I’m not sure if this rule still counts, but if you have applied 5 times and been unsuccessful on each go then on the sixth attempt/year they will let you join in.  So yes it is that tough to get in!  Or as there is a lot of fundraising that takes part for the running a number of charities are given places they are allowed to give out, however if you do go via a charity most (all?) of them require you to raise a minimum amount of sponsership for them.  So you had better be good with the chat or have a few rich friends!  Of course none of this applies if your an elite athlete though, however to be classed as elite you have to have clocked up an approiately good time in a qualifying event (in other words, been damn fast in other runs/marathons).

On the day of the event everyone starts way down in the south of London in Greenwich Park and winds around the south a bit, then over Tower Bridge, down and around Canary Wharf area then along Embankment before the final sprint (if anyone has the energy) past Big Ben, down and around in front of Buckingham Palace and then down The Mall to the Finish Line.  Whew!  Check out the full map here – Interactive Map

Idea marathon weather is no rain, but overcast and a bit chill (but not too chilly), so London should be good in that regard!

So go down this weekend and support all those people doing it, not just the wheelchair people or the elite athletes, but all the normal people (as well as those doing charity runs in Gorilla suits!).   Training for a marathon takes a lot of effort, so a lot of these people will have been waking up early, late, during lunchtimes, doing 2/3 hour+ runs in the weekend and all during the winter months when it’s cold/dark/wet/windy when most of the rest of us are inside watching tv.   It’s quite an achievement to complete one!  Best of luck to everyone that is there at the start line as it takes a lot of work and effort just to get to that stage!

Timeout has further info about where to go and view everyone from

Well a couple of years ago there really wasn’t much of anywhere that did pub quizzes up North, but now there’s quite a decent selection.  We’re going to order them by day here, so work out which day you want to do one and then go check it out.

Tuesday

The Lion – West Hampstead
295 West End Lane, West Hampstead, London NW6 1RD
When we did this one it was a semi tough one!

Wednesday

The Westbury – Kilburn – http://www.westburybar.com/
34 Kilburn High Road, Kilburn, London NW6 5UA

Thursday

The Alliance – West Hampstead- http://www.thealliancepub.com/
40 Mill Lane, West Hampstead, London NW6 1NR
Got free nibbles when we did this one a year or so ago

Sunday

The Alice House – Queens Park – http://www.thealicehouse.co.uk/queens-park/
53-55 Salusbury Road, Queen’s Park, London NW6 6NJ

Held in the Library room, quite a fun one when we did it.  Though not much space so come early to get a good table

Note: Often pub quizes can come and go and aren’t always on every single week, so it would pay to phone ahead to the venue to check it out before heading off there.  Though even if the quiz isn’t on these are all good pubs worth having a drink in!

If you know of any more let us know so we can add/update the list.

Well it’s that time of the year when the not so Secret Secret Postcard sale happens.

If you haven’t heard of this before, what happens is to help raise funds for the College, the Royal College of Arts holds a secret postcard sale.  This means they have a number of their students, along
with famous artists and celebrities create an artwork on a postcard.

You can go and view all the postcards ahead of the sale, however the secret bit is that you don’t know who the creator of the postcard is until you buy it and turn it over.

Obviously a lot of people try and guess what postcards belong to the famous people, as for your £45 purchase.. (which seems expensive) if you get a famous artist (or a to
be famous up and coming student) then it could be worth several hundred pounds (or more – a Damien Hirst went for £15,600 at Auction!)

In case you wonder how popular it is, after it started running for a
couple of years people started camping out several days in advance to
be able to be first in the queue to get a postcard!

Just make sure you register if you want to buy.. there are 2,900 of them available as well, but probably all of them will be gone for sure by the morning of the sale day!

Though even if it’s not someone famous it makes a good Christmas present with a story behind it.

If your wondering how to follow the match, find out the results, or watch a live stream of the actual match, there’s a few different ways to do this -

If your in the UK you can watch it on the TV of course, and for free, via ITV.  Some pubs (like the Walkabout’s) even have 3D TV’s for you to watch the action in it’s 3dness.

