China Town

I live in the West End and just figured out that China Town was right behind me. Oh what a late evening stroll can do.

Meeting of Young Minds at Jamaican High Commission

Last Friday, December 7 the Jamaican High Commissioner, His Excellency Burchell Whiteman and Joline hosted a pre-Christmas dinner for 'young minds' - not quite sure what that is! It was a wonderful evening. I got the opportunity to link up with some of my colleagues and meet new friends.

The food was wonderful and the vibe was just right.

Dinner is served - my gosh I forgot the menu!! Had chicken, ham, rice n' peas and the good sorrel

Me, Carla, Marcus and Adenike

With the High Commissioner himself

Carla and Marcus indulging in 'pork pie' (hahahha, I am kidding it is fruit salad as you know Rastas don't eat pork and Carla is an Adventist)!!

Migration Lecture with Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith

Today I attended a special lecture on Migration. The speaker was UK Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. Her presentation entitled 'Shared Protection, Shared Values: next steps on migration' outlined how the government plans to deal with migration. She noted that at present the government is conducting consultations across the UK to garner views on migration. The Home Secretary also stressed the importance of immigrants to speak the english language as this will make their integration smoother.

Issues of importance

1. Immigrants contributed £6b to GDP growth last Fiscal Year
2. Applicants for visas will be required to take fingerprints as of April next year
3. In the next few months, starting March persons applying for permanent residency will be classified as follows:

• Tier 1 for investors and new business persons
• Tier 2 for highly skilled migrants to fill existing shortage
• Tier 3 for low skills
• Tier 4 for students
• Tier 5 for temporary workers

You can listen to the entire presentation by clicking the following link.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/publicLecturesAndEvents.htm

Christmas in Covent Garden

Covent Garden is famous for its shops, street performers, bars, restaurants, theatres and the Royal Opera House. Covent Garden is an Italian-style piazza packed with restaurants, bars and fashionable boutiques. Surrounded by Theatreland, in the heart of London's West End, the area is recognised as the capital's premier entertainment and leisure destination.
The area is beautifully decorated. The roof is particularly impressive. Enjoy the pics.

WORK OUT

Today was a great day at the gym. We attend the Oasis Sports Centre - well equipped and nice vibes!!

Working the buns

Ade working the thighs

Rowing!!

Christmas Lights on Oxford Street

Oxford Street is always a buzz with activities. Christmas season has brought far more shoppers to the area. Here are 2 decorations I found cute.

Time out

The past couple of weeks have been most terrible. Personal challenges, very cold weather and a lot of school work. But the bright side of it is that I will be going home in 3 weeks!!

Cameo Club

BIRTHDAY GIRL AND MARCUS

Ketch di Dance!!

I am amazed at this white youth. Him can dance trust me.

Cameo

Of all the Clubs we found the Cameo to be the best in terms of our taste!! It played nice music and lots of Caribbean and Africans. Well entry is £12 each. This isa lot of money to go into a club considering what you would normally pay in Jamaica.

Shots of the crowd.

Painting the town Jamaican!!

It was Adenike's Bday on Saturday November 10. She is getting to womanhood!! Hahahah. It was also Jaydan's (Baines' son) Bday but I didnt get to see him. Anyways we (Myself, Ade and Marcus) went clubbing. It was FUN. We went to 3 clubs - The Roxy, Punk and Cameo all in the West End.

Isn't he a lucky man?!!

Queuing to enter the Roxy - it plays a lot of yes rock music!!

Ade having her Smirnoff - big time drinker!

Just skirting the floors!!

Warming up!!!

She is sooooooo jealous!! She is alone in London with all these lovey dovey peeps around her!

St Maryleborne Parish Church

On Sunday I visited the St. Marylebone Parish Church. I am an Anglican so it was nice to have attended. The Church's website may be found at http://www.stmarylebone.org.uk/


This is Miss Norma, Andrew's mom.


This is moi!

Chevening Reception

These are pics from the reception hosted by the British Council at International Students House for 2007 Chevening Scholars.

This is me and Adenike. She goes to LSE as well doing the MSc in Social Policy.
Met Shawn at the reception. He is a Commonwealth Scholar doing his MSc. in Speech Therapy at UCL.
These are my friends from Chile and Hong Kong. We are in the same class at LSE.

The Flat that never was

Housing Scam

Well I have never lived at any student accommodation so this required some adjustment. I confess it has not been easy for me even though I am on the 11th floor - postgrad.

