real_places (original) (raw)

House boat	[Sep. 13th, 2004\|11:38 am]What places are really like.
Has anyone lived in a house boat? Has anyone known anyone who lived in a house boat. They keep showing people on British TV who live in house boats and I feel like I'm missing out on something. Is it nice? Or squashed?
link	9 comments\|post comment

(no subject)	[Sep. 4th, 2004\|11:15 am]What places are really like.
Hello! I've just recently joined :)I'm going to the Cook Islands (Rarotonga specifically) in December...have any of you been there? I want to know what to expect/ places I should go to/ things to try etcThanks in advance for any info :)
link	2 comments\|post comment

Llandaff, Wales	[Sep. 3rd, 2004\|10:26 am]What places are really like.
When you are foreign and you go and live in Llandaff, make sure that you aren't tricked into living on the border of Fairwater and Llandaff. Fairwater is fine if you understand that the only shops in the world you really need are a chippie and an off-licence, but if you have more refined tastes and need somewhere to buy milk for your cup of tea or sit in a pub and have a cider or buy a takeaway which has a wider range of vegetables than potato then you'd be better off in Llandaff Village. Apparently, according to some Cardiff locals, Llandaff is posh. But I find it is a mixture of posh people with taste, rich people with no taste, ordinary elderly people who've lived there for so long that the word posh has no meaning to them and just plain ordinary people who like living somewhere that doesn't have smooth edges. Houses in Llandaff are old and cute and not straight. I live in an artisans' cottage. Anywhere else it would be called a workers' terrace. This does not mean that Llandaff Village is grim or "Coronation St"ish like some other places with workers' terraces. It is extraordinarily lovely. Here some nice people have put photos of Llandaff Village on the web. As you can see, there are a lot of old houses, a village green and a 14th Century cathedral. Apparently, Charlotte Church is growing up in Llandaff. I find that this doesn't affect how much I like Llandaff at all. Llandaff used to be a proper village and not just the suburb of Cardiff that it now is. But it still has its village charm because while traffic rushes around it on Cardiff Rd and Western Ave, in the village cars are slowed down by one way and no exit streets. It is also bordered on one side by the delightful River Taff. Easy access to the River Taff where you can skip stones, have a picnic, fish or walk along the edge of it and see ponies is part of the special delightfulness of Llandaff. Take a look at this. You can also pick blackberries there. The village shops also make Llandaff worth living in, there is a convenient SPAR where you can buy chocolate and crisps at all sorts of times, there is a post office for sending packets of crips to foreign countries, there are two hairdressers - one for posh old ladies and one for posh young ladies, there is a cafe (pronounced car-fy in Welsh which can be confusing to foreigners) where you can have leek and potato soup and you don't need to be even a little bit posh and there are fascinating mystery shops that start out one thing and become another when you walk through them. The chinese takeway is okay for buying chips in, and the other food is okay but we've given up buying it on account on the excessive amounts of bamboo shoots. There are three pubs and I've not seen posh people in any of these. Sometimes people come home from the pubs singing loudly. This is the only time living in Llandaff is noisey.
link	post comment

Llandaff, Wales

[Sep. 3rd, 2004|10:26 am]What places are really like.

When you are foreign and you go and live in Llandaff, make sure that you aren't tricked into living on the border of Fairwater and Llandaff. Fairwater is fine if you understand that the only shops in the world you really need are a chippie and an off-licence, but if you have more refined tastes and need somewhere to buy milk for your cup of tea or sit in a pub and have a cider or buy a takeaway which has a wider range of vegetables than potato then you'd be better off in Llandaff Village. Apparently, according to some Cardiff locals, Llandaff is posh. But I find it is a mixture of posh people with taste, rich people with no taste, ordinary elderly people who've lived there for so long that the word posh has no meaning to them and just plain ordinary people who like living somewhere that doesn't have smooth edges. Houses in Llandaff are old and cute and not straight. I live in an artisans' cottage. Anywhere else it would be called a workers' terrace. This does not mean that Llandaff Village is grim or "Coronation St"ish like some other places with workers' terraces. It is extraordinarily lovely. Here some nice people have put photos of Llandaff Village on the web. As you can see, there are a lot of old houses, a village green and a 14th Century cathedral. Apparently, Charlotte Church is growing up in Llandaff. I find that this doesn't affect how much I like Llandaff at all. Llandaff used to be a proper village and not just the suburb of Cardiff that it now is. But it still has its village charm because while traffic rushes around it on Cardiff Rd and Western Ave, in the village cars are slowed down by one way and no exit streets. It is also bordered on one side by the delightful River Taff. Easy access to the River Taff where you can skip stones, have a picnic, fish or walk along the edge of it and see ponies is part of the special delightfulness of Llandaff. Take a look at this. You can also pick blackberries there. The village shops also make Llandaff worth living in, there is a convenient SPAR where you can buy chocolate and crisps at all sorts of times, there is a post office for sending packets of crips to foreign countries, there are two hairdressers - one for posh old ladies and one for posh young ladies, there is a cafe (pronounced car-fy in Welsh which can be confusing to foreigners) where you can have leek and potato soup and you don't need to be even a little bit posh and there are fascinating mystery shops that start out one thing and become another when you walk through them. The chinese takeway is okay for buying chips in, and the other food is okay but we've given up buying it on account on the excessive amounts of bamboo shoots. There are three pubs and I've not seen posh people in any of these. Sometimes people come home from the pubs singing loudly. This is the only time living in Llandaff is noisey.

