Bolli off his food

My cat Bolli is well known for liking some nosh or a Nom Nom Nom with the best of us. Last night was the first time I've had him that he wasn't at the door the second he heard the key, saying "Feed Me, Feed Me Now". In fact he wasn't around at all. I shouted "Bolli" and heard a feeble mew from upstairs. He'd been sick and was lying at the top of the stairs doing a convincing impression of looking half dead.

After some frantic calls to the vet (typically it was after hours and the emergency vet number was constantly engaged) some internet searching, some hectic twittering and a long call to my friend, I calmed down a bit as was reassured by a few people. Thanks.

He wasn't doing this last night

Anyway, he's much better now, although still not entirely normal so I'm popping into the vet on the way into work to get a bit of advice and then will take him in for a proper check up.

Cats, who'd have em?

Arena: Underground On The Box

Now I know how film makers and actors must feel when they look at the TV review pages. The final part of a trilogy of London Transport films (although it was actually filmed second) was shown on BBC4 on Saturday night and also repeated last night. Zimena Percival's documentary Arena - Underground featured me (mostly looking like a damn fool) in a history of the London Underground from 1863 to the present day.


As it was a repeat or an "another chance to see" showing from 2007, that meant it probably received fewer reviews this time around, than when it was first aired. So I was pleased to stumble upon the following review from "On the Box" of last night's airing.

"The final part of Arena's London Transport Trilogy doesn't seem like an ordinary documentary. It occupies an interesting niche somewhere between historical re-enactment, fly-on-the-wall docu-drama and talking head show. Which is good, as a simple history of the London Underground could get slightly tedious.

Tedious is something that this one certainly isn't. The program opens with a jerky modern view of a mother and her young son navigating the Tube system. A slightly menacing Cockney voice-over promises to tell the tale of the Underground from its origins back in the 1800s to the present day. The modern mother and son suddenly fly back in time, and we see them on board an early Tube train on their way to a public hanging in 1863.....

In order to keep things spicy, the documentary makers have cleverly spliced historic detail with frequent shots of modern life – Tube drivers giving their accounts of what life is like in dingy subterranea, a psychologist analysing Tube conduct and herd mentality, and a Tube enthusiast advising the viewer on the finer points of Tube etiquette (most important, unsurprisingly, is 'Do NOT look at anyone')."


It was also, "TV Pick of the Day" in the, err, Daily Star. Nice! It's probably the only time that something I'm in will be snuggled between Hollyoaks, EastEnders and Big Brother 9.

London Connections is no more

On Friday evening I made a brief Tweet on Twitter about the demise of London Connections and would like to expand on this now.


For those who didn't know (shame on you for not looking at the Favourite links in my right hand side bar), London Connections, has been a fantastic source of London Transport development projects - including London Underground, DLR, ELL and Tube stuff for almost two years.

Graham Thant, who tirelessly ran the blog, has decided to spend more time working on other projects. He said:

"You know when you're happily watching a TV show, and the credits roll, and out of nowhere the announcer says "That was the last in the present series..."? Well that's this post.

I'd love to continue working on this blog as I have done, but I'd also like to move on to other projects, and I've decided it's best to have a clean break rather than try to keep fingers in every pie.

Thanks to everyone who's read, contributed, linked, corrected, shared, prodded, praised, learnt from, ranted against, puzzled at and pored over the posts here. The archive will stay online, the email address is still working, but for time-being at least my work here is done.".

Graham was a quiet but very helpful supporter of this blog. I met him a number of times at the London Blogger's Meet Ups. We didn't see eye to eye on a number of things. I thought he was a bit of a trainspotter. He probably thought I was a loud mouthed argumentative publicity seeker. But at the end of the day he was one of the few hardcore bloggers, who with little thanks & no payment, did what he did purely out of dedication & a love for the subject matter.

There are over a 100 comments on his final post announcing sadness, thanks and shock at him hanging up his hat. I just want to add to that by saying, I'm sorry to see it go. However, I fully understand the pressure of keeping a blog like that up to date and he's made the right decision in stopping rather than keeping it going in a half hearted fashion.

Yesterday, possibly as a result of GoingUnderground.net and myself being repeated on BBC4's Tube Night on Saturday evening (Arena's - Underground is repeated tonight if you missed it), I was approached by a guy wanting to buy goingunderground.net. I spent ooh, a second thinking about it, and the answer was "Sorry no - not for all the tea in China".

