Wot No Shard!
I didn’t actually get a view of the dreaded Shard from Crystal Palace, as I suspect the trees were in the way. But you can see a long way.
Wot No Shard!
Are those white columns to the right on the horizon the Dartford Crossing? if not, what are they? Enlarge the picture and I think you can see the bridge deck.
A Real Station With A Real Cafe – On The Overground!
I’d heard that London Overground had done something special at Crystal Palace. So I went and had a look.
It’s not finished yet and it can only get better and better, as lifts and other features are added.
So is it special? I think so, but I’m a grumpy old pensioner, who gets to the station free. The food was good too!
Take the kids and go there and have a walk in one of London’s most unusual parks and then have a snack or more in the Brown and Green Cafe.
They’ve even got a children’s menu without chips!
The one thing I didn’t like was the orange roundel on the station building. Surely, a Grade II Listed building deserves better!
It will also be interesting to see how use of the booking hall develops. It is a display space, that cries out for something better than run of the mill retail. As the current architectural display shows, it could be used for exhibitions.
But of course don’t go to Crystal Palace station, expecting a short walk to Crystal Palace Football Club. For them, you take the train to Norwood Junction station.
Thinking about Crystal Palace station, London Overground has now created its first true destination station. By that, I mean one where you go because of what is in the station itself, to perhaps meet someone for business or pleasure. St. Pancras is perhaps the best example, but others like Waterloo, Liverpool Lime Street, Liverpool Street and perhaps Norwich Thorpe are getting that way.
London Peace Wall
I saw this in the paper and found it on Wednesday morning.
There’s more about it here. Or there would be if the website worked properly! But it’s not up yet. Although it’s mentioned on the TFL web site here.
The best thing is to do what I did and go and visit it by taking a train to Haggerston station. Walk out of the station towards the Regent’s Canal, and the artwork is under the portal of the bridge that goes across the canal.
An Enjoyable Afternoon
I must be one of few men, who likes going clothes shopping with ladies. I often did with C and I do wonder if it all started with my mother teaching me how to make clothes and making them for C in the early years of our marriage.
My mother was an expert dressmaker and in the days after the war, when money was short for us, she would even make trousers for me, by cutting the flies out of someone’s cast off and then build a new pair on them. Remember in those days, boys were in shorts until thirteen on so, probably to save money.
I suppose the best thing I ever made for C, was a long winter coat. So she had one, when they became fashionable and most of her friends didn’t.
With C, I used to have the knack of taking a dress off the rack and saying that will suit you. Sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong.
But I do know, from my computing experiences with graphics and my skill in engineering drawing, that I did have the ability to imagine well in 3-D.
Whether it is undiminished after the stroke I do not know.
So yesterday, a friend, who’s going to a wedding in New York later in the year, dragged me along, to see if I could help. She needed a smart day dress.
Her problems with clothes are two-fold.
The first is genetic, in that she is not tall at all, but with a very good figure and a very small waist. The second, is that she has no patience for clothes shopping and was very likely to do a runner.
In some ways, it developed into a scene not unlike that of Grace Brothers, more though in the jokes and things that were said, than the characters involved.
The classic was when the patience-rich assistant said that that most dresses they had were for older ladies and my friend was a lot younger. She then announced her age to everyone. The assistants had a good laugh, but the lady behind, who was also looking for a similar rather formal dress didn’t. But then she had a figure that would be extremely difficult to dress properly at all.
Some of the funniest cracks were reserved for whom the assistant thought would be at the wedding, whilst my friend was in the changing room. They were also said with actions, showing the size of people expected.
After trying on three or four dresses of the six or so, brought to her, my friend actually bought one. She liked it and I’ve had a text to say that she still does.
So we all could retreat after success.
I should have days out like this more often!
My Cholesterol Levels
I started to keep these on-line and then stopped, with all my troubles. So here are the up-to-date values.
- December 2008 – Total 6.0, Trig 1.3, HDL 1.16, LDL 4.25
- April 2009 – Total 6.7, Trig 1.1, HDL 1.63, LDL 4.57
- September 2012 – Total 5.6, Trig 2.26, HDL 1.24, LDL 3.33
The Anonymous Widower 