Blogging from The Orient Express thanks to Dell

So here I am on the Orient Express and it's simply the only way to travel by train, I can't believe that later tonight, I'm going to be back on the Tube and facing the usual scrum. I imagine that even first class carriages on the London Underground were not like this and in a way - it's almost too comfortable (the cushions are so plump, I have to move them away). I'm in the process of uploading photos and deciding which ones to add to my Flickr account, so watch out as the day progresses.


Obviously Dell have paid for all of us to do this trip and it's to launch their new Latitude laptops - yesterday's post went into a more details about the simultaneous webcast with San Francisco. So today was very much an opportunity to have more one on one sessions and most importantly to try the Latitudes and ask Dell's senior execs questions about where Dell were heading, what "Mobility" means to Dell and what was so great about the Latitudes.


They are going get back to me on some specific questions I had asked, as I still find it hard to understand why wireless isn't enabled on the London Underground. I know lots of people hate the idea of people using mobile phones, but if it were just enabled for computer usage (ie data rather than voice) where's the harm in that?


I have an hour and a quarter commute each way - sometimes an hour and half. That's three hours when I could be "working" or at least doing something like blogging or surfing that involved or something else that meant I wanted to use the internet.

TfL seem very commericially orientated so why aren't they getting together with Telcos and companies like Dell who can surely see the potential of even a small percentage of the 3 million people who use the Tube everyday accessing the net.


The Latitude has a new "always on" functionality, which means that more or less the minute you turn it on, you are right online and have access to your email, menus & stuff. Like the BlackBerry functionality there's no escape. Depending on your perspective that can be good or bad. But I often find it annoying waiting for my Mac to start up. If your laptop then has similar instant access to applications as your mobile phone, you can see why Dell are making noises about the PC world and mobile models meeting.


Anyway, enough of this for now, as I'm told that lunch is being served. If it's anything like the fab breakfast, we're in for a treat.

Watch this space for more & in particular the photos, as really a picture says a thousand words about the experience of travelling on the Orient Express.

UPDATE - Photos from the Orient Express are up.





You can catch up with mine and L J's reactions as things happened with our Twitter'ings - Annie Mole Twitter feeds - L J Rich Twitter feeds.

Thanks again to the fab L J Rich (pictured above in her Casey Jones train driver hat) for being a great travelling companion and getting me on the launch in the first place & thanks to the Dell Mobility Team for their most excellent hospitality. Enjoy the photos!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/blogging-from-orient-express-thanks-to.html

I'm a Digital Nomad Me - Dell Latitude Launch at Altitude

Tomorrow I will be travelling on the Orient Express (how I managed to type that without screaming is beyond me), but mainly because I'm currently in a room with some of the UK's finest Tech journos - T3, Computer Weekly, PCW, What Laptop, Which Geek, you name it they're here. We're on the top floor of Altitude with a stunning view of the London skyline and joined a live webcast link to San Francisco where Dell launched their new business laptop - the Latitude.


L J Rich was a superstar and somehow persuaded them that I should be in the guest list as I would be a perfect case for "test driving" their laptops for business use. Strangely they agreed and tonight was the launch. The main theme seems to be "Business not as usual" - which I like. They've realised that the 21st century definition of where one "works" or where one does "business" is pretty much dead. It's a world of "Digital Nomads" and people who work on the move and want to work when they are travelling just as well as they might from their desks, their home offices or on the road.


Stupidly my mobile has now run out of battery power (so I'm blogging directly from a Dell XPS its consumer model) - but you can see some of the twittering I was doing from the presentation.


We've got dinner, now and an after dinner speech from another "Digital Nomad" who holds the world record for travelling the fastest around the world on a bicycle. He blogged throughout his journey and couldn't have actually done as well (apparently) without technology to record & prove where he was going. It also kept him connected with the wider world who followed his travels and kept his spirits going through commenting on his blog.

