Had one of the busiest days of the year yesterday when I decided to be brave and go see a bit more of London. Our sole intention was to attend the 02 Scrum on the Beach but I got bored half way through and decided to wander through the city whilst I was there. I’ve come to realise that all the touristy places in Central London is quite close to one another and you definitely do not need to take the underground everywhere, it’s just a waste of time and money.

Anyway, the best time to explore London is when everyone else is at work. Central London is always packed during weekends for some bizarre reason, not that they have all that much to see and do every weekend. To get back to my original point, I was on my way home, had to switch to another bus as I forgot to pick up something. While I was waiting at the bus stop, eagerly counting down the minutes until the next bus is due to arrive I notice an older black couple sitting down next to me.

He mumbled something to her about topping up her oyster card, she responded that she needed money and he dug in his pockets for loose change. He finally handed her some loosed change and off she went to top up her oyster card from the convenience store behind the bus stop. A couple of minutes later, he stood up, looking all annoyed and walked away in the opposite direction. The thing that struck me as odd was that he did not even wait for her to come back. As he walked away I watched him and I noticed that he a fold-up knife in his right hand. Immediately realising what I just saw, I turned away and got a slight panic as I was standing two feet away from him minutes ago. You never know what would tick someone off to taking their knife and stab you with it but something in the back of my mind told me I would be fine if I minded my own business… which is what I did.

It sounds cowardly of me to say it out loud that I would just mind my own business but what chance would I really stand against him and besides he was walking away, by the time the police got here, he might have disappeared already. So the lesson I learned was to be more aware of what’s going on around me and to get to know my local safer neighbourhood officers.

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.

UPDATE: We’ve taken a few photos and videos of the event - CLICK HERE

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.