Tunnelling Through Black Death
Crossrail has come across some unusual going on its tunnelling throuygh London. According to this article, they have hit a Black Death burial pit. Here’s a couple of paragraphs.
A burial ground was known to be in an area outside the City of London, but its exact location remained a mystery.
Thirteen bodies have been found so far in the 5.5m-wide shaft at the edge of Charterhouse Square, alongside pottery dated to the mid-14th Century.
Analysis will shed light on the plague and the Londoners of the day.
You have to admire the way that Europe’s biggest project is handling the archaeology.
Strangely, I can’t remember any of the excavations finding any unexploded ordnance from the Second World War.
Buying A Suitable Wash Bag
I’m going on holiday on Monday and I needed a new wash-bag. I searched the shops in Canary Wharf and Islington and found nothing suitable. eventually I bought this pencil case in Paperchase.
A Pencil Case From Paperchase
It is ideal for what I need.
A Wash Bag From Paperchase
I suppose the market isn’t that big, but I need one that is large enough to take an electric toothbrush, my hairbrush and a few other bits.
I would also think there might be a case for making them like old-fashioned gym bags with a draw string.
I think the trouble too, is that most are bought by women and they need to carry a lot more.
I should say that paperchase do sell wash bags, but these were too small for the electric toothbrush.
Barclaycard On The Buses
Barclaycard are pushing their alternative to Oyster for London buses and tubes.
Barclaycard On The Buses
It will be interesting to see in a few years, if credit and bank cards actually replace Oyster.
Sebi’s Cafe At Canonbury Station
A lot of the Overground stations have space for a small cafe.
Sebi’s Cafe At Canonbury Station
We need more like this one on Canonbury station.
Canonbury is an ideal place for a cafe, as the platform is wide and there is quite a few passengers changing from the North to East London lines and vice versa.
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Times When I’m Glad I Don’t Own A Car – 2
Last night was cold and we only got a few flurries of snow.
But my gas kept coming through the pipe and the electricity kept coming through the wires.
For most of the last forty years, the worry was could the gas tanker get through the snow to the remote houses I lived in, in Suffolk.
As I don’t drive any more, I wasn’t tempted to venture out in the snow towards Sussex.
I suspect some of those who did, are regretting their actions. After all, these days, there is no excuse not to know that bad weather in on the way.
I also wonder how many of those were commuting home from work. I’ve never understood why anybody commutes, as I’ve worked at home since 1970!
The Phone Problems Of The Channel Tunnel
Years ago, I met the guy, who had project managed the installation of the telephone system on the Channel Tunnel. It wasn’t as simple as you’d have thought. I remember one problem he outlined in particular.
Say you are an engineer, customs officer or whatever, employed by the Tunnel and because you are French, you live in France, but your major place of work is on the British side. You want to make a phone call to your wife, husband or partner, to say that because of a problem, you’ll be late home for supper. Obviously, the same problem would apply to British employees working in France.
So is your call home a local call, which it would be if you lived and worked in the same country or an international call, which of course would be at a higher rate.
The solution was to make for telephonic purposes, the Channel Tunnel, its own country.
The guy who managed the installation was British, but he had a French-speaking mother, so BT probably made a good choice, as to who managed the installation of a rather complicated project.
A Taxi Driver In Mumbai
I’m just watching the BBC documentary of a London cabbie trying to drive a cab in Mumbai. Fascinating.
I posted this story of my holiday in Mumbai.
Manchester Comes To Liverpool
I’m fairly certain, although I could be mistaken, that the Class 390 Pendolino, I took back from Liverpool on Saturday was named City of Manchester.
But it was the second train south in the morning.
Times When I’m Glad I Don’t Own A Car
Today, according to this article on the BBC web site, the Dartford Crossing has been closed to traffic for seven hours. This article doesn’t say why, but it was a man threatening to jump. In the end according to this article after four hours of negotiating he jumped and later was pronounced dead in hospital.
I’m not going to question the man’s motives or suggest that the police should have taken more radical or forceful action, but why is it, it’s inevitably men, who climb on buildings and bridges and threaten to jump? I can’t remember an incident, where it was a woman, who was the prospective jumper.
I’m just glad though, that I’m a non-driver, as I can’t remember this sort of incident with trains. Perhaps, the men who threaten to jump are frightened of getting smashed into small pieces by something like a Class 66. Thinking about it, most suicides on the railway seem to be with passenger rather than freight trains. I wonder why? I have travelled on passenger trains with freight drivers and they have told me that many that get killed by freight trains are thieves nicking cable and other things in the middle of the night.
Crossrail Launch An Arts Programme
Crossrail do seem a bit different to your average company, with some of the things they do, like their excellent archaeological program, which resulted in last year’s exhibition called Bison to Bedlam.
Now they have launched an arts programme, as they report here. I’m glad to see too, that they have spelt programme correctly.
The Anonymous Widower 