Pictures from this evening are now on my Flickr set. Press release with full specs and techie stuff for those who like that here.

See you all tomorrow where I'll be blogging from the Orient Express - HOOOOORAHHHHHH!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/im-digital-nomad-me-dell-latitude.html

Capsule Carriages on the Tube?

If you want complete privacy on the London Underground, a designer from Australia may have just the futuristic concept for you. Jon Justice sent me a link from Treehugger.com to a design for a train with individual passenger compartments. He said it's "something that everyone manages to do on the Tube without the need for physical walls".

The capsules are the ultimate in giving you your own personal space. So no more rubbing up against your fellow commuters. No need to avoid nutters. No need to talk to anyone. No body odour, unless it's your own. Public transport without all the downsides of it being public.




Treehugger isn't wild about it and says "on a short run I think I would rather be in a big communal train car than be trapped in a phone booth like this."

Whereas Tech / Sci Fi site dvice is all over the idea "It offers far more privacy than your average train cabin — something a lot of us find ourselves wishing for, especially riding crowded subways in cities — though it sacrifices the ability to move a large quantity of space and, for some, comfort. There'd also have to be a system in place to keep people from fighting for seats, but, hey, with a lot of these on the rails, I'd happily ride them. It seems like a nice place to sit and relax if you're going a short distance."

To see more of the concepts view Hamit Kanuni Kuralkan's design portfolio.

So the question is, would you really enjoy travelling in something like this? BTW comments are working, so even if it looks as though your comment hasn't been posted it probably has. Hopefully haloscan can sort it out soon!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/capsule-carriages-on-tube.html

Watford Tube Link gets go ahead

A Tube link connecting part of the London Underground with local rail services in Watford is finally set to go ahead – at more than twice its original cost. The Croxley Rail Link was originally priced in 2002 for around £60 million. Now things appear a little more expensive and the extension will cost £145 million.




"Hertfordshire County Council has received approval for the £145 million Metropolitan Line extension to Watford via Watford High Street from the East of England Regional Assembly.

The council's head of transport programmes and strategy, Mike Younghusband, said: "Construction costs have inflated and the Government now takes a different approach to risk.

"By taking on the project we're agreeing to delivering the scheme on budget, whereas before if costs went up the Government would just fund it." For more & for a timeline - as this is now supposed to be completed in 2014 - see cnplus.co.uk

Stuart Pile, the county council's executive member for transport, said the announcement was a 'significant step forward'.

He further said: 'This is good news for everyone in Watford. The proposed rail link will have a major impact on relieving congestion, as well as improving transport links between London and Watford town centre.

'We are committed to this scheme. I look forward to seeing it come to fruition.'

At times like this I wish that London Connections was still operational. Maybe London Reconnections which attempts to keep the spirit of it going will spot things like this in the future and keep an eye on them. I do wonder how long it will take to finish and if, come 2014, it will have more than the budgeted 145 million quid.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/watford-tube-link-gets-go-ahead.html

Flatulence on the Tube

I'm sorry, I know it's childish, (I've had one of those weekends where I've been reminded of my youth) but I wanted to kick off the week with this "ad" I saw on the London Underground late last week,


How can anyone sit under a graffiti'ed advertising panel that says "I have a Flatulence problem. Please do not be offended by my odour"?

It really reminded me of the old online poker ones which said "genius" and "greedy" with a big arrow pointing down to the unfortunate passenger below:




Other things that took me back in time at the weekend were getting excited by seeing a rainbow on the way back from curlynewf's fab BBQ on Sunday:


Going to an '80s Day at Ascot & seeing Bananarama, Belinda Carlisle, ABC, Paul Young & Kid Creole and the Coconuts (full set of '80s Day at Ascot photos here)


And coming home at 6am after a night of clubbing on Friday night after the MOO Tech Terrace do.



