'OOPS, MY PHONE'S DEAD OFFICER :((' - FREE DLR TRAVELLING FOR LIFE/FOR NOW.

The wonderful Docklands' Light Railway (DLR) celebrates its 30th birthday this year and it has been nothing short of a blessing for Londoners, especially myself. My uni's situated aaaall the way out in Beckton, E16 (far east) and if not for the DLR getting to uni would be a nightmare.

The line conveniently links you up with some of London's best areas.. in my opinion; Lewisham, Stratford, Canary Wharf, Canning Town, Greenwich, Tower Bridge to name a few and the best thing about it is.. IT'S TOTALLY FREE OF CHARGE NOW UNTIL FOREVER (for some 'daredevils' lol). Of course, it's not, but it is barrier-less at least for now and if you're a 'train station opportunist' then yeah, it's basically always free.

No barriers means you can choose not to tap your oyster or buy a paper ticket as there is a 90% chance that the DLR station you're heading to is also a barrier-less one. Things do heat up a lil' as once you're on the train you've got to emulate the fantastic Mr. Fox in your attempts to read and avoid the ticket man. Look out for signs and signals that tell you what his or her next steps are going to be.

NOW. Most people are already fully aware of this and therefore all the above isn't really relevant to you. Sorry for not saying earlier :)

BUT I'd like to make people aware of something they may not already know..

When the inspector comes towards you armed with his needlessly chunky, card-checky-thingy and there's absolutely nout you can do WHACK OUT YOUR APPLE PAY. A friendly Nigerian conductor once informed me that by law conductors cannot reprimand you if your apple pay fails. This is simply because your payment can fail for a multitude of reasons, usually network/3/4G related and obviously sometimes we can't help these things from happening..  therefore it is unfair to be charged a penalty fare. IT'S NEVER FAILED ME OR ANYONE I KNOW, AS OF YET. 

Photo by Zach Ekpe.

I am, however, pretty certain that TFL are already working on this - if they're not already planning to install barriers at every DLR station. It's just too big a loophole for them to ignore. So if you find yourself in the common situation of being asked to present your ticket and you haven't paid for once pull out your Apple Pay and let them scan that I promise you they'll walk on. It's fool-proof.  Either that or you can always say your phone died and it's the only method of payment you brought out with you. Nothing much anyone can do/say about that either.

DISCLAIMER: Out of the 45 stations, on the 7 different lines, 4 (to the best of my knowledge) will always have automated ticket barriers, these stations are; Stratford (not Stratford International, that's free), London City Airport, Canning Town and Bank - tap your oyster prior to travelling to or through any of these stations. Unless you want to be squeezing through the barriers behind an unsuspecting stranger whilst it squeals out this vile tone in desperation to see you caught by the TFL staff member(s), the barrier not the stranger.

Again, if you're a regular fare dodger you've probably already worked out the effectiveness of the 'my phone's dead' line. But for those who haven't tried their hand a bit of free travel for whatever reason, spread the word for them, so they may travel as freely as the rest of us!

Bye!

COOL POINTERS; Hey, Sugar!

Sweet-toothed people are everywhere - I'm one of them, and I never really knew why until I realised that everything contains sugar so obviously our bodies naturally become sugar addicts whether we notice or not.  I mean, this probably isn't news to many of you, but at a recent university conventiony/pop-up stall thing I was shocked to find out how much sugar was really in some of our most beloved beverages!!!

Here are the sugar contents in some of our favourite drinks;

Whilst looking - bare in mind how many teaspoons of sugar, if any, you willingly have with your tea or coffee. 

Starbuck's bestseller the Frapuccino contains a whopping 16 teaspoons!! 

Flavoured water, 'the healthy option' has 7 teaspoons! Imagine 7 teaspoons in your damn tea!! 

Red Bull gives you wings..   and 8 teaspoons of sugar?

Good ol' tap water boasting an impressive 0 teaspoons of sugar.

If you're super concerned about the amount of sugar you're taking in you can use this little sugar intake barometer thingy to measure how much you're taking in daily.. if you're super concerned.

It's probably good to remember that sugar isn't all bad, after all it can be found in a high number of natural as well as unnatural goods but like anything.. too much of it will kill you instantly. 

Here are some quick links to some interesting articles:

           18 Foods and Drinks That Are Surprisingly High in Sugar - Authority Nutrition

How Much Sugar Is In Your Food And Drink? - MedicalNewsToday 

8 High-Sugar Foods You're Eating Every Day - everydayhealth.com

The Truth About Sugar - BBCGoodFood

Sugar Contents of Fruits - sugarstacks.com

For more information speak to your local health/fitness-freak or perform your own lil' google search?

Thanks for reading, bye!

COOL POINTERS; How To Watch Your Team. Any Time, Any Place.

For a number of years now I have had the privilege of never missing a game - and it's cost me SWEET FA!

I am fully aware of the fact that a lot of readers will already know of this little 'trick'. Nevertheless, I still get people who ask me "how?? how do you do it??" and I have passed on this special knowledge on to anyone who's requested it. However, now it is time for me to open the door for all to enter.

Nowadays you can do and find almost anything on the internet and if you didn't know this, now you do. I, personally, have lived in a household where the 'Sky Sports' package was never really considered a priority - this unfortunate upbringing forced me to seek a solution fast. I have since found many sites (some of which do not exist anymore) where I can enjoy a smooth uninterrupted service. Here they are:

1 - CricHD Tv (formally CricFree Tv) - http://www.crichd.co/live-streaming.php

This is my favourite site as it's reeally easy to use. PLUS, I can watch ANY sport. Here's a screenshot..

