Mayoral Challenge
It's only two days till election day and The Standard decided to ask the front runners for Mayor some general questions about London and they all scored pretty badly - Ken and Simon Hughes (Lib Dem candidate) did the best with four out of nine London questions right - the odious Tory Steve Norris got three and the Green Party Candidate - Darren Johnson - only got two of the London questions correct.
There were obviously a few transport questions:
How much does a weekly zone 1-4 Travelcard cost
I would have given the same answer as Ken:
Ken - I don't know I buy an annual season ticket
Norris - Between �25 and �30, I think but I get a zone 1-3 annual pass myself
Hughes - �15.40 (how can you so precisely give the wrong answer)
Johnson - I'm not sure - I always get an annual one. Maybe about �24.
The correct answer is �29.20
Then it all went horribly wrong for bus champion Ken.
How much does a bus journey into or from Zone 1 cost?
Ken - They're all 70p (hide your head in shame Mr Livingstone)
Norris - �1
Hughes - �1
Johnson - 70p
As much as I hate buses even I know it's a quid for adults.
I quite liked their answers on how they travel to work:
Ken - Tube (yes I have proof of this)
Norris - Bus and Tube. I get the bus to Brixton, then the Victoria Line to Green Park and the number 9 to Kensington High Street (then an essay as to how wonderful his journey is)
Hughes - It varies, sometimes I drive my taxi (errr, what - he has a taxi) or I take the 53 or 453 bus. I used to cycle but my bike was stolen. If I'm elected mayor I will walk to work.
Johnson - I take a train from Brockley to City Hall.
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
Sunday, June 6, 2004
Blogmeetette, Belgos & Booze
Boozing bookheads
On my way home last night from a very enjoyable mini-blog meet (a blogmeetette) at Belgos with The Cartoonist, Plep, Konstantine and Mr Bali Hai - I sat opposite a couple of literary swiggers.
It was quite touching to see the happy couple reading and quietly swigging from a bottle of red wine on a Saturday night. Makes a change from sitting opposite people with cans of Diamond White or bottles of Archers, WKD or the latest alchopop.
Perhaps the man was just reading the book as a pose though, as Penguin have launched a FHM meets TLS campaign trying to get blokes to read saying that women prefer men who read books or "Good looking women prefer good booking men" - there's an intriguing "Readers' Wives" section with tales of people who met their partner through their love of contemporary fiction - or Penguins. Cheers to Ian whose blog I spotted this bizarre campaign on. You can also win a grand if a half dressed woman from Penguin "our stunning Good Booking Girl" spots you reading one of their recommended books of the month.
On my way home last night from a very enjoyable mini-blog meet (a blogmeetette) at Belgos with The Cartoonist, Plep, Konstantine and Mr Bali Hai - I sat opposite a couple of literary swiggers.
It was quite touching to see the happy couple reading and quietly swigging from a bottle of red wine on a Saturday night. Makes a change from sitting opposite people with cans of Diamond White or bottles of Archers, WKD or the latest alchopop.
Perhaps the man was just reading the book as a pose though, as Penguin have launched a FHM meets TLS campaign trying to get blokes to read saying that women prefer men who read books or "Good looking women prefer good booking men" - there's an intriguing "Readers' Wives" section with tales of people who met their partner through their love of contemporary fiction - or Penguins. Cheers to Ian whose blog I spotted this bizarre campaign on. You can also win a grand if a half dressed woman from Penguin "our stunning Good Booking Girl" spots you reading one of their recommended books of the month.
Friday, June 4, 2004
Just about sober enough to blog
Don't drink cider again
Apologies to anyone who was travelling in the carriage with me at TCR (Tottenham Court Road) where I was was wolfing down some fried chicken which must have stunk out the whole carriage.
Funnily enough I managed to grab a picture of the Bernard Manning lookalike butcher in a carriage full of noxious smelling meats advertising the "Don't eat smelly food" latest offering from Saatchi's for the Tube at Paddington earlier today.
I don't normally drink cider and ended up ordering it by accident tonight and then sticking to it, as it was oddly refreshing until I realised that the only food I had eaten today was a bag of crisps and three satsumas ......hmmm healthy!
Fortunately one of my drinking companions (the newly hot ex colleague of mine who had lost over three stone since I last saw him) had not eaten anything at all today, so I didn't feel quite as bad.
Also on the tube I managed to vicariously read the woman opposite me's copy of Hello!/Now!/OK!/Then!/Whatever! and learnt about celebrity cat fights. The only time I ever read these gossip magazines is over someone's shoulder on the Tube or in my hairdressers. The celebrity cat fights were ex Big Brother contestants Jade and Kate (yawn), EastEnders Kat Slater and Dirty Den, Jamie Cullum and Kerry McFadden (WHAAAAAAAAAAT? WHY? It's another world) Posh Beckham and someone else (who cares?) and most weirdly Natasha and Britney (as I know my pop stars, I knew this was Natasha "I'm Singuuuuuuuullllll" Bedingfield (Daniel Bedingfield's younger sister - it's a British thing - these pop siblings are not worth troubling yourself over) and La Spearster.
