[The Life of Shaun #220] Idiot

My landlord was going to sell this place after we left, but he decided not to after he had a realtor by.  Why?  Well, I am not 100% sure, but when I asked him how much he'd be renting it for (as Mary Keany was considering it, if it weren't going up too much), and he found out from the realtor that the market value for renting it is £1,925 ($3,850)/month.  Natasha and I paid £1,225, a full £700/month less, with nought a raise in three leases.  I have no idea how we got so lucky, but he used to rent it out himself, not via a realtor, so I think he never knew.  But of course I pipe up and decide to leave, so he finds out.

So, in the past decade:

Gorgeous two-level three bedroom townhouse with parking and fabulous view in The Castro for $1,500/month.  I leave.

Cute one-bedroom with great energy in Chelsea, rent-stabilised, $1,000/month.  I leave.

Perfect flat in the perfect neighbourhood in the world's most expensive city for $1,400/month less than I should be paying.  I leave.

How stupid can one person be?

<sigh>

Alright.  Time for me to go out and overpay for drinks before signalling the start of the crash of the London housing market tomorrow morning.

Happy Friday, all!

Cheers,
Shaun

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.friendster.com/shaunism
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[The Life of Shaun #219] YAHOOEY!

Isn't it just the best feeling at the start of a long holiday weekend? I was walking from Chancery Lane on clouds. Four whole days (we get Friday and Monday of in the UK) off with no demanding plans, no alarm clocks in the morning, full leisure* to nurse expected hangovers for whatever length of time they require. And to make it even better, our boss had us take a work/life balance day, which meant we were out the door at 16:00.

I am actually spending a holiday weekend in London; I had originally had plans to go to Berlin and wake up each morning in a new gutter in an unknown part of the East, unsure of where I was or how I got there, but I kind of realised I wanted a weekend to catch up. I got no rest of any kind whatsoever in New York, and it's been quite pressing at work and socially since getting back. I've been sure to only pepper this weekend with light engagements rather than packing it with mega-events, which could easily be done.

So, I find myself in a light-hearted mood this Thursday early evening, and I hope you all are feeling the same.

Apropos of little, about 15 minutes ago I got a call from an ad agency in SF. They were wondering if I would be interested in being in a TV commercial! They represent prosper.com and were looking for people in Miami who have lent to people doing home improvement, since they're gonna film a commercial there. My Prosper address is in Miami so there you have it. When I told him I was actually in London he said they might be willing to fly me out, but unfortunately I can't make 04 April, so I've missed my chance at commercial fame.

OK, I think it's about time for a beer. An interesting article below about my current home versus a past home, for those who are interested. I particularly like two quotes from it:

"When rents and food prices are taken into account, [London] is the world's most expensive city, according to a study by UBS: beating New York and way ahead of Paris, in 11th place."

Well, at least that makes me feel a little better about hocking my bank account for a box in the sky.

But especially:

"Indeed, officials at London's City Hall bristle at the idea that the two cities can be compared. 'We don't think of ourselves as in competition with Paris,' sniffs John Ross, Mr Livingstone's economic adviser. 'We've won that contest. We measure ourselves against New York.'"

Ouch.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Cheers,
Shaun

*Leisure, like weird, doesn't fit the "I before E, etc." rule, does it? Or was it pronounced more A-like in the past?







London and Paris

The rivals

Mar 13th 2008 | LONDON AND PARIS
From The Economist print edition

Photodisc

Two great cities are about to hold mayoral elections. Which has the brighter future?

WHEN running for president of France last year, Nicolas Sarkozy made an unusual campaign stop: London. Speaking in a converted fish market, before a rapt crowd of French expatriates, he called Britain's capital "one of the biggest French cities". It had, he went on, the "vitality that Paris so badly needs".

The French and British capitals are linked as never before. Since the opening of Britain's first high-speed rail link last November, arriving into beautifully restored St Pancras, only two-and-a-quarter hours separate the two. An estimated 200,000 French people now live in London, serving coffee or trading derivatives; waiting lists groan at the Lycée Français in South Kensington. The British population in Paris, far smaller, still numbers some 22,000.

