London - Home of the Canary Wolves

I wrote this in 2014 and it's been hiding in the drafts folder ever since. I thought I'd finally share it.

I was lucky enough to have a work event in Westminster where I stayed in a run-down area of London called Mayfair. I was in a 5* hotel called The Westbury. If you are aware of this hotel, well done! You are either a taxi driver or you are paid too much! It was around £200 a night for the cheapest room without breakfast, which came at the additional cost of £26 a day. A croissant was £8. 

I definitely feel more at home in a £10 a night hostel dorm where I'm woken up by some fat man snoring. I felt as out of place as one of the many prostitutes that visit establishments like this, to see their oligarch clients.

However, it is interesting to see how used to this lifestyle one can become in just a few days. The idea that this hotel costs more per night than some families live on for a week in the UK just doesn’t seem real when you walk down the streets of Mayfair. The area is incredibly prosperous and financial problems seemed as abstract to me, in that moment, as Africans not having clean water seems to an everyday Brit. You walk down the road and see bags, watches, and shoes costing more than the average yearly salary.

I find this level of wealth uncomfortable. I don't see a need for it and I don't see why anyone would spend so much on a bag or a pair of shoes. That said, I don’t think it's much good to take the Russell Brand style of vitriol hate against this group of elites. If you truly believe in compassion and love then I think it is up to us as citizens, not consumers, to recognise the kindness and the generosity of the elites. We need to encourage them to donate millions for new hospitals. If it helps we can name the institutions after them, to feed the ego of these illusive and eccentric millionaires.

But some are beyond redemption. What do we do with the Dan Bilzerians, who promote the lowest of the lows in this set of elites? Buzzfeed reckons he is Instagram's most interesting man. I say shut down Instagram then if this is the case. I recently discovered this type of celebrity that some people seem to hold up as idols and aspire to be like. He basically lives the life of the Wolf of Wall Street. A great film and terrifically acted, but Leo’s character was deplorable.

These people should be vilified and ostracised from the mainstream, yet a lot of people I speak to seem to admire them. To be a multi-millionaire and have a lavish lifestyle is one thing. But to be a young millionaire and spend your days on yachts, sleeping with prostitutes, being a drug addict, and ruining the lives of everyone around you should not be anyone’s dream. It doesn’t make you happy and it should not be the role model inspiring the next generation. 

There are over 100 billionaires in London. How many millionaires? Around 3% apparently. That means it's not thousands, nor tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands. Do they live the life of a Canary Wolf?

I believe that feeding the egos of these people is the way to save society. Rewarding their egos when they build schools by putting a fraction of the money into a statue of them outside, for their posterity. Force high net worth individuals into transparency by showing the public what charity work they carry out on top of how much tax they pay. Shame them into being more generous.

These are ideas that could inspire these elites to part with their excess wealth and start to contribute to building a grander world. Trickle down economics was a lie. It’s a “sucking up” economic system where inequality only grows. Maybe we can convince some of these people to spit out a few billion and help tackle the larger problems by rewarding their generosity.

I started this article to talk about London and the good time I had exploring the beautiful sights of my home city. It turned into a slight rant but I can’t help feeling these feelings when I see homeless people living in tents outside buildings that stay heated all night and have clean toilets. The juxtaposition is so extreme.

Anyway, enjoy the photos of London – my home town that makes me feel sad when I see the homeless and hungry on the streets. A city where inequality is as obvious as any other. However, it is a city surrounded by beauty and history. This is London.

Hello Blog. It's me, Katie!

2014 was a very good year. I made some wonderful new friends, which I hadn’t really done since Korea. I got a good job, learnt a lot and worked with some lovely people. Living in Brighton was really fun – it’s a great city and being so close to London meant I got to see a lot more of some friends who I had been far away from for several years. I visited Italy for the first time and took Dave to Paris, which was his first ever trip to France. Vikki became the first of my friends to have a baby; beautiful Dominic who I can’t want to meet this week! And several of my friends got engaged, including Hazel who is the most wonderful and deserving fiancée I can imagine – congratulations again to you and Joe!

Having had such a great time over the last 12 months, it would have been easy to stay put for a bit longer. But that’s not our style is it? And besides, we always knew Dave’s work was going to involve relocating at the start of 2015 so it was never really on the cards. I don’t think either of us fully expected the news we got at the start of September though, even if we had both been sleeping with our fingers crossed for weeks. But sure enough, when the email came through about Dave’s next placement it was clear that it wasn’t in the UK, although when he shouted “We’re going to Jacarepaguá!” I had no idea where it actually was.

Skip ahead 5 months and here I am, getting ready to jet off to Rio de Janeiro. Dave is already there and starting work today. There was recently a weather warning in Rio because it was so hot (whereas last night it snowed in Kingswinford!) but he has done well and hasn’t burnt yet, apparently. I have a lot to do in the next 2 weeks before I leave – people to see, things to pack – but I am enjoying being home and having a break before the big move. Not that I’ll be doing much once I’m out there! Well no, that’s not true but I’ll be on a tourist visa to begin with so won’t be allowed to work which is a shame. I am going to be blogging a fair bit though, which will be fun.

