Riding The DLR To The Cable Car
On Sunday, I did my usual trip from Royal Victoria to North Greenwich on the Emirates Air-Line. I took these pictures as I progressed along the DLR to Royal Victoria Docks station.
There is a lot to see!
On any Sunday with good weather, it is an enjoyable trip to do a circular route.
I would start early, by going on the roof of One New Change for the amazing views of St. Paul’s.
Then a quick walk to Bank and take a DLR train to Royal Victoria station. You might not get one direct on a Sunday, so change at either Shadwell, Poplar or Canning Town.
The cable car is close by the DLR station and don’t forget to use an Oyster card to cross to the other side, as it’s cheaper and you don’t have to queue.
At North Greenwich there is quite a few places to eat by the O2 Arena.
You can continue in one of two ways. Either take the Jubilee line from North Greenwich station to Canary Wharf or take a bus to the centre of historic Maritime Greenwich.
If you take the second option, you can take another DLR train from Cutty Sark station to Canary Wharf.
Canary Wharf is a good place to eat lunch and also do some shopping, as a lot of the best shops are there.
After Canary Wharf, I take the Jubilee line, back to London Bridge station, where you can see The Shard, London’s forgotten cathedral; Southwark, Borough Market and the other attractions between London and Tower bridges.
The Plight Of The Bees
It would appear that bees are not doing well. Over the years, I’ve known a few people who kept bees and we even had a Primary School teacher called Adams, who was a bee enthusiast and sometime keeper. My physio at the Angel, was even given a jar of Stamford Hill honey from an Orthodox Jewish client. Read why honey is kosher here.
I like my honey and I would miss it, if it disappeared, so I’m watching the arguments on whether neonicotinoids should be banned. Many of the arguments are outlined is this article from the BBC in Scotland, about whether if a ban is brought in, Scotland should delay implementation.
It is the classic argument, where commercial interests, which in this case are farmers and pesticide manufacturers are arguing against the emotions of various lobby groups.
We seem to be getting a lot of arguments like this these days, with fracking, nuclear power, waste incinerators and HS2 producing similar stands-off.
With the bees and neonicotinoids, there is a solution and that is research, performed scientifically over a period of years. But I suspect both sides of the argument, would probably not want to wait for any conclusions and then if it was against their views, they wouldn’t accept it anyway.
Janice Turner in the Times last week, published an article entitled, Hectoring won’t persuade the MMR-deniers. The title alone says it all, about those who are against MMR.
So this argument about bees and neonicotinoids, will buzz on for years.
The Water We Drink
The BBC has done a blind tasting test of the tap water from various parts of the United Kingdom.
I don’t drink much water directly, although I do drink a lot of it in cups of tea all day.
I was brought up in London and I suspect that the water I drink now in Hackney is vaguely similar to that I had sixty years ago in Enfield. It’s probably exactly the same to that we had in the Barbican, as that area is only a kiolmetre or so away and I can see the flats from the corner of my road.
I certainly will drink it again, if there is nothing else, which is something I hardly ever did, whilst living away from London.
Except for the four years or so, that I lived in Liverpool, I’ve always lived in hard water areas. In fact, at one time, I lived in Melbourn near Cambridge, which in the 1970s reputedly had the hardest water in England. It also had quite a few sets of twins and the doctor thought there was a connection.
It’s funny, though but a few months ago after a couple of days in Liverpool, the tastes and smells around my mouth were quite different. It was almost if they were much fresher. But that could have been the Liverpudlian sea air.
Incidentally, one of the waters they tasted was from Woodbridge in Suffolk, where C and I lived for twenty or so years. The water didn’t come out well in the taste test! But I do remember C, who was an obsessive water drinker, saying she didn’t like the water, when we moved to Newmarket. She used to drink masses of bottled water, although usually insisted on tap water in a restaurant.
Now The Big Brother Fridge!
The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail are carrying a story, which says that National Grid, want all appliances to be able to be switched off, automatically, when there isn’t enough electricity. The story is here in the Daily Mail.
The problem is that for every method of electricity generation or method of saving, there are vociferous opponents.
Coal produces CO2 and therefore adds to global warming.
Wind farms blight the countryside.
Nuclear power kills everybody with radiation.
Fracking causes earthquakes.
Barraging the Severn and other rivers would upset the birds and the RSBP.
People won’t insulate their houses, as why should they spend money for no visible improvement?
People can’t get it into their heads, that AGAs and other high energy use appliances are antisocial.
