I want these!

Possibly the coolest shoes in the world (with apologies to Pix's Shoe Project of course)



Are they baseball boots? High heeled trainers? Or simply just the coolest footwear I have so far seen on the tube?







It was really hard to get a picture of these in their full glory. As you can see the lady in question was sitting directly opposite me. She wasn't reading anything. When we both got on at Glamoursmith I was trying desparately to take a picture of her stepping across "the gap" to get into the train. My digital camera chose that moment to go in multi exposure mode - except all the exposures were shite.



When sitting opposite someone with at least three inch heels it's hard to see their heels unless they obligingly put their feet side on, or unless you lean slightly out of your seat, slightly across the guy sitting next to you and look slightly like a fool. Well the second option worked for me - particularly when cool, purple-booted woman decided she'd avoid the fidgety woman sitting opposite her and pick up a discarded Standard instead.



Speaking of Pix's Shoe Project, check our her very recent picture of some London Underground issue Doc Martens complete with Tube logo (roundel, for purists).....enjoy.

Violence on the Tube

Depending on whereabouts you live in London and when you travel, you'll have a different opinion to violence on the London Underground. If you're listening to any radio station on London this morning you'll be thinking "Jeesus Christ, what's going on now". The latest (hasn't got round on the internet news yet) but Piccadilly Circus station is closed as there was a stabbing last night from a fight that started in a carriage and then spilled out onto the platform.



Also a few days ago a man was attacked at Wembley Park station when some man accused him of standing on his son's foot. Unfortunately that man died last night, so the invesitgation is now being treated as a murder inquiry. For more on this terrible incident see the BBC news.



I'm really lucky in that I live in a reasonable part of London (well you can't even call Richmond London as it's Surrey, but still on the tube), also I tend not to travel around on it too late. But even so there's been one incident (October 2003) where I was pretty frightened in a carriage on a tube not even that late at night.



The problem with fights on the tube is that you are in such an enclosed space that other people can get caught up in stuff by accident. Tempers do flare and it's amazing there isn't more tube rage. The other problem is that with this retitcence and keeping yourself to yourself on the Tube people ignore violence. I'm not saying if this is right or wrong - I'm consider myself a scaredy cat and normally tend to move away if I have a sense of trouble erupting (not sure why I didn't in the October incident).



Anyway, must shoot off to work myself now, and for what it's worth, I would like to offer my condolences to the family of the man who was murdered.

Lost on me

London Comedy Festival Ad



Still experimenting with my journey and got a bus (urggh) to Holborn today coming home and then the Dilly line from there. I'd seen these ads from a distance before, and with a couple of minutes to spare, snapped the one below







Is it just me - or is this not very funny? It all a bit schoolboy humour really - landmarks of London looking like food, so we get Piccalilly Circus, The Millenium Wagon Wheel for The London Eye, and some bizarre piles of sarnies - I can sort of see how Marmite, Coleslaw and Chocolate Spread would be Poplar (it wouldn't be popular - that's the joke) but Peanut Butter, Jam and Crabpaste is totally lost on me to represent North Kensington.



Oh well, I'm sure there's a crowd of artists and cartoonists (including Martin Rowson - apparently London's Cartoonist Laureate) somewhere rolling around on the floor.

Just a tad worrying

I don't think it matters whether it was an Iraqi or not but how on earth did someone manage to get into London Underground tunnels at 3am two weeks ago (but it only hit the papers today)







London District secretary of the RMT union said "We are concerned that any unauthorised person should have access to the tracks - particularly at that hour. There would have been time to have hidden anything



We have demanded security checks for those who work on the system but this has not been done. There are subcontractors who wander around without identification"



An LU spokesman said "The safety and security of London Underground is our top priority. Immediately an individual was found in the tunnel he was escorted from the track and questioned by the British Transport Police. The track was searched and nothing was found".



Check out The Standard for more on this

Yahoo Pick of the Day

Cheers Yahoo



Blimey my blog's made it to a Yahoo Pick of the Day for the 1st May, add that to the time when my main site was a Yahoo Pick of the Week (years ago - October 2000) all I can say is Yahoooooooooo



Here's what they said if you don't want to click on the link:



British people love to talk about the weather, it's a fact, and thankfully the crazy weather recently has given us plenty to talk about. In London, however, there is one thing which people love to talk about more than the weather and that is the Tube. Luckily, successive governments have realised the importance of Tube conversations to the general population of London and have striven to make sure that it never works properly. Today's Pick, the London Underground Tube Diary, is a blog about travelling on the Tube daily. The writing is pretty good and the site informative and amusing. So, if you have to cram into the world's grumpiest sardine cans every morning you may well appreciate Tube Diaries' take on commuting.



Not much blogging for the next few days though as it's a Bank Holiday on Monday in the UK - Yahoooooooo (again) and as the pick said - we've had some crazy weather just to coincide with it.