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Post by dennistas on Mar 31, 2019 7:25:13 GMT
Today I would like to discuss and rant about my feelings for London as a whole. Please don't be offended at all as this is my personal view only and not trying to infulence others. I was born and raised in London, so basicaly I've been in London for all my life. As at today I just have started to hate the capital city and just think it's a dump and sh*t hole, sorry to say but I just can't see it getting any better at this rate. Other cities have also gone downhill but I couldn't comment on them as I haven't lived or worked there. By the time I reach 40, I bet London will just deteriorate even more. The politician and officials in office have no clue of what they are doing and it's funny that they think "positive changes have happened in the last years or so". What a pity! Seriously if I could, I'd get the hell out of London by tommorrow, but it would be harder for me as family live in London and I don't have a car to myself and the transport links aren't so great out of London. But I'm hoping by 40, yes, I will live by the south coast in a much better town. Another issue is that the bus driver wage is a laugh out of London, I know this as a colleague at Stagecoach applied to join Arriva in Essex and when told the wage he decided to stay in London. Not sure how Stagecoach pay out of London, but we have had a couple of drivers going up north and one is back now so I'll ask them when I get a chance. If your thinking that being a London bus driver is great, oh lord I'm telling you it isn't the way it looks like. The job overall is reasonable as you meet so many people whether it be customers and staff which I find very useful to share views with them. The thing is that if I move out of London in the foreseeable future I don't know if I would cope ok. My mum now lives South of the river and it takes ages to get to her so I can't imagine travelling to another town. Time will tell but it is something on my mind that I am hoping to explore. Thanks Thoughts Things go around in circles to some extent, I grew up in small Town on South Coast, wasn’t a lot to do, but back in 1960s and early 1970s was a lot more civic Pride. No litter or graffiti, or grass verges that were not mown etc. The bus ran every 2 hours. In those days a visit to next town got different shops, nowadays every High Street is a clone with same stores. Came to London for work, learnt to ignore the scruffiness and bags of rubbish laying around. But recently (I am now 54) we have been taking our daughter to University open days and realised other cities have overtaken London in some ways. Get all the same shops, cheaper entertainment, and less miserable people. There are a few places that are expensive (Bath, Cotswolds, Oxford etc), but generally costs are much lower. The main thing is congestion in London drives me nuts these days, so we have decided to leave London (after daughters A levels finish and she has gone to Uni). Can’t quite afford to retire at 56 but if I can get a local job for couple of years then I will be happy. Will I miss London probably not, never had a sudden urge to go shopping at 10pm, so can live without the 24 hour culture. Will I enjoy quieter roads and no epic traffic jams, almost certainly yes. For me it’s a quality of life thing, and being in a noisy congested city is no longer what I want. Not stupidly rural where need to drive 10 miles to nearest corner shop, but decent town with a City about 20 minutes drive away. And yes in some areas 20 minute off peak drive is 10-15 miles, in London sometimes 20 minutes driving barely gets you 2 miles. London is just cramming in more smallish apartments, doing very local bits of public realm (translation new paving slabs), nothing to do with quality of life. One final thing that finalised our decision, we did a trip last month and went in a pub for lunch, person on next table started chatting (never happens in London), turns out they had moved out of London and had no regrets (apart from hadn’t done it 5 years earlier), gave us a long list of things they now think are better. Ironically their daughter now visits them more than when she was few miles away in South London. We of course asked them if they missed London and they basically said no. Everyone is more relaxed, friendly and helpful out of London. Can’t wait to leave. 100% agree! I can't wait to leave London myself when the time comes. Need a bit of peace and comfort.
