london
If you have often wondered what exactly happens in these rape cases here is a classic account. It is the report submitted by the prosecutor to explain why he ask for the case to be dismissed. its an extraordinary read.
What intrigued me is that it is a brief blowjob. Short of threatening to kill you, you can run away. it is impossible to force someone against their will to give you a blowjob. Even under threat, even if u cannot run away, it is possible to grab his balls and squeeze for all you are worth. that should put a stop to it pronto.haha. I think common sense has flown out of the window if anyone still thinks it was a non consensual act.
And it seems there have been many blowjobs in that place given to many unknown men. it does not say much about the cleaning of that room. haha. And this is supposed to be a top class hotel. it might be the scent of all those semen made every male guests who stay in that room randy as hell.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/assets/pdf/dsk_motion_to_dismiss.pdf
What is surprising is that this report is not publicised in the newspapers. i only found it in a comment link in an article written by toby young and i cannot find it again to link here. Added. found it.shame on the newspapers for not publishing in full this report.
i think that woman who accuse strauss kahn of rape should be prosecuted for perjury and jailed. in the past, too many women have lied about rape and have never been prosecuted. the man has to live with the stain even if innocent, because so many will believe that there is no smoke without fire. the plain fact is women lie about being raped because they do not suffer any consequences. the law protects their identity, and they are never prosecuted if found to be lying. though i think that is changing, the law is now clamping down. two women have been jailed for false accusations of rape. link
I think it is clear to me that it is essential that there is anonymity for both the parties to any rape cases if justice is seen to be done. and only their identities to be revealed with a guilty verdict.
this guy calling himself angryhenry has made a study of false accusations of rapes and he has made some very good points.
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Saturday, 20 August 2011
drugs to increase sex drive
london
This article about jane fonda admitting to using testosterone to increase her sex life at 70yrs old, makes me realise that if any old person says they are having a great sex life, it is because they are using such drugs as testosterone or viagra or its slow acting equivalent.
personally i think it is great that we have these aids to improving our libidos.
we men have it great with viagra and sildenofil, and i thought women have lost out by not having such a easily administered chemical equivalent, but it seems if jane fonda is to be believed, testosterones, which is normally associated with males, seems to be the answer for them too. it works on males too because robin williams says he has taken testosterone and it has 'changed his life' he said.
What is even better is that by taking drugs we can become sexual at a time and place of our choosing, rather than be at the mercy of our body hormones which cannot be switched on and off. it must be very tiring to have a high sex drive all the time.
Added 23.8.11 read in the papers that dominique straus-kahn is free. the prosecutor is dropping the case as they cannot believe the woman beyond reasonable doubt, and so cannot expect a jury to do so. dominique's high sex drive is giving him a lot of grieve and may have destroyed his career.
I dont know about others but the effect on me of this case, even though i dont follow it that closely, is that if there is no evidence of violence, and it becomes a case of 'he says , she says', i won't believe the woman who shouts rape any more.
Added 24.8.11 this article in the daily mail about a lesbian who said she was raped by a rickshaw man who took her from soho to her tower bridge flat. if a woman cannot even remember what happened, i would tend to believe the man's version. jot it down to experience and dont get so drunk next time.
Added 2.9.11. the rickshaw man has been acquited, cleared of all charges, by unanimous verdict of a jury.he claimed it was consensual all along.
And i would think the same even if it is someone close to me. personally, i think anyone who gets so drunk they dont remember deserves whatever he gets. If a friend of mine were to tell me something awful happened to him whilst he was too drunk, i will just laugh at him and say to him, well next time u will learn not to get drunk, won't you? i know it sound callous, but if someone's soul wants it he shall get it.
I would hope my friend would also see it for what it is, and laugh too . afterall if he is still alive and no harm done to him, except maybe he lost money, i hope he too will laugh it off. and whatever else happens to him, if he is too drunk to remember, well it is like it never happened , right?
perhaps my way of accepting things is not usual, but ask yourself what good would it do to dwell on it and get moody over something that u dont remember ?
A article i read said women tend to dwell and talk about things and think that helps them, whilst men dont bother to talk as they think it is not much use . so people say men bottle it up, whilst women let it all hang out.
well, maybe i am a man so i think it is a waste of time going round and round talking about something that cannot be resolved. my feeling is dont bother to go on about it and just forget it.
You can guess i wont make a good juryman. If i were to ever get called to jury service, i shall have to rule myself out.
Here is a link to a young man doing stupid things ... too much testosterone.
And these drugs makes old people have good sex and makes younger guys keep an erection and take away the anxiety of being unable to maintain an erection. Nothing is more frustrating than wanting to fuck but unable to get an erection.
I wonder if those people who suffer ME,(Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) may be people who are deficient in testosterone and just taking it might cure them. Its worth a try and if one of the side effects is to improve their sex life all the better.
This article about jane fonda admitting to using testosterone to increase her sex life at 70yrs old, makes me realise that if any old person says they are having a great sex life, it is because they are using such drugs as testosterone or viagra or its slow acting equivalent.
personally i think it is great that we have these aids to improving our libidos.
we men have it great with viagra and sildenofil, and i thought women have lost out by not having such a easily administered chemical equivalent, but it seems if jane fonda is to be believed, testosterones, which is normally associated with males, seems to be the answer for them too. it works on males too because robin williams says he has taken testosterone and it has 'changed his life' he said.
What is even better is that by taking drugs we can become sexual at a time and place of our choosing, rather than be at the mercy of our body hormones which cannot be switched on and off. it must be very tiring to have a high sex drive all the time.
Added 23.8.11 read in the papers that dominique straus-kahn is free. the prosecutor is dropping the case as they cannot believe the woman beyond reasonable doubt, and so cannot expect a jury to do so. dominique's high sex drive is giving him a lot of grieve and may have destroyed his career.
I dont know about others but the effect on me of this case, even though i dont follow it that closely, is that if there is no evidence of violence, and it becomes a case of 'he says , she says', i won't believe the woman who shouts rape any more.
Added 24.8.11 this article in the daily mail about a lesbian who said she was raped by a rickshaw man who took her from soho to her tower bridge flat. if a woman cannot even remember what happened, i would tend to believe the man's version. jot it down to experience and dont get so drunk next time.
Added 2.9.11. the rickshaw man has been acquited, cleared of all charges, by unanimous verdict of a jury.he claimed it was consensual all along.
And i would think the same even if it is someone close to me. personally, i think anyone who gets so drunk they dont remember deserves whatever he gets. If a friend of mine were to tell me something awful happened to him whilst he was too drunk, i will just laugh at him and say to him, well next time u will learn not to get drunk, won't you? i know it sound callous, but if someone's soul wants it he shall get it.
I would hope my friend would also see it for what it is, and laugh too . afterall if he is still alive and no harm done to him, except maybe he lost money, i hope he too will laugh it off. and whatever else happens to him, if he is too drunk to remember, well it is like it never happened , right?
perhaps my way of accepting things is not usual, but ask yourself what good would it do to dwell on it and get moody over something that u dont remember ?
