Volcanic ash above Britain (and lots of other places)!

I know that everyone has been banging on about the Icelandic volcano erupting, who's name is impossible to remember, but I wanted to jump on the bandwaggon, as standing on the platform at Victoria the other day I had to giggle about an ash related announcement over the tannoy system:

"Ladies and gentlemen, due to volcanic ash above Britain, Heathrow is closed on the Picadilly line"

Now, maybe no one else found that amusing, but I really never thought it was something I would ever hear! And it is awful how many people have been stranded, but I do think that the whole issue seems to have been dealt with very well and NATS and all other aviation/weather/travel bodies involved have offered coherent statements and policy which I think was quick off the mark and boringly, quite sensible. And this is very selfish, but as I do live under a busy flight path in South London, it has been bliss waking up and not hearing planes flying over every few minutes over the last few days, and I do wonder if it has helped cut down carbon emmissons at all- although thinking about that, with a volcano spewing out all sorts of gasses etc not sure if it really helps at all! Anyway, good luck to everyone who is stuck abroad or even in the UK, fingers crossed restrictions are lifted soon.

Night busses, the joy of!

Summer seems to be almost here- two days running of sun! Almost too exciting for words! It means that everyone in London seems to come out of hibernation and starts wearing summer dresses etc which I am just prepared for! Not ready for wearing summer clothes at all, I do need to ease myself in! So this weekend has been spent in South London, between Brixton, Clapham, Tooting and slightly off track, Shoreditch. This post is primarily about the joys of night busses in London (easy to guess from the intro)! They don't run often enough, never have enough space and the driver is always very pissed off, and admitedly if I had to deal with some of the drunken idiots I saw last night I would be pretty pissed off too! But I do have rather a soft spot for them; making random friends, they are super cheap and you get a night time tour of London- is that me trying to be too enthusiastic about night busses!?

I always find it is fun to make friends on night busses, especially the N35 to Clapham Junction (thankis TFL) as it makes what is a tediously long and boring journey, quite entertaning and bearable! Last night was no exception, there was some complete idiot talking at the top of his voice at the bus stop about nothing, everything and generally being quite foul! Needless to say when he got on the first bus that came along we all heaved a sigh of relief and waved him off- he looked quite confused, but it did mean that a few of us bonded and subsequently realised we all sounded like our Mums and realised we all needed to get out more or just go to bed earlier! But it does show that London isn't as unfriendly as it can seem. People only seem to have time for themselves and no desire to speak to new people. Maybe drink loosens peoples tongues and the fact that it is silly o'clock in the morning makes people more willing to chat but I do enjoy it. But I can't say it's something I enjoy doing every weeeknd though (one can only be so sociable!!), taking the night bus that is and next weekend I am pleased to say it is a
Tooting night out for St George's Day and I need to find a red and white costume, and suggestions?

Tripbod

So summer is coming and it’s time for travelling and holidays- I’m off to Lisbon at soon and then hopefully later in the year off to Singapore, Cambodia and Malaysia- very excited! However I write this post it sounds PR-ie but I am going to plug Tripbod! This is a fantastic company founded and run by a couple of great friends Dot and Sally- it’s a service which connects you with local experts at the desitnation of your choice. So when you go on holiday you can see the country as a local and have insider info about where to go and what to do instead of the usual tourist places you can get a real flavour for the place! I am also a Tripbod for London, and all the other bods are fantastic and I wish I had the time and the money to use Tripbod all the time! So if you do want to go away and want someone to help you plan a fabulous trip and pass on some insider info check out Tripbod and I promise you’ll be a fan!! and it isn't just for trips abroad, you can also have some help planning a trip to somewhere within the UK!

And if you’re interested, here’s a link to my profile!

Bad bad bad Ali!

Bad bad bad Ali… I know I always say this, haven’t posted anything for a while… blah blah blah! I will turn over new leaf and post things all week… well as you can see I haven’t so I won’t promise to regularly update my blog but here is a long overdue post!