Recycling

Genuinely laughed-out-loud on the 0633 to London Bridge today, at this from one of the 'Adam & Joe' Twelve Podacsts Of Christmas:

Joe: "So, 'Nil By Mouth' - a real tour de force."

Adam (as Ray Winstone*): "Yeah, well I've always liked cycling, the bikes and all that, love it..."

I may have woken some people up with my guffawing. Sorry about that.

* because he had a cold, obviously

I Came, I Saw, IKEA

Some things in life leave you flabbergasted. Spurs sticking nine past Wigan, the continued popularity of I'm A Celebrity, the existence of a massive Waitrose in Bromley, that kind of thing. However, today my flabber has been gasted in the very best of ways, at that bastion of Saturday-morning male despair known as...

...IKEA.

We went (early) to look at some options for a wardrobe; as I'm sure you are aware, at IKEA these are legion. However, they had the one we liked, on display, with the doors we wanted, in a colour we didn't know existed but preferred, with the shelf/drawer/hanging options we wanted, in stock and for no apparent reason, at a discounted price.

When we spoke to the assistant (who had magically appeared as we started writing things on our tiny piece of paper with our tiny pencil) he shook his head with a wry smile, beckoned us over to a computer and helpfully printed the whole picking list out for us, with the correct internal codes for the warehouse guys. The warehouse guys were all at their post, waiting to take orders; they took ours, and went to get the doors and heavy stuff. Within 3 minutes they were back, with it all on a trolley and we were paying. We went to Home Delivery (these are 2.5m glass doors, no way I'm getting them in the Scenic...) who helpfully said we could have it all delivered*. Tomorrow. Sunday. SUNDAY! We left it with them before they could change their minds and drove home, speechless.

I am flabbergasted :)

* Obviously, my innate sense of Britishness is still nagging away, telling me that they'll actually turn up on Tuesday afternoon when no-one is home with a 7ft pot plant, three stuffed crocodiles and a gross of energy-efficient lightbulbs, but for now, big up IKEA.

Modernisms #3

Astonishingly, a further instalment in the ongoing series of Things You Wouldn't Have Heard Ten Years Ago:

#3: I need to top up my Oyster

Travel used to be relatively straightforward. You wanted to go somewhere, you bought a cardboard ticket from a large man in a small office, you got on your chosen mode of transportation and you got off again at the other end. As that irritatingly ubiquitous meerkat might opine, "Simples!". However, rather like the proliferation of self-service checkouts in supermarkets, London Transport came up with* the rather super idea of allowing people to come and go as they please on the tube and buses, as long as they carried with them a credit-card sized, pre-paid 'token'. Brilliant. Or, in fact, not. Because as fast as they could introduce rules to govern the use of these cards, regular travellers were not only finding ways to bend the rules and commute for cheap and/or free (compulsory amongst the modern youth) but also that the system utterly failed to take account of relatively normal city-wide travel behaviour; unsuspecting Oyster punters were often charged the full single fare for entering a tube station at which they were told the line they wanted was closed but they would have to swipe their Oyster card to get out and try a different route. Brilliant money-making scam; less-effective urban transport policy. They claim to have fixed that now, although 2010 sees the Oyster system being extended to the entirety of the suburban London railway network. I know; God help us all.

* OK, they copied it from any number of other schemes around the world, not least the similarly-monikered Octopus card in Hong Kong, but give me a break here...

You've Been Jugged

As I popped out for a bite to eat this morning, a smartly-dressed young man with exotic sideburns stopped me in the street, asked if I was Jewish and, confusingly, waved a lemon in my face.

Do I look like I am a) Jewish or b) riddled with scurvy or c) both? And what would you call the Jewish version of a chugger - a Jugger?

Obviously, I was tempted to grab his hand and shout 'Ken!' to find out more, but I was in desperate need of a bacon sandwich.

Weird.

Time Travelling

Recently, I had cause to travel into central London on a Sunday, to watch England play Australia in a cricket match.

