A Hassle And Courier-Free On-Line Purchase
I’ve had various issues with couriers in the past, like this episode.
So on Saturday night, when at 23:00 or so, I decided I needed some new trousers, I ordered them on line from Marks and Spencer and said that I’d like to pick them up sometime today, in their shop at the Angel. I chose the Angel store, as usually I pass through the area, at least once a day, often when I go to the Waitrose a few doors away or Chapel Market.
The original e-mail from Marks, said that the trousers would be in store after midday, but this morning I got an e-mail saying that they had been delivered to the store at 09:30.
I picked them up just after lunch.
Forty years ago, this small store, had been our local Marks and Spencer when we lived in the Barbican and most Saturdays we’d push the children up the hill to the Angel to do our weekend shopping.
Times have certainly changed. Picking those trousers up from Marks and Spencer was certainly less handle and there was nothing couriers could do to to throw spanners in the works.
Searching For A Genius Loaf
I generally have a soft brown, Genius loaf in the bread bin and today, I threw the remains of the last one out, as all I had left was the wrapping and two rather battered crusts.
So as I wanted to get a paper, I thought I’d get a new one at the littleWaitrose at Highbury Corner. But they only had the soft white bread, which would not be my first choice.
I know I can usually get the desired bread at Sainsburys at the Angel, but that would have meant coming back from there in the scrum of the rush hour. so I took the Overground to Dalston Junction, to try to buy the bread at the Co-Operative store at the station.
They did have a loaf, but the sell-by date was not very far away and the loaf felt, as though it was not that fresh.
So I took the bus home.
It’ll teach me not to do all my shopping at a bigger Waitrose like Canary Wharf or Bloomsbury. I don’t think I’ll bother with buying food at that Co-operative again.
Tesco Decide To Give Customers A Laugh
Unfortunately, this story about Tesco bombarding customers with adverts, won’t apply to me, as I don’t drive, but to have a laugh, I’d willingly buy someone some petrol to see what inappropriate adverts I got. After all, you’ve got shaving products, Downton Abbey boxed sets, holidays outside of the EU, gluten-rich fast food joints like Burger King and Subway, cars and car insurance for a start.
Some could be a lot worse than just inappropriate. Imagine showing a Jew or a Muslim, an advert for some of the finest pork sausages, a woman, who has trouble conceiving, an advert for children’s’ toys. I would laugh loudly, if I got shown an advert for a romantic all-in holiday for two, but others wouldn’t find it so funny!
In fact, this is one of those ideas that could create a whole lot of work for some smart lawyers, who know every niche of the law.
It may catch on, but not in the way Tesco feel it should!
Lea Bridge Station
Lea Bridge Station is going to be reopened at the end of next year. As I was passing, I took a few pictures of the station as it is today.
It would appear that a certain amount of clearing up has been done.
What surprised me was the landscaping around the line at this point.
It is also close to a couple of attractions in the Lea Valley Park, is well seved by buses and there were quite a few pedestrians and cyclists about. I had actually been to the nearby Lea Valley Riding Centre, to see about getting back on a horse.
So I am not be surprised that the figures showed the station is a good one to reopen. Although this article says that it might close.
I have a feeling that the figures will be nowhere like they are predicted. But whether they are higher or lower, I will not guess.
A lot depends on the service levels through the station, which currently sees two trains every hour in each direction. If that were to be doubled, it would make a lot of difference.
There is a good article and discussion on Lea Bridge station here on London Reconnections.
On a personal basis, I might use the station to go north, as it is one 56 bus to the station. So if I was going to Broxbourne or one of the other stations up the Lea Valley line, it would be a simple alternative. Especially, if the trains were four an hour.
Could We Create A Second Entrance To The Overground At Highbury And Islington Station?
Highbury and Islington station is not one of my favourites.
It has only two escalators to get to the deep-level platforms for the Victoria line and the Northern City line. At least we have now got two fully working examples, but a much needed third escalator can’t be fitted in the empty position, as there is not enough circulation space at the bottom.
It’s all because it was a typical 1960s Jerry-built station like several on the Victoria line.
One of the problems is that although since the Overground was opened at Highbury and Islington, there is more space on the concourse, at certain times, like an evening match at The Emirates, every passageway and the space in front of the station, gets seriously overloaded.
Although the Overground was built to a price, they did save money by using good design, rather than just leaving something out, as they did on the Victoria line.
