Marks and Spencer’s Financial Services Leaflets
They have just started a series of leaflets advertising their financial services, where they compare them to food.
The one for foreign currency says ‘Gluten-free. GM-free. Now try commission-free.’
I would never get my foreign currency from M & S, as I usually use a cash point abroad for convenience, but I find that now gluten-free is rather heartening.
The sooner gluten-free food becomes mainstream the better!
Does Anybody Get Caught by Average Speed Cameras?
This question was asked on Saturday, by someone who had never heard of anybody been fined.
Google found this interesting discussion on the BBC’s web site.
So perhaps they do and perhaps they don’t!
But!
The odd thing about average speed cameras is that they actually do get more traffic down a particular piece of road, as the road’s capacity at 50 is greater than it is at 70. Especially, when they are at a constant 50 and not jumping up and down between 60 and 80.
So perhaps we need more average speed cameras!
Dangers of the Busway
This was the heading on a letter in the Cambridge Evening News.
The last two paragraphs are repeated here.
The track was being well used by walkers, joggers, cyclists, fishermen, bird-watchers and horse-riders.
Many of them, including children and a couple of cows which had escaped from the neighbouring field, were on the bus lane. As it seems to be de rigueur to be plugged into an iPod and oblivious to external sounds, I wonder how long it will be before we have an accident on it?
I hope the writer is wrong.
A Man with a Bookcase
Sometimes things just happen that make you smile ever so much. One such thing happened last night as I made my way home from Oxford on a Victoria Line train to Blackhorse Road, where I had parked my car.
A guy entered carrying a bookcase and as the train was a bit crowded comments were made. These started to get funnier and funnier and for the five stops he was on the train, there was a lot of jokes and laughter. The journey moved very quickly.
Here’s a photograph of the guy sitting on his bookcase.
Man with a Bookcase
Before he left, I talked to the guy and found he was a photographer called Mario Guarino from Naples in Italy.
This episode made me think of the Roman Polanski short film, Two Men and a Wardrobe. It was made in 1962 and I think I probably saw it at school. I hope it is still worth watching!
By Train to Oxford
When I went to Oxford on Saturday, I could have driven. But I parked at Blackhorse Road station on the Victoria Line and then took the tube to Paddington changing at Oxford Circus, as it is only a short walk between the platforms. From Paddington it was just an hour by train direct to Oxford.
The journey worked out well and I didn’t wait long in either direction and there were no delays. Taking the train also allowed me to do some shopping in Oxford Street and have coffee with an old friend on the way back.
Going it was just a typical Networker multiple-unit, but coming back it was a proper High-Speed Train.
High Speed Train at Paddington
The High Speed Train or HST was a stop-gap design that has been in service for over thirty years and it is still one of the fastest, if not the fastest, diesel train in the world. Like good wine they are getting better with age! Not bad for something designed in eighteen months.
What is not generally known about the HST is the name of the designer; Terry Miller. At least East Midlands Trains have now put his name on a power car of one of his outstanding trains.
They will soldier on for at least another decade until they are replaced by electric units. But will these be as reliable? And good?
Whilst at Paddington, I took this picture of Brunel’s roof.
The Roof at Paddington Station
It needs a proper St.Pancras treatment!
The Anonymous Widower 