Spendthrift Shoestring

Hackney Innovation

I love how the resident of this council flat has created her own garden. She's not the only one in the neighborhood utilizing common space for a garden, either. There's a fellow living in an estate across the street growing rows of vegetables.

Hackney Still Life

Better Orwell than Orwellian.

Say Thank You

This is the third post in a quite irregular series in which I provide unsolicited advice to my fellow travel bloggers.

Here it is: When someone responds to your request for advice, thank them.

The social media-driven universe we travel bloggers are currently inhabiting is pretty great. We scribble a question into Twitter and magically—or automagically, as this friend has it—we receive an answer. Where should I spend my afternoon on the Upper East Side while waiting for an appointment? What is the best Vietnamese restaurant in Oklahoma City? Which Croatian island will be quiet in August?

We risk a few dozen characters and the brain trust that is our social network comes back with useable answers. It's amazing. And yes, sometimes the answers that come back are not helpful. On occasion they're misreadings of our original queries, or even creepy and weird. But by and large they're coming from real people who we've already vetted on the strength of their knowledge, influence, or connectedness.

So say thank you. Don't demand answers. Don't follow up breathlessly with additional questions before taking time to demonstrate your appreciation. At the risk of hippieing out, you are responsible for shaping and nurturing your own online community. Don't blow it.

This is simple, easy, uncontroversial stuff. Say thank you.

An Epic Fail in the Eurovision Prediction Stakes

In late February, freshly returned from a few nights in Oslo, I predicted that Stella Mwangi would win Eurovision.

Last night, in the first semi-final of the competition, she failed even to qualify for the final. In a field of 19 songs, "Haba haba" wasn't among the top ten. Meanwhile, the Swiss song, which I judged to be irredeemably terrible—and from a country with an abysmal recent Eurovision history, to boot—went through.

So yeah. Terrible prediction, apparently. Late Saturday the semi-final votes will be revealed and it will be interesting to see how close Mwangi came to qualifying.