An Advantage Of Eurostar’s New Trains
I’ve stood on the unwelcoming platforms at Stratford International station waiting to catch a fast train to Kent, as Eurostar’s trains thunder by on their way to Europe.
The current Class 373 trains are not the quietest, to say the least.
This morning, Nicola Shaw, the boss of HS1, said on BBC Breakfast, that the new e320 or Class 374 trains are a lot quieter.
So at least twenty years of development has brought another advantage, to those living along the route.
Hopefully, the trains for HS2 will be even quieter.
Devo Manc Explained
I found this article on the OpenDemocracy web site, which explains proposed political changes in Greater Manchester and the creation of a mayor over the whole area. This is the lead paragraph.
The announced Mayor for Greater Manchester doesn’t overturn the will of the people of Manchester. It is a new solution, designed in Greater Manchester, for Greater Manchester.
It does also seem that other commentators are using the term; Devo Manc.
I’ll believe it happens, when he or she is finally sworn in.
Allen Jones At The Royal Academy
It was Friends Day for the Allen Jones retrospective at the Royal Academy today.
Allen Jones At The Royal Academy
Some may not like Allen Jones‘s art such as Hat Stand, Table and Chair, but I like its forthright and almost jokey touch, which reminds me so much of good times with C, in the sixties and seventies.
I remember once seeing with C, a table inspired by Jones at Heals in Tottenham Court Road in probably the mid-seventies. She liked it, but the price was way above the level we could afford.
I pretty much know, that if she’d been there with me today, we’d have enjoyed it together.
But isn’t art meant to both amuse and make you think?
The BBC’s report certainly says it does that.
Do You Like It, Sir John?
Eurostar showed off their new e320 train this morning and the celebration was in full swing, when I popped into the St. Pancras station for a cup of tea.
I wasn’t the only person with a camera, who took photos from behind Sir John Betjeman. So expect this image in the papers!
An Experiment In Serial Cooking
According to many people I’ve met, including my secretary, Jane, men are not good at multi-tasking. She put it down to the caves, where the man had to be single-minded enough to go off and kill that buffalo, so they didn’t all starve. The woman meanwhile was left at home with all the problems, like the kids, collecting firewood, nuts and berries, and perhaps trying to grow some crops.
I am not the best multi-tasker, although with tasks I used to do in the past, like software bug-fixing, I would do them in related groups.
One of the problems in this house, is the small, but extremely-badly designed kitchen. I deliberately have a smaller two-oven Zanussi cooker, but the kitchen has only one sink with a low tap, cupboards you need a torch to get things out of and no freezer.
So often if I cook something, I get piles of washing up everywhere and have nowhere to put anything.
Some recipes I use, like Cinty’s French Fish Pie are what I could call serial cooking, in that they are a series of tasks. That recipe also has the advantage that you can make it in the morning, leave it in the fridge all day and cook it in the evening. I usually, make two, when I’m cooking for myself and leave one for the supper after next.
So as an experiment, I decided to see if one of my favourite meals, Lindsey Bareham’s sausage and bean casserole could be cooked as a series of tasks. Normally, it needs a casserole and a frying pan to cook the sausages, so instead of that, I cooked the sausages first in the casserole and then started the meal in earnest.
I was also able to leave the casserole on top of the cooker all day, before I cooked it in the evening.
Battersea Gets Its Tube
The extension of the Northern Line to Battersea has been given the go ahead.
Construction will begin in spring 2015 and it is hoped the line, which will be extended from Kennington to Battersea, will open by 2020.
Two new stations will open – Nine Elms to the east and one at the heart of the Battersea Power Station development.
The full cost is expected to be up to £1bn, which will be funded by developments in the area.
I think one of the most significant parts of the report is the last line of that extract.
According to Wikipedia, the original proposal was put together in May 2010, and I certainly saw an exhibition about the extension in December 2012,
I know it’s only a short extension, but to go from proposal to construction start in two years is some sort of record for London.
Surely, all big infrastructure projects should be started like this. And of course financed if possible in a local manner or by developers.
The one question about what is proposed, is when is it going to be extended to Clapham Junction.
I suspect that if they did this, it would be so successful, it would swamp the Northern Line and throw Battersea back to the 1960s, with respect to transport links.
This is the schematic of the route.
The Route
And this is what the area looks like in Google.
The Google View
I couldn’t quite align the two maps, but you can just see the Kia Oval at the right in the Google view.
A Good Helping Of Turner
Yesterday, I went to see the Late Turner at the Tate Britain. I followed it up by seeing the film, Mr. Turner at the Barbican Cinema.
It was a good idea and I would recommend both the exhibition and the film to everyone.
It’s All Go On The Manchester Metrolink
According to this article in Global Rail News, work has now started on the Second City Crossing or 2CC. But it is the last paragraph that shows how the Manchester Metrolink is developing.
November has seen several significant milestones ticked achieved for the Metrolink system, with funding confirmed for the Trafford Centre extension and the opening of the system’s new airport line.
More projects like this should be promoted if we are going to create a powerhouse across the North.
Incidentally, with my project management hat on, I don’t think the upgrading of Manchester Victoria station and the Metrolink has been planned as the partially joint project they so obviously are.
On my travels around Manchester in the last couple of years, I have sometimes found it extremely difficult to get between the two main stations; Victoria and Piccadilly. That would have been eased by making sure there was always one reliable easy-access properly-signposted link at all times.
Is This A New Economic Indicator?
I have just read this article in Global Rail News, which states that the rail freight section will recruit and train over 200 new drivers in the current year.
It would seem likely that the more freight moved by rail, the greater the economic activity.
I’ve chatted with a few drivers on trains and most seem happy with their jobs, even if some do moan about some of the cabs on certain freight locomotives.
Viewing The Poppies In The Rain
I went to The Tower today to see the poppies.
Seeing them in the rain, might have made the whole thing more poignant in a way.
But certainly rain or not, the field of ceramic poppies is truly spectacular.
The Anonymous Widower 