This month (July, 2012) I turned 30 and while I don’t feel any different, it has made me think about what I want to do with my life going forward. The main thing is that I want to make sure I continue to get the most out of it. London has so many thing to do and see that it can at times feel overwhelming. There is thought process in many people (myself included) to put off doing things, thinking they’ll always be there.
I want to try and break this habit in myself and make sure I make the effort to go out and experience London to its fullest. Getting the most out of life is easier in London. So far since turning 30, I think I’m off to a good start. Here are the 6 big highlights of this month (In chronological order, not all in London):
The entrance to the Olympic Park is not going to look like this in a few hours time, credit Andy Worthington
As of me writing this there are a little over 12 hours to go before the opening ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games. At this point I’m sure you emotions range somewhere between sheer bliss to seething violent anger. I suspect for most of us, we’ll do our best to enjoy the games despite the disruptions to our lives.
To help I thought it might be good to look at 5 websites that can help you to enjoy the games, even if you don’t have a single ticket to any event. As a friend of mine recently said, The Olympics only come once a lifetime so let’s try to enjoy them.
London2012.com – Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. If you want the official goings on, this is your first stop.
BBC Sport – Olympics – London 2012 – The BBC’s coverage of all the Olympic events. Allows you to customise news stories to your interests and has links to online video of all the Games highlights.
Life inside the London 2012 Olympic Park – Run by Andy Wilke (whom I was lucky enough to meet in person this past Wednesday) – Life inside the London 2012 Olympic Park is a look at the whole building of the park from start to opening ceremonies to the legacy of the site. Andy is truly an amazing person and hasn’t earned one penny from Life Inside. Even more remarkable in an era where stories about Olympic sponsors dominate the media.
London Prepares – From their about page “London Prepares was established immediately following the 2012 ticketing lottery results, after hearing the BBC estimate that 11 out of 12 Londoners weren’t fortunate enough to get tickets to the games.” Basically the site aims to bring you the all the alternative events you can go to, if you don’t have tickets for the Games themselves (or even if you do).
Get Ahead of the Games – Your source of information about travel disruptions, delays or downright chaos. Includes information not only for London, but the UK as a whole. Alternatively, you can just use the Service Update From TFL.
Have any Olympics related sites you’d like to share? Please tell me below:
One Hyde Park – Some of the most expensive flats in the world After the weather, there are few things Londoners like to complain about more than the high cost of either buying or renting a place to live. To say London is an expensive place to live is to state the obvious. However, one or two examples will serve to show just how bad the situation has become.
According to the BBC housing calculator the average price of a house now stands at a staggering £402,000 in Greater London. This is around 2.5 times more than the average for Scotland and well over £100,000 more than the next closest region (unsurprisingly the South East). These prices make buying a home in London extremely difficult – if not impossible – for families on modest or even not-so-modest incomes.
Examining the situation from a global perspective doesn’t make the situation look any better. According to Global Property Guide, London is second only to Monaco in terms of the cost of buying or renting a place to live. While other studies don’t place London quite so high on the list, no one claims that London is cheap.
By:Unknown, if known please tell me so I can provide full credit.
When: June, 2012
Where:Taken from the Victoria Embankment looking south towards the Shard
Story:Not really sure what the story of this picture is, but I liked seeing the Shard immersed in fog. Really neat effect. I hope for the sake of the owners of the Shard that this doesn’t become a common occurrence. Also seeing the Millennium Bridge in the foreground adds to the whole scene.
The thing that struck me the most when watching the video is how the animals appear to be treated. I haven’t been to the circus in well over 20 years and for that matter am not even sure they still exist. If they do, I hope they don’t treat animals like they do in this video. While they aren’t visibly mistreated, there is something I find deeply unsettling about having them perform tricks for people.
But maybe that’s just me, how do you feel about circuses?
Over London Dusk & Night is another amazing video from the aptly named Jason Hawkes. I’ve previously featured his video ariel 1 on the site before. He’s probably the best aerial photographers/videographers in London today. Some of the shots he gets are absolutely breathtaking.
In this video he looks at London at dusk and at night. Some of the locations/landmarks featured include the Shard, St. Paul’s, Canary Wharf, the London Eye, Houses of Parliament, Piccadilly and Oxford circuses and many more. I love seeing London from the air and hope you do too.
Know of any other similar videos, let me know in the comment section below.
The video above is part of British Pathe’s archival footage of London.
Come To London, by British Pathe in 1966. This short clip shows a couple using a “water motorbike” on the Thames and Britt Ekland cutting a publicity stunt cake that Peter Sellers drivers out of in a Minnie!
I really love these old movies about how London looked in the past. It’s funny how some places, such as the Houses of Parliament, look exactly the same as today. Whereas other things, such a reporters working on fleet street, have virtually disapered. A nice reminder of how some things change and others remain the same in London, but that it’s always hard to predict which will be which.
Jet Man, from the 1966 British Pathe reel “Jump Jet”. Filmed on location at Brands Hatch in Kent, UK.
It’s intersting to watch because the Jet pack operator seems to be in near total control. It’s always puzzled me that we were able to do these things in the 60s, but can’t widely do them today. I’d love to get the chance to use a jet pack. Anyone know why these never took off, aside from the obvious safety risks?
Story:I’ve been meaning to post this picture for awhile now. Given that I’ve featured a lot about the Shard this week I though now was as good a time as any. This photo was taken the morning of May 30th, 2012. I’m not sure what caused the bizarre shiny reflection, but it is not photoshopped. Many other people got the exact same photo that day. Really neat to see, almost make it look like a beacon of progress.
Masterplan is the eighth film in the TUBE TUBE series. It goes outside the normal format of focusing on predominately white stories – instead it focuses on the lives of two immigrants to London. More interesting still is the fact none of the dialogue is in English, but is in Urdu (I think anyway). In my opinion, the format really works and is one of my favourite of the whole series so far. I’m glad too, because I felt the quality of the films may have been slipping a bit recently.
This film stars Hassan Raza and Asif Sayed Mohammed, who both put in great performances. Really hope to see them in some future episodes of the series. As always you can follow @tubetubelondon on twitter, Like them on facebook and most importantly subscribe to their YouTube channel.