link

post comment

Weston super Mare	[Sep. 2nd, 2004\|04:24 pm]What places are really like.
( Read more...Collapse )It's image heavy...because I like it that way
link	7 comments\|post comment

St Albans, Christchurch, New Zealand	[Sep. 2nd, 2004\|04:10 pm]What places are really like.
St Albans is a suburb in Christchurch, New Zealand. Many suburbs in Christchurch are about the size of a peanut, but not St Albans. St Albans is big, and because it is big it is different in different bits of it. For example, in the bit near to Shirley, it is a bit like the old bits of Shirley. And in the bits near to Merivale, it is a bit like bits of Merivale. Merivale is posh. Shirley is not. I lived in the middle of it, in Edgeware which seems to be a sub-suburb. St Albans has some nice, old houses (remember that old in New Zealand means between 50 and 100 years). Old Edwardian villas are nice but can be draughty with high ceilings. Especially since there is a trend to polish the floorboards and use occasional rugs, and very, very few New Zealand homes are sophisticated enough to use central heating, mostly people in St Albans are cold or hardy. There are also quite a lot of the slightly less old Californian bungalows in St Albans. These are often well built but also can be cold. St Albans is close to town. You can walk there in less than 30 minutes from most parts of it. While lots of family and young professional types seem to live in St Albans, it also has a lot of flats and new townhouses so other people like students also live there. It has no particular supermarket of its own other than Supervalue. Supervalue is not much good. But you can go to Merivale, Shirley or Papanui shops very easily with a car. Although there is a big road called Cranford Street in the middle of St Albans that gets all clogged up with traffic because of all the suburban development north of Christchurch where there are wicked housing estates and evil gated communities. Actually there are very few places to go out to the pub, or to dinner or get a takeaway or anything useful at all in St Albans but like the rest of Christchurch, it's so close to other places that it doesn't really matter. There is the fantastic Caledonian where they used to have such marvellous treats as horizontal bunjy-jumping and the human fly nights and there is also a Cobb & Co restaurant (actually now I come to think of it, the food there is a bit like food in Wales) and the last time I was there was in the 1990s and I saw Knock-knock the clown make balloon animals. There is also the rather nice Water Lily Thai takeaway place up near Westminster St. Actually that is also where that good fish and chip shop is too, where they made good chips. I know artists who live in St Albans. And I know lots of teachers who live in St Albans. But I think there might be lots of other types of people who live there too.
link	20 comments\|post comment

St Albans, Christchurch, New Zealand

[Sep. 2nd, 2004|04:10 pm]What places are really like.

St Albans is a suburb in Christchurch, New Zealand. Many suburbs in Christchurch are about the size of a peanut, but not St Albans. St Albans is big, and because it is big it is different in different bits of it. For example, in the bit near to Shirley, it is a bit like the old bits of Shirley. And in the bits near to Merivale, it is a bit like bits of Merivale. Merivale is posh. Shirley is not. I lived in the middle of it, in Edgeware which seems to be a sub-suburb. St Albans has some nice, old houses (remember that old in New Zealand means between 50 and 100 years). Old Edwardian villas are nice but can be draughty with high ceilings. Especially since there is a trend to polish the floorboards and use occasional rugs, and very, very few New Zealand homes are sophisticated enough to use central heating, mostly people in St Albans are cold or hardy. There are also quite a lot of the slightly less old Californian bungalows in St Albans. These are often well built but also can be cold. St Albans is close to town. You can walk there in less than 30 minutes from most parts of it. While lots of family and young professional types seem to live in St Albans, it also has a lot of flats and new townhouses so other people like students also live there. It has no particular supermarket of its own other than Supervalue. Supervalue is not much good. But you can go to Merivale, Shirley or Papanui shops very easily with a car. Although there is a big road called Cranford Street in the middle of St Albans that gets all clogged up with traffic because of all the suburban development north of Christchurch where there are wicked housing estates and evil gated communities. Actually there are very few places to go out to the pub, or to dinner or get a takeaway or anything useful at all in St Albans but like the rest of Christchurch, it's so close to other places that it doesn't really matter. There is the fantastic Caledonian where they used to have such marvellous treats as horizontal bunjy-jumping and the human fly nights and there is also a Cobb & Co restaurant (actually now I come to think of it, the food there is a bit like food in Wales) and the last time I was there was in the 1990s and I saw Knock-knock the clown make balloon animals. There is also the rather nice Water Lily Thai takeaway place up near Westminster St. Actually that is also where that good fish and chip shop is too, where they made good chips. I know artists who live in St Albans. And I know lots of teachers who live in St Albans. But I think there might be lots of other types of people who live there too.

link

20 comments|post comment

navigation
[ viewing \| most recent entries ]

Weston super Mare	[Sep. 2nd, 2004\|04:24 pm]What places are really like.
( Read more...Collapse )It's image heavy...because I like it that way
link	7 comments\|post comment