Getting Around London

In a city with such a good transport system (some might disagree), it doesn't make sense to the people I work with that I choose walking as my preferred mode of transport rather than the myriad of choices that London offers.

I have touched lucky for the time being in the place I'm living in Lambeth near the Oval Cricket ground. The Oval Kennington is just across Vauxhall Bridge south of the river Thames. The walk is approx 3 miles and takes 45 minutes from the flat to the office which is near Victoria railway station. The equivalent journey on the tube would take me probably at least 30 minutes including the walk to and from the tube stations and waiting for trains. It's a no brainer for me and from next week I'll have my Leica with me to take some photographs along the journey, which is another reason to keep walking.

However, as I found out last night, I shouldn't rely on walking too much especially after I've had a couple of beers after work and I'm on a mission to the BFI Southbank to see Sergio Leone's epic western - Once Upon a Time in the West. There aren't many toilets on the way that I'd choose to use and the walk from Victoria to the BFI was as much an epic as Mr Leone's film.

Suffice to say, three quarters of the way into the expedition I decided I'd missed too much of the first part of the film and I'd write off the £9 I'd spent on my pre-paid ticket; put it down to experience I told myself. Now I have the dilemma of whether to pay another £9 and therefore £18 in total to see a film I've seen many times and even own on DVD.

I think the chance to see such a great movie at the home of the British Film Institute (somewhere I haven't been before) is enough to inspire me to try again.