I love it here, but I need a rant...

Oh, Elle, you've hit the nail on the head here!! 

If there were anything for me to complain about here-- it would be the shop hours/(overcrowding) and mold!  And, because of the car concerns, I've been avoiding getting one.  (Despite it having the potential to cut my 2 hour commute down to 1--that is, if there was never any traffic on the N Circular/A10).

I know this has been brought up before in other threads, but people continue to ask me "Do you like living here?"  Not wanting to go through a detailed list why/why not, My OH finally came up with a good answer for me to reply with--"Yeah; Can't get Marmite in America"

I don't really have this problem as everything in central London seems to open later.Is that just here/me?

Having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, St. Albans, London, and spending more time than I'd like in Leicester,  Yes--Central London shops are open much later than most other places in the UK.  But, moving out to say Zone 3, most shops still close earlier than I can get to them-- Except Tesco Metro and Sainsbury's Local.  If I really need to get a hold of something, I stop in central london on my way home-- which is sort of convenient compared to other areas.  But then again, it is just under an hour away from home--whereas if I lived in Nottingham, stopping in Sheffield to pick something up from the shops would be pretty absurd.

There should be some nice diners or something like even an ihop or waffle house so after going out you can sit with your friends, eat some pancakes and then go off home to bed, the only place around here that does that is Tinsel Town and it's in Faringdon. 

I completely agree.  I also think coffee shops should stay open later, as an alternative "hang out" for nights where you'd like to avoid the rowdiness of a bar. 
There's a Tinsel Town on Great Portland Street, which may be more convenient for you -- it's just off Regent St. about four blocks north of Oxford Circus.  I've not eaten there, but did have a milkshake once.  It says online they close at 1:30am (so, still somewhat limited).

Also the tube should run later! Even if it was just the central and northern line so you could get vaguely east/west/south/north! 12:30 is a ridiculously early time to switch to incredibly slow night buses.

This is what the OH and I were ranting about this morning.  We were attempting to make some last minute NYE plans, but realized we might not be able to get home due to Stupid tube times (But the TFL website does seem to say that they'll be running a reduced service throughout the night).


But yeah, the whole shops closing early thing--I think it completely defeats the point..  People who actually have full time jobs and can therefore potentially afford to spend money on frivolous things-- Can't actually get to the shops before they close! 

The only way I can get anything done these days is by taking off random days of holiday every second or third week.  I've been calling them "Wellness days"--where I can sleep in/wake up whenever (usually still early--around 8am), start a load of laundry, go for a jog, get some groceries, start another load of laundry, run whatever errands need running, etc.   No rushing around to get to the shops before they close/ not as much battling for space in Tesco.  I've been doing this for about 3 months now, and it has been pretty great in improving my overall mood/attitude.

How about keeping the shops open a bit later and hiring some unemployed school leavers to work the later hours?  Increased profits, less congestion on Saturday, and lower unemployment.  Everyone wins.

With regards to lower unemployment, if my shop could afford more people it would hire them but we're already on skeleton crew. We had to get special permission to replace people who quit because there's a hiring freeze on, not that it really matters because we're not allowed to schedule people. Even leading up to Christmas the amount of hours we were budgeted was way down from last year which was way down from the year before.  We were open a half-hour later than usual for 6 weeks before Christmas but for the first three of those, the other shops closed at their normal trading hours and all the customers went home.

So yes, shops could hire more people and be open more hours, but they need an increase in sales to justify the expenditure, and they want it first. I suppose if one shop like WH Smith declared they were going to open from 11-7 (in select markets, of course) and showed profits over a couple of quarters other shops might follow suit.  In a growth economy I could see shops extending their hours, but not in a recession 

In France many shops close at lunchtime for an hour or two and then stay open until 6 or 7pm. This seems like a good compromise to me, though I guess that would annoy the lunchtime errand-runners!

Before we had double-glazing, we had a problem with moisture collecting inside our windows and making everything damp. I bought these boxes of crystals from Lakeland to put on the window sills and they worked really well.

We have big chunks of rock salt in bowls that do the same thing. Hubby works at the Winsford Salt mine so we have an endless supply

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I completely agree.  I also think coffee shops should stay open later, as an alternative "hang out" for nights where you'd like to avoid the rowdiness of a bar. 
There's a Tinsel Town on Great Portland Street, which may be more convenient for you -- it's just off Regent St. about four blocks north of Oxford Circus.  I've not eaten there, but did have a milkshake once.  It says online they close at 1:30am (so, still somewhat limited).

