Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork

[venta]

When I moved to London, I had this vague and woolly idea that I had lots of friends in London, and that visiting them would be easy. It turns out, it isn't. I knew bits of London could be quite a long way from other bits of London, but hadn't quite appreciated the extent to which this is true.

There's also the problem of working it out. Some bits are unpredictably far away. Closeish in distance, but an awkward tube ride. Some bits are unpredictably close. Bloody miles in distance, but an unexpectedly convenient bus just happens to link them. Sometimes public transport is a pig, but it's a dead easy drive for those with cars.

There's also the difference of what various people consider "too far". Some people think an hour's travel is fair game for London. Some think that's a ridiculous distance on a school night.

This has caused the following problem: I'd like to invite people round for dinner more often, but I always worry that journeying to my house might be too much of a chore. If I could be confident that people would say "God, no, you live in the Styx[*]" that would be fine. But people can be fettered by too much politeness. Accordingly, I have a survey to see whether you'd like to be invited for dinner.

I am not a fabulous cook. I think I'm an all right cook, but then I read posts on here where people write about how they were so knackered when they got home from work they just couldn't be bothered to do more than whip up a roast peacock mousse with carrot ganache and candied walnut shavings. Occasionally people post photos, and I think good heavens, I am a culinary Neanderthal. But I've not killed anyone yet.

So... if I'm having a cooking frenzy, would you consider an invitation to dinner a good thing? I now live in Ealing, about ten minutes walk from Ealing Broadway. It's just off the A40, so not actually too hideous from somewhere like Oxford if you have a car. My cooking frenzies are unpredictable, so this is a general question rather than a party I'm planning next week.

[Poll #1619415]

[*] I've never written that phrase down before. Is it Styx like the river? Or is it actually Sticks?

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Surely as long as there aren't children or dogs or being on call or some other enormous logistical disaster waiting to happen involved, travelling for about an hour is doable if somebody will give you dinner when you get there? If somebody gives me one of the London jobs I've applied for (please please please) I will end up living along the Paddington railway line at some point and would definitely say an honest yes please if invited.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I spent most of the 1970s-90s visiting my grandparents in Ealing, from Oxford, so I not only know how easy it is to get to, I find it oddly nostalgic to do so now. (I also remember when the Oxford Tube stopped at Perivale and Park Royal on the A40, which were feasible distances for walking to my uncle's and grandparents', respectively. Hillingdon requires transport of some kind, boo.) And then my brother and SIL lived at Northfields for another two years, more recently.

I'm now intrigued as to which bit you actually live in, as lots of the bits I know can be reasonably described as '10 mins from Ealing Broadway'...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes. What an odd username Sweetch Loepie is, I thought. And that was about as good as it got for a while.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Due north of the station, basically; Montpelier area. Lots of trees. Which seems nice until you realise you have to park your car under one of them, and they're full of bastard birds :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd travel for an hour for dinner but some people like to get to bed (what I consider to be) ridiculously early (possibly due to them having to get up ridiculously early). Or maybe they just don't like me and were being polite blaming transport :)

To be fair, I think it's usually the journey home again after is the problem. I don't mind catching the tube by myself at night but I know people who prefer not to do that. Also if you do manage to miss the last one by mistake, that can turn into a proper pain.

Fingers crossed for the London jobs...

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Ah, I know it. My grandparents were on Hillcrest Road, backing on to Hanger Hill Park. My uncle and cousins live in Pitshanger.

[venta.livejournal.com]

We have become devotees of Pitshanger Lane since moving in. It's so nice to find a street with proper shops on it - a real butcher, a real greengrocer, a real monger of fish, etc. Until recently its main drawback has been lack of an offy, but that's about to be remedied. I think the only chain present is the Co-Op.

Um, I was recently accused of being "very middle-class". They might have a point ;0

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

[wince] Ah.

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

This :)

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Southern Pride! [grin]

(Although I'm more South Central than South East. [grin])

[hirez.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's not just me that does that.

(See off-LJ references to 'Mr & Mrs Vacuum' or 'Mr Land-Mine, of the Croydon Land-Mines')

maybe we should get to know eachother first?

[bondagewoodelf.livejournal.com]

unique, .. etc etc ...

