Is Any Ipswich Town Fan Going To Doncaster On Boxing Day?
I am trying to see every Ipswich Town match this season. The problem is Boxing Day, when we play at Doncaster.
As the trains and coaches aren’t running and to make things worse the Underground in London could be on strike, it would appear that the only way to go is to hire a car and driver, a helicopter and pilot or just hitch.
Unless of course, someone who’s going from London, can fit a small Ipswich fan in the boot of their car!
Any sensible ideas will be welcome!
A Very Good Football Trip
As I said here, my trip to Blackpool, yesterday, started well at Kings Cross.
As I had a few minutes before the Glasgow train to Preston, I had time to visit the Virgin First Class lounge at Euston. I think some companies charge extra for the lounge if you’re on a cheap ticket or close it altogether at weekends, but Virgin don’t seem to penny pinch like that at Euston.
The train was on time to Preston, but it did look very much like rain.
Approaching Preston
As I had booked to Blackpool North station, which is a walk of three kilometres to the ground, I asked if I could use my ticket to Blackpool South station, which is only about eight hundred metres. I was informed that there would be no problem by someone from Northern Rail! I certainly hadn’t found a Jobsworth.
The guy on the train gave the same story and I arrived at the station to walk to Bloomfield Road.
Walking To Bloomfield Road
I made it in plenty of time, walking in the sun, although the weather was threatening.
It really started to rain, just as I got under cover in my seat.
The match was a topsy-turvy affair, with Ipswich winning with the odd goal in five, scored in stoppage time. Ipswich were one-nil down at half-time, so unusually for a manager, Mick McCarthy threw caution to the wind and played with four forwards across the field.
He got the result all the Ipswich fans wanted and you do wonder, if he hasn’t found the best way to use the talent he has available.
I must admit, I did look at the two Blackpool goals last night on the BBC and I can’t help feeling that if Cresswell and Smith had been playing, one or both of these goals might not have been scored.
In the end the Ipswich fans all went about their journeys home happy with the result, so the two Blackpool goals didn’t matter.
As it connects better to the London trains, I decided to do the long walk to Blackpool North station. However, I didn’t have to walk all the way, as I found a 14 bus, that went near the station. There was the usual silly ticketing palaver, you get with a bus pass outside London and I do wonder if bus companies have shares in those that produce ticket paper.
I got a crowded train to Preston fairly easily, but it arrived there, just as a Euston train was departing. A Virgin employee told me, I had an hour to wait, but as I had an Off-Peak ticket I could take any train. I then realised, it would be nice to eat something, so as a Manchester Piccadilly train was alongside, a gluten-free supper in Carluccio’s at Piccadilly station beckoned. I could then take one of the more numerous trains to London. The Virgin also told me, that the Manchester to London trains weren’t busy, as City and United weren’t playing.
Where had all the Jobsworths gone?
I had my supper in Carluccio’s at a fast pace and made the 19:35 train with ease. I had intended to upgrade to First, but as I got four seats and a table to myself in Stearage, I didn’t bother. In fact the fifteen pound upgrade, I didn’t buy, virtually paid for my meal in Carluccio’s.
As I’d arrived in Piccadilly virtually dead on seven, I’d ordered, waited for and eaten my meal in about half-an-hour, whilst checking the news and the football results on the excellent wi-fi. So with luck, I’d be able to go straight home from Euston and catch the start of Match of the Day.
I did! It had been a very good trip.
In a few years time, going from London to Blackpool will be a lot easier, as they are electrifying the line from Preston, as part of the major electrification between Manchester, Liverpool and Preston. It has also been stated that this will mean a tour-hourly service of faster electric trains to and from London. But as I’ll still have the problem of getting a decent gluten-free meal on the way down, but as it will be a greatly improved service from Blackpool to Manchester Piccadilly, I can still go via Manchester and have a decent meal, whilst changing trains.
In fact, if like I did, you have a ticket from Blackpool North to London, you will have several stations, where you can change onto a fast train to London, if you just missed a direct train and didn’t want to wait two hours. You could change at Preston, Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool or even Wigan North Western.
I can’t help but feel, that this long-awaited electrification is going to make a lot of difference to the whole of the triangle based on Manchester, Liverpool and Blackpool.
It should have been done years ago!
Underground Art
I had a letter published in The Times yesterday, under this heading.
I’ve been thinking for a long time about the way large bronze sculptures and statues keep getting nicked by Philistines and criminals, who don’t care one jot about our artistic heritage. We also have the controversy over Tower Hamlet’s Henry Moore statue, that they may have to sell.
So when The Times published a piece on art on the Moscow Metro, I wrote to the paper. This is what I said.
Your report “Moscow’s Metro is transformed into a real work of art” (Nov 7) offers a solution to the problem of what to do with the Henry Moore sculpture owned by Tower Hamlets council, as well as other statues owned by local authorities.
Many of our stations have a suitable space, and given that they are pretty secure why don’t we move some artworks there? Statues would interest more people in a station than they do tucked away in a park or housing estate, as they are now.
The more I think about this, the more I think the idea could be a runner.
