Doing this blog and the whole EPok thing I forget not everyone in London knows about all the little tricks and free stuff that I know to get.

I’m not spilling all the beans right now but over time I will and I’m putting it all down in a weekly email newsletter. Before they know it our newsletter subscribers will end up knowing just as much as me.

If you want to be one of the people in the know subscribe to our newsletter today and I’ll let you into one of my best secrets. Something that will get you into concerts, the theatre and cinema for free.

It’s all totally legit and free

Take the other night at the O2, I don’t know how much Rod Stewart tickets were. But with the info I’m going to give you, you could have got tickets to the last night show for free. And I mean for free, nada, zilch. And totally legit.

Or what about free tickets to Enron. Yes we got a 2 for 1 offer right now, but a few weeks back there were free tickets available. That would have saved you at least £100.

And then there’s seeing some special preview films, like Catherine Zeta-Jones latest one, at the cinema for free.

Join our new email newsletter and you’ll get exclusive special offers and info that will save you hundreds of pounds in London.

But if you’re still not sure here’s a couple more reasons why this will be one of the best decisions you make today.

• We’ll only send you a maximum of 2 emails a week. And to be honest some weeks you might not even get 1 if there’s nothing important to tell you.
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• You can unsubscribe at anytime.
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• As a newsletter subscriber you get priority. Priority on offers, priority on replies to your questions.
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• You get access to our competitions and giveaways that are not mentioned on the blog.
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• And of course we won’t sell, swap or let anyone else near your email address.

Seriously, you’ll be kicking yourself if you miss out on this.

To join in go to our Newsletter page.

Below are other posts worth reading:

1. Here’s a nice 2 for 1 theatre ticket deal to see Enron in London
2. London theatre tickets for We Will Rock You discounted to half-price
3. How to get London theatre tickets for top London shows without paying a fortune

There’s no need for this weekend to be boring and dull

Even if the weather’s pants there’s a fantastic carnival.

Ok it’s down South which could have been a pain

But it’s at Elephant & Castle so it’s a Northern line train.

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Sunday’s when it all goes down

It’s the biggest Latin carnival to ever hit town.

Brazilians, Mexicans, Bolivians there’ll all be there

They know how to party without a care.

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They’ll salsa to a Latin beat

And when you hear that music you’ll having dancing feet.

First your arms and then your hips

You’ll be shaking your booty and that’s even before the drinks hit.

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But first there’s a carnival procession with loads of floats

You can follow it along and get up close.

Don’t need to mention the eye candy on show

Half naked bodies and that’s just the men don’t you know.

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There’s so much going on there, so much to do

The Brazilian stage is a must and the Salsa Zone too.

The kids are catered for with a stage of their own

And there’s plenty of food and beer for the adults to go round.

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The Carnaval del Pueblo is on this Sunday, starting at Elephant Road near Elephant & Castle tube at 12 noon. The procession heads towards Burgess Park, arrival for 3 pm, where all the stages and attractions are set up. Click Carnaval del Pueblo for full details. (Warning this page opens with music automatically playing, just in case you’re at work ).

Below are other posts worth reading:

1. Spitalfields market comes into it’s own at this time of the year
2. Enjoy the street pianos and the other free City of London Festival events
3. 6 Traditional London pubs to try when visiting London

If you live or work in London you can skip this post, it will only be of interest to people visiting London.

It doesn’t matter what country you go to, there are always things you wished you knew before you got there, advice you wished you had taken, things you should have got, places you should have gone etc, etc, etc.

In previous post we’ve written about London blogs to read and websites to visit that would give you a better understanding of what London’s like, but we wanted to get something down in a more compact form. Something you could dip into easily for information or bring with you on your visit for reference.

What we decided on was to create a free mini eBook guide, ‘What Every Tourist Ought To Know About London’, it’s in two parts, the first part about planning your trip, the second about when you are here.

Do you know how to pick a good London hotel?

We haven’t gone into too much detail we have given you the things that you really need to know to make your time in London easier and cheaper.

For instance in the first part there’s a chapter on how to use Tripadvisor properly to pick a London hotel, what travel guide to buy and how to get the best Pound exchange rate.

While in the second part we answer the 3 questions that nearly every visitor to London asks, give advice on how to tip and things to do when it rains in London.

If you’re visiting London and want a little bit of advice and help about London we think this guide will definitely help you enjoy London more and make you feel a bit more like a Londoner and less like a novice tourist.

To download a free copy click What Every Tourist Ought To Know About London. You don’t need to leave an email address, this is an instant PDF download.

By the way if you would like to have a copy of the guide to put on your blog/website we can do a co-branded copy with your name on it, this is completely free so drop us a note on our contact form and we’ll sort something out for you.

Do you think we covered all the bases or have we missed something essential out that every tourist ought to know?

Below are other posts worth reading:

1. Where to get the best Pound exchange rate when visiting London
2. Visiting London and want to know London secrets – these 15 London blogs will help you
3. What are the 3 most useful London websites for a visitor to London?

How gloomy does this Monday seem. If you think about it, the only time Monday doesn’t feel like the worst day of the week is when you’re on vacation.

Well I’ve got that Monday feeling and if you feel the same, cheer yourself up by booking a comedy night out for later in the week. If you can’t wait that long you can still catch a fun night out tonight.

Luckily London is full of comedy nights and clubs so finding a decent one isn’t too much of a problem. The problem is finding a comedian that you feel happy with.

Let’s face it peoples tastes in humour are different. For instance I don’t think Marc Maron is that funny, while the people at the Soho Theatre think he’s brilliant. They’ve booked him on there until Saturday 7^th August.

