Why I love London

Not really about impro, but I've got to get to Morden each night and it's soooo far away on the end of the Northern line that I have to type something to keep me occupied.

So reasons why I love London:

1. It's slightly rubbish. It's grubby and there are some really shit bits. If you've ever been to a city that isn't slightly rubbish you might have found on the first day you were all like all like "wooowww, isn't this place amazing, it's like the future, whoooshh whooosh" only to spend the next day twiddling your thumbs and watching TV in your hotel bedroom. Humans are slightly rubbish, so it makes sense that cities should be too.

2. It's unplanned. Similar to above. I like it that buildings pop up like growths and that many of the streets were planned for horse and cart rather than double lane cars.

3. It's constantly changing. Every time I get off at London Bridge The Shard looms up even higher.

4. There's a critical mass of people that means that no matter what your hobby is there are enough people nearby to not only share it with you but also start a club and even have an AGM. Impro is a great example of this.

5. You can live here all your life and still be invited out to an entire borough you didn't even know about. And when you get there you find entire streets, people and things you had no clue about. It feels like London changes at a rapid enough rate (a bit like Dark City) that this sensation continues forever.

6. Richmond Park.

7. Wimbledon Common.

8. Multi level transport. I like it when I see a train going over the top of a tube that's going over a road as I come out of a subway. I feel like I'm in a Philip K Dick novel.

9. Small old human pubs. I love it that we build huge skyscrapers in Canary Wharf all glistening and clean and we basically say "fuck you, I'm going down the pub". We love a bit of soggy carpet and a brass bar to put your foot on. A whole brass bar, just to put your foot on!

10. People deliberately come here. I grew up here and went to school here. After school/uni lots of my school friends ended up back here, at first cos they were stuck. After a while though I've seen them say fuck it, might as well stay, but as a deliberate choice rather than imprisonment. It's really cool seeing mates you went to school with integrate with real adults. Real London adults! We used to see you when we were in school uniform, now we know you!

11. Its bloody massive. If you're going to live in a city, you might as well do it properly and live in a big one.

There's more but I'll end up sounding like an over positive case study in a self-help book. "Hugo left is multi million job in a city law firm to carve soap masks out of bark" etc. I've also been beaten up, dumped, burgled, fired and cheated on in London. So sometimes London can go fuck itself. But right now it's ok.

Oh yeah, and people new to London - I know nobody talks to each other on the tube. It's just a form of getting from A to B, so get over it. It's what you do at A or B that is more interesting.

Now I'm at Tooting Broadway, which gives me just long enough to attempt to read a really bad book before falling asleep at Colliers Wood.

Good night.