Tower Hamlets incidentally, has three major stations; Canary Wharf, Shoreditch High Street and Whitechapel. The latter is currently being rebuilt for Crossrail.
All it needs to find a space for the Henry Moore, is a bit of creative and artistic thinking! To site the statue in public in a station, may actually cost less in the long term, as surely insurance would not be so expensive.
A Simple Ham And Vegetable Soup
I cooked this on Friday, using the leftover vegetables from the fish pies, I cooked earlier in the week. The recipe was based on this soup from Nigella.
I started by chopping up an onion, two garlic cloves and a fresh chilli and sautéing them in olive oil until they were soft.
Onion, Garlic And Chili
I then added a diced carrot, two diced sticks of celery, one bubble of some of Waitrose’s ham hock, some chicken stock and some water. I brought it to the boil and then simmered it for an hour.
Simmering The Soup
After that, I added a few sliced courgettes, half a cup of frozen peas, a small tin of three bean mix and a generous handful of pasta and then cooked it for ten minutes, until it was nice and hot.
Cooking The Courgettes, Peas And Pasta
The only problem, was that I made it a bit thick, but it tasted good.
A Big Bowl Of Soup
I think next time, I’ll make a bigger pot of it and work out how to freeze it for later.
Delia has a page here about freezing soups and a whole list of soups. But beware, the page is full of annoying adverts.
Welcome To Kings Cross
I started my trip to Blackpool, yesterday by going to St. Pancras station for breakfast at Carluccio’s, as because of its location it opens early at 7:30 am on every day except Sunday, when it is ninety minutes later.
So to catch the 10:30 train out of Euston to go north for Preston and Blackpool, it is convenient pit stop, as there is nothing but gluten-rich food at Euston. And also at Kings Cross, there is Leon, so journeys to the north for me, nearly always go through the station.
But it was very heartening to be greeted at the gate of the Underground by “Come on the Tractor Boys!” from one of the station staff. So it wasn’t busy, but one of the things that marks out the London Underground above most systems in the rest of the world, is the help, guidance and jokes from station staff.
It all makes the system go round easily!
The Good And The Bad Of A & E
The saga of my hand is hopefully now finished.
But it does illustrate the good and the bad of A & E in the NHS.
The damage happened near to my surgery and the nurse patched it up. She also checked my tetanus and found it was up to date.
But possibly because of my Warfarin, the blood started to seep around the plaster and in the end, when I started dripping blood all over a Victoria line train, I got out at Warren Street station and I went to A & E at University College Hospital. They did a stronger patch but even that fell apart, probably because I type too much and the damage was on the point of the knuckle.
So it was back to the surgery and then on to Boots, where I bought a large traditional plaster to put over the lot, and some white cotton gloves to protect the whole package.
I still have a scab on the back of the hand and now because of the success of the hospital bandage, I wear a wrist support to take the pressure off my wrist and the knuckle.
The treatment, I got was generally good and quick, as who would complain at forty minutes in A & E for a minor injury.
But as I live alone and couldn’t patch it up myself with one good hand, it needed trips to get medical help.
So are we seeing more people going to A & E because so many of us now live alone? And is A & E geared up for it?
But the real problem that A & E has, is the lack of a joined up database with my GP. The nurse at the surgery checked my tetanus status, which I thought was good, but of course, I couldn’t remember the date. The nurse in the hospital asked and I told her it was good. but she had no means of checking.
Incidentally, one thing that saved time in A & E was that I’d been an in-patient at the hospital and I was already registered.
Those who object to a large joined up NHS patient database, are probably the people, who complain loudest at the wait in A & E.
But how much time and effort would it save?
I Miss My Boots
Boots in Islington is being expanded as I showed here.
But it now looks like May 2014 before it is fully opened.
It is a bit of a pain, as it is so convenient and very much up the ladder of helpful.
Stories About Wind Power
I don’t like large onshore wind turbines, as I believe they destroy wonderful views and the economics are not very sound.
On the other hand, when they are offshore, they are less intrusive and the economics might be better. But even so the arrays have to be properly designed and sited.
The real place for wind turbines is to provide distributed power to difficult places, where a small amount of electricity is required and running a cable would be expensive.
I’ve not been happy on the effect of turbines on birds ever since, I read several articles about how in the United States, wind farms kill eagles and other large birds. Yesterday The Times published a similar article about their effect on bats.
I’m always sceptical about the reasons for publishing these articles, as I’m pretty certain, that they are very much the sort of story that pleases Middle England, who feel the turbines will make their house drop in value.
The Times also published a story about a wind turbine on the Welsh Assembly, which is also reported on the BBC. This is the first paragraph.
A wind turbine that cost the Welsh government £48,000 to buy has been generating an average of just £5 worth of electricity per month.
It all goes to show that wind turbines may not be as economic, as their proponents say they will be.
One thing I’d like to see is an open database on the Internet of all turbines, with their detailed cost, subsidy and revenue, so anybody who wanted to, could check the efficiency and economics of any turbine.
Only if that information wee to be freely available, would we be able to know if they were money well spent.
The Anonymous Widower 