This is what the OH and I were ranting about this morning.  We were attempting to make some last minute NYE plans, but realized we might not be able to get home due to Stupid tube times (But the TFL website does seem to say that they'll be running a reduced service throughout the night).

Coffee shops are open until 9pm here, but you know, that's not really late enough, 10:00 for non drinking seems reasonable.

Ditto 1:30 for food:/ Clubs shut at 3-3:30am so it seems sensible to be able to eat something before attempting to get home, also tubes start again at 5:30am, so having a place to fill that gap would be cool! I have remembered that meat liquor is open until 2am, it's fairly awesome to be able to keep drinking & have food. More of these please

Maybe I should open up a late night soho taco van or something

You should be fine on NYE, it's the one night where you can actually get around until the early hours, loads of tubes post fireworks etc

So glad I read this thread! I'll definitely prepare myself mentally for the "mold issues, short store hours and lack of closet space". 

So glad I read this thread! I'll definitely prepare myself mentally for the "mold issues, short store hours and lack of closet space". 

You will find, as with almost every thread on here, your mileage may vary! 

You will find, as with almost every thread on here, your mileage may vary! 

This exactly in terms of dealing with mold. I've been in a few flats here, and the amount of mold has varied greatly...

1. Old Victorian building converted into flats, 1st floor: no mold
2. Brand new building of flats, 2nd floor: little bit of mold around the windows and on the bathroom ceiling, but nothing massive and it probably could have been completely prevented if we had a dehumidifier at the time.
3. Basement flat -old building that had just been remodelled: spotless. Although the owner was paranoid about mold and installed extractor fans and kept a dehumidifier running quite often.
4. Block of flats built in the 80s, ground floor: horrid damp. We keep the heating on, open windows, run the dehumidifier, but it doesn't change the fact that I found so much mold growing on the back of a set of drawers that I had to rip off the sheet of wood and completely replace it. And we haven't even been here 6 months...

All that said I don't understand how anything can be built in the past 40 years (minimum) that wasn't designed to cope with the damp. It annoys me when things are described as "purpose built flats" when they aren't fit for purpose in terms of dealing with mold so people can live in them comfortably. I'm looking forward to the day when I can afford to buy a flat then completely gut it and ensure it's all up to my (seemingly ridiculous) standards! Ah, the thought of having screens on windows again. 

Ah, the thought of having screens on windows again. 

Amen, sister!  When we redo our windows, I'm getting ones with screens, even if I have to have them shipped from the US (along with the guys to install them).

When we started planning to redo our kitchen, my (UK) wife asked what I wanted in it, and my only request was a garbage disposal in the sink.  She asked the kitchen people if that was something common in the UK, and they said "Only for Americans, and people who have lived in America."  We've now got one, and it's glorious! 

Amen, sister!  When we redo our windows, I'm getting ones with screens, even if I have to have them shipped from the US (along with the guys to install them).

I don't mind no screens...but seriously this past summer and into the autumn, I think we had every fly in the county living in our house! Hubby laughed at me as I was constantly chasing them around trying to splat them.

I love having no screens! I like opening the window and being able to stick my head out! Plus, I don't think we get many flying things around here - perhaps not a lot of trees close to the house?

I love having no screens! I like opening the window and being able to stick my head out!

Me too!  Plus, I have window boxes, and also feed birds from my windows... not sure how I would do that if there were screens on them?

Perhaps its because I'm in a 2nd floor flat in a city, but I never get any flying creatures coming into the house apart from the occasional bluebottle, and I leave my windows open almost every day in summer.

They make screens that slide up like a sash window. I've had them in a couple of places that I've lived. You can have the best of both worlds! 

Oh, i didn't know about those!
But I don't need them... might be good for someone else!

They make screens that slide up like a sash window. I've had them in a couple of places that I've lived. You can have the best of both worlds! 

I had these growing up in Ohio. Not to mention all the panes of glass could slide up and down as well, so you could actually have the screen at the top of the window rather than the bottom if you really wanted. Or you could have it wide open. And they insulated much better than any windows I've had here.