Obviously, this blatant disregard for the Sabbath meant I should have had an inkling but as I checked my options I found that the 1) Jubilee Line (to St John's Wood) was closed and that 2) Charing Cross trains were diverting to Blackfriars which might have been OK but for the fact that 3) Blackfriars tube station was closed for running repairs, so I thought about taking our other line to 4) Victoria but the trains to there were not running from Catford due to over-running engineering works, which meant I could still walk over the hill to 5) Honor Oak Park but Southern Trains were only running southbound from Platform 2 due to roof repairs which was the wrong direction for me so I had to wait a further 30 minutes for a reduced service from 6) Catford Bridge to London Bridge, get a shuttle to Charing Cross, take the Bakerloo to Baker Street and walk a further 20 minutes to Lords.

And we lost.

Looking forward to the 2012 Olympics, anyone? Christ.

Code Red

I have been wittering about La Roux for a while and now - finally - the eponymous album is released. OK, it's not actually out until Monday but there's this thing called the Internet...

So, having seen the savaging that the Little Boots LP took a few weeks ago, it might have been whispered that the kooky 80s lady synth pop revival championed by Radio 1 et al at the end of 2008 might be over before it has really begun. However, there is a lot here to shout about, not least Elly's soaring (others might say strident but I disagree) voice and the apparent return of the well-crafted song. The arrangements are deliberately simplistic (think 1981/82 Depeche Mode) but none the worse for that; a whole host of remixers have pounced on the space left around the vocals and created some amazing club tracks which have clearly helped to keep La Roux from the 'sharks' for the moment.

Apart from the singles 'Quicksand', 'In For The Kill' and out-now 'Bulletproof', the stand out track (and if it were me, obvious next single) is 'Tigerlily', even with the hammy vampiric spoken-word middle eight (from Elly's dad, apparently). But the rest is not filler; 'Fascination' has a fantastic earworm chorus hook and if we don't see 'Armour Love' given the South London dubstep treatment in the next six months I'll eat my blog. Definitely worth investigating.

You Do The Moth

Burial and Four Tet have collaborated on a 12″ release, each apparently having had a hand in the production of each others tracks; a fantastic 'style-meld' from two of my favourite producers.

‘Moth’ is the most immediate with huge deep kicks and detuned synths and vocal shards - Burial house anyone?

‘Wolf Cub’ definitely has more of a Four Tet feel to the instrumentation but with those South London late-night atmospherics lending an uneasy air to proceedings.

Anyway, I suggest you buy it. Now. Go on!

(via nialler9)

Front Of House

Found this interesting bit of London history via Google Sightseeing on Twitter: 24 Leinster Gardens

Morning Has Broken

Today was the first day this year that I have awoken, showered, dressed and left the house to get my train all in some kind of actual morning daylight. Added to which, the first track that came on when I plugged in my headphones was this, which is beautiful (and given that I was about to get on a train in the light for the first time in months, somewhat apt).



Vector Lovers - 'Metrolux Forever'

Change 23

Today's change was a visit to a new (to us) restaurant, Sapporo Ichiban in Catford Broadway. What can I say - fantastic Japanese food including fresh gyoza, ramen, teriyaki & katsu, all made to order in front of you and at credit-crunch prices. Whilst nothing to look at from the outside, the 'sunken' tables at the rear are an fun & interesting feature and it would be worth coming with a big group and taking advantage of the unlimited buffet, with a shed-load of Sapporo (what else!) Did I mention they do takeaway as well? We have a new favourite place...

Devon Knows

A funny thing happened last Wednesday. I took the wicket of an England international cricketer. Clean bowled, middle stump, for a duck, at The Oval. Now before you start going through the bins to see what kind of absinthe I was on the night before, gentle reader, please carry on...

