Category: London

The Thames

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

The Girl and The Thames
The Girl and The Thames

This is the Thames. And when you look at it, the water doesn’t really look clean. But clean or not, this is the water I get out of my tap at home. We get our drinking water from the Thames up here. And it looks clean coming out of the tap, and it tastes good too I can say.

Now a lot of people think that it rains all the time in London. But the thing is, it doesn’t really rain enough. For the first time in 15 years, Thames Water is implementing a ban on sprinklers and hosepipes from the 3rd of april 2006. This means that people no longer may use sprinklers to sprinkle their garden, or wash their cars using a hosepipe. You may still wash your car using a bucket of water though, or sprinkle your garden using a watering can or bucket. (Water restrictions – frequently asked questions)

Why all this ?
It hasn’t rained enough in London the last years !

And so I made a phonecall (yes to him), and later that afternoon:
London Rain
You worship the sun, but now can you handle the rain ?

A pleasure to help London, and apart from that I love rain. Isn’t it a beautiful sight ?

Spring in London

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

London City Hall
London City Hall

On a day like today, where spring has arrived in London, I don’t need anything else than my book. a sandwich from Marks & Spencer (still waiting for love flowering at the counter for people with under 5 items though), and a bench in a park to sit on.
The sun is delightful, and I am sitting in Trinity Square Gardens, which is a little peaceful park in the middle of South East London, very close to Tower Hill tube station.
From here I can see the Tower of London, a piece of the impressive Tower Bridge, and the reason I went this direction in the first place: the London Cityhall (called the crash helmet by local Londoners).
I’ll read a few pages more and enjoy the sun, and then I will take a walk over the impressive Tower Bridge to have a closer look at the City Hall.
Local Londoners are complaining about the fact that it has been very expensive to build, and that it wasn’t really appropiate to have it build right opposite the Tower of London (modern architecture contra old history). I find it (from an architecture point of view) a very interesting and beautiful building.

It is very nice to explore London this way, not having to rush around as a tourist would do. What I don’t make today, I’ll do some other time. No need to rush.

And also this walking trip was for free. Hop off the tube at Tower Hill walk over the bridge, and walk along the other side of the Thames to London Bridge station where you can hop on the tube again. More pictures to come.

Tomorrow I am going to watch men in rowingboats. The very traditional and world famous Oxford – Cambridge Boat race on the Thames is held tomorrow at 4.35 pm. And that is something I have to see of course, especially when the weather is a nice as it is now.

Please don’t run

thegirlinthecafe 1 Comment


Please don’t run

Stay with me
I feel sad
When you run

Sands of time
Are lying
On my chest

Stay in bed
I feel sad
When you run

Notes:
the lyrics are from Air – Run – a weird but beautiful song, and lyrics that couldn’t be more perfect for this picture.

if you are wondering what a “dangerous” place this really is – it is the path down to the trains on Croydon station. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw it. As the whole slope is filled with these yellow warning signs (the other one being “please take care on this slope”. British Rail really wants to protect us from dangerous liasons on their stations.
Train and tube stations are heaven if you like signs like this. And I have more of them in stock, I love them.

4 weeks in London – a wrapup

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

London Cityhall
London Cityhall

Excuse me, I just need to clean my hands after having indulged my Chicken Teriyaki sandwich for lunch. Life is definetely not bad in London.

Well this is your weekly (long and boring) update about how things are going in London. 4 weeks, goodness, time surely flies when you are having fun. And if you want the whole long boring story, go on, and continue reading. If you couldn’t care less – I understand you completely, no offence taken.
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Lawless Heart

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments

Love is the answer

You can pass her every day
on the street
or in The Cafe
drinking tea
’cause coffee – no
a bite to eat
a meal to go
you can’t really
take them apart
the girl’s a girl
she owns the heart
the question is
and here’s the mess
does it obey
or is it
law
less

(Notes: Picture taken passing an anti war demonstration in front of the Houses of Parliament. Lawless Heart is also a film with Bill Nighy, and a really good one too.
And to answer the question : it is Lawless).

