Monday, October 31, 2005

Duke of York and a WC

All roads lead to Victoria Station, or at least, a fair whack of them do.

What the heck I'm doing in The Duke of York pub across the road from the station is beyond me. I just found myself here.

The clocks went back an hour at midnight and I think that muddled my head and made me get on the train here just for the hell of it. What else am I'm going to do on a Sunday ?

Actually, I lie. I am here for a reason of sorts, killing time before going to see a wildlife artist with a website mockup - it's a freebie, but he has lots of artist connections who require websites. Could be some beer money in it, plus get my name out there.

Victoria as a temporary destination is a little odd, considering I could just hop on the train and go one stop from Wimbledon to Earlsfield, but I just had to get out of the B&B after spending the morning working on web design.

The coffee shops in Wimbledon were also all completely packed at 10am this morning, not a seat to be had in any of them, so I figured I'd go to Victoria and get online here.

I spent the last two hours inside the pub and coffee shop in the station itself, as I know it has a reliable BT Openzone connection, however, I was in need of a nice cold cider and the thought of drinking it in a crappy modern venue didn't appeal to me.

So, I decided to visit the Duke of York, the closest decent pub. Very poor wireless signal from here, so I can't get online. No big deal, I'll write all this crap instead.

From here, I'll go meet up with the artist. A quick jump to Vauxhall down the Victoria line and onto the national rail to Earlsfield is all it will take.

Two weeks back, I would've got the district line to Embankment and then the Northern Line to Waterloo and then hopped on national rail to Earlsfield which would've taken 15 minutes longer.

At least I think so, I haven't tried this route yet ...

Applied for two jobs this morning, one as a Senior Web Designer, £35k per annum and one as IT support in a net cafe, £16k per annum - it's a sign of my growing desperation.

Sitting in The Swan last night, I noticed Bar Staff are required, I hope it doesn't come down to that, but such is life.

The choice between IT support and cleaning toilets is not a difficult decision to make, but then, neither is having a roof over your head, or not, or failing to make it in London and returning to Joburg with your tail between your legs.

... Some time later ...

Got a call saying pop around at 5pm from the artist and it was only 2pm, so I took an amble from the pub in a random direction and found myself at Westminster Cathedral. That's the odd thing about London after a few weeks, you tend to just stumble on things, like Westminster Cathedral, or at least I do.
Sure, you can plan your day trip and head in a specified direction. That's fun too, but often, just wondering randomly is more rewarding, unexpected things happen.

Westminster Cathedral (WC for short - er, or maybe not) is rather a suprise from the outside. It's very subtle but not what you would possibly expect.
Inside is more - hmmm - traditional.

I managed to break the rules of visiting, taking random photographs and texting, not that I expected the boys in blue to storm in and haul me off. (Blair hasn't quite got that far yet)

It reminded me how ignorant I am about religion, never having been a part of it in my formative years, so I missed out on all the dogma, thank God.

I soon tired of taking sneaky photos and decided to head back to Wimbo (I'm not sure if anyone else calls Wimbledon this, but I do - not publically yet, I'll introduce it slowly)

I was rather chuffed at my level of train experience (punny matt, really punny) and managed to get from Victoria to Wimbledon in 25 minutes - my method indicated earlier worked perfectly. To go down the District line all the way takes 40 minutes, or longer, because often you need to get to Earls Court for better train frequency (you then pick up the district from Edgware too)

Hmmm, I think I should steer clear of rainware shops for a while and curb my fascination with rail time tables and maps ...

So, back in The Swan again. It's feeling like home here, but always good to try new pubs - tried two new ones today on my travels. The artist was well chuffed with the website mockup, so it's been an good day. A quick pint at The Puzzle in Earlsfield before hopping on the train and to here.

What tommorrow will bring is anyones guess (a job please God, a job, I promise to visit WC, give my confession and light a candle)
(Hey wait, no, not job - I didn't mean it that way !)