A quiet day in London

I used my new Cycle guide map today, unfortunately, I didn't have the cycle to go with it (There wasn't a free inflatable bike included with the map, or a shed-boat-shed-bike)

So, as part of my new found budget constraints, named "I'm nearly broke", instead of an all day £5.20 travelcard, I opted for an all day return, National Rail, for £3.10, which affords me ?
Yes, you guessed it, a slow pint of bitter to sup on as I type.

Yet again, I find myself at the Borough Market - I just love it here. Perhaps it's my fondness for good food and the fact that I need a break from the food I've been eating.
My diet for the last few weeks has been maily pita bread, but I've branched out into adventurous meals, such as mash and beans, spag bol and even a steak and kidney pie, all compliments of Tescos, Sainsburys and Marks & Sparks. Cheap, but satisfying, if you can ignore 1/2 the ingredients written in point 1 type on the packaging.

The market is my chance to escape into a world of fine foods and happy shoppers, with no trolleys and miserable people. Food makes people happy and nothing is better than a good old market.

The walk from Waterloo station is only 15 minutes through the side streets, down "The Cut" onto Union Avenue and up one of the small alleyways to Southwark Street. My map reading skills have improved and the cycle guide is brilliant, with no tourist tat cluttering it up.

The story behind that guide started on my second day, I was sending texts to Micatyro and he was doing some research. He texted me back that there's free cycle guide maps to be had. I was unfortunately unable to find one. 77 days later, I finally did, in Earls Court station.

Didn't take too long bro !

So if your in London on a hectic budget, keep your eyes open for them, maybe I was just unlucky in not finding one sooner. However, I did notice, of all the various leaflets at Earls Court, there were only two of the guides left, so I presume they go pretty fast.

It's very quiet in London today. As far as I know, the tube is "offline", the workers kindly deciding to strike from 12 noon today until 12 noon tommorrow, thus ruining New Years for thousands of revellers. All the tube stations I've passed so far seem to be empty, will check the news later to see if they did strike after all. Needless to say, if they are on strike, they will be VERY unpopular with Londoners when they do go back to work.

From where I sit, I can see the dirty old river rolling along through the window, the tide is coming in, so the water is just below the edge of the banks.

In summer, this pub must be almost impossible to get a seat at, but what a great place if you can, as there's an outside terrace right on the edge of the Thames. I've actually no idea what the pubs name is, even though I've been here four times over the months - Thames side I think.

As for this evening, off to friends at 9pm. At this stage, I'm just not interested in the idea of a party. Sad ?
No, not really. From what I've seen, there are more people dis-interested in the whole fiasco than anything else. It really is a high pressure event for many people, the feeling that you have to get blotto to see in the New Year.

As I mentioned in a previous Blog, I would love nothing more than to have a nice meal with friends and family and see in the New Year in a civilised manner, rather than watching people consume a river of booze and feeling rotten the next day.

Next year, perhaps I'll be able to have that civilised meal, until then, I'll have to go with the flow up the dirty old river, who knows, I may even enjoy myself !

Have a good one folks !

Talking about the weather

Weather in the UK is a strange beast which nobody seems to be able to get an exact handle on.

Compared to many places in the world, the climate is tame, yet the amount of time spent discussing it in detail would lead you to believe it has the most intense weather on the planet.

You can't help but get caught up in all the talk (and the weather itself) and I find myself scanning the BBC weather broadcasts 3 or 4 times a day.

The interest in the weather may because the forecasts are so frequently wrong and change so often from hour to hour, you may as well look out the window to decide what to wear and when to travel.

When I arrived here, the media was full of gloom about a winter countrywide shutdown, due to "the big freeze", a return to the 3 day week, gas shortages and death and mayhem on a grand scale.
It was suggested it would be the coldest weather since the 1950's, when one year, the Thames froze over.

It didn't happen (or at least, not yet)
Instead, December was normal to mild, with a cold snap just after Xmas which is set to ease from tonight.

5 days ago, the 5 day London forecast predicted today would have light snow. Over the following days, it went to heavy snow, sleet, rain, back to light snow, back to heavy snow and finally this morning, light snow.

In reality, it rained all morning.

There's just no making sense of it, even with all the money being thrown at the latest technology to attempt to predict what the weather has in store.

BBC TV weather is now like an advanced Google earth and gives you an accurate picture of a frequently inaccurate forecast. They may as well go back to manually sticking cloud and sun symbols onto the map, at least giving us the opportunity for a laugh when they start sliding out of place or fall off the map entirely.

So proud were the BBC of their new TV weather reporting system, they made a documentary about it, which you can view on the BBC weather website. I'm sure your all just dying to view it.

Personally, I think they should install webcams all over the country to look out for red skies at night, in the morning, cows lying down, birds flying backwards and pine cones opening and closing.
They could then use the data gathered to get a forecast about as accurate as a billion quid computer forecasting system.

I think I'll write to the BBC to suggest my idea. Perhaps they could even create a computer generated model of the cows, birds, skies and pine cones instead of watching the real ones in action.

At least I know what the weather will be like for the next hour or so, I just looked out the window and saw a herd of cows thundering down the road backwards. That means it's going to rain frogs in 30 minutes.