The Next Stop is.. Shepherd's Pie!?

The daily commute can often make every weekday Groundhog Day. The same train, same carriage, same seat, same page of the Metro, same route into work. So how much do we actually notice on our travels?


The idea of slowing down and taking more time to notice the little things has cropped up a lot in London recently. First came the rogue stickers on the London Underground, using the same designs and fonts as the everyday warnings and notices used by TFL. But instead of the usual 'Mind the closing doors' warning, commuters were instructed 'Don't acknowledge fellow passengers or sustain eye contact beyond 2 seconds. Please respect urban solitude', 'Shepherd's Bush' was changed to 'Shepherd's Pie' and one sticker directed Londoners to 'Platform 9 3/4'.

Then came a campaign called 'Look for Longer' from marketing company CBS Outdoor, using posters on the tube and a '#lookforlonger' trend on Twitter to encourage Londoners to look more closely at a poster to find the 75 Tube and DLR stations illustrated. (If you want to play the online game, go to their website. I wasted three hours of my evening on this yesterday instead of job-hunting or going to the pub, so if you're planning on doing anything productive or sociable, consider this your warning.)

And then yesterday, A sneaky blogger called Patrick has been dumping 'shit' all over town. His blog, Shit London, documents hilarious edits to London's many adverts and slogans, and yesterday he spread the joy by leaving packages across the city for his followers to scoop up and admire. (To clarify, 'Shit' in this context means 'stuff' or 'things' as in, 'that was some good shit', rather than 'shit blog', which it definitely isn't.) The site provides a platform to share often overlooked comic details to everyday London life.

So on Monday morning, when you're about to settle into your journey with the Metro or your latest ebook on your Kindle, take a moment to look at your surroundings because they may not be what they seem at first glance, and what you could find may give you your first smile of the day! :)

You can follow Shit London and Look for Longer on Twitter! @shitlondon @lookforlonger

Make Some Change and Give It Away

All across the world, thousands of people are taking part in a movement that acts as an innovative way of sharing wealth amongst society.

Today is 'Free Money Day', a day in which strangers give away two coins or notes with the understanding that the receiver pass on half of what they've been given, encouraging us to look at our relationship with money in a different way. As someone who works in a pub for minimum wage, I've found my finances are quickly becoming a regular headache of mine (particularly after a night out with tequila, wine and rum). This day has come at a good time for me. 

So do we actually need money to be happy? On September 15th, the Lehman Brothers, one of the largest investment banks in the world, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, which fuelled the fire for this idea. Of course, it goes without saying that a certain amount would make life easier - enough to cover bills, rent, food and the regular trips to the pub - but beyond a certain point, does excess money make our lives that much happier? Do we obsess over money when we don't have it, or does having a lot of it make us obsess over it even more?

I have always said that if I ever won the lottery I'd give away 90% of my winnings - not because I'm 'noble' or can 'live simply' or any other bullshit egotistical reason that comes to mind - but simply because I wouldn't know what to do with it all. How are you supposed to spend £92million in one lifetime without becoming weird and unrealistic? I'd probably want to make a good impact on things that are important to me (like sloths, I love sloths, and I'd like to buy a pub one day), pay off my friends and family's debt, buy a house, do all the sensible things one's supposed to do. Then I'd do the silly stuff, like throwing lavish parties on a big boat with Greg Wilson and Earth, Wind and Fire as the headline acts and have lashings of champagne and smoked salmon. 

Anyway, Free Money Day is an opportunity for us to spread some joy and be positive in an environment where we are told 'life is tough, making money is hard, working for free is acceptable'. There is no amount too small or big - the gesture is supposed to act as a catalyst for conversation, rather than providing a life-changing sum of money. 

So if you are approached by a stranger offering you money today, don't be a typical cynical Londoner (as seen during 'Wearelucky's attempt to spread some joy), accept the generous gesture, pass on the wealth yourself, and spread some financial joy.

Follow @freemoneyday on Twitter! Or check out their website for more information.

Rainbow Brown - Till You Surrender

Nicholas Jaar

An outrageously cool song. 

My Weekend of Curious Incidences

My bank holiday weekend has been one of both amazing and curious incidences.

Not only did biblical amounts of rain and hailstones rear its ugly head the moment I committed to flyering my neighbourhood for my pub, but a man on a bike taking his grey parrot for a wander along the river provided a strange sight to behold on my leisurely Sunday afternoon.