If you don’t have a TV near you, then check it out online either at ITV.com or a cool website for streaming free TV, TVCatchup.com

One other way to follow it this competition has been via the mobile apps they have created for the competition.  The full list of mobile apps for the RWC include Blackberry, Playbook, iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile 7.   Get details about the teams, competition, results, news, and a running commentary when a match is on as well.  We’ve been using it throughout the competition and found it great for all the latest info, as the British papers have a bit of news on things, but not quite to the same level as they do if it was a Football World Cup.

Of course there are all the other news/sports/internet places to follow the match on, including the BBC Sports section.

If you want to place a bet on the outcome of the match, or other options, then try Betfair, after you spend your first £25, they give you £25.  That’s even if your £25 of betting has all been on wins too!

Fingers crossed for an All Black win tomorrow!

However if your in the UK you are going to have to put up with English Breakfasts and Rugby rather than late night beer and kebabs as with the matches being played on the other side of the world it means the timing is a bit out.  So most of the games will be shown over here with an around 8-10am kickoff time.

Now that we’re into the Semi Final’s,  here are some places to go to eat and drink and support the local teams!

New Zealand

Drink – Any good New Zealand wines from the Supermarket, or go to the “cousins” at the Walkabout
Food – The Providores, Marylbone

Australia

Drink – Fosters, or a Snakebite (which is normally a Snake and Black in the north of England – half cider, half beer, with a dash of blackcurrant)
Food – Kangaroo Burger at your local Walkabout’s, they will be showing all the games on the multi 3D TV screens that they have setup.  Wear some Green and Gold and have a Snakebite when your there!

Wales
Drink – Obviously go to Wales and have a pint! The atmosphere in Cardiff on the game day will be amazing i’m sure.  Otherwise in London try the The Cadogan Arms
Food – Hmm, try the pub for the food as well.  Wikipedia says this about Welsh Cusine.

France
Drink – The French House in the heart of Soho
Food – Try this French Restaurant in Clapham – Le Bouchon Bordelais, SW11 1HG

We’re supporting the All Blacks here!  Fingers crossed for the win!

If you want to place a bet on the game, join Betfair and get a free £25 starting bet (t+c’s of course)!

So we’re going to try and list all the ones that are available in London at the moment.

Nomad Cinema by the Lexi Cinema

The Lexi Cinema is a cool non-profit cinema in Kensal Green, for summertime they have a mobile cinema show that goes all over London (and outside it for a number of shows as well)

Cost: ~£13
Location(s): All over the UK
Type of Movies: Classic 80s
Movie highlight: Back to the Future, Greenwich Park
URL/Twitter: http://www.whereisthenomad.com/

Secret Cinema

These guys do experiences almost more than Cinema.  Often you won’t know what the movie is until you get there (unless you can work it out from the clues they drop before the event).  But they do a full experience to surround the movie, so showing the film in locations that match the film and then having actors and sets that match the film they are showing.  E.g. For Wings of Desire it was showen in empty theatre in Shepherds Bush, with circus acts and Berlin style sets, check out the video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIhC29vjCZQ

Cost: ~£25
Location(s):  All over London
Type of Movies: Avant-Garnde to Classic
Movie highlight: Depends what you see when you get there!
URL/Twitter: http://www.secretcinema.org/

Film4 Somerset House Cinema

Film4 and Somerset House together have been putting on films in the Somerset House courtyard for a few years now.  The tickets are always very popular and they have a mix of old films and new ones.  Get a ticket and then bring blankets and cushions to sit on the ground and chill out with a movie.

