anthonyjhicks.com

Skinny home on market for GBP525k

Posted on 30 Aug 2005 in Daily, London

A house measuring just 5ft 5in (1.65m) wide in some parts is on sale for more than half-a-million pounds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4196436.stm

Only one day of snow in London in 2005

Posted on 01 May 2005 in Daily, London

Here’s a slightly late post of the snow one morning while walking to work on the 4th March 2005. This is looking back down my street.

samknows.com: The Broadband Resource

Posted on 09 Mar 2005 in Daily, London

Fantastic detailed resource on broadband exchange statuses in the UK. Enter your telephone number to locate your exchange and get relevant technical details including available DSLAM ports etc. Enter your phone number and post code and get a distance in metres from the exchange and likely service speeds your line will support. The upgrade to 2mbps hasn’t gone smoothly for me unfortunately, I’m gettings lots of connection drops out.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/

Twisted Melon @ Jamm Brixton

Posted on 20 Feb 2005 in Daily, London

Had a great night at Twisted Melon @ Jamm in Brixton on Saturday. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to a club with such a nice friendly unpretentious crowd and has renewed my faith somewhat in London clubs. Brixton is a bit of a hike, and well dodgy, but that’s part of the fun right.. getting home in any unlicensed mini-cab whatever the cost. With so many clubbing events on each week it’s quite a challenge to find a good night, it really comes down to personal recommendations.

http://www.twisted-melon.com/

Streetcar

Posted on 31 Jan 2005 in Daily, London

We signed up for Streetcar on the weekend. This member service lets you book and use Streetcar cars conveniently parked all over London. There’s at least one parked down the road from our flat. After reserving a car on the web site you go to the car and swipe your card on the card reader under the windscreen to unlock it. You then enter your code in the cars computer, get the keys out of the glove box and you’re off. It’s GBP4.95 per hour for rental. Great for short trips zipping around London and only GBP25 to join plus GBP50 optional insurance excess reduction. The cars are all nice new VW Golf’s.

http://www.mystreetcar.co.uk/

Magic Roundabout Preview at Leicester Square

Posted on 31 Jan 2005 in Daily, London

Its been a while since I’ve posted a cheesy London film preview celeb spot, so while cutting through Leicester Square yesterday I grabbed a good position on the Green carpet and snapped some pictures of Kylie, the Princess of London Antipodeans, working the crowd at the Magic Roundabout Preview.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Posted on 05 Jan 2005 in Daily, London

We watched Christian Slater and Mackenzie Crook (Gareth from The Office) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest last night at the Gielgud Theatre. It was great to see Slater in the flesh after all these years, I kept thinking back to how many times I watched Pump Up The Volume when I was in high school. We had great seats, fourth row centre. We both really enjoyed the play, some in the audience were even crying! Again, while there’s lots of criticism of West End selling out to Hollywood, I think it’s great. With so many plays running each night, it’s hard to find something you want to watch, and it’s so much more interesting when you’re excited about seeing an actor, rather than just the play. Really looking forward to seeing Patrick Stewart in A Life in the Theatre at the Apollo in February.

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/ticketshop_feat_cuckoosnest.asp

A Life In The Theatre

Posted on 16 Nov 2004 in Daily, London

Patrick Stewart star of television smash hit Star Trek: The Next Generation is to appear together in David Mamet’s A Life In The Theatre at the Apollo.

http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/news/display/cm/contentId/82298

Kelkoo.co.uk

Posted on 16 Aug 2004 in Daily, London

Quite decent price comparison engine for the UK. Very comprehensive. We’ve been looking at TV prices and this has been the best site so far for comparing prices and getting the best deal.

http://www.kelkoo.co.uk/

Tube Temperatures Forecast

Posted on 09 Aug 2004 in Daily, London

Riding the London Underground during Summer is something else, none of the trains have air conditioning and most of the stations lack any ventilation, it can easily hit a stiffling 35c+ underground on hot days. Add to that the mobile greenhouses (London Arriva buses), many of these buses are the brand new replacements for the classic Red Bus RouteMasters, and yet they lack airconditioning! London really isn’t geared up for hot weather, love this site:

[via cm]

http://metcheck.com/tube/

New Pictures: Regents Canal and Camden Markets

Posted on 02 Jul 2004 in Daily, London

A long walk up Regents Canal (10 minutes walk from out flat) to Camden Markets and back again.

http://anthonyjhicks.com/ajh/pictures.nsf/albumview!OpenView&Count=999&RestrictToCategory=regentscanal

New Pictures: Chelsea Flower Show 2004

Posted on 02 Jul 2004 in Daily, London

None of the pictures have titles yet, it’s worth mentioning though that the bonsai in the blue/aqua pot above is 140 years old!

http://anthonyjhicks.com/ajh/pictures.nsf/albumview!OpenView&Count=999&RestrictToCategory=chelseaflowershow2004

London Expo 2004

Posted on 15 May 2004 in Daily, London

Excellent, London Expo is on again this weekend. There’s a few Star Trek and Buffy actors going so I might take a look.

http://www.londonexpo.com/

Orange Mobile’s robotic adherence to idiotic rules

Posted on 13 May 2004 in Daily, London

Cory Doctorow explains the joys of the British utility bill game and discovers the hassles of shopping for mobile phones in London. On a side note, I wonder if the guy who walked past me in Leicester Square last Sunday wearing a blue Blogger pullover and lined up at the Odeon ticket window was Cory. Hmmm.. just Googled up some pictures of him.. thinking back there might have been a resemblance, and there’s even one with him in a blogger t-shirt, perhaps it was him. I almost stopped the mystery Blogger to say hi, but we were in a rush to make our movie. I guess I should have. Ah well, next time.

