On your bike!

London is great for many things. However, if you ask people what annoys them most about the city, a top three list may include: Bad weather, Expensive & overcrowded public transport and Traffic (In no particular order)

So as a potential solution to these problems I propose that Londoners trade in their comfortable car seats and excessive tolerance of public transport and start cycling! Perhaps I will be able to generate some enthusiasm with the aid of a lovely list…

• It’s a free way to travel - you could be saving over £1,000 a year, based on an annual travel card; zones 1-2
• It’s a great form of exercise – you can burn anything from around 400-1400 calories per hour, depending on weight and speed
• It’s astonishingly quick – you can cover 4 miles in an average of 22 minutes in central London on a bike, which would usually take 40 minutes by car
• Free cycle maps are available from the Transport for London website

If the content of this post (and my use of smiley faced bullets points!) has captured your momentary interest, a good bike shop that doesn’t exploit its monopolistic power (cough, cough…Evans Cycles and Cycle Surgery) would be Camden Cycles.

This is a secondhand bike shop whose closest tube station is ironically not Camden but Mornington Crescent. Here you can get quality brands at very good prices. What’s more, you can take in your old bike and trade it against the cost of a new one, or simply take your old rusty bike for a reasonably-priced service (£35 vs. £50 when I took my bike to Cycle Surgery).

I paid a total of £200 and gave in my old bike for an almost brand new Pinnacle unisex hybrid. It rides like a dream, which if new would have cost me £500. (Bicycle prices can be anything from £30 upwards so there’s something for everyone!)

Links:

Fighting Fit

Free maps from Transport for London

Camden Cycles

The wonders of charity

Have you ever had the sudden urge to start a new hobby? Do you ever wish you had auditioned for the school or university theatre production or regret not carrying on with the music lessons your parents made you take?

This year I had those thoughts and rather than let them dissolve into nothing I decided to stave off any future regret; My discovery of the Roundhouse Studios satiated this appetite, and without the big fat juicy price tag to boot.

For those of you that don’t know about this gem of a charity based in Camden/Chalk Farm, I will now sing its praises and tell you a little more…

For anyone under the age of 26, the Roundhouse studios run creative projects throughout the year. You can do anything you like at any level. Have a go at singing, acting, dancing, photography, game design, writing poetry, multimedia journalism, costume creating… The list is endless.

What is even better, other than the huge range of courses on offer, is the price - you will only pay £20 for the entire course!! This means it’s definitely worth a go.

Another thing to mention would be the ‘A Night Less Ordinary’ scheme run by the England’s National Arts Council, which is offering free tickets to anyone under 26. (This is available in other venues, as well as the Roundhouse). All you have to do is show some ID at the box office and next thing you know, you will be holding the golden ticket to a very memorable evening.

Enjoy!

Links:

Roundhouse Studios

A Night Less Ordinary

A new adventure

TwentySomethingLONDON is a blog I started writing so that I could share, what I think, are the secrets of our city. Too often, I read reviews on things to do and places to go which are never as fun as they seem simply because the audience they try to reach to is just too big! They range from your pre-teen who has to pretend they have left their ID at home to middle aged men experiencing their first mid-life crisis – see, now surely that leaves room for many wasted efforts by twenty-something individuals entering the prime of their lives!

So, after coming to the conclusion that age is as much a factor to consider when deciding what to do, I present to you – TwentySomethingLONDON – a blog of random ideas, places and things to do which hopefully you will enjoy!