A article i read said women tend to dwell and talk about things and think that helps them, whilst men dont bother to talk as they think it is not much use . so people say men bottle it up, whilst women let it all hang out.
well, maybe i am a man so i think it is a waste of time going round and round talking about something that cannot be resolved. my feeling is dont bother to go on about it and just forget it.
You can guess i wont make a good juryman. If i were to ever get called to jury service, i shall have to rule myself out.
Here is a link to a young man doing stupid things ... too much testosterone.
And these drugs makes old people have good sex and makes younger guys keep an erection and take away the anxiety of being unable to maintain an erection. Nothing is more frustrating than wanting to fuck but unable to get an erection.
I wonder if those people who suffer ME,(Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) may be people who are deficient in testosterone and just taking it might cure them. Its worth a try and if one of the side effects is to improve their sex life all the better.
Monday, 15 August 2011
what is reality?
london
I think what i mean is that different people have different realities.all the people i mention below have experienced realities different from me. I am glad my reality is nothing like theirs.
Added 19/8/11 i livenear pimlico, and it seems there are bedbugs in a hostel called airways hotel. 2 sisters in their 40s were treated in hospital for a combined 100 bedbug bites.
it must be really difficult for hotels to stop this infestation. After all, new guests can bring in the bedbugs, even after they got rid of the first lot. according to the website, their rates of £90 single, £130 double makes me realise that accommodation is really expensive in london. this is supposed to be a budget bed and breakfast. and not even an english breakfast.
Added 18.8.2011 ftse 5096,(it has dropped 1000points from its high and is now back where it was sept 2010. gold $1824 an ounce. £=$1.65 . £=1.15Euro
Added 16.8.11 news of increase in rail fares from jan2012 because the retail price index is 5% in july and that is used as a base for any increase in fares +3% in england (instead of 1%as before.) As usual , this does not apply in Scotland.
Added 15.9.11 london transport is announcing raises of 8% to tube and bus fares. Does not surprise me. i expect prices to rise every january. Look at it this way, u save so much more when u cycle or walk so that might induce a lot more people to do so.
Bus fares from £1.30 to £1.40.
and zone 1 tube fares £1.90 to £2. zone1 to 2, £2.50 to £2.70
the link here
In that article in the independant, a commentator said it is supply and demand that is why these companies keep raising it to the full extant that they can. Have you noticed in spite of these increases every year, there is no lack of commuters and the rush hour is so full of crowded trains? People may all complain of the cost, but no one has done the right thing, and move to other modes of transport or even find work nearer where they live.
though this increase includes 2% to the govt so tax payers dont have to subsidise the railways so much and to pay for the fast rail planned for the future. (I think it is a waste of money to build faster trains.)
It has been quoted £4000 or so for annual fares from eastbourne, guildford etc to london. if they can pay these fares they are allready having very good salaries to make it worthwhile to commute.
I would not waste your sympathies on them, if i were you.
And i bet many of them will have their transport costs paid for by their companies as part of their remuneration package or get tax free , interest free loans.
I speak from personal experience, i once commuted to milton keynes from london... i go against the flow so that i travel on near empty trains to and from work... And i got my fares paid for me. And why is my boss so generous? because i earned a shit load of money, that is why. !!!
so read between the lines.
if there is no advantage to them to spend hours commuting, they will soon change their behaviour...
The fact that the railways are crowded with commuters during rush hour shows that these increases are not enough to change behaviour.
It is like trying to tax car owners till they get rid of their cars. it does not happen. it takes a lot of taxes to make someone give up their car. So it is the same with commuters.
If i own these train companies i shall keep raising the fares, till i get a visible sign of reduced demand which might be never. haha.
why do u think petrol prices can keep rising irregardless of what is happening? there will always be a demand for it. people will still drive.
same with gas and electricity prices. another company has increased their prices.
Very few people act like me, switch off the gas. and cut down the electricity use to the barest minimum. Those companies knows we are a captive audience and very few customers have the discipline to reduce their usage drastically.
I am afraid i have sad news for us electricity users. There is a limit to how much u can reduce the usage. So i guess we shall have to resign ourselves to future rises.
The good news is that maybe the increased prices will force a lot of people who are spendthrift with electricity to reduce wastage of electricity and that will be a good thing.
People dont realise that if u subsidise rail fares, and make it cheap to commute, u r sucking jobs out of the 200mile radius around london and make those surrounding towns and villages dead places.
I ask this question because the newspapers say one thing but i dont experience it.
Everyone knows of the riots, but it did not affect me. I venture to say that for the majority of londoners, we were not affected. But it has been taking up a lot of newspaper space and chitchat. I guess for those who are affected it must have been a terrible experience but i would not know and i am glad my soul dont want to experience that.
So those who think we here in london are living in fear I can assure u we are not. I know i am not, and my advise to any londoners out there thinking armageddon has arrived, not to worry.
today in the newspapers, i read that inflation is expected to reach 5% and saying people will feel the pinch. Am i the only one who wont feel it?
Only yesterday, i went to the tescos, and see they have reduced their mince beef to 55p for 500mg pack. it was a special promotion half priced to £1.10 frm the usual £2.20. I did not buy it then as i thought it was still expensive. (all mince beef nowadays are 20% fat , which is rather a lot of fat).
When i took the 3packs to pay, i found out that when they total it up, 55p was minused from it, because of multi-buy, and so i got 3packs for £1.10. (the original offer was a buy 1 get 1 free, and that applies even to the reduced price. if i had bought 4, i would have got them at even more reduction but i guess one must not be too greedy. haha)
Added. in the past, i could get basic sainsbury minced beef usual price 97p reduced to 10p. now we are all glad for a reduction to 55p. i dont know if it is a increase in food prices or not. we can still buy the basic sainsburys at 98p. maybe that is why this tesco mince beef is not selling. it is similar to the basic sainsburys.
Added 1.9.11 A few days ago the newspaper said they have all increased the price of mince. sainsburys is now selling basic mince beef 400mg for £1.20. such a big jump of 25% at one go.
A few weeks ago tesco had a special offer of chicken for £1.59 a kilo. i bought two and cooked them for the freezer. i know of these offers from their advertisement inthe daily mail, which is another reason for reading the papers, haha.
So you can see there are bargains to be had if u are savvy.
when i think last time i got veg celery for 20p a bunch, it makes me realise that newspapers say one thing, but reality on the ground is different and not as bad as they make out.
am i unique in this experience? i know simon's mum , who lives in essex, has been buying reduced food for years. To the extent that simon tells me her freezer is so full, there is no room for her new buys.
Simon now grabs them and brings them back to london, better than them going off for being in the freezer too long.
Also, for those who are wanting free food, why not volunteer for charities that provide free meals? If u help them out, u will get a free meal out of it.
I am thinking of the charity which i help out, yesterday i was there, and i got loads of free food to bring back to eat. it is a hit or miss affair with us navigators and drivers as to whether we get food or not, but for the kitchen staff they always have a meal afterwards. no wonder there is no shortage of volunteers for the kitchen. haha.
And if u dont want to do that u can go to those places where they give out free meals and be one of the people who can be given the free food. no one asks for credentials and proof that u really are in need. everyone who goes there and asks will get it.
And there are plenty of places that provide free meals.
