Tired of London, Tired of Life: One Thing A Day To Do In London is the title of a blog that 30-year-old Tom Jones set up in 2009. Tom’s blog attempts to make its readers appreciate all that London has to offer by suggesting one inspiring new thing to do each day. Its popularity led to a book with the same title being published last year.
working 9 to 5
After living in the capital for several years, Tom found himself falling out of love with the place. He felt he was doing the same thing every day – work/home, work/home. But rather than moving somewhere else, Tom decided to give London a second chance. He started his website in order to get the most out of what he describes as “the greatest city on earth”.
the blog
Tom researched his ideas on foot, by bicycle and public transport.
Once he had started on his mission, he blogged every day, never missing a post. It changed the way he saw the city.
His blog – and book – focus on unusual, inexpensive places of interest. An old London pub that is supposed to be haunted and a beautiful 1950s ballroom are among his suggestions. Maybe you won’t find the standard tourist attractions – such as Changing the Guard and the Houses of Parliament – but isn’t that what the travel guides are for?
Talk to Strangers!
Tom also runs an unusual monthly meeting called Talking to Strangers. Participants meet in a central London pub to chat over a drink. Tom thought up this idea because he realised that all too often we sit in front of a computer and don’t have much human contact in our lives.
Tom also believes that sometimes we will share things with strangers that we won’t with family and friends. More than 1500 people clearly agree with him as they are members of his group! These events are open to all, even to those on a short trip to London.
CON AUDIO:
A Perfect Day
There is a famous quote by Samuel Johnson, an English writer and lexicographer. In 1777 he was talking to his friend and biographer, James Boswell. Boswell, a Scotsman, planned to move to London, but he was worried that he might get bored of life in the English capital. Johnson assured him that this would never happen: “No, sir,” he told him, “when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
Another writer, Tom Jones, took this phrase and turned it into a blog in which he offered tourists and residents suggestions for original things to do. It was called Tired of London and it was so successful that it is now a book. We asked Tom Jones to explain the basic structure:
Tom Jones (Standard British accent): The book suggests one thing a day to do in London for a year, so there’s 366 things because I included one for... it was a leap year when it came out. So it takes you through different seasons and suggests ways that you can engage with London in a different season, and things that you might be able to do at particular times of year which don’t happen at others, and... and it’s laid out in date order, although a lot of the things are things you could do on any day, but some of the things are things that are specific that you could only do on that day.
ON THE RIVER
So, if Tom Jones had to choose just one thing to do in London, what would it be?
Tom Jones: It’s always a difficult question because there’s so much to do in London that I can never really choose, but people sometimes ask, you know, if I had one day left in London, what would I do, and I often say the view from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich is, I think, one of the best views. You have the old Royal Naval College in front of you, down the hill, and then behind that the towers of Canary Wharf and that kind of thing. So I usually say I’d start there and I’d walk down through Greenwich and the old Royal Naval College, and then I’d get on the boat, you can catch a – the ‘Thames Clippers’, they’re called – and you can catch a boat up to Central London, and then I’d get off by the Tate Modern, the gallery, and I’d go there, and there’s a magnificent bridge, the Millennium Bridge, which connects that to St Paul’s, and then I’d probably go over to St Paul’s Cathedral and maybe climb to the top of the dome, something like that, but I can never choose one thing, I think it’s too difficult!
CHEAP AND CHEERFUL
People often complain that London is expensive, but this isn’t a problem for Tom Jones:
Tom Jones: And I’m a... rather a cheap person. I don’t like spending a lot of money. So people sometimes ask me whether I deliberately – when writing the book and writing the website – whether I deliberately choose things that are cheap. And I don’t, it’s just that, generally, the things I do are things which cost less money! But it’s a great city to be in, if you are thrifty, if you don’t want to spend much money, and we have lots of free museums, and the British Museum is one of the greatest museum collections in the world, and you can see it all for free. It’s brilliant!