I’ve Got No Boxing Day Football Again!
This year Ipswich Town are away at Doncaster on Boxing Day. They’ll of course be no trains.
But how many other matches will be impossible to get to?
Derby on Tuesday, October 1st
Leeds on Tuesday, January 28th
Yeovil on Tuesday, March 11th
Huddersfield on Tuesday, April 8th
Ten Reasons I Don’t Like Eastfield
I went to Waitrose in Eastfield this evening, to get some bits and pieces for my supper.
1. The Waitrose there is not for me, as some of the staples I like, like Genius bread never seem to be in stock. I also found out tonight, that it doesn’t have all the small packs of microwaveable vegetables I use.
2. The Marks and Spencer isn’t a patch on the ones in Oxford Street or Finsbury Pavement for food. It doesn’t even stock gluten-free sandwiches, which is rare in a their larger stores.
3. Clothes at Marks and Spencer are probably the normal standard, but unless you get in early in the season, small sizes can be difficult to find.
4. Although, I don’t use it often these days, the Starbucks at Eastfield doesn’t use proper china cups.
5. I went into John Lewis today and it really is a bit small and inferior when compared to the flagship store in Oxford Street.
6. Waitrose and John Lewis are a long way from the main Stratford station.
7. With the exception of Marks and Spencer, I’ve bought no clothing in any of the shops there, as they seem to be almost exclusively aimed at women. The few shops that sell men’s clothes are ones I wouldn’t visit.
8. The only restaurant that I know serves gluten-free food is Jamie’s Italian. Why can’t it have a Carluccio’s like Westfield?
9. As I’m very much a guerilla shopper, who comes, buys what he wants and retreats immediately, the centre is usually too crowded for my liking.
10. In some ways my major gripe is that, if say you want to go anywhere from the main Stratford station, you have to walk through the shopping centre. I always go shopping, when I want to, not when I end up in a shopping centre by accident.
You may think that this has all been very negative.
But I do like the toilets, the only Lakeland near me and the large numbers of cash points.
Is Funding Circle Going To Sleep With The Enemy?
There are rumours around the Internet that Funding Circle is going to tie up with Santander. Read a report here in The Telegraph.
For many years ING provided funding to a host of smaller lenders in the UK. Then they changed tack and left these lenders up the creek without a boat, let alone a paddle.
The only possible tie-up that I would possibly do if I was the CEO of Funding Circle is to licence the technology for use in a non-competing market.
I certainly wouldn’t get involved in any direct tie-up in the UK, for a number of reasons. Most of these are detailed in the Telegraph.
But I was part of a small dynamic company taken over by a big US corporation and it just didn’t work. Santander and Funding Circle are so different, I’d only give them a few months before they fell out in a big way.
I hope that if they are talking, that Funding Circle see the light and withdraw.
But the rumours probably haven’t done their business a load of good.
The Copper Box
After leaving the park yesterday, I went and had a look in the Copper Box.
This is the first new Olympic venue to become fully open.
It is an impressive arena and I shall be looking to see if I can play badminton there. With my eyesight, it might be a better game to play for me, than real tennis. You can play badminton there and details \are here.
Although the information isn’t fully working, it would appear that the bus stop for the Copper Box on the 588 route, is called the Copper Box. They would appear to run every fifteen minutes and I took one back to Eastfield for a train home.
The Cafe In The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
The cafe in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is all new.
It is run by a company called Unity Kitchen, who have this as their mission statement.
We have a strong social and environmental purpose; we create jobs for people with disabilities, make good food affordable for local people, and run our business sustainably.
They did have a gluten-free cake from a company called Sponge.
The cafe was busy, but it probably needs a few more days to get its systems working better.
Visiting The New Park
I finally, got to view the new Queen Eizabeth Olympic Park yesterday.
It is obviously not finished by any means, but it is impressive.
It also opens early in the morning at 06:00 and closed fairly late.
I travelled to the park, by getting a 588 bus from Hackney Wick, to the stop by the Copper Box. At present, the information on the bus isn’t working in the area of the park, but I suspect it will be in a few days.
The Anonymous Widower 