My husband and I are perfect examples: I’m Spanish, he’s Ghanaian and our baby will be British, but not really. She will be born here, but she won’t look like a proper British person and her upbringing will not be the generic British upbringing either, yet she would still qualify as British-born.

At one point during my university studies I had to take a class called ‘Culture in the UK and the USA’ and my teacher told us that there are about 300 languages and every single nationality represented in London. Despite the fact that I can’t even begin to put those numbers into something that would make sense in my head, it does make realise how lucky I am to be living in a place that allows me to expand my culture with something so simple as jumping on the bus and changing neighborhoods.

Each nationality came to England with a cultural baggage. And even though I can’t stand chauvinism, I’m all for national pride.

So, today will see the start of a new series of posts (I just love series), this time concentrating on multicultural London, where and how to find it, and getting the most of living in a place where you can have Greek for lunch, go for a walk in the Chinese neighborhood, dine at a Jamaican restaurant and finish off your day with some dancing at the local Brazilian club.

Lawrence Durrell

Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

A photo of Nelson’s Column in a blog about London might not be the most creative thing to do. Following the photo with a post about Trafalgar Square will definitely land me into cliché land. But truth is, there’s a reason Trafalgar is such a London icon, and I’m going to run with it.

Even if you are not from London or have never visited London, you probably know what Trafalgar Square is and how it looks like. Much like the Big Ben and the London Eye (or should that be EDF Energy London Eye?), it has become one of those images that can be found on most postcards and tourists’ memory cards.

I’m not going to go on and on about the history of the square, that it originally was the location of the Royal Mews, that the hawks have been there, that the steps were put there to level the square and make it more people-friendly, that Nelson’s statue was put in place in 1843 and the lions in 1867, or that the smallest police station is inside a lamp post on the southeast corner of the square. The official website for Trafalgar Square has loads of information on practicalities, history and curiosities.

One thing I am going to highlight out of everything the square has to offer, and that is the Fourth Plinth.

Trafalgar Square has four plinths, three of them have statues, the fourth one (the Northwestern one) doesn’t. It was meant to have a statue of William IV but the needed funds could not be reached due to the unpopularity of the king. Nowadays the fourth plinth is used for temporary exhibitions. The current one is Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, and the two next ones for 2012 and 2013 have already been chosen.

Why do I hate immigrants then? Well, it’s quite simple really. Let me give an example.

My husband is West African and he has friends who come from his own country living quite close to us (less than 15 minutes on the bus). A few days ago I was cooking with one of them, and of course we started talking food. This is someone who has been living here for many years, more than me, yet, she still doesn’t know what a courgette, an aubergine, a swede, a turnip, or rhubarb are, look like or are prepared. And she actually classified them as exotic, quite a statement when you live in the same country where those are produced (actually, a few miles from where they are produced).

But, in the end, it is only food. The problem is that it doesn’t stop on food. Another immigrant from a different country I know is getting benefits, quite a few of them (housing, childcare, tax credit, and has a council house), yet he goes on and on about how this country only takes money out of people and you don’t get anything back, and how things are so much better in his own country (a place where health is private)

Most, will only just complain about England (or the UK in general) and talk praises about their countries of origin.

Let’s get something straight. You live here. There’s a reason why you are living here and not somewhere else. Either you decided to move to study, to work, because you were forced to, or whatever other reason there may be. But, the simple fact is that you had to leave your country (happily or not), but you had to leave your country because you couldn’t live there, and England took you in.

If my house had a problem and someone let me live in their house, I would change my ways and adapt myself to their way of living, and be grateful for the fact that they are accepting me there. I wouldn’t let go of everything. If I like pop music and they like rock, I would still listen to pop, but I wouldn’t criticise the person for listening to rock or go and hide myself in my room when they played it.

And I think that’s the way immigrants should behave. Keep your culture (I eat my chorizo and my paella and I speak Spanish with Spanish friends) but add something to your life by taking in things from your host country (I had never tried baked beans or jacket potato before moving here yet today I had a jacket potatoes with baked beans and cheddar cheese on top for lunch), but don’t just criticize and diss the other for the sake of it.

The Capital Ring sign

The Capital Ring is one of the strategic long-distance walks that go through London.

It covers 78 miles of greenery and quiet residential areas. It does go past some busier parts of London, but only as a way of getting from one quiet area to another.

Whether it is actually 78 miles or not, depends on who you ask. But the official information says 78, so that’s what I’m using.

It is divided in 15 sections, some of almost 8 miles, some as short as 3 miles. I never got how this division works or who came up with it, but it does make your life a bit harder when you are trying to actually do the walk. If you factor in travelling time, you might end up outside of your house for 15 hours for one of the longer sections, and less than 3 for the shorter ones.

The good thing is that all sections have Capital Ring Links, very short walks (always less than a mile, usually less than half a mile) that take you to a train or tube station. So getting to and from the Capital Ring is a breeze. If you prefer the bus, you can always find several around the stations.

A friend and I did sections 1 to 6 of the Capital Ring (just South of the Thames) before I got so pregnant that it was impossible to continue without external help (and apparently my friend wasn’t too keen in the idea of pushing me around). We always started and ended sections in the official places, but several times we walked two short sections together, just to make the most of our day.

The whole route could be done within a week if you’re so inclined, but we found that in most places we did unplanned stops and walked around the area beyond the actual route. For example, when we covered the Crystal Palace section, we spent about 4 hours just walking around the park.

We were quite surprised to find that we were mostly walking on our own. When we were walking through inhabited areas we would see people, though not a lot. When we were walking through green areas we would see some children playing and one or two adults carrying shopping bags. But you could always tell these people where locals, and were going from one place to another place, we only came across ramblers twice. Parks were a different thing, always packed. It’s nice to see how Londoners take advantage of them.

Talking about the Capital Ring to people was usually just met with confused faces. I live on one of the streets the Capital Ring goes through, and my neighbours have never heard of it, despite the fact that there are several bright green signs around. Ask anyone where Poundland is though, and they’ll tell you straight away.

The best thing about the route is that it goes through everyday London. Most of us live within a few miles from it, and even if we haven’t noticed, we have most probably came across signs for it. The Capital Ring is a great way to rediscover the city, those places we usually ignore because we are too busy texting someone while on the bus.

The sections

As I mentioned, the Capital Ring is divided into 15 sections:

• Section 1: Woolwich to Falconwood
• Section 2: Falconwood to Grove Park
• Section 3: Grove Park to Crystal Palace
• Section 4: Crystal Palace to Streatham
• Section 5: Streatham to Wimbledon Park
• Section 6: Wimbledon Park to Richmond
• Section 7: Richmond to Osterley Lock
• Section 8: Osterley Lock to Greenford
• Section 9: Greenford to South Kenton
• Section 10: South Kenton to Hendon
• Section 11: Hendon to Highgate
• Section 12: Highgate to Stoke Newington
• Section 13: Stoke Newington to Hackney Wick
• Section 14: Hackney Wick to Beckton District Park
• Section 15: Beckton District Park to Woolwich

Officially the route starts and finishes at Woolwich Foot Tunnel and goes clockwise, but the fact that it is a circular walk means that it could be started at any point.

Information

Walk London: official website. It offers information, leaflets, maps, podcasts and videos. If you finish the route you an even ask for a certificate.

TFL: best website for practicalities (trains, buses, tubes, toilets) and a list of interesting places to visit in each section.

Difficulty

The Capital Ring is quite an easy walk, I was able to do it well into my 7th month of pregnancy. There are some steps here and there, but there’s always a way to avoid them, and even though it does go up and down a lot the climbs are (mostly) gentle.