Weekend of Nov 20th - Fridays Move

So Friday night was moving night out from Blackheath. as I haven't found a place yet since the guys at Warwick Ave jammed on me (to you Tossers, I hope you suffer from the biggest toilet leak of the century due to a bad Sunday Night Curry!), I am crashing at John and Leahs in Ealing. After a long evening of packing, we set off in the moving truck to find Ealing. I'll save driving in London for another post, but lets just say it was not an easy journey. I think everyone in London should have to pass some basic geography test of all major motorways. After getting lost several time we finally arrived close to the doorstep of J n L's. I was left up to my own devices to move my 14 small bags and 2 suitcases full of stuff I've collected. This was not an easy task at 12.30am. I had to walk down an alley into a courtyard with an overpass next to a Starbucks. Lets just say it was a very isolated area and no hooligan would hang out there except take cover from the cold elements and rain of London. As I pulled my first load through the walkway and into the underpass there was laughter and yelling filling the air. I turned the corner to discover 6 East Indian fellas drinking some Famous Grouse and Coke. At first they didn't pay and attention to me as I walked past them, to the gate and up the steps into the townhome. After my second trip one of them belted out in thick British tone 'Where'd you go Bruv, holiday', I thought, oh shit, they might case me any moment. 'No just moving in with some buddies' I replied back as I hurriedly moved past them to the gate again. Now I know it's not right to think that I'm gonna get jacked, they might machete me, maybe try and bend me over, I dunno, so I tried to keep positive about the situation, who was I to judge or stereotype. It's the damn media's fault!

So on my third journey back from the van they asked me where I was from and I said Canada, at which we started some friendly banter about Crown Royal and Toronto, where some of the blokes have been to. They offered me a drink and I warmed up to them and said I'll be back for one after I finish the move. They offered to help and I said I was ok and didn't want to burden them with my shit.

So after my 5th journey I finally moved all the stuff into J n L's place, said my byes to Tmax and came out for a drink. By this time it was about 1am.

They were a friendly bunch of guys, 1 from Kenya, 3 from Pakistan, and 2 from India. They poured me a stiff Grouse n Coke which I cheerily accepted. Basically we were just poking fun of my situation and discussing places to go out in London and a bit of Canada banter. Then the police came by and kindly asked us to dump our drinks in 10 mins or they would do it for us. One of the guys started arguing with the cops, 'we know our rights, we're allowed to be here', then he pulled out the:

'you're just picking on us cause we're Brown!'

Man I wanted to sprint, I thought, that's it Armageddon's going down right now. I could see the papers now 'Police Brutality Over Color Blindness'

Needless to say they police left and threatened to come back in 10 mins to inspect our drinks.

'Don't worry' they chidded me, 'he's a lawyer, he knows what he's doing', 'We've got an Electrician, a Lawyer, a Shop Owner, a Mechanic and a Pimp' said the ringleader as he pointed them all out.

'Sounds like a Self Sustaining community' I replied.

We all decided it was best to leave the alcohol before the cops came back, they invited me out with them but I was knackered and needed my sleep so politely declined.

It was an interesting encounter out of a city usually so cold that no one talks to you. These guys were friendly and interesting and in no means out for anything but to have a good one with each other. It just makes you look at the other side of things and cut through the media BS.

dtm