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Post by sid on Mar 31, 2019 8:01:19 GMT
Today I would like to discuss and rant about my feelings for London as a whole. Please don't be offended at all as this is my personal view only and not trying to infulence others. I was born and raised in London, so basicaly I've been in London for all my life. As at today I just have started to hate the capital city and just think it's a dump and sh*t hole, sorry to say but I just can't see it getting any better at this rate. Other cities have also gone downhill but I couldn't comment on them as I haven't lived or worked there. By the time I reach 40, I bet London will just deteriorate even more. The politician and officials in office have no clue of what they are doing and it's funny that they think "positive changes have happened in the last years or so". What a pity! Seriously if I could, I'd get the hell out of London by tommorrow, but it would be harder for me as family live in London and I don't have a car to myself and the transport links aren't so great out of London. But I'm hoping by 40, yes, I will live by the south coast in a much better town. Another issue is that the bus driver wage is a laugh out of London, I know this as a colleague at Stagecoach applied to join Arriva in Essex and when told the wage he decided to stay in London. Not sure how Stagecoach pay out of London, but we have had a couple of drivers going up north and one is back now so I'll ask them when I get a chance. If your thinking that being a London bus driver is great, oh lord I'm telling you it isn't the way it looks like. The job overall is reasonable as you meet so many people whether it be customers and staff which I find very useful to share views with them. The thing is that if I move out of London in the foreseeable future I don't know if I would cope ok. My mum now lives South of the river and it takes ages to get to her so I can't imagine travelling to another town. Time will tell but it is something on my mind that I am hoping to explore. Thanks Thoughts Things go around in circles to some extent, I grew up in small Town on South Coast, wasn’t a lot to do, but back in 1960s and early 1970s was a lot more civic Pride. No litter or graffiti, or grass verges that were not mown etc. The bus ran every 2 hours. In those days a visit to next town got different shops, nowadays every High Street is a clone with same stores. Came to London for work, learnt to ignore the scruffiness and bags of rubbish laying around. But recently (I am now 54) we have been taking our daughter to University open days and realised other cities have overtaken London in some ways. Get all the same shops, cheaper entertainment, and less miserable people. There are a few places that are expensive (Bath, Cotswolds, Oxford etc), but generally costs are much lower. The main thing is congestion in London drives me nuts these days, so we have decided to leave London (after daughters A levels finish and she has gone to Uni). Can’t quite afford to retire at 56 but if I can get a local job for couple of years then I will be happy. Will I miss London probably not, never had a sudden urge to go shopping at 10pm, so can live without the 24 hour culture. Will I enjoy quieter roads and no epic traffic jams, almost certainly yes. For me it’s a quality of life thing, and being in a noisy congested city is no longer what I want. But not stupidly rural where need to drive 10 miles to nearest corner shop, but decent town with a City about 20 minutes drive away. And yes in some areas 20 minute off peak drive is 10-15 miles, in London sometimes 20 minutes driving barely gets you 2 miles. London is just cramming in more smallish apartments, doing very local bits of public realm (translation new paving slabs), nothing to do with quality of life. One other thing that finalised our decision, we did a trip last month and went in a pub for lunch, person on next table started chatting (never happens in London), turns out they had moved out of London and had no regrets (apart from hadn’t done it 5 years earlier), gave us a long list of things they now think are better. Ironically their daughter now visits them more than when she was few miles away in South London. We of course asked them if they missed London and they basically said no. Everyone is more relaxed, friendly and helpful out of London. Can’t wait to leave. I can relate to all of that, we moved out of London nearly ten years ago and although I'm normally in London at least once a week I certainly wouldn't want to live there again and most 'exiles' I speak to say exactly the same thing. Much nicer lifestyle down on the Sussex coast.