Ollie, one of the fine members of the Gentleman's Relish Amateur Cricket Club, won a prize draw to play in an invitational Twenty20 sponsored by Betfair. After we'd all stopped jumping up and down, details emerged that we were to play a representative team from that esteemed organ [insert your own joke here] The Sun, who were raising money for a war veterans charity. Each team was to be captained by an ex-England international; in our case, the very talented (6-60 against the Aussies) but sadly underused Dean Headley and for the Currant Bun, one Devon Malcolm, conquerer of the Saffers at the Oval with 9-57 in 1994.

Now a full report will be posted shortly on the GRACC site but it was a fantastic match, with two remarkably similar innings - early wickets, middle order taking back control, the extras mounting up before a flurry of runs and wickets again at the tail.

Even though we narrowly lost (by just 2 runs!) we had a brilliant day, the highlights being Dave ripping the heart out of their top order with 4 for 15, Damien's massive six into the stands and, without getting too carried away, the most amazing, astonishing, absolutely astounding moment of my cricketing career - bowling ex-England international fast bowling legend Devon Malcolm for 0. Inswinging yorker, beat the bat, right through the gate, timber everywhere. What's that you say? Yes, yes - but where are the photos*?

Oh, go on then...








* And huge thanks to Katie's dad, Gus, for the snaps; talk about shot(s) of a lifetime!

Saturday's Alright For Breakfast

Last Saturday, we suddenly had a free weekend so Solveig decided to get her hair done in East Dulwich. We piled into the dark-green-medium-sized-middle-aged-French-family-car and thought we might take in some breakfast on the way. Due to some serious faffing (me) in Ed, it turned out that we didn't have very much time in the end and in a bit of a panic we stumbled through the doors of what I initially thought was just a wine shop but which turned out to be attached to a really fantastic little café called Green & Blue on Lordship Lane.

Solveig shot off to her appointment and I settled in with a really great coffee and some warm ham & cheese croissants (although I want to go back and try the home-made baked beans on rye bread which I jealously watched being taken to another table). Freyja was very happy with her cloudy apple juice and scoffed all the 'hom' in sight...

...and Theo was impeccably behaved as usual:

Up to the park at Goose Green next for some running and sliding and climbing and rocking and swinging...
...where I noticed the Carhartt-clad Dulwich dads were out in force (eight of them - I rather got the feeling they're turfed out on a Saturday morning and told not to come back until Football Focus is on). Quality time indeed - added to which, Solveig came back with a great new haircut and we bought fantastic food (lamb rolls, sweet potato pies, harissa & bean salad) from the Northcross Road street market for an al fresco lunch back home in the garden:

Lovely.

I realise I don't often post about family things (Solveig does it so much better!) but this was just so very nice indeed :)

Dubstep Allstars In Their Eyes

I remember last year flagging up Fairtilizer after stumbling across it chasing some Klaxons shit or other. Anyway, they very kindly emailed me this dubstep playlist which is very much of the bomb, in my humblest of opinions:



The Rusko and Benga tracks are particularly, er, vibrant :)

Overheard #40

Local pub or local butcher? You decide...

I don't have a problem with the killing, it's the sawdust...

BiTE Me

Ever feel peckish at a railway station but feel they bump the prices up because of a 'captive audience'? Well you can get 20% off with the BiTE card...

BiTE, the free discount card for rail travellers
Millies Cookies, Ixxy's Bagels, Ritazza, Upper Crust, Delice de France, The Pasty Shop, Burger King, etc

Late-night post-pub munchies just got cheaper! Not that I would ever ... I mean, only if ... I'll stop now.

Winner Takes All(en)?

Missed 'Lily Allen and Friends'? Regrettably not.

BBC3 - new look, new schedule. One headline-grabbing part of which is the aforementioned so-called chat show; could we have a new Parky for the MyFaceBebook generation? No, I'm sorry; it was utter shite. That's 42'25" of my life I will never get back. Apparently, ~50 audience members walked out of the recording - what, not all of them? Was there something wrong with their legs? Good grief.

