Practically Classics Forum

I'm also from London, I moved away about 4 years ago to slow the pace of life down a bit but I am back down at least once a month. It is not the friendliest place on earth but having worked in London where a 9-5 job is actually closer to 7-7 and leaving the office for lunch is frowned on compared to Nottingham where 9-5 was 9-5:30 and Derby where 9-5 is 9:01 - 4:59 (the offices are actually locked at 5pm so you have to be out by then) you can see why commuters are not really interested in chatting.
The shopping is second to none, the nightlife is unrivalled the architecture is amazingly varied and worth looking at. Traffic is no worse than any other big city. From where I live i can get in to London faster than i can get in to Birmingham some mornings.
Visiting Liverpool I have had my wheels stolen, Manchester EVERY time I have visited my car has been broken in to, Sheffield My company hack was crashed in to by a bloke reversing a van who had the front to blame me for being parked "where he couldn't see me" but I am not hurling abuse at those cities.

Phil P wrote:In schools in London they sing ' Londons burning Londons burning, fetch the engines fetch the engines etc' In Birmingham that's something to cheer about. I worked on a contract in London. One idiot down there kept saying, "Anybody what lives norf of wo' fud is a pret. Ver Queen she lives dairn eya ya know." He was not impressed when we said, "No her office is in London but the first chance she gets she ****s off several hundred miles North!"

The rest of Britain makes the money for a bunch of pretentious London tossers to p**s up the wall!

Back to topic.
The Military Vehicle Trust is doing the NEC Classic Car Show in November again and probably the Practical Classic Show in 2015. London classic car show....no chance. The cost of fuel and transport to move stuff and 4/5 nights stopping down there for up to 10 folks would kill the job! It's thanks to that crowd Haymarket from London who ran the motor show at the NEC that it ended up at Earls Court or where ever. The last time I went to Earls Court there was no where to park near by what parking there was cost a fortune and the place itself was a tip.

I have worked all over the country (and Europe) and I have come across plenty of northerners who fit your descriptions above too! don't judge a city of several million on one idiot.

I live 40 miles from London and perhaps go there once or twice a year, yes you get idiots in the city preaching their own self importance and the pace of life fast and a bit pushy as it is in most large citys, generally though the majority of people are nice enough, don't earn a massive salary and are just struggling to eek a life out, when the most basic of homes on the outskirts of London cost 1/4 million life is not easy. Most of us have to live here for work not by choice and see people living further north as the lucky ones.

The ed excel is a modern and much better site than Earls Court etc and parking is a similar price to the NEC (I.e.a rip off but not dependant on geography)

Forgot to add, Show looks a bit upmarket for me, so I don't think I will be going, seems to be focusing on the more expensive end of the market, no auto jumble but it does have an investors advice area!

Kevin

kstrutt1 wrote:no auto jumble but it does have an investors advice area!

That would be reason enough for me to find an alternative activity to visiting that show.. Or would it? It's sometimes good to look at cars that I'd never be able to afford and/or that may be totally impractical for actually driving and using as an alternative to modern motors.
Hmm, no, give me a field full of Minors, Beetles, Landies, A60s, Vauxhall Victors, Triumphs various and other, similarly practical stuff any time. I go to shows as much for the craic as anything and the most exotic I'd get with any car of mine would be having one of the popular, much-loved classics dripping not in gold or leather but in period accessories such as a sunvisor, some period alloy wheels, an age-appropriate radio, a roof rack, some leopard skin seat covers and one of those fishtail things that goes on the tailpipe.

As far as that London is concerned; I find the sheer pace of life down there to be beyond my coping skills but I have lived and worked in the area and regardless of what else the place is, it's a great melting pot of all humankind though that southern beer is pure sh*te and they give you cod in their chippers unless you specify that you want haddock, which really should be the default fish there as it is elsewhere. People can be complete twats anywhere, I would expect research into the subject to show that the proportion of such twats to everyday, friendly folk would be similar across the globe.

I went to Londinium once, I was unappreciated and stabbed in the back

TerryG wrote:Derby where 9-5 is 9:01 - 4:59 (the offices are actually locked at 5pm so you have to be out by then)

My hours are a few minutes more than that but the early start and late finish gives me plenty of 'surfing' time on tinternet.

Had to smile at the example of the offices being locked - every year we are told that Christmas Eve is a normal working day and no one can go early unless they book a full day holiday - yet we all know that 'Security' will start locking up the site at noon and if you're still there after 1.00pm, you'll be locked in until after New Year

Mike

Oops. I'm sorry if I have upset folks in or from the 'smoke' but it's not a place I like. I do love Halifax and any where around Newcastle on Tyne. I worked on a contract in Spennymore. The area was fantastic. I stayed in a hotel in West Auckland and found a brilliant pub called the Queens Head known locally as the 'Zoo'. It has to be the friendliest place on earth. I went in the 'Zoo' on the Monday night for a pint and on the Friday I ended up serving! The North East is great and that comes from a born and bread Yam Yam!

I live near Wolverhampton. I am very happy where I live but Wolvo's City Centre is not a place I visit unless I have to.