Although I don't really update Goingunderground.net much anymore, I still think nostalgically of it as my main site. It began in 1999 and led to the blog in 2003 and I can't really see myself ever selling it. Perhaps the potential buyer might like to join forces with a number of commenters on London Connections who are offering to contribute to keep it going. Someone's even offering server space and design skills.

We'll see.

Onya Bag Competition Winners!

Thanks to all who entered the competition for the Onya Bags. I don't know if it because I'm looking out for them, but I seriously am seeing more and more people with Onya Bags on the London Underground


I saw this one last week and I also saw a few at the Innocent Village Fete, but the heavens were opening when I saw those so didn't get my camera out to snap them.

Onya Bags very kindly gave me a bundle of bags, just for changing a URL to point to their UK site rather than their parent Aussie site. So rather than keep all of them, I decided to share the booty & set a competition a couple of weeks ago.

Here's a reminder of the questions:

1. Have a look at the post about the London Transport Museum. There's an error in one of the photos - if you're the first person to spot the error I'm thinking of, you get an Onya backpack.

2. Goldfrapp were playing at Lovebox, they performed Happiness, which is my new favourite track of theirs. (Update to say "performed" Happiness at Lovebox was an understatement - it was mind blowingly mad - photos from Lovebox here) Who's the best dancer at the end of the video & why? Person I think has the best reason gets an Onya original bag.


3. That leaves two bags. I'll get Onya involved in this one. Just tell us why you want an Onya bag. The two answers that me & Onya like the most will get an Onya original bag each.

So the winners from the entries are:

1. Philip Ferris who was first in with the typo on the Where 2 Gov cocktail

2. Jon Justice who said "It's got to be the little kid with the afro. Everyone else is bouncing and he's just shuffling round trying to keep up. And I like that before he "dances", he's clapping out of sync with everyone else."

3. The Onya guys judged this and said: "Hi Annie - A group decision in the office and we think the person named Aine and the pretty please first lady". So that's Aine (pronounced Onya) & Joe_90.

Well done to all of you, I've emailed you for your address details and a big thanks once again to the guys and girls at Onya Bags.

Innocent Village Fete 2008 Photos

If you've been travelling on the London Underground for the last month or so, you can't have failed to see the ads for the Innocent Village Fete - another of London's summer festivals. Me and some friends went last year on the hottest day of the year, although unfortunately the weather in London wasn't so great this weekend.


When I left Kew on Saturday the sun was shining brilliantly, but it had been drizzling all morning, so I went prepared for rain. I felt bit of a fool twittering at the station in my Converses with an umbrella, plastic ground sheet / poncho, long jeans and more long sleeved things in my bag.

However, with that typical four seasons in one day Englishness, by the time I was walking through Regent's Park, there was a torrential downpour of rain and various peeps I was meeting there were Twittering & texting me stuff about the inclement weather (Rachel Clarke, Niamh, Anna Mondo & Curlyluddite)


I could see why I knew I wouldn't like festival camping as we splattered & sploshed our way across Regent's Park trying to find a dry spot. But as if by magic, within about ten minutes the sky had cleared, the sun came out to the cheers of other Village Fete'ites and the day turned out nice again.

As usual with Festivals I find that photos tell more than I ever could (Lovebox being a good example). But in case you don't know Innocent (they're the guys that make smoothies and other drinks in the UK) try to keep the English Village Fete theme going in a massive park that's filled with thousands of people. Personally, I think that the "stall holders" last year got into the Village Fete feel a bit more. But there was still plenty of Welly Wanging, knitting, paper hat making, music & fringe events to go round:



I'd completely forgotten that James from the Tube Carriage Offices in the Sky was going to be there with his theatre group Nabokov.


So it was lovely to be warmly greeted by him by the Village Voice Tent. He explained that their ideas tree (pictured above) was for people to hang ideas in a tree which would then be performed by them later this year.

We ended the day lazing in the sun drinking frozen Margaritas (like the Emergency Tube Margaritas but frozen) and listening to a guy playing music in the Big Wheel area.


There was a massive farmer's market at the Fete too, so we had plenty of nice food to eat. I even spotted a nod to The Times Food reviewer & TV bloke Giles Coren (who went ballistic about the word "a" being subbed out of his review) as we left:


My full set of photos from the Innocent Village Fete are here. If you went along, I'd love to know what you thought of the days.