Whilst I have previously admitted that she can just about hold a tune and, to be fair, does capture a certain element of the modern LDN zeitgeist, she's no Russell Harty. The most entertaining bit (and stay with me here) was when she asked her interviewee if he had ever thought of calling his child "Cuba Gooding Junior, Junior" and proceeded to get the giggles. Yes, that was the funniest bit. Please make it stop...

(On another note, in that ad up there for BBC iPlayer, hasn't she been Photoshopped to within an inch of an ungodly, if somewhat intriguing, liaison of Anna Friel and Natalie Imbruglia? Anyone? Bueller?)

Overheard #35

A kitchen in North London:

"He'll probably stagger home with someone dressed as a large Brie."
"You'd better watch out; they'll be after a fromage á trois..."

*applause*

Table Not Found

I wonder how long they waited for their food to turn up?

Look a little closer...Oh come on, it's not that geeky...

Very Burial

I have been boring everyone silly with how good the Burial albums are; I think I still prefer the eponymously-titled first one, despite the reviewers raving over 'Untrue', (which is still awesome).

Anyway, there is a fantastically-moody and yet still dancefloor-friendly remix by Boy 8-bit which I hope will whet the appetite for more of the same:


via Nialler9 and Mad Decent and do contact me via the comments if I should take this down or something...

HelvetICA

Last night, I spent 80 minutes looking at a font.

Helvetica*

Alex has written a brief review here with which I concur, on the whole. So type designers (should they be known as 'font fiddlers'?) are a bit crazy. And people who make films about type designers are also somewhat on the squiffy side :)

But it was a very entertaining documentary with some lighthearted moments - and that was, I think, the first time I have been to the cinema since Freyja was born in December 2005. It was really enjoyable; the ICA is a very intimate venue, with only ~6 rows of ~10 seats. There was a good deal of chuckling and light-hearted comment; it was more like watching the film in your front room, on a massive telly with a few mates round.

And yes, you were even allowed to take your beer in.

* this may not be Helvetica, obviously

Dali-ston Junction

Nicely observed.

The Surreal Line

"On other trips, I've seen a woman waft a man with handfuls of cash, a giant offer a businessman a plateful of jelly and a mischievous squirrel attempt to leave a box on a man's shoulder. I've sat in a train and been eyed up by gawping giants. Watched a pair of eyes roll by the carriage windows, sneaking a peak at a commuter's paper in the time-honoured tradition. Before I can point this out to anyone, as if by magic, I'm suddenly back again. Like Mr Benn, with a token souvenir of his dressing room travels, all I have left are these pictures."

[via Going Underground]

W3 Compliant

Today is Blog Action Day. Regrettably, I mis-read this online call-to-arms and so prepared the below.

Acton is now a suburb of West London about 5 miles from the centre, and well within the built-up area, but for the greater part of its history, consisted of only a small cluster of houses around the medieval Church of St. Mary's, providing refreshment for travellers on the road from London to Oxford.

A settlement at Acton is mentioned in the Doomsday book of 1086, and the church of St. Mary's is first recorded in the early 13th Century. The original medieval chapel was enlarged by the building of a nave, and much later a tower.

Acton is now changing, with media and lighter industry taking over from the heavy industry. With easy access to Central London, Acton remains a popular place to live, with new housing being built at many sites.

Sorry.

First Ade

Emmanuel Adebayor has auctioned his hat-trick shirt, the one he wore in the 5-0 win against Derby, for £50,000 in an auction to raise money for leukaemia research. He really is a jolly nice chap (and he can keep scoring beauties like the one against Spurs all season long, if you don't mind, please).

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Frank Lampard has donated his shirt from last Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Manchester Utd to Shelter. A spokesman said they were "very grateful and hoped to be able to house up to fifty homeless people inside it in the very near future".

*flees*

Some You Win...

What a peculiar week.

My man Stuart Broad gets clobbered for six sixes in one over in the Twenty20 World Cup, England go out & Freddie is injured (again).

Then Arsenal crush Sevilla 3-0 with an outstanding display of Cruyff-esque attacking football (Thierry who?)