Here you can see the schedule for all sports matches throughout the day, it's so self-explanatory, just make sure the game you want to see is currently on and click 'watch'. The red 'watch' buttons and the aerials in the column labelled 'Live' are both indicators that the game you are watching is now on - ready for viewing.

You can also simply click the channel that you want the watch of the left-hand sidebar if you know where the game you want to watch is being aired.

(as you can see I was watching the Chelsea, United game here)

This page shows you what the footage is like, usually clear and uninterrupted but this does depend on your connection. Full screening is possible on any channel at any time.

MAKE SURE YOU CLOSE ALL ADS AND ANY WINDOWS THAT COME UP AS A RESULT OF YOU CLICKING 'X' ON AN AD (just to be on the safe side.)

2 - The next best site for you (in my opinion) is this one.. Premier League Live - http://premierleague-live.com/nextmatches/

This site looks like this..

.. and allows you to watch any game involving a premier league side. All you have to do on this site is scroll down to the game you want to watch and the games that are currently live are marked with a 'watch now!' button, games that aren't currently available will display a countdown til the match airs.

(You can also go to both sites for Champions League & Europa League fixtures)

Other sites include:

EPL Site - http://www.eplsite.com/

Stream Sports - http://www.streamsports.co/england/football/1/premier-league/1/

Live Streaming 24 - http://livestreaming24.net/premier-league/

Now hopefully you have enough info and good enough instructions to never have to beg a friend for their 'Sky' or 'BT Sport' login.

Enjoy!

COOL POINTERS; BARGAINS - £24 for EVERYTHING!

Good day friends, it has been a WHILE. Too long. Anyway, today I think I'm going to give you guys 2 posts today! I do have the dentist at 3pm, so it depends on how I feel after that.

But before I go, I'm going to show you guys a few bargains I've recently bumped into and couldn't help but buy! As you know already, I'm not a big spender and that's mainly because I'm not a big earner, so I LOVE bargain hunting. When bargain hunting, in this instance, for clothes, you must take into account a number of different things before you make the purchase. These things are all pretty obvious, I'd say they were; price(before n after), originality(it may be cheap because it's massed produced and you do not want that!), brand name(the more familiar you are with the brand, the more you can trust it's quality) and then all the other factors that come into play when clothes shopping normally like size, etc.

All these items cost me £24 in total, scroll down and see what I bought!

We start with this Peter Storm Jacket, once an £80 jacket, is mine and all for just £6!

£6 - British Heart Foundation

Here we have some Gola socks, 2 pairs from a pack of 8! Wait for it.. that cost me £4!! I was on break from work in my local Tesco and had to buy, especially as I was experiencing the worst sock drought of my life!

£4 - Tesco

NOW WE HAVE SOME SHIRTS..

£2 - East End Thrift Store!

£2 - East End Thrift Store

£3 - Iain Rennie Hospice

£3 - Iain Rennie Hospice

The penultimate item is one my favourite buys, as I've been looking for a head sports bag for some time now! And when I finally bumped into one, the price meant I had to make it mine there and then. £4 people!!!

Jealous? Wait for my next acquisition!

After being told off on numerous occassions for thinking I can get away with wearing all black trainers, instead of smart shoes, I finally chose to conform. But I was still being stubborn I was only settling for a pair of Doc Martens, and when my hairdresser told me his best friend worked at Doc Martens, I thought life couldn't get better. Obviously, it did. Turns out my hairdresser Ben just bough brand new ones and was looking to get rid of his! Given my interest, Ben offered them to me for FREE, conveniently he lives opposite me girl Laura in Hackney so I was able to pick them up soon after the agreement was made and HERE they are..

£0 - A friend!

Jealous now? YOU STILL DON'T HAVE TO BE! As you see, I only really go to charity shops for these finds,  so go to your local charity shops and if they don't do it for you then go to some charity shops that aren't local to you? See how it works.. Also, if you really want something go to someone you think will have that thing and ask if they can advice you on the cheapest to get what you want.

Click here for more information on the East End Thrift Store. Some days EETS host a £1 day where selected items (ALOT) are all a pound.

Save your pounds and shop cheap people!

Stay tuned and stay blessed!!

COOL PLACES; free HAIRCUT? £3?? NO.. FREE!

As stated in my previous blog post, whilst we were ambling our way through Brick Lane on Sunday, Laura was lucky enough to be invited to a free haircut on the 10th of March, at 1pm, she was ordered to go to Ena Salon, Holborn and meet with Gianna, a lovely Cypriot girl, who would cut hair into what ever style she wanted. I thought I'd tag along and take a few pictures. This sort of opportunity isn't far from you, the problem is, you're inside too much, get out and dance in the land of opportunity!

I was also asked if I'd like a haircut and I said 'sure!', so that's all arrange for 1.30pm, next Tuesday. My hairdresser will be Ben, and I'm interested to see what he does. He said something along the lines of skinfade-to-hightop..

Here are some of the pictures I took of the trip to Holborn!

All in all it took 4 hours, but this was because Gianna is a trainee and was under close supervision, by the Head Stylist, Woody. This could save you a whopping £20 in life!

If you'd like to get your haircut by Ena Salon there is you can try and contact me, to sort you out an appointment? Facebook me, text me, tweet me.

Stay tuned and stay blessed all! GRM NXT.

Gyal in d photos - Laura Allbones

Follow her blog just click her name!!