But aside from writing blog posts, what will I be doing in 2015? Well self-motivation is not my forte but Dave is going to crack the whip and make sure I achieve the goals I have set for myself this year. It is going to be a very different year to the last two and I really want to make the most of it. First of all, I want to have a good go at learning Portuguese. I have let it slip a bit the last couple of months but once I am out there, I refuse to be as linguistically lazy as I was in Korea.

I’m also going to teach myself how to use some photo editing and design software. Given that the majority of my job last year centred around design work, I think I need to get to grips with using programmes other than Publisher 2003. Do not worry though, dear reader. I promise never to put doctored photographs in this blog unless clearly stated, so you can be sure that anything weird and wonderful we post here will be real, legit and unairbrushed.

As Dave mentioned previously, I turned the blog posts about our adventures in Asia into a book last year, and I can’t wait to have enough material to make a second one. I have also been thinking we could branch out a bit and maybe join the twitter-sphere but it’s hard to know if anyone would actually follow us. It would be great to find out how many of our readers use twitter though, so if you could let us know in the poll below it will help with the decision about setting up a twitter account for the blog.

And with that I had better be off. I still have a lot of packing and life-admin to do, as well as lots of exciting activities. Tomorrow Mum and I are going on a road trip to visit Vikki, Alex and Dominic, then to Bristol to see Hazel and on the way home we're going to the Bombay Sapphire Distillery for a tour and gin workshop! I'll let you know if it's any good.

It's good to be back on the blog, and I hope you all had as much fun in 2014 as I did.

Scotland in Photos

Scotland is the icing on top of the UK and is frankly a phenomenal and beautiful country. The islands are some of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and the cities are unique and quirky in their own way. You are about to explore the hills of the Cairngorms, the island delights of Arran and Skye, and the winding roads of the Highlands. The Scots we met in the year we lived there were friendly and welcoming (even to this Englander) and helped us on countless occasions. This blog is going to be a highlight reel of some of the amazing places we explored.

We lived in a small town called Troon on the coast. It is a lovely town made famous by its Open golf course. It has some good restaurants on the pier including “A Wee Hurry” and “Scotts”. On a clear day you get a great view of the Isle of Arran and I specifically drove a longer way home every day to catch this sight and it didn’t get boring or too familiar in the 12 months we were there. The ever-changing clouds and sky made sure of that. Here are some photos Katie took of Troon in the snow!

The Isle of Arran was a short ferry ride away and if you're lucky you'll catch sight of some dolphins or seals as you travel. We both took our parents here when they visited and we travelled around looking at the wildlife.

Whitelee - Second Largest Wind Farm in Europe

We had a day trip to a nearby and beautiful place called Culzean Castle.

Before moving to Scotland for the year of 2013, we had also visited Skye in 2010 and camped out with Katie’s family. The hills were unforgettable and rivalled anything we saw in Asia. Credit where credit is due as Gary took most of these photos of Skye!

Edinburgh, with its picturesque castle in the centre, turns into a comedy orgy in the month of August. We have visited this city about a dozen times over the last four years and it truly is amazing. The Edinburgh Fringe is a must and the best festival in the UK (Glasto is a close second!)

We also visited nearby St Andrews. We didn’t think too much of this town and it was a lot smaller than either of us expected actually. I think quaint is the best word to describe it.

Glasgow isn’t the dive that the media likes to portray it as and it has some interesting architecture and good restaurants (such as Meat). It’s also great for a night out!

During the summer of 2013 I took two weeks out to drive around the country on my own, as Katie did not have the holiday from work. My drive was a whistle-stop tour of the north of the UK and was remarkable - see the map. The Cairngorms were a highlight for me with snow even in May.

Hehe

Glenlivet Whiskey Distillery

Balmoral Castle

 

Reindeers!

Aviemore

Loch Ness was as beautiful as one would imagine. The scale of the lake was a sight to behold from a high point and the hiking was lovely around there.

Urquhart Castle

The highlands were just spectacular and where I fell in love with driving. Since being back on the busy roads of southern England, I have fallen out of love again.

Lochinver deserves a special mention. The white sand beaches, staying in a hostel in the middle of nowhere with some interesting people, and waking up to these views was unforgettable. A great place to cycle around and amazing for hikes.

YOLO!

The very north of the country involved a visit to John O’Groats – the northernmost tip of Great Britain.

The route I followed for hundreds of miles
finally finishing.

I then decided to go a little further north and got a ferry to Orkney. I did some scuba diving in Scapa Flow and had a wonderful time cycling around this tiny island, visiting Skara Brae and some of the oldest human settlements ever found (over 3000 years old - at time of writing).

Scapa Flow

I went next door to an island called Hoy and saw the Old Man. That was breathtaking and so tranquil. There was literally no-one in sight.

Other Orkney Settlements

The Old Man!

As you can see from the photos, Scotland really is a wonderful place to visit with good roads, good restaurants, good cycling, good hikes, and some of the best views I have ever seen. They also (nearly) speak English, which is a bonus for us non-linguists.

I hope that anyone reading this blog post might consider Scotland as a destination for a holiday rather than a butt of a joke about the weather. It truly is spectacular.