I Don’t Buy Cleaning Materials Any More
I live in a three-bedroomed house, with a large living room and a small kitchen, so it isn’t the most difficult place to keep clean. I use contract cleaners, who come once a week, bringing everything they need and cost me about sixty pounds.
So as I’m writing a big shopping list for the next few days, it’s very simple, as there is no cleaning materials at all. The only thing, that I buy, that isn’t food or drink, is washing up liquid, washing detergent, soap, toothpaste and toilet paper.
It certainly makes life a lot simpler, as over the last forty or so years, finding decent cleaners has always been a problem for C and myself.
Why Can’t Basil Stick To The Countryside?
I went out this morning to get my paper and collect my laundry and there was mess all over the street.
Why Can’t Basil Stick To The Countryside?
But by the distinct smell, I could identify the culprit. He’d probably dragged the rubbish from somewhere up the street. It certainly isn’t mine, as I don’t use black bags and I have a fox-proof wheelie-bin.
An Excellent Reason For A Coeliac To Subscribe To The Times
A few weeks ago, The Times had a revamp and put Lindsey Bareham’s Dinner Tonight recipe at the bottom left of page 2. It makes the recipe easy to cut out and keep. Here’s one I cut out earlier!
A Recipe Cut From The Times
The great thing about her recipes, is that many are naturally gluten-free or can easily be made so. This new position, means you can check the recipe before buying the paper.
This morning, I got to asking myself if they now print properly, as in their old position in the paper, it meant you had to print about six sheets of paper, most of which went in the bin.
I am a subscriber to The Times, as I like their sudokus and other puzzles, so I logged in and found the recipes. To print now, is a lot easier, as if you only print the first page, you only get the recipe and none of the garbage, that you often get when printing a page from the Internet.
Dinner Tonight Recipes From The Times
This morning, I printed three recipes, that have appeared in the paper in the last week.
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Why Is Marks And Spencer At Eastfield, So Bad For Gluten-Free Food?
Sometimes, I will buy a gluten-free sandwich from Marks and Spencer! Not often, as their selection at the moment in many stores tends to be just a cheese ploughman’s, which has never been my favourite, as I generally only eat soft or blue cheeses. But most stores in London and especially those at stations sell them, as they did yesterday in Birmingham New Street station. My two local Marks at Islington and Finsbury Pavement, always have them.In the week, I also bought the excellent gluten-free breaded cod from Finsbury Pavement.
But why are there no sandwiches at the large Marks in the Eastfield shopping centre at Stratford? Or gluten-free cod either! It’s as though specific gluten-free products have been banned at Eastfield, as try to get a gluten-free meal there in any restaurant and they say they haven’t got anything. I also heard that the other restaurants said they didn’t want a Carluccio’s there.
So if you’re gluten-free, I recommend that you don’t go anywhere near the dreaded Eastfield!
A Train Builder With Form
I have been following the farce of the Fyra trains between Brussels and Amsterdam with interest. Modern Railways this month, gives a very full account of the problems and the big row between the Dutch and the Belgians and the Italian company; AnsaldoBreda who built the V250 trains. These trains were incidentally called Albatross by the makers.
I’ve just been reading about AnsaldoBreda on Wikipedia. It says this about the problems the company has had with an order for IC4 trains for Denmark.
Delivery of 83 IC4 trainsets for the Danish State Railways DSB was originally planned for 2003-2006. As of March 2013, 22 trainsets have still not been delivered,[52] On 2 July 2012, the DSB announced that the Transportation Authority had approved Denmark’s railway operator to put back into operation the fleet of 37 IC4s which had been withdrawn from service in November 2011. In December 2011, it was reported that one of the missing IC4 trainsets planned for delivery in Denmark was found in Libya. Reportedly, AnsaldoBreda and then Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi gave Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi the trainset as a present on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Gaddafi’s revolution in 2009.
I suppose now, it doesn’t work, as there is sand in the bogies!
No wonder the Dutch and the Belgians bought a load of dud trains, that go bunga bunga!
Incidentally, I was led to look up AnsaldoBreda by looking at the progress of the Midland Metro extension to Birmingham New Street station. I found that the same Italian company had sold a load of dodgy trams to the Brummies. The details are here.
Who Is Third Favourite To Win The Wimbledon Men’s Title?
I suppose it’s fairly obvious, that the two favourites for the men’s final at Wimbledon are Djokovic and Murray, who are pretty closely matched at just over two to one.
But who is favourite after them?
It’s Juan Martin Del Potro at over twenty to one.
Walking In Birmingham
I knew where I was going today, as I was going to Carluccio’s in Brindley Place. The new station entrances actually made it easier, as it seemed to me, that there wasn’t such an uphill climb, as the station seemed to slope in the right direction.
But I didn’t see a map anywhere! So if you are a first time visitor, what do you do? I know the station isn’t complete but surely in the main shopping centre, there should be something to help, non-Brummies! i suppose in some ways, you get spoilt in London, which can be almost over-mapped at times.
I have also started to not where a watch, as it irritates my arm and shoulder. And I didn’t see a clock anywhere!
Birmingham needs to implement its own version of Legible London.
But like two door buses, most cities don’t like to even trial something that works well in London.
Birmingham Is Getting A World Class Station
I’ve been going to the old Birmingham New Street station since the 1960s. Until recently, you always got the impression, you were in the depths of a dark place underneath the centre of the city. The platforms are still a bit dark, but I suspect that’s because they haven’t been finished yet, but get upstairs and some of the station has been transformed.
A Transformed Station
Or at least half of it has, as the reconstruction has some time to run.
Escalators are everywhere, as they should be.
Escalators Are Everywhere
At present only one bridge over the platforms is complete and the second, is just a building site.
Outside an impressive frontage is being finished.
An Impressive Frontage
Although, another entrance is littered with dummies.
New Street Station With Dummies
How do you stop smoking dummies cluttering up entrances? But at least it’s not as bad in the UK, as in some European countries.
After lunch, my friend dropped me back to the station in his car. And what a surprise we got!
Passenger Drop Off At New Street Station
How many stations or airports have such a good well-designed drop off area? I walked straight into the booking hall, and after buying my ticket from a new and improved machine, two minutes later I was on the train back to Euston.
After Birmingham, you realise what a dump Euston station is. And of course it gets worse, as you descend into the Underground. We really knew how to design and build things badly then. Although, there are some notable exceptions! But Euston station is not one of them!
The Anonymous Widower 