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Reassuringly Expensive

Archive for July, 2006

Friday was my last day at American Express and it was a very, very good day but also a sad day.

One of the things I wanted during my notice period was to do for one last time the things that I had enjoyed about London. One was eating dim sum; I’d never eaten dim sum until I started work in London and I love it. So we had a farewell lunch at London Jade Garden which was really very good indeed.

Following an afternoon’s gentle file deletion and handover we headed out the main event…

I had my ‘leaving do’ at my favourite bar the Boisdale; a fantastic bar and restaurant with amazing food, live jazz and a whisky list thicker than any wine list I’ve seen… superb.

Having had a bit of a roller coaster ride at Amex over the last three years I was surprised, honoured, touched and happy just how many of my friends and colleagues came to say good bye. Even one friend who’d been on holiday that day came over and stayed until the very end.

Starting at 5pm and leaving some time around 1am it was a long, fun, drunken and very happy night; even Tommy Twopence made a guest appearance. I had some lovely, deep and emotional chats with my closest friends.

Which brings me to what I think was the impetus for this post: my friends. Sitting here now neither working at Amex or for my new company I feel strange; I feel as if I’ve lost or forgotten something.

It took until just now but I’ve realised that it there is now a hole in my life the size and shape of my friends at Amex. There are so many great people I’ve left behind but this time I am intent on keeping in touch – if you guys are reading this don’t forget to invite me out next time.

So to my friends at Amex and in particular Amrita, Steph, Marie, Christine, Joel, Mel, Dean, Sian, Benjamin, Bruce, Francois, Jenni, Luis, Ivan and so many more around the world…

THANK YOU and see you soon.

I’ve seen a number of minor celebrities during my time of commuting. In fact all were so minor that I can’t remember any except Martin Bell, complete with white suit, in Euston tube station.

But tonight, on my penultimate night in London I saw a proper celebrity.

Arriving at Victoria Station I was greeted by two fire engines and some kind of emergency control centre vehicle so it was pretty clear I wasn’t getting the tube anytime soon.

My friendly Big Issue seller confirmed that Victoria was completely shut so I had a quick chat and said good bye to him as tomorrow is my last day in London.

Being in a hurry to get home jumped into a cab… As we wound our way through a hot and sweaty London I saw my last celebrity… rock guitar supremo Brian May.

At last a proper bona fide international superstar and rock overlord.

I’ve just seen this report on the BBC website and love the idea of a Chap Olympiad. I particularly like the sound of the Martini challenge where chaps are required to mix a dry Martini with the handicap of not having a butler to do it for them.

Or how about shouting at foreigners… “Contestants must procure gentlemanly essentials, such as kippers, a trouser press or the address of the nearest bordello, from a shopkeeper with no command of English and few manners.”

The latest issue of The Chap magazine has great features such as ‘What Is The World Cup?’ and ‘What Cad?’ I may subscribe…

Syd Barrett, one of the original members of Pink Floyd, has sadly died.

I’m a big Pink Floyd fan but mostly the post Barrett music of Meddle onwards. So I was surprised how sad I felt when I heard that Syd had died.

Waste is a word that springs to mind when thinking of Syd’s life. He was the main creative force in the early psychedelic Floyd but blew his mind with copious amounts of drugs. One wonders what he would have gone on to create if he hadn’t burnt himslef out at such a young age.

£13,192 – that’s a large amount of money isn’t it?

Well, that’s roughly what I’ve spent commuting to London over the last 34 months. That’s an average of £388 a month and that excludes taxis to and from the station and other travel related expense.

What is most galling about such a significant expenditure is that I have nothing to show for it; I might as well have burnt the money.

Even more annoying is that the quality of service received for such a big payment is truly shocking. My train trip takes just under an hour and generally I have to catch a train of ancient vintage with tiny seats and no air conditioning, whilst the nice new Virgin trains whoosh by at high speed not stopping in Milton Keynes because it isn’t profitable enough. Isn’t it supposed to be public transport?

I caught better trains in India for fricks sake.

Then there is the underground… Always packed and I mean absolutely wedged against the next sweating and sadly stinking person. The tube trains are very often late, slow or just plain non-existent.

Since I have been travelling to London the underground have been running the same ‘hot weather advice’ posters stating that they are investigating ways of making the underground cooler but in the mean time I should carry a bottle of water to stop me feinting. So not only do I have to spend £388 a month on the ticket I then need to spend even more on water to stop me dieing.

If we were shipping animals around in these conditions I bet there would be outcry and ourage but not for us poor humans that have to pay for it…