Of course u dont have much choice what u get, but it is a meal after all and who cares about choices.
If you are brave enough u can even get someone to invite u to my gym, which has started for one week giving free breakfast, starting today.
the day before when i saw the notice i was saying to them it would be nice to have toast, and today i saw they have got a toaster. hmm, i never realise my comments which i say carelessly, are taken noticed of. haha.
(Actually the gym gave me a voucher to give to anyone who wants a free 1wk trial)
I was chatting to the people who manned the one stop shop in city hall. there are 3 such centres where u can do all transactions with council and rather useful i find for paying my bills with cash. But they are closing all of them, and the staff tells me all of them will be made redundant.
I was also told that the whole complex consisting of the high rise and the office blocks with the shops and sainsbury below is going to be pulled down and replaced.
That is a real bummer for them.
One of the librarians was waiting around, and i asked if he was losing his job, because the library on the mezzanine above the one stop offices will also be closed. but he said he will be transferred to paddington library. he lives in vauxhall and cycles to work so it will be longer for him to ride there. he said he did not mind, i guess he is glad to have a job.
the newspapers dont say anything about it, but it is job losses like these that will hit people hard. That is where the real heartache lies.
they are the ones who deserve our sympathy, but we hear nothing about them in the papers. those who make trouble gets all the attention, which is typical of this world.
Added. 16.8.11 Talking of reality, i asked my friend who is here on a visit from italy, he is also enrolled in an english school to study english pronouciation and grammer; what he finds to do here, and he said he had been seeing musicals. He said you cannot get them in such numbers in europe. And it dawned on me that london is unique amongst european countries for its plays and musicals. the only other city where u can get them is New York.
the prices are not cheap, he said he is seeing two next week, one for £35, the other for £60 for the seat.
and of course our musuems and art galleries are all free even to visitors, nevermind locals.
He told me there is so much to see and do here in london he has not even got time to go outside london. he is here for 20days and is leaving in 4days time. Well that is reality for him and it sure is different from mine. haha.
He spents 6hrs every day learning english. 3hrs in pronounciation, which he says is well attended. usually the class have 15-20 people. but come the 2nd 3hrs only 3-5 attend. it is to learn grammer.
He wants to change career and become an interpreter, that is why he has to learn good english grammer as well as pronouciation. he is working in IT at present.
I think what i mean is that different people have different realities.all the people i mention below have experienced realities different from me. I am glad my reality is nothing like theirs.
Added 19/8/11 i livenear pimlico, and it seems there are bedbugs in a hostel called airways hotel. 2 sisters in their 40s were treated in hospital for a combined 100 bedbug bites.
it must be really difficult for hotels to stop this infestation. After all, new guests can bring in the bedbugs, even after they got rid of the first lot. according to the website, their rates of £90 single, £130 double makes me realise that accommodation is really expensive in london. this is supposed to be a budget bed and breakfast. and not even an english breakfast.
Added 18.8.2011 ftse 5096,(it has dropped 1000points from its high and is now back where it was sept 2010. gold $1824 an ounce. £=$1.65 . £=1.15Euro
Added 16.8.11 news of increase in rail fares from jan2012 because the retail price index is 5% in july and that is used as a base for any increase in fares +3% in england (instead of 1%as before.) As usual , this does not apply in Scotland.
Added 15.9.11 london transport is announcing raises of 8% to tube and bus fares. Does not surprise me. i expect prices to rise every january. Look at it this way, u save so much more when u cycle or walk so that might induce a lot more people to do so.
Bus fares from £1.30 to £1.40.
and zone 1 tube fares £1.90 to £2. zone1 to 2, £2.50 to £2.70
the link here
In that article in the independant, a commentator said it is supply and demand that is why these companies keep raising it to the full extant that they can. Have you noticed in spite of these increases every year, there is no lack of commuters and the rush hour is so full of crowded trains? People may all complain of the cost, but no one has done the right thing, and move to other modes of transport or even find work nearer where they live.
though this increase includes 2% to the govt so tax payers dont have to subsidise the railways so much and to pay for the fast rail planned for the future. (I think it is a waste of money to build faster trains.)
It has been quoted £4000 or so for annual fares from eastbourne, guildford etc to london. if they can pay these fares they are allready having very good salaries to make it worthwhile to commute.
I would not waste your sympathies on them, if i were you.
And i bet many of them will have their transport costs paid for by their companies as part of their remuneration package or get tax free , interest free loans.
I speak from personal experience, i once commuted to milton keynes from london... i go against the flow so that i travel on near empty trains to and from work... And i got my fares paid for me. And why is my boss so generous? because i earned a shit load of money, that is why. !!!
so read between the lines.
if there is no advantage to them to spend hours commuting, they will soon change their behaviour...
The fact that the railways are crowded with commuters during rush hour shows that these increases are not enough to change behaviour.
It is like trying to tax car owners till they get rid of their cars. it does not happen. it takes a lot of taxes to make someone give up their car. So it is the same with commuters.
If i own these train companies i shall keep raising the fares, till i get a visible sign of reduced demand which might be never. haha.
why do u think petrol prices can keep rising irregardless of what is happening? there will always be a demand for it. people will still drive.
same with gas and electricity prices. another company has increased their prices.
Very few people act like me, switch off the gas. and cut down the electricity use to the barest minimum. Those companies knows we are a captive audience and very few customers have the discipline to reduce their usage drastically.
I am afraid i have sad news for us electricity users. There is a limit to how much u can reduce the usage. So i guess we shall have to resign ourselves to future rises.
The good news is that maybe the increased prices will force a lot of people who are spendthrift with electricity to reduce wastage of electricity and that will be a good thing.
People dont realise that if u subsidise rail fares, and make it cheap to commute, u r sucking jobs out of the 200mile radius around london and make those surrounding towns and villages dead places.
I ask this question because the newspapers say one thing but i dont experience it.
Everyone knows of the riots, but it did not affect me. I venture to say that for the majority of londoners, we were not affected. But it has been taking up a lot of newspaper space and chitchat. I guess for those who are affected it must have been a terrible experience but i would not know and i am glad my soul dont want to experience that.
So those who think we here in london are living in fear I can assure u we are not. I know i am not, and my advise to any londoners out there thinking armageddon has arrived, not to worry.
today in the newspapers, i read that inflation is expected to reach 5% and saying people will feel the pinch. Am i the only one who wont feel it?
Only yesterday, i went to the tescos, and see they have reduced their mince beef to 55p for 500mg pack. it was a special promotion half priced to £1.10 frm the usual £2.20. I did not buy it then as i thought it was still expensive. (all mince beef nowadays are 20% fat , which is rather a lot of fat).
When i took the 3packs to pay, i found out that when they total it up, 55p was minused from it, because of multi-buy, and so i got 3packs for £1.10. (the original offer was a buy 1 get 1 free, and that applies even to the reduced price. if i had bought 4, i would have got them at even more reduction but i guess one must not be too greedy. haha)
Added. in the past, i could get basic sainsbury minced beef usual price 97p reduced to 10p. now we are all glad for a reduction to 55p. i dont know if it is a increase in food prices or not. we can still buy the basic sainsburys at 98p. maybe that is why this tesco mince beef is not selling. it is similar to the basic sainsburys.
