HAPPY NEW YEAR LONDON 2012

The firework display in London last night was immense. 11 minutes of sheer entertainment. Watch it now in HD with BBC iPlayer. And have a very happy new year.

       

JAPAN RELIEF : ENTRY TWENTY-FOUR

Fine words by VERBAL for Hypebeast. A huge platform for awareness taken advantage of, lots of kudos to the guys there. Nice shout out to MONKEY MAJIK too.

In this interview, VERBAL highlights a lot of points that I can relate to, probably as with everyone else who feels connected to Japan in one way or another. I've been trying to do what I can as a young Japanese student living in London, and I certainly had a struggle in trying to balance the scale and gravity of the situation, the willingness to help, and the enjoyment of meeting amazing new people, arranging fun creative events.

But Japan will be better off sooner. It's ok to move, to be active. It's not inappropriate at all - in fact it's quite the opposite, there is no better time to. The situation in the Tohoku region is still pretty tough with the survivors living in difficult conditions. Within that, however, communities are helping one another, volunteers have come to assist and the country is slowly rebuilding. There's still so much to do, it's all in the present. "Do your thing."

Perseverance and Change.

ORIGINAL LONDON. 2011 REDESIGN

So some things have been changed, nothing too major. Black turns white for a lighter summer feel, the pages have been updated to be a little more personal but still serving the same function, and older posts continue to be wiped from the Archives to keep my posts in tune with what I want this site to fulfil. It's all very insignificant and more to suit myself than anything else.

One relatively big decision, however, was to make the main blog content bigger. With a wider column, I can now have larger pictures in more detail, larger videos for a better experience - it just stands out and de-clutters the page. I'm pretty satisfied.

Anyways, I don't want to ramble on.

Onwards and upwards.

JAPAN RELIEF : ENTRY ONE

Japan is still in the midst of one the largest disasters, ever. People talk about the 'aftermath' but it's very much the present. They experienced another strong earthquake at magnitude 6.0 just a few hours ago, as well as increasing radiation concerns after all 4 of the Fukushima nuclear reactors exploded.

I have therefore decided to use ORIGINAL LONDON. as a platform for a series of entries to share stories, links, and maybe discuss ways in which we can help. Living in London, I feel very helpless and at this time I can only sympathise and pray. My hope is for all our individual forces to grow and combine to make a big difference. As a university student, I reckon I'm in a perfect situation to kick things off and do our bit.

So please, let's pray for Japan.

JOIN FANTASY FOOTBALL 2010/11

The football page is now up and running, where football fanatic readers can check the latest scores of the Premier League matches as we prepare to begin the 2010/11 season - the final installment to the new generation.

Another feature which is now ready is the ORIGINAL LEAGUE. Play fantasy football on the official Premier League site and join my league to play directly against myself and fellow ORIGINAL LONDON. readers. Simply register your team and enter the private league code 348626-89437. It was a success last year and I hope you can enjoy this year too.

Have you got what it takes?

This is where ORIGINALITY begins.

LINKS : Fantasy Premier League | FA Premier League

THE REVAMP IS UNDERWAY

Hello all. As you can see, progress is being made here on ORIGINAL LONDON. as I look to start changing some things. In terms of the site's design, you will be able to see all the changes as and when they are made, live. So there will be no secrets there. It's all rather exciting.

Now, there will also be some minor changes in the direction of where ORIGINAL LONDON. is heading. Nothing big but a change that I feel would be appreciated, one that I always wanted to enforce.

Finally, as far as where I am right now is concerned, my studies are still ongoing. July is the month that I will be relieved of it all and hopefully that's the time this site really kicks off again. So for the time being, this is all I have to update. A couple more weeks and I will return. ORIGINAL LONDON. will return.

Remember, if you wanna see how my ideas for the design develop, just check back here and see how I fiddle about. Also, I am active on TWITTER as always so follow me there.

Thanks. Really.

This is where ORIGINALITY begins.

WHERE I AM

What's up everyone, TLEE. here. Spring has finally come and settled here in beautiful London, and this photo was taken in my garden. Yes, there is a massive sakura tree in my fuckin backyard. It's in full blossom right now and it's stunning!!

Anyways, I've been busy with work and the like, and so I've been unable to update the site as I would have liked to. It is, however, encouraging to see that the hits have still, slowly but surely, been coming and I appreciate you for that. Remember, I still regularly tweet insignificant details which I'm sure you guys are excited to read. So be sure to FOLLOW if you aren't already!

