Favourite London Tweets

It's Social Media Week in London, so I've been inspired to gather together some of my favourite former-tweets about things I've seen, heard and encountered in London - mainly on the buses. Enjoy!

3/7/2013

LOLs at overhearing man on bus talking about Glastonbury and how amazing it was to see sheep... until I realise he said Chic.

19/6/2013

Three blokes on bus debating whether woman outside is wearing a onesie or a maxi-dress. (It's a maxi-dress.)

18/6/2013

Man doing full-on acrobatic workout on the Overground tonight, using horizontal bars + vertical poles. Carriage full of admiration + aghast.

Walworth Rd this morn: two young guys necking in a bus shelter while their flashy girlfriend makes sarky comments. How very Beautiful Thing!

8/6/2013

Overheard outside @britishmuseum: man with Dudley accent and mild sarcasm: "Let's go in here; I'm sure there'll be something of interest".

18/7/2012

An African Church on Walworth Road is advertising up-coming Gospelympics.

7/5/2012

A loud woman in pub I'm in is shouting at her two kids, Skye and Kai.

15/3/2012

Only in London is it normal that a woman casually walks by dressed as a pixie with a pointy hat and light green skin.

18/11/2011

You know you're in Dulwich when the teens on the bus are discussing the best granolas.

21/9/2011

Overheard on a South London bus: "The horses, the pigs, Humpty Dumpty, they're all up there"

13/7/2011

Today's tube spot: a ranting Italian nun.

26/5/2011

Today's weird Walworth Road sight - two robot monster sculptures on trolleys being wheeled around.

23/5/2010

Mad bloke (literally) shouting on tube earlier: "It's like a birdcage in 'ere with all this TWEETING"

24/3/2010

Met some Norwegian ladies on the tube. From Bergen, tho I thought they said Berlin. Comedy ensued.

22/12/2009

Two Nigerian nuns watching a Disney DVD on a laptop. They had hot pink headphones!

Europe Re-Drawn

About 8 years ago, I started asking people to draw maps of the world. It was a fun project, and over the course of 6 years, I collected the world drawn by 80 people - the world in 80 ways.

During this, I also realised I enjoyed the idea of people drawing their own country - so I set about finding Europeans* to draw their country. And, today, I have finally finished!

The first map I uploaded was on 6 April 2005 - the Netherlands by Rolf. The last - just today, 16 September 2013 - was Bosnia & Herzegovina by Ahmet.

Over the past 8 years, I've collected maps from:

• friends (like Deirdre's Ireland or Hervé's France)
• from friends of friends (like Tatiana's Russia or Yuliya's Ukraine, Lorena's Switzerland and Felician and Lisa's Hungary)
• from strangers I randomly met (like Alice's Belgium or Jaan's Estonia)
• from visiting cultural centres in London (like Miloš' Montenegro or Gaļis' Latvia)
• from the internet (like Daphne's Greece, Mauro's Portugal or Novala's Germany) and
• from visiting lots of countries (like Fredi's Slovenia, Klaus' Croatia and Marina's Serbia or Myriam's San Marino).

You can see the story behind each map here.

And I've enjoyed it all, meeting new people, talking to them and learning more about the huge variety and diversity in Europe.

And now all that's left to be said is a very, very large thank you to all those who took the time to draw me maps.

Ahmet's map of Bosnia & Herzegovina

This weekend, Ahmet drew a map of Bosnia and Herzegovina for me.

I met Ahmet at The Abbey Centre, a wonderful community centre where a Bosnian school takes place on Saturdays.

Ahmet drew his map showing the main cities, including Bihać where he comes from.

Ahmet told me that, in Bosnia, he was a professional. But he arrived in London not speaking English, and has since dedicated his time to learning English while working as a post man - something he likened to the Japanese Kaizen philosophy.

I'm delighted that Ahmet has drawn his map for me, particularly as it's my last map and I've now collected a map for every European country.

Andrei's map of Moldova

I've been searching for a long time for someone from Moldova to draw me a map.

Finally, on Friday, I found Andrei. He drew this great map of Moldova.

I met Andrei celebrating with friends outside Wembley stadium before the England -v- Moldova match.

As he drew, Andrei told me Moldova looked like a bunch of grapes and he drew the main cities in grape-like circles.

When he finished, he explained to his friends what he had been doing. I said I had been looking for a Moldovan for a long time.

"But there are loads of Moldovans in London!" said his friend.

I beg to differ; it's taken many tries to find them....

I went to Casa Romanescu, a restaurant in deepest, northernest Edmonton. I'd read that some of the staff there were from Moldova, so it was worth paying a visit. One my first and second attempt, everything was locked up. Finally, third time lucky, I was able to visit.

From outside all looked quiet, but inside a live trio blared out traditional Romanian music. After eating, I asked the waiter if there was anyone from Moldova here. "No," he said.

But then Natalia from Moldova came over to talk to me. And so it turns put there are two Moldovas - the Republic and the region of Romania.

Later, Juliana - a level 3 beautician also from Moldova (region of Romania) - chatted to me. She had a friend from Moldova (republic). She took my telephone number and then never got in touch.

Then I discovered the Moldova UK forum where a chap called Eduard said he would draw a map. I emailed, but no reply.

So after many months of Moldovan minutiae, I have finally collected a map. My next and final person / map to find must come from Bosnia and Herzegovina. (And I've already got an idea...)