12 of 12 (v5.0) - September

This one's an iPhone 12 of 12. Yes, I got one towards the end of August! I had a rough plan to go out earlyish, do something in London, then see two films at the Prince Charles Cinema (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and To Kill A Mockingbird). Then I found out the Thames Festival was on, and there were fireworks to close it, which clashed with TKAM.

I ended up adjusting plans, but having a good day anyway! It's an iPhone one because the last time I'd charged my camera was in Devon a few weeks before, and I couldn't find the charger so I needed to save the (pretty full actually) battery for the fireworks.

So with thanks as always to Chad for organising this (full list of participants here), I hope you enjoy the photos! Everyone loves comments :D

Allrighty, so here we go. No times because these aren't exactly timestamped on an iPhone and I'm already 2 days late posting, mmkay?

1) Just after midnight - My flat, Lewisham, London

I've been eating Oreos recently since they were on offer in Tesco (well they're a bit overpriced any other time). This is me being all arty and stuff with an Oreo cookie. I was playing with the iPhone camera, thinking maybe I'd use this shot in my 12 of 12 - I wouldn't realise about my missing camera battery charger for another 12 hours or so...

I'd been drunken MSNing with a friend (well I wasn't drunk), and it was fellow 12er Christin's birthday, so I YIMed her to say hi and happy birthday - that's why I was up late.

2) Mid morning ish? - My flat, Lewisham, London

Reading in bed. Literally the view I had, lying on my side. For the curious, it's the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Subtle Knife. I just finished it tonight (14th Sept).

3) Lunchtime ish - My flat, Lewisham, London

Looking at the PCC's webpage for the film times.

4) About 2pm - My flat, Lewisham, London

So there's been a big spiderweb over the outside of the gate for a while now. At one point I walked through it, and the spider moved its web sideways and up a bit when it rebuilt. This I'm OK with, as I know it's there now and avoid it. But there was a little spider who kept building a web over the latch on the back of the gate, and I had to break it every day to open the gate. I felt bad, but I had to get out! So finally, here's a photo of the big web outside.

5) Mid afternoon - Lewisham rail station, London

Waiting to get a train into Charing Cross station. I can either get the DLR and a Tube into central London, or the train (and then sometimes a Tube if my destination's not a close walk by). Part of my DLR route was being worked on this weekend so that left me with the train. Which is OK - I like the train - it's a bit further walk from my flat, but it's quick into Charing X and I only pay for 1 ticket then, whereas the DLR/Tube takes 2 tickets (I'd have to change at Canary Wharf, and the CWharf Tube and DLR stations are separate, so I'd need one ticket into CWharf DLR, then another from CWharf Tube to my end point). How many Americans did I lose with that explanation? ;-) (it wouldn't make much sense to anyone who's not used our underground with an Oyster card).

6) Mid afternoon - Trafalgar Square, London

The National Gallery in the sunlight. I think it's a very pretty building.

7) Mid afternoon - Trafalgar Square, London

Fountain, Nelson's column and the sun. All good things, I loved this photo.

8) Mid afternoon - behind the National Portrait Gallery, London

Recently, London introduced a bike hire scheme similar to that in Paris (and rpesumably other places). I've not been out and about much since it started, so this might be the first stand of them I've seen.

9) Mid afternoon - Foyles bookshop, Charing Cross Road, London

When I went back to Devon in August for Mum's birthday, I happened to find a bunch of books in a charity shop - 7 out of the 10 Martin Beck detective novels, written by a Swedish husband and wife pair (once journalists, they became crime writers). For 75p, and interesting cover blurbs, I thought I'd give them a try - at worst, I'd have wasted about the cost of a book on Amazon, at best, I'd have got 7 books cheap and given money to charity.

Anyway, I am missing books 1, 5 and 9 so I thought I'd try the bookshops on Charing Cross Rd. But unfortunately many small/independents have shut, and the handful that remain didn't have them. I went into Foyles, but these weren't in a 3 for 2 offer and at £7.99/£8.99 each, they were a bit pricey for me. I did pick up another book though by a different author.

You can see here, that all the books are numbered and have a letter on, spelling out Martin Beck's name (well, apart from book 1, Roseanne, as that is face out on the shelf).

BONUS - Late afternoon - Starbucks, Charing Cross Road, London

Ah, another 12 of 12, another Starbucks. I'm actually trying to cut down though...

10) Late afternoon - Starbucks, Charing Cross Road, London

Reading more of The Subtle Knife.

11) 5pm ish, Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, London

I'd been thinking about becoming a member of the cinema for a while now (a least a year). It's £10 for 1 year, or £50 for lifetime membership. Mostly, this gives you discounted tickets (for afternoon matinees, this can be as cheap as £1.50 for a ticket, though usually you'll pay £4 instead of say £6.50 for a film). So see about 4 films in a year, and it's worth it. It also gives discounts at a few shops and places around London, including Forbidden Planet (and my geeky friends rejoice...).

Membership card (with Wall-E sporting a PCC crown!) and ticket for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

12) 8pm ish - Trafalgar Square, London

Walking back past the National Gallery, on my way to the McD's on the Strand for some quick food, then down to Embankment for the fireworks. No photos of that in the 12, as I've not yet downloaded them from my camera and apparently have no way of watermarking them since my harddrive broke last month (I got it replaced free with Apple, but I can't find my Photoshop Elements CD, and I looked at Gimp but didn't suss it in time for this).

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked them, see you next month (at least a day late, I warn you now - I'm in Italy then!)