Added 1.9.11 A few days ago the newspaper said they have all increased the price of mince. sainsburys is now selling basic mince beef 400mg for £1.20. such a big jump of 25% at one go.
A few weeks ago tesco had a special offer of chicken for £1.59 a kilo. i bought two and cooked them for the freezer. i know of these offers from their advertisement inthe daily mail, which is another reason for reading the papers, haha.
So you can see there are bargains to be had if u are savvy.
when i think last time i got veg celery for 20p a bunch, it makes me realise that newspapers say one thing, but reality on the ground is different and not as bad as they make out.
am i unique in this experience? i know simon's mum , who lives in essex, has been buying reduced food for years. To the extent that simon tells me her freezer is so full, there is no room for her new buys.
Simon now grabs them and brings them back to london, better than them going off for being in the freezer too long.
Also, for those who are wanting free food, why not volunteer for charities that provide free meals? If u help them out, u will get a free meal out of it.
I am thinking of the charity which i help out, yesterday i was there, and i got loads of free food to bring back to eat. it is a hit or miss affair with us navigators and drivers as to whether we get food or not, but for the kitchen staff they always have a meal afterwards. no wonder there is no shortage of volunteers for the kitchen. haha.
And if u dont want to do that u can go to those places where they give out free meals and be one of the people who can be given the free food. no one asks for credentials and proof that u really are in need. everyone who goes there and asks will get it.
And there are plenty of places that provide free meals.
Of course u dont have much choice what u get, but it is a meal after all and who cares about choices.
If you are brave enough u can even get someone to invite u to my gym, which has started for one week giving free breakfast, starting today.
the day before when i saw the notice i was saying to them it would be nice to have toast, and today i saw they have got a toaster. hmm, i never realise my comments which i say carelessly, are taken noticed of. haha.
(Actually the gym gave me a voucher to give to anyone who wants a free 1wk trial)
I was chatting to the people who manned the one stop shop in city hall. there are 3 such centres where u can do all transactions with council and rather useful i find for paying my bills with cash. But they are closing all of them, and the staff tells me all of them will be made redundant.
I was also told that the whole complex consisting of the high rise and the office blocks with the shops and sainsbury below is going to be pulled down and replaced.
That is a real bummer for them.
One of the librarians was waiting around, and i asked if he was losing his job, because the library on the mezzanine above the one stop offices will also be closed. but he said he will be transferred to paddington library. he lives in vauxhall and cycles to work so it will be longer for him to ride there. he said he did not mind, i guess he is glad to have a job.
the newspapers dont say anything about it, but it is job losses like these that will hit people hard. That is where the real heartache lies.
they are the ones who deserve our sympathy, but we hear nothing about them in the papers. those who make trouble gets all the attention, which is typical of this world.
Added. 16.8.11 Talking of reality, i asked my friend who is here on a visit from italy, he is also enrolled in an english school to study english pronouciation and grammer; what he finds to do here, and he said he had been seeing musicals. He said you cannot get them in such numbers in europe. And it dawned on me that london is unique amongst european countries for its plays and musicals. the only other city where u can get them is New York.
the prices are not cheap, he said he is seeing two next week, one for £35, the other for £60 for the seat.
and of course our musuems and art galleries are all free even to visitors, nevermind locals.
He told me there is so much to see and do here in london he has not even got time to go outside london. he is here for 20days and is leaving in 4days time. Well that is reality for him and it sure is different from mine. haha.
He spents 6hrs every day learning english. 3hrs in pronounciation, which he says is well attended. usually the class have 15-20 people. but come the 2nd 3hrs only 3-5 attend. it is to learn grammer.
He wants to change career and become an interpreter, that is why he has to learn good english grammer as well as pronouciation. he is working in IT at present.
Saturday, 13 August 2011
olympic marathon swimming in hyde park
london
that row of splashes are the swimmers sharing the water with the ducks and geese. I read of it at a website called 3guysonalondonbus, and decided to cycle there as i find cycling quite nice to do in london since they have improved the infrastructure. the roads are more cycle friendly now.
the swimming race is held in the serpentine, in hyde park. it was very pleasant to be sitting in the sun and watching the swimmers come round and round. There were 4 laps. that afternoon was the men swimmers turn.
I brought along one of the pork pies that i bought last night. reduced £1.75 to 20p for 4 in a pack.They were sainsburys own brand, not as nice at the sainsburys melton mowbray large pie i bought some time ago for the same price. more jelly in that other pie and the crust is much nicer crunchier with that glassy texture. that is why i bought only 2packs,even though there were so many of them reduced that night.I cannot imagine anyone wanting to buy them at the original price.
i bought celery 3 bunches for 20p each. quite a good bargain, organic and very crispy still.i was craving celery, because it has been ages since i ate them.
and chinese fresh chitake mushrooms, £1.70p a pack for 29p,i bought 3packs. i think the dried mushrooms are much nicer. you can buy them in chinese grocery stores and they are v expensive. You are supposed to use a few but simon, as is typical of all westerners, thinks if a few is nice, the whole pack must be nicer... and uses it all up very quickly. And he uses them in curries, which defeats the whole purpose of them, as the curry just destroys their subtle flavour. i think simon is typical of westerners, what do they know of cooking!!! I confess i have only contempt for westerners as cooks. even looking at the tv programs by these westerner cooks i can see they fiddle around too much with the food, and i bet u they will always add lemon juice.
there were signs all along the edge of the lake warning that no swimming was allowed because of green algae, but that did not seem to apply to the swimmers.
it is a rather unpleasant looking water, as it is shared by all the wild birds, geese especially and we all know how shitty birds are.
I read of the looters being given jail sentences. some for stealing small items. they dont seem to differentiate the hard core from the naive and stupid who were tempted to steal.
as usual, people overreacte, jailing someone for 6months for stealing some small items. wish they can reserve jail for the hard core ones stealing thousands, instead of these small fry.
There was even one family being evicted because the teenage son was caught.it was in wandsworth, and the first to get an eviction notice. hopefully the court will decide that it is not fair on the mother. I hardly think it fair to evict the single mother for what the son did. even then it was not clear if he stole anything or was just there. the police were just arresting anyone who were there... some were charged for just being hooded,a bit unlucky for them. as usual the hard core ones get away because they hide their faces, and these naive ones get caught.
When u consider the bankers gambled away the money and tipped the world into disaster and no one was jailed, not only that but more money was thrown at them...those big crooks gets away with it, but these small fry gets it in the neck... and that is the way of this world; it does make me think what an unfair world we live in.
Ah well, their souls wants it.
My life is rather serene, and that is exactly how my soul wants it.
I was at the gym today, and there was no morning daily mail. I mentioned it to the manager who was there to get the staff to do a big cleanout of the place... and when he heard me, he asked me what paper i want and immediately sent one of his staff to go and buy a copy . that was rather nice of him.
well, that seems to be what my soul calls forth.
this gym branch is rather nice that way. they are advertising a breakfast morning all week starting 15th aug. In the past they used to advertise such a breakfast, and we get bread and margarine , cereals and milk, fruits; but there was once, during the royal wedding when it did not happen. |maybe they could not get the staff to work on that day... hope they carry it through this time.