Haven't got a taxi home with the sun rising for quite some time! Thanks to Whatleydude, Alfie & Tarek for persuading me to go & making it such fun that I stayed. Plus nice bumping into Lorrie there who recognised me from Ladyfest!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, August 11, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/flatulence-on-tube.html

TfL terminating Oyster Contract

Big surprise of the day, just heard that Transport for London are terminating the £100m a year Oyster contract. Wow, was it something we said? Or is it due to the recent two Oyster card failures on the London Underground in as many weeks (which cost £1million) and general worries about hacking & playing around with the system and potential security breaches of the Oyster card system?



Shashi Verma, TfL's Director of Fares and Ticketing said: 'Transport for London is committed to delivering value for money across all of its services.

'As part of this we are looking at more cost effective ways to manage and develop the Oyster card system that we expect will save millions over the next few years.

'The savings will be reinvested to deliver further improvements in London's transport system.'

I must thank Phill Price for giving me the heads up to this.

For now the statement in the press release is all TfL are saying. It will certainly be interesting to see whether it will be replaced or if it's just going to a different supplier. It's quite hard to tell from the current, I'd say deliberately vague, statement.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, August 08, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/tfl-terminating-oyster-contract.html

Can the Tube cope with the Olympics?

I am soooo unsporty, so can't say I'm looking forward to the Olympics which start today. In four years time, amazingly, London will be hosting the Olympics which gives four years for the London Underground and TfL to get themselves sorted. Will they do it?


Former Mayor Ken Livingstone was pictured above announcing the longer trains that will be in place on the DLR.

But is that really enough? I'm sure more than this is being planned - I'm sure someoe will enlighten us.

I heard Ken on Heart.fm this morning saying that Beijing's will be way better than ours. Not sure he'd have been saying this if he were still Mayor, but who knows? Boris Johnson is popping along to Beijing too with a few staff that's going to cost £167,000 and £3 million on a Private members club out there for the London Development Agency.

Mmmm. Wonder if some of that cash would have been a bit better spent on our current transport system?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, August 08, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/can-tube-cope-with-olympics.html

Oyster watches could get you fined

Transport for London have said that the latest "craze" for melting the chip out of an Oyster card, attaching it to your watch and magically swiping yourself through London Underground Tube gates could get you fined.


The londonpaper reported this amazing story last night, which I love on so many levels.

Firstly, I never knew that melting Oyster cards using some nail varnish remover, an empty beetroot jar and a bit of time had really turned into a "craze". You may remember my blog post about the initial Oyster card magic wand experiment some time ago.


It was incredibly popular after it was featured on the fab b3ta who said:

"This rather eccentric chap has decided he wants wave himself through the Tube turnstile with a flourish of a magic wand. So he's dissolved his Oyster card in nail varnish remover and aims to stuff the chip and antenna into a home-made wand. Undergroundio, as Harry Potter might say."

Secondly, great rent-a-quote from a ticket inspector "who did not wish to be named" who said "It's the latest thing. We're seeing more and more of it".

Thirdly, I would love to see the type of "City lads" that are using this as a "status thing" to "show off their watches". Doesn't it just advertise to potential robbers that you've got a Rolex or TAG Heuer or whatever and make you a mugging target?

Fourthly, TfL have only got themselves to blame by introducing an Oyster watch for their staff last year. Apparently 5,000 prototype Oyster wrist-watches were given to transport employees. I imagine if you're a disgruntled employee or have since left TfL that the temptation to auction these on eBay would be remarkably high.

Fifthly, the guy in the YouTube video that the Londonpaper refer to looks so much like Nathan Barley if he were transported into the 21st Century. He has an amazing array of wristbands, watches and body piercings and would make a fantastic Tube Fashion Victim.


Finally, londonpaper rock, by reporting this in the first place and then saying "Watch the Oyster sabotage vid (but don't try it yourself) at thelondonpaper.com".

