Marylebone To N1
I went to Birmingham to do a few things including collecting all my brass-coloured IKEA knobs.
I used Chiltern Trains both ways as with all these winds about, they were unlikely to suffer electrical problems on a non-electrified railway.
I also bought my replacement phone in the Bull Ring by the station and sorted it out on the train home, using the free power and wi-fi. Not that I was able to connect with my replacement sim, as O2 had made a mistake entering it into their system.
To get home to N1 from Marylebone isn’t theeasiest journey, especially as it was the rush hour.
So I asked one of the experts on the gate and virtually gave the reply, that if you want to get there, you don’t start from here. He regularly went to Hackney Wick to see his sister, so he did have good personal knowledge.
In the end, I hopped one stop on the Bakerloo line and then took the Metropolitan to Whitechapel station before taking the Overground to Dalston Junction for a bus down the Balls Pond Road.
There must be a better way.
The Tfl Journey Planner recommends going to Highbury and Islington via Oxford Circus and then getting the Overground back to Dalston Junction. That was my other route, but it does show how badly Hackney is connected to the Underground and the useless routes of the Bakerloo and the Bank branch of the Northern line.
Thinking about it, perhaps a better way would be to get the Bakerloo line to Regents Park station and then get a 30 bus to close to my house. But you wouldn’t use that route in the rush hour!
Even the proposed Crossrail 2 wouldn’t help as it doesn’t link to the Bakerloo line!
Crossrail might though, as it would be one stop to Paddington on the Bakerloo and then on to Moorgate for a 141 bus.
Hackney Goes Back To The Future
I’ve posted about rebuilding the footbridge connection between Hackney Downs and Hackney Central stations before.
TfL have decided to replace it after seventy years and Hackney Council has approved the proposal as reported here. It seems to be positively received.
Hackney Central ward cllr Vincent Stops welcomed the news. He said: “It is quite exciting that this proposal remakes an historic connection between Hackney Central and Hackney Downs stations that was lost in 1944. It will greatly benefit Hackney residents and those visiting Hackney Central town centre. Now permission has been obtained I am determined that Marcon and Aspland Estate benefits both in terms of the re-provision of play facilities and that the green wall and tree cover really improves the outlook of residents and reduces train noise, a long standing issue for the estate.”
I wonder how long it is before TfL decides that the two stations are one and renames them to either Hackney or Hackney Junction.
I suspect that the renaming will get more objections than the five who objected to the footbridge. One was objecting that it might mean to a loss of car parking spaces.
Beware Tesco Customer Surveys
I don’t shop at Tesco’s except to buy the odd EatNakd bar or a newspaper, so why should they ask me to fill out a customer satisfaction survey? Especially, as it was e-mailed from South Africa!
It’s nothing to do with Tesco and is probably a dangerous scam, so beware!
Thoughts On My Home Run From Marrakech
Once I got on the train towards London I felt safe, although even then, I could have suffered from overhead line problems or a breakdown in the tunnel.
But the whole holiday could have been so much worse!
Getting off the plane in Marrakech was a very protracted affair, as the guy in the row behind needed a wheel-chair and this held everybody up, whilst his conveyance arrived.
I was virtually last off the plane and it took me forever to get to the luggage carousel, where there was just one bag going round and round on the conveyor. It looked like mine, as it was a grey/blue Mandarina Duck pull-along. So I picked it up and got ready to pull it outside for my taxi.
But something wasn’t right! I checked the pocket, which was where I put my book and I found a blue scarf that I didn’t remember as being mine.
Then I noted it had a red label with the company Rambler on it. Now that wasn’t the company I’d used, so I checked the label, which was in a name of Burnage!
It wasn’t my case and obviously Burnage, whoever he was, had taken mine!
But the place was deserted, so I evenbtually left the case and went outside.
A guy was holding up a board saying Ramblers, so I approached him and eventually I was reunited with my case.
But the Ramblers party, were on their way to God knows where and as I had no mobile phone how would they have reunited me with my case, which of course contsined my medical supplies!
A bad holiday could have been turned into an absolute disaster.
The morals of this trip are as follows.
- Don’t use travel agents, who book you economy, when judging by your record with them, you’ve always used Club.
- Make sure that the wi-fi and/or Internet in your hotel comes highly recommended.
- Don’t travel on the same plane, as idiots named Burnage.
- Don’t go to Chamartin station and above all avoid the hotel there.
- But above all don’t lose your mobile phone!
I reckon I spent about two grand on this holiday and the only pleasure I had in Marrakesh was an afternoon in the hamman. I could have spent the money on an exclusive massage with half-a-dozen blondes and got a lot more pleasure!
I do have one regret though. I had thought of doing a home run from Marrakech by train and ferry, but my son was apprehensive. When I decided to come home, I should have gone straight to the station and got a train to Tangier, followed by a ferry to Spain, from where I could have got a train to Madrid and onward to London.
To read all of my Home Run from Marrakech posts, click here.
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The Anonymous Widower 