I love having the breakfast mornings in the gym. Fitness first is a wonderful gym. Long may they succeed and prosper.
that row of splashes are the swimmers sharing the water with the ducks and geese. the swimming race is held in the serpentine, in hyde park. it was very pleasant to be sitting in the sun and watching the swimmers come round and round. There were 4 laps. that afternoon was the men swimmers turn.
I brought along one of the pork pies that i bought last night. reduced £1.75 to 20p for 4 in a pack.They were sainsburys own brand, not as nice at the sainsburys melton mowbray large pie i bought some time ago for the same price. more jelly in that other pie and the crust is much nicer crunchier with that glassy texture. that is why i bought only 2packs,even though there were so many of them reduced that night.I cannot imagine anyone wanting to buy them at the original price.
i bought celery 3 bunches for 20p each. quite a good bargain, organic and very crispy still.i was craving celery, because it has been ages since i ate them.
and chinese fresh chitake mushrooms, £1.70p a pack for 29p,i bought 3packs. i think the dried mushrooms are much nicer. you can buy them in chinese grocery stores and they are v expensive. You are supposed to use a few but simon, as is typical of all westerners, thinks if a few is nice, the whole pack must be nicer... and uses it all up very quickly. And he uses them in curries, which defeats the whole purpose of them, as the curry just destroys their subtle flavour. i think simon is typical of westerners, what do they know of cooking!!! I confess i have only contempt for westerners as cooks. even looking at the tv programs by these westerner cooks i can see they fiddle around too much with the food, and i bet u they will always add lemon juice.
there were signs all along the edge of the lake warning that no swimming was allowed because of green algae, but that did not seem to apply to the swimmers.
it is a rather unpleasant looking water, as it is shared by all the wild birds, geese especially and we all know how shitty birds are.
I read of the looters being given jail sentences. some for stealing small items. they dont seem to differentiate the hard core from the naive and stupid who were tempted to steal.
as usual, people overreacte, jailing someone for 6months for stealing some small items. wish they can reserve jail for the hard core ones stealing thousands, instead of these small fry.
There was even one family being evicted because the teenage son was caught.it was in wandsworth, and the first to get an eviction notice. hopefully the court will decide that it is not fair on the mother. I hardly think it fair to evict the single mother for what the son did. even then it was not clear if he stole anything or was just there. the police were just arresting anyone who were there... some were charged for just being hooded,a bit unlucky for them. as usual the hard core ones get away because they hide their faces, and these naive ones get caught.
When u consider the bankers gambled away the money and tipped the world into disaster and no one was jailed, not only that but more money was thrown at them...those big crooks gets away with it, but these small fry gets it in the neck... and that is the way of this world; it does make me think what an unfair world we live in.
Ah well, their souls wants it.
My life is rather serene, and that is exactly how my soul wants it.
I was at the gym today, and there was no morning daily mail. I mentioned it to the manager who was there to get the staff to do a big cleanout of the place... and when he heard me, he asked me what paper i want and immediately sent one of his staff to go and buy a copy . that was rather nice of him.
well, that seems to be what my soul calls forth.
this gym branch is rather nice that way. they are advertising a breakfast morning all week starting 15th aug. In the past they used to advertise such a breakfast, and we get bread and margarine , cereals and milk, fruits; but there was once, during the royal wedding when it did not happen. |maybe they could not get the staff to work on that day... hope they carry it through this time.
I love having the breakfast mornings in the gym. Fitness first is a wonderful gym. Long may they succeed and prosper.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
riots in london
london
Reading the papers today gives me a feeling which i always get when i read the papers, that i live in a parallel universe where nothing in the papers seems to appear in my world... i am talking of riots in london, but i live here and i dont see it.
Just as well. So i am not complaining but it does make me feel as if i live in a parallel universe where all these things dont happen.
Anyway, my parallel universe nearly collided with the other one this afternoon, when i went to the library and was called out by reception when i was going downstairs to the library.They told me the library was closing as the police has asked them to clear everyone out because trouble was coming.
There were sirens from rushing police vans towards victoria.
Added. it seems the office workers are leaving early and going home so that victoria was jammed with early travellers. that explains the police rushing there to control the crowd. also the police are asking places to close early and ferrying more troops into london as they anticipate more looting tonight. i got this info from the live feed in telegraph online. Perhaps the potential looters will keep away now that they know the police are in force tonight.
Added.2.15am 10/8/11. i was woken when simon came home from work just now. He has a few days off work and going to his mother's place. it seems the looters decided to go out of london and loot manchester etc instead. i m sure the social networks makes it easy for them to coordinate themselves.
And simon who was driving on duty last night told me he nearly died.
the car he was driving was attacked, and the rear windscreen was shattered and someone throw something in . it was later when simon smelt petrol that they found this device at the back which they threw out, and realised it was a petrol bomb but luckily it did not ignite or simon would be history. it happened in queensway near nottinghill, west london.
the looting and fire seems to me to be done out of greed, and opportunism. There is looting in brixton, croydon, even oxford st, as well as the hot spot in tottenham where it all started.
i supposed the looters are saying if the govt can bail out bankers, govt should not mind if they help themselves to goods from the shops.
(Added. at first i too thought to condemn the looters. but i had another think. we are all angry at the govt for helping the banks using our money, and screwing us all by increasing tax, and reducing benefits to pay for it... so the poor gets it in the neck to pay the rich bankers. this anger which we have not felt yet, will increase and we will act like the looters in future. I think even law abiding citizens will in future be disobedient, when they realise why should they toe the line, and quietly pay up. )
the police are short staffed and there is no head of police, only an acting head, and so the police are directionless.
Hmm, cant do much good for tourism and london's image of a safe city.though from what i gather, it is looting, not shooting and no danger to passerbys. It is the businesses which are broken into and looted will have more reason to complain.
But the stock market is continueing its dive, and i think the big recession is coming. Added. 11.8.11At one stage,FTSE was 4800, now it is 5000.
I personally feel capitalism has a built in mechanism to correct any excessive exuberance and every 10yrs or so it does it good to have a recession to reset the clock.
remember, the raison d'etat of capitalism is growth,(a static economy is not desired by the so called experts, i wonder why but then it is not for me to ask that question. haha. the powers that be has decreed that growth is necessary.) japan has not have growth for years and every economist say it is a diasaster, but for whom? japan seems to be carrying on very well without this growth. what the economist means is that the financial speculators cannot make money out of japan, but the japanese ordinary folks are living their lives as usual and never feel it.
Added.11.8.11 just read this article how did the world get so fixated on gdp in the guardian.
quote'We need to change how we think about the economy. Japan has now laboured through nearly two decades of flatlining GDP. A miracle of growth transformed it from defeated power in 1945 to the world's second-largest economy. Then, in the 1990s, the growth stopped, never to convincingly return. Yet living standards in Japan are among the highest in the world. Unemployment is half that of the US; life expectancy five years longer. Average real incomes are the same as Germany's, and inequality lower. Japan's environmental impact, particularly through the import of raw materials, remains high. But it is not simply the economic basket case it is often presented as'unquote.
