Donny Dog

10 June 2011 - It is great to be in London, as it easy to pick up a free newspaper in the morning tube and read the highlights of British news. Like: "A woman sacked as Doncaster Rovers' mascot Donny Dog after posing in her underwear with the costume has been offered her job back." The football club's chairman John Ryan confirmed he had offered Tracy Chandler her job back. Ms Chandler was dismissed by e-mail from the unpaid job after she appeared in the Sunday Sport in her underwear. Mr Ryan said the situation was a "storm in a tea cup", while Ms Chandler insisted the photos were not "seedy". Mr Ryan said: "The Sunday Sport and a mascot designed for children is not an ideal mix. "We were just a bit concerned about the sexualisation of young children, it's a tricky area these days, we're putting it right, maybe it was a mistake. As far as I'm concerned I'm going to put this whole thing to bed and let Tracy get on."

London Tower Bridge

10 June 2011 - This morning I walked over London's Tower Bridge to work. It is inevitably one of the most recognizable bridges in the world. Its Victorian Gothic style stems from a law that forced the designers to create a structure that would be in harmony with the nearby Tower of London. Plans for the Tower Bridge were devised around 1876 when the east of London became extremely crowded and a bridge across the Thames in that area of the city seemed a necessity. It would take another eight years - and lots of discussions about the design - before construction of the bridge started. The bridge, designed by city architect Horace Jones in collaboration with John Wolfe Barry, would eventually be completed in 1894. Five contractors and nearly 450 workers were involved in the construction of the 265 meter long bridge. It took 11,000 tons of steel to build the framework. At the time many people disliked its Victorian Gothic design, but over time the bridge became one of London's most famous symbols. Walking the bridge is a great way to get into the day.

Albanian Criminals

9 June 2011 - London is a dangerous place! The BBC reported that more than 100 dangerous Albanian criminals could be in hiding in the UK, some of them in London it is thought, according to a secret dossier sent to the Scotland Yard by police in the country's capital, Tirana. The head of Interpol there said most of the fugitives are wanted for murder. One of those in hiding was Marash Gjoka, who claimed asylum in the UK pretending to be a refugee from war-torn Kosovo. BBC London has learned that the 48-year-old Albanian national lived in Catford, south east London, with his wife and two teenage sons for more than 10 years, under the assumed name of Mark Toma. To his neighbours he was a quiet, family man who helped them with odd jobs around the house.What they did not know is that Gjoka, one of Albania's most wanted criminals, is accused of shooting dead Tonin Doshi, 33-year-old farmer in May 1999. After an apparent dispute over a piece of land, Gjoka is said to have shot him in the town of Lezhe, northern Albania.

Olympic Tickets

8 June 2011 - I am still in London and the city is already buzzing with news about the Olympics 2012, which will be hosted here. People could recently apply for tickets of the main events, which - surprise, surprise - turned out to be a disaster. One quote: "The ticketing process has been a farce. I applied for 80 tickets across 20 sessions, some I knew I was unlikely to get, but I did also apply for a lot of the minor sports. On Friday my credit card was debited for the cost of one session - £86 which means that only one of my applications has been successful. I don't even know which tickets I have, although I suspect they are for table tennis which I only applied for in the expectation I would be successful in getting tickets for other events over the same weekend. Because of this fiasco I have had to go on the German ticketing site Detour and buy tickets from them, although the choice is now limited, I now have at least some tickets and can start arranging travel and hotels. The UK system is bad because we don't know what tickets we have got. It would have been better not to have applied through the UK system at all. At no stage have they told people how many tickets are available at each price level. Had we known this information we may have considered applying for tickets at a higher price level." Are people just complaining no matter what or is it really surprising that organizations never seem to get the details right?

Bunnies in London

7 June 2011 - The Playboy bunnies return to London! Women's rights groups have slammed Hefner for exploiting women as he re-launches a playboy Club in London. Playboy club in London. Over 100 members of the groups UK Feminista and Object will protest outside the club in Mayfair, which they claim is demeaning to women. Speaking on behalf of the groups, Julia Long told Sky News: "The women see that Playboy are about the exploitation of women. They're about the degradation of women and I think they're rightly angry at the way Playboy is trying to legitimise pornography and bring it into the mainstream. This club is another step in that direction." Hefner, who is 85, is in the UK with his 25-year-old fiance Crystal Harris for the opening. Asked what he thought about the protests he said: "A feminist protest in 2011 to the Playboy Bunnies is lame. Look around you - certain things of a sexual nature are everywhere now." "Playboy and the Playboy clubs were the end of sexism. Women were being held bondage for hundreds of years, owned first by their fathers and then their husbands, Playboy helped to change all that.

Bayswater

7 June 2011 - I am staying in Bayswater, London and I checked what Wikipedia has to say about the area. It says that Bayswater is an area of west London, It has a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre.
Bayswater is one of London's most cosmopolitan areas wherein a diverse local population is augmented by a high concentration of hotels. In addition to the ancestral Britons, there is a significant Arab population, a large Greek community attracted by London's Greek Orthodox Cathedral, many Americans and London's main Brazilian community. The area has attractive streets and garden squares lined with Victorian stucco terraces, mostly now subdivided into flats and boarding houses. The property ranges from very expensive apartments to small studio flats. There are also purpose-built apartment blocks dating from the inter-war period as well as more recent developments, and a large council estate, the 650-flat Hallfield Estate, designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and now largely sold off.