Jeopardy Lane

Olympic – which really ought to be renamed Icarus Airlines, since as a company it looks very likely to follow soon the trajectory of the doomed early Greek aeronaut – is manned by incompetent twazzocks. They reschedule flights which then arrive so late they take off at the originally scheduled time anyway. They cancel flights completely, repeatedly. But sometimes airline twazzockness works to benefit the beery traveller. When my connecting flight from Athens to Lesvos to join Mrs and Miss Zythophile on their extended break from English August rain was cancelled, it made a trip to the Craft microbrewery and bar considerably easier.
The original flight plan gave a four-hour gap between my BA jet landing at Athens from Heathrow Terminal Five and the Olympic turboprop taking off, with all passengers pedalling hard, for Mytilini airport on Lesvos. The Nut and the Knut had already blogged about Craft in [...]

During one business trip, I was put up at St. Martin’s Lane, an Ian Schrager hotel decorated in his signature minimalist style. As if to underline its uber-coolness, the unflappable hotel staff wore black while the bare lobby wore white. I would say it was ahead of its time in terms of eco-friendliness. In the peak of summer, the temperature inside never seemed to rise above 75’F and the lighting in the public areas was practically nil.
The elevators were a particularly strange experience. As you entered, you were bathed in unflattering lighting with a bluish cast. A small video screen flush against one wall flashed images that were alternately sweet and surreal. If you were lucky, you’d be greeted by a sunny daisy set on a background of blue skies; otherwise, you’d be staring into a pair of eyes that looked straight at you, then up, down, left and right, [...]

Hey, The Ruckus didn’t disapear, it just got really damn lazy. But we’re back and better then ever. We’ve added the exciting and amazing Ask A Scientist portion to the program. We’re also up to our typical jibber jabber when we tell you all about an Italian nun pageant, the fast Japanese internet and a whole lot of what we’ve been up to in Portland, including a little musical musing on the Monsters of Accordian tour.
This extra special episode of The Ruckus is jam-packed with music with not one, but two special guests.
First from Japan, we bring you the musical stylings of the beautiful and talented Miss Kawa with her song, London (wow I’ve named like 17 different locations in this post, what a worldly episode) You can check her out at: www.myspace.com/misskawamisskawa
And then we give you a little musical snipet from the insanely [...]

Nourishment.
Hi, kids,
I aten’t dead.
The upshot is, I’m in the middle of moving in with K. and C. Still in the middle of getting all my crap over / arranging household duties, etc. / adjusting. Some days are better than others. I can wake up early in the morning on a regular basis and frequently go several days without spells of drowsiness. Sometimes I despair of finding a suitable job and feel filled with creeping dread, but for the most part I am cheerful and busy and am very slowly getting it together – far too late, but better than not at all. K. says I take more care in my dress than I did before. The most important thing is always having people around me who know how I’m doing and won’t let me sleep all day and will give me affection.
I enjoy taking care of the house, but I’ve [...]

I took this picture a few nights ago at Clapham North.
London Underground- Clapham North
London Underground is grim, probably not as grim as most systems out there but I even prefer the sky trains in Thailand (or maybe I just want to live in Bangkok and I am being bias). Generally when the trains are always delayed and you constantly read about potential train strikes, you are simply pleased with a service that gets you from A to B without any major dramas.However I have realised lately that the London Underground staff are quite nice (even when they are shoving you into a packed train or lift).
A few years ago at Angel station a member of staff started singing ‘love is in the air’ on the announcement channel on Valentine’s Day. Looking down the esculator I could see a line of people had dropped the ‘God I really hate work’ [...]

Recently I stumbled upon a very tasty treat. It appears the author Helen Hollick was able to get her book about the last Anglo-Saxon king Harold Godwineson and his battle against the Anglo-Norman army made into a movie. At the moment they are still looking for cast members for the production. This battle marks the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy and the rise of the Norman feudal power of ancient England. I am looking forward to the release of this movie so badly. I have not read the book yet but am searching for it. It will be nice to see a movie about the Anglo-Saxons last great king and The Battle of Hastings. I hope they will be show Harold Godwineson’s defeat of Harald Hardråde before he confronts William the Conqueror. I look forward to this movie with great anticipation even though I sure we all know the historical [...]

I’m back, baby!
Mens Randers’ Marc Nygaard var den helt store (og uforståelige) overraskelse i den danske landsholdstrup, hev Fabio Capello en højst overraskende kanin op af hatten, da han udtog den engelske trup.
Kaninen er en energisk lille krølhåret midtbanemand fra det sydvestlige London, og navnet er ingen anden end Fulhams egen Jimmy Bullard.
En kæmpe-cadeau til Jimmy-boy, der har vist god form her i starten af sæsonen, hvor han gang på gang har været blandt Fulhams bedste. 
Det er dog ikke første gang Bullard har været i søgelyset hos den engelske landstræner, da han allerede tilbage i 2006 var et emne for Steve McLaren efter nogle suveræne optrædener for hans, dengang, nye klub Fulham.
Men en horribel skade mod Newcastle i september, gjorde Bullard ukampdygtig i over halvandet år, og den stakkels Bullard måtte skyde en hvid pil efter landsholdsudtagelsen.
Rent faktisk kunne Bullard også være et emne for vores tyske naboer, da bedstemor Bullard har germanske aner, men [...]

It has taken twelve months of regular cycling to virtually get me from my home in London to Meiktila in Burma.
That’s a grand total of around 11,000 km (6,800 miles), around 60% of which was simply from commuting and the other 40% from having fun in Richmond Park, the North Downs or at a handful of sportives in England and Wales.

The Wizard of Oz
I went for “The Wizard of Oz” musicals during the weekend and I absolutely love Dorothy’s doggy! I think it’s a maltese. I googled for it and realised its name is actually Toto! Hmmm…. weird name right?
The orchestra was playing in front of the stage. This time I can see them. In sunderland, I just couldn’t see the orchestra playing I thought there was none. I was spending half of my attention on the orchestra (gotta stop looking at the man who was playing the cello)! I dreamt to be a part of an orchestra but apparently a dream will always be a dream.
I also found a new place to sit back and relax and just admire the beauty of the city, especially at night!
I’ve got an endless list of things to do and places to go and all of them have got nothing [...]

Na das wird ja morgen eine echt gewagte Aktion: einen Umzug im Transporter zu fahren! Ein Handy hat sicher jeder von uns auch noch dabei und evtl. sogar noch einen Computer und/oder Kamera. Hoffentlich erwischt uns keiner!
Die Metropolitan Police in London meint das Plakat offensichtlich wirklich ernst. Nicht ganz so ernst die entsprechende Gegendartstellung.
(via)