So the truth is out, but not here just yet. Apple have shocked ‘not’ the world with their first decent stab at a computer to tempt away the masses from their dreary grey pc boxes. Will it work? Personally I wish them all the best, though with regards to the new IPod Shuffle this just means more and more white wires oh so cooly advertising the wearer has an IPod. Yes readers, I am still carting around a CD Player but have embraced ITunes on the box at home (a non-Intel PC). Damn why do Apple goodies have to be so desirable just at the time when I can’t spare the cash :-(, must write to Santa this Christmas.

Oh boy, I dont know how many of you guys know about this, but the Chavs are closing in on us. You might not be able to describe them, but you know who they are and you know what they look like. Fake Burberry, Pink phone covers, and loverly curtain hoop earrings..
This is a culture cultivated in the darkest depths of chatham that has slowly been creeping in on us, due to Trisha and the Jade Goodys, Daniella Westbrookes and Charlotte Churches of this world.
Personally I have no desire to join Chavdom, and now a good old game of chav-spotting, with my none chav friends. To play, award yourself the following

10 Points
~Pink Nichelson polo shirt, or sky blue Mckenzie hooide
~louis vuitton or classic burberry handbag (must be fron the market)
~Thick pair of hoopy gold earrings
15Points
~Fake Burberry baseball hat
~Sparkly white reebok classics
20 Points
~white shell suit with shades and plenty of bling
~Peirced and shaved eyebrow
~Fake gem encrusted huge gold cross
30 Points
Chav babie with peirced ears/earrings that are bigger than the baby

add bonus 10 points for
The FCUK zip up hoody
to find out your Chav rating… click here

Daylight robbery! I knew fares were going up, but yesterday when I bought a zone 2-6 travelcard the price had rocketed to

Today I went cycling along the winding roads that snake around my neighbourhood, turning into random alleys and cobbled streets that draw me, twisting further into new unexplored paths without specific aim or direction, never thinking about the route home. Because it seems that in this sleepy industrial East London riverfront, every road seems to lead back to the street where I live.

Down ghostly streets with tall seemingly empty buildings with bridges high overhead, past the river, into housing estates with a park, and a fenced football court, where in the States it would have been a fenced basketball court, past industrial buildings and factories, the high walls of the Tobacco Dock, all the way to the secluded restricted entrance of a Newspaper printing plant? agency? head office? With grey skies overhead, the lone security guard barring my entrance, and no one else in sight except for a car waiting for me to turn back, it seemed eerie and surreal. This entire part of my neighbourhood seemed like a lost world. A grey ghost of a town. Which fell through the cracks of time. And lives on, in parallel to the bustling, crowded London of tourists, high street retailers, the artsy crowd, and the financial barons.

On behalf of the London authors and the Metblogging teams around the world, may I wish each visitor a happy, healthy and peaceful 2005.

As we celebrate the coming of a new year, please take a moment to reflect upon those less fortunate than ourselves, particularly those in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and other islands so awfully affected by the Asian tsunami earthquake.  With an estimated 125,000 dead and millions more injured or made homeless, I would ask that each of you consider making a donation to assist those affected.  Whilst it was announced earlier this evening that, in the last three days, the British public have donated over £50,000,000 to aid those affected by the Asian tsunami earthquake, this is probably not even 1% of what will be required in the long run.

Though there are myriad ways to donate at banks and stores, here are two ways to donate now and another to help long term

• MAKE AN IMMEDIATE DONATION
• via the national Disasters Emergency Committee website whose member agencies are listed below:

• via Bloggers without Borders – a project/mission conceived by Metblogs’ Sean Bonner and launched ahead of schedule in response to the Asian tsunami earthquake.  “Bloggers without Borders is dedictated to raising awareness for charities and charitable events around the world. We use the tools and exposure of modern citizen journalism as a means to lend a hand in the solicitation of donations and outbound information management.”  Jonas Luster translated Loic’s statement above and posted earlier today to answer some questions about the project.
• BACK THE ABOLITION OF THIRD WORLD DEBT
• The Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Tony Blair MP and the UK assumes the Presidency of the G8 today, 1 January 2005 and it’s annual Summit will be taking place in Scotland from 6-8 July.  Tony Blair’s is on record as saying “I really want to focus on the challenges of Africa and climate change during our Presidency”.  Billions of people living in the world’s poorest countries are effectively imprisoned by debts that they nor their governments can ever repy. Year in, year out, those governments struggle to pay back millions of pounds and dollars with almost no chance of ever clearing their debts.  The fact that these debts could be cancelled without impacting the world economy makes this state of affairs even more unfair and punative. Debtlinks.org carries links to scores of projects and sites worldwide that are working towards the abolition of thrid world debt or simply check out “third world debt” on Google to make yourself better informed.

Once again, I hope that 2005 provides each of you with what you hope for and, just as importantly, that as a global community we really focus on what people need, rather than simply what we want.

bignoseduglyguy – London Metblog Captain.