A journey to Justin’s past…

On Sunday I went to check out the neighborhood and home I lived in back in 2001. As the title alludes to, it is close to the High Street Kensington stop on the Circle Line.

I noticed immediately that the neighborhood had become more of a shopping neighborhood since I left with stores like American Apparel and many others moving in.

However, fortunately, some things were the same, such as the Goat Tavern.  I registered my appreciation by purchasing lunch here.

The neighborhood, however, just didn’t seem as cool to me this time though.  Sure, it’s posh, but now it seems full of wealthy people that come home at night and want a quiet evening with their kids.  The neighborhood I’m in now attracts the children of these people and many other hipsters.  It has more of an edge which I think fits my present state of mind.  When here last, I was working for an investment bank and the posh neighborhood meshed well with that.  Fortunately, I’m out of that now as I fear the future of financial services will be somewhat pedestrian as Matthew Lynn expands upon in this article.

This is the home I used to live in.  Pretty nice, huh?  The building on the right is the Dutch Embassy.  It was a little surreal to be sitting at the kitchen table eating my Cheerios and looking directly into the office of a diplomat or to go to the living room and be lounging on a sofa while watching the chaos and goings on in the main reception area of the Embassy.

This was the view directly across the street.  That’s Hyde Park and it was pretty nice to get home from work and walk around in there.

Like I said though, I didn’t find myself missing my old surroundings.  Really, I found myself looking forward to leaving on this visit.

On the way home I noticed what I believe is the best government-supported message I’ve ever read.