London

Xpost: Thanks, I had planned to go there today but completely forgot what it was called. Fortuitous timing!

I currently have a pay-as-you-go as you go phone, for which I pay 5 pounds a month for data (with free incoming calls); for 15 you can get voice and text and unlimited data which you're likely to not use up. Mind you I use an Android phone, so I have no idea how this applies; this is also with 3, who have irritated me enough with little things to not want to recommend them.

I'm curious about unlocking also, since my phone is made only to be used with 3, but I'd like to keep it when I move back to Canada in September.

15 pounds sounds pretty reasonable for like 2 weeks of 'full phone' use while i'm there

yo EDB i have repped for this place in camden market before, but the guy who runs this place is wonderful. all his frames are vintage, and most are cheaper than new. no proper web site at the moment but just go! you will be delighted and amazed.

http://www.arckiv.net/

slocki, I have a spare and activated giffgaff sim card I could send you. £10 gets you 250 min + unlimited texts and internet for a month.

(are all eyewear web sites so shockingly poor? those first two had flash splashscreens. the last one appears to just be an image containing nothing but text.)

freals?? that would be rad! how do i like... charge it up or whatevs?

hmm well I probably should've researched that earlier, because I had thought it might be possible to just top-up with the £10 package online before arriving so it would all be ready when you landed. Now that I'm reading about it, apparently with giffgaff you can't use non-uk credit/debit cards to top up online. So, once in London you'd have to get a credit voucher (loads of places sell them) and use the voucher to top up online. it's all still doable, just a bit less convenient.

koogs i actually offered to help that guy build a web site he could sell frames online with, and he was initially enthuasiastic but eventually just sort of dropped away

i think people who get into stuff like seeking out vintage eyeglasses in dusty italian warehouses probably don't have a lot of overlap with people who get into making nice web sites

i'm surprised that a thread just called "london" has so few posts.

my suggestions for a london day out

10:00 wake up
10:25 grab a mcD sausage and egg muffin to line stomach
11:00 get 6 cans of lagers for £5* from an offie
11:30 go to south bank and drink cans of lager
15:00 get lunch - meat liquor maybe while there's no queue.  burgers are overhyped but it's nice and get the house grog to supplement the lagers
17:00 go to a sam smiths and drink the cheap alpine lagers (you'll be pissed enough to stomach those by now)
21:30 go to rowan's in finsbury park to go bowling for a couple of hours
23:00 get a KFC on your way home
23:15 eat the KFC
23:30 order a curry
00:00 go down in the tube station at midnight

^ if i can plan my death, this will be the way it happens.

+ maybe a couple of games of DDR around 14:00 at namco station first.
+ maybe four season to eat roast duck instead of meat liquor. or dinner before rowan's but without foregoing the KFC

second all of this advices but prob would split the s bank drinking with one of london's royal parks (st james') for a bit of variation.

you also missed out boris biking which is required booze transportation.

truth bomb re: boris biking. only thing i missed about not living in central anymore.

also, obv mcD brekkie and KFC are not uniquely london experiences - however neither is waking up, but one still needs to sleep and eat KFC.

I am still upset that McDonald's in the UK got rid of the plain old 'sausage mcmuffin' (the one without the egg).

Asking for 'sausage and egg mcmuffin but without the egg' always makes me feel like a jackass.

Might seem an obvious question but I've tried hard on this. Where in London can I get decent second hand furniture, or I guess new furniture that isn't horrible. I really want a wooden fairly simple table/desk for my room, and some other stuff possibly. Have tried Gumtree and endless Googling, and Brick Lane etc.

yr local freecycle?

there used to be these ace warehouses somewhere out along the north circular where you could buy second-hand furniture and furnishings from london hotels, stuff that had been sold off whenever rooms got redesigned. dunno if they're still there, though.

My first stop for these things is the five-floor secondhand furniture place in Crystal Palace (http://crystalpalaceantiques.com/index.html - it's a good mix of cheap and cheerful and fancy vintage, according to taste) but I recognise that that's a tricky, or at least lengthy, journey for you LG.

