Walking in South Kensington

Yesterday evening I worked in the Science museum for a leukemia research gala.

I got out of the underground in South Kensington and just around the corner, there is my favourite cheese shop La Cave a Fromage. Already the window display shows the amazing range of cheeses offered. When entering the shop, the room is filled with wonderful smells of cheese and bread. It is definitely worth a visit.

Later I walked along exhibition road, when suddenly the Natural History museum was to my left, all lit up in red colours and beautiful trees with little white lights. In the corner of the museum is an ice rink which is open until the 17th of January from 08:45 until 22:00 on weekends and from 10:00 until 22:00 during the week.

Ticket prices are:

• Children (12 and under): £8.50 peak / £8 off-peak
• Adults: £13 peak / £11.50 off-peak
• Family ticket (2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children): £34.50 peak / £31 off-peak
• Concessions: £10.50 off-peak only

Although I find the tickets a bit expensive, I will want to ice- scating as soon as possible.

10 things you need to know about London

I just found this video about London on you tube. It gives a very nice report about all the things you have to know about London. Even Londoners might find  some interesting places where they haven’t been for a while.

interesting places

Here are some places I like in London and which are worth a visit.

Of course I know that there are many other nice places, but I will need some time to explore them.

View Larger Map

Wine tasting- Kipferl

Today I went for a really nice wine tasting in the austrian delicatessen shop Kipferl, on 70 Long Lane, just around the corner from Barbican.

What I liked about this wine tasting was that the atmosphere was very cosy, because the shop is small and it was just the right amount of people there.

On the wine tasting program were six wines from Austria. 2 white, 2 red and 2 sweet.
The first wine was from Matthias Hager, Mollands from the region Kamptal, which is a region in the north of Austria. It is a deep valley surrounding the Kamp river. The wine had a peppery fashion note, it was very tasty, although I am not a Veltliner fan.
From the reds I liked the St. Laurent, Klassik 2005 the most as it was very intense and associated with dark berries, prune and a hint of chocolate.
From the sweet wines, my absolute favourite was from Helmut Lang, Illmitz, a Chardonnay Beerenauslese 2006 from the region of Neusiedlersee, which is the 2nd largest steppe lake in central Europe between the borders of Austria and Hungary. The taste of this wine was amazing. It had hints of pineapple, lemon grass and dried fruit.
With every wine we got nibbles. For the reds and whites there was Salami, Speck, Mortadella, gherkins, garlic, very aromatic cheese and nice bread. For the sweet wines we got served Vanillekipferl- austrian cookies and dark chocolate.
It was a perfect evening and I got to know many people, not only Austrians, also English people who appreciate good wine.

If you want to know more about austrian wines ther are two good pages to get a first impression: austrian wine and Wikipedia on austrian wine.

Lord Mayor show 2009

On Saturday I will be working for the Lord Mayor show 2009 at Mercers Hall. At 10:53 the event starts with a one mile race where London’s best runners will represent their boroughs. At 11 the RAF will fly. At 3pm guided walks through the city will be offered. But  I am most excited for the fireworks that will start around 5pm between Blackfriars and Waterloo bridges. Half a million people will be expected. If the weather will be bad, don’t worry, you can watch it on the BBC.

London’s 1000 most influential people

Yesterday I read an interesting article in the Evening Standard about London’s 1000 most influential people in 2009. As London is definitely one of those places you can call “the hub of the world”, more interesting it is to know, who are the people with influence?

In yesterdays edition, the evening standard introduced 25 newcomers to the list. Some of them are only in their 20′s. One of them is 23-year-old Fawn James, who inherited £650 million worth of properties in Soho.

Besides Model Lily Donaldson, 22 or Rap artist Tinchy Stryder, 22 there is chocolatier William Curley, 37 who won the Best British Chocolatiers prize this year. He recently opened a new shop in Pimlico Green. I always knew that chocolate and beauty rules the world. Another one on the list is Gurkha campaigner Joanna Lumley, 63, a former model and Bond girl, who has been very present in the news about her Gurkha campaign.

Under the Top 10 are:

1. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
2. Lord Mandelson, Business Secretary
3. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister
4. David Cameron, Conservative Leader
5. Mervyn King, Bank of England Governor
6. Sir Paul Stephenson, Metropolitan Police Commissioner
7. Sir Philip Green, Bhs and Arcadia boss
8. James Murdoch, News Corporation Europe chief executive
9. Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP boss
10. Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate

Celebrating London:

The Evening Standard celebrated this event at Burberry in Horseferry House asking some of the guests, why London is such a fantastic place to live. Boris Johnson said: “London is the greatest city in the world. The earth is the greatest and most influential planet in the universe and therefore I think I am the mayor of the most influential city in the universe”

To see the video for this event click here.