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Post by dennistas on Mar 31, 2019 8:14:18 GMT
Things go around in circles to some extent, I grew up in small Town on South Coast, wasn’t a lot to do, but back in 1960s and early 1970s was a lot more civic Pride. No litter or graffiti, or grass verges that were not mown etc. The bus ran every 2 hours. In those days a visit to next town got different shops, nowadays every High Street is a clone with same stores. Came to London for work, learnt to ignore the scruffiness and bags of rubbish laying around. But recently (I am now 54) we have been taking our daughter to University open days and realised other cities have overtaken London in some ways. Get all the same shops, cheaper entertainment, and less miserable people. There are a few places that are expensive (Bath, Cotswolds, Oxford etc), but generally costs are much lower. The main thing is congestion in London drives me nuts these days, so we have decided to leave London (after daughters A levels finish and she has gone to Uni). Can’t quite afford to retire at 56 but if I can get a local job for couple of years then I will be happy. Will I miss London probably not, never had a sudden urge to go shopping at 10pm, so can live without the 24 hour culture. Will I enjoy quieter roads and no epic traffic jams, almost certainly yes. For me it’s a quality of life thing, and being in a noisy congested city is no longer what I want. But not stupidly rural where need to drive 10 miles to nearest corner shop, but decent town with a City about 20 minutes drive away. And yes in some areas 20 minute off peak drive is 10-15 miles, in London sometimes 20 minutes driving barely gets you 2 miles. London is just cramming in more smallish apartments, doing very local bits of public realm (translation new paving slabs), nothing to do with quality of life. One other thing that finalised our decision, we did a trip last month and went in a pub for lunch, person on next table started chatting (never happens in London), turns out they had moved out of London and had no regrets (apart from hadn’t done it 5 years earlier), gave us a long list of things they now think are better. Ironically their daughter now visits them more than when she was few miles away in South London. We of course asked them if they missed London and they basically said no. Everyone is more relaxed, friendly and helpful out of London. Can’t wait to leave. I can relate to all of that, we moved out of London nearly ten years ago and although I'm normally in London at least once a week I certainly wouldn't want to live there again and most 'exiles' I speak to say exactly the same thing. Much nicer lifestyle down on the Sussex coast. sid that's exactly the area I'd like to live around. There is a place called Littlehampton I'd like to move there or nearby.
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Post by bn12cny on Mar 31, 2019 10:51:30 GMT
Let me put my thoughts into this, I’m a born and bread Londoner and lived in the city for 30 years! I moved to Beijing 4 years ago due to the ever rising cost in the UK overall. I don’t miss London or in fact the UK at all, I came back last November for the week and travelled extensively and found the UK depressing, dull, expensive and majority of the people argumentative....Will I live in the UK again? Probably not!
Yes I live in a Communist Country but to be honest you don’t feel it, as long as you behave and abide to visa regulations it’s fine, I fell the UK lost irs culture whilst here if you are rich or poor the people has values and ethics.
You have one life make it count, try to travel and experience new cultures then you realize on how bad London really is
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Post by Pilot on Mar 31, 2019 11:29:08 GMT
Central London hasn't changed much and it is still amazing place to visit and see things, to be a driver however is another thing in that area for the money bus companies pay drivers for the work they do which is depressing which could be £400 a week or so, In my opinion that's 'essex/kent' driver wage not London.
Becoming a bus driver is still a privilege I'd say, but to me it's looking more and more like a 1 year job and then you gotta move on, so one day you can tell your grandchildren yeah I was a London bus driver once. When you become a bus driver, the dream is big you wanna serve the community and tourism in central areas pass all the cool monuments which is still good and doesn't get old, but when you're hauling ass all day long with hardly any breaks between trips you're just getting worn out to provide amazing service that you want especially when you see the payslip on Friday lol.
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Post by Londonbuses54 on Mar 31, 2019 11:54:43 GMT
Along with the ‘announcement in progress’ showing on the screen, there also seems to now be a bell
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Post by Londonbuses54 on Mar 31, 2019 12:57:20 GMT
Does anyone know what the code on the stagecoach citaros is for the 61 route?
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Post by bookd on Mar 31, 2019 14:23:43 GMT
The issue of location will always be a matter of what you want; although originally a northerner, and I enjoy occasional visits, I have lived in London, albeit on the edge, for more than 40 years and whilst now an old codger I don't wish to move. I like to be able to reach the South Bank or West End in less than an hour while living in a quiet area; I can't understand friends who when they have retired move to live in the back of beyond. I also have known people who having moved to their dream spot in the country have developed health problems, have not been able to drive, and regret the lack of local shops, doctors, and any decent public transport - it is difficult for them to move back.