The two cities fought fiercely to host the 2012 Olympic games, until—to Paris's consternation—London won. That victory still rankles on the banks of the Seine. Both capitals also happen to be run by left-wing mayors, the Socialist Party's Bertrand Delanoë in Paris and Labour's Ken Livingstone in London, whose mandates are about to expire. Voters in each city are heading to the mayoral polls in Paris on March 16th and in London on May 1st.

Londoners and Parisians alike will not simply cast their votes on local grounds. In Paris, voters are partly seizing the chance to snub Mr Sarkozy, whose poll ratings have slumped. Against a lacklustre rival on the right, Françoise de Panafieu, the popular Mr Delanoë looks likely to secure a second term, which would be a spectacular victory in a city considered for decades a stronghold of the Gaullist right. In London, voters could decide to send an electoral message to Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, and will be able to test the new-look Conservatives. The outspoken Mr Livingstone, whose team has been dogged by charges of cronyism, is challenged on the right by Boris Johnson, a mop-haired former journalist and Conservative MP, and in the centre by Brian Paddick, a Liberal Democrat and former police chief.

The jobs at stake are not exactly the same. The Paris mayor does not govern the banlieues, and runs a city numbering just 2.3m people (fewer than the 2.9m in inner London). His London counterpart is in charge of fully 7.4m people, more comparable to the 6.4m who live in Paris and the three departments encircling it combined. The Paris mayor, however, has broader powers: while both cities' mayors are responsible for planning and transport, the Paris town hall also runs social housing and primary schools, for example. This gives Paris's mayor a relatively bigger budget: €7.6 billion next to London's €14 billion (£10.7 billion).

All the same, candidates of every stripe in both Paris and London are campaigning on remarkably similar promises: to make housing affordable, to lower CO₂ emissions, to discourage the use of cars, to green the city; and to burnish the image they want to project to the rest of the world. For Paris and London these days are also fierce competitors: for investment, besides the more intangible qualities of inventiveness and style that make a "world city" in the global mind.

From the balcony on the top floor of the London mayor's lopsided plate-glass office on the south bank of the Thames, the din is deafening. Nine floors below, diggers and drills are ripping into the earth and cement-mixers are churning. The most arresting feature of the London skyline these days is not the new architectural landmarks—the Gherkin, Tate Modern, City Hall—but the staggering number of cranes. In the centre of Paris, there are none.

By most economic tests, London outstrips Paris. Its stock exchange, by market capitalisation, is two-and-a-half times larger. It is the world's biggest market for global foreign exchange, over-the-counter derivatives and international bonds. As a destination for the funds of foreign investors, it is consistently rated the top city in Europe in annual surveys by Cushman & Wakefield, a property-services firm. Between 2002 and 2006, London grabbed 24% of foreign direct investment in Europe's 15 biggest cities, compared with 19% across the Greater Paris region, according to a study by Ernst & Young, an accounting firm. Londoners are also better off than those living in Greater Paris: even when adjusted for purchasing power, they are on average 8% richer per head.

In haute cuisine, as in haute couture, Paris may still triumph. It boasts, for instance, nine three-star Michelin restaurants; London has one. But the French capital has been slower to embrace the more informal gastronomic culture, where a three-tier cheese trolley is not necessarily a badge of excellence. Over the past few years, London has spawned a giddy mix of new restaurants and bars, as well as internet start-ups, design studios and art galleries. Inner London's growing population, boosted by immigration, is set to swell by at least 17% by 2026. While its suburbs keep growing, the population of Paris, by contrast, is expected to drop by 3% by 2030 according to INSEE, the official statistics body. French publications feature such titles as "Paris is falling asleep" and "Is Paris dying?"

Indeed, officials at London's City Hall bristle at the idea that the two cities can be compared. "We don't think of ourselves as in competition with Paris," sniffs John Ross, Mr Livingstone's economic adviser. "We've won that contest. We measure ourselves against New York."

Managing chaos

Yet as recently as 1992, when the Maastricht treaty to launch the euro was signed, bankers in London were fretting about losing out to the financial centres within the future euro zone, notably Paris and Frankfurt. Back then, the pre-eminence of the British capital was far from assured. At the time, Jack Lang was the cool, polo-necked French Socialist culture minister, rejuvenating Paris with glass and steel, while his British equivalent was in charge of something stuffily called the "Department for National Heritage". London's streets were gridlocked, its riverside was drab, its food inedible and coffee undrinkable. What went right for the city?