For this reason, although they could have reinstated the Eastern Curve at Dalston Junction, to enable trains to go directly between Stratford and the East London line, they chose not to, but instead made Canonbury station, into a good, easy and efficient interchange. Especially, if you were coming from Stratford and going south to or through Dalston Junction! I regularly if I’m coming home from Stratford, change at Canonbury to a southbound train and go to the first stop; Dalston Junction, from where I take one of the numerous buses home. It sounds complicated, but if I have a heavy parcel, there is only one set of steps, which can be bypassed by a lift.
To facilitate train changing at Highbury and Islington station, they also built a second footbridge over the tracks, at the western end of the platforms. This footbridge is also designed to serve an emergency exit from the station.
This footbridge and its associated emergency exit, opens on to the road alongside the station;Highbury Station Road. So could this exit be expanded into a full entrance and exit to the station? I took a walk around the station to see it all from the outside.
The residential developments around the north side of the station, probably wouldn’t take too kindly, to large numbers of people and especially football fans passing down their road. But it is only a short walk up Highbury Station Road on the south side to the wide expanses of Liverpool Road, which is in fact, an area poorly served by buses.
So a second entrance is probably feasible and it might give benefits to those, who live in the area to the west of the station. As Liverpool Road leads to the Emirates Stadium, a second entrance might help with congestion on the Holloway Road on match days.
Admittedly, a second entrance here would really only serve the Overground, but bear in mind that over the next couple of years, the capacity of trains on that set of lines, will be increased by twenty-five percent. This will put more pressure on Highbury and Islington station, which is a terminus of the Overground and the main northern interchange to the Underground.
I suspect too, that more football supporters will be using the Overground to get to the stadium. Remember that football fans have different travel patterns to say commuters and usually have a window of an hour or so before the match, when they can turn up. So they’ll see the extra capacity on the Overground and perhaps take a few minutes longer to get to the stadium in comfort, rather than crammed into an Underground train.
A second entrance would have certainly helped on Saturday, with all the chaos in the Balls Pond Road. If of course, the Overground had been running.
Germany Thinks About Charging Foreign Drivers To Use The Roads
I saw this story in the Sunday Times, but it is also discussed in detail here, in The Local, which is German news in English. Quite a few countries now use vignettes to enforce tools.
I feel we should do the same, as being a non-driver, why should I subsidise foreigners, who drive on the roads of the UK.
I suppose the advantage of driving in Germany, is that you don’t have to put up with their crowded and often late trains.
My Use Of The Word Lith
I grew up in my father’s print works, where words were the substance of the business. My generation also used to make up words much more than most seem to do today. For instance at school, we used to use the word plob for the little stopper in the end of a Bic pen.
On the Wikipedia entry for Legible London there is a section, that describes the elements of the system.
The existing primary Legible London on-street signs or information boards are the ‘Monolith’ ‘Midilith’ and ‘Minilith’ which are free standing signs made of a mixture of vitreous enamel and vinyl printed glass materials within a stainless steel frame.
So I just shortened the whole of that to liths, as a convenient collective term for all of them. It also means, that I don’t have to state what type of lith it is.
I shall do what my father would have done over questions of words and contact the OED.
Nairn’s Gluten-Free Porridge
I used to like my porridge as a child, but I found this gluten-free instant one from Nairn’s in Waitrose.
It wasn’t too bad and certainly it was a lot better than the Ready Brek instant porridge, I sometimes had as a child.
I sweetened it with honey.
Incidentally, although it is made in Edinburgh, it uses oats from Wyoming.
Lunch At The Assiette Anglaise
I got caught in the rain this lunchtime, so retreated to a restaurant, that I’d been meaning to try for some time; the Assiette Anglaise in the Liverpool Road.
Lunch At The Assiette Anglaise
The picture doesn’t do the confit of duck justice.
It is a restaurant certainly worth a repeat visit. And they knew their gluten-free too!
The meal was reasonably priced too!
The restaurant is also ideally placed for the Emirates Stadium and as it opens from nine in the morning on Saturdays, it is an ideal venue for a pre-match meal. And this can be gluten free if needed.
Every venue needs a nearby restaurant like this!
C Would Have Laughed At This
When we were in Liverpool in the 1960s, Widnes was the butt of lots of jokes as it had rather a nasty smell.
C Would Have Laughed At This
So to see a block of flats in Islington given the same name made me titter. C would have laughed like a drain.
But compared to some street names it isn’t the most romantic place to live.
The next door block was called Tranmere.
The Anonymous Widower 