3 reasons why I miss London..

As many of you who follow me on Twitter know, I have spent the last week and a half on jury service. Following my tweets through the boredom of waiting around to be called, and the joys of finding out I wasn’t needed for 4 days! Whatever anyone says, it’s not the greatest time of your life. There are plenty more things I would like to do than sit around in a waiting room for 2 weeks.

In order for me to enjoy this joyless life experience, I’ve had to come home to my parents house in order to serve. Yes, before you say it, it has been nice to see them and hang out with my brother and sister. But, all in all I miss London!
Here are 3 reasons why...

1 - Public transport and walking. 
Yeah, I know this seems a bit of a weird one. I am lucky to have the luxury of a car when I’m at home, but driving can sometimes take it’s toll. I’m not exactly in a remote area, but the transport isn’t great, so you have to drive everywhere! Yeah I get from A-B quicker, but you have to concentrate. Sometimes it’s nice just to day dream on the train or even take that stroll in the rain through Carnaby Street. Petrol and parking can be expensive!

2 - Good Coffee. 
For me, the best place to get a coffee is to drive into town, even then it’s just another one of those chain places. Working in Soho, there are good number of good independent coffee places to go, try and use their wifi. All in walking distance of my office....maybe I’m just a little spoilt in London...

3 - Saying “I know that great little place”.
When I was 18, the town where I’m from had a great little night life. I would spend most weekends on a Thursday/Friday/Saturday night out on the town with my friends. Now, when meeting up with local friends, I have to pause before answering the question, thinking...’Is that pub still open?’, ‘Do they actually do good food?’ Most of the time you get stuck in chain places as they're the only safe places.

I hope it’s not coming across that I’m having a rant, I feel very privileged to have a job and live in the great city. It’s a place I’m still exploring every weekend and I don’t expect to know it for many years to come. I also hope that I’m not coming across like one of those Daily Mail journalists who moved out of London to life in the country and moan constantly about not living in London.

Some times it’s the little things I miss...but hopefully I will be home in the mother city soon, if I don’t get a case that lasts 3 weeks!

Getting stuck in London...

What do you do? It's 3:30 am, you've had an awesome night, a few drinks and have spent the last 3 hours dancing to some cheesy music. Really enjoying the Spice Girls medley the DJ played...oh wait, maybe that’s just me...

Anyway, your a useful London person and you iPhone is full of apps. The tubes have stopped running and you know the only way home is a night bus or a cab. Checking your London Bus app you realise that its going to take you about 2 hours and 3 changes to get home. Do you really want to risk getting a bus to Elephant and Castle at 3:30am and knowing you are going to have to use your iPhone...muggers are going to love you.

So you think about how much you have spent that night and chat to your companion about what to do next... I don't want to spend 2 hours on a night bus and I've got enough to half a Taxi home, but can only really afford £15. Your companion, who can see your a little bit stressed pulls over the nearest cab...How much is a cab to Greenwich from here mate? £50 the cabbie replies and drives off. You're stuck...

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago, it had been a great night out. My bf and I had travelled to Clapham for a friends leaving do, he was off to Australia and we had spent the night in the Two Brewers. We were wishing my friend good luck on his travels, having a bit of a boogie and hanging out some of our new Twitter mates who also were there. We had an awesome night! Yes the Spice Girls bit was true too, I forgot how many words I remembered from there medley of hits! It made me want to dig out my albums...but I resisted when I got home.

Anyway, I was really stuck. I really didn't want to have to be waiting for a bus at Elephant and Castle or even New Cross at that time in the morning, I didn't want to become a statistic. That cabbie was definitley taking the piss as well, I mean £50...what was he thinking we were, a pair of mugs!

Luckily I remembered something I had read during the week. Being a bit of a Twitter addict (as you know) and being really interested in the local services using Twitter to benefit the community I had read about a London cab service, @Tweetalondoncab. I had followed the service during the week after reading an article in the Guardian and thought I would give it a go, even though it was 3am and I was in the middle of Clapham. All you have to do is follow the service and send them a DM with your request. So I did...

After thinking all hope was lost and constantly refreshing the Twitter app on my iPhone I got a message saying that a cab was on it’s way and that it would be £25...genius I thought, this has even saved me a little bit of money.  For safety they tweeted me the cab number plate, colour and the cab drivers name. It's too easy in London to get done by a mini cab service that I didn't want to risk it.

5 minutes later, our cabbie turned up, we jumped in and had a really nice journey back to Greenwich. He was a lovely driver, very happy, chatty and even more happy to talk about the service. It was strange in London to find a cabbie who actually wants to talk to you and be friendly, we were really lucky.

Arriving into Greenwich, he capped the price off at £25 and even dropped us to the door!

So, the next time you are stuck in a strange part of London and you don’t want to jump on that scary night bus, tweet a London cab! :)