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

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?

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!

I’m leaving soon to go to East Croydon and get the 10:17 train to Charing Cross, and then the Bakerloo Line to Paddington. Should be fun, seeing as I’ve got a suitcase, a rucksack and a shoulder bag to carry! Once I get on the train to Newport though, it’s plain sailing from there on.

For those of you not in the know, Steve’s flat is two-tiered, with the living room, kitchen and bathroom on the first floor, and the bedrooms on the second floor. It’s two tram stops away from East Croydon train station, which will take less than 5 minutes to reach, and I have to say, seeing as it’s the first time I’ve been to Croydon, I like what I’ve seen so far.

Paddington
I can either get the overland train from East Croydon to Charing Cross and then the Bakerloo Line direct to Paddington (45 minutes), or go to Victoria and get the 36 or 436 bus to Paddington (50 mins).

Romford
I can get the overland train from East Croydon to London Bridge, and then either get the Northern Line to Bank and change for the Central to Stratford, or get the Jubilee Line to Stratford, and then an overland train to Romford (1 hour 13 mins via Jubilee, or 1 hour 8 mins via Northern and Central).

Royal Oak
Overland train from East Croydon to Victoria, and then the 36 bus to Royal Oak (58 mins).

Brixton
East Croydon to Victoria, and then the Victoria Line to Brixton (39 mins), or from East Croydon to Herne Hill, and then overland to Brixton (35 mins).

Of course, if I’m working at the Law Centre in Croydon on Park Lane, it’s about 10 mins altogether! ;o)

I don’t really have anything exciting to impart, except that I’ve had a quick look around Croydon, and it seems to have a fairly decent shopping centre. My training contract will be based in Croydon, and I reckon it’s only about 15 minutes walk to the law centre, which will be lovely in terms of commuting to work.

Steve has to do a lot on his flat, and I’m only here for one night, as I’m going to Wales for three weeks tomorrow. Can’t wait. The flat will look great when it’s finished – will be a home from home for me.

I need a nap – so sleepy…

Most of you will be aware that on 7 July 2005, there were bomb explosions between Aldgate East and Liverpool Street on the Hammersmith & Circle line, between King’s Cross St Pancras and Russell Square on the Piccadilly Line, and at Edgware Road, on the Hammersmith & Circle line, as well as the bus bomb in Tavistock Square.

These explosions killed 56 people. My heart goes out to their families and friends. I simply cannot imagine what it must be like to lose a loved one to such an unimaginable act of violence.

At the time of the bombs, I was actually making my way to the Leonard Cheshire centre at Royal Oak, where we have an office. Royal Oak is actually only 2 stops further west from Edgware Road. I would have actually had to pass through those three tube stations to get to Royal Oak, coming from Hornchurch on the District Line to the east. Just before we got to Bromley-by-Bow, the train I was on stopped for about 20 minutes, and it wasn’t clear what was happening. Eventually, we arrived at Bromley-by-Bow, where everyone was instructed to get off the train. In fact, there was another train on the track at the platform as well, and everyone had to file out of the train through one set of doors.

I left the tube station and looked for a bus. There were buses running to Stratford, so I got on one intending to get the Central or Jubilee line to work. However, when I got to Stratford tube station, it was closed. By then I knew more or less what had happened, and I then decided to try and get to RAD’s West Ham centre. I was advised that it was within walking distance and that my colleagues Wendy and Sumita were there, so I walked there.

The plan was that I would get a train from Paddington to Newport at 18:15 that day. However, it was virtually impossible to get to Paddington because the entire London Underground Network had been shut down, including buses in Zone 1. So I ended up accepting a lift from Wendy in the car back to Aprile’s house in Hornchurch. The next morning, however, I woke up early, checked the TfL website, saw that the District and Bakerloo Lines were operating normally, so I left the house and got the tube to Paddington, and caught the 09:15 train home.

There were more bomb alerts yesterday, and I was at Leonard Cheshire (Royal Oak) with Laura and Andy. We were completely confused by news reports suggesting that the whole LU had been shut down again, and we were effectively being chucked out of Leonard Cheshire as they wanted to close the centre early, regardless of whether the LU was operating or not. Luckily, the Central Line was operating a normal service, as was the District Line, so I managed to get back to Hornchurch.

I’m working at home today, and have BBC News 24 on the TV, with reports of a shooting in Stockwell and police raids in Harrow Road and West Kilburn. When will it end?

What I don’t understand is; terrorists kill people to gather sympathy for their cause. They don’t seem to realise that rather than sympathy, they’re just hated. They don’t achieve anything, apart from martydom. Why bother? Surely nothing is worth a person’s life?