Turning on the christmas lights in Covent garden

Turning on the christmas lights in November might be a bit early but on the other hand it makes a nice atmosphere and already gives me a hint that Christmas will be coming soon.

Covent Garden is one of my favourite places in London. Not only because some scenes of the musical My fair Lady play in there but I feel like there is some of the original London left.

The market hall was renovated a view years ago and looks at its best. I can not imagine that Covent garden was about to be teared down a view years ago, but the public was very much against it. On top of the hall  there is a nice pub with a terrace.

There are lots of streets leaving Covent garden piazza and it is just lovely to stroll around the shops. Lyceum theatre is also very close and they play the Lion King there.

On the corner of Covent Garden is the London Transport Museum, which is definitely worth a visit. Today the christmas lights were turned on and I went to have a look. I was a bit disappointed because in the last years the decoration seemed more glamorous, but maybe the recession also hit the decoration. I liked the big reindeer, full of lights and the huge christmas tree, which could use a bit more decoration. Once again, the Piazza was filled with artists playing music or showing of their latest tricks.

UK Banks- bringing the devil out in me

Hallelujah to all fellow non UK citizen, who managed to open a Bank account in the UK.

When I arrived, I thought it would be easy as an EU citizen to get the same equal rights as other students and get a free bank account. I must have lived in a bubble. I went to HSBC, who said, I can only get a passport account. The best thing about it was that they never told me that they would charge me a monthly fee for it. In the branch, in Angel, where I set up my account, this seems to be a common strategy, as they also did not tell my friend about the fees. When I found out, I was angry and wanted to close the bank account, but the bank told me I have a year’s contract and if I want to close it, I have to pay money.

Well here I am with my amazing HSBC passport account. Once I was only 50 pence due and already got a nasty letter from the bank telling me to get in contact with a debt department. I guess the stamp and the paper was more expensive.

When I went to Morocco, I thought I should tell the bank and ask them if my card would work.  The bank assured me it was no problem, so when I arrived in Marrakech airport, I took some money out to pay the taxi and food. After that, my card did not work, I panicked, because all my holiday money was on it. As I later found out they had blocked my card because they thought someone had stolen it.

I am a very calm person, but my hands were shaking with anger, when I had to explain to an outsourced telephone operator, how it is to be in Morocco without money.

Working in London

As a student, I didn’t work for the first year, but as the money belt got tight, I started looking around. My flatmate finally gave me the telephone number of a catering agency and a view days and a silver service training later, I was already earning money.

The good things about working for an agency are:

1.You work when you want to work. Which means for me, that if I have holidays from uni, I can go home, without any complications. If I have to study for an exam, I just call the agency and tell them I can’t work for a certain period of time.

2.You get paid weekly:)

3.You can choose where you want to work.

4. You meet really lots of wonderful people.

5. You get to see places you have nerver dreamed of and you are part of events you usually only read in the papers.

The negative things for working for an agency are:

1. Some jobs can be very annoying, expect to be treated like dirt and don’t be afraid of screaming managers. This is not always the case of course there are also nice places to work, like the roundhouse.

2. Sometimes you get payed minimum wages.

3. On the next day you get the feeling that someone injected you lead in your arms and legs.

The scams with finding a place to live

A lot of people who look for apartments or rooms rely on the internet. This is a good way to get informed about the prices in certain areas.

When I came to London, the first thing I used was Gumtree, which is the UK’s biggest website for local classified ads and community site.

Once I found a really stunning apartment for less than 200 Pounds a week with two bedrooms in a really nice area. There were plenty of beautiful pictures and a nice description. When I contacted the landlord, she said she is out of the country at the moments and wasted her time already for people who wanted to see the apartment but then couldn’t afford to rent it. To show her, that we have the money, she wanted me to transfer it to a friend of mine and only send her the receipt.

If I would have done it, I would have been scammed by around 1500 Pounds. Everything looked so honest and the woman always wrote very long and trustworthy emails. I only did not transfer the money because I did not have the full amount in that short period she requested.

After that I informed myself about scams and found a lot of information on the gumtree forum.

There is also a very interesting documentary on the BBC iplayer which explains how these scams work.

The most important rule is- never transfer money over Western Union, when you don’t know the person, and don’t even share the receipt details with a third person. Always view the apartment first before signing any contracts or paying money.