Santas on the Tube - Santacon London 2011

December 10th 2011: over a 1,000 Santas or Santae congregated in Central London (& other cities around the world) to celebrate Christmas in Santacon. I've blogged about Santacon a number of times in the past, but this was the first year I went along myself, dressed as Santa. It was really pleasing to see that large groups of people could still meet up & move around London without it turning into a riot, getting violent or an excuse for police kettling.



Here's my first sight of Santas en mass leaving Embankment Tube where we headed to Trafalgar Square, the lunchtime meeting point for Santacon.



Walking into Trafalgar Square you were faced with a sea of red with Santae swarming the whole square wearing some imaginative costumes






The atmosphere as like a carnival when we left Trafalgar Square and made our way to Piccadilly Circus. Even with masses of us in streets & when cars, motorbikes and buses were stuck in the Santae Jam, the drivers were good humoured as people gave them mince pies & sweets in the spirit of Christmas.

Highlights around that area included a Santaconga, trying to spot Where's Wally? & meeting Anonymous Santa outside of Boots



The Santa band of drummers were superb and kept everyone moving along, Santaconga'ing, dancing, chanting "What do we want? Christmas. When do we want it? Now! Hohooooooooooooooo!" & singing Xmas Songs like Jingle Bells & Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

The dancing continued into Carnaby Street and moved on to Argyll Street heading towards Oxford Street. We were stopped by a row of linked armed police from going onto Oxford Street, but instead of it turning nasty, we just carried on dancing & eventually turned round to head towards Bloomsbury.

@Jemimah_Knight and myself left at this point as we were freezing, tired and wanted to avoid the crush on the Tube home.



My full set of Flickr pictures from Santacon 2011 London are here & @Jemimah_Knight's here too.

I had a fab time and would certainly go again. Just remember to wrap up well, although a number of scantily clad "Lingerie Santas" were showing how Londoners can brave out the winter weather.

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Guess Where Tube 13 - Tube Mouse - Win Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere

Haven't done one of these for a while. It's where I ask you to try to guess from exactly where on the London Underground, the following picture in the London Tube Flickr group was taken from.



With the last Guess Where Tube 12  two people got it right it was the clock at King's Cross Tube station at the top of the Northern Line escalators to be exact.

This week try to guess the exact location of where I spotted this London Underground mouse.  It's possibly the best picture of a Tube Mouse, I've taken as the little thing was running right on the platform by my feet.

As it's the festive season and I'm feeling generous and this one IS extremely hard I will give a prize (it helps to know your Tube flooring). I've turned comments & tagging off the Flickr picture and the only way that people can guess or enter is through this blog post. So try not to look at the comments in front of you before making your guess.

Apparently, an estimated half a million mice live in the Tube system so your chances of seeing them should be pretty high.

The prize up for grabs is my favourite Tube book (Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere) which actually features King Rats on the Underground (one's even on the cover of the book), so seems appropriate to link back to their mini cousins! I often see people reading this on the Tube as it's a great book and should be required reading for Tube commuters.





You have until Sunday 18th December 11.59pm  (UK time) to enter. Make your guesses by then in the comments below and either leave your blog or twitter name or email address so I can get in touch with you if you're the lucky winner.  Anyone who just enters as "Guest" with no means of identifying how to contact them, won't be included in the contest. The person who is the most exact will win & if more than one person guesses the same correct place, I'll put names into a randomizer & select from there.

Good luck!

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Tube Alarm Clock Android App - Wakes you up earlier when Tube Delayed

We all know that delays are one of the most common problems that Tube commuters face. There is of course the handy service updates box on the TfL website, which warns you in advance, so you can leave early or take a different route, but in order to check it before you go to work, you would have to get up early every day, even when there are no delays. So wouldn't it be great if you could get an alarm alert only when there are delays without having to check by hand?

Now there's an app for that and for once not an iPhone or iPad is needed! Here's how the developer describes it: "Underground Alarm is an alarm clock for users of the London Underground (including Overground and DLR). In addition to standard alarm clock features, it can be set to automatically wake you up earlier when there are disruptions on any of the lines you use to get to your destination."

It's a nice and simple app that could make your morning commutes a bit less stressful. There's also a nice little feature where the alarm message is read out like a speaking alarm clock.



It's free for Android phones and you can dowload the Underground Alarm Clock App here.

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Look who I was just sitting opposite on the Tube

Ken on the Tube



It was on the Jubilee Line I saw him from when I got on at West Hampstead & he got off at Baker Street. Did a quick rushed picture onto Twitpic

Lewis Hamilton Heads up Diageo's Free Tube Travel on New Year's Eve

Booze company Diageo, are this year's sponsor of free New Year's Eve travel on the London Underground. After last year's contraversy with high interest online lending company "Wonga" which some London Assembly members called "shameful" and "a total disgrace", Boris decided to play safe & get everyone's favourite driver Lewis Hamilton to promote the idea that instead of drinking & driving we should use the Tube to travel instead.



Lewis Hamilton said "Whilst we all want to have a good time this party season, a good time will be a better one if you can remember it and get home safely. Diageo sponsoring free travel is going to make it a little easier for us to all get home this New Year’s Eve and this campaign will remind us to drink responsibly for a great night out".

An advertising campaign will run across TfL's network including on Tubes, buses and Tube stations promoting responsible drinking. Tube travellers at selected central London stations will receive "top tips" and free bottles of water on some of the busiest party nights of the year (yeah, water from a booze company, remember Boris banned drinking alcohol on the public transport a few years ago) so Diageo can continue to show you how to have a safer night out.

London Underground's MD Mike Brown said "Tens of thousands of people stand to benefit from the sponsorship deal thanks to the Mayor and Diageo. With so many people choosing to enter the New Year in the Capital, it is important that we are able to provide services that will be running throughout the night to get them home safely".



On an strangely empty platform (the eagle eyed & Tube aficianados will know it's because it was shot at Charing Cross's Jubilee Line platform which is closed to the public & now only used for publicity stunts & film location shots), Lewis casually chats with a London Underground operator about what it's like to drive a Tube train.



He then hops into the carriage to pose with some extras about how fun it is to travel on the London Underground over the New Year.  This is probably the only time since Hamilton became famous that he's stepped foot into a Tube carriage.



It's a joy to see how happy he is with his Vodafone mobile clutched in his hand (good luck with WiFi down there Lewis, as not sure what's happening after wifi on the Tube trial) and people smiling happily while drinking their free bottles of water after a fun night out.

Transport for London have been providing free travel for "revellers" on New Year’s Eve since 2001. Diageo has signed a three year deal with TfL to sponsor free travel on New Year’s Eve. This first advertising campaign will run from 9 December until the New Year.

Seriously in my opinion it's a better move to have a drinks company sponsoring free Tube Travel than a bank or online loan company with extremely high interest rates.



What do you think?

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