mind the gap

...in your sense of humour, dear tube! the tube today fired the female voice of *doors closing* that tube users have been familiar with for years. she made jokes about american tourists and about the tube, her employer. the name is emma clarke, and she has some spoof announcements on her own website. have a look once it's online again.

how i protect myself from identity fraud

all of britain is panicky about missing... no not maddie this time, but cds with sensitive personal dat of 25 million people on them. so what do i do to protect myself from identity theft? well, first of all, let's be clear thta most people, myself included, do not care about whether my *identity* is stolen, or whether someone finds out my address. our worry is about money. can anyone access and steal the money in my bank/savings/isa account?

this is what i do: for the past months, i have kept my account on the (interest-free) overdraft limit. that way, no-one can steal any money because i'm in the reds already! problem solved!

words you read a lot in the british press these days

disaster mess cock-up fiasco catastrophe blunder blame failure mistake regret incompetence chaos shock rubbish loss unfit misjudgement crisis enquiry scandal

no, gordon ramsay for england manager: *fucking move your fucking asses to the goal you fucking tossers!*

3-2

so england did not qualify for euro 2010. are people in london distressed? don't think so. it all seems to fit the pattern of doom and disaster that the media have produced (or reflected?) in recent months. the english manager's story has remarkable parallels to that of gordon brown (assistant following in his boss's footsteps and not doing so well).
schadenfreude is not much fun as england is such an easy target. the brits seem to have been punching above their weight since 1919 really. well, perhaps now they will form a new championship with the usa, what with their *special relationship*, or they'll hold a (stay-at-)home nation's cup with scotland, wales, n' ireland, thereby reviving the currently a little un-united kingdom.

klinsmann for england manager!

dipso fatso bingo asbo tesco

i much dislike the wannabe-highbrow times online and their murdoch-inspired tabloid style (the sun is their sister paper). but once in a while they have a good article. like this one, a list of five words to describe the brits, by the brits themselves. gordon brown wants to use them as a motto on british passports etc, all part of his british identity initiative.

my suggestion, a bit obvious: *2 world wars and 1 world cup* (and that's all you'll ever win!)

london - paris

this blog is becoming a picture book! here, dear community, are some pics from st pancras, the new eurostar terminal that has finally been opened today, with only a few years delay. it looks great, still clean, and reminds me of leipzig hauptbahnhof with its steel arches and glass ceiling. only leipzig is bigger. funny how most people at the station (and there were lots of visitors apart from the travellers) took photos of the trains. but then, not many brits get to see a fast and clean train in their lifetime. not in britain, anyway.
how did the french celebrate the new paris-london terminal? they went on strike.

streets of london

london dogs are the toughest!

my carbon footprint

today i have a carbon footprint.
what happened? i wore my new ugg-like (not the real uggs, too expensive!) sheepskin boots, warm and black. because they give you toastie toes, i wore them without socks. to my astonishment, the black sheepskin turned out not to be from a black sheep, but artificially dyed. the result is that my feet are completely black now, mostly on my soles. which leaves a nice pattern on our beige carpet. mmmmh!
how to reduce my carbon footprint? i keep scrubbing and rubbing and filing to make at least the top layer of black skin come off. as a by-product of this carbon footprint reduction, my feet are soft like a baby bum.
the moral of this story: you, too, can reduce your carbon footprint!

german-english relationship

dropped penny of the day: if the daily mail *condemns* the german media, we know we have done something right. go titanic!