Continuous growth is a sheer impossibility. Nothing can keep on growing forever, (it becomes a cancer otherwise)and so periodically there should be a crash to reset the clock.
this kind of cycle is very typical of nature. Everything has its cycles of death and rebirth.
the economy should not be exempt.
That is why i think a crash and a recession is a good thing and the sooner we have it the better as the pain wont be that bad...
i think if we had allowed a crash to take place in 2008, instead of taking over the banks to prevent the banks going bankrupt, we will be better off now. The govt would have a lot more money to cushion the poor from the effects. As it is , all our money have gone to prop up the banks and the euro, and prop up bankrupt countries like ireland and greece just so they wont default on their loans. (so back to helping the banks. we will all come to realise that after all the help we give to the banks we dont ask the banks to pay back to us... and they continue to live it up, knowing now that whatever they do they will reap the profits and if they lose, the country will bear the cost.)
as it is we have gone into big debt throwing good money after bad in our efforts to save the banking system, and now look where it has got us... countries going bankrupt.
if we had let the banks go bankrupt, then greece and ireland who had borrowed so much from them will at least have those debts wiped off or given very much more time to pay. Or does it not happen and u still have to pay?
let a crash happen and banks go bankrupt, and that will wipe out all debts. if u owe money to a bankrupt bank, will it mean your debt will be wiped off? I think so, don't you? or do u have to declare bankruptcy too?
bankruptcy is the mechanism by the capitalist system to reset it to zero, and everyone can start again. But the whole thing is changed now because the country has taken on the debt of businesses, and guaranteed it. i think we will all rue the day that gordon brown started to do it.
mrs thatcher was right when she said u cannot buck the market. Govt should have stepped aside and let the businesses crash. now we are in debt and taken on the debt of the banks and if they crash the tax payer will lose all that money. we have got the worst case scenario.
Reading the papers today gives me a feeling which i always get when i read the papers, that i live in a parallel universe where nothing in the papers seems to appear in my world... i am talking of riots in london, but i live here and i dont see it.
Just as well. So i am not complaining but it does make me feel as if i live in a parallel universe where all these things dont happen.
Anyway, my parallel universe nearly collided with the other one this afternoon, when i went to the library and was called out by reception when i was going downstairs to the library.They told me the library was closing as the police has asked them to clear everyone out because trouble was coming.
There were sirens from rushing police vans towards victoria.
Added. it seems the office workers are leaving early and going home so that victoria was jammed with early travellers. that explains the police rushing there to control the crowd. also the police are asking places to close early and ferrying more troops into london as they anticipate more looting tonight. i got this info from the live feed in telegraph online. Perhaps the potential looters will keep away now that they know the police are in force tonight.
Added.2.15am 10/8/11. i was woken when simon came home from work just now. He has a few days off work and going to his mother's place. it seems the looters decided to go out of london and loot manchester etc instead. i m sure the social networks makes it easy for them to coordinate themselves.
And simon who was driving on duty last night told me he nearly died.
the car he was driving was attacked, and the rear windscreen was shattered and someone throw something in . it was later when simon smelt petrol that they found this device at the back which they threw out, and realised it was a petrol bomb but luckily it did not ignite or simon would be history. it happened in queensway near nottinghill, west london.
the looting and fire seems to me to be done out of greed, and opportunism. There is looting in brixton, croydon, even oxford st, as well as the hot spot in tottenham where it all started.
i supposed the looters are saying if the govt can bail out bankers, govt should not mind if they help themselves to goods from the shops.
(Added. at first i too thought to condemn the looters. but i had another think. we are all angry at the govt for helping the banks using our money, and screwing us all by increasing tax, and reducing benefits to pay for it... so the poor gets it in the neck to pay the rich bankers. this anger which we have not felt yet, will increase and we will act like the looters in future. I think even law abiding citizens will in future be disobedient, when they realise why should they toe the line, and quietly pay up. )
the police are short staffed and there is no head of police, only an acting head, and so the police are directionless.
Hmm, cant do much good for tourism and london's image of a safe city.though from what i gather, it is looting, not shooting and no danger to passerbys. It is the businesses which are broken into and looted will have more reason to complain.
But the stock market is continueing its dive, and i think the big recession is coming. Added. 11.8.11At one stage,FTSE was 4800, now it is 5000.
I personally feel capitalism has a built in mechanism to correct any excessive exuberance and every 10yrs or so it does it good to have a recession to reset the clock.
remember, the raison d'etat of capitalism is growth,(a static economy is not desired by the so called experts, i wonder why but then it is not for me to ask that question. haha. the powers that be has decreed that growth is necessary.) japan has not have growth for years and every economist say it is a diasaster, but for whom? japan seems to be carrying on very well without this growth. what the economist means is that the financial speculators cannot make money out of japan, but the japanese ordinary folks are living their lives as usual and never feel it.
Added.11.8.11 just read this article how did the world get so fixated on gdp in the guardian.
quote'We need to change how we think about the economy. Japan has now laboured through nearly two decades of flatlining GDP. A miracle of growth transformed it from defeated power in 1945 to the world's second-largest economy. Then, in the 1990s, the growth stopped, never to convincingly return. Yet living standards in Japan are among the highest in the world. Unemployment is half that of the US; life expectancy five years longer. Average real incomes are the same as Germany's, and inequality lower. Japan's environmental impact, particularly through the import of raw materials, remains high. But it is not simply the economic basket case it is often presented as'unquote.
Continuous growth is a sheer impossibility. Nothing can keep on growing forever, (it becomes a cancer otherwise)and so periodically there should be a crash to reset the clock.
this kind of cycle is very typical of nature. Everything has its cycles of death and rebirth.
the economy should not be exempt.
That is why i think a crash and a recession is a good thing and the sooner we have it the better as the pain wont be that bad...
i think if we had allowed a crash to take place in 2008, instead of taking over the banks to prevent the banks going bankrupt, we will be better off now. The govt would have a lot more money to cushion the poor from the effects. As it is , all our money have gone to prop up the banks and the euro, and prop up bankrupt countries like ireland and greece just so they wont default on their loans. (so back to helping the banks. we will all come to realise that after all the help we give to the banks we dont ask the banks to pay back to us... and they continue to live it up, knowing now that whatever they do they will reap the profits and if they lose, the country will bear the cost.)
as it is we have gone into big debt throwing good money after bad in our efforts to save the banking system, and now look where it has got us... countries going bankrupt.
if we had let the banks go bankrupt, then greece and ireland who had borrowed so much from them will at least have those debts wiped off or given very much more time to pay. Or does it not happen and u still have to pay?
let a crash happen and banks go bankrupt, and that will wipe out all debts. if u owe money to a bankrupt bank, will it mean your debt will be wiped off? I think so, don't you? or do u have to declare bankruptcy too?
bankruptcy is the mechanism by the capitalist system to reset it to zero, and everyone can start again. But the whole thing is changed now because the country has taken on the debt of businesses, and guaranteed it. i think we will all rue the day that gordon brown started to do it.
mrs thatcher was right when she said u cannot buck the market. Govt should have stepped aside and let the businesses crash. now we are in debt and taken on the debt of the banks and if they crash the tax payer will lose all that money. we have got the worst case scenario.
