Agree, I always found Amsterdam very friendly and great window shopping there 
Gargybloke said:Agree, I always found Amsterdam very friendly and great window shopping there
Window shopping, what do you mean? :innocent:
I work in Amsterdam for a few days each month and a friend who lives there showed me the windows that only display goods who's shelf lives have expired (quite a long time ago)! Now that was an experience
gannet said:Everyday I walk down the pavement of a road in Chiswick where cars are allowed to park half on the pavement (Bollo Lane if anyone knows it)... which means that in places the pavement is reduced to being 'single track'... If you stop to let someone past coming the other way - it's extremely rare to get a thank you off the other person - p*sses me right off
Things like that used to irritate me. Likewise things like if you held a door for someone, the thanks you usually get is to be nearly knocked over as they silently barge past!
aquazi said:
I'd say my time in the South made my driving far more aggressive. I find myself diving into small gaps at roundabouts etc where in the past I would've probably just waited for the oncoming traffic to pass. Up here there's guaranteed to be another gap in a few seconds, down there you're guaranteed there won't be! Likewise the busier pace of live severely lowered my tolerance for people that were dawdling (especially on the roads). That tolerance is only marginally creeping back up after 18 months back in Scotland!
I worked in central London for 10 years before coming to Oz - Westminster and then on The Strand. Lived on Southbank for a while too. All this was pre wife, kids, pets etc. I had a fantastic time.
I was last in London in November on business. I had a great time as always. It was quite nice to find it didn't feel stupidly expensive either (as a result of the strong Aussie $)
Good restaurants, good beer and a great energy. Have you guessed I like the place...
Sent from my iPad
I was last in London in November on business. I had a great time as always. It was quite nice to find it didn't feel stupidly expensive either (as a result of the strong Aussie $)
Good restaurants, good beer and a great energy. Have you guessed I like the place...
Sent from my iPad
Londons rude!!!!
Fking cheek, bloody northerners coming down to London and saying were rude. If they don't like it fck off back up north to your pit town or wherever you come from. Our taxes keep this country running and if I wanna sulk I will. Bloody cheek, me bloody rude........ :evil:
Fking cheek, bloody northerners coming down to London and saying were rude. If they don't like it fck off back up north to your pit town or wherever you come from. Our taxes keep this country running and if I wanna sulk I will. Bloody cheek, me bloody rude........ :evil:
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Anonymous
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Pilly said:
You're quite right TBH.
I used to be extremely polite but since getting a job in the city I've become much more rude to people (and not afraid to admit it).
During commuting hours people will walk all over you if you're polite etc, so there's just no point. Everyone's a c**t between 6:00-9:00 and 16:00-19:00. :evil:
I used to be extremely polite but since getting a job in the city I've become much more rude to people (and not afraid to admit it).
During commuting hours people will walk all over you if you're polite etc, so there's just no point. Everyone's a c**t between 6:00-9:00 and 16:00-19:00. :evil:
I love London. I have always had a close relationship with the city – would go in at weekends with the family, from Berkshire. Dad would have to go in for work and we would go and have lunch, or some dim-sum during the visit. Must admit London and Chinatown was dirtier in those days and the council has done better in cleaning up roads now.
I love walking along the South Bank, popping into the Tate Modern to see the latest installation / paintings / sculptures (some a little eccentric). Going into a museum to have a browse – i.e. Victoria and Albert Museum and looking at artefacts from older times. Fascinating. Walking about the small streets in Chelsea. Most of the big museums and art galleries are free btw.
The choice in London is great. Different cultures, different foods - whatever you want to eat, you can find somewhere. The variety of different atmospheres - the East side, the rawness and retro things, to the plush Knightsbridge. When they had hop-on hop off buses, it was great just being able to catch a bus and hop off anywhere you want. You can still do that on a double decker, just press the bell and hop off. I love it.
