Never On Sunday!
The Northern City Line never normally works on Sunday, but it did today.
Perhaps it was because of yesterday’s troubles at Kings Cross, a decision was made to run the trains into Moorgate.
A Waste Of Space
The photographs show the central island at Highbury Corner.
Note that a couple of these pictures were taken over several days and in some, workers would appear to be tidying it up.
Surely something better could be done with this green space. Walk for about ten minutes and you come to Newington Green, which is a green space with a cafe in the middle of a busy traffic interchange, that has improved immensely in recent years.
Two points.
1. One thing that needs sorting is the position of the bus stand for the 277, which is totally in the wrong place.
2. The memorial garden to those that died in the V1 attack is tucked away and might be better moved to the middle, if public were to be allowed access.
With a bit of imaginative thinking, Highbury Corner could be a green space to welcome people to the thriving Upper Street.
The Problems At Kings Cross
When I was at Kings Cross station early this morning, I asked a guy from the Information Desk, if the problem was with the Canal Tunnels, which will connect Thameslink to the East Coast Main Line, and which I photographed in this post. He said that the problem was in that area.
Network Rail have said they have had some sort of equipment failure. Where the work is being done, is a very critical area.
Incidentally, once Thameslink opens this will build quite a few alternative routes and destinations into the system. For example, if Kings Cross couldn’t be used for some reason, the Thameslink route could be used to shuttle passengers to Peterborough.
Before Thameslink opens, it strikes me that they could have told passengers to go to Cambridge from Liverpool Street or Tottenham Hale, from where they would provide a coach to Peterborough. This option has been used before, when there has been overhead line problems.
In the longer term, I think it is important that as many diversionary routes as possible are electrified and cleared to be able to handle the largest trains. With today’s problems, if Ely to Peterborough had been electrified, GreaterAnglia could have used some of their 12-car Class 379 trains to extend the Liverpool Street to Cambridge service to Peterborough.
My New All-Purpose Shopping Bag
I bought this stringbag for £2.95 and when I go out, it fits neatly in my shoulder bag or pocket.
My New All-Purpose Shopping Bag
Isn’t a stringbag the most useful of bags? After all it did lend its name to that most mighty of the Royal Navy’s attack aircraft; the Fairey Swordfish, which was called the stringbag on account of its ability to carry virtually anything to its target. Wikipedia has a full explanation.
The Swordfish is almost unique amongst military aircraft for two reasons.
Several aircraft types were built to replace it in service and it out-served them all.
In some attacks, it pressed the attack home successfully, because it flew slower than the low limit of the gun-aiming computer of the ship being attacked. The Germans hadn’t believed that an attacking aircraft would be as slow as a Swordfish.
But this unusual biplane did carry out one of the most unlikely battle successes of the Royal Navy, by attacking the Italian fleet at anchor in the Battle of Taranto. The lesson was not lost on the Japanese, who inspected the port after the attack. But the Americans, who must have known what happened at Taranto, did nothing to change their thinking.
Why Does Anybody Park A Car In London At This Cost?
This was a poster at the Angel, showing the cost of parking.
Why Does Anybody Park A Car In London At This Cost?
At £18 a day and against a taxi rank within fifty metres of this poster and buses going every way every half minute or so, I can certainly understand, why you never hear anybody complaining about the difficulty of parking in this area.
A Forest Of Orange Poles
I took this picture looking down a London Overground Class 378 train.
A Forest Of Orange Poles
This was a standard 4-car train and I’m still looking to get this view on an extended 5-car train.
It’s An Ill Wind
I always take opportunity of any situation that fate presents me.
Today, I woke to the news that due to overrunning engineering works, no trains would be running into Kings Cross station.
So I had a quick bath and before it was light, I was on my way to the station to see if there were any opportunities for some decent photos.
I took a few pictures of the deserted station, but as the shops and restaurants were open, I was able to do my food shopping in Marks and Spencer and have an excellent breakfast in Leon, without having to share the calm with too many other people.
It was all a bit surreal and summed up when a Japanese tourist asked me where the Harry Potter platform was. He even got to see that properly,almost by himself.
My Christmas Presents To My Son And His Partner
They usually like me to give them gift vouchers, for somewhere like Liberty or Selfridges, so they can choose something for themselves or their home, which has just be renovated.
To complicate matters my son’s partner is Korean, so I couldn’t be over-the-top in a way only the English would understand.
The frames were simple ones from John Lewis and the translation was courtesy of Google’s English to Korean translator.
It was totally correct. Isn’t the Internet a wonderful thing?
Who would have thought that this idiot, who had trouble getting O levels in French and English, would be able to get a translation into Korean right?
What Do Yanks Call A Subway?
The title of this post occurred to me, when I saw this sign.
What Do Yanks Call A Subway?
All it does in English, is get you from one side of the road to the other.
You could also ask, what would you call seven sisters in the subway at Seven Sisters station.
Match Twenty-Three – Brentford 2 – Ipswich 4
I’d never been to Brentford for a match before and I suspect it’ll be unlikely again I’ll go to Griffin Park again, unless it’s for the play-offs this year, as Brentford are trying to build a new ground nearby.
A Pub At Each Corner
The picture shows the narrow streets around the ground which is unique in having a pub on each corner.
It’s not much bigger inside either and we had to stand.
Standing At Brentford
At least in a couple of weeks, we’ll be playing Millwall at the Den, which has one of the best Away areas in the country.
As we left the ground, Ipswich were top, but by the end of the day we’d been overtaken by Bournemouth.
I think that Mick McCarthy is going to have an interesting transfer window in January. At least by the end of month given another couple of wins, I would suspect that Ipswich will be safe from any relegation.
The Anonymous Widower 