Bloody Foxtons Mini-Coopers, weekend excursions & an encounter with an urban fox

If you live around London you would have noticed the many Mini-Coopers operated by Ãœber-rich estate agent Foxtons. I first saw these cars back in 2001 (Italian Job - I didn't think much about it, I thought it was a bunch of Mini-Cooper fans who were going racing) when the company decided to use Minis as moving billboards. It also serves as an automobile for their agents driving up and down London scouting new flats for sales and showing potential house purchasers.

Their current 2005 livery is called the 'Camouflage' and is hideous, well especially when compared to the fairly okay 2004 'Hippie' version. But that's not all, one of them almost tried to kill me yesterday. It was a bloke wearing blue tie (=Tory voter?) and black suit, and he was driving up the inner roads of the leafy town. He was tearing down the corner into my lane so damn fast I had to jump to avoid his bloody car. I swore out loudly prompting disbelief gasps from London's more gentle residents (the incident happened outside an housing block for the elderly).

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This weekend I would be enjoying myself to the fullest. Jenni is coming over and we have a backlog of stuff to do. We need to watch Batman Begins (hopefully at London's IMAX - Batman Begins in IMAX format!) and Kungfu Hustle (at UCI Empire Leicester Square). We will also hope to attend Friday's or Saturday's Wimbledon (I want to hear Sharapova's yelps). This will totally depend on our ability to queue the evening before and the order of play. Depending on Wimbledon, Saturday or Sunday we may be going to Bicester, Oxfordshire for some shopping. We might continue all the way up to the Midlands if we have some time.

Then there is the usual excursions around London. We haven't been on the London Eye yet (we climbed St. Paul's two years ago and the view is amazing from there) so we might be doing it soon before (if) it relocates to Paris. Also depending on Wimbledon, we may attend one of the Wireless Festival days. The line up isn't that great but what can I do? Wish I could be in Glastonbury right now!

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I was awaken last night by an urban fox. Our area of London has loads of garden foxes but it was still a shock to find one outside my window. I didn't close the window and I heard rustling. Woke up and there was one staring at me - right there at the windowsills. The eyes blinked while it glowed in the dark before it scampered off. This isn't my first encounter with London's population of 10,000 foxes. I frequently come across them scavengingg around sometimes midnight or early in the morning before dawn. And their frequent mating screams (around 2-4am) gives me goosebumps.