Saturday, 6 August 2011
rent controls in new york
london
Latest: USA lost its AAA rating to AA+
Added 7.8.11. I was doing the charity food run today and the volunteer driver told me she rents her 2bdroom flat with garden with another for £520 a month each. (effectively the rent for the flat is £1040 a month). And they share the utilities bill, council tax etc. she lives in tooting bec which is in zone 3.
what is the rent on a flat in zone 1? i wonder. this company is charging £1300 a month for a 1bdroom flat, £1800 a month for a 2bedroom flat in pimlico.
Makes me really glad i bought my 2bdroom flat long ago and now have no rent to pay.
there have been rather a lot of interesting news, the stock market crash(again!), young children falling off balconies, or drowning in swimming pools(again and again), one 17yr old killed by a hungry bear whilst camping in norway as part of a british young people's project, (norway is in the news again after that massacre on that island) but what interests me most was seeing this link about a guy who is living in a rent controlled flat in manhatten, paying about $800 a month for his ground floor flat and his landlord is trying to evict him stating that he was not using it as his primary residence, which is the rule for these flats.
there was news a few days ago when faye dunaway had the same problem, she was paying about $1000 a month for her rent controlled one bed room flat.
New york is a rare city in america for having such strict rent controlled flats. In blocks of 6 apartments the rent control stays unlike in London which has rent controlled flats too though they seldom get written up in the news . in london, the rent control ends when the tenant dies which means these flats are released into the private market.
I think barcelona also have rent controlled apartments ,(or maybe they are social housing with low rent); I mention barcelona simply because i have a friend whose Spanish boyfriend lived in one. he gave it up when he came to london to live.
I think cities must have these social housing, or it will be filled with rich people and the poor get kicked out further and further outside the city and the mix of people from all walks of life gets lost and the city becomes less vibrant.
The trend is to sell off the flats as their rent controlled tenants die. But around my area there are lots of housing run by the peabody estate... victorian social housing donated by peabody, an american philantropist. They keep it in good condition, which is rather nice of them, and not usual, as most times social housing gets run down and look awful. They are not rent controlled, but their rents are much lower than commercial rents.
it seems the rent in these rent controlled flats are the same rent in dollars as it is in £s here.
The lib con govt is trying to remove lifelong tenancies of council flats in uk.
My neighbours downstairs from me says they rent their 2bdroom flat , similar to mine, for £150 a week. council rent. and a friend of mine who rents a 3bedroom flat from council tells me it is £180 a week. so this gives u an idea of the rents of social housing.
i know of a friend who had a large flat in new york, this was in the early 90s, which he rents cheap because it is rent controlled, and it is large for his own use , too large really, but he can keep it till he dies. That means someone with a larger family is deprived of it while he lives.
that would be the case in london too. A widow may live alone in a 3bedroom flat/house after her family have grown up and left the house, and it seems a waste that it cannot be freed to house a family.
but how to ask the widow to live in another area in a smaller flat? people get so used to living in their own place and in the same area. it is a wrench to move to a new area.
there are restrictions about subletting these flats. though if u let out a room and be discreet about it, it might be overlooked.
it depands on whether your neighbours want to do the nasty on you and shop u to the council. Letting out the whole flat whilst staying elsewhere is more frowned on and rightly so.
Added. i saw this article in the mailonline today (no mention of it in the newspaper version) about a chap who lives in a shoebox apartment of 78sq ft. for $800 a month.
he shares the bathroom with 4others living in similar shoebox flats like his. he cooks with a microwave, and takes water from the bathroom.
its similar to a bedsit in london, except bedsits in london are bigger than his and have proper stoves and a sink and its own water supply. And there is no deposit to pay nor utilities as the rent is inclusive.
Not sure nowadays whether there are any bedsits for rent in london. i think it is all shared flats now or renting a spare bedroom off the owner occupier.
Added. 2.9.11 found out from this article online that there is rent control and rent stabilised. rent control is being phased out. rent stabilised is producing the effect of keeping rents so low, that landlords are losing out. it seems they have to provide hot water 24hrs, and heating included in the rent. no wonder new yorkers take their heating for granted as they dont have to pay for it. now i know why the buildings are kept at such a high temperature that u have to open the windows to let in the cold air. this was in the 90s when i used to go there every december , but maybe things are different now.
quote And for an apartment to be vacancy decontrolled, it doesn’t matter how much the tenant made. If they move out and the rent is $2000 or more – the apartment is deregulated.unquote.
a comprehensive review of rent control in usa.
Latest: USA lost its AAA rating to AA+
Added 7.8.11. I was doing the charity food run today and the volunteer driver told me she rents her 2bdroom flat with garden with another for £520 a month each. (effectively the rent for the flat is £1040 a month). And they share the utilities bill, council tax etc. she lives in tooting bec which is in zone 3.
what is the rent on a flat in zone 1? i wonder. this company is charging £1300 a month for a 1bdroom flat, £1800 a month for a 2bedroom flat in pimlico.
Makes me really glad i bought my 2bdroom flat long ago and now have no rent to pay.
there have been rather a lot of interesting news, the stock market crash(again!), young children falling off balconies, or drowning in swimming pools(again and again), one 17yr old killed by a hungry bear whilst camping in norway as part of a british young people's project, (norway is in the news again after that massacre on that island) but what interests me most was seeing this link about a guy who is living in a rent controlled flat in manhatten, paying about $800 a month for his ground floor flat and his landlord is trying to evict him stating that he was not using it as his primary residence, which is the rule for these flats.
there was news a few days ago when faye dunaway had the same problem, she was paying about $1000 a month for her rent controlled one bed room flat.
New york is a rare city in america for having such strict rent controlled flats. In blocks of 6 apartments the rent control stays unlike in London which has rent controlled flats too though they seldom get written up in the news . in london, the rent control ends when the tenant dies which means these flats are released into the private market.
I think barcelona also have rent controlled apartments ,(or maybe they are social housing with low rent); I mention barcelona simply because i have a friend whose Spanish boyfriend lived in one. he gave it up when he came to london to live.
I think cities must have these social housing, or it will be filled with rich people and the poor get kicked out further and further outside the city and the mix of people from all walks of life gets lost and the city becomes less vibrant.
The trend is to sell off the flats as their rent controlled tenants die. But around my area there are lots of housing run by the peabody estate... victorian social housing donated by peabody, an american philantropist. They keep it in good condition, which is rather nice of them, and not usual, as most times social housing gets run down and look awful. They are not rent controlled, but their rents are much lower than commercial rents.
it seems the rent in these rent controlled flats are the same rent in dollars as it is in £s here.
The lib con govt is trying to remove lifelong tenancies of council flats in uk.