Open Sesame, Undergroundio, enjoy!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, August 07, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/oyster-watches-could-get-you-fined.html

Dollymix.tv Interview

Many thanks to one of the lovely Shiny laydeez at Dollymix.tv for interviewing me for their site. With an embarrassingly flattering introduction & a great byline "thought candy to stimulate your ladybrains" - their new editor Leila Johnston kicked off my interview with Dollymix - or rather "waited for her to surface, then clubbed her with questions":


You can read it in full here. I was really pleased to see that I didn't have to do a Giles Coren and send a ranty sweary email to them about sub-editing my answers. Plus the most brilliant thing was that they didn't ask me what my favourite London Underground station was. Hoorah!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, August 07, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/dollymixtv-interview.html

Tube Door Etiquette

Of course the Japanese have a better sign trying to stop last minute door diving (door swimming) than we do. Jon Justice sent the picture below to me and also has a cautionary tale for people who try to barge their way onto London Underground trains before others have had a chance to get off.


This new sign blogged at Japanprobe compares favourably to our similar action but rather staid "Please don't hold the doors open" sign below.


Onto the cautionary tale, Jon emailed me about his Tube journey on Friday:

"I was on the Central Line at rush hour. We were all crammed in and rather hot and sweaty. As the doors opened at Bank station, a rather agressive woman pushed her way on as soon as the doors opened. A girl was trying to get off and despite a loud "excuse me", had to push past the aggressive woman.

After she managed to extricate herself from said woman, la aggressivo exclaimed loudly "Oh just f**k off, you f**king c**t." Nice.

In doing so, she jabbed her finger at the poor girl who was just trying to get off.

Unfortunately, she held her Oyster card in her jabbing hand. The poor girl just looked at her for a second and then seized the Oyster card and threw it onto the platform then turned on her heel and disappeared.

The aggressive lady was dumbstruck for a second or two and then jumped off the train in pursuit of her card. Too late she found it and turned in time to see the doors close and the train move off. My fellow passengers and I shared many amused glances and a few chuckles. It very much raised our wilting spirits.

It was one of those moments where everyone was thinking "I wish I was that quick-thinking." It's the kind of thing that normally occurs to you after you've walked away, having backed down. It was nice to see everyone in the carriage united in the same thought."

I certainly would have thought the same, wouldn't you?!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, August 06, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/tube-door-etiquette.html

Bolli off his food

My cat Bolli is well known for liking some nosh or a Nom Nom Nom with the best of us. Last night was the first time I've had him that he wasn't at the door the second he heard the key, saying "Feed Me, Feed Me Now". In fact he wasn't around at all. I shouted "Bolli" and heard a feeble mew from upstairs. He'd been sick and was lying at the top of the stairs doing a convincing impression of looking half dead.

After some frantic calls to the vet (typically it was after hours and the emergency vet number was constantly engaged) some internet searching, some hectic twittering and a long call to my friend, I calmed down a bit as was reassured by a few people. Thanks.

He wasn't doing this last night

Anyway, he's much better now, although still not entirely normal so I'm popping into the vet on the way into work to get a bit of advice and then will take him in for a proper check up.

Cats, who'd have em?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, August 06, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/bolli-off-his-food.html

Arena: Underground On The Box

Now I know how film makers and actors must feel when they look at the TV review pages. The final part of a trilogy of London Transport films (although it was actually filmed second) was shown on BBC4 on Saturday night and also repeated last night. Zimena Percival's documentary Arena - Underground featured me (mostly looking like a damn fool) in a history of the London Underground from 1863 to the present day.


As it was a repeat or an "another chance to see" showing from 2007, that meant it probably received fewer reviews this time around, than when it was first aired. So I was pleased to stumble upon the following review from "On the Box" of last night's airing.

"The final part of Arena's London Transport Trilogy doesn't seem like an ordinary documentary. It occupies an interesting niche somewhere between historical re-enactment, fly-on-the-wall docu-drama and talking head show. Which is good, as a simple history of the London Underground could get slightly tedious.

