London Tonight Tonight

Good afternoon. What's the definition of a pessimist? Someone who looks both ways crossing a one-way street. Not very funny, sorry, and possibly no longer true either. Boris Johnson's on the show tonight answering questions about a new cycle scheme that allows people to ride the wrong way down one-way streets?? The crazy-sounding idea's being tested in Kensington and Chelsea and could eventually be rolled out across London. Apparently, the theory is to make journeys quicker and easier, thus encouraging more people to ditch the car. Safety for cyclists must obviously be paramount. But there are cyclists, of course, who are only too happy to ignore the traffic laws already, but apparently, nervous newbies are reluctant to flout the rules and so decide to leave the bike in the garage instead. But how safe is the idea, not just for cyclists but for drivers? And what about the optimists among us who only look one way when crossing a one-way street? We'll ask Boris.

Now, what do Boris Johnson and Lenny Henry have in common? Well, you could argue that both are men SOME people struggle to take seriously. (Not all - ed!) And they're both on the show tonight. Lenny is playing the lead in Othello which starts previewing tomorrow at Trafalgar Studios in London. It's quite a departure from The Delbert Wilkins Show or Comic Relief. It's certainly quite a departure from Tiswas, which I remember cracking up at while watching Lenny ply his early trade. I went to one of the recordings once, my brother won a competition to be on the show. I remember it being a big family day out in Birmingham! They asked me if I wanted to be on the show too, but as a painfully shy 4 or 5 year old, I refused. Good job too, my brother ended up being pulled up from under the desk by his ears by Alvin Stardust?! Anyway, Lenny's come a long way since then and has been winning rave reviews for his first attempt at Shakespeare. We'll chat to him later.

Matt and Katie

Weather blog

Good evening,

 

We were recently sent a free air freshener disc by our car insurance company. In truth this is not something we would normally consider using so it was put on a shelf & forgotten about. Until this morning, that is.

 

Like many households ours is pretty busy first thing with breakfasts & packed lunches being organised & preparations for the day being made, so it was a while before I noticed smoke coming out of the toaster. I noticed a weird smell -   a mixture of burning & what I thought was cheap talc - but it wasn't until I was rescuing what I imagined would be a piece of carbonised bread that everything became clear. The toast wasn't burnt but the air freshener disc, which had fallen off the shelf & into the toaster & was now welded onto the inside of it, was. Even with the power off it continued to smoulder polluting the entire house with 'Alpine Breeze'.

 

In fact an Alpine breeze would have been very welcome (can you see where I'm going with this?) but the current settled conditions & light winds mean that despite open doors & windows the house remained strongly scented, and not with a fragrance we have chosen. The toaster's ruined as well. Evidently there's no such thing as a free air freshener....

 

Hope to see you later,

 

Robin