Cost: ~£15
Location(s): Somerset House, London
Type of Movies: Classic to not even been released yet
Movie highlight: Troll Hunter!
URL/Twitter: http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/film

Rooftop Cinema – Queen of Hoxton

On top of a bar in Hoxton (near Liverpool Street) is a rooftop with a bar, bbq, semi small fake garden and a movie screen!  You get your own personal wireless headset (so you don’t annoy the neighbours) and blanket.  We went there for Back to the Future and it was such a lovely night, great food from the BBQ and after the sun had set, watched a great movie.  Afterwards if you want to, you can carry on and have a party in the bar down below.  Not that many tickets available for each screening though and they sell out in a matter of minutes when they get released.  Get on the newsletter to get the details

Cost: £9
Location(s): Queen of Hoxton, Hoxton, London
Type of Movies: Modern Day and Old Classics – Casablanca, Austin Powers, Devil Wears Prada
Movie highlight: Back to the Future
URL/Twitter: http://rooftopfilmclub.com/

Popup Screens

Popup Screens was just one weekend in May, that’s been and gone now, but keep an eye on the website as it might be back

Cost: £7
Location(s): Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith
Type of Movies: 3 Old School Classics
Movie highlight: Ghostbusters
URL/Twitter: http://www.popupscreens.co.uk/

Floating Cinema

Yes, how about a cinema that floats!  It’s a boat with a screen on it… showing a broad range of films, probably not ones you have seen in the multiplex though.

Cost: ??
Location(s): East End canals, London
Type of Movies: ??
Movie highlight: ??
URL/Twitter: http://floatingcinema.info/

Films on Fridges

A collection of fridges piled up by the river and sporting style films projected onto them.  Something a bit different from your normal multiplex setting!

Cost: £10
Location(s): East End Fish Island, London
Type of Movies: Sporting ones
Movie highlight: Rocky
URL/Twitter: http://www.filmsonfridges.com/

More London Film Festival

For the last half of September come along and see films for free in view of Tower Bridge!  Though go early as there is only limited space..

Cost: Free!
Location(s): Outside the Mayoral Hall by Tower Bridge
Type of Movies: Modern Classics
Movie highlight: The King’s Speech
URL/Twitter: http://www.morelondon.co.uk/scoop.html

(Royal Mail Christmas mail closing dates)

The supermarkets of course are already starting to get out the Christmas decorations/presents and everything else.  A few shops are having sales before the Christmas rush starts, so maybe now is the time to get those presents sorted.

Here’s our top tips for getting those Christmas presents sorted,

• Do it early!  Don’t wait until the last day of airmail to send presents back home, or you’ll be stuck in the Post Office for at least an hour behind everyone else who wants to post presents home.  You can also take advantage of some sales that are still on before all the shops start selling full price for Christmas

• If you do leave it late, remember the last mail dates are all quite different depending on where you are posting to.   Make sure your presents arrive in time for Christmas, not New Years! (as some of mine did one year)

• Think about ordering via websites back home, you can get cheaper prices sometimes and a quicker (or closer to christmas) delivery time (just do a google search or look in the TNT magazine for a few website options)

• Try ordering on websites here and look at getting it posted direct to people, it can be cheaper than getting it posted to you in the UK before you then post it on again.   We got the Book of Cool as a present for family in Australia one year, and it was cheaper to get it sent direct there than it was by any other means!  One of the big ones to try is of course Amazon, they can either post direct for you, or you may find that some of the Marketplace sellers are already located in the country you want to send to.

There is always the option of just sending some money back home, and getting a friend or family member to buy a few things for you.   This could be a cheaper and easier option, but obviously depends on someone back home willing to do twice their Christmas shopping!

There are a number of different companies that can do this for you..   Two that we know of are Tranzfers (they support a number of different countries around the world now), and TNT Forex.

I would NOT recommend you go through a bank in the UK here as they will royally rip you off.  Tranzfers for example charge a £7 fee to send money from the UK to Australia.   While HSBC charge £30!

Good luck getting all those presents sorted!

What are we talking about?  Farmers Markets!  These great places appear all over London and have fresh and delicious food (often the same price or even cheaper than a supermarket).

Probably one of the more famous ones (though it’s not quite a “Farmers” market) is Borough Market.  As seen in many films and TV shows.  Though this market is a bit swamped with tourists if you go there.  Still while your there you could check out Bridget Jone’s flat.

