The London News Company
WH Smith, had re-branded their outlet at Gatwick as the London News Company.
The London News Company
It was the same old store, with the same old things that annoy me.
My hope is that one day, we get a good travel convenience store.
Newspapers On The Overground
I get my favourite newspaper, by buying vouchers. Picking a paper up on the Overground is sometimes difficult, as there isn’t many paper stores. And often finding one that accepts vouchers is not easy. I changed onto the Overground at Whitechapel, where I’ve fruitlessly searched before, so as I wanted to change to a Clapham Junction train, I tried Canada Water instead.
Newspapers On The Overground
I struck lucky in that there was this excellent kiosk, just a short escalator ride up and down from the platform.
An Unusual Transport Interchange
On Friday, I had a small problem. I had a guest, who was going to take a ferry back to The Netherlands and I had to get to Gatwick. To complicate matters, my guest was low on go-juice and they didn’t know the intricacies of East London.
I have never driven since I’ve moved here to Dalston, but felt that the best route would be for my guest to use the Blackwall Tunnel to get on the road to Dover. As there is a large Tesco on the approach to the tunnel, it seemed that might solve the fuel problem and I could jump ship there and get the Underground at the nearby Bromley-by-Bow station.
It all worked very well and fifteen minutes after being dropped, I was on an Overground train to Clapham Junction after changing at Whitechapel.
The interface between drivers and public transport is not good in London. There are few places, where you get an easy drop off point to public transport, a filling station and other services on major roads.
But Tesco at Bow have provided an interchange. The only problem is that the walking route to the Underground is not very salubrious.
At least it wasn’t raining. The link to the store is here.
EatNakd Bars At Gatwick
I searched everywhere and couldn’t find any, or in fact any other gluten-free snacks to take with me on the trip.
I had thought I’d forgotten to pack any, but luckily it turned out I was mistaken.
But obtaining gluten-free snacks on the move is always difficult.
The Southern Way To Do PR
I flew to Geneva from Gatwick on easyJet on an early afternoon flight, as that way, I got to have a good lunch in Jamie’s Italian in the North Terminal. I always prefer to arrive in a strange place well fed, as I can’t be sure of the food I can get there.
To get to Gatwick, I generally go using the Overground to Clapham Junction and then get one of the many trains to the airport, from there.
Together with quite a few other passengers, I piled into one of Southern’s Class 377 trains. I’ve written about these trains before, and Second Class is so good, I never bother with First. At £6.85 from Clapham Junction to Gatwick, it’s definitely good value, especially as they are well-tabled trains.
But we all piled into a First Class section of the train!
Before the first stop at East Croydon, this was discovered by the ticket collector, who very politely asked us to move on, or buy a simple upgrade. A few jokes were exchanged and I think we all moved, although one guy did buy the upgrade.
I never saw the ticket collector again.
I do wonder though, whether with these trains, the comfort in Second Class is not perceptibly below that in First. The only difference is you have a big table in First and a few signs.
The inspector had handled the situation impeccably and he had warned us about revenue protection officers, who aren’t so pleasant.
I suspect that the whole incident, got Southern a few more returning customers.
A Visit To CERN
On Friday, I left the cold of London for hopefully better climes in Geneva.
The purpose of the visit was to go to CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research. The invite came from the Alumni Relations people at my old University of Liverpool. It was a full weekend, so I’m going to post things as they turn up. To give a taster of this visit, I’m posting this picture.
A Visit To CERN
This shows me in front of the CMS experiment. It is being rebuilt at the moment.
The picture was taken about a hundred metres underground the French countryside. That was a long climb back. But they did have a lift, which was cosy for the twenty-five or so in each party.
The Anonymous Widower 