There are so many activities taking place in London every week that I find it hard to keep track of them all. There is always something to look forward to and most of the activities and festivals around London are free of charge to attract the people. One of those free events is called Scrum on the Beach.

This years Scrum on the Beach event is sponsored by 02 and will be taking place on the 28^th of August 2008 at Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar Square is to be converted into a beach and there are plenty of promises for entertainment for the entire day free of charge. If you are a 02 customer, you could get a free massage from a 02 Angel as well as enjoy a free smoothie. Best part of all is that you can meet some of the England rugby players and get a free autograph whilst you’re there.

The initiative is to encourage more people to take rugby up as a sport. Guess the United Kingdom need a few more stars in their national team to take on the Aussies, All Blacks and the South Africans! All in all, it should be a great day out and hopefully the weather will be great.

The Stooly.com team is intending on attending the Scrum on the Beach event and we’ll hopefully take tonnes of photos for the site, so keep coming back for updates! If you have been to a previous event, share you experience with us by leaving a comment below J

This is not something I thought I would be saying but to be brutally honest we have to prepare for the worst as it is our future we’re talking about. I do not know much about a recession except that everything will become less affordable and people have to tighten their belts a bit more. The word recession has been thrown around all over the media the last couple of weeks and it is beginning to scare me a little.

There are no immediate signs of a recession for the everyday citizen but you will notice that it will become a lot harder to obtain credit and when you do get credit, it will have a ridiculous APR rate attached to it. Another sign is that every energy company will push up their price which is bad news, considering that the last two summers in the United Kingdom have been appalling.

The construction sector has already taken a knock with hundreds, could be thousands of people losing their jobs because of the bad housing market at the moment. Unfortunately there is no quick cure for a recession and some fear that it might last for 10 years. The only thing left to do is to come prepared and educate yourself with as much knowledge as possible to ease through this recession. People will have to become money savvy and start saving for the bleak years.

Britain is taking a knock now financially but that should not send you running with your tail between your legs but overcome it by giving yourself a budget makeover and start saving for your future. One that note, I hope you are looking into getting a mini cash ISA every year that you are in the United Kingdom and save some money in there tax free.

Take a look at these two websites, they are full of information about the financial gloom at the moment and they both have a lot of tips and hints to help beat that. Get familiar with the terms used in the United Kingdom.

You’ll hear a lot of people moan about the way people in London treat us other but I get to witness the little things every now and then that makes me think that there is still hope for society in this buzzing city. Not everyone you will meet is arrogant, vein and greedy. Some people actually give a damn about their fellow man and it does shine through if you are watching.

The other morning I got to observe a woman running for the bus, when she eventually caught her breath, she had to touch in with her oyster card or pay the £2 cash fare. She was fiddling around in her bag for a while trying to find her purse, I suppose. She eventually admitted to the driver that she must have left it at home and turned around to get off the bus. Two other people immediately opened their bags and you could clearly hear them digging around for change. An elderly lady half shouted at her to stop her from getting off the bus but it was too late and the bus driver closed the doors and drove off. The fact that random strangers were willing to pay someone else’s bus fare without being asked showed me that there’s still hope for London.

Dig around the internet for a while and you’ll soon find tonnes of communities dedicated to help each other through difficult times or a sticky situation.

There are more random acts of kindness on display every day if you opened your eyes and observe them. There are people offering their seat to you or the newspaper after they have read it and so on. Then on the other hand, you get people that are complete “pricks” and selfish that they do not even notice you by walking all over you.  Guess there has to be a balance in society!