A number of things. First, Big Bang, the deregulation of the financial-services sector in 1986, propelled foreign investment into the City of London (though the markets were rocky in some subsequent years). The Labour government elected in 1997 kept the city attractive with stable economic management and with corporate and income taxes that were low, at least by French standards—though these are set to rise for non-domiciled residents. And it cared about the image of the capital, too. The Labour government not only spent freely on the arts, but also abandoned its resistance to using private sponsorship to build new galleries and museums. In doing so, it helped to shrug off a British indifference towards the look of London. Daring modern architecture proclaimed that this was a true world city.

Perhaps most important, the city has adopted a guiding creed that belongs neither to the political left nor the right: openness to change. "London has flourished not because it has sorted out its transport, or its city management, but because it opened its borders," argues Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics. These days, there is nothing particularly British about London, bar its tolerance of chaos. It has embraced globalisation to become an international city, while Paris has remained unapologetically French.

Nearly 700,000 extra foreign-born people have made London their home since 1997, bringing the capital's total foreign-born population to over 30%. Not counting illegals, Paris has fewer foreigners (about 14%) and, crucially, it is the more educated ones, whether from India or Poland, who head for London. (In total, Britain has attracted more skilled and professional immigrants: 35% of them have a college education, according to a recent OECD study, against just 18% in France.) The energetic renovation of newly fashionable districts such as Hoxton and Shoreditch is not only spurred by sky-high property prices elsewhere; it also owes something to the friction and renewal of London's messy, cosmopolitan mix. "Creative types don't want bourgeois homogeneity," says Mr Travers. "They want edginess, and space to grow."

The Sleeping Beauty

Until recently, two vast competing public renovation projects in Paris stared squarely at each other across the Avenue Winston Churchill, in the capital's smart 8th arrondissement. On one side, workers were busy restoring the 14,900-square-metre glass-domed roof of the Grand Palais, built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900. Opposite, restorers were at work on the scaffolding-clad Petit Palais. Each project was wrapped in a large billboard. "The state is restoring the Grand Palais," read the first; "The Paris town hall is restoring the Petit Palais," retorted the second. In their proud and rival aspirations to maintain the city's cultural heritage, these two signs seemed to make a firm statement: that historic Paris is worth investing in, and that the public purse is the way to do it.

Arguably, if London these days is marked by innovation, Paris favours preservation. While London seems to be stressing its desire for change with its new—and often controversial—architectural projects, the City of Light appears more concerned with scrubbing up what it already has. And to stunning effect: the buildings, boulevards and bridges of central Paris gleam. Fleets of cleaning vehicles brush and rinse its surfaces, day and night; floodlit monuments light up a magical night sky.

Yet this fondness for its intrinsic elegance seems to have bred a form of conservatism. "In terms of urban planning, Paris has been half-asleep," says Thierry Jacquillat, head of Paris-Île-de-France Capitale Economique, a lobbying group. "Through its avant-garde architecture, London has an image of dynamism that does not exist in Paris."

To some of its residents, this is a relief. Apart from La Défense, the business district to the west of Paris, which is due to get a new series of designer skyscrapers in the coming years, the capital has always resisted, for instance, the construction of high towers—much to the frustration of Mr Delanoë, who would like to plant some on the periphery. Indeed, an extraordinary collection of early colour photographs from 1907 onwards, currently on display at the Paris town hall, is a reminder of just how little the city—from its Art Nouveau metro signs to its corner café-bars—has changed physically since then.

In part, this conservatism fits a French tradition. A strong state has long attempted to defend the French way of life. All the capital's tiny boulangeries, selling freshly baked baguettes in twists or knots, or papeteries with their watermarked writing paper in ribbon-wrapped leather boxes, are kept in business partly by custom and taste. But they are also deliberately propped up by a tightly regulated retail industry, under which hypermarkets are not allowed to sell below cost. Successive governments, too—including the current one—have caved in to the militant taxi lobby, and have not dared to increase the number of licences. This keeps the taxi drivers quiet, but makes it almost impossible to hail a cab on the street.

