Interesting 08 - How not to pay for a Tube ticket & other stuff

I was one of the extremely lucky people to get a ticket to see Interesting 08 yesterday. A collection of funny, fascinating, funky & often frankly foolish people who Russell Davies collected together to talk about interesting things. There is tons to talk about and if I were more of a creative generalist I would have a field day in this blog. But in the interests of sticking to my specialism (ish), here's some things that may interest people who are interested in the London Underground, transport & trains.


Don't pay for your Tube ticket or basically anything over 20p in 2p's or 1p's because it's not legal tender. I learn this from Matt Dent, who should know about these things as he won a competition to design the UK's new coins. This legal tender point was a massive jaw dropper for me as I'm sure I've paid for loads of things over 20p with 2p's but technically the person you're buying from can refuse to take them.


Jenny Owen had lots of brilliant stories about Winston Churchill including this. Churchill was on a train that got derailed which meant he was going to be late for some important war meeting. He had words with the driver, demanding that he get it back on the tracks. The driver ummed and arred for quite a while saying it wasn't that easy to just do it so quickly etc etc. Anyway, Churchill said you will be helping the war effort if you do and I'll remember you. Driver probably thought "Yeah right" and managed to get it back on the tracks. Churchill did remember him with some special medal for civilian heroics - the Alba(?) medal.


Andrew Webb from Channel 4's Big Food Map driving an Asparagus Picker. It'd never make it onto Top Gear as a fast means of transport, but I love the wacky look of it.


Finally, just discovered that Mr Last FM who was directing 30 recorder players pictured above was involved in the Deptford Project Cafe - transforming an old railway carriage into a cafe, which I blogged about last weekend.


He also has a keen eye for spotting neat handwriting on the Tube

If you'd like to see the rest of my photos from Interesting 08 - including stuff on toilets, magic mirrors, doodling, studied clumsiness, World of Warcraft, LOL cats, Henry the Hoover, beating insomnia & more they're here.