I don’t like the tramps, the bad smells or the hustley bustle bits like as some have said, Oxford Circus – to be avoided during afternoons when all the shoppers and tourists are about. Horrible. Is that man who preaches about Jesus still on the soap box?? Anyhow, escape from there, to St Christopher’s Place, Carnaby Street. Chiswick High Road (Brasserie quite nice for food). And it is just bliss.
I live about 45mins drive (when no traffic) from Central, and I love going in. The Hammersmith Bridge works are a bit of an a*se at the moment. But I love it. Was in Putney visiting a friend on Tuesday night. Always find an excuse to go there.
Nosa – rude people – yes that can be the case. Before I went to university in London, I imagined Londoenrs would be friendly, sort of Mary Poppins-esque. Walking through Bermondsey to my campus was the opposite of joyful and friendly. Well, people like shopkeepers kept their heads down and people weren’t friendly. However, all the fun I’ve had otherwise and still have now, compensates.
One thing – don’t like the smelliness on the Tube. Think you get it more on the busier or older lines/trains. People need to watch their personal hygiene!
I love walking along the South Bank, popping into the Tate Modern to see the latest installation / paintings / sculptures (some a little eccentric). Going into a museum to have a browse – i.e. Victoria and Albert Museum and looking at artefacts from older times. Fascinating. Walking about the small streets in Chelsea.
Most of the big museums and art galleries are free btw.The choice in London is great. Different cultures, different foods - whatever you want to eat, you can find somewhere. The variety of different atmospheres - the East side, the rawness and retro things, to the plush Knightsbridge. When they had hop-on hop off buses, it was great just being able to catch a bus and hop off anywhere you want. You can still do that on a double decker, just press the bell and hop off. I love it.
I don’t like the tramps, the bad smells or the hustley bustle bits like as some have said, Oxford Circus – to be avoided during afternoons when all the shoppers and tourists are about. Horrible. Is that man who preaches about Jesus still on the soap box?? Anyhow, escape from there, to St Christopher’s Place, Carnaby Street. Chiswick High Road (Brasserie quite nice for food). And it is just bliss.
I live about 45mins drive (when no traffic) from Central, and I love going in. The Hammersmith Bridge works are a bit of an a*se at the moment. But I love it. Was in Putney visiting a friend on Tuesday night. Always find an excuse to go there.
Nosa – rude people – yes that can be the case. Before I went to university in London, I imagined Londoenrs would be friendly, sort of Mary Poppins-esque. Walking through Bermondsey to my campus was the opposite of joyful and friendly. Well, people like shopkeepers kept their heads down and people weren’t friendly. However, all the fun I’ve had otherwise and still have now, compensates.
One thing – don’t like the smelliness on the Tube. Think you get it more on the busier or older lines/trains. People need to watch their personal hygiene!
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Anonymous
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People are saying that all the culture and diversity that London has to offer is great, I am sure it is, never having spent more than an hour or so in Londinium I really can't comment. What I will say is this, Culture, diversity multi cultural, rush hour, etc etc, this can all be witnessed in Edinburgh, Glasgow Birmingham, Manchester, etc etc etc, but not the rudeness, sorry but I find the excuses that people are offering to defend the rudeness in London poor. There is no need for bad manners, especially to those who are visiting your city and injecting cash into it. sorry but it is inexcusable regardless of whether or not you live there or just work there.
I say you need to buck your Ideas up down south and start acting like normal human beings instead of treating anyone outside the M25 citadel as a peasant.
I did a search on google using the words Rude London as was astonished at the results, so it is not just a Minority who think this.
I say you need to buck your Ideas up down south and start acting like normal human beings instead of treating anyone outside the M25 citadel as a peasant.
I did a search on google using the words Rude London as was astonished at the results, so it is not just a Minority who think this.
Pilly said:
Nosa said:
"never having spent more than an hour or so in Londinium I really can't comment"
Then, unless you have something constructive to add, don't, because it just sounds like you're ranting.
Consider this - I haven't spent much time up the proper North (3 yrs in Leeds at uni wasn't real north), yet the image some in the south have is that northerners only work in pits or factories and fight all the time.
