Reflected In The New Pudding Mill Lane Station
I took these pictures today of passing trains reflected in the new Pudding Mill Lane station.
It’s only a few months off being finished.
I had to laugh as a London guide was telling his charges it is the new Crossrail station.
Ariel On The Bank Of England
I’ve never thought that the actual building for the Bank of England, was much more than a functional one. Wikipedia says this about the building.
The Bank moved to its current location on Threadneedle Street, and thereafter slowly acquired neighbouring land to create the edifice seen today. Sir Herbert Baker‘s rebuilding of the Bank, demolishing most of Sir John Soane’s earlier building, was described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “the greatest architectural crime, in the City of London, of the twentieth century”.
I’d thought it was much older.
As you walk alongside the building up Princes Street, it looks very much like an over-grand prison.
There is though, a gilded sculpture on the roof.
Ariel On The Bank Of England
Surely this isn’t the best place to put a work of art!
Riding The Drain For The First Time
Surprisingly, I’d never ridden on the Waterloo and City Line (a.k.a. The Drain) until today.
Normally, it’s closed on a Sunday, but to help out the Northern line, TfL were running it today.
I must be the first Londoner, who first rode the Drain in his sixties on a Sunday.
When I used it today, I just walked up the travelator to the surface, up a few steps and along Princes Street and I was at the stop for the 141 bus to take me home.
I do hope that the Drain is going to be run to a similar schedule to the rest of the Underground, as getting to and from Waterloo isn’t the easiest of journeys from Dalston.
I’ll probably use the line again in the future!
Lost In Millwall
I usually like going to the New Den to see a football match, as to get from Dalston Junction station to the ground is simple and it is a stadium with good viewing.
I knew that going yesterday wasn’t going to be easy, as South Bermondsey station, which is connected to the ground by a walkway was closed due to engineering works.
So I went the way I usually go, which is to take the Overground to Canada Water station and then get one of the single-decker buses to a stop named Millwall FC.
The bus was full, but the usually-friendly Millwall supporters were not bothering me. Sometimes, I think that their reputation is worse than the reality. But I arrived at the ground, as I intended, a few minutes before kick-off.
It should be said, that London’s talking buses make it easy to find your way in strange parts of London. Other cities should follow the example.
The match was probably Ipswich’s worst display of the season, with the spark of the previous Championship encounter against QPR completely missing. The only positive thing to say, is that Millwall played well enough to stay up, so that should be another easy away game to get to, next season.
After the match, my normal route home via South Bermondsey and London Bridge stations was not on, so I decided to walk to TfL’s recommended alternative of Surrey Quays station.
I got lost, as there were no maps in this part of London. Where I live in Hackney, there are liths and maps all over the place.
So in the end I got to the station by walking in a great circle.
As I suspect the works at South Bermondsey will be going for some time, something needs to be done.
Is Gay Marriage The Reason For Floods And Storms?
According to this story from the BBC, a UKIP councillor thinks it is.
A UKIP councillor has blamed the recent storms and heavy floods across Britain on the Government’s decision to legalise gay marriage.
David Silvester said the Prime Minister had acted “arrogantly against the Gospel”.
He is wrong. The best explanation was from my late son, when he was about ten. He said it was God allowing his bathwater to overflow again.
Does This Mean I Won’t Get Dementia And Depression?
I have just read an article in The Times describing a diet for your brain.
They also publish the neurologist’s eating rules as down to Dr. David Perlmutter, in a book called Grain Brain.
So what does the diet advocate? A lot of things that I stick to fairly well, like certain fruits, vegetables and oily fish, with possibly a glass of red wine a day. But above all it says avoid gluten!
So far so good!
But then he’s an American from Florida!
The Last Word On Hollande
I picked this paragraph up from The Times.
Christine Boutin, a Roman Catholic who served as a minister under President Sarkozy, accused Mr Hollande of “treating his concubine like a Kleenex”.
It would appear that he’s running out of powerful women to take to bed. One wag also said last week, that he looked like a middle-aged provincial dentist.
i know the French expect different things from their politicians, but there can’t be many countries where Hollande’s behaviour would be tolerated without redicule.
Why We Need Plain Fag Packets!
My old and sadly departed mate, Brian, who was an innovative and reliable accountant, always used to joke he did his best work on the back of one of his fag packets.
He would have laughed at a reader comment in The Times describing the mess politicians have got into on the economy.
The arrival of plain fag packets can’t come too soon for this lot.
We need some sound sense, otherwise the next election will be a disaster for everyone.
The trouble is that if a few economic home truths were printed on fag packets instead of health warnings, they would be ignored, just the same.
Robert Peston On Milliband’s Plan For The Banks
Now that Milliband has actually spoken it is interesting to see what heavyweight commentators are saying. The speech is reported here on the BBC and it also contains these comments from Robert Peston on what would happen if banks were limited as to market share.
Bankers have said to me this would lead to what they call a perverse outcome, that as they approached the maximum size they would dump customers they deemed low quality or loss-making.
It is unclear whether these customers would be able to bank elsewhere.
I wonder how many banks would want me as a customer, given that all I want is a money transfer company. And I don’t buy any other services from my bank, like insurance.
And I don’t see why I should pay for my banking!
Why Milliband’s Bank Plan Won’t Work
Ed Milliband’s plan to cut the Big Banks down to size described here, may be admirable, but it won’t work!
In fact I have a feeling that in a couple of years, it won’t be needed as the Big Banks will be a shadow of their former self.
Take myself, who is increasingly becoming a type of person common in this country.
I only use my bank account for one main purpose and that is to accept and receive money transfers and manage regular payments. They do provide me with a credit card, but it is not one I use daily.
My savings are stored in a separate account, which happens to be a peer-to-peer-lender, but could be a Savings Account anywhere. But more of us, are using innovative ways to keep our savings and this will increase.
I never write cheques and only ever go into a bank branch to use a cash machine, if I want to sit down to organise my money after withdrawing it.
I don’t know what percentage of the population are like me, who effectively use the bank as a money transfer company and possibly an overdraft source, whilst waiting for a payment to clear.
But it must be quite a high figure these days!
We don’t need banks at all and it is a market that people will target in an innovative way. Certainly, if a company, can give me a much better computer system for on-line banking, I’d join them like a shot.
But then banks and innovation are two words that rarely go together!
On the whole I suspect this group of customers, are probably pretty sanguine about banking and in most cases wouldn’t want the hassle of moving. I sometimes think about moving from Nationwide, but what I want is a better computer and support system and how do I find out if it’s what I want? With very great difficulty I suspect!
So Milliband’s banker bashing doesn’t impress, as we probably feel that any new bank would be more of the same grey product.
And anyway, I choose my bank, not politicians.
But a better innovative on-line bank, with a proper computer system, programmed in the UK, supported totally by the Internet and a UK call centre, with no branch premises will come.
Done properly, I’d transfer my business to it and I suspect many others would.
The other thing that would shoot Milliband’s fox, is if regulators made it possible to transfer our bank account overnight or at least in a couple of days, keeping the same account number.
One of the troubles about the next election, is that many of the people who vote will be up to their neck in Wonga and other loans and are the sort of people, a decent bank wouldn’t touch.
The Anonymous Widower 