Bayswater Mansions

By moving into Bayswater, I accepted that I have switched classes. While I always envisioned that I would greet this change as an achievement, as something to be proud of, I now realise that this transition actually serves as the single largest conflict of my time in England and perhaps the eventual driver of my departure from this country.

Growing up, I labeled the upper class as the few doctors who could afford to live in the aptly name community--built atop a pile of low-grade iron ore--called Pill Hill. At the time I could not comprehend that a class of people existed somewhere that could make the Pill Hill doctors appear as Wellfare bums. Even harder to believe would be that I, myself, would live amongst this class.

Then I moved to Bayswater. I used to think Bentleys were a relic and that Lamborghinis only existed in movies. Now I see at least one pass by my window into Bayswater each minute. I, regrettably, have switched classes by moving here. I used to aspire to make more money and to move to a nice neighborhood, but now I have guilt. As I watch my neighbours walk by below with their Gucci bags and Jimmy Choos, I am reminded of the Temporary Like Achilles lyric "as helpless as a rich man's child."

In order to feel a member of this community, I will either have to embrace this ostentatious, wasteful lifestyle or will have to find another side to it. I feel pretentious discussing class in a blog, but this dominates my thoughts when walking and observing my street. I am not preoccupied with people having money but with how they treat it. I perceive that many of my neighbours have no clue how the rest of the world lives and that many of them really have no concept of the value of money...they have always had so much it doesn't matter and they know no other alternative.

Why do I state this? What is the relevance aside from it being a constant conflict for me? I suppose I want to be honest and straight forward. In London, each building has a name which is used in the first line of the address, before the street name and number. My building is Bayswater Mansions. I live in Flat 1 Bayswater Mansions.

There. Now I won't feel that I'm misleading anyone.