But to cap it all, The Special One only goes and resigns from Chelski and Spurs put SIX past a team who sound like a disease. Even Darren Bent managed to score; ergo, they must have been sh**.

You really couldn't make it up :)

Top Posting

Wasp (Not Wasp)

I was stung by a wasp for the first time ever yesterday. It gently landed on me, looked casually about, walked about five paces then stung the merry hell out of my forearm. Luckily, I had the speed of thought and presence of mind to let go of everything I was holding and attend immediately to this unprovoked attack. Regrettably, the thing I was holding was a pushchair with our daughter in it which, as we had been happily strolling around Greenwich Park, promptly accelerated down the hill away from the Royal Observatory. Oh how we laughed, as we chased frantically after her buggy, careering at high speed towards the carved stone pillars of the National Maritime Museum.

So anyway, I was stung by a wasp for the first time ever yesterday.
The absolute bastard.

Meet And Two Pints

I went to my first ever Lewisham Bloggers Meetup last Friday night, handily enough held at our excellent local, The Honor Oak.

I had no idea what to expect; the internet all-too-easily removes any kind of geographical points of reference, What could we possibly all have in common other than sticking our random and seemingly unrelated thoughts up online once a day/week/roughly-whenever-the-hell-they-feel-like-it? It stemmed from the London Bloggers idea which I joined a while back, soon after which a couple of people made contact via the comments on fork handles...

...fast forward to Friday night at The Honor Oak, everyone was very welcoming, absolutely engrossing and a great pity I couldn't stay for longer than a couple of beers. Still, if they'll have me back, I'd very much like to continue some of the conversations I had with Andrew, Henry, Neil and Robert (who was responsible for organising the evening -> *applause*) and also meet those who I missed when they arrived later on!

Yep, count me in for the next one. Now, what on earth was that thing about underground waterways??

One For The Rails?

The ever-reliable Going Underground comes up trumps again with this Tube map 'mashup' on LastRounds.

LastRounds Tube Map
It tells you the times of the first/last Underground service from each station, as well as the staggering distance from the local hostelries. So you can order that final pint of Stocks Old Horizontal, safe in the knowledge that you can still catch the last tube home. Genius (and minicab drivers are going to hate it :)

Pass-berry Beret

Arsenal appear to have signed The Artist Formerly Known As Prince:

Actually, he's a Croatian-Brazilian by the name of Eduardo da Silva who was the record goalscorer for Dinamo Zagreb last season with 34 goals.

As I said, "Trust Arsene".

Smoother Ride

Going Underground tells of another new design for the Tube map, this time with curves, making it easier to follow whilst being more similar to the geographical map (without the scale issues that brings in the very middle and at the outer reaches):

I really like it - clean, easy-to-read and indicates better the actual direction you are heading. But is London ready for it - what do you think?

Shaking That Brass

I like this - the Central Band Of The Royal British Legion's re-working of Gravity's Rainbow by lovable Nu-Rave mop-tops, Klaxons:

Gravity's Rainbow

Remember that Acid Brass CD by the Williams Fairey Band from back in the day? 2001!

EC peasy

I must be a middle-aged Dad. Whilst perusing the excellent Strange Maps blog just now, I found this very interesting Postcode Map of Great Britain.

In the comments is an explanation of how they got numbered in London which was initially based on the alphabetical order of the area names (except W1, N1, E1, etc which were the areas closest to the City). So, for example, SE2 = Abbey Wood; SE3 = Blackheath; SE4 = Brockley; SE5 = Camberwell, etc.

However, once they needed to create some more postcode areas beyond SE20 it all went a bit wonky, which is why our home in SE23 (Honor Oak Park) is squeezed in between SE4 and SE6. Fascinating (but YMMV, obviously...)

Woof Woof

So it's splashed all over the papers that José Mourinho has been cautioned by the authorities for trying to get rid of a dog. Well I'm no Chelsea apologist, but even I think that's a bit harsh - Michael Ballack has had at least a few decent games this season...

