Make Banana Pancakes | HELP, RANTS ETC.

London

I'm feeling not in the mood to write but in the mood to write something if that makes sense so I know a lot of people like to write British fics especially Harry Potter, especially in London so having lived here for too long (I might be leaving for Uni this year, so yay!), I thought I'd just write about what it's really like to live here, as in depth as I can be.

Seriously, if you guys ever want any help writing in England like words and shit, literally just ask, I have lived in London for eighteen years and like to think I know a lot.

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First thing's first, it's grey and rainy ALL THE FUCKING TIME and we don't know how to deal with much else! This is just England in general but the weather is utter bullshit. Like it's either too hot (Which is literally 30 degrees for us lol) or it's snowing like right now it's March and SNOWING! When it snows, trains get cancelled, schools close and everyone freaks out. In the North, they get more snow I think but here, when it comes, it's terrifying.

Locations

So London is ridiculously diverse, you can go from plush luxury suburbs with manor houses and shit to grotty flats with creepy people strolling the streets. The Thames runs through the middle the entire way too, which is like the only consistent thing.

So some of the wealthier areas are Richmond (I made Jily live here in TIWTG), Primrose Hill, central London, Islington and Notting Hill. Some of the kind of poorer areas are places like Tower Hamlets but I'm not really the best to talk about that.

The place where a lot of cool things happen is probably Camden or the Southbank, they both have big markets and edgy performances. Even these are quite wealthy though, although they were a lot poorer back in the 1980s and stuff, but now they're quite wealthy.

Anyway, in Richmond and places, almost all the houses are terraced and are long and thin with long gardens, literally wherever there was space. Most areas are pretty bad to shop in, mainly because half the shops are for middle-class mummies who love silky shirts and handmade art.

Most of the time, the best places to hang out are mostly coffee shops (Cafe Nero, Starbucks are big here), fast food places and parks because there are a lot of old manor houses like York House and Marble Hill Park where I spend a lot of my time. Also just make your characters hang out at home because a lot of my time is just sitting at mine or someone's house.

Nice places to go in central London, where most people go are the South Bank which has a lot of food stands, cool art and stuff. There's also Hyde Park and Regent's park which are really nice to go and just sit around but only if it's sunny.

As for the big landmarks like the London Eye and Big Ben, nobody really gives a fuck? It's full of tourists and nobody really cares, the fancy places are basically the Sky Garden because it has a bar and is free. Also, there are a lot of cool bars and stuff, especially at the top of big skyscrapers and stuff.

Travel

This seems like a weird section but it's just little things that make books more accurate. Everything is quite close to most other places, like a forty-five minute journey on a good day. Everything kind of links to Waterloo or Kings Cross or Victoria station.

I think there's a metro in the USA (I don't know!) but here, the ways to travel are buses, trains and tubes and. Buses are free until you're eighteen so most of us just use that. The trains are a bit unreliable, a lot of them are delayed so 90% of the time you end up waiting. The tubes are pretty much hell due to all the people but are very quick and basically just run from end to end. Also, I know it sounds like a stereotype but WE QUEUE A LOT!

The People

There is a wide range of accents if that makes much difference, RP accents or the kind of typical British ones (The ones that Harry and Hermione have basically) are common in the wealthier areas but in North London, I think the accent is quite different.

Also people are quite rude, I'll be honest but never say anything. It's a lot of death stares, silent judgement but nobody ever really says anything, we just kind of sigh at each other. Like a lot of the time, you will silently bond with strangers when the trains are delayed again.

It's also, as a whole, quite left wing, which makes a lot of us 'evolved snobs' from my experience. The Tories are twats though, Labour is a bit of a joke and the Lib Dems fucked up badly, so it's all a bit shit, really.

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Anyway, there is more but I need to eat as it's half seven here and I've forgotten to eat supper so I'm going to make a stir fry now. If you ever need help with England for Harry Potter fics, do just ask me, because I am happy to help - E x