sade027

There is hardly a day that goes by without any form of news regarding the housing boom in London and Britain in general. Just over two months ago we completed and moved to a modest Victorian terrace in South East London, I feel that I had to write about our experience. If only I hope that our experience can help others to their advantage during this feeding frenzy, even if it is during this so-called off-peak winter period. We started exploring the idea of moving out from St Albans into London around last year but Visa issues meant we had to delay until this year. That was an expensive mistake, as buying last year would have saved a lot more than what we paid for in the end, but something we had no control of. The reasons to moving to London is plenty, and while I understand that not everyone loves the idea of living in a capital, we just love it here. When we started looking we narrowed down our range to East and South East London, particularly Rotherhithe and Hackney area, but it soo...

Tomorrow will be our final day as residents of St Albans. Four years isn't a long time to know this former Roman town, and we are still discovering new things to like about this city. But we thought it was time to move on. We have outgrown our one bedroom flat and we wanted a 'forever' home. As house prices in St Albans are notoriously high, getting a house here would mean compromising on location. It would not satisfy our needs as a 21st century inhabitant - the need to be close to a railway station. Don't get us wrong, St Albans is a beautiful dormitory town, which only downside is it is served by First Capital Connect, the mother of all ghastly railway companies. But it doesn't help that we were always city kids, so life in the suburbs isn't quite for us, yet. We have grown to love the many South Asian restaurants such as Mumtaj, Bengal Club, Koh-i-Noor and Veer Dhara, the fantastic new restaurant Number 23, Soko Coffee who operates outside the railway statio...

So, this week was a bit mental. We accepted an offer on our property, so things are moving forward as we planned. Things hasn't worked out well in the past couple of weeks so it is nice to when good news arrive. It also capped an extraordinary week as I also I finally got my application of Indefinite Leave to Remain granted by the Home Office. So yay! The story isn't without trials and tribulation. A couple of weeks ago we accepted an offer on our flat from a private buyer - that is, we did not go through an estate agent. Instead we inquired from friends if they knew anyone who would be interested in purchasing a flat here. It was an eye opening experience, and one we genuinely believed we were better off. After all the chance to ignore using an estate agent and paying them commission was too much a lure. This person (who had a good job at a major car manufacturer) was interested and after a short negotiation, we accepted her offer. Her offer was below our asking price, but we ...

Shoot! Existential Photography is a special exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery in Soho, London. It examines a popular attraction that appeared at fairgrounds around Europe after the first World War where people would attempt to win a photograph of themselves by shooting the centre of a target with an air gun. A successful bullseye will trigger a camera nearby. It's the ultimate in self portrait photography. The exhibition inspects the number of artists, photographers and general public who celebrates this unique game. On display are works by the Swiss artist  Rudolf Steiner . Steiner would literally shoot a picture of himself, with the bullet hole being the aperture of a pinhole camera, in a series called 'Pictures of Me, Shooting Myself Into A Picture'. Result! A picture of yours truly, holding the rifle wrong... Also on display are self portraits by Ria van Dijk of Holland. Ria van Dijk has been creating self portraits by shooting herself since when she was six...