And the logo of the century award goes to ... ARGH!

West Cornwall Pasty Company has the coolest logo this blogger's seen in a very long while. Their pasty's ain't bad either (I recommend the "best-selling" traditional: a steak, turnip, potato, and onion combo).

With outlets at practically every major train and tube station in London, I see that that goofy-looking patch-eyed pirate all over the place, and he always brings a smile to my face.

Click here to visit the West Cornwall Pasty Company online.

WEEKLY PHOTO (31 August 2006)

Eat MEE
Photograph by Emiana © 2006
Interested in contributing a photograph of London to this blog? Click here for details.

Goddess image construction live at British Museum

Durga: Creating an image of the goddess
12 August – 27 September 2006
British Museum
Great Court
Admission free
Open daily 10.00 – 17.30,
late Thursdays & Fridays until 20.30

The Great Court will be the venue for the creation by West Bengali craftsmen of a spectacular image of the goddess Durga killing the buffalo-headed demon Mahisha. The image will be created using straw, clay and paint, and visitors will be able to view the whole process, from the construction of the initial wooden structure, to the painting of the giant figures on the tableau. This is a chance to witness the incredible skills of the West Bengali craftsmen creating the Durga; a sight rarely seen outside of Bengal.

Click here to read more about the construction.

Need a break from the urban grind? Try the Ribble Valley

Visit ontoTravel for a review of a recent excursion to England's Ribble Valley.

Click here for that review.

Click here for a few slideshows of photos from the trip.

Click here for a blog that reviews Ribble Valley pubs.

London Transport best in the world? Really?

London Tops For Transport
Sky News
Updated: 11:46, Tuesday August 29, 2006

Commuters may find it hard to believe, but London has the best public transport system in the world, a new survey suggests ... Ironically, the news was released as tens of thousands of passengers faced a travel headache thanks to a strike by South West Trains workers.

Click here to read the full article.

UK tourist attractions get an unhealthy diagnosis from "mum"

Tourist attractions 'unhealthy'
Fast food remains top of the menu at major tourist attractions across the country, a report has found.
BBC News
Last Updated: Friday, 25 August 2006, 12:39 GMT 13:39 UK

A "secret mum", who visited 14 top attractions for the Soil Association, found most sites were failing to provide healthy food and drink choices.

Click here to read the full article.

WEEKLY PHOTO (24 August 2006)

8
Photograph by Tiki Chris © 2006
Interested in contributing a photograph of London to this blog? Click here for details.

British Museum offering free trip to Dubai

Click here for more details.

Heroic dog honored at Imperial War Museum

War Dog Hero Honoured
Sky News
August 22, 2006

A medal awarded to the only dog to be officially registered as a Second World War prisoner goes on public display today.

Click here to read the full article.

Visit the Imperial War Museum online:
http://www.iwm.org.uk/

How to pack for your flight (for the time being anyway)

Baggage advice for UK passengers
BBC News
Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 11:33 GMT 12:33 UK

Click here to read the full article.

(A similar entry has been posted at ontoTravel)

London hosts strip poker championship

Strip poker championships bring mass a-peel
Contestants from 12 countries in naked pursuit of ‘Gold Fig Leaf’
© Reuters 2006
Updated: 12:22 p.m. ET Aug. 19, 2006



Organized by Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, the inaugural World Strip Poker Championship takes place at the prestigious Cafe Royal in central London with players battling it out in games of "No Limit Texas Hold 'em".

Click here to read the full article.

Potential strike at Stansted over Bank Holiday

Stansted strikes to cause 'major disruption'
by Catherine Harker
Times Online
August 18, 2006

Holidaymakers are set to face more airport chaos as 500 workers at Stansted have voted to strike at the Bank Holiday weekend over a row about pay.

Click here to read the full article.

More information at Londonist:

It's Official: Travel Is Impossible
Posted by Rob
Londonist
August 18, 2006

In the past hour it's been announced that 500 baggage handlers at Stansted airport have voted to strike at the Bank Holiday weekend over a row about pay.

Click here to read the full post.

