Where's Boris?

Every city of size seems to have one--a mayor with an ego to match. The London government website has good info. It also has more photos of mayor Boris Johnson than you can count.

• Boris at the New York Stock Exchange (careful man, those guys are dangerous!)
• Boris taking a bicycle ride with a lovely model (at least some caution here too)
• Boris shaking hands with the mayor of New York (he may buy lunch...he's RICH)
• Boris attending London Fashion Week (there's no explaining this one...Boris is a horrible dresser!)

What the Dickens?

The folks at Disney have a new film opening this fall and the premier is going to be in London on November 3. Disney's A Christmas Carol premier will coincide with lighting of holiday displays on Regent and Oxford streets and Leicester Square.

A walk in the Cotswolds

We'll be reporting on a 50 mile hike along England's famed Cotswold Way later this month. Planned route is Broad Campden (Chipping Campden) south through Stanton, Winchombe, Charlton Kings, Birdlip (love that one!) to Painswick. Here's a link to the official trail site.

A strike by any other name....

London Midland railways canceled virtually all its train service Sunday, 6 September due to a lack of drivers (engineers). Seems the contract between the railroad and its workers doesn't require anyone to work on Sundays, so this time nobody showed up.

Is that any way to run a railroad?

BA and unions heading for strike?

Like all airlines, British Airways is struggling to cut costs to offset terrible market conditions. And BA is a high-cost airline, with fully unionized staff and crews. The airline's desires to cut costs (read that: lay-off staff) is colliding with the unions' desires to maintain maximum employment.

The first inklings of a possible strike by BA workers--sometime in the late fall or just before December holidays. A lot can change in that time though.