Hi all of you (1 Viewer)

:D Got here through google, glad I found you, currently drinking strongbow super and unwinding after a night at the bowling alley (I suppose that's more Fred Flintstone than Charles!) In deepest South London where no-one will hear you scream
 
Cheers! I'm on my second so inspiration is still dawning! Croydon I know well (went to art school there in the 80's) but I'm in fragrant Forest Hill (a little island of culture in the south) Bukowski has been an inspiration since I first read Post Office and related to all the shitty jobs I'd endured, this site is wonderful
 
Bleasdale's 'Boys from the Blackstuff' is a great piece of writing and was a terrific drama. Thanks for the reminder Pessimist.
 
Welcome Grimsmith, I see you've met some of the Brits Boys club. Just kidding, you've come to the right place and there is so much to see and here.
You may have to excuse by attitude towards the British a little but I was strongly influenced by the movie A Fish Called Wanda and lines like this:
Otto: Don't call me stupid.
Wendy: Why on earth not?
Otto: Oh, you English are *so* superior, aren't you? Well, would you like to know what you'd be without us, the good ol' U.S. of A. to protect you? I'll tell you. The smallest fucking province in the Russian Empire, that's what! So don't call me stupid, lady. Just thank me.
Wendy: Well, *thank* you for popping in and protecting us.
Otto: If it wasn't for us, you'd all be speaking *German!* Singing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles..."
Don't worry, John Cleese is the hero and I know better now.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Welcome Grimsmith :)

I guess I will have many occasions to return to London once my best friend will marry with her English guy and live there. Great country, great city.
 
I wouldn't blame anyone for having an attitude to the brits, but fortunately I'm a celt, hence my capacity for booze and philosophy! :-D The best pubs I've ever drunk in were Irish and had a culture all their own! And yes Ambreen London has it's good points!

I'm up for that!
 
... Im an Oxford guy
Nice little town, but a downer for rough-sleepers!

When I tried to sleep near the 'Authorised Personal Only'-Entrance of the zoological and psychological faculty (in 1993) they kicked me out at 7am, then I went to the nearby bicycle-stand which had a roof (it was raining) and 10min later there came some prick claiming "This is Private Proberty!" and I went some 300m further to another building with a roof on back, with the same result. So I had to leave again.
The next night I slept at the Themse. You may know these buildings right there, two storied, I guess the first floor holds boats, the 2nd floor is kind of a balcony with a roof. I've been sleeping there without being disturbed by people - but the wind was blowing the shit out of me and it was fucking cold cold cold! It was hell, really.


But I liked the book-stores.

... fortunately I'm a celt, hence my capacity for booze and philosophy!

;-))
 
try to sleep at the Automat, Times Square. Every walk of life from broadway theatre slaves to NY Times ink room techs with their funny hats. I always ate a giant slice of birthday cake...kept me fueled til daybreak.
 
Hi Grimsmith!
Can't say anything about sleeping outdoor, but I like London for the Forbidden
Planet and Portobello Market is enjoyable, too. I bought a deco skullmountain there ( must be the smallest mountain ever, but damn, what's another word? ).
 
Hi Toxic :-) I'm off for a prowl round the scuzzier parts of Camden today, unfortunately a fair bit of the market got burned down but its still worth a visit and drinking by the canal is a real slice of London's underbelly. I've never slept rough (unless you include my flat which is damned rough!) but had a night in the cells at Croydon police station once, that was educational!!
 
Nice little town, but a downer for rough-sleepers!
Why did you sleep outdoor ? Did you have no choice or did you want to experiment it, like for instance Orwell did ( cf Down and out in Paris and London) ? Weren't you frightened by what could happen to you in the dark ?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I never slept outdoor because I didn't want to end up like the bum in "Clockwork Orange", o.k. it was 'cause I'm a spoiled sissy, but don't tell anybody.
I was working as a support roadie for the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" that went through theatres and had to drive back home after the gigs, there was no hotel for stagehands like me. On the gig in Cologne I tried to make a comfortable place on some roll cases backstage to sleep for a while after duty had been done. Then the drummer started his soundcheck and the sax player walked around the backstage area rehearsing. But I was overtired like hell and didn't realize too much anyway, so I fell asleep and had a dream about my boss talking shit 'bout me behind my back.
 
Why did you sleep outdoor ?

It was my kind of spending hollidays from age 16 to 25:
Hitchhiking around Europe and sleeping rough.
It's cheap and teaches you something.

(Being French you may know Paris - there we slept at the Gare-du-Nord. Here's a pic from 1987 there.)
 
It's cheap and teaches you something.
Sure !
But I persist in thinking it's not safe. Remember what happened to Jack Nickolson in Easy Rider ... :D

(Being French you may know Paris - there we slept at the Gare-du-Nord. Here's a pic from 1987 there.)
I actually live at five minutes from Paris ;) I don't know how it was in 1987, but nowadays the Gare du Nord is a disreputable place in a disreputable quarter. A lot of thugs meet here, there are fights between bands and traffics, you could not sleep there again without being bothered. Last year (or maybe in 2007), police chased several bands within the Gare, I saw images on tv, they were very impressive.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
... nowadays the Gare du Nord is a disreputable place ...

It was back then too. But during the summer, there used to be a lot of young backpackers sleeping there, travelling by train. So we just joined that crowd.
Except: We KNEW that the station closed at night for a few hours. So when we went to sleep early in the night, we layed ourself OUTSIDE the station. (some bums were out there too at that time, but none of the vacationers.) And then at 2am all the kids came out of the station, thrown out, looking sleepy, searching for a niche to put their sleeping bags down. That's what makes the pro: being informed. (Also, many of those kids where cabbaged through the night, because they simply didn't know, how to hide and secure their baggage.)

But you're right: I probably wouldn't sleep at that station anymore either.
Still: you can find some corner with a roof above in EVERY town. It's that easy: "In the gutter, do as the bums do!"
 
Like screaming at Romeo? :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

No, like this:
screams.jpg
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top