After the copy of OK! (as it turned out to be) was left behind, a man too old and too suited to know better grabbed it and proceeded to read more of the celebrity cat fights and fortunately he left it behind too, so I grabbed it and rescued it from its Tube travels and will be finding out this weekend why the female Bedingfield and Britney are at loggerheads.
Oh yeah - next Thursday's tube strike's been called off - quelle surprise!!!!! (How can you have a tube strike on election day? - nicely timed guys)
Apologies to anyone who was travelling in the carriage with me at TCR (Tottenham Court Road) where I was was wolfing down some fried chicken which must have stunk out the whole carriage.
Funnily enough I managed to grab a picture of the Bernard Manning lookalike butcher in a carriage full of noxious smelling meats advertising the "Don't eat smelly food" latest offering from Saatchi's for the Tube at Paddington earlier today.
I don't normally drink cider and ended up ordering it by accident tonight and then sticking to it, as it was oddly refreshing until I realised that the only food I had eaten today was a bag of crisps and three satsumas ......hmmm healthy!
Fortunately one of my drinking companions (the newly hot ex colleague of mine who had lost over three stone since I last saw him) had not eaten anything at all today, so I didn't feel quite as bad.
Also on the tube I managed to vicariously read the woman opposite me's copy of Hello!/Now!/OK!/Then!/Whatever! and learnt about celebrity cat fights. The only time I ever read these gossip magazines is over someone's shoulder on the Tube or in my hairdressers. The celebrity cat fights were ex Big Brother contestants Jade and Kate (yawn), EastEnders Kat Slater and Dirty Den, Jamie Cullum and Kerry McFadden (WHAAAAAAAAAAT? WHY? It's another world) Posh Beckham and someone else (who cares?) and most weirdly Natasha and Britney (as I know my pop stars, I knew this was Natasha "I'm Singuuuuuuuullllll" Bedingfield (Daniel Bedingfield's younger sister - it's a British thing - these pop siblings are not worth troubling yourself over) and La Spearster.
After the copy of OK! (as it turned out to be) was left behind, a man too old and too suited to know better grabbed it and proceeded to read more of the celebrity cat fights and fortunately he left it behind too, so I grabbed it and rescued it from its Tube travels and will be finding out this weekend why the female Bedingfield and Britney are at loggerheads.
Oh yeah - next Thursday's tube strike's been called off - quelle surprise!!!!! (How can you have a tube strike on election day? - nicely timed guys)
Thursday, June 3, 2004
Gig on the Tube
Do you think these will take off?
In my comments from a week or so ago Andrew Kendall brought to my attention a band called The Others who actually had a gig on the Hammersmith and City Line between Hammersmith and Liverpool Street on the 22nd May.
It looked like a huge laugh and Andrew has posted some great pictures of the event on his site where the picture below came from:
The last time I saw pictures like this were from a massive party on the tube - The Circle Line Party last year.
Anyway, I asked Andrew for some more information about The Others' gig and he put me on to the Let's Kill The Others Forum and I found out that it was a "normal" gig with crowd surfing, free condoms, booze, crowds, cameras and bootleg recordings which the pictures show (well they don't show the free condoms, but you'll get the general drift). Check out the video on the NME's website.
The best thing about one of the threads on the forum though was a particularly surreal idea about making it a regular occurance and how the Tube might have to change if it was:
"Me and my good friend Mister Toms very much enjoyed the gig on the tube. So today me and Mr Toms had a conversation about the tube and all the crazy things that could happen on it, and Mr Toms came up with this idea:
Themed Months on the tube.
So you could have a Star Wars month were all the tube workers dress up as storm troopers. And the repair men could dress up as rebels. Then say the metropolitan line is down.. instead of saying "The Metropolitan Line is down due to engineering works" it would be "The Engineering line is under assault from rebel forces", said over the tube speaker system in Darth Vader's voice.
And announcements could be made on the tube such as "We are now entering hyper speed". Only it would come on as the tube is inexplicably grinding to a halt (as it always does). And that would really piss people off.
Oh what fun.
And you'd have to change your money from pounds to some weird space currency to use the tubes.
With such genius ideas surely me and Mr Toms should be in control of the whole system. What do you think?"
Perhaps Mr Toms and Plastic Long Breath should take over the Tube. Sounds a lot more fun than the current system.
In my comments from a week or so ago Andrew Kendall brought to my attention a band called The Others who actually had a gig on the Hammersmith and City Line between Hammersmith and Liverpool Street on the 22nd May.
