Thames Water chase quick buck with luxury flats over super sewer Penny pinching Boris takes early break from Transys, the original Oyster operators, to find cheaper alternative Stop and search at Climate Camp causes consternation The Evening Standard unreservedly apologises to Prince Phillip over prostate cancer story Yum, yum: there's a Thai food festival in Greenwich Park this weekend Image courtesy of Stu_Egan via the Londonist flickr group.......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

.... we mean, It's Commonwealth Day! Hurray! Hurrah? Hmm... The modern Commonwealth, or as we like to call it, 'Britain's grasping at straws oh bugger the empire's gone tits up club', was set up in 1949 and since 1958, when it was renamed from Empire Day, 'we've' celebrated Commonwealth day. According to the BBC, the Queen, who these days is played by Helen Mirren, will urge people to celebrate diversity and find it a......

Wannabe French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, rallies French expats in Old Billingsgate What must it have been like to be blind during the Blitz? Nonagenerian Baroness takes a tumble down a Westminster esculator. The Queen and Tony Blair to be granted a special audience with Shilpa? Let's hope Prince Phillip isn't around. Ballerina flash mob thinggy tomorrow. The numerically inaccurate 'Balcony' image courtesy of Homemade via the Londonist flickr group.......

So parliament reopened today, there was much procession, knocking on doors and Prince Phillip trying hard not to screw things up. The Queen read out the traditional speech written for her by the government, which explains the punching of the air and the yelling of "Tony Rules!!" halfway through, and then outlined over 20 bills, of varying degrees of interest. It's pretty much a case of a little something for everyone to get upset......