Tedious is something that this one certainly isn't. The program opens with a jerky modern view of a mother and her young son navigating the Tube system. A slightly menacing Cockney voice-over promises to tell the tale of the Underground from its origins back in the 1800s to the present day. The modern mother and son suddenly fly back in time, and we see them on board an early Tube train on their way to a public hanging in 1863.....

In order to keep things spicy, the documentary makers have cleverly spliced historic detail with frequent shots of modern life – Tube drivers giving their accounts of what life is like in dingy subterranea, a psychologist analysing Tube conduct and herd mentality, and a Tube enthusiast advising the viewer on the finer points of Tube etiquette (most important, unsurprisingly, is 'Do NOT look at anyone')."


It was also, "TV Pick of the Day" in the, err, Daily Star. Nice! It's probably the only time that something I'm in will be snuggled between Hollyoaks, EastEnders and Big Brother 9.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, August 05, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/arena-underground-on-box_05.html

London Connections is no more

On Friday evening I made a brief Tweet on Twitter about the demise of London Connections and would like to expand on this now.


For those who didn't know (shame on you for not looking at the Favourite links in my right hand side bar), London Connections, has been a fantastic source of London Transport development projects - including London Underground, DLR, ELL and Tube stuff for almost two years.

Graham Thant, who tirelessly ran the blog, has decided to spend more time working on other projects. He said:

"You know when you're happily watching a TV show, and the credits roll, and out of nowhere the announcer says "That was the last in the present series..."? Well that's this post.

I'd love to continue working on this blog as I have done, but I'd also like to move on to other projects, and I've decided it's best to have a clean break rather than try to keep fingers in every pie.

Thanks to everyone who's read, contributed, linked, corrected, shared, prodded, praised, learnt from, ranted against, puzzled at and pored over the posts here. The archive will stay online, the email address is still working, but for time-being at least my work here is done.".

Graham was a quiet but very helpful supporter of this blog. I met him a number of times at the London Blogger's Meet Ups. We didn't see eye to eye on a number of things. I thought he was a bit of a trainspotter. He probably thought I was a loud mouthed argumentative publicity seeker. But at the end of the day he was one of the few hardcore bloggers, who with little thanks & no payment, did what he did purely out of dedication & a love for the subject matter.

There are over a 100 comments on his final post announcing sadness, thanks and shock at him hanging up his hat. I just want to add to that by saying, I'm sorry to see it go. However, I fully understand the pressure of keeping a blog like that up to date and he's made the right decision in stopping rather than keeping it going in a half hearted fashion.

Yesterday, possibly as a result of GoingUnderground.net and myself being repeated on BBC4's Tube Night on Saturday evening (Arena's - Underground is repeated tonight if you missed it), I was approached by a guy wanting to buy goingunderground.net. I spent ooh, a second thinking about it, and the answer was "Sorry no - not for all the tea in China".

Although I don't really update Goingunderground.net much anymore, I still think nostalgically of it as my main site. It began in 1999 and led to the blog in 2003 and I can't really see myself ever selling it. Perhaps the potential buyer might like to join forces with a number of commenters on London Connections who are offering to contribute to keep it going. Someone's even offering server space and design skills.

We'll see.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, August 04, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/london-connections-is-no-more.html

Onya Bag Competition Winners!

Thanks to all who entered the competition for the Onya Bags. I don't know if it because I'm looking out for them, but I seriously am seeing more and more people with Onya Bags on the London Underground


I saw this one last week and I also saw a few at the Innocent Village Fete, but the heavens were opening when I saw those so didn't get my camera out to snap them.

Onya Bags very kindly gave me a bundle of bags, just for changing a URL to point to their UK site rather than their parent Aussie site. So rather than keep all of them, I decided to share the booty & set a competition a couple of weeks ago.