Casual Sunday afternoon taking the family parrot out for a stroll

Notting Hill Carnival also had its fair share of funny people and colourful sights. Now in its 48th year, Europe's biggest street party failed to disappoint yet again. Norman Jay and David Rodigan were just two of the many DJs to provide entertainment for the masses of red stripe drinking, jerk chicken eating party people. I bumped into many familiar faces this year, and ended up at the 'Gladdy Wax' Soundsystem on Portobello Road, where a man with wild curly hair and a strange t-shirt with eyes printed all over it was violently sketching a scene. (Upon closer inspection, what he had actually achieved was a large black smudge across the page..) The music was loud, the costumes were impressive as always, and the rain managed to hold off despite a few pathetic attempts to ruin the fun.

But the most curious incident of all was the decision to embrace some London culture and take my visiting Aussie pal to see the play adaptation of Mark Haddon's 'Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime'. Performed at the National Theatre on the South Bank, the book has always been a favourite of mine and one that has stuck in my mind ever since the first read. The story is told through the eyes of a fifteen year old boy with Aspergers syndrome, who discovers his neighbour's dog has been murdered. He decides to start his own investigation into the crime, which leads him to discover more than he first anticipated.

I was interested to see how this could be translated onto the stage, and was left with quite a heart-warming sensation. Framed by a white border, the clever use of space was the best I have seen for a long time, where the lead character uses the floor to demonstrate how he feels, what he's learnt and how to navigate through life. The play sticks rigidly to the original novel, and gives the audience an intimate insight into the way his mind works and the affect autism can have on family and friends.

Although completely sold out, you still have a chance to see this fantastic piece of theatre. We queued up at 5.30pm on the day, and got standing tickets for a fiver in time to get a drink and a bite to eat before the performance. Well worth the hassle, I recommend it highly. If you've read the book, GO. If you haven't read the book, definitely go.

Only in London can you find yourself watching a pet parrot making friends with some bikers, going to a great play for a fiver, and marinating yourself with lots of red stripe and reggae, all in the space of one weekend. I love you London. You're my fave.

Paul Simon and Todd Terje

I haven't posted any songs in a while because I'm trying to be a grown up, but I couldn't resist posting this one. A great song for the sunny weather!

How Not to Grow Up

My life is in disarray.

The Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury '11

After a weekend of reggae, sunshine and fresh air in a place where music was loud as were the clothes and hairstyles, real life has made my festival blues the worst I've had for a long time.

No longer can I wander round a field aimlessly looking for an enticing doorway or the particular artist/band that I want to see. No longer will my biggest problem be how to tackle the toilets in the most effective way without having to inhale the toxic fumes from below. NO LONGER will I be able to return to the hard life of student living, where rules and mature behaviour are discouraged and one can allow themselves to be useless for a few days before the reality of one's bank balance becomes a very immediate problem.

I went into this festival with the attitude that this may well be the final time I spend a weekend getting muddy and messy in a field with other like-minded people - I will have to make the most of it before I grow up, get a real job, pay off my debts and become a worthy citizen of the world. Instead, I've become more determined than ever to avoid the office rut and preserve my naivety and youth.

Before going to Boomtown, I spent 2 weeks working for a magazine in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. I went out there with the attitude of staying for a significant amount of time to get some great experience and be able to edit a magazine and get my name in print. Instead, I found myself faced with the biggest culture shock of my life.

The largest chandelier in the world -
53 tonnes,  15,000 lamps, and 18 stories high.

I hated the city, I hated the people, I hated the mentality of the town. The city itself had a strange falseness to it - all the old soviet blocks had a façade on the front to make it look Roman or European and sophisticated, but the back of the building was still the same old tower block it was before - a perfect metaphor for the place. The Azeris have adopted a vulgar spending culture - one which isn't about buying the best product, but spending the most amount of money and brandishing expensive goods to better themselves against others. Every business meeting and office discussion was laced with hours of back story that made every-day British politics look like a doddle. Most of the people there had an agenda - to make a quick buck and not worry about the consequences (also beautifully illustrated by the disused oil rigs littering the Caspian Sea - the destruction of a coastline where money-making opportunities are to be had no matter what the natural cost). A lot of the ex-pats I met had a 'Baku wife' to wile away their lonely hours when they weren't spending their time making money in a place where corruption is rife - if one is to be successful in Baku, one must know how to play the game.

It was certainly no place for an idealist. I quickly came to the conclusion that Baku was not for me. I needed to get out of there sharpish - I was (and am) too young to sacrifice my morals just yet. I'm only just beginning my adult life (stubbornly, but it is slowly taking shape). As naive as this seems, the world needs idealists, and I intend to be one of them.

Now, in the aftermath of what was quite possibly the worst two weeks of my life followed by the best weekend of my life, I am faced with the insurmountable task of paying my student debts off, finding a place to live, getting a proper job AND chasing the writing dream.

I'm not sure how I intend to achieve all these things, but one thing is for sure - I'm not ready to leave the muddy fields and smelly toilets behind just yet. Maybe next year...