WEEKLY PHOTO (17 August 2006)

Spitalfields Market
Photograph by Tiki Chris © 2006
Interested in contributing a photograph of London to this blog? Click here for details.

Golden Peruvian sea god found in central London

Could this be Kon-Tiki?

Looted ancient Peruvian headdress found in London lawyer's office
Yahoo! News
Thursday August 17, 02:20 PM

A looted ancient Peruvian headdress considered of key importance to the country's cultural heritage has been seized from a lawyer's office in central London, the Metropolitan Police has said.

Click here to read the full article.

Critics schmitics - Restaurant Spy gives everyone a voice

How to DIY it
Sean Dodson
The Guardian
Saturday August 12, 2006

Restaurant Spy (restaurantspy.com) ... contains over 1,300 reviews written entirely by people who pay their own bill. The relaunched site, which covers everything from The Ivy to the Little Chef, has grown into a reliable nationwide food guide, which, like a waiter hovering for a big tip, can't do enough for you.

Click here to read the full article.

Visit Restaurant Spy online:
http://www.restaurantspy.com/

Emiana's "Crossroads Commute"

Blogger Emiana takes a stroll through her London neighborhood of Clerkenwell on the way to work and shares some of the many highlights.




A Crossroads Commute
Emiana
Wednesday, July 26, 2006

My commute to work is a short 10-15 minute walk, but it spans almost two thousand years.

Click here to read the full post.

Flights to/from the UK? Best read this article

Check out this post at ontoTravel for information about the new heightened security measures for flights in/of of the UK.









http://ontotravel.blogspot.com

WEEKLY PHOTO (10 August 2006)

Cleaning Time
Photograph by Emiana © 2006
Interested in contributing a photograph of London to this blog? Click here for details.

Utopian Japanese Glow at Gloucester Road Tube

Chiho Aoshima
City Glow, Mountain Whisper
25 July 2006 – 25 January 2007
Gloucester Road Underground Station


Coming from the Great British Beer Festival last night (click here for that post), I found myself at Gloucester Road Underground station waiting for my train and admiring the artwork of Chino Aoshima's "City Glow, Mountain Whisper," a new commission for the station by Platform for Art, London Underground's public art programme, which is "designed to showcase and celebrate a rich and vibrant art scene."Aoshima is a Japanese artist (this is her first solo project in the UK) associated with the "superflat" movement, "the simplified and emphatically two-dimensional forms employed by a generation of young Japanese artists." Her piece, "City Glow, Mountain Whisper," suggests a utopian vision of organic creatures and inanimate object merged into one. As the name suggests, the installation brings a pleasant and appreciated glow to this otherwise grim station.

Read more about London Underground's Platform for Art programme :
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/arts/platform-for-art/

View more of Aoshima's work:
http://www.blumandpoe.com/chihoaoshima/

WEEKLY PHOTO (3 August 2006)

At the Mela festival in Walthamstow's Lloyd Park, Sunday 30 July
Photograph by Chris Mavergames © 2006
Interested in contributing a photograph of London to this blog? Click here for details.

How was the Beer Fest?

Good fun! Of course, the story might be different for attendees of the Great British Beer Festival now that it's tomorrow morning. But, last night at the event, we were all a sea of smiling faces, with hearty laughter rumbling from our bellies.

The festival was a series of bars arranged by British region with a few other category bars thrown in for good measure: brewery bars, family brewers, "Bar Nouveau" (new British beers), real ale in a bottle, real cider and perry, and foreign beer. Vendors selling t-shirts, sausage, roast pork, Cornish pasties and the like were also on hand.

Among my favorite drinks last night (and there were quite a few favorites), two delicious brews are most memorable.

The hands down best of the night was Batemans Valiant, about which my two drinkmates were in agreement. This delicious golden beer was clean and crisp with just the right amount of zest. Really, it was one of the most refreshing beverages I've ever tasted.

Coming in at a very close second was Bazens' Brewery's Black Pig Mild, which has one of the coolest labels I've ever seen. Its just-the-right-amount-of-chocolatey-goodness made for a smooth and easy to appreciate drink that would go down easy with just about any meal at just about any time of the year.






The Great British Beer Festival runs until 5 August at Earl's Court.