Greetings from London

J

juncers

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Joined
Jan 17, 2015
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13
Hi everyone,

I'm an ex-pat New Yorker who has been living in London for the past 27 years. I became curious about this site after reading about it in a thread at AudioKarma (where I've been a member for almost 10 years) to generally positive reviews. I thought it would be rude to poke around your site without first introducing myself. I understnd that there are quite a few AKers and former AKers on this site who may know me and I would like to take this opportunity to say hello.

To those who don't know me--a little introduction:

I am a classically trained amateur pianist and that colours my view on most things musical. I am not really all that interested in equipment per se, but my quest to reproduce music just as I hear it on a piano or at a concert has led me to owning way too much equipment and an incredible amount of LPs,cassettes, open reel tapes, CDs and SACDs ( 10's of thousands in total). Fortunately, I have a very understanding wife who grumbles about the wires and the clutter, but is very good natured about it generally.

I really can't add much to the technical knowledge here and my contribution to AK is usually limited to a classical music thread, but I if I can be of help to anyone, I will certainly try.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Ray
 
Tapes? Did I read the word reel to reel? 15 ips variety?

London is my second favorite town! :)

Welcome!
 
Thanks for the welcome! Appreciate it. I'm sure I'll be talking to you on the boards soon.


Ray
 
Myles,

I'm running a Sony TC-765, so 7.5 ips is the best I can manage. The Sony is no slouch at that speed however. :)

London's a great town. My adopted home and favourite museum. :)

Paris or New York No. 1 ???

Ray
 
Let's put it this way. I love the culture and people in London. I love the culture in Paris. :) But what gets me every time I'm in Europe is the age and history. In New York, something is ancient if it's 100 years old; in Europe, that's still wet behind the ears. Walk down the aisles of Notre Dame and one can almost sense the ghosts of everyone in history who trod on that stone. Positively eerie.

I still have a warm spot for New York in my heart.
 
Myles B. Astor said:
Let's put it this way. I love the culture and people in London. I love the culture in Paris. :) But what gets me every time I'm in Europe is the age and history. In New York, something is ancient if it's 100 years old; in Europe, that's still wet behind the ears. Walk down the aisles of Notre Dame and one can almost sense the ghosts of everyone in history who trod on that stone. Positively eerie.

I still have a warm spot for New York in my heart.
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:) My English wife never misses an opportunity to point out that London has toilets older than my country.
I counter by pointing out that while the US deludes itself by thinking it has a history, England deludes itself by thinking it has a future.

Ray
 
Welcome Ray! EU rules says the Australian from down under! :D

We were recently in London and stayed at Leicester Sq. So we were on the run and decided to sit at an outdoors McDonald's table while The Lady fought in line to grab a Big Mac. The place was crammed with animals. Along came an Indian woman and her family who rudely plonked herself at our table without even excusing herself and asked whether it was OK to share part of the table (which was a two seater BTW). I politely told her to move as the table was taken. She said that I had no idea what it was like to appreciate space being an Australian while she unwrapped her homemade Indian curry. I was angered and told her to piss off but she was defiant to hold on to that corner of the table with her curry. (They did not sit to eat McDonalds)

London has been plagued by a poorly managed immigration policy. The city is choking. It seems you almost need to wear head covering when walking in Knightsbridge nowadays too. Perhaps that is what you mean that London has no future? Australia currently has a similarly flagrant immigration policy.
 
Steve said:
Welcome Ray! EU rules says the Australian from down under! :D

We were recently in London and stayed at Leicester Sq. So we were on the run and decided to sit at an outdoors McDonald's table while The Lady fought in line to grab a Big Mac. The place was crammed with animals. Along came an Indian woman and her family who rudely plonked herself at our table without even excusing herself and asked whether it was OK to share part of the table (which was a two seater BTW). I politely told her to move as the table was taken. She said that I had no idea what it was like to appreciate space being an Australian while she unwrapped her homemade Indian curry. I was angered and told her to piss off but she was defiant to hold on to that corner of the table with her curry. (They did not sit to eat McDonalds)

London has been plagued by a poorly managed immigration policy. The city is choking. It seems you almost need to wear head covering when walking in Knightsbridge nowadays too. Perhaps that is what you mean that London has no future? Australia currently has a similarly flagrant immigration policy.
Click to expand...

Steve,

Thanks for the welcome.

i usually say that to annoy the wife. :) I do believe that the UK will eventually be swallowed by the EU and cease being the UK we know and love.The new generation (under 40s) are pro-EU. The older generation is not. OTOH, a lot of people here actually believe that Thatcher single handedly destroyed the English culture in the 80's.

Sorry about your experiences in London. I wouldn't say they are unusual, nor that they are typical. Immigration has its advantages and its downsides too. People tend to resent change which is unfortunate because it's inevitable. I pine for the days when I could smoke my Habana double coronas in any good restaurant in London, but .... You just roll with the punches and learn a new way of doing things. When you can't do that, it's time to check out. :)

Ray
 
Hello and welcome.

I spent a week in London a few years ago and before that a week in Chippenham. In London, we stayed in the theater district Covent Garden. The best pub was Lowlanders on Drury Lane (right next to Gingie) which is actually an all Belgian Pub.
 
Shadowfax said:
Hello and welcome.

I spent a week in London a few years ago and before that a week in Chippenham. In London, we stayed in the theater district Covent Garden. The best pub was Lowlanders on Drury Lane (right next to Gingie) which is actually an all Belgian Pub.
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Thanks Brian.

Lowlanders is a great place for Trappist and Abbey beers.

Chippenham's a bit off the beaten track for me. I hope you enjoyed it!

Ray
 
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