The Hackney Eight Have Got Tail-Gunners Again
I got the 38 bus back from the Angel this morning, travelling on one of the Hackney Eight.
They’ve now got tail-gunners for the next four weeks as an experiment, according to the driver.
What we really need on the 38, is reinforcements for the loyal eight New Buses for London, we have!
Why shouldn’t the residents of Hackney, Clapton and Islington, not be able to travel First Class?
My Chairs Now Have A Padded Seat
I was in IKEA yesterday and saw some strap-on chair cushions. So I bought two for my new stacking chairs!
They fit well despite the fact they cost a lot less than the chairs. It goes to show, you don’t have to always spend a fortune to get what you want!
When the living room is finished, I might change them to match the carpet! But knowing my love of simple design, I suspect that might never happen.
I’ve Now Got A Back Garden
The back garden is now finished.
I like it a lot, despite the fact, all I did was provide coffee and tea for the good people from Cercis.
Shopping Lists For My Favourite Recipes
I’ve been meaning to do this for some time.
Medium onion, finely chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
500 grams extra-lean minced beef
2 tbsp gluten-free Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp Waitrose organic tomato paste
2 tsp dried mixed herbs
250 ml, beef stock
1 cup frozen peas
1 kilo of King Edward or similar potatoes
1kg potatoes
1 carrot
2 sticks of celery
150g good Cheddar cheese
1 lemon
½ a fresh red chilli
4 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley
300g salmon fillets, skin off and bones removed
300g undyed smoked haddock fillets, skin off and bones removed
125g king prawns, raw, peeled
A good handful of spinach, chopped
A couple of ripe tomatoes, quartered
Most of the others I do, are so simple, that I don’t need a list.
Two Stories From Liverpool
I don’t go into betting shops these days, except in a High Street, when I need to use the toilet, as most good betting shops, have ones that are clean and well-kept.
So when I see that Liverpool is thinking of banning fixed-odds betting machines in shops as reported in the Liverpool Post, it won’t affect me. But I do think, that allowing these money grabbers into shops, was a very backward step for life in general.
The other story is very progressive and the BBC is reporting that Merseyrail will allow contactless payments all over its network.
This should happen everywhere and on buses too!
Venice Limits Cruise Ships
I love Venice and so did my late wife, C. We must have gone about five or six times and it was no surprise, that the first place abroad I visited after her death, was Venice, to see if I could holiday alone. This post contains a lot of how I feel about Venice.
So Venice to me is special and I’ll probably go again this winter. The winter to me is the best time to visit, as there are less tourists and day-trippers gumming up the city. I always stay in the same hotel close to St. Mark’s Square and even next week, prices are high. So I suspect that even in the winter now, it’s getting lots of visitors.
So to see that the city is to limit the number of cruise ships that visit, as reported on the BBC, is to me a very good thing.
Looking at prices and knowing the city as I do, I would recommend that if you want to visit Venice, you book the best hotel you can afford close to St. Mark’s Square, fly into the Marco Polo airport and then take the ferry to the centre. It looks like nights at the beginning of the week are best and as Venice is a city which is on the go all the time, Monday to Wednesday, aren’t the disasters some cities are. But go out of the city the back way, using the train to a contrasting city like Milan, Bologna or Verona and fly back from there. Remember, every sizeable city in Italy is worth visiting and there are very few, where you can’t enjoy yourself sightseeing, eating and drinking for a couple of days.
We must find better ways of visiting Venice, otherwise the city that I love, will be ruined by tourism.
The Anonymous Widower 