The Orange Train for the Dutch at the London Olympics
London’s new Overground system is four lines, with a fifth to be added in October, later this year.
The Dutch will feel at home on these trains, as the colour scheme of the trains and stations is predominately orange and the line is shown in orange on the tube map.
The major line, the North London line, also travels across North London from the Olympic site at Stratford and connects to buses and trains to get to the Heineken House at Alexandra Palace. If you go further west you get to Hampstead Heath and Kew Gardens, two of the best places in London to get over a hangover.
I suspect that getting to Alexandra Palace during the Olympics may be difficult, as the two train routes from Kings Cross St. Pancras station, where the Olympic Javelin Shuttles arrive, the suburban rail to Alexandra Palace station and the Piccadilly line to Wood Green station, are crowded most of the time, even without the Games. If you can get to Alexandra Palace station, it’s a much shorter walk up the hill to the Palace.
So a better alternative might be to take the North London line from Stratford to Highbury and Islington and then take the suburban rail from there to Alexandra Palace station. It will certainly avoid the inevitable crush and wait at Kings Cross.
Presumed Dead Law
The Justice Committee of the House of Commons is calling for a new ‘presumed dead’ law. There is an article here on the BBC.
This law could go further in that we also need an Interim Death Certificate, for where someone has died, but the cause of death needs to be determined by a formal inquest.
The mother of a friend of mine died a few years ago and until the full Death Certificate, it created a lot of heartache, grief and administrative pain. Especially, as his father had delegated everything financial to his mother. He couldn’t even find out how much was in the bank account and what standing orders were set up. But an Interim Death Certificate would have remedied that situation, although perhaps to avoid fraud, it would not have the full rights of a full Death Certificate.
I heard from my legal friends at the time, that this is quite a common situation and so today I wrote to the Justice Committee. I just found the page for the Committee on the web. There is an e-mail address there. So if you have a matter for a House of Commons Committee, it is very easy to contact them.
The Anonymous Widower 