bye poen

So Poen leaves London for good tonight, and my Brit is in the States for 2 weeks for work.

Shit times.

I'm going to miss having my best mate around. London is amazing in all its senses, but she's been a huge part of it thus far.

Sigh. Drinkie time tonight near Goodge Street (the names in this country, I mean seriously), a final thrash before she heads back down south.

But first I'll cheer myself up by bowing down to English place names.

Most aren't unusual, or by any means crazy, but I hear them on a daily basis, and I smugly smile to myself and think, 'Ah yes. I live in Britain.'

It's not like Fucking, Austria. *

Because if these were names in South Africa, or anywhere else, no one would take them seriously at all.

It usually goes like this: (The overland, which is what I take to work, not the tube. It has air-con and I can see out the windows into the stark** light outside. Plus the seats are less minging. And I smell less armpit.)

"This is a South West train service to [slight pause while the automated voice slots in]...Tadworth.........
This train will stop at Bognor Regis, Chertsey, Teddington, Chessington, Wadden, Chipstead, Moreton-in-Marsh...............before terminating at its final destination in Dorking.............Please mind the gap between the train and the platform."

*pronunciation Fookeeng. Which makes it even funnier.
**It is stark. Grey mixed with pale sunlight is stark.