Energy saving bulbs are ugly and give a bad level of light.
Perhaps not having power for a few hours every day, will make Daily Mail readers and the other ostriches see sense.
How Times Change
After C and I did our Sunday morning shopping, one of the first things I would do on return, was to remove the sections of the Sunday Times, we didn’t read.
I still do it, except that the sections I bin are different.
One of the first to go is Driving, as I have little interest these days.
An Eat-Travel-Watch-Return Trip
I mentioned this in the previous post about next season and increasingly, I’m finding that this is the way I go to football matches.
I eat first, often at the London station, like Kings Cross or Waterloo, but sometimes like yesterday for the trip to Portman Road at home, which is a about twenty minutes from Liverpool Street station.
I then travel out in First Class, so I get a comfortable trip, getting to the match just before kick-off.
Afterwards, I usually take the first train back.
Next Season Is Starting To Take Shape
After yesterday, the matches that Ipswich Town will play next season are starting to come into line.
I can start to work out, which matches will be a bit more than an Eat-Travel-Watch-Return trip.
Looking at Championship promotion and relegation, it looks like the following.
Cardiff are definitely up and although I’ve never been to see Ipswich there, it’ll be one I’m happy to miss. Although, I quite like going to the Welsh capital on the best diesel trains in the world. I must go again to Cardiff or Swansea before the trains are retired from that route.
It looks like the others to go up are one or both from Hull and Watford, and possibly one from Brighton, Crystal Palace, Bolton, Nottingham Forest and Leicester. I would be sad to miss out on the trips to Hull, Watford, Brighton and Nottingham and I’d love to get rid of Leicester, as the ground is so far from the station. I think on balance, I’m prepared to put up with the dump that is Selhurst Park, to see an easy away match. It’s just a pity, that the two to go up can’t be Bolton and Leicester.
Sadly at the other end of the table, three of my favourite away places; Barnsley, Bristol City and Wolves are in line for relegation, along with Peterborough. The only one I’m not bothered about is the latter, as although the ground is one of the worst in the Championship, the city is worth a visit. After my last trip to Wolves, I think that I’ll miss that trip the most.
I’ll deal with who’s coming up first. Doncaster and Bournemouth are definitely up and although, I like Doncaster’s new ground, you have to get a taxi from the station and I would suspect, that Doncaster isn’t the most coeliac-friendly town. But as you go there from Kings Cross, it’s an Eat-Travel-Watch-Return trip. Bournemouth is an easy trip, the ground is very good and I’d probably fortify myself with a good breakfast at Carluccio’s in Waterloo.
Of the other candidates to possibly come up; Brentford, Yeovil, Sheffield United and Swindon, I’m really only against Yeovil, as that is an almost impossible trip. Brentford would be a low-cost bonus and Sheffield United and Swindon are more easy trips. Although, after my last trip back from Sheffield, I’d prefer one of the others.
The big question is who’s coming down from the Premier League, with Reading and QPR, who seem to me certain to get relegated. It’ll either be Aston Villa, Newcastle or Wigan. I hope it’s not Wigan, as that is a bad ground to travel to. I think I’d prefer Aston Villa to Newcastle, solely on the distance involved.
The team I’m annoyed about, who are coming down is QPR, as they have the worst ground for away supporters, where I’ve ever seen a match. Hopefully, they’ll get promoted or relegated quickly, or perhaps their rich owners, will walk away from their toy and the club will do a Portsmouth.
Since I wrote this post, we’ve seen Reading and QPR commit mutual suicide in a monochrome match. So I’ll just have to put on my strongest underwear and brave a trip to Loftus Road for a season or two.
Signs With Sensible Distances
I don’t think I’ve noticed these signs in Ipswich before.
Signs With Sensible Distances
Even if they’re not new, they have at least got distances that are marked sensibly.
A Football Team In Pink
You see very few football teams wearing pink. But Birmingham City did today.
A Football Team In Pink
It’s actually Birmingham’s third kit, as The Sun reports here.
I would have thought, it wasn’t a good idea from a commercial point of view, as I suspect, pink replica shirts wouldn’t be good sellers.
There is more on pink football shirts here.
Around The Gherkin
I’ve never been to the base of the Gherkin or 30, St. Mary Axe to name it correctly, until today.
A lot of the buildings between the Gherkin and Liverpool Street station have now been removed and the views of the building are a lot better, as some of the pictures show. Note the reflection of the Gherkin in the windows of TK-Maxx.
The Anonymous Widower 