Run Forrest (Hill) Run

In a weak moment, I managed to somehow agree to sign up for the Arbuthnot Securities team to enter the 5km (3.5 mile) JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge. So, eight weeks to get up to optimum fitness (although more pressing might be to purchase some suitable running shoes...) Anyway, one of my team members pointed me at Gmaps Pedometer, a Google Maps mashup which allows you to put in a route with various marker points and it calculates the distance run/walked/staggered. And this is my training route:

Gmaps Pedometer :: SE23 :: 3.7 miles

Wish me luck...

Do Not Pass Go(dalming)

The makers of Monopoly, Hasbro, are bringing out a Here & Now UK Edition. You can vote for which locations are included and the leaderboard currently shows St Albans & Sheffield taking the Mayfair & Park Lane positions with Cambridge third (Bond Street). York is just sneaking into the list (Whitechapel) ahead of St Andrews (Old Kent Road).

Monopoly: Vote For Your City

All jolly good fun but I will not be buying one, whatever the final outcome, as I have my fantastic Arsenal Monopoly set (although they missed a trick by not putting Tony Adams on the Go To Jail square :)

Have A Nice Triptych

Fred Deakin (yes, him out of Lemon Jelly) has just released "The Triptych", a fantastic 3-CD album in which he ushers us on a musical meandering in a clapped-out campervan through the busy B-roads of his extremely extensive vinyl vaults. Eclectic? You bet. Ninety tracks of juxtapositional jump-cut and segway surprises await...

I got my copy from those extremely nice people at (pigeonhold-endorsed!) Disque who casually mentioned that there was a 'mystery' 4th CD containing tracks that they couldn't licence for the official release. So they sent me that as well! And then, they threw in some promos to make up for the extra cost of the postage! Two thumbs up for the mighty Disque please, people.

Jaxx Of All Trades

Following on from the Lily Allen post the other week, another nice site for tracking down the, er, influences on your favourite sample-tastic artists is Palms Out Sounds which has its regular 'Sample Wednesday' dedicated to just that task.

Previously these have included De La Soul, OutKast and Daft Punk but this week it was the turn of those nice South London boys, Basement Jaxx:

Some absolutely corkers too: ESG (Jump & Shout), Locksmith (Red Alert) and Chic (Just 1 Kiss), to name but three. Smoooooove...

Let's Hear It For The Kids

So it was not to be :(

Chelsea won the Carling Cup 2-1 in Cardiff in a match that had everything - three good goals, a mass brawl (followed by three sendings off) and an astonishing 11 minutes of added time. Both their goals came from the on-fire Didier Drogba after Theo Walcott had given us an early lead - the youngest ever scorer in a League Cup Final and his first goal for Arsenal - with a quality finish after a neat one-two with Diaby (who also had a great game before having to go off injured) on the edge of the box :


Arsenal were rampant for the first twenty minutes of each half but Petr Cech kept Chelsea in the match with fine saves from, amongst others, Baptista and Diaby. If we'd been two up going in at half time it could well have been a rather different story. But 'ifs' (and indeed, 'buts') don't win trophies and as our youngsters visibly faded towards the end, Chelsea were that bit more experienced. The fracas was a bit unseemly but even Fat Frank had to admit that it just showed how much both sides wanted to win.

Unfortunately, we now lose Touré and Adebayor (unless we can appeal his card for mistaken identity - stand up, Mr Eboué) for three matches at exactly the wrong time. FA Cup replay aside, the run-in to the end of the season is hotting up and we need to be thinking of leapfrogging Liverpool into third place with our two games in hand. Bah.

Anyway, I'm hugely proud of the 'Young Guns'; some of the fluid passing, movement and interplay was awesome to behold and for a team of so-called kids they made the Premiership champions look positively pedestrian for lengthy periods of the match. The future's bright, the future's red & white :)

(And I'm also genuinely glad that John Terry seems to have recovered - Abou Diaby looked visibly shaken after the accidental boot -> face incident. Foot high, head low? Immaterial as long as he's OK; nobody wants to see players seriously injured like that, especially in what was one of the most open and enjoyable cup finals for a very long time.)

