A regular Tuesday morning in London. Like millions of other commuters around the capital I head for work in something of a daze. Londoners are not known for striking up conversations with each other on commuter trains. Today, however, I witnessed two real-live conversations between strangers. As a result of the derailment on the Northern Line the Bakerloo Line was packed. At the bottom of the escalator at Piccadilly Circus two women had a row about who was pushing who as they tried to get to the top before each other. It wasn’t a deep and meaningful exchange but it was a conversation (of sorts) between two strangers – which was certainly different. The second instance also took place on the escalators but this time Waterloo. The advertisements on the walls were for O2’s lower-cost calls from home service. They are a series of postcodes. A family riding up didn’t understand the message and another tube-rider chipped in with his opinion on the ads. He too failed to understand the message. I guess there’s something in that for O2’s ad agency but for me it was an eye-opener that people are, perhaps, not so self-involved on the London Underground.

On this day…

2005: links for 2005-10-21
2002: Wasted Weekends

I have been away on holiday for a week and am moving into catch-up mode.

As a child I frantically wrote letters the week before going on holiday so that I would have a nice pile of unopened mail upon my return. Yesterday, there was, of course, a mass of mail on the doorstep but most of it was corporate mass-mailings or junk of some description. My email inboxes were the same but where are the communications I actually want?

Back in the office, most of the mail is not junk and has to be dealt with but, as ever, procrastination gets the better of me. I’ve read it all and acted on the urgent. The rest is delayed for the “catching-up” excuse can last another 24 hours. Shameful, wasteful and it will be – ultimately – frustrating for me but that is the spirit of putting-off.

On this day…

2003: Marriage Protection Week 2003
2002: Starmaker, Dream Breaker

As the British tend to do, we will look back on this past summer with joy. We’ll talk about it like we did that of 1976 – a long, hot, lazy, crazy summer. I was more likely to be playing in a paddling pool than worrying about shortages of the plastic pools back then but I do remember the heat and picking the fruit from my father’s fruit bushes while sitting in the back garden. Sadly, the topless lads playing football on the green behind my house has given way to to the Sunday morning rugby matches. This is a sign of the on-coming winter as the fields turn from their burnt golden grass to a dark-brown mud bath. Still, autumn comes first and it’s my favourite of seasons. I think it’s time I got the camera out to start recording some of it.

On this day…

2004: Shrewsbury Town
2002: Nearly There
2002: Ultimate Boy Band CD (1)

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that the addition of SkyPlus into our household has transformed my television viewing. I appreciate this does make me sound like all the TiVo fans out there but I think it really does make a difference to some people. Nonetheless, fads in television viewing still exist. This time last year I was a big fan of The Shield on Channel Five – I thought it was quite innovative – but it quickly became another formula driven cop-show. On the other hand, Channel Four’s Teachers, now showing it’s third series on Wednesday evenings, remains one of the sharpest programmes on screen at the moment and more surreal by the week. I’m starting to walk past real life schools looking for donkeys in the playground and teachers smoking around the back.

On this day…

2004: The End Of September
2002: Morally Ambiguous Cop

I have been unintentionally silent for a week. It’s funny because I can’t pin down the reasons for the lack of attention this site has had in the last seven days or so.

Anyway, I finally caught up on some episodes of Sex And The City which has been sitting on my SkyPlus and it finally dawned on me (seemingly after the rest of the nation) that this is a faked advertisement for Absolut. How come I didn’t catch on to that then?

Am I the only person who thinks that the Absolut Hunk, Jason Lewis, has more than a passing resemblance to Calvin Klein model, Travis Fimmel. Perhaps it’s just me and the fact that long hair has never been much of a turn on for me before. Anyway, apparently Travis is playing Tarzan in a new Warner Brothers serial which means there’s lots of reason to see him with no shirt on should the show ever make it to the UK (although he is, apparently, not that happy about having to take his shirt off all the time – via Let Me Get This Straight).

Sill with the media, last Wednesday brought the revelation that one of my favourite broadcaster’s, Eddie Mair, is leaving Broadcasting House (the show and, maybe, the building). Sometimes you just can’t tell when he’s being serious or of it’s just his humour. Anyway, don’t miss his final shows on Radio Four, Sundays.