Comedians shouldn’t have to offend to be funny

While this Friday, 30^th, three comedians are on at the 99 Club that I think will give everyone a good laugh, without causing offence.

Simon Brodkin has been around for a while now with rave reviews. Doc Brown has a couple of years on the comedy scene under his belt. While Matt Green has done TV, radio and you might not recognise the name but you will the face.

I think this will be a great night. It’s held at the Storm nightclub in Leicester Square from 8.30pm – 10.30pm. Tickets are £12 in advance, click Comedy in London for full details.

The ticket price also gives you free admission to the nightclub after the comedy. But I wouldn’t advise that, because who goes to a nightclub at 10.30pm, dressed the way you will be.

If you can’t wait that long and need a comedy fix for tonight. The 99 Club have a Monday comedy night at the Ku Bar in Chinatown. Being a Monday tickets are only £5 if booked online, click Monday comedy night.

Have you any other suggestions on how to make it through a gloomy Monday?

Thanks for your time

Below are other posts worth reading:

1. Comedy nights in London don’t get much better at this price
2. An excellent comedy night on Sunday not to miss
3. A free comedy club night in London worth your attention

London is always so busy it’s easy to get stressed out, even when you’re here on vacation. Sometimes you feel you just need somewhere where you can go and chill out and recharge.

However you’re in one of the busiest cities in the world. Beautiful yes, but still an urban jungle. Where can you possible go in London when you just want to chill out, relax, stop for a moment?

Norm did a great post a few months back about the Southbank Sinfonia as a way to miss the mayhem of the rush hour.

That was great for something in the early evening. My suggestion is for somewhere to go during the day.

You might think Oxford Street would be the last place in London where you could find some peace and quiet. But just a couple of minutes from Bond Street tube station, there’s, as they put it, an oasis of calm.

The Brown Hart Gardens is just the sort of secret London place only residents of the area know about. It’s a 2 minute walk from the station and when you get there. You can just sit and be amazed that a place like this exists here. It’s quiet and the few people that are there are there for the same reasons as you.

A word of warning, with the schools breaking up there will be more families there for the next few weeks. Also some Fridays from 12 noon till 2pm they have live classical music.

This could be your little secret part of London. Enjoy.

Do you know of any other places in London to get away from it all?

Thanks for your time.

Below are other posts worth reading:

1. Another secret London place that no travel guide tells you about
2. Secret London things to do near Oxford Street in London
3. London secret venues, St Martins on Wednesdays and the Scoop, not secrets anymore.

If I don’t tell you about anything more this year

This is the one event I most hold dear

YouTube, Flicker, Facebook you can have them all

But if you want to see the truth take a press photographer with you.

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Were Barnard and Bob right, is it true, I certainly believe so

A picture can beat a thousand words of print

Just go to the National theatre

And you’ll see what I meant

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Not for a play you understand, not for dance

Something more profound that leaves you in a trance.

The great painters had it and so too still do a few

These photos are as captivating as a Michelangelo.

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Will you learn anything new, what will you see?

No Big Brother here, this is true reality

In all it’s beauty, despair and hope

I bet you can’t go there and not feel a bit choked.

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You see every man thinks his burden is the heaviest

Until you see a picture of the lowest.

Then you realise the petty things we worry about here

Are nothing compared to what other people are going through there.

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And that’s why this is an essential exhibition to see

It puts you back in touch with humanity.

Give more than you take and make people’s day right

And just maybe your burden will seem a little more light.

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Go to the Press Photographers exhibition you won’t be disappointed.

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The Press Photographers Year 2010 exhibition is at the National Theatre in the Lyttelton Exhibition area. It’s on until 19^th September and is free. Click Press Photographers Year for dates as it’s not on every day.

If you can’t make it go to the Press Photographers site and click 2010 Slideshow to see some of the pictures.

If you like some of the stuff that I’m writing subscribe to our blog and you’ll be able to OD on it.

Below are other posts worth reading:

1. Irving Penn one of the greatest photographers you’ve never heard of
2. You’d be mad too miss the Positive View exhibition at Somerset House
3. Another secret London place that no travel guide tells you about

I don’t know about you but I don’t know when I last bought a newspaper or even bothered picking up the freebies, their so called news is either depressing or wrong and who needs that in the morning.

If you’re like me then you wouldn’t have spotted this restaurant offer which I think is pretty damn good considering the restaurants involved.

Chris doesn’t agree with me on this which is why I’m mentioning this and he’s not. His take on it is why bother mentioning places with offers on special menus when we can get 2 for 1′s on full menus.

But my advice is give it try because as I say these are pretty good restaurants and even if the offer is only on a special menu it’s still worth giving a go and if you have the 3 course option you get a glass of Champagne!

Here’s the link to the offers which has all the info just click London restaurant offers.

Also following on from the 15 London blogs you should know post, there’s another new London resource that could prove very useful and yes I am biased because they mentioned us.

Metromarks.com are still in Beta but reading the founder, Ayden Byle’s message (at the end of the About Us page) as to what they are hoping to do, it sounds like it could be a good resource.

They’ve got a listing of 20 London blogs, a couple of which I hadn’t heard about which might interest you and are worth taking a look at.

That’s my little bit of advice for this week and if you want to get offers and find out about things to do that might have passed you by, subscribe to our blog below.

Below are other posts worth reading:

1. Are London bloggers critical enough of London events or just part of the PR?
2. It’s good knowing a blogger who always knows where to get deals in London
3. Pigging out in Burger King and sleepless in Giraffe