:: Alarming Regularity ::

Ananova, that bastion of naff news and jokes at the expense of "those crazy Romanians", has recently revealed details of a mother and baby slot at mexican cinemas. Little do they realise, perhaps, that the poncho-wearing Mums of Notting Hill have been able to trot their kitten heels and baby Fallujah along to Electric Scream for some time. Perhaps these po-mo specimens of motherhood could also buy their pampered offspring a suitable soft toy to keep them quiet during the film.

As promised, the write-up from Tuesday night's Leon launch. Following favourable reviews in the Observer and (London) Times, Tigger and I were expecting great things from our new-found favourtie foodie haunt. Our invitation arrived via a slightly circuitous route: the first time we ate there, the halloumi was disappointingly undercooked and rubbery. Given our desire for the place's success and support for the proprietors' aims, we felt obliged to remark upon this single low-point in the excellent consumable offerings we tasted. The long-and-short of it is: an email exchange on the merits of cooking halloumi ensued between Tigger and the owner, and we were summoned to their press-filled opening. It was something of a shock to discover that one of the owners is the son of a highly-respected current affairs broadcaster - and the other is married to an ITN newsreader. Scrupulously avoiding the temptation to name-drop, I shan't reveal the names, especially as nothing seemed worthy of PopBitch. At least one (female) ITN reporter is considerably shorter in the flesh than I expected. The drink and conversation flowed and I came home ready to recommend the chocolate mousse to anyone.

Most London bloggers seem to be tube obsessed. So, following Dr Rufus' recent-ish link to the fabulous South London Tube Map, I'm including a few of my favourite tube-based maps, momentos and meditations. The creator of the well-known geographic tube map has also come up with a number of other interesting alternative maps - including this one which details the track and station layouts of the Victoria Line. Believe it or not, it's possible to buy such a map for the whole London Underground network. (By the way, a new addition to the growing fold of geographical maps is this one which is superimposed on a NASA satellite image.)
The main drawback of all such maps however, is their 2-D nature. Fellow tube-nut Taxloss and I have lamented on more than one occasion the lack of a comprehensive three-dimensional plan of all those interlocking tunnels. How do those cross-platform interchanges work at Oxford Circus, Euston and Baker Street? Why are some stations configured with one track above the other (Jubilee Line at Westminster)? For security reasons, no doubt, the full extent of these underground workings will never be fully available to the public, but it's interesting to witness some net-users' attempts at realising a 3-D tube map. And a non-comprehensive set of station plans past and present is available here.
Perhaps most useful of all is the Tube Map with Walklines. This is an attempt to save the prospective passenger money - and perhaps more truthfully to reconcile the topological elegance of the LU Tube Map with the geographic reality - i.e. it takes an awful lot less time to walk between Chancery Lane and Farringdon stations than it does to travel between them on the Tube...