Quiet Please
This notice was outside a pub near me.
Quiet Please
I think I’ll go and see if the pub is as entertaining as the notice.
A Mess Of Cables
Cables seem to come with the ability to get tangled. I just had to sort this mess out today.
A Mess Of Cables
Roll on the day, when everything is wireless!
My Unique Dining Room Table
Unique is defined as being unlike anything else or one of a kind. I didn’t make it, as it was made by a furniture maker called Julian Ellis, out of Suffolk Oak. But it was to my design brief.
I wanted an elliptical table, as that gives the most space at mealtimes and also because the ellipse is the perfect shape. After all, circles are only a specific form of an ellipse with only one focus.
Note how the small leaves drop, so it can go against the wall. This was needed as at Debach, we had a long narrow kitchen.
It must be getting to be near to forty years old and all it will need to see me out is probably a proper polish.
Does Anybody Make An Easy-Clean Potato Masher?
I make a lot of potato pies and the worst thing is cleaning the potato masher. The potato just seems to stick in the holes.
Does Anybody Make An Easy-Clean Potato Masher?
Friends say why don’t I use my dishwasher, but after ten years of tenants, it’s a bit decrepit like me. I could afford a new one, but I may remodel my kitchen and I don’t want the design to have to be compromised because of an existing dishwasher.
I also find washing up therapeutic for my gammy left hand.
Tottenham On The Up!
I took a 149 bus to Tottenham this morning, to look for a tunnel boring machine, that was being transported to its work site in North London. I may have missed the TBM, but I got a good chance to look at Tottenham nearly two years after the riots.
Things seemed to have improved immensely. It also looks like Spurs are getting their act together and are starting to create the new stadium.
North Of Piccadilly Circus
I don’t really know, that you should call that area north of Piccadilly Circus, between Regent Street and Shaftesbury Avenue, but I went there yesterday and a run-down set of streets has been transformed by pedestrianisation and some new construction.
Even Regent Street itself, seems better, with the Diamond Jubilee banners and refurbishment. I suppose this pedestrianisation follows on from the scheme done for the Olympics around the Circus itself.
A Blue Plaque In Stepney
I found this blue plaque as I walked back to the Overground from the river.
A Blue Plaque In Stepney
Sir William Henry Perkin, FRS 4 July 1907) was an English chemist best known for his discovery, at the age of 18, of the first aniline dye, mauveine. So it is not just today, when people create something amazing before their twentieth birthday! But how many today do such work, when they were born into relatively humble circumstances?
He was certainly one of the world’s greatest chemists. He is even commemorated by the Americans with the Perkin Medal.
The Beach At Wapping
In the sun on Friday, I went for a walk by the river.
The Beach At Wapping
It was a surprising large and clean beach at Wapping.
A Day Not To Be Alone
I’m not moaning, but I don’t think today, is going to be a good day.
I quite like my own company, but on a day like this when it’s only 16°C, overcast and the sun is on strike, there isn’t much to do. You can only go round your favourite museums and galleries so many times and it’s not the day to explore parts of London, I don’t know well at all.
My son and his partner are both working and where my three grandchildren I never see are, I know not. Two I’ve never seen and I’ve not really seen the only granddaughter since the death of my son.
There isn’t even any decent football or cricket on the television. Although after cricket yesterday, I would probably give that a miss if it were on. I won’t be watching the Derby on the television, as it’s on Channel 4 and I don’t do adverts. I’ll probably go down the betting shop at the corner to watch the race, if I’m at home.
I’ve even done all my household chores, washed my smalls, tested my INR and had my weekly bath. The last is actually a lie, as I do bath more frequently than that!
We’ve also had a run of distinctly poor films over the last few weeks, so going to the cinema is probably not an option.
I’ve a choice of things to do for the rest of the day.
I can go and have lunch in Carluccio’s at the Angel and do a bit of food shopping for tomorrow. But I was there last night with a friend.
I will have to go and get a few things at the shops anyway. The most pressing is probably two boxes of man-sized tissues for my permanently running nose. At least, I’m probably down to a box a week now!
At least this evening, I can watch a program on BBC3 called England’s Worst Football Team. Now there’s a program for the lonely and miserable if ever there was one.
I could really put the cap on the weather, by giving up on one of my principles. I’ve never had a raincoat since I was about twenty or so. As I can afford it, I should perhaps go and buy one that I could wear over my favourite jacket. I can at least afford the best!
I think, it’s probably a good idea to do some cooking. I need to make a pie on the one to eat and one for the freezer basis. My only problem is to decide on the flavour to make. Should it be fish, fish, shepherd’s or sausage? Or perhaps a new variety!
Crossrail And The Super Sewer
The two large tunneling projects in London at the moment are Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel or Super Sewer.
They both require long tunnels and will cost billions of pounds each.
But the public seem to have different attitudes to the two projects.
Nearly everybody seems to support Crossrail, whereas there is substantial opposition to the sewer.
I did ask a friend, if there had been any opposition to Crossrail and he said, there was a bit in the early days from places like Mayfair. People seemed to have been worried about dust and noise during the construction phase. But now everybody just gets on with life and hopes that Crossrail will be finished and walking and driving will get back to normal.
To be fair to Crossrail, they seem to have gone out of their way with green walls to minimise noise, using the river to carry tunnel spoil and being a good neighbour as at Stepney City Farm. They have also launched a well-funded and publicised archaeology program.
On the other hand, the Super Sewer, doesn’t seem to have done the same to allay the fears of a public, who don’t want all the problems of construction and the increase in water bills.
I do wonder, whether the difference is down to the fact that a new railway is something people can use and feel gives them tangible benefits, but a sewer, is something that they only use a few times every day and don’t want to think about. And it looks to me, that Thames Water have not done a good enough job to sell the benefits of the new sewer to the general public.
The Anonymous Widower 