According to the London Farmers Market website, all the produce sold at their sites are “All are grown and produced within 100 miles of London”

So by buying from a Farmers Market your saving on those airmiles and getting yourself something that tastes a lot nicer than those Kenyan beans you brought from Tesco!

Often the markets have a number of regular stalls and a number of “guest” stalls.  Some of the markets can be reasonably small in size and some quite large.

The main one we go to is at Queens Park, and it’s held on a Sunday morning from 10am till 2pm.  A great way to go and get some delicious post hangover food.

There’s all kinds of yummy food sold there apples, pears, tomatoes, fish, bread, eggs, chicken, venison burgers, bacon, chilli plants to a chocolate and guinness cake (sounds odd but tastes amazing!).   We’ve been going there for a few years now and have seen it getting bigger and bigger.   If it’s a sunny day I recommend you go there early, as otherwise you might turn up to find those paprika sausages already sold out!

So try something different and support your local farmers, check out a Farmers Market near you.

Here’s our top tips for getting those all important concert/event tickets

Number One – Signup to the bands/venues emails/newsletters.

A lot of bands, and concert venues these days have “Pre sales” periods, where tickets are available to members before they go on sale to the rest of the “general” public.  Often you might have to use a special code to be able to get access to these tickets, that’s why you need to signup to the newsletters/info.   One of the bigger companies to do this is the O2 down at Greenwich.  If your phone is on the O2 network then often you can access tickets if the show is on at the O2 centre before other people can..  though of course you can look on the internet and just find out what the code is as well.

The other main reason to do this is so you can actually find out when concerts are happening!

A few examples of some of newsletters you could sign up to are, look for the newsletter/information signup sections

The Ticket agencies

• Ticketmaster (rip off agents that they are)
• Seetickets

The Concert venues

• The O2 Centre
• Royal Albert Hall

..or the bands themselves

• Flight of the Conchords
• U2
• Green Day

Obviously these are just a few examples, plenty more out there ranging from the Royal Opera House to Ozzy Osbourne to Bestival (the music festival)

Number Two – Make sure you are prepared and ready to buy

By ready to get those tickets!  This means finding out which website(s) will sell the tickets, be registered and having the cash sorted.  Most ticket sales websites need you to register with them for purchase, so it’s a lot better if you do this a few days ahead of time so that when you go to buy the tickets you don’t get stuck having to spend 30 minutes registering and then find the tickets have all gone.  This also may include even with your credit card if paying that way, as a number of places now do the “Trusted by Visa” option (or similar) which means you need to have a password setup on your Credit Card before payment is processed.

You can normally see how much the tickets will cost before they go on sale, ensure you have the cash available in your account as a number of the websites will try to take the cash straight away and if you don’t have the money in your account then no sale.

Also check that if you have friends coming along with you that you know all their details, a number of places will be fine with just selling you the tickets and only need your address for where to post the tickets to.   But there will be some places that to reduce “touting” will require the names, and maybe other details like date of birth/address, etc of all the other people that you are buying tickets for as well.

Number Three – Be there from the start

There’s 60 odd million people in the UK, and a few more in Europe.  So if the band is popular there will probably be a few people who are after tickets to see them perform.  Especially if they are a band that doesn’t perform very often at all (or maybe hasn’t for years)

So if the tickets go on sale at 9am then make sure your ready to buy the tickets from 8.55am, and that you have the right credit or debit card with enough money on it.

So make sure you have followed the point two, are all registered and prepared to buy.  Popular events/bands can sell out that quickly.  Depending on the venue some bands will sell out within an hour easily.

Number Four – Watch out for Promoter “tricks”

It may be that the band is only playing “two” shows in London, however the tickets go on sale and then within an hour or so these two shows are all SOLD OUT.   But then suddenly a few minutes/hours later you see on the ticket site that there are now another three shows happening (and it gets announced as well).

This seems to be happening more and more these days, I believe it’s a bit of a trick by promoters to make the band seem really popular so they can say to the media/papers that the concerts sold out in such a short period of time but they have arranged to add some extra shows due to all the demand.  However I have seen this happen just minutes after the original shows sell out, so I don’t think it’s quite as spontaneous as they might make out.

