A Preview Of The New Tate Britain
I went to the Members Preview of the upgraded Tate Britain. I have called it the New Britain deliberately!
These pictures don’t do the new building of the art justice.
It was also an absolute pleasure to wander round some galleries and examine the paintings and sculpture virtually alone.
But then that pleasure, is one you get from being a member of the Tate. I also found myself in a similar situation at the British Museum at a Members Party.
Why London’s Bus Ticketing Is Right
To use London’s buses, you need either to have an Oyster Card, a bank or credit card you can wave at the reader, or cash. If you’re lucky like me and have survived to a certain age, you can have a Freedom Pass, if you live in the city.
Today, this flexibility was well illustrated.
I had lunch with a friend, who had to get to Euston afterwards, to get home to Liverpool. The easiest way was to take a bus and a 390 arrived to do the honours. I used my Freedom Pass and I lent her my Oyster Card, that I always carry for visitors or for my own use on the cable-car and river buses.
When we had sat down, I realised she could also have used her contactless credit card. It didn’t occur to me at the time, as my cards don’t have the feature. She did say though, that she would use the buses in London with her’s in future.
It just goes to show how I think that London is going the right way and I think they’ll come a time, when a contactless bank or credit card is the standard method of buying a bus, tram, metro or train ticket all over the world. Her city of Liverpool is already planning to introduce the system on trains.
We are going to see a revolution in ticketing in the next few years and those places that don’t go with the flow will find themselves in the slow lane for visitors and tourists.
A Small Advantage Of Switching To OVO Energy
I’ve just received my contract with OVO Energy, to which I recently switched.
When I switched, my previous supplier was a bit secretive about my Electricity Supply Number or MPAN and it took a couple of phone calls to find it. I don’t think the difficulty was deliberate, but it could have been designed into the system, as a hoop for leavers to jump through!
I’ve now got a one-page A4 sheet of paper, with all my details. So if I find OVO don’t live up to their publicity, I at least have all the details about my supply handy, so switching might be even easier.
So my first advantage is that it will be easier to leave.
The Lack Of A Standard In Buying Train Tickets
I regularly buy tickets from lots of train companies. Over the last few months, I’ve bought tickets from GreaterAnglia, East Coast, East Midland, Southern, First Great Western and Virgin to name just six of them.
Today, I bought a ticket on First Capital Connect and duly registered.
I didn’t have any serious problems, but I do have some observations.
Why is it, that I can’t have a global account, that works with all train companies? That way, I wouldn’t have to deal with several different logins and I could have access to all tickets I’ve bought and it would probably be a lot easier, to book a repeat journey. I would probably use one credit card for all tickets, so that the only thing, I would need to book, would be the security number on my card, after choosing the tickets.
I always pick up my tickets from Dalston Junction, as it is a shortish walk from my house. But some companies don’t have it on the list of their stations, where I can pick up the tickets. That is a bug to me!
In an ideal world, all of these web sites would have the same feel, even if they were to be individually branded.
I never use the all purpose sites like TheTrainLine, as when I did once, I just got a load of spam, that could probably be traced back to them. I always find that cutting out the agent is the best way to save money.
The Anonymous Widower 