Love thou underground

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

Going Underground

14 reasons to love the London Underground:

  • If you just missed a train, the next one won’t be far away.
  • You never really know for sure how the world looks like when you popup above ground again. Life is an adventure.
  • Yes sure there are delays sometimes. But I have never seen delays being notified so clearly. And why make a big fuss about them – when did 10 minutes extra suddenly make that big a difference in your life.
  • How can you ever get enough of “Mind the gap” and “mind the doors”
  • The new Oyster card is a genious idea, and many international cities could learn from it. Yes I am a proud Oystercard owner, and London is my oyster.
  • You can style your hair in the wind that is pushed forward by a train when it arrives. If you don’t need to style your hair, just let the wind touch your face. It is nice.
  • It is never cold, underground.
  • There is always funky live music on Piccadilly and Leicester Square station. It sounds good, underground, and sometimes it is more than funky.
  • The signing is so easy to follow that it is hard to get lost, or to get on the wrong train.
  • Take a closer look at the interior of the trains, and see how f.ex. Piccadilly Line (blue line) trains have blue frames, and Central Line trains (red line) have red frames. Someone has been thinking about things here.
  • No mobile phone noise in the underground trains.
  • Most tube stations are beautifully designed and decorated.
  • And the most important thing : it brings you around in London in a fast and convenient way

In other words : the tube is your friend in London.

Hello from Westminster, sort of

thegirlinthecafe 3 Comments

As I am actually sitting in the internetcafe on Piccadilly Circus, close to the Cafe. I will try to order a wireless broadband connection as soon as possible this week, I have no idea how long it will take, hopefully not long. The room in Westminster is great, but without a tv and without internet, I become a bit crazy.

I have a very very very important 2nd interview tomorrow, so if you are boring yourself at 3.00 pm (dutch time) beam some positive vibes over to London, as I really really need them.

Posting here will be irregular the coming week, but as soon as I am online from home I will catch up on that, as I have loads of things to write about.

Things you might or might not know

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

Some absolutely worthless information about London.

  • There is both a Denmark Hill and a Holland Park in London
  • It is absolutely impossible to find a garbage bin on any of the big train/underground stations (terror fear)
  • The “One sexual reference” warning on the filmlisting for The Weather Man is just way cute. I have been watching the film closely, but what do they mean “sexual reference” – was it were Nicolas Cage said “fuck” ? Or what ?
  • And so is the overprotectiveness everywhere.
    “Ladies and Gentlemen, because of the weather conditions (it rained), the floor in Victoria Station might be wet and slippery. Please be careful”.
  • “Be vigilant and alert. Report anything suspicious to a member of the railway staff”
  • Unexpectedly I passed the “Home of Chrystal Palace Football Club” today. “100 years of Passion & Pride”. A big smile on my face ’cause I know who’s a very big Chrystal Palace fan.
  • The Big Ben is not really the Big Ben. The tower itself is just called The Clock Tower. It is only one of the bells inside the clock tower that is called Big Ben.

I’m off to my theatre group.

Welcome back

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

And he said “Oh welcome back!”.
“Well, thank You very much, it’s nice to be back ! And this time I will stay in London”.
“Oh yeah, you were the Danish girl right ?”.
“Well, the Dutch girl from Denmark, yes indeed”.
“I remember” he said, “the European girl !”.
“Yes”, I said smiling at him (and quite impressed) “that’s what I like about London, the mixture of cultures, all the different languages”.
And he said “Yes that is a good thing about London”.
“Welcome back, and Welcome to London” he said smiling at me.
“Thank you. I will be back here often, I love this place”.
“You are welcome”.
He smiled and I smiled and outside the sun was shining.

Who he was ? He was the owner.
And one day I have to have a talk with him about TGITC.

Hello London !

thegirlinthecafe 8 Comments

Hello London

I could bore you with loads of things that happened today, but I am so tired that you have to do with this pathetic poem I wrote in the plane flying from a very snowy Aarhus in Denmark (which gave an hour delay) to London.

The plane speeds up
And it ascends
Aarhus in snow
A chapter ends

The plane slows down
Descend begun
London awaits
I feel the sun

I am here, at last. And it is good.

A one way ticket to …

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments


It has been ordered, the ticket. For the 28th of February, ?rhus – London at 10.20 am from ?rhus with Ryanair.

A one way ticket.
Which is a weird feeling.
As if there is no turning back.
Which is good, because I don’t want to turn back.

Which direction I have to go, I have no idea yet.

But as always, Steffen has the answer:

jeg ved udm?rket godt hvilken vej vi skal tage
det er fremad, babe, uden at se os tilbage

(I know exactly which way we have to take
It’s straight ahead babe, without looking back)