The answer I have found is Brighton.

2nd hand furniture in London reminds me of Butler's Furniture in Shadwell. Classic place. http://spitalfieldslife.com/2009/11/06/butlers-furniture/

There's a good place underneath the railway arches next to London Fields rail station where the guy can be haggled with (a bit)

you could try some auction rooms. criterion on essex road do weekly sales on a monday afternoon, you can view all the lots from thursday the week before. lots of tat but some ridiculous bargains too - we got a very nice, huge sofa in perfect condition for £60. plus it's fun sticking your hand up and bidding for things.

sign up to islington east freecycle there's always stuff going all the time

there are probably other freecycles that are the same

camden south has nothing though, unless you like filing cabinets

get 6 cans of lagers for £5* from an offie

I've been away for a year, I get back and it seems to have gone up to £5.50. Bleak times.

I'm sure it's Cameron's fault.

It's still possible! You just have to be prepared to buy something fairly grotty from somewhere fairly grotty.

I need a driving instructor. Is anyone able to recommend me one?

17:00 go to a sam smiths and drink the cheap alpine lagers (you'll be pissed enough to stomach those by now)

warning – you'll have to drink a lot of it – abv cut to 2.8% last autumn.

WHAT? Country's gone to the bleedin dogs mate.

I had four driving lessons as a refresher last year. 10 years no driving left me rusty. I went with Mutual (E London). Didn't really get on with the first guy, he told me I was rubbish and grabbed the wheel off me at one point. For the second and subsequent lessons I had a big scottish guy, into football, who was great. Laid back and helpful. I can't remember his name now though. Finding a decent driving instructor is tough.

Sam Smiths pubs are now close to full price. Therefore, no point ever going to one again.

I still think some of them have their charms, I'm a big fan of the Cittie of York and old faithful Glasshouse Stores, even if I haven't been in the latter in ages.

There's been mad beer inflation in London of late though (blame craft beer, the_recession, whatever) - SS beer is probably as far behind the top end as its ever been.

I don't mind the cock tavern off regent street tbh but I've definitely reduced my visits. Their stout isn't a bad alternative to guinness imo - not similar, obv, just not horrible.

Otoh although I've been a student again for nearly eighteen months now it was only two weeks ago that I went to the University of London Union bar for the first time. Five pints for £7.50 is just ridiculous.

Price aside, SS pubs still tend to have a better atmosphere than the vast majority of West End boozers.

get 6 cans of lagers for £5* from an offie
I've been away for a year, I get back and it seems to have gone up to £5.50. Bleak times.
― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 12:52 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I'm sure it's Cameron's fault.
― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 12:58 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha! the * after £5 was actually going to be the footnote saying exactly that!! something like (* more likely to be £5.50 - bloody Tories innit)

Bring Back Brown's Broken Britain

it's true about Sam Smiths - dearer than ever before, but then so is everything else
the lager is good and distinctive
so are the specials like cherry beer
and yes, they do have a different atmosphere which I still tend to like.

is the beer really now 2.8%??

swap sam smiths with a wetherspoons, then

xp

yeah - pointed out to me just before leaving the bricklayers a few weeks ago, feeling surprisingly sober.

These people seem to be up on it all

It was about 2.20 in Sam pubs pre-Christmas, it's now at least 3 quid, at least for a lager. For me that jump means I'd rather go somewhere with decent food, better beer, and nicer atmos. They're not bad pubs but at 3 quid I reckon it's about 80p or so cheaper than a pint of something decent; in somewhere that's definitely nicer.

Mind you the one I frequented most was The Rising Sun near Barbican, plenty of nice alternatives around there.

Drinking round the Barbican and not going to the Old Red Cow is straight-up wasteful IMO.

always too busy imo. it is small.

or just bring a six pack into the barbican?

a six pack of toilet duck

when it's payday