Tag: London blogs

An Enlightening Selection of Good London Blog Posts

Studies have shown that it’s statistically impossible for you to read everything on the internet all of the time.

But luckily for you, I can and frequently do spend a fairly sizable chunk of my day doing precisely that.

So here are some interesting, amusing or just plain good London related blog posts and articles you can read while I think up something original to say.

(Thanks, internet.)

Hipsters are better than you, say researchers

Hot on the heels of my “oh, you’re calling everyone in East London a hipster…again. Yawn” type posts, came this gem from The Daily Mash:

Hipsters tend not to breed as pregnancy is difficult to accessorize, meaning their numbers will always remain low, but Hayes also argued that while their conversations make you want to yank your brain out through your nose, they probably feel the same way about your ghastly children.

(thanks Emma Saunders for the heads up)

We Went On a Quest to Find the New Dalston

I think everyone in the entire internet read this last week, but in case you missed it, here were Vice’s predictions for “the new Dalston”.

Look, I’m not saying Edmonton’s the Bronx – I’m sure it’ll be fine in the long run, but there was a cardboard cut-out of a policeman stood in one of the supermarket windows. There was just a palpable sense of unease, is all.

Who loves London? And who does not?

I liked this post on the Guardian’s London blog by Dave Hill, where he delves into November’s YouGov survey results revealing more Londoners are unhappy here than ever before. There was light, however, below the line in the shape of a comment from one half of a retired couple, who did things another way.

We moved to London just over 12 months ago. We did it as part of our retirement plan swapping a 5 bedrooms house in Cambridgeshire for a 1 bedroom flat. London is the perfect place to retire to. First you have the Freedom Pass. Travel around the whole of London at no cost. Before we might have thought of going to a concert or theatre but felt the time and the expense wasn’t worth it. Now we just hop on the tube.

Love on the Lines

It is almost Valentine’s Day, so here’s an article from December about the tube lines you’ll need to inconspicuously stalk in a non-weird way if you’re looking for love on the Underground. (tl;dr Avoid Victoria, embrace Bakerloo.)

A lot of those boarding at Victoria in the morning are married suburbanites who have moved to south London or Kent for cheaper properties and better schools — so you’ve probably already missed your chance there.

Searching for Something…

A brilliantly observed blog post that most singles in London can probably relate to. No? Just me then.

I’m pretty sure I won’t find the love of my life at 4AM in the Dolphin. And yet there he was; an incarnation, a very close imitation of my perfect man. Granted, he hated the Sopranos and insinuated that every Smiths song sounded like a cover of their one original, shit song, but hey, nobody’s perfect, right?

Admittedly, even the pros occasionally miss stuff, so feel free to share anything London and Good you’ve read lately and I’ll smother you in the sort of affection usually reserved for monkeys at the zoo.

12th February 2013
Going Behind the Blog at the Museum of London (and behind this one, here)
Last Wednesday I went to a talk called Behind the Blog at the Museum of London.

I didn’t get to wander around the museum itself, but I did use the toilet which is where I learnt the following handy fact:

On the panel of Behind the Blog were the faces behind some of the interweb’s most well known London blogs and publications: Sonia who puts together Time Out’s Now. Here. This, Ian from IanVisits, Dave Hill who blogs for The Guardian, Chloe from Le Cool, and Michael from Snipe London.

These blogs and newsletters probably receive the equivalent views in one week that I’ll get here in a year, but despite that, there were two points that brought us all together like happy little London ducks:

1) We’ve all realised that blogs take a lot of time and effort – most of which happens after you’ve done a full day at work.

2) When it comes to blogging, there’s enough of this big city to go around.

It was good to hear how they put their blogs together, and also to grab Dave Hill at the end and thank him for mentioning this blog in the Guardian’s Metropolitan Lines newsletter back in June. Which brings me nicely to part 2 of this post. What exactly goes on behind here?

As someone who only recently started writing about this city under the guise of She Loves London, I already feel qualified to dispel the myth that starting and maintaining a blog is some sort of jolly old foray where you can just shove up a load of pictures and get free stuff (not looking at any blogging community in particular *cough*)

Deciding to start a blog is easy. Choosing a domain, design and layout takes weeks. In the first couple of months, publishing regular posts is a doddle: ideas fall out of your fingertips. THEY’RE EVERYWHERE.

But there’s a reason why most new blogs about any subject only last about three months. After that, the initial burst of excitement wears off and, I’m afraid to say, you’ve got some work to do.

Coming up with ideas, writing the post, taking and sorting the pictures all while trying to wind down, cook your dinner and watch 999 What’s Your Emergency – that takes some serious multitasking. Including, but not limited to:
- Writing and publishing posts on the bus when you’d normally be staring out of the window ogling hotties on the pavement
- Tapping out posts one-handed on the Overground; relying on your dubious balance skillz to stop you careering into the person next to you
- Saying mental things like “Sorry, I can’t come to the pub tonight because I need to write stuff on the internet”
- The frankly terrifying bit where you “put it out there” and hope people a) read it and b) like it and c) come back again.
Get all that right and it’s onwards and upwards: you have a blog, and your parents have something they can show their friends when conversation dries up at the dinner table.

Put simply: blogs are the gift that keep on giving – until you get bored, lose interest and break up with it stating irreconcilable differences.

Such is life.

Anyway, if you want to find out more about me and this, then you might want to read my London grilling on the East Village blog.

Failing that, you’ll find more brilliant London blogs somewhere to your right –> and also on this post here.

As always, I’m always open to hearing about your blog, and what goes on behind it. Or if you’ve ever been in a toilet that told you something better than the history of toilet roll, that would go down well too.
25th October 2012
Ten Different London Blogs to Read on your Lunch Break

There are a lot of blogs about London on the internet. About 9 million, at last count (source: my wild imagination)

However, my favourite blogs are the often ones that give a bit of a different insight into the city, delve (sometimes literally) below the surface, or take an every day element of London and give it some love, care and attention.

So here are ten blogs that might make you laugh, raise your eyebrows, or at any rate, will give you something slightly different to read on your lunch break.

(more…)

30th September 2012