Well, I am just following your LJ because you are apparently a friend of many people in my f-list. I thought that even if I took the travel time to show up for something like this, it might be a bit weird because we never actually met in person, or even interacted on LJ itself (IIRC). But anyway, thanks for the very friendly invite ;-)

Re: maybe we should get to know eachother first?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, LJ (and online communities in general) do throw up problems like that :)

I've also noticed increasingly recently that there are some people I knew in the past that I now only interact with on LJ. If I think of "them" I now think of their online personae (or, at least, the way I regard them online) rather than their real-life selves. Which I find quite odd.

Hello, anyway. How d'ye do?

Re: maybe we should get to know eachother first?

[bondagewoodelf.livejournal.com]

Hiya ;-) I'm at work and spodding a bit. I like your posts with the music covers!

The largest problem with LJ is that I find I sometimes have friends from LJ, that are converted to LJ friends also. However, the real problem is that sometimes when your -do- meet AFK, you have fewer things to talk about than before, because you "already read it on their LJ".

There's some info on my LJ profile about who I am (and in my interests). I wonder who is our 'closest' link (LJ friend that we share that we both know relatively well).

[killalla]

I'm reaching that stage of my job when I'm more likely to be going into London for meetings relatively often (once or twice a week), and I was hoping to see if friends might want to meet up centrally for lunch, dinner, coffee, etc. So, perhaps we could arrange to meet - it would be great to see you and catch up.

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

*nonchalently wanders over to defend the peacocks wot live at the local university*

[ylla.livejournal.com]

The OED gives 'sticks' originally American, but no very specific etymology - possibly to do with the edge of the backwoods.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I find people odd with distance in the UK. I do lots of traveling and don't think much at jumping in the car for an hour or two. Heck i often classified the Subculture in Leeds as my local despite being 130miles from my house, though i'd usualy stay over and drink when visiting there.

However its not been unknown for me to drop in to London for an evening. Its an hour and a half or there abouts depending on various bits. No one is truely safe from my brand of mayhem =;-)

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

At the moment I'm an hour from you on the tube to Ealing Broadway, or (allegedly) 35 minutes by car - going round the north circular. When I move house, I could be as little as 20 minutes drive from you.

I'm up for it. Car would likely be better so long as traffic is not monstrous.

If car, I'd be appreciative (if drinking but also cos an hour on the tube alone and late at night is no fun) an option to possibly stay over? I can bring my own sleeping bag and inflatable mattress and be out of your hair quietly and early the next morning before you've even got out of bed.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Is the moving house now on the horizon, or is it just a distant "when" when the planets are correctly aligned? (Sorry if that's an annoying question. I know you requested people not to badger you with house-related queries, but I've not been keeping up with LJ very well of late and may have missed headline news).

We have a spare bed which can be dug out on request so yes, stopping overnight always an option for people who are just a little too distant for convenient homeward travel.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yay, that would be nice! I mostly work in Reading so lunchtime things are out, but with relatively little effort can divert my homeward commute through Paddington and make it to a reasonably central location for a dinnertime sort of plan.

Re: maybe we should get to know eachother first?

[venta.livejournal.com]

... and some scary quotes about you ;)

It looks like most of our acquaintances in common are people whom I also just follow and don't know very well.

I've never been entirely convinced that Utrecht is a real place. Is it?

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

I am working in London again and Oxford to Ealing is not tricky so something could probably be arranged...
I'll be especially keen the evenings before some git has arranged an early morning meeting if that was a spare room I saw mentioned above ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

There is indeed a spare room. You're welcome to invite yourself to it if early morning meetings are being arranged. I'll even try and cause some dinner to make it look like it was deliberate :)

Re: maybe we should get to know eachother first?

[bondagewoodelf.livejournal.com]

Scary quotes? really? Which one is?

Re: Utrecht? It is! A real place, that is! Google Earth Street View appears to also think so.

The city centre is really nice, there's a little river flowing through it that looks like the canals in Amsterdam with a platform about 3-4 metres wide from the river at water level, while the water level is about 3 meters below street level. The platform is used by restaurants and clubs. And we have a cathedral (well, the part of it that didn't collapse in 1674)!

And a goth festival every first week of August (www.summerdarkness.nl)!