I’m getting really stressed out the closer I am to moving day. It’s less than two weeks away, and everything around me is still a complete mess. I’m ready to snap at pretty much anything because of the stress, which makes having a summer job in customer service interesting.
Apologies to anyone involved.
This song/Flash video, London Underground, is hilarious and quite possibly very accurate.
And as usual, I completely missed the meme the first time it went round.
I stumbled upon some panoramas of the Brixton/Camberwell area, where I’ll be staying once I move. The streets look a little dodgy, there are plenty of boarded-up businesses, and some pictures just breathe an air of sad, urban desolation.
In some way, I simply love it. For example, this picture, though it shows old and dilapitated buildings, is still full of life. There’s plenty of people, even at night, in the Brixton station area (though apparently, it’s not healthy to hang around there at night). These photos, some taken in the winter, really drove home the point of there being an actual city I’m moving to. I still don’t really know the place, but at least I know a little bit of what to expect. Even the winters don’t look as desperate and dark as they can in Finland.
I’m fascinated by sites such as Subterranea Britannica (here’s a link about Loughborough Junction) and Underground History. There is just so much information and history as well as forgotten things about London. I hope I can get myself to do some urban exploring once I’m there.
It’s official: I accepted my place at LSE today, by mailing in the acceptance form they sent me. Today’s mail also brought me the welcome news of the Student Loans Company having approved my application for a tuition fee loan. £3000 a year will be paid directly to the school, so I’m in the clear as far as tuition fees are concerned. That just leaves me with rent, food, supplies, going out…
If you’re lucky, mail from the UK to Finland will go really quickly – my UCAS acceptance form was dated August 16th, and I got it on the 21st. With the weekend in the middle, I’m really impressed. I can only hope the letter I mailed them will make it back as quickly as it came here. I don’t want to lose my place because of lost mail.
Meeting friends and people I know, often presumably for the last time before leaving for London, is strange: We do everything as usual, and when it’s time to leave, it invariably ends with “We’ve got to meet again before you fly.” I’m not sure if I’ll have time to meet everyone again before September, nor even if I’m supposed to. It’s just easier to say that than to say actual goodbyes.
I had a day off work, and woke up to news of “a foiled terror plot“. UK officials, in fear of a terrorist attack, aren’t allowing any hand luggage onto planes, are checking every passenger manually and are generally disrupting the trips of an enormous amount of people.
Heathrow was closed for quite some time today, with planes diverted and none leaving. There were reports of demands that mothers who had baby food had to taste it in front of security personnel to prove they were not taking dangerous items on board. Passengers were allowed to take nothing but their tickets, passports and other “bare essentials” into the cabin, and even these only in clear plastic bags. At the time I’m writing this, short haul flights have resumed, but trans-Atlantic flights haven’t. It’s going to be a long night for a lot of people.
Even at the risk of sounding harsh, this smacks of a knee-jerk reaction to an issue problematized by racism. If there are terrorists intent on causing havoc with the airline industry, doesn’t disrupting services, causing mass inconvenience and frightening the public by blaring “mass murder on an unimaginable scale” throughout the media play directly into their hands? I admired the stoicism of Londoners after the tube bombs a year ago – this seems to go over the top. While I understand that the safety of passengers is paramount, this whole thing is just a giant hassle for everyone involved.
I hope that this doesn’t go on for too long – there’s no way some of the stuff we’re taking to London is going to make it in one piece if we stow them in the hold.