To be sure, it is easier to innovate when there is less to preserve. London's restaurant pioneers had no gastronomic tradition to uphold. London can afford to be bold with its architecture, since its riverside skyline has none of the unbroken elegance of that of Paris. When the French capital has in the past been audacious, as when François Mitterrand commissioned I.M. Pei to build a glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre, it prompted a local outcry. Many of the subsequent grands projets—the Grande Arche at La Défense, or the National Library of France—were pushed out to more peripheral sites.

Nor is it fair to say that Paris has stayed still. "Paris as a museum city is a caricature," retorts Mr Delanoë. "The city needs to respect its heritage, but also add to it for the future." He points to Paris Rive Gauche, a modernist redevelopment on the left bank in eastern Paris, complete with a looping pedestrian "Simone de Beauvoir" bridge across the Seine. His Vélib rent-a-bikes, available at 1,450 street corners across the capital, have been a huge hit. Along with a new tramway, widened bus routes and pedestrianised weekend quai-side roads, Mr Delanoë's Paris in many ways captured the ecological mood before it became fashionable.

All the same, as Mr Sarkozy has lamented, Paris seems to lack London's dynamism. Marc Levy, a French novelist who has chosen to make London his home, argues that the conservative attitude towards planning and architecture has a direct effect on creative life. "Paris doesn't take risks, it lacks audacity," he says. "How can you create a desire to innovate when the ambient culture is oriented towards preservation?"

The price of audacity

London's more chaotic, laissez-faire approach, however, has its downside. It has become a city of excess, in all senses. Its economy is more reliant than Paris's on financial services, a sector prone to global swings such as the current credit crunch. This makes London's property market more volatile, too. Commercial office rents in London's West End are currently the most expensive in the world, according to Cushman & Wakefield: more than twice as much per square metre as those in Paris. Both London and Paris have been favourite destinations for investors in European commercial property, but this year faster-growing Moscow and Istanbul are supplanting them, according to a new study by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers. London may breed more start-ups, but also plenty of fold-downs; almost as many restaurants seem to close their doors as open each year.

For residents, too, London has become a victim of its own success. When rents and food prices are taken into account, it is the world's most expensive city, according to a study by UBS: beating New York and way ahead of Paris, in 11th place. High property values price first-time buyers out of the market, besides crowding out other topics of dinner-table conversation. Londoners are more worried now about housing costs than anything else, according to a recent survey by the mayor's office.

London has also consistently failed to plan for its expansion. The creation of the post of mayor in 2000, and Mr Livingstone's election to the job, helped temporarily to ease jams on the roads thanks to a congestion charge and a big investment in buses. The improvements, however, have been short-lived. The Underground's modernisation project has been a shambles, its financing a fiasco. After decades of wrangling, there is agreement at last on a fast underground Crossrail linking suburbs west and east, but this will not be open until 2017 at the earliest and the cost has spiralled. (By contrast, Paris has for years enjoyed a network of five RER rapid cross-city underground lines.) Heathrow airport is a torture-chamber, and the opening of its new Terminal 5 is unlikely to make much difference.

London's public hospitals, doctors' surgeries and state schools are creaking; its private alternatives are reserved for the rich. The capital as a whole may be thriving, but it still has its share of poverty, underlined by a wave of stabbings and shootings of teenagers in poor areas. Indeed, Mr Livingstone argues that the chief reason he wanted to host the Olympic games was not because of the sport, but in order to secure central-government money for the regeneration of the city's run-down eastern fringes.

Yet Paris, for all its interventionism, has not managed to shelter its own people from poverty. Over the past ten years, rental costs have shot up. Many middle-class families have fled to the cheaper suburbs, leaving an increasingly polarised population in the centre: the rich in the beaux quartiers, and the heavily African poor in the north-eastern neighbourhoods. Students may still occasionally riot at the Sorbonne, but none of them can afford to live near it these days. Above all, Paris is cut off administratively from its heavily Muslim banlieues, the scene of three weeks of rioting in 2005. There, on some housing estates, unemployment touches 50%, over five times the national average. Mr Delanoë's remit stops at the ring-road, the périphérique. Beyond it, each suburb is governed by its own mayor: a staggering 1,281 of them across the Île-de-France.

Swallowing the suburbs

The administrative split carries an unhelpful symbolism. "We're from 9-3," is an often-heard refrain on the housing estates of Seine-Saint-Denis, the northern banlieue with that postcode, "not from Paris." The fragmented power structure also holds up decision-making, not least in endless political wrangling between left and right. François Pinault, a business magnate, got so frustrated by political bickering when he tried to build a modern-art museum on the outskirts of Paris that he took his collection to Venice instead.

