<$BlogDateHeaderDate$>
Being Green in London
| Now when you think of being green in London it could mean one of two things, 1) you’re recycling, 2) you’ve joined the RESPECT party. Or third, and very unlikely option, you’ve joined the Cameronian campaign and are wearing your tree pin proudly. No dear Londoner, when I refer to ‘green’ I refer to being new and fresh to the city. Last Sunday I met a new addition to a football team I support (we were introduced the night before, but it was a big bustling party that we didn’t get time to chat, however on the Sunday we did and I was surprised about his background). Basically the guy was in his 30’s and new to London, he’d been here for 3 weeks and was finding it to be quite different. From the open and very friendly way he spoke it occurred to me just how ‘green’ this guy was. At first I found it kind of cute, until I slowly got put off by it. This guy had no idea just what London was like. By the sounds of things he hadn’t lived in London or in a major city for a while and something in me just wanted to reach out and touch him, to see if he was real. When we were on the train going home I said one thing to him about London, which I tell anyone who’s visiting London or coming to live, you either love it or hate it, there is no in between with London. It’s true though. There are just too many factors about London that could swing a person either way, but never in between. Unlike my Eastend neighbours, I love London. There is very little about this city that could make me hate it, and honestly I don’t see how anyone could, unless they have very thin skin. I love how cosmopolitan it is, and yet how cosy it is. You could get lost in the different streets around London and yet still find your way out, or at least a tube station to get back to where you started. You can meet some of the most interesting characters in the oddest of places (like the number of people I’ve chatted to in Soho or the playwright I met in the British Library). I love how you could walk around Tottenham Court Road or Wardour Street and just see different celebrity faces (the number of times I’ve seen G4 grabbing lunch or Sharon Osborne’s nephew having a Starbucks), or actors such as Terence Stamp and John Hurt walking past and hassling them for an autograph. I love how you could just go out and have a coffee and do nothing except read a book under the summer sun and that’s your entire activity for the day. Or the cheap cinema in Leicester Square where you can get in on a Friday for a £1 (Prince Charles’ Cinema if you wanted to know). Our museums, galleries and exhibits that are strewn around the city. The friendly markets that sell everything and attract some obscure crowds (Spitalfields and Covent Garden – BIG examples where else would you find grungy punks and Arabs in the same area?). However, unless you have thick skin, you could easily be put off by some of the cold behaviour and attitudes of some people around the city. When you’re on the tube, people tend to avoid making eye contact like the plague. If you’re on a busy street and bumped into, you’d be lucky to get a backward glance let alone and apology. If you are mugged (and this happen to my own grandmother), unless you shout ‘FIRE!’ nobody will help you, because nobody is likely to want to get involved. Although that all sounds pretty desolate, I’m sure most populated cities and capitals around the world face similar circumstances, but just handle it differently or have different PR and tourist attractions to cover it all up. Only after talking about it with a friend did I realise, although initially it was off-putting, the new guy’s ‘green’ disposition seemed welcomed and endearing, and should always be like that. The way of life in this city, with it’s tough edge and cynicism, not to mention crippling taxes and congestion charge crap, would chip away at that sweet and open disposition. It’s such a shame that come his first month of working in the city he’ll probably change. Hopefully he’ll grow thick enough skin to accept London for what it is, and be happy, I would hate to think of what would happen if he didn’t. As for me, I love the ol’ gal as she is, and I wouldn’t change her for anything. |
posted by Lunar Chick at 12:15 am
Hear, hear...
It does chip away at that sweet and innocent disposition you have when you first come... You forget to say "Thank you" to bus drivers and you definitely do not smile when someone steps on your toes on the undergound... But you will always get people who love the city from day 1 and let's face it - we were all there at some point... It usually is the case that you don't really know what London's about until you've been trodden and trampeled on in a number of different ways... and only then, between gritted teeth, can you say you've experienced the city for all it's got..
People have often said to me "How come you're so mean sometimes?" to which I will always snappily reply "You've never had to ride the Northern line, have you?" No, they usually don't...