Alright, Steal

Having recently been 'outed' as a fan of some of Lily Allen's "Alright, Still" album (thanks, Rowan) I stumbled across this on the music-like-dirt blog:

"Here's a little compilation for you all to nab. It's the originals of [some of] the tracks Lily samples on her album, and a few others that may or may not have been influences."

*nods head in big-up-dub-stylee-come-now-my-selecta-one-time-an-ting*

Intrastation Conversation

Tube Gossip: As Heard On The Underground

Greg Stekelman (aka TheManWhoFellAsleep) has been collecting snippets of conversation he has overheard on the London Underground for the last five years. Stripped of all context, they are quite strange/funny/sad accordingly. Randomly selected highlights include:

• £40 million? It's peanuts. The government probably spends that in a day on traffic cones.
• I can feel my mind beginning to dislodge itself.
• I've still got that sachet of wet towels from the Turkish restaurant.
• She said she's going to mum's for Christmas and dad's for Boxing Day.
• Your rucksack is full of string.

He's also written a book; I think I may have to check it out:

Update: Alex & Kat already had it so they have very kindly lent it to me (unread too!)

That's Just Capital

Whilst dino-spotting the other day, we were alerted to the fact that we had just completed part of the Capital Ring:

I can't help but wonder who came up with the logo...

Doyouthinkhesaurus?

After lunch at Alex & Kat's new house down in Gipsy Hill yesterday, we decided to walk off all that excellent coq-au-vin with a stroll in the afternoon sunshine (surely "light drizzle" - Met Ed.) and took Freyja down to see Crystal Palace Park. On the way, there was some crazy talk regarding Victorian dinosaurs and, after meandering past the remains of the 1851 Great Exhibition building (which unfortunately burnt down in 1936) lo and behold, there they were:

Quite bizarre but really rather splendid. Apparently, the sculptor once took tea inside one of the beasts but ended his days as an invalid in the Debtor's Prison. Fascinating stuff.

And Freyja, true to form, slept all the way round :)

(Thanks once again to AutoStitch for the automagic panoramic photo)

We're On Our Way To, Er, Cardiff...

I have just about recovered from the drama of the extra-time win over Spurs at the Emirates last night. We had decent seats just above the losing visiting supporters in the new South Bank and the atmosphere was amazing for a midweek Carling Cup match; the noise never relented (OK maybe a smidgeon, shortly after they equalised with five minutes to go...) Anyway, our 'kids' are in the final against Chelsea on Sunday 25 Feb and Arsene has promised to stick with the team that has got this far (quite correctly, in my humble opinion).

Goooooooooooooners!

So to celebrate all of the above, here is Freyja having a little dance:

The Old and the New

Today was my birthday. I am 36. I am a square.

In other news, Arsenal's young lions (starring Walcott, Denilson, Hoyte & Traore) fought back from 2-0 down against Spurs to draw 2-2 in the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final. Julio "The Beeeeeeeast" Baptista bagged both (whilst also netting an own goal...) to set up the second leg at the Emirates for a do-or-die showdown next Wednesday 31st.

For which, luckily enough, I now have tickets...

London Bloggers Do It On The Tube (But Mostly Standing Up)

I think this is a great idea. London-based blogs arranged by stations on the Underground and Rail network:

I now know that I share the Honor Oak Park blogosphere with the thoughtful BobFromBrockley, a self-confessed confused 22-year-old medical student and the writer of an as-yet-unpublished book about a fictional Victorian landscape gardener.

Bravo, everyone. Why not join us...

Tube(TM)

What the London Underground map might look like if the stations had appropriate sponsorship:

Personal favourites - Perriervale, IBMbankment and Habitattenham Court Road :)

(via kottke.org)