So I have been hunting for alternate housing including posting ads on students' websites. I posted an as on easyroomate.com. I got 2 responses - a female and a male. They sent me pics of the flats and all - quite decent.

They were insistent on a deposit to confirm the place. According to them, they needed to know that I was serious so I could send the money to myself or a friend if I didnt trust them. I just needed to provide the details of the transfer so they can confirm that the money is available.

I was skeptical, worse one of the 'landlords' sounded very Nigerian. Anyways I discussed the matter with my colleague, Adenike and we decided she would send the money to me, putting a test question.

Long and short of it, they dont have anywhere to rent anybody and they tried to collect the money. I guess the ID could very well have been a white French girl!

Of course they emailed me cussing me out as to how come I didnt give them all the details and I am a joker etc. So when one of them called me the morning after we went to check if one of the places existed at all. Conversation went like this

Dave: Hello Anneke r u still interested in the flat?
Anneke: You have no flat to rent, u r a liar
Dave: Of course I have a flat at Norfolk Square
Anneke: There is no flat at Norfolk Square
(pause)
Dave: Who told you that?
Anneke: I went there. You are a F...n criminal and dont ever call me back
(dead silence) Dave hung up.

My First Day at the London School of Economics and Political Science

More British Museum Pics

Trip to the British Museum

Well thanks to Andrew, the cable has arrived despite a protracted strike by Royal Mail.

These pics were taken during my recent visit to the British Museum. It is interesting to note that all the sculptures were 'donated' to the British Government.

Brixton Trip

After shopping around for make up and hair products with no success, my friend Adenike and I decided to go to Brixton to see if we could find some stuff. Since we have become "Londoners" we knew how to get there so that was no stress at all. Well I remember Sly and Wayne had stopped by on the way from the airport when they picked me up so I got a glimpse of what it was like. (Dont worry, cable on the way and will upload pics shortly).

We came out the tube at the Brixton underground and made our way to the market. P.S. Market in London is a different concept from what we know in Jamaica. In London markets you get everything not just ground provisions! I think the main difference between a store and a market is London is that the prices in the market are way cheaper!

My gosh, you don't miss Downtown Kingston and add the music to it!!! Needless to say we saw some beauty shops with products for "Afro Americans." We were happy!! So I got my texturizer and Soft Sheen Carson Let's Jam and Ade got her Dark n Lovely Kit (I will be processing her hair weekend, so if she comes back to Jamaica bald...HMM)!!

I needed razor blades to do my eyebrows so when I went up to the cashier I asked and he said and I gladly took it. So then I asked him how much for it and he replied 6.99. I quipped you mad and of course he said he was joking is 99p. I think that Indian man is shady and I will not go back there as when he added everything up he told me £11.99 and I took the things out the bag as the price sounded too high and he "claimed" he made a mistake by cashing the razor blades too time. Yeah right.

Anyways, that's it for now!

Shopping

I was unable to post last evening as I was deadbeat. Baines took me on the underground so I could learn how to do it myself. He is a real sweetheart. We then went to Leicester Square and then onto Oxford Street which is the longest shopping street in Europe (I'm told). My feet ached. We did a little bit of shopping as I still require some items, personal and home, to make my adjustment easier. We went to this place called Primark. Some colleagues told me they have cheap clothes etc. Well frankly those clothes are just not for me!!

I want to post some pics but I am awaiting my USB cable from Jamaica, forgot it!!

Oh and how could I forget. Baines took me to this Jamaican Restaurant, it's off Oxford Street but I was too tired and hungry to register the name of the street! Food was good. He had curry goat and rice and I had stew chicken with food - one dumpling, yam, sweet potato and banana. And of course the restaurant was blazing some Jamaican music. It was kool and I enjoyed it!

Arrival

Saturday, September 15, 2007 at approximately 8:20 a.m. I arrived at Gatwick Airport having left Jamaica on BA2262. The flight was ok but the airport experience was something else. I have never seen a queue that long in my entire life.

I was picked up by my brothers-in-law Sly and Wayne. I was meeting Wayne for the first time. We had breakfast at the Garfunkel and naturally I had a typical English breakfast - eggs, hashbrown and ham.

They took me to see Brixton market in order to get a phone deal but guess what my Bmobile worked with a Tmobile chip so I got me a cell phone. You can get just about anything in the market from condensed milk to bigga sodas!!

We went on a little sightseeing - Hyde Park, Picadilly, Trafalgar Square, the Parliament etc.

I think I will love this place and I have one year in which to do so.