I was thinking this morning on one of my daily journeys on the tube how insane it is. Here’s my take on the ‘types’ of people you will meet every day on the tube (guaranteed).

My psychoanalysis of the tube…

* Morning: smell of fresh perfume, everyone feeling perky, in a rush, got somewhere to be. Everybody on the tube is ‘doing something’ - listening to their ipod, reading the newspaper, reading their neighbour’s newspaper over their shoulder (I am guilty of this occasionally…). Cut to the post-work evening tube home: smell of body odour, people struggling to stay awake or often actually fallen asleep (I am waiting for the day I do this). The contrast in a matter of hours is hilarious.

* There is the guy who takes full advantage of the fact that the tube is so full, and blames the motion of the tube for standing so close behind a good looking female on the tube (imagine a sausage against your back).

* There are those people who are so full of their own self importance, that even if there are spare seats to sit on, they will not lower themselves to the level of sitting next to minions/peasants/lower class peeps. They would rather stand with one hand above them on the rails reading highly intellectual literature in the form of a book rather than the rest of us who read the free gossip-ridden Metro london paper. Possible ‘too posh to sit’ syndrome.

* There are the ‘risk takers’ - those people who think they can squeeze on at the very last minute on the tube when the doors are beeping (a warning the doors are about to close shut any second now). I am the queen of laughing at things I shouldn’t and am terrible at laughing when people get limbs or body parts caught in the door. Apparently I am the only one on the tube who sees the funny side when people think they can squeeze on but they can’t. It’s their own fault.

* There are what I like to call ‘tube sharks’, those who watch incessantly, watching everyone in the carriage like prey, waiting for someone to get up from their seat for the opportunity to worm their way into a seat before anyone else.

* And last of all: the ‘compulsive starer’. The guy who sits directly across from you in the tube and seems to have eyes for christmas. But with litrle choice of where to look except at the seats across from you, you find yourself catching his eye more than once. Which then encourages him to keep staring more since he thinks you might be a keen bean. Oh dear.

I will not miss taking the peak hour tube every morning.

And I thought I would share this awesomely awesome video made out of over 3000 photographs which really wraps London up into a little bundle of 2 minute goodness.

London (harder, better, faster, stronger) from David Hubert

This Sunday afternoon, a group of Zombies made their way from Marble Arch along the streets of London as part of World Zombie Day. The day that zombies all over the globe are going to wrench themselves onto the streets for fun, but also for charity. I took a few photos of the zombies as they groaned their way down the street.

a note to his wife

zombies eating each other

If you are ever in London around this time, have a look or get zombie-fied yourself.

Now that I am settled into London (kind of), with a job (phew!), and a house (living with italiano’s), I thought it was time for an update.

I have been catching up with kiwi friends in London from back home, started an evening french course for 10 weeks (trop bien!), had a girls weekend away in Cardiff (Wales), popped over to funky Brighton for a weekend to check out the lanes/boutiquey shops and the beach (well, stoney beach, not sandy beach but close enough) and settling into our flat, my new job and life in Londontown.

I never thought I would live in London. But now that I’ve made the decision to move to London for a few months with the French boy for his job, I’ve had to have a mind re-shift.

this squirrel in hynd park decided to have a look in my handbag

I am not really getting into the “antipodean culture” here (living with 15 aussies or kiwi’s in Shepherd’s Bush or drinking at the Walkabout…). I can see why kiwi’s and aussies live it - it’s about comfort I guess, people you know who understand the same humour and jokes, lingo, lifestyle, etc.  I guess I try to stay clear of it (and tend to avoid Ozzie pubs such as the Walkabout like the plague). I really loved being friends with a range of foreigners while living in Scotland and learning about different cultures.

I really do agree that variety is the spice of life.

I have now finished touring Europe with Mum (who has flown over from New Zealand) and we had a great time.

We did a whirlwind tour through Europe, staying in hotels every night and getting up very early each morning for the next leg of our trip.

This was our crazy itinerary: 12 days London to London through Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy & France

The tour was with the company Cosmos. It’s not my typical style of travelling (I usually love staying with locals, soaking up the culture for a few days) as it was a very structured and compact way to see Europe. But it was the best way for Mum to see alot of Europe in a short time, and I actually really enjoyed it, despite the long bus trips.

My highlights would have been a whole range of things… the sparkly French Cabaret show in Paris… the amazing history felt from the old churches in Assisi in Italy… sampling belgian waffles in Belgium… strawberry margueritas with the girls in Venice… sipping champagne at the casino in Montecarlo… laughing at the many tourists with their hands up trying to hold up the leaning tower of Pisa… figuring out the Paris metro and making it to Versailles… discovering cheese fondue in Switzerland… seeing the beautiful French and Italian countrysides from the windows of the bus… and the photo session with Mum on the bus of numerous photos of us pulling different faces (the result of being stuck on a bus for hours on end).

I’m so happy I could have shared this Mum.

Our next adventure together is discovering the Isle of Skye and going to the Dunvegan castle where our ancestors reign from.