So this is where I am. I've managed to seal a place at a London university starting this October for medical school, and I am ecstatic. Really excited for that and I can't wait. There is one more hurdle though, which comes in the form of examinations. I need to get the required grades this summer to confirm my 6-year future cutting people open and whatnot. And that's the reason why I've had to focus my time and energy in study.

During my absence from ORIGINAL LONDON. so much shit has gone on! In football, Chelsea fell from league leaders to third and now we've hauled ourselves back to the summit with 5 games to go, as well as reaching the domestic cup final. This could be a super season for us Blues! Also, misery struck for England in the Champions League, with all four teams not making the semi-final stage, with Man Utd and Arsenal being knocked out most recently. It's a bit of a shock in the system considering how strong our presence in the past has been, with at least one English club in the semi-final for the last seven years. The impressive run has ended but I'm sure we'll be back fighting.

The rest of the sport world has been busy busy too, with the Masters just having taken place last weekend. Of course, there was the Winter Olympics in Vancouver which was really entertaining. The F1 season has begun where Ferrari are currently dominating with Massa and Alonso. David Haye retained his status of World Heavyweight Champion by seeing off John Ruiz.

In music, my beloved band MONKEY MAJIK have released a new single SAKURA, as well as completing their 10th anniversary tour in Japan - which, by the way, I would have loved to be at. I am waiting for that DVD man. Blaise Plant's solo project has fully taken off with the release of his first album PAINTING MUSIC, which arrived at my door about a month ago, and I have been playing it non-stop, it's fantastic. He's also just opened his TWITTER account @BlaisePlantTAP so check it out.

The more mainstream market has also been producing some fine works. Joshua Radin has released his latest album this month, SIMPLE TIMES, featuring the awesome single I'D RATHER BE WITH YOU. You can WATCH his acoustic rendition with MTV last week here. He's great. Another awesome guy, JACK JOHNSON, has also come back with a new single YOU AND YOUR HEART. Beautiful song.

Yesterday was the world premiere for Hip-Hop artist B.o.B.'s collaboration with rock band PARAMORE's lead singer HAYLEY WILLIAMS. The track's called AIRPLANES (it should totally be spelt aeroplanes but whatever) and it's really good. I just love her voice, she's super talented. Paramore themselves have been rocking out their album BRAND NEW EYES, from which they have released their new single THE ONLY EXCEPTION - a bit of a soft ballad. It's awesome. They've made a video for it too so check that out. And speaking of videos, LADY GAGA's 9 minute film for Telephone certainly got my attention. The John Travolta-esque short movie is quite the showpiece, and I just love the dude at the beginning who goes "I told you she didn't have dick". Ha.

Fashion brands have been busy rolling out their Spring/Summer collections, and I so need to go shopping man. I've browsed through a lot of them and there is so much shit I want to go buy. Too bad time and money is something I'm a little short on right now. ADIDAS ORIGINALS' collab collection with RANSOM has hit its second season in full force with some appealing sneakers ready to walk in the sunshine. The NIKE Air Zoom Toki has two new colours which I am loving. I'm also drooling over the Nike Air Royalty Macarons Pack, inspired by the delightfully posh and pretty French pastry.

The AMERICAN APPAREL rummage sale took place in East London the other week, and I popped down there, but I could not get in. The police had blocked the whole street cause of some stupid teenage 'riot'. It's a shame I missed out on some incredible deals but trust me, it was crazy. There's a couple of hilarious scenes on YouTube for which I've got the LINK to here. They're all so silly.

Finally, APPLE have been busy of late, since people have been getting used to the iPad, which is set for its UK debut within the next couple of weeks. They've got the next iPhone OS lined up, which will at last feature multi-tasking for the very first time. And most recently of all, the brand new MacBook Pro update arrived today, boasting up to 10 hours of battery life per charge, and impressive new dual-core processors i5 and i7, further improving performance. I'm already saving up for this spectacular laptop, in time for my university studies. Mmmm..

So that's just about where I am. I'm still unsure of how to go about running ORIGINAL LONDON. over the next month or two, with exams finishing in June. I'll figure something out, and it's important you guys know just how grateful I am for your support and patience. Thank you. In the meantime, follow me on TWITTER @tleeoriginal for the latest updates, and enjoy yourself. I hope the weather is being just as kind to you as it is to me.

Awesome.

tlee.