Politicians are beginning to come round to the idea of a unified city-plus-suburbs structure for Paris. Once this month's elections are over, Mr Sarkozy, on the centre-right, says he wants to create a "Greater Paris". Mr Delanoë, on the left, talks too of a "Paris Metropole". Whether they can get over their political differences remains to be seen. As it is, the right accuses the left of wanting to annex the suburbs; those in posh districts, like Neuilly, fear that the city just wants to grab their tax revenues. But the creation of a Greater Paris could well turn out to be a way both to get Paris to reach out to its banlieues, and to give the city a more innovative look outside its historic districts.

As for London, with bonuses, profits and jobs now on the line in the City, the ambience is more morose than it has been for years. Yet the city of excess has been through slumps before, and bounced back. In many ways, its bigger challenge is to cater to those who do not benefit from boomtime, and to manage the inequalities that the city has always bred. One test of this will be how it uses the Olympics, regarded coolly by many of the city's richer western residents, to revive eastern districts for their locals. Sprawling, crowded, hectic, serendipitous: like it or not, London as a whole seems to be kept going by a form of raw energy. And after all, to misquote Samuel Johnson, "When a man is tired of London, he can always go and have a three-star meal in Paris."

Copyright © 2008 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.

The world's most expensive cities in 2008

Rank	Cities	Index (New York = 100)
1	London	120.2
2	Oslo	112.3
3	Dublin	105.2
4	Copenhagen	102.6
5	New York	100.0
6	Zurich	97.7
7	Geneva	96.0
8	Tokyo	94.4
9	Helsinki	92.8
10	Paris	92.8
11	Luxembourg	91.9
12	Stockholm	90.8
13	Vienna	88.3
14	Amsterdam	86.2
15	Munich	84.9
16	Frankfurt	82.4
17	Sydney	82.2
18	Chicago	81.8
19	Brussels	81.7
20	Milan	81.2
21	Los Angeles	80.8
22	Madrid	80.7
23	Rome	80.5
24	Toronto	80.4
25	Montreal	80.0
26	Barcelona	79.9
27	Nicosia	79.2
28	Lyon	78.5
29	Istanbul	76.6
30	Berlin	76.4
31	Seoul	76.0
32	Lisbon	74.6
33	Miami	73.1
34	Dubai	72.8
35	Hong Kong	72.3
36	Auckland	71.8
37	Moscow	71.2
38	Singapore	70.5
39	Athens	70.0
40	Caracas	68.6
41	Rio de Janeiro	66.5
42	Sao Paulo	64.9
43	Tel Aviv	64.6
44	Warsaw	63.5
45	Tallinn	63.0
46	Budapest	62.0
47	Ljubljana	60.2
48	Santiago de Chile	59.7
49	Taipei	56.4
50	Prague	55.9
51	Riga	54.8
52	Manama	54.8
53	Bucharest	53.7
54	Bratislava	53.5
55	Sofia	52.8
56	Mumbai	49.6
57	Bogota	49.4
58	Mexico City	49.1
59	Vilnius	48.3
60	Kiev	48.0
61	Bangkok	47.2
62	Nairobi	46.3
63	Jakarta	45.9
64	Johannesburg	45.5
65	Beijing	43.4
66	Manila	43.3
67	Shanghai	43.2
68	Delhi	41.4
69	Lima	39.3
70	Buenos Aires	34.4
71	Kuala Lumpur	31.0

Methodology
The cost of a weighted shopping basket geared to Western European consumer habits containing 122 goods and services including rent.


--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.friendster.com/shaunism
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[The Life of Shaun #218] Miami/NYC Pics

Hey all,

I meant to send out pics a little sooner after getting back from NYC, but with my dead Mac and all it was a little difficult. BUT! Now I am live again and so they are ready to go.

Attaching my favourite ones here. If you want to see them all, you can check them out here:

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZOXLJwzcNmLCMg
but I warn all you non-family types, there are lots of baby pics in the Miami part; family types, I warn you there are lots of pics of boozing in the New York part.

