something like a circus or a sewer

uppity arsed record stores shits in metal shirts who call ryan adams the new elton john

the segregation, due to rent prices and the fact the papers think that west=glebe.

1) the parks
2) the shops
3) the fact that it's easy to get out of!

Hate:

1) pollution
2) the tube (when it's underground, especially between South Kensington and Hyde Park Corner)
3) the centre

Loves: the parks, the views, all my chums (awwww)

hates: Hoxton fashion slags, the fact that one trip on the tube is equivalent to smoking two cigarettes upping my number of cigarettes per day by at least four, surly shop staff

Loves: The parks, Hoxton fashion slags, the multiculturalism (sorry if that sounds BLEARGH)
Hates: The general standard of architecture, the traffic, the price of property

and I forgot the price of property, that too is a majorly crap thing about London.

Loves: Proximity of airports for easier and cheaper foreign travel (compare with hassle of living in, say, Worcester and wanting to go to Paris for the weekend). No need to own a car. Multiculturalism.

Hates: Having to travel an hour and a half to see many of my friends, even though they live in the same city. The heat of the tube, which bothers me more than the filthy air. Snow doesn't stay white.

Love: my Zone One flat and surrounding neighbourhood 15 minutes walk from Soho, Shoreditch and Islington. Access to galleries and arts in general even though I don't get time to go unless it's to private views. Kichen-first multicultural approach to life here.

Hate: deterioration of all public services here ie. everyone bitches but nobody DOES anything about them. Rising rents which give everyone angst and horrible City wanker neighbours. That fly-on-the-windscreen scenario in my head whenever I ride my bike in London.

3 things I love: 1. more gigs and clubs than anywhere else you're likely to live. 2. the Docklands Light Railway. Like a rollercoaster, only useful. 3. when we move out, our London mortgage will enable us to buy somewhere palatial elsewhere.

3 things I hate: 1. vague fear of being gunned down by cracked up Yardies. 2. people not walking quickly enough down Oxford Street. 3. The occasional beached whale on dancefloors.

Overall, the ups definitely outweigh the downs.

Love: wandering around beautiful city out of termtime. Individual shops/restaurants eg. Headington Deli/International Restaurant on St Clements. Easy access to London.

Hate: the way the centre of town has turned utterly into one huge campus. General dreadfulness of shopping given wealthy captive student market - not ONE good record shop!! University kitsch.

Love: it's the best place for music (ie gigs/clubs/record shops) in Europe, there's no need to drive anywhere and Fuller's beer is fantastic.

Hate: tube heat horror, the relentless dinginess of vast tracts of the place and the stupidly high rents.

Love: Buses - I'm in no rush after all, all the millions of cineam choices to see so many different films (despite the expense), getting drunk with my mates and meeting new mates because the place is so darn big.

Hate (well I don't really hate anything but): The lack of cash machines inthe direct vicinity of the Betsey Trotwood, Pizza Express and people who think they are really busy and important talking too loudly near me while I am being busy and important.

Pete - LINK machine at Mount Pleasant P.O, 2 mins up the road. Also on 2nd floor of Guardian but I guess that's not of much use to you.

Hate: Traffic/driving everywhere; oppressive summer heat; the oppressive amounts of Tejano music we must hear in our neighborhood.

Love:

1. Noise Noise Noise, record store of the gods 2. Taco Mesa, Mexican food of the gods 3. Nick's Pizza, Italian food of the gods

Hate:

1. Officious city employees who enforce stupid regulations about signs. 2. Cheap to rent, yes, but not cheap enough to buy 3. There's no really truly good pizza place that delivers to my house.

Love:

• Being able to walk to nearly every possible errand run
• The cold, goosebump giving weather and all the trees
• Women here are mostly gorgeous

Hate:

• Occasional unnecessary snobbery -- people acting like it's a bigger city than it really is
• Street crackheads wanting to sell you VHS tapes of "Problem Child", "Stop or My Mom Will Shoot", and other movie classics
• Almost everything shuts down at 2am

Hmm, shares some traits with Seattle, Loves include the greatest burritos, Amoeba Records, and the physical beauty of the place.

Hates include the insane cost of living here, the snobbery, and the fact that many of the things that made it great (artsy, liberal, etc.) are now gone.

Love: (1) Knockout view of Manhattan. (2) Great bar scene. (3) Italian and Mexican food to die for.

Hate: (1) The Sinatra obsession (inexplicable since he couldn't wait to get the hell out and only came back to shuck and jive for dumbfuck Ronnie Raygun). (2) Too many drunken yuppie assholes. (3) Rents approaching Manhattan levels (thanks to the drunken yuppie assholes).

love-

weather, light, space lots of smart, attractive, interesting people from all over the world mountains, ocean, desert, bookstores, record stores moments away

really don't care for-

the need to be rich to own a home the film and television industries and the people they attract lack of history/civic identity (not a big deal--I'm reaching a bit)

The pluses far, far, far outweigh the negatives which may be why there are more Brits, New Yorkers, and San Franciscans here every day. Don't tell anyone though.

LIKES

- Choral singing here is extremely strong.
- It's only four hours away from New York.
- Our new condo is absolutely FABULOUS in almost every way.

- People up here will go out of their way to be rude and/or obstructive.
- It doesn't seem like anyone around here wants to hire me.
- It's FAR TOO EXPENSIVE to live here, considering that a REAL CITY is only four hours away.