The worst thing about working in London is having to go into the filthy underground to get the tube on your commute. Seeing as the weather is getting nicer and the days are getting longer my girlfriend and I have been getting into the routine of skipping out the tube section of the journey and walking instead.

From London Waterloo (A) we can walk to our places of work (B) in central Soho in 30 minutes or less and a bit longer for the return walk to the station (C) in the evening because of a nice detour through the park. Check out the map below, or here.

As well as walking 1.6miles in the morning and 2miles in the evening we’re managing to take in the scenery of the riverside in the morning light and St James’ park towards sunset. You also begin to notice all the little things about London that you’ll inevitably miss if you’re squished into a grubby tube gasping for air beneath the arm pit of a sweaty fat man.

As a creative, it’s the people I see, things I notice and places I go that inspire the best ideas for new campaigns. Being stuck in an office all day is completely uninspiring and since walking to and from work I’ve actually noticed a significant increase in my concentration levels at work, not to mention a vast improvement in idea generation.

You can forget about the tourists too, before 9.30am they just don’t exist. You can stroll past the London Eye, Big Ben or Leicester Square without a slow walking tourist in sight.

So if you’re a creative, or even just a commuter, I urge you to ditch the train, tube or bus a few stops early and discover the brighter side of London. Oh, and bring a camera because you never know what you might see… it was only last week when I snapped this eagle perched ironically on this sign in Trafalgar Square.

If this all looks like too much work for you then you are a fat bastard and you should read my post about commutersize that’s fit for even the laziest of commuters.

As I write this I’m sitting on a train from Waterloo to my stop, Twickenham. I’ve just come off the tube, for which I have a great dislike, and thought that this rant couldn’t wait until I got home.

Every day there is a mammoth struggle amongst commuters trying to get a seat on the tube or train. It’s like wildebeest trampling all over one another as they fight to cross crocodile infested rivers, except with this example it’s just a bunch of seat thirsty commuters. And this evening is no different, today is the third time this week (It’s only Tuesday) that I have seen commuters refuse to give up their seat for a child or old codger.

This pisses me off. It pisses me off because that old bugger, or child in this evenings case, does not deserve to shit their pants worrying about falling on the floor with the jerking of the train. Most Londoners have spent much of their day sat at a desk, straining only to adjust the brightness on their computer screen, and they are more than fit enough to stand for 3 stops and allow a small child the safety of a seat (apart, of course, from the millions of bacteria it must contain!).

Writing further about this just angers me more and me doing so is unlikely to change a city’s selfishness.

So that’s it. Give up your seat to someone more in need you lazy arse.

Rant, over.