Here's a reminder of the questions:

1. Have a look at the post about the London Transport Museum. There's an error in one of the photos - if you're the first person to spot the error I'm thinking of, you get an Onya backpack.

2. Goldfrapp were playing at Lovebox, they performed Happiness, which is my new favourite track of theirs. (Update to say "performed" Happiness at Lovebox was an understatement - it was mind blowingly mad - photos from Lovebox here) Who's the best dancer at the end of the video & why? Person I think has the best reason gets an Onya original bag.


3. That leaves two bags. I'll get Onya involved in this one. Just tell us why you want an Onya bag. The two answers that me & Onya like the most will get an Onya original bag each.

So the winners from the entries are:

1. Philip Ferris who was first in with the typo on the Where 2 Gov cocktail

2. Jon Justice who said "It's got to be the little kid with the afro. Everyone else is bouncing and he's just shuffling round trying to keep up. And I like that before he "dances", he's clapping out of sync with everyone else."

3. The Onya guys judged this and said: "Hi Annie - A group decision in the office and we think the person named Aine and the pretty please first lady". So that's Aine (pronounced Onya) & Joe_90.

Well done to all of you, I've emailed you for your address details and a big thanks once again to the guys and girls at Onya Bags.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, August 04, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/onya-bag-competition-winners.html

Innocent Village Fete 2008 Photos

If you've been travelling on the London Underground for the last month or so, you can't have failed to see the ads for the Innocent Village Fete - another of London's summer festivals. Me and some friends went last year on the hottest day of the year, although unfortunately the weather in London wasn't so great this weekend.


When I left Kew on Saturday the sun was shining brilliantly, but it had been drizzling all morning, so I went prepared for rain. I felt bit of a fool twittering at the station in my Converses with an umbrella, plastic ground sheet / poncho, long jeans and more long sleeved things in my bag.

However, with that typical four seasons in one day Englishness, by the time I was walking through Regent's Park, there was a torrential downpour of rain and various peeps I was meeting there were Twittering & texting me stuff about the inclement weather (Rachel Clarke, Niamh, Anna Mondo & Curlyluddite)


I could see why I knew I wouldn't like festival camping as we splattered & sploshed our way across Regent's Park trying to find a dry spot. But as if by magic, within about ten minutes the sky had cleared, the sun came out to the cheers of other Village Fete'ites and the day turned out nice again.

As usual with Festivals I find that photos tell more than I ever could (Lovebox being a good example). But in case you don't know Innocent (they're the guys that make smoothies and other drinks in the UK) try to keep the English Village Fete theme going in a massive park that's filled with thousands of people. Personally, I think that the "stall holders" last year got into the Village Fete feel a bit more. But there was still plenty of Welly Wanging, knitting, paper hat making, music & fringe events to go round:



I'd completely forgotten that James from the Tube Carriage Offices in the Sky was going to be there with his theatre group Nabokov.


So it was lovely to be warmly greeted by him by the Village Voice Tent. He explained that their ideas tree (pictured above) was for people to hang ideas in a tree which would then be performed by them later this year.

We ended the day lazing in the sun drinking frozen Margaritas (like the Emergency Tube Margaritas but frozen) and listening to a guy playing music in the Big Wheel area.


There was a massive farmer's market at the Fete too, so we had plenty of nice food to eat. I even spotted a nod to The Times Food reviewer & TV bloke Giles Coren (who went ballistic about the word "a" being subbed out of his review) as we left:


My full set of photos from the Innocent Village Fete are here. If you went along, I'd love to know what you thought of the days.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Sunday, August 03, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/innocent-village-fete-2008-photos.html

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

I've not done a Friday look at the TFV's or Tube Fashion Victims for ages and ages. Mainly because commuters are dressing a lot better or I'm not able to get my camera out quickly enough to spot the howlers. So this week is a mixture of people who are uber trend setting and looking pretty OK with it or those who errr ... aren't. The original concept was commuters who will follow a trend regardless of how it makes them look or who've taken a look and made it their own.