Media Guardian’s site (source of the above) also brought us an interesting profile of Graham Norton (originally from yesterday’s Observer) talking about his forthcoming attempt to break on America. It seems he has developed quote a cult following in the US (Jase is a big fan) and, perhaps, it might not be too bad for the UK to take a little break from Graham. I really miss the fact that the guests on the original So Graham Norton shows didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. Nowadays, they’ve either done it before or been warned in advance. I’m sure he’ll come up with something to move the show along and I think it’s probably a very wise thing for him not to start on one of the big US networks.

Which brings us, more-or-less, to today and the very good news that London’s Mayor is stopping those advertisements for holiday companies that say things along the line of “romantic, mixed-sex couples only”. Sandals, the resorts in question, advertise under the slogan, “Love is all you need”. Yeah right. [Source: The Independent]

On this day…

2004: I Pressed The Button
2002: Sunday

Yesterday afternoon I took advantage of London Open House Day to visit a building I’d always wanted to explore – Bush House, home of the BBC World Service. The BBC occupied it from 1940 (and should be out by 2008) and it feels as grand as the home of the Empire Service should. Parts of the building are listed so they can’t do much work to alter the place so it does feel like you are stuck in a time warp. The tour got to visit a studio in the basement (on top of the original swimming pool) which was the highlight.

Pictures of the construction of some of the buildings hung on the walls. One showed the central building completed and standing alone at Aldwych Circle. In front of the building were entrances to a subterranean tram-way. When I was looking at it I assumed this was some early form of the London Underground as we know it (and, perhaps, it was). But – and by coincidence – I was reading Phil Gyford’s site earlier and came across a link to Subterranea Britannica.

Fascinated, as I am, by the hidden tunnels around London I was reading some of the entries when I came across references to the Kingsway Tramway Subway – which, it would seem, had an entrance right outside Bush House. The last tram ran in 1952 but, apparently, you can still see parts of the tunnels to this day. Of course, much of it is now part of the traffic subway (opened in 1964) but it’s another wonderful piece of London’s history which I will hunt out.

On this day…

2004: Jesus Christ Superstar
2002: Tired

Does life change in a year? One year ago today, an American Colleague was visiting the UK office for the first time. I showed her some of the sites of London including the London Eye and Old Compton Street!

It seems a lot more than a year ago. I’ve got a new job since then but I guess day-to-day life is not that different. I’m lucky to be living in one of the most vibrant cities in the world and, in spite of the fact it gets me down occasionally, I love it.

On this day…

2002: Old Compton Street At Night

Yet again, I have been in Helsinki (see May or August) and yet again I did not get to see very much of it. This time, however, it is all my own fault as I did have a couple of spare hours after the meeting and I filled them by wandering around the shops rather than doing something useful.

In fact, this has been the theme for my life for the past week or so. I haven’t found the enthusiasm to do very much at all and given it was my birthday at the end of last week, this seems very sad.

I’m not sure what rot has set in but it’s about time I got out of it. In a bizarre way, a freshly ironed pair of trousers made my morning all the better today. I can’t explain that one and I am not going to try.

What have I missed out on while away? I don’t know what has happened this week in the Hutton Inquiry (which I have been following with some interest). However, on a related note, Lord King was a guest on the BBC’s Hardtalk programme (shown on BBC World) on Tuesday and he provided an interesting insight into the politician/intelligence relationship.

On a lighter note, I have missed the start of The Salon (which is not bad thing) and Jase introduced us to the concept of Washboard Envy!

On this day…

2004: More Long Wave Radio

This little gem almost slipped by today. There are some things that you just hope are true:

A 40 year-old Wisconsin man has put in a strong bid for the dumbest criminal of the year after he allegedly stole a GPS tracking device used to monitor criminals on probation.

[Source: The Register]

On this day…

2004: View From Above
2002: Ban Me?

I’ve mentioned before that TypePad seems like a cool tool if you want to start personal publishing and need a hosting service to sort it all out for you.

What’s fascinating about Typepad is the “Now Reading” section – which I think is a configurable option. Now is it just me or do TypePad users seem to have a lot of books on the go at any one time? I know I struggle to try and keep two books on the go at once (see cityofsound, Not A Dollar Short, Anil …

On this day…

2006: Technology Overkill?
2004: Long Wave Is The Home Of Hit Music
2003: Listen to Musak in August
2002: The Joy of September