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/05/13/orange_mobiles_robot.html

Transport for London Disruptions Map

Posted on 11 May 2004 in Daily, London

Nice way of presenting the information for quick digestion.

http://map.tfl.gov.uk/realtime.asp

London to get unbundled video-on-demand

Posted on 06 May 2004 in Daily, London

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/05/video_networks_llu/

11pm closing

Posted on 01 May 2004 in Daily, London

I still can’t come to terms with the 11pm closing time of London pubs. Extremely frustrating when you’re having a good night.

National Insurance fun

Posted on 29 Apr 2004 in Daily, London

The NI tax saga continues, after days of leaving unreturned messages on an answering machine, presumably at the Paddington DSS office via the Glasgow call centre I call back Glasgow and force one of the operators to talk to me rather than routing my call. After a long chat with a surprisingly knowledgable and helpful person, and a chat to their supervisor they realise that the Paddington office probably isn’t returning my messages as they no longer handle NI interviews for W2! After further discussion between the operator and her supervisor, they say I should now call the Bloomsbury office for interviews. Feeling like I’ve made a major breakthrough I call the Bloomsbury office, and of course, they have no idea they are handling W2 interviews and refer me to the Paddington office! I call back the Glasgow call centre, they put me on hold, go chat with the supervisor again and realise that the Bloomsbury office probably hasn’t been advised they now handle W2 interviews. They suggest trying another office that handles W1 interviews. I call the W1 office, begging for an interview but they just refer me back to the Paddington office. I call Glasgow again, and they suggest waiting a week or so to see if Bloomsbury gets the “stencil” (not memo!) advising them to take W2 interviews. So until Bloomsbury get the “stencil”, no one seems willing to take W2 NI interviews. What a fucking joke — btw, Glasgow call centre people are quite helpful as long as you talk fast right after giving your post code preventing them from putting you through to the local DSS office: 0845 377 0002.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/robdian/obor/nis.html

19

Posted on 20 Apr 2004 in Daily, London

Guess who else was at this private party at RAH last night, us! Thanks for the invite M. More details when I get a chance to write it up.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/20/1082395830842.html

Mystery Solved

Posted on 17 Mar 2004 in Daily, London

Didn’t look like a Nimrod to me, I guess I was too far off.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004122119,00.html

Commercial airliner escorted by two Tornado’s over London

Posted on 16 Mar 2004 in Daily, London

At about 12:45pm today while eating lunch in the 10th floor cafeteria I spotted a commercial airliner (737 or 767) being escorted over the City of London by two RAF Tornado fighters. Of course, while almost everyone else sits there obliviously eating their lunches, I’m glued to the window to see what going on (bloody planespotters). The Tornado’s stayed in close formation the whole way, one on each wing. I’d guess it was some troublesome suspicious passenger or a down radio that lead to a fighter escort being called in. Interesting to see anyway. Gee they must have scrambled those Tornado’s pretty quick to catch up with the an airliner in the city. No mention of this on any of the news sites yet. Doubt it could have been a training run. It could have also been a VIP under special protective escort.

UPDATE: No mention whatsoever of this event in the news. Perhaps fighter escorts of commercial airliners over major cities are considered a common occurence now. Or was it simply hushed up so people didn’t panic, as yet another terrorist attack was silently and skillfully averted by MI6.

When Harry Met Sally

Posted on 02 Mar 2004 in Daily, London

Rounding out the week of seeing ex-Buffy actors on the stage in London, last night we watched When Harry Met Sally staring Alyson Hannigan (Willow from Buffy etc.) and Luke Perry (90210 etc.) at the Theatre Royal. Unlike Pirates with Anthony Stewart Head on Wednesday night, the theatre was packed. There were clearly quite a few Buffy and/or 90210 fans in the audience, particularly a few overly excited mid-twenties girls salivating over Perry, being just the right age now to have been hardcore 90210 fans back in their teens.

Forgetting reviews by precious west-end theatre critics decrying this as further evidence of the Hollywoodisation of London theatre through the use of Hollywood names to attract the unwashed unworthy masses to west-end plays, I really really enjoyed it. Luke and Alyson were great, although its hard to be objective when you’re seeing two well known actors you’ve watched for several years on TV perform live.

Our seats were in fifth row centre and gave a great view. Alyson looked exactly like she has looked all these years on Buffy, and Luke looked, well, like Dylan. It was great to see them both up close in the flesh. Although after a while it started to feel like we were watching them on telly. Anyway, if you’re in London, and you’re a Buffy fan, this play is an ABSOLUTE MUST.

With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse

Posted on 26 Feb 2004 in Daily, London

Just watched Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy) in Pirates of Penzance at the Savoy Theatre. We had a great spot, second row centre seats. There were clearly a number of Buffy fans in attendance by the extra cheers when Head bowed at the end of the performance. That leaves Alyson Hannigan (Willow), who we’ll be seeing next week in When Harry Met Sally at the Theatre Royal, and I’ll have seen all of the primary cast in the flesh and met some of them too, except for Gellar of course — aren’t I the little stalker fan. It was better than I thought it would be too, I actually enjoyed a Gilbert and Sulivan musical — shock.

http://www.thestage.co.uk/paper/0403/0201.shtml

High price of runway slots at Heathrow

Posted on 25 Feb 2004 in Daily, London

The Sunday Times – Business:

[via CM]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1010009,00.html

London Underground Tube Diary

Posted on 25 Feb 2004 in Daily, London

Some great stuff on this blog, particularly the pictures of people and signs. I haven’t noticed any of these spoof stickers yet, what a classic! [via SMH Column 8]

http://london-underground.blogspot.com/