It looked like a huge laugh and Andrew has posted some great pictures of the event on his site where the picture below came from:
The last time I saw pictures like this were from a massive party on the tube - The Circle Line Party last year.
Anyway, I asked Andrew for some more information about The Others' gig and he put me on to the Let's Kill The Others Forum and I found out that it was a "normal" gig with crowd surfing, free condoms, booze, crowds, cameras and bootleg recordings which the pictures show (well they don't show the free condoms, but you'll get the general drift). Check out the video on the NME's website.
The best thing about one of the threads on the forum though was a particularly surreal idea about making it a regular occurance and how the Tube might have to change if it was:
"Me and my good friend Mister Toms very much enjoyed the gig on the tube. So today me and Mr Toms had a conversation about the tube and all the crazy things that could happen on it, and Mr Toms came up with this idea:
Themed Months on the tube.
So you could have a Star Wars month were all the tube workers dress up as storm troopers. And the repair men could dress up as rebels. Then say the metropolitan line is down.. instead of saying "The Metropolitan Line is down due to engineering works" it would be "The Engineering line is under assault from rebel forces", said over the tube speaker system in Darth Vader's voice.
And announcements could be made on the tube such as "We are now entering hyper speed". Only it would come on as the tube is inexplicably grinding to a halt (as it always does). And that would really piss people off.
Oh what fun.
And you'd have to change your money from pounds to some weird space currency to use the tubes.
With such genius ideas surely me and Mr Toms should be in control of the whole system. What do you think?"
Perhaps Mr Toms and Plastic Long Breath should take over the Tube. Sounds a lot more fun than the current system.
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
Back in London - Tube Ordeal?
What a welcome
Ahhh, after just a few days off in sunny (and a bit rainy) Scarborough, it was back to the delights of the tube yesterday and today we face the prospect of a tube strike to concide with the European, Mayoral and local council elections on the 10th June.
But not all doom and gloom, I saw a limbo dancing pigeon yesterday in the waiting room at Glamoursmith. I was sitting staring into space after coming back from King's Cross on the new wooden seats - thinking - ah, another day off work and suddenly a pigeon was inside - pecking on the floor. No one else had been in the room since me, so I wondered how the little blighter had managed to materialise from nowhere. After he'd finished snacking I saw him duck under the little gap beneath the waiting door.
I also received a pretty rude email in bold letters from a tube driver who has his own IRC chat room asking me to add a link to his site as I have "duff" ones on my main site apparently (the two at the top for Eurorail and Railpass - both seem to be working fine to me). How positively would you reply to an email that started:
Annie
Do you respond to e mail these days? This is a repeat I'm sending.
Let's just hope that he's not sitting round the table for the negotiations about the forthcoming strike.
Finally, a nice email from Donal:
At Baker Street today I heard one of the regular announcements reminding pre-pay OysterCard Lovers to touch their card on the reader at "the beginning and end of your Tube or DLR journey". The person in the announcement I heard unfortunately ran their words together somewhat so it came out as "the beginning and end of your Tube ordeal or journey"...
Don't know whether this recording is limited to Baker Street. I may be going mad or hearing things - would love some corroboration.
Donal - maybe you are going mad. But I don't think too many people would be unduly surprised to hear their journey described as an ordeal.
Ahhh, after just a few days off in sunny (and a bit rainy) Scarborough, it was back to the delights of the tube yesterday and today we face the prospect of a tube strike to concide with the European, Mayoral and local council elections on the 10th June.
But not all doom and gloom, I saw a limbo dancing pigeon yesterday in the waiting room at Glamoursmith. I was sitting staring into space after coming back from King's Cross on the new wooden seats - thinking - ah, another day off work and suddenly a pigeon was inside - pecking on the floor. No one else had been in the room since me, so I wondered how the little blighter had managed to materialise from nowhere. After he'd finished snacking I saw him duck under the little gap beneath the waiting door.
I also received a pretty rude email in bold letters from a tube driver who has his own IRC chat room asking me to add a link to his site as I have "duff" ones on my main site apparently (the two at the top for Eurorail and Railpass - both seem to be working fine to me). How positively would you reply to an email that started:
Annie
Do you respond to e mail these days? This is a repeat I'm sending.
Let's just hope that he's not sitting round the table for the negotiations about the forthcoming strike.
Finally, a nice email from Donal:
At Baker Street today I heard one of the regular announcements reminding pre-pay OysterCard Lovers to touch their card on the reader at "the beginning and end of your Tube or DLR journey". The person in the announcement I heard unfortunately ran their words together somewhat so it came out as "the beginning and end of your Tube ordeal or journey"...
Don't know whether this recording is limited to Baker Street. I may be going mad or hearing things - would love some corroboration.
Donal - maybe you are going mad. But I don't think too many people would be unduly surprised to hear their journey described as an ordeal.
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