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Post by rambo on Mar 31, 2019 18:50:41 GMT
Born and raised in dalston.
I hate london and would never move back.
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Post by vjaska on Mar 31, 2019 19:44:18 GMT
Lived in Lambeth all my 30 years and hopefully I’m still here in London for another 70 at least. I’d never move to the country or abroad unless there was absolutely exceptional reason to do so.
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Post by M1199 on Mar 31, 2019 20:31:08 GMT
Having lived in Uxbridge (or technically West Drayton) all my life, I kinda have the benefit of living in London but yet close enough to enjoy the benefits of what the countryside brings all on my doorstep. Yet over the last 5-10 years, I've noticed a decline in the attitudes and behaviors of people. I often hear people saying the place is getting more and more dangerous and unsafe, yet on the very rare occasions I've been involved in an altercation, you either square up to them or call their bluff, they soon back down! It may be as I'm getting older now, but the thought of relocating outside of London appeals to me more and more, the more I think of it, the only thing stopping me now is that 'what if I hate it'feeling I get at the back of my head. My sister moved to Amersham 4 years ago (ok, not exactly a million miles from here!) At first she hated it, now she loves it and now she's says that she'd never move back this way. Another is my best mate, 2 years ago, he moved to Newquay, he says it's the best thing he's ever done and wishes he done it sooner!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2019 21:06:50 GMT
Along with the ‘announcement in progress’ showing on the screen, there also seems to now be a bell Indeed there is, it sounds like one single chime of Big Ben. Witnessing it twice on the 274 today, I think it's fairly effective in getting people's attention. Also, whilst on the 13 today the iBus announcements for all the stations or stops which were near stations (e.g. Golders Green / Finchley Road) were played twice. Once before the stop and once just as the rear doors opened. I don't know if this is an updated automatic feature or whether the driver just pressed repeat at the stops.
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Post by sid on Mar 31, 2019 21:32:31 GMT
I can relate to all of that, we moved out of London nearly ten years ago and although I'm normally in London at least once a week I certainly wouldn't want to live there again and most 'exiles' I speak to say exactly the same thing. Much nicer lifestyle down on the Sussex coast. sid that's exactly the area I'd like to live around. There is a place called Littlehampton I'd like to move there or nearby. I'm nearly 40 miles east of Littlehampton in Seaford, a nice place but not too far from London although it's not all sunshine and light here, there was a violent altercation in the town yesterday which police are still investigating but it's generally a fairly peaceful friendly place. Some friends who moved from Sydenham to Bexhill a few years love it there. When I was younger I couldn't have envisaged not living in London but I think attitudes change as we get older.
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Post by rj131 on Mar 31, 2019 22:29:29 GMT
Going to give my input into London as a city to live in. Quite frankly I’m absolutely dying to be a Londoner, it’s honestly my favourite city in the whole world (apart from Vienna lol, stunning place), however I can’t see myself enjoying a content life there purely because of the extortionate living costs. I absolutely love the fast lifestyle that people in London have, I’m a very fast living person myself, no time for doardling or dilly-dallying, I love it. Like ThinLizzy said about sitting in a terrace in Waterloo and admiring Central London, I LOVE standing at the top of the One New Change terrace looking onto St. Paul’s and just admiring the view. But as you’d expect of someone having done 332 (it was 333 until the C2 went yesterday ) of London’s daytime bus routes, I’ve also been around pretty much every single suburb, and every single nook and cranny of outer London too and there’s an awful lot of places there I love too. However as dennistas also said, I’ve been to an awful lot of places in outer London that really are horrendous, however I’m not going to say where as I don’t want to offend anyone who may live in those parts. But I will disagree in some respect, as I think it’s unfair to tarnish the whole of London with the same brush. Every city has its really nice parts (Covent Garden, Hampstead, Kingston, much of Bromley, Eltham, Ealing Broadway, Crystal Palace, Rainham, a lot of Harrow, Pinner certainly and I absolutely LOVE the new builds that have been going up outside Colindale Station) and it’s