I Never Thought I’d Eat A Supermarket Quiche Again!
I’m probably not a real man, as I quite like quiche. But coeliacs don’t get much chance to eat one from a supermarket or chain store, as let’s face it, they only think we like food made from cardboard. But after their sandwiches on Saturday, I just had to try Marks and Spencer’s new gluten-free quiche.
I Never Thought I’d Eat A Supermarket Quiche Again!
It was pretty good. Let’s hope that their new gluten-free foods are still being made in a few years time.
I gave my fitness trainer a piece and she said it had a touch of the home made about it.
But then I’ve never made or rolled pastry in my life.
Did Manchester Railways Ever Have A Plot?
What are the two odd ones out of these British cities?
Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield
It’s actually, Glasgow and Manchester, as they are only cities other than London with two main stations. The pedantic could argue that Birmingham has more than one, but New Street is very much larger than the others.
Glasgow’s two station; Central and Queen Street, split their services geographically, but at least they could be connected by Crossrail Glasgow, which is summed up like this.
The proposed Crossrail initiative involves electrifying and reopening the City Union Line for regular passenger use in conjunction with new filler sections of track which will connect the North Clyde, Ayrshire, and Kilmarnock and East Kilbride suburban routes together, therefore allowing through running of services through the centre of Glasgow in a North-South axis.
The scheme never saw fruition however. Will any Glaswegian tell me why, as on paper it looks sensible?
Manchester has a similar problem with two stations at Piccadilly and Victoria. If I’m going to say Burnley or Blackburn, as I often have and want to have lunch at Carluccio’s in Piccadilly, I find I have to traipse across Manchester, usually in the rain, to get the train out of Victoria.
There was a plan in the 1970s for the Picc-Vicc Tunnel, but like the Crossrail Glasgow it has been cancelled.
So now the Ordsall Chord is being built to allow trains to cross Manchester city centre.
It may work well in the end, but it has a touch of the old answer of “I wouldn’t start from here!” to the question of how to get to X.
The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, but it doesn’t seem to be a concept that can catch the imagination of the public, like some public transport schemes do.
Crossrail Of The North
Is it farther between Liverpool and Hull or from London to Norwich?
Actually, they are about the same being around two hundred kilometres for both.
But compare the train times between the two city pairs.
Liverpool to Hull takes three and a quarter hours, with at least one change, whereas London to Norwich takes five minutes under two hours.
Actually, the London to Norwich service hasn’t improved much since the 1960s, as British Rail’s aspiration then had the catchy phrase of a two-hour, two-stop service.
Since then the line has been electrified and a typical train stops up to six times on the route, with eight coach services running twice every hour.
You might think, that being that the line runs across the flat East Anglian countryside that it is a railway on which high speeds of the order of two hundred kilometres per hour are possible.
But you’d be wrong, as the line isn’t straight and the maximum speed is only a hundred and sixty!
Even so, plans are afoot to do the London to Norwich trip in ninety minutes, probably using the current trains, albeit with perhaps some new locomotives.
All this shows what a disgrace the rail routes across the North of England are.
Few are electrified and trains are often scrapyard specials. There are some new trains, but these are seriously overcrowded.
Politicians should hang their heads in shame.
At least George Osborne seems to be thinking about it, judging by reports on the BBC this morning.
The North of England needs a high frequency and high capacity, world-class railway linking the main cities together. As with London to Norwich, Liverpool to Hull should be at least twice an hour in ninety minutes or less. It should all be possible with good 1980s, let alone the best modern, technology.
The Anonymous Widower 