Cheers,
Shaun

Pics:

01. Danai's new hairdo
02. Florida in a nutshell
03. What I landed in at EWR
04. David and me about to drink - surprise, surprise!
05. Oh, the East Village!
06. Three handsome men
07. I'd plotz if I saw these wait times in London! (But at least I saw times after Midnight in New York)
08. The good old Boiler Room
09. NYC attitude :-)
10. Darrin needs just a little more...
11. Dressed to impress!

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.friendster.com/shaunism
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[The Life of Shaun #217] Movin' on Up

Well I'm movin' on up (well, I'm moving)
To the east side (to East London)
To a deluxe apartment (well, it's new build)
in the sky (eight floor [ninth in American], that's pretty much as 'sky' as you get in London)
Movin on up (well, over)
To the east side (yup, thataway)
I finally got a piece of the pie (more like a crumb, actually...)

Yup, I am buying a flat! Well, technically I am buying a 125 year lease to a flat*. And, well, technically I am only buying 35% of the flat**. But that's how things are done here in this mad city of eye-watering property prices. I will be leaving my dearly loved Clerkenwell, which I will definitely miss, but I am excited about putting down roots in gritty, edgy East London, Chavwell*** specifically.

The flat could charitably be called "cozy", even by London standards. But it is bright, modern, nicely finished, comes with stunning views, and it is literally across the street from the DLR and 200m from the temporarily closed East London Line. Twenty minutes to Tottenham Court Road and 15 minutes from door to desk. I officially "complete" on or around 31 March, so look for that to be the official peak of the London property market.

So, starting some time between 15 April and 25 May, my new address will be:

Flat ##, Kelday Heights
2 Spencer Way
Tower Hamlets
London E1 2PW

Cheers,
Shaun

Pics:

1. th01 - my building from the North
2. th02 - building from the South, DLR train in front of it
3. th03 - future lodger's room
4. th04 - my future room
5. th05 - hall leading into the living room
6. th06 - living room/kitchen (waste of space, as far as I'm concerned!)
7. th07 - living room/balcony
8. th08 - the other side of the living room (I love the floor-to-ceiling window)
9. th09 - another view of the kitchen (couldn't they have cut it down by half and left me a nice dining nook?)
10. th10 - The View! (There's one of Canary Wharf off the balcony, too, but I somehow lost that pic)
11. th11 - out the window
12. Picture 1 - floor plan

*British law wants there to be an ultimate owner to property, so most blocks of flats are 'leasehold', where the building is owned by a company, housing authority or estate and you buy a lease to a flat. It's just a way to ensure a line of ownership if things go badly. In practice leases never run out because when you get down to around 80 years on a lease, you pay £50 or so to file paperwork to re-extend the lease back out to its maximum.

**As you know, London property is ridiculously expensive. As a way to help first time buyers and key workers get on the property ladder, they introduced shared ownership schemes. Essentially I am buying 35% of the flat and the housing authority is buying the other 65%. I will then pay a subsidised rent to the housing authority for the portion they own. After six months, I am free to buy an increasing share in the flat as finances allow.

***Most likely misspelled 'Shadwell' in your AtoZs.

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713081334
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[The Life of Shaun #216] Hallelujah!

HOORAH!  My Mac is back!  And with a new keyboard and screen enclosure as well as hard drive - it looks brand new.  Wow, I can't believe how disconnected I felt not being able to check everything and anything I wanted to right when I wanted to.

But, I no longer have to worry about being a Philistine, I am live again.

Now, off to drinks to celebrate a good day!

Cheers,

Shaun

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713081334

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[The Life of Shaun #215] Bargain Basement London

London's exorbitant real estate prices are the stuff of legend - the average home in London is now nine times the average London salary. But I happened upon this particular gem today that is just beyond the pale - £200,000 ($400,000) for 73 sq ft (6.8 sq m) of living space - a mere £2,739 ($5,479) per sq ft.

OK, which of you is gonna snap up this bargain?! I can't wait for the housewarming! (I hope you don't have many friends, and I'll just bring a half bottle of champagne...)