Now, we all KNOW that's not true because it's obviously a comic stereotype.
You think your stereotypes are any more true? You genuinely think that everyone 'down south' needs to act more like a human being?
Most perceptions are really the mirror of what we see in ourselves - a guy may worry that his GF is cheating on him when she goes out because it's what he knows he would be doing. A person's perception that someone else is hostile is usually because he, himself, thinks that he would be hostile in that situation...
I'd be the first to say that there is no place for rudeness anywhere - it's a human right to be spoken to with respect, but one person does not make a city.
Perception of other people is far too often preconceived - don't be so short sighted.
Just because someone didn't hold a door open does not condemn a place - call that person out on it. Tell them they are rude.
Talk to people, and you'll be amazed, they will talk back.
There are real people you're referring to, with families and friends and jobs and mortgages and worries.
Spend time with people from that place and you'll realise that almost everyone is fine wheverer you are; remember 'people' are not the same as 'individuals'.
Re-read my comments earlier and you'll see my argument, I'm not trying to be hostile, start an argument or get dragged into this here and won't comment in this thread again.
Si
Psy said:
In fairness Si, that's a bit harsh as it's Nosa's thread :?
He asked a question because of an experience his daughter had, and is now commenting on the knowledge he has gleaned from here and the comments others have made.
I come from the very town where Nosa lives, but have lived in London and Kent for almost 17 years. I agree with what he says - in comparison to the friendliness, the pace of life, the lack of such a high number of self-absorbed individuals travelling in and out of one place every day, London is horrible to a large number of the uninitiated, and was to me. But you get used to it - you either work out how to enjoy it, or leave - but I agree you need to give it a chance. If the population of Scotland lived in one big city between Glasgow and Edinburgh it would become the same eventually, I'm sure. But they don't, and London is like NOTHING I had ever experienced growing up in Scotland.
So, how about we chill out a little and try to appreciate WHY each of us has the views we do ? 8)
EDIT - and you should comment again, because your contribution is valid and eloquent. Also, you don't wanna look like you're sulking, you'd be proving a point you don't agree with
:wink:Bing, If Nosa is setting such a query then we could turn back and say that this is not true and her daughter got it wrong and end it there.
...But this doesn't help no one... nor does it help when Nosa just keeps saying this is wrong and that is rude, without providing any sort of examples her daughter, wife or whoever he has in contact with that has come to London has experienced?
We need examples...
...But this doesn't help no one... nor does it help when Nosa just keeps saying this is wrong and that is rude, without providing any sort of examples her daughter, wife or whoever he has in contact with that has come to London has experienced?
We need examples...
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Anonymous
Guest
peddy said:
Peddy it was not just when ordering food, it was in shops, when actually trying to talk to the people who work there she was all but ignored, She commented that when paying to go into the London dungeons that the person taking the money was on their mobile and completely ignored her questions and all but threw the ticket at her, also a taxi driver decided it was his place to try to "educate her on how to speak properly you know like not pronouncing H's and the such and actually said to her you will get on better in London if you speak the queens english, If he had said that to me he would of got an earfull of very unqueens english.
psy, I may not have stayed in London but I have over my years met many londoners and worked with Londoners, whilst I personally have never had much of an issue with them (except one guy who was a complete tosser, but that was nothing to do with him being a londoner) I have found that they can come across as agressive and take great offence if you dis London but feel it is ok to rip the pish out of my accent and my country. Whilst people calling me Jock does not bother me, But when I hear a cockney accent saying it it just sounds offensive and aggressive, I am not saying they mean it to sound like that but it does.
I have also found that if they do not get your sense of humour they become defensive................
As i said in my first post my wife has to go to London several times a year and is often met with rudeness towards her accent and considered to be a bit simple because of it, she loathes the people she has to meet there and has commented that she simply can not believe that such ignorant people are allowed to walk the streets.
I did not start this thread to cause an argument or dis londoners, but you asked me for examples. there they are.