My Poor Boots
I took this picture when I got home yesterday.
My Poor Boots
The sand from the walk on the beach just doesn’t seem to drop off!
The Co-Op’s Fancy New Headquarters
One Angel Square is the Co-Operative Group’s new headquarters.
It may have won lots of awards as a green building, but it’s surrounded by a see of that very green symbol, surface level car parks.
I had had difficulty finding the building too, as it wasn’t on any maps in the city centre. To get to the building, you needed to cross a busy dual carriageway.
If it’s a really green building, then surely it should have its own tram stop, but that was a rather shabby walk away.
With the news from the Co-Op this morning of Lord Myner’s resignation, it strikes me that the Co-op these days is a vanity institution and a gravy train and ego trip for some of those who control it.
A Walk Along The Beach
I took the Nortern line to Blundellsands and Crosby station from where I walked along the beach and the promenade to Hall Road station.
It was an easy walk of a couple of kilometres, although it was extremely windy.
I was reminded of the story Jimmy Edward told of eating a sandwich on a horse in a high wind, when he missed and took a large bite of ,moustache instead, as I tried to eat my lunch in the small amount of shelter on the promenade.
I was able to get close to Antony Gormley‘s figures called Another Place. I liked them and so did a couple of local dog walkers. On the rest of my trip, I said I’d been to see them several times and everybody I spoke to, said that they liked them!
As the trains run every fifteen minutes, you shouldn’t have to wait long for a train, at the end of your walk.
My only regret was that I didn’t walk it in a Southerly direction, as that way, I would have been blown along in just a few minutes.
Is The Banking Industry Stirring Or Dying?
A few days ago, I reported about a new approach to retail banking from TSB. Yesterday, The Times carried a big advert detailing everything.
If I was with a dinosaur bank, I’d certainly think about moving, as I meet their conditions for interest and because I could try before I moved everything.
Yesterday too, I heard a report at 05:30 in the morning from PwC, that a quarter of all bank branches will be closed. I actually think that is a low figure, if the amount of traffic you see in branches round here is anything to go by!
My friend, David, saw the writing on the wall decades ago.
Inside The Olympic Park
I walked across from the ViewTube to Eastfield.
As the pictures show, there seems to have been a comprehensive upgrading of the site. All it needs now is to finish the Olympic Stadium.
My one doubt is the price of going up the Orbit. Remember that there is a good viewing gallery in John Lewis at Eastfield.
It certainly looks better now, than the site where the Athens Olympics of 2004 took place.
When it is complete with a fully refurbished Olympic stadium, it will be a unique attraction for London.
In some ways for me it could become a special place, as so much of my early years had connections with London’s second river, the Lee. I used to fish in it, I worked alongside it, I drunk by My youngest son, even lived close to it in Bow.
London’s second river has at last found its purpose in life. It’s just a pity that C and our youngest son aren’t here to see it.
Walking To The Olympic Park
I went to the newly-reopened Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park today by walking from Hackney Wick station.
I actually stopped for a cup of tea at the ViewTube.
But it was an easy walk, once you started along the Greenway.
There is also a nice slope up and down from the ViewTube, which as is typical for a Sunday was fairly busy.
It’s Wet So It Must Be Manchester
To get to Blackburn I needed to get between Carluccio’s at Manchester Piccadilly station and Manchester Victoria station to catch the 13:00 train to Clitheroe.
I knew I was in Manchester, as it was raining.
As I had bought my ticket from Manchester Stations to Blackburn for the princely sum of £6.95, I had to walk, as you can’t use these tickets on the tram to get between the two stations. Also, unlike Sheffield, my Freedom Pass where it is valid on the trams, it is not valid in Manchester.
Jodrell Bank
Jodrell Bank telescope is now clean and pristine and it would appear that Network Rail have cut back the vegetation, so you get good views of the iconic radio telescope from the train to Manchester.
In the 1960s, when the line was first electrified to Manchester, some of the new engines were built in Manchester and there was a lot of publicity photos of blue electric engines running past Jodrell Bank. I can remember one, where the dish was upside down for cleaning. I found one like that here from 1960. The locomotive in the picture is actually a Class 84, which was built in Glasgow.
I called Jodrell Bank iconic. It must be one of the few scientific instruments or laboratories, that if you showed most people a picture, they could name it.
Victoria Asks The Question
Victoria Derbyshire asked this morning how George Osborne’s pension changes will affect you.
They won’t effect me, but they will effect those companies that provide the dreaded annuities, as I won’t be buying one!
I will be putting money into a peer-to-peer lender like Zopa, to provide me with a flexible income.
Suppose you had £50,000 invested in Zopa and it was generally lent out at 5% for five years. This money would be safeguarded by Zopa.
Once it was fully lent out, you would get an interest payment of £2,500 each year and capital repayments of £10,000 a year.
So in other words, you could withdraw £12,500 a year with no trouble. But if you didn’t and left it to accumulate in Zopa you would be earning more money.
Obviously, you would have to pay tax on your earnings, but the idea of using Zopa or one of their ilk, as an annuity could turn out to be a good one.
There is a rumour doing the rounds, that peer-to-peer lenders will be starting to productise their offerings, by creating specialist ISAs and flexible on-demand deposit accounts.
The Pollution Didn’t Seem To Be Too Bad!
To check on the forecast pollution, I took some pictures this morning and early afternoon.
I started by taking a 56 bus, which is one of the Dalston omnibuses, to St. Paul’s, where I mounted on One New Change.
I then took the DLR from Bank to Royal Victoria, from where I took the cable car to North Greenwich.
I finished the journey by taking the Underground to Chalk Farm from where I walked to the top of Primrose Hill.
I also found this page on the DEFRA web site, which gives a pollution forecast.
The Anonymous Widower 