Flummoxed,
Shaun

Sussex Street Pimlico, London SW1V £200,000 Flat

Full description:

A unique studio flat that would make an ideal pied-a-terre presented in an excellent condition with benefit of large roof terrace located in this handsome period house in the centre of the Pimlico Grid.Accommodation comprises studio room, shower area and kitchen area.Sussex Street is located in the Pimlico Grid and is therefore ideally located for the bars, shops and restaurants of the Moreton Triangle, the Pimlico Road and the centre of Belgravia. Transport is provided by both Victoria mainline and underground stations and Pimlico underground stations.

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713081334

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[The Life of Shaun #214] Happy MBAs - solved!

Kimberluh remembered!  It was vodka night in Poland, when we went to a reception with lots of Polish vodka shots.  No wonder I don't remember!

 

Mystery solved.

 

Cheers,
shaun

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713081334

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[The Life of Shaun #213] Happy MBAs

My friend Hind (right) tagged this photo of her, Candice (left, of course), two fellow Cass 07 MBAs, from Morocco and Lebanon, respectively, and me.  I think we were in China in this photo, but it was a successful night, so of course I don't remember*.  I love the pic though, so thought I'd share.

 

Now, tell me - how many men in the world envy me in this pic?  Yeah, I agree.  All of them.

 

Cheers,

Shaun

 

*My motto: I consider any night I can remember a failure.

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713081334

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[The Life of Shaun #212] Rupert Street

Rupert Street used to be my second least favourite bar in London, after the Snooty Society, of course - but it's now taken the bottom position.  Sean and I were there last night, chatting, and someone stole my jacket.  From the chair right next to me.  And whoever it was was so brazen; I always put my scarf in the arm of my jacket so I don't forget it and they actually took the scarf out of the arm, left it on the chair, and took the jacket.  How assy!

 

<sigh>

 

So that and the dead Mac - not a great start to the weekend for me!

 

Grrr...

 

Shaun

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.friendster.com/shaunism

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[The Life of Shaun #211] Sigh...

My hard drive is dead. The good news is that Apple is going to replace the drive for free (How great are they? It's been off warranty for six months.), but the bad news is, unless my friend Garrett can work magic, I am going to lose all my files since they have to return the drive to the factory. Fortunately all my important files are backed up and a lot of pics are online, but many frivilous pics and all my music is gone.

Upshot? I am investing in the Time Machine for back-up.

Attached is a pic from the pub after the reception after graduation - lots of drinks have passed my lips with the people in this pic. (More pics will come later.)

OK, out to Soho to drown my Mac woes in pints!

Cheers,
Shaun

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.friendster.com/shaunism

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[The Life of Shaun #210] Dead Mac

I somehow managed to kill my Mac while I was in Miami. Sooooo, since I can't check personal eMail at work, I will have limited access here. So if you need me right away, contact me on my work address (shaun.coley@xxxx.xxx) or my mobile (+44 (0)XXX XXX XXXX).

Wish me luck!

Cheers,
Shaun

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.friendster.com/shaunism

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[The Life of Shaun #209] Blue

And there it is!  The post-holiday blues have begun to set in; as I've finished up my hasty activity tonight (unpacking, tidying, etc.) it's started to hit me and I feel that little bit lonely as I get ready for bed over here in my flat after being around good friends and family constantly for 16 days. 

 

But tomorrow is graduation, where I will be around many of the people who made last year one of the most amazing of my life, and this weekend is full of activities with my friends who make London such an amazing place for me.  So not very much time to be blue for sure, but tonight's their night in my head.  That's the thing when you live a life like I've chosen to - no matter where I am, I am always far away from people I love.

 

Keeping my pre-graduate chin up,

Shaun

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.friendster.com/shaunism

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[The Life of Shaun #208] Back on British soil!

Hi all!

 

Just to let you know I've arrived safely and am rather back to be in Rosebery Court on my lovely brown couch right now.

 

It's a bit surreal being back; I took a Xanax on the plane and totally crashed so it seemed like the flight was only about an hour long.

 

OK, time to shave and head into Canary Wharf - the Xanax is still weighing me down a little, so it will be a difficult morning, but I can do it!

 

Anyway, I had a marvelous time all week; so happy to see all of you I did, and a special thanks to those of you who made it to Lips and Stonewall with me yesterday for the sending off - and a special thanks to Schnookums's new admirer who was generous enough to show us all his dirty bits in the bar - twice!

 

Cheers,

Shaun

--
Shaun Coley
Clerkenwell, Islington
London, UK

http://www.friendster.com/shaunism

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