I have to keep reminding myself to look up.

You know, we're kind of proud of our hotel reviews here at SP. We hope you find them a little bit different to the ordinary reviews you see around the internets. We want to tell stories, so that they're entertaining to read even if you haven't stayed at the hotels and have no intention of doing so. Our latest sees Hazel Davis check into this quirky little number in Euston, London. Have it at, HD!: The Wesley Hotel, London

We're happy to announce the winners of our Confessions of a Cab Driver competition, who each win a copy of, er, Confessions of  New York Cab Driver!

Congratulations: Bill Dykes, Adil Rhoulia, Amy Jett, Veronica Russel and David White!

Look out for more Shandy Pockets competitions very soon.

Yesterday, the Daily Mail reports, an EasyJet flight from Amsterdam to Newcastle was delayed for two hours while 16 students asked to be put on another flight because one of them saw a fellow passenger "writing in what appeared to be Arabic script".

Turns out - even though the very act of investigating this paranoid delusion is INSANE - that he was an Iranian academic who'd been visiting his wife. So that was lovely for him, a mob accusing him of potential terrorism as he was writing up his thesis, or his weekend shopping list, or whatever it might have been.

The idiocy of the students barely warrants comment, really. But I will say this: have YOU ever tried to change your flight on a budget airline at the last minute and NOT incurred some hefty charges? Well, I wonder if the next time I want to get a later flight, all I have to do is board and then kick up a stink because I hear someone is talking in Hindu, or texting in Russian, or eating a foreign snack with their mouth open. I'm not sure where the line is for worrying behaviour with EasyJet, but it would be fun (by which I mean horribly depressing) to find out.

Full story.

"Lights Go Out". The Sziget Music Festival, held in Budapest each year, is one of the largest in Europe. As well as the main stages, which have the usual suspects of international acts, there are areas devoted to indigenous musicians and what gets classified as 'world music', be that from Africa, gypsy tradtions or, in this case, Klezmer. I was watching this traditional Jewish band play folk songs and for reasons that never became clear, a fight broke out next to me. It's a weird juxtaposition, the stoicism of the singer, the religious overtones of the dress and the violent outbreak. The guy went down hard and then people stepped in. It was all over in a seconds. 

Here's a plan, Russia: invite the world's media to a global event, hoping that a display of hospitality will help them forget your ropy human rights record and then make them say in hotels that look like an an ongoing DIY experiment. 

When journalists are seriously posting ads looking to trade light bulbs for door knobs, you kind of know something is wrong...

THOSE SOCHI HOTEL TWEETS

Welcome, strangers and bumpkins to New York City. The year is 1920 and there's a lot of crazy going down if you don't know how to navigate this daunting metropolis. Luckily, Valentine's City Guide is here to help with a full rundown of New York's attractions and this handy guide to how to behave in the biggest of apples.

Our favourite picks from the list of advice are as follows:

"Don't ask a pedestrian where a street is. They will be too busy to stop. And if they have time to stop, they won't know."

"Don't gape at women smoking cigarettes in restaurants..."

And the crowning glory:

"Don't buy the Woolworth Building, Brooklyn Bridge...or any other prominent structure because a stranger happens to want to sell it to you for a few hundred dollars..."

You can read the entire thing HERE - skip to page 364 for the run down of rules for visiting hayseeds.

You know us here at Shandy Pockets. We're not materialistic. But we'd sell our own (insert relative worth about £30/$50) to get our hands on these retro Flight Tag art prints by Neil Stevens. If we had an office, we'd definitely be buying these up to line the walls with. You can see the full range HERE,  and join us in wondering why poor Montreal is the only one that's being discounted at the moment...