not so nice parts. Now some may have heard from some articles how London has apparently been voted the best city in the world for 2019, and here is the company that supposedly came to this conclusion. www.traveldailynews.com/post/resonance-consultancy-announces-worlds-best-cities-for-2019Now obviously I will give a slight disclaimer that it’s totally up to you on how you decide to rate the credibility of ‘Resonance Consultancy’, and I’ve seen posts about this on Facebook and people’s sneery comments about how disgusting London really is, but tbh I’d say it’s like marmite. I know plenty of people who hate the place’s guts, but I also know plenty of people who think the place is amazing. But I absolutely agree with this consultancy in that I think it’s the perfect choice for the world’s best city Continuing on from the last paragraph, I’d like to draw attention to the Global Destination Cities Index, which I’d say the information given is very likely to be reliable. www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/city-breaks/most-visited-cities-2017/newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/big-cities-big-business-bangkok-london-and-paris-lead-the-way-in-mastercards-2018-global-destination-cities-index/Like it for not for the past seven consecutive years London has been the most, if not the second most, visited city on Earth. So it must be doing something right! and I myself cannot recommend London enough as a place to visit
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Post by vjaska on Mar 31, 2019 22:58:36 GMT
Going to give my input into London as a city to live in. Quite frankly I’m absolutely dying to be a Londoner, it’s honestly my favourite city in the whole world (apart from Vienna lol, stunning place), however I can’t see myself enjoying a content life there purely because of the extortionate living costs. I absolutely love the fast lifestyle that people in London have, I’m a very fast living person myself, no time for doardling or dilly-dallying, I love it. Like ThinLizzy said about sitting in a terrace in Waterloo and admiring Central London, I LOVE standing at the top of the One New Change terrace looking onto St. Paul’s and just admiring the view. But as you’d expect of someone having done 332 (it was 333 until the C2 went yesterday ) of London’s daytime bus routes, I’ve also been around pretty much every single suburb, and every single nook and cranny of outer London too and there’s an awful lot of places there I love too. However as dennistas also said, I’ve been to an awful lot of places in outer London that really are horrendous, however I’m not going to say where as I don’t want to offend anyone who may live in those parts. But I will disagree in some respect, as I think it’s unfair to tarnish the whole of London with the same brush. Every city has its really nice parts (Covent Garden, Hampstead, Kingston, much of Bromley, Eltham, Ealing Broadway, Crystal Palace, Rainham, a lot of Harrow, Pinner certainly and I absolutely LOVE the new builds that have been going up outside Colindale Station) and it’s not so nice parts. Now some may have heard from some articles how London has apparently been voted the best city in the world for 2019, and here is the company that supposedly came to this conclusion. www.traveldailynews.com/post/resonance-consultancy-announces-worlds-best-cities-for-2019Now obviously I will give a slight disclaimer that it’s totally up to you on how you decide to rate the credibility of ‘Resonance Consultancy’, and I’ve seen posts about this on Facebook and people’s sneery comments about how disgusting London really is, but tbh I’d say it’s like marmite. I know plenty of people who hate the place’s guts, but I also know plenty of people who think the place is amazing. But I absolutely agree with this consultancy in that I think it’s the perfect choice for the world’s best city Continuing on from the last paragraph, I’d like to draw attention to the Global Destination Cities Index, which I’d say the information given is very likely to be reliable. www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/city-breaks/most-visited-cities-2017/newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/big-cities-big-business-bangkok-london-and-paris-lead-the-way-in-mastercards-2018-global-destination-cities-index/Like it for not for the past seven consecutive years London has been the most, if not the second most, visited city on Earth. So it must be doing something right! and I myself cannot recommend London enough as a place to visit You can say Brixton if you like - heard it so many times I'm really not bothered what people think of the place. For all it's faults over the years, it's shaped me to be a accepting person and see the interesting aspects of other cultures and their way of life
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