First up we have some good looks.

The Agyness Deyn Look

If she was taller and had the new pudding bowl / Mr Spock haircut she's be dead ringer for super model / singer Agyness Deyn


She's got the cropped white blonde hair. The bloke's checked shirt. The cool short jeans that aren't shorts. Good job.

The Twiggy Bag

Regular readers will remember how I called those cropped 3/4 length trousers that loads of women wore in the winter and autumn "Twiggy Trousers", after sixties model icon Twiggy turned around the fortunes of M & S by advertising them. Well they've now bought out a bag which reminds us of Twiggy's roots.


I like it. It's green. It's retro. It stands out amongst the many other "I'm not a plastic bag" bags. Good job.

Now onto the not so good ones.

Not so shiny shoes

I've seen a number of women with these shiny foil shoes on the Tube and there must be some kind of fault with them in that they're not designed to be worn more than once!


This woman's were looking better than I've seen a lot of them look, but it kinda defeats the object of having ultra shiny shoes if they're going to make you look "like a homeless".

The fugly furry boots in Summer

There's not really much to say about these boots that hasn't been said before.




They're simply wrong.

The Indecisive Look

Finally, when you just can't decide what colour leggings to wear:


Wear red and yellow.

That's it for now. I actually can't remember when I last did a victims post so I'm linking to the first canine fashion victim - Elvis.


You can find out more about Elvis here and the complete picture gallery of all the TFV's can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, August 01, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/08/london-underground-fashion-victims.html

Drunks on Trains & Mobile Geeks of London

Coming home late from Mobile Geeks of London last night, I bought a bagel at Waterloo and hopped onto a Richmond bound train home. I was tired and virtually sleeping as I was munching my bagel with my eyes closed. Was woken up by a bloke saying loudly "Have a good chomp there girl". I looked up to see a bloke sitting opposite me, very red faced and sucking loudly on a lollipop.

I carried on eating and tried to read my paper. "Enjoying that are you?". "Oh please shut up" I thought and nodded to show that I had sort of acknowledged him.

"Are you a probation officer?" he said, still sucking the lollipop. At this point I had to stop him. No one calls me a probation officer and gets away with it.

"Why do I look like a probation officer?" I asked wearily.
"Cos you're wearing boots".
I wasn't, it was fooking hot, I don't wear boots in the summer time. (see today's Tube Fashion Victim post)
"Oh no you're not are you?" he said. I was wearing cropped jeans. "They just looked like boots for a bit". That's because he was way more wazzed than I was.

He then asked me if the guy sitting opposite me with his head buried into a Blackberry was my "fella". "No he's not" I said even more wearily.

"Well he should be he's a handsome bloke" he then turned to the guy and said "You are you're a handsome bloke". He turned back to me "He is isn't he?". Oh Jesus please shut up and continue to suck your lollipop and leave us in peace, I thought. "He's alright", I replied.

He then got bored with me and asked the "handsome bloke" why he was typing into his BlackBerry. I closed my eyes and thanked my lucky stars he was more interested in bloke with the BlackBerry.

BlackBerry bloke handled him well, by saying he was a sad geek to be typing so much at that time of night, but it was just what he did. Lollipop drunk bloke seemed to think that was OK and then talked at all of us about where were getting off (We ignored him) and that Virginia Waters was rubbish as he bet we were getting off at Virginia Waters (we weren't).

Actually, all three of us got off at Richmond but fortunately Lollipop drunk bloke got up quite early to ramble to people further down the carriage. We made a last minute exit hoping he wasn't going collar us again at Richmond.

Other than that Mobile Geeks of London was a fun night full of Geeks taking photos of each other and a surprise appearance by Brian May!





A few more photos here and I hope that no one else accuses me of looking like a probation officer today!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, August 01, 2008 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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