My neighbours downstairs from me says they rent their 2bdroom flat , similar to mine, for £150 a week. council rent. and a friend of mine who rents a 3bedroom flat from council tells me it is £180 a week. so this gives u an idea of the rents of social housing.
i know of a friend who had a large flat in new york, this was in the early 90s, which he rents cheap because it is rent controlled, and it is large for his own use , too large really, but he can keep it till he dies. That means someone with a larger family is deprived of it while he lives.
that would be the case in london too. A widow may live alone in a 3bedroom flat/house after her family have grown up and left the house, and it seems a waste that it cannot be freed to house a family.
but how to ask the widow to live in another area in a smaller flat? people get so used to living in their own place and in the same area. it is a wrench to move to a new area.
there are restrictions about subletting these flats. though if u let out a room and be discreet about it, it might be overlooked.
it depands on whether your neighbours want to do the nasty on you and shop u to the council. Letting out the whole flat whilst staying elsewhere is more frowned on and rightly so.
Added. i saw this article in the mailonline today (no mention of it in the newspaper version) about a chap who lives in a shoebox apartment of 78sq ft. for $800 a month.
he shares the bathroom with 4others living in similar shoebox flats like his. he cooks with a microwave, and takes water from the bathroom.
its similar to a bedsit in london, except bedsits in london are bigger than his and have proper stoves and a sink and its own water supply. And there is no deposit to pay nor utilities as the rent is inclusive.
Not sure nowadays whether there are any bedsits for rent in london. i think it is all shared flats now or renting a spare bedroom off the owner occupier.
Added. 2.9.11 found out from this article online that there is rent control and rent stabilised. rent control is being phased out. rent stabilised is producing the effect of keeping rents so low, that landlords are losing out. it seems they have to provide hot water 24hrs, and heating included in the rent. no wonder new yorkers take their heating for granted as they dont have to pay for it. now i know why the buildings are kept at such a high temperature that u have to open the windows to let in the cold air. this was in the 90s when i used to go there every december , but maybe things are different now.
quote And for an apartment to be vacancy decontrolled, it doesn’t matter how much the tenant made. If they move out and the rent is $2000 or more – the apartment is deregulated.unquote.
a comprehensive review of rent control in usa.
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
free samples of frozen yoghurt
london
added 5.8.11 There has been a glut of vegetables with this hot weather we are getting lately, that will explain why the supermarket is selling reduced ice burg lettuce for 40p each. Also, in brixton, i can get 5tomatoes for 50p and cherry tomatoes for the same price.
Yesterday, there was a coupon for free frozen yoghurt from pinkberry in the metro newspaper, for their opening of their first store in london at selfridges. it was for today, between 7.30am-11am.
i thought i shall cycle there,before going to the gym, as it is such a lovely day. it was a pleasant ride via hyde park, and using segregated cycle paths. its quicker than walking and i might take the bike out more often now that the sun is out and it is so warm. Also i found a bike lock , a flexible length of metal, which makes me more reassured of leaving my bike in public places.
There are six flavours, with toppings of fresh fruit among others. i chose the pomegranate flavour, (can't say i can taste the flavour). Earlier while we were queueing, they came round with small samples of coconut, mango and chocolate to taste. I asked for mango, pineapple, raspberry and blueberries as the fresh fruit topping plus a wafer.
the fresh fruit is a good touch, as it lifted up the whole thing with their slightly tart tastes.
the samples given to us in small pots were left out too long, and became unfrozen so tasted just like yohurt, but they dont represent the real thing, because the actual one i got was still frozen and tasted more like ice cream.
so my suggestion is eat them straight away.
they are quite nice though i would think it must be easy to replicate that by just freezing yoghurt and adding fresh fruit.
They normally cost about £3-£5 according to the menu they gave me; depanding on size of the pot.
there is a new m&m store opened in the former swiss centre in leicester square about a month ago. i did not know of it till i read about it recently from a blog called london calling. m&m have stores in usa, and this is their first store in europe opened early july2011. it seems there are disneyesque themes in the store with models rather than just a place to buy M&Ms. i might pop in to see what it is like.
Today in the daily mail i read in the gym, i noticed in a question about a song the werewolves of london by warren zevon evoked an answer that mentioned lee ho fook in chinatown and that the restaurant has closed 18months ago. That is a surprise to me as i used to go there to buy takeaway roast duck.
It just goes to show i dont buy roast duck anymore.
Lee ho fook had been around for so long, that it is kind of sad that it is no more.
I wonder what has replaced it. its old address was 15-16 gerrard street. next time i am there, i shall find out who is there now.
Added. seems dumpling legend is now there, according to google.
Added 10.15pm. I seem to be doing a lot of cycling today.
Cycled to brixton to buy chilli, (red and green), ginger, tomatoes(ordinary ones as well as cherry tomatoes) , I bought 5 packs in total, 50p each. It was a pleasant ride because i used side roads and avoided traffic.
today's weather has been perfect for cycling.
added 5.8.11 There has been a glut of vegetables with this hot weather we are getting lately, that will explain why the supermarket is selling reduced ice burg lettuce for 40p each. Also, in brixton, i can get 5tomatoes for 50p and cherry tomatoes for the same price.
Yesterday, there was a coupon for free frozen yoghurt from pinkberry in the metro newspaper, for their opening of their first store in london at selfridges. it was for today, between 7.30am-11am.
i thought i shall cycle there,before going to the gym, as it is such a lovely day. it was a pleasant ride via hyde park, and using segregated cycle paths. its quicker than walking and i might take the bike out more often now that the sun is out and it is so warm. Also i found a bike lock , a flexible length of metal, which makes me more reassured of leaving my bike in public places.
There are six flavours, with toppings of fresh fruit among others. i chose the pomegranate flavour, (can't say i can taste the flavour). Earlier while we were queueing, they came round with small samples of coconut, mango and chocolate to taste. I asked for mango, pineapple, raspberry and blueberries as the fresh fruit topping plus a wafer.
the fresh fruit is a good touch, as it lifted up the whole thing with their slightly tart tastes.
the samples given to us in small pots were left out too long, and became unfrozen so tasted just like yohurt, but they dont represent the real thing, because the actual one i got was still frozen and tasted more like ice cream.
so my suggestion is eat them straight away.
they are quite nice though i would think it must be easy to replicate that by just freezing yoghurt and adding fresh fruit.
They normally cost about £3-£5 according to the menu they gave me; depanding on size of the pot.
there is a new m&m store opened in the former swiss centre in leicester square about a month ago. i did not know of it till i read about it recently from a blog called london calling. m&m have stores in usa, and this is their first store in europe opened early july2011. it seems there are disneyesque themes in the store with models rather than just a place to buy M&Ms. i might pop in to see what it is like.
Today in the daily mail i read in the gym, i noticed in a question about a song the werewolves of london by warren zevon evoked an answer that mentioned lee ho fook in chinatown and that the restaurant has closed 18months ago. That is a surprise to me as i used to go there to buy takeaway roast duck.
It just goes to show i dont buy roast duck anymore.
Lee ho fook had been around for so long, that it is kind of sad that it is no more.
I wonder what has replaced it. its old address was 15-16 gerrard street. next time i am there, i shall find out who is there now.
Added. seems dumpling legend is now there, according to google.
Added 10.15pm. I seem to be doing a lot of cycling today.
Cycled to brixton to buy chilli, (red and green), ginger, tomatoes(ordinary ones as well as cherry tomatoes) , I bought 5 packs in total, 50p each. It was a pleasant ride because i used side roads and avoided traffic.
today's weather has been perfect for cycling.
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