Paul in London

Saturday Night at Leicester Square 8:49pm: Thousands waited and watched the cars of stars go by at the BAFTAS. I was just walking by. Forgot that Cate, Leo et al were attending and already inside. 

Up and down on the Piccadilly Line Today looked at: 1. A place near Holburn - Excellent place in a sensible London location, but I don't think I will get it as I didn't think I bonded with the person there. Later today saw the guy at the gym I have just joined. We both had iPODs on so follow-up conversation was not required... 2. A place near Earl's Court - Nice place and large room sharing with a couple. It was made clear that the spotless kitchen was "the way it always is". I started having flashbacks to leaving coke cans on kitchen tabletops in Haringey. Still the couple were interesting enough and we chatted for a while. Providing I didn't use the kitchen for anything more than getting a glass of water I guess I could live there. Actually, the kitchen was in a very odd place. It was an alcove off the living room and there was no dining area. The area they used as a bedroom was the obvious choice to put the kitchen I thought but I guess that would make th

News: Crushes and constitutions In the past two days: * Charles proposes (and nobody seems to care) to his long-term mistress. Constitutional experts and the tabloids seem to show most interest. Thursday night Camilla was in a red dress so The Sun splashed the headline The Lady in Wed ... Weally... * Ikea store opens in North London and people are crushed and several hospitalised while trying to get a £45 flat pack sofa . Emergency services couldn't get to the store as people had abandoned cars on the motorway in search of a bargain. Once again proof to never get in the way of Londoners and their insatiable desire for a bargain. A stabbing was attributed to the store opening as well until it was determined to be an unrelated gangland incident that happened nearby Music: Candide Went to BBC Concert Orchestra's Candide tonight. The audience seemed a bit ambivalent to the concert until "Glitter and Be Gay" was performed by Carla Huhtanen (it was that sort of audience)..

News: Now f*ck off and cover something important you tw*ts Alastair Campbell's advice sent by blackberry in error to BBC's Newsnight team . Know your technology.

Scenes from the Metropolitan Line Monday 9.59pm. Rush Hour has passed... 

Life: A place to live * traveled to Hampstead to see a place. Nice location, expensive and ex-Council flat... * Then traveled to Clerkenwell to see another place. Not bad location, not bad place and 10 minutes walk to the Barbican and walking distance to the fun bars and restaurants in Islington Looking for a place to live is such a beauty contest as well. Even when you really really want a place, you have to pass what the others think of you. Today I did my best to look conservative and stable. Picked safe shirt and jacket and pullover to underscore this. In many ways it is great fun looking for a new place. You get to visit strange and interesting new parts of London and meet some pretty interesting people as well... If neither come to fruition, then there are lots more to check out...

Scenes from GBK West Hampstead Sunday Night: The best burgers in London... and dare one say... anywhere! 

Music: What I'm Listening to - Kristen Chenoweth Downloaded a Kristen Chenoweth album off iTunes last night. She's showy and she's brassy and she's loud... But her album had many songs I weren't familiar with so it was aIt has this wonderful little ditty written by Comden & Green called "If" with lyrics that include: IF: you had been on the square, and had treated me fair, and we'd not had a tiff… IF: you had not said I should go and jump right off the nearest cliff! IF: You had stayed off the make, and you never had taken to coming home stiff. IF: I hand not smelled perfume with a nasty unfamiliar whiff! I'm gonna miss you baby Things could've been teriff! Ah, what's the diff… ...Amen to that honey! Actually while we are on the subject of music that I listen to, a colleague at work saw me on the tube a few weeks back in my own little iPOD world. He had his own music so I didn't interrupt. We don't wor

Got this in the mail from Vodafone today... Not terribly well targeted I would have to say... 

Scenes from SE8 at 4.30pm: The Thames looking east towards Greenwich. The Housing Estate block on the right is being demolished. Two others nearby are still standing...  

To do: Nightlife As I have a quiet night in I was compiling a list of places to visit and of course, there is already a comprehensive list of pubs and clubs in London...

A place to live... the search goes on Today I decided to look at a place in SE8... Canada Water on the Jubilee line is nearby, or rather 20 minutes walk away, and it was near the river but not quite on the river. The guy offering the room owned the place and was nice and friendly and we got on well, although he mentioned he was going out to XXL tonight and I wasn't sure what to make of that information... The room overlooked a common garden which looked charming in that English people who potter about on their garden plot on the weekends kind of thing, but what loomed large over the garden plot was a hideously enormous and monolithic Council Estate. I imagined waking up first thing in the morning and seeing this out the window and screaming. Even if I was here for just a few months I think it would be tough going. The Thames was a short five minute walk away and I was informed that there were plenty of restaurants and bars along the riverfront. Curious, I decided to wa

Theatre: By the Bog of Cats with Holly Hunter Holly Hunter in a West End play was too good to pass up at £15, so I went to Wyndhams Theatre to see By The Bog Of Cats tonight. The house was half full so there was plenty of room to stretch out in the theatre. It was an updating of the Medea story to Ireland amongst the peat bogs and the travelers who live in them, so that might explain why it hasn't found an audience. Holly Hunter could stand on stage and recite a list of vulgarities and it would be still worth seeing her act of course... At crucial moments in the story the man sitting next to me kept rustling his bag of nuts which was a bit of a distraction, and just before Hunter's character gets killed by a man with a white face (not sure about the logic behind that part) somebody's phone went off. The magic of live theatre... Miscellany * Liquorice Allsorts are back on my table. * Was followed tonight at Piccadilly Circus tube station by a man in a p

Politics: New Labour testing ground Labour is testing a series of posters that it may use in the election on the theme Britain is working. Don't let the Tories wreck it again (which borrows the same slogan from what the Tories used 10 years ago but anyway...). They are all are pretty underwhelming in the mudslinging stakes and surely must only appeal to the most die-hard of campaign fanatics... Meanwhile over on the Conservative.com site, the new slogan: "Are you thinking what we're thinking?" is being rolled out... Quite cryptic really... News: Crimes against intruders Amid concerns that crime is out of control (and depending on what statistics you look at you could argue this toss one way or another), in the battle over what people can do to protect their homes during a burglary, new guidelines released this week say pretty much anything now goes . You still can't set traps or punish a burglar by death, but anything else is fair game. The advic

Conversation: Haircuts Paul (to colleague): I am leaving work early tomorrow at 5.30 to get a Haircut. Colleague: : Is this allowed? Paul: Well I need to look my best now... Colleague: NOW???