Great museum - shame it isn't free

It was great to see that the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden has finally re-opened.

I remember visiting it many years ago and if its as good now as it was back then, its definitely a great day out especially if you have kids, big or small.

Unfortunately, its £8 for adults to enter, though kids are free.

Most of London's other major museums are free (Museum of London, British Museum and so on), though some do invite entry fee "donations". Its a shame that they all aren't.

But I'll probably try to make time to visit the new-look Transport Museum anyway as it does look quite good.

Bunhill Fields

I only discovered this wonderful place earlier this year when my new job took me to a different part of London.

And what a great find it is.

Part old burial ground dating back to Saxon times (though most of the remaining graves are from the mid 1700's onwards), it sits nestled behind some busy roads and tall buildings at the northern end of the City and is a lovely place to relax and enjoy your lunchbreak.

And of course its all free to enter.

Famous people buried in the graveyard include the nonconformists, William Blake, John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe.

Find out more about Bunhill Fields on the City of London's website.

Certainly worth a visit if you are in the area and looking for somewhere quiet to relax.

A scooter commuter

Earlier this year I changed jobs.

And so, dreading the prospect of travelling for at least an hour each way by bus to my new offices, I had to find another way of making the daily commute to work. Arise, the trusty scooter.

Now I have to say that before this year, I had never so much as ridden passenger on a motorbike for over twenty years. And I had never actually ridden one alone - not even on a dusty track in the middle of nowhere.

So the thought of riding through London's rush hour traffic on a tiny scooter, amongst the buses, cyclists and trucks, was a tad nervewracking. However, in line with the age old philosophy of JFDI, I set out to give it a go.

The first thing I did was to check out whether I could legally ride one on the roads without having to have a test, given I have a car licence. And the answer was YES, provided it was a scooter of up to 50cc. There's more info on direct.gov.uk about the rules (and beware, apparently they are due to change in Oct next year.)

The next step was to buy the bike and gear. I discovered loads of places on the web, here are a few I have used.

Towerscooters where I bought my very low mileage, less than a year old piaggio for under £1000, complete with helmet and gloves. A nice family run business.

Hein Gericke I use the branch in Stockwell. They stock lots of bike clothing and gear that is well suited to scooter riders

Metropolis a good scooter shop in south London

City Bike Service great place for getting your bike serviced while you are at work, especially if you work in the city or east end.

The final bit was the trickiest - getting on and riding it. To build confidence, I did two things. I checked out the best route to take to and from work and then I practised the journey on a Sunday morning, when the Elephant and Castle roundabout was nice and quiet.

And then for about a fortnight, I rode the scooter like a car. ie. I joined and followed the line of traffic and avoided overtaking.

And now, 5 months later, I feel like a fully fledged scooter commuter, ducking in and out of traffic, zooming to the front of queues and getting to work in under 20 minutes. Brilliant!

An eventful 8 months in London

Yes, its been a long time between blog posts. But like the red cups, I'm back.

So much has changed in my life in London since I last wrote: I've started a new job with a new employer, I've taken to riding a scooter to and from work and I've become involved in setting up a Tenants and Residents Association in my local neighbourhood.

Which gives me lots of new things to write about - riding through London traffic, the highs and lows of neighbourhood politics, the area around where I now work and so on.

Throughout it all, LondonForFree has kept ticking along. And now it will have its blog back.

I hope you'll enjoy the new set of posts over the coming months.