Too Much Choice
One of the problems I have here is too many different ways of doing the same journey by public transport. This morning, I went to IKEA at Edmonton, which is either the 341 bus from one end of my road or one of several at the other end to Seven Sisters and then a tube and a shuttle bus.
I obeyed the old superstition of a Pakistani friend and went the first way and came back the second. But it would probably have been quicker to use the 341 both ways. But hey, I popped into the picture framers in Stoke Newington to pick up some pictures they had worked on.
No More Jump Leads
As I walked back from the de Beauvoir Deli this morning after getting my paper and lunch and having a coffee, a guy was putting his jump leads back in the boot of his BMW X5. To be fair, it didn’t look like the BMW that had failed, but someone had had a problem!
I laughed, as that is something that won’t bother me again. So buses break-down, but it’s not my problem to give them a push!
Boots Help Coeliacs to Keep Marching
I’ve complained in this blog about the lack of suitable gluten free snacks for coeliacs, when you’re on the move. That was until a couple of weeks ago, when I discovered EatNakd bars in Waitrose.
They aren’t stocked in too many obvious places, but I did find that Boots in Liverpool Street station had an extensive display in their takeaway food section.
In some ways this is bad news, as the bars are a bit addictive, despite being a delicious way to fill a hole.
I’ll be contacting Boots to find out their policy on this issue.
Was This a Badly Placed Internet Advert?
I usually get notification of newspaper polls on the death penalty from a list I belong to on the Internet. This was the latest request I got.
Please help turn this poll around. Thanks! http://www.ydr.com/local It’s down on the left.
I voted appropriately. The paper incidentally is the York Daily Record.
But imagine my surprise that the placed adverts on the site were for theTrainLine.com, who I’ve recently used to buy a ticket on East Coast to York. And they were trying to sell me a ticket to York! Obviously, there’s an Atlantic Tunnel I don’t know about.
Seriously though, the advertising system was probably looking at my cookies and made an appropriate decision.
I’m not particularly bothered, but I can see that some people will be!
I hope everybody who reads this votes using the link.
–abe
A Dickensian Tavern
As I passed through Clerkenwell, I walked up Britton Street to the north of the famous meat market and had a drink in the Jerusalem Tavern. The tavern is owned by St. Peter’s Brewery and serves their gluten-free ale.
If you’ve seen any period dramas, based on the stories of authors like Charles Dickens, you’ll recognise the style of the pub. But of course it doesn’t have footpads and low-life of the period and is probably a lot more hygienic.
So any coeliac who likes their beer and visits London, should put this unique drinking establishment on their list of places to visit.
Anyone for a Cold Bath?
I’ve not had a bath in some months, as these days I have a shower, when I smell like I need one. But this curious sign was on the wall of a building in Clerkenwell.
Coldbath Square
It must be surely one of the strangest road names in the UK, let alone London. You can read about the area here.
For many years there was a grim prison on the site and this is taken from the article.
The prison, built on a plan of the benevolent Howard’s, soon became a scene of great abuses. Men, women, and boys were herded together in this chief county prison, and smoking and drinking were permitted. The governor of the day strove vigorously to reform the hydra abuses, and especially the tyranny and greediness of the turnkeys. Five years later he introduced stern silence into his domain. “On the 29th of December, 1834, a population of 914 prisoners were suddenly apprised that all intercommunication, by word, gesture, or sign, was prohibited.” “This is what is called the Silent Associated System. The treadmill had been introduced at Coldbath Fields several years before. This apparatus, the invention of Mr. Cubitt, an engineer at Lowestoft, was first set up,” says Mr. Pinks, “at Brixton Prison, in 1817. At first, the allowance was 12,000 feet of ascent, but was soon reduced to 1,200.”
I think it is true to say that our justice system is much more enlightened these days.
7/7 Inquest Reporting
This article entitled “Doctors truggled after 7/7 bomb” is almost unfair. It criticises the fact that no medical equipment was available outside the BMA, where the bomb was detonated on the number 30 bus.
Doctors at the British Medical Association struggled to treat victims of the 7/7 bus bombing because there was no medical equipment at their headquarters, the inquests have heard.
Instead they used table cloths, jackets and ties as bandages for the wounded.
The hearings were told the doctors utilised “bits of bus” including windows as makeshift stretchers.
So should we ask suicide bombers to explode their devices in approved places, where doctors, paramedics and equipment are all readily available?
I don’t know how I’d react in such a situation, but I suspect all those doctors who struggled, are now much better doctors!
Suffolk Rules, KO or My First Pint in Ten Years
I said that the Draft House had something better and this is it.
St. Peter's G-Free Beer
And guess what, it’s brewed by St. Peter’s in Suffolk. Will the county of my conception ever leave me alone? But to drink a real pint, even if it was from a bottle, in ten years is something special.
I was even able to have some superb mackerel pate with home-made oatcakes.
Mackerel Pate and Oatcakes
The pub even has free wi-fi and an extensive menu, so if you are looking for somewhere to escape the hustle of London Bridge, whilst waiting for a partner or friend, the Draft House might fit the bill. Some would argue the walk from London Bridge is too far, but then you have to pay for a drink, with a small amount of exercise.
In Search of Daura
According to the Internet there is a Spanish gluten-free beer called Estrella Damm Daura, but finding it has proved somewhat difficult, as the site is a bit dodgy and the contact form doesn’t work. So as the Internet also said that it was available at a pub called The Draft House by Tower Bridge, I decided that today I’d go and search.
So I took the reliable 141 bus to London Bridge and walked along the river.
HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge
Finally I found the pub on the approach to Tower Bridge.
The Draft House, Tower Bridge Road
They do stock the Daura, but I found something more to my taste.
The Anonymous Widower 