So if the tickets are all sold out when you try and get them and your there early, then just keep trying every so often and see if some more shows appear.   Obviously this will only really happen with very big popular shows/bands e.g. Prince/Britney Spears…

Number Five -Try eBay or the Gumtree at the last minute

So you haven’t been able to get the tickets when they first come out.   Often tickets here are released months and months in advance. A friend of mine got tickets for a Frankie Boyle show, and he brought the tickets 14 months before the show was due to happen!!

When tickets are first released a lot of people will buy them to then on-sell/”tout” on eBay or other sites.  So you will find the prices for the tickets then at least double or more the actual face value price of the tickets if you try to buy them shortly after they go on sale/sell out.

The way to get around this is to hope/hang on until just before the show actually happens (though obviously this could be many months later!).  A few days before the show/event happens look on places like eBay or the Gumtree, for various reasons a number of people might no longer be able to go and so will be trying to get rid of the tickets.  It could be some of the people that brought the tickets months ago to “tout” but were not able to sell them, obviously if they aren’t going to the show they will want to sell them for any money to get something back.  So you may be able to get the tickets for face value, sometimes even a lot less than that depending on how many people are trying to sell off tickets.

Just make sure that if you do buy tickets close to the event that they can be delivered to you in time!

Good luck with getting tickets to that gig/band that you’ve always wanted to see!

Well here at DownUnderLondon we want to help you, so here are the top ten ways not to be a muppet, annoy everyone else in London and just stand out like a tourist!

Number 10

When using the tube, wait for people to get off the train before trying to get on.

Otherwise how do you expect to be able to squeeze on yourself?

Number 9

If your under 22 and are in a gaggle (5+) of foreign students, watch where the hell you are going.  Stop talking crap to your mates and going “oh wow its London” in three different languages and watch out for the people who actually know where they are going as they walk down the street

Number 8

Ok yes this one seems to confuse everyone when they first arrive.  When your taking an escalator stand on the right hand side.  Yes all those signs on the escalators really mean, don’t point out the sign and then continue to stand on the left side.  Even Muppets know better.

In case your wondering, no we don’t have any idea either, in the UK you drive on the left but stand on the right, does anyone know?

Number 7

Don’t walk around the city with a big furry UK flag hat on your head.  Seriously only Joey from Friends did that, and all his other friends said he was an idiot and they were right.  Honestly you won’t meet any royalty while your doing it, well if you really do please tell us and show us the photo. 

Number 6

Don’t smile and look too excited.

Yes London is a great place but look at all the people who live here, how many of them wander around with goofy smiles on there face?  Ok we probably are being a harsh here, but it is funny that all the people who look all excited and happy are the tourists, while the locals just look frustrated that the next train is at least 5 minutes away.

Number 5

In the tube stations, when you get to the top of the escalator or just past the tube gates, now is not the time to try and pull out your map and work out where you should be going.   Move away from the flow of all the people and then sort out what you want to do/where your lipstick is/which way it is to Covent Garden.

Oh and the same thing applies on the sidewalk/pavements as well, if you want to check something out stand to the side so every else can just keep on walking

Number 4

Your cellphone does not work Underground.

Well it may in the future if Boris the Buffoon has anything to do about it, but at the moment your phone does not work in a tunnel/underground.   However it’s always good for comic relief of the locals when the train goes underground and then you keep talking on your phone for five minutes before realising no one was listening to you.

Number 3

Yes there is a queue.

Whenever you are in a busy store, or lining up for an ATM, look around as more than likely there will be a queue of people lining up politely to get service.  They sure won’t like you if you try and cut in front of everyone, it might be the way things happen elsewhere, but it’s not the standard in the UK.

Number 2

It’s easier to walk than to take a train/tube, well in Central London.

This one is more a help than to stop you look muppet like, but it’s actually a lot easier to walk around Central London than you may think.  So next time you need to get somewhere try walking there.

Number 1

The number one way not to be a Muppet in London…

Well what’s your one?  Leave us a comment…