Who’d Have Thought It?
This article, entitled “Australia’s new non-drinking puritans” caught my eye on the BBC web site!
Who’d have thought it?
St. Mark’s Church, Silvertown
This picture shows, what I think is St. Mark’s Church, Silvertown.
St. Mark’s Church, Silvertown
It is just one of the many distinctive churches you can see from the DLR.
No visit to London is complete without a ride on London’s unique DLR. It may have been built on the cheap as a stopgap, but like Topsy it has grown and now is one of the stalwarts of London’s transport system. These are stations and local areas worth visiting.
Abbey Road for Abbey Mills and the Greenway. But not the recording studio!
Canary Wharf for the walks by the water and the shopping
Canning Town and East India for the River Lee and The East India Dock Basin
Greenwich for the Cutty Sark and Maritime Greenwich
Pontoon Dock for the Thames Barrier
Pudding Mill Lane for the Greenway and some of the best coffee in London
Royal Victoria for the Emirates Air Line
Woolwich Arsenal for the Royal Arsenal
What Is This Strange Building By The Millennium Mills?
I passed this building whilst riding on the DLR back from Woolwich yesterday.
A Strange Building
I must go and find out what it is!
The white building on the left is Silo D by the Millennium Mills.
This blurb with this set of pictures says it is a circus tent.
I think I should go for an explore.
The Biggest Mistakes I’ve Made
These are some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made.
Not Selling Up And Returning To London Sooner
After C died in 2007, I had a phone call from an agent, who made me an offer, he thought I wouldn’t refuse for the house and stud.
Although C and I had talked about moving back to London, in a couple of years, I said that, I’d stay put.
I just wonder how my life would have turned out, if I’d accepted that offer.
Not Carrying Camera For A Large Part Of My Life
From probably the mid-1970s until perhaps the mid-1990s, I rarely had a camera with me and much of the things I did is unrecorded. C also had the habit of throwing away negatives, so a lot of the pictures I took, have now been lost.
Not Giving Up Driving Earlier
Admittedly, I had the stroke, but I actually regret not giving up driving earlier. I obviously couldn’t until I moved to London, but then you don’t realise what a tyranny and a chore driving is, until you abandon it. After all, with the money I save, I could afford a chauffeur-driven limousine when I need one. Although, these days, like in Blackburn, the bus is probably sufficient.
Not Cooking Enough When C Was Alive
I rarely cooked, when C was alive, as if she was busy and couldn’t find time, we would drive down the pub or go to the local Indian restaurant.
When she died, I learned to cook again quick enough and these days I thoroughly enjoy it, with one of my friends being very complimentary about my fish pie.
Not Pushing C To Take Longer Holidays
C was a barrister and I’ve never met one yet, who wasn’t a workaholic, who was always worried that if you took time off, your colleagues in Chambers would take your best work.
I never pushed her to take more holidays, despite the fact that some we took like flying round Australia and driving around South Africa were perhaps ten days too short.
In some ways she did take more holidays in the last couple of years of her life, so did she know that something was awry with her health.
Not Having More Children
This is very much a mistake with hindsight, after the death of our youngest son and now, I would never entertain being a father again.
After we sold out of Metier and Artemis, C and myself, seriously thought about having another child, as we were only around forty. We could have afforded it and C was fit and well. These days, that is an age, where people start families.
The only fly in the ointment was my vasectomy, which could probably have been reversed. After all, the doctor, who did it in Hackney Hospital in the 1970s, assured me, that it could be reversed.
We did think hard about it, as although C said, she didn’t want a girl, I probably did. Even if we never had a name for a girl and what she’d have been called, I know not.
We did flirt with the name Tyche or perhaps more correctly I did. Tyche is the Greek goddess of luck. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so, I’ve never seen the name used. But given the connotations, I think this is surprising.
Not Buying A Flat In Barrier Point
In about 2000 or so, C and I looked seriously at buying a buy-to-let flat in Barrier Point close to the Thames Barrier.
Barrier Point
In the end we didn’t, but it is one of the biggest regrets of my life.
I suspect, if we had, I’d have moved there soon after C died and some of my medical problems may have been caught earlier.
The Royal Bank Of UK Taxpayers Posts Another Big Loss
Gordon Brown’s folly of rescuing Scotland’s failed bank is now becoming more than a millstone around the neck of everybody in the UK.
So the loss of £5.2 billion, works out at nearly £67 each for every man, woman and child in the UK.
I think I’d have had more fun taking a few notes and setting fire to them in a branch of the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers.
It would be a lovely way to get arrested!
Seriously though, the bank is the deadest of dead parrots and keeping it alive is a fraud on the UK Taxpayers and most of those that appear to work for the bank. If it had been a manufacturing company or a retailer, it would have been liquidated years ago!
Fyra Explained
I have just found this detailed explanation of the Fyra fiasco on the International Railway Journal.
The title of the article is “Fyra problems could be more political than technical” and it starts and finishes with the simple phrase, “What a Mess!”
We may create the odd mess in the UK concerning the trains, but usually it blows over in a couple of days as all the underlying technology is sound and managers and politicians come up with a quick solution.
To cap it all, isn’t the Fyra train one of the most ugly ones, we’ve seen in a long time?
Exploring The Woolwich Station Box
Berkeley Homes had the excellent idea of having an open day to show those that wanted the inside of the new Crossrail station box at Woolwich.
It was a very professionally organised visit and we had met in the Dial Arch pub and then walked down into where in a few years, trains will be either rushing through at up to 100 kph or stopping to drop off and pick up passengers.
I have called the two ends of the box, London and Kent. The former is the western end and the next station is Canary Wharf, whereas the other is the eastern end that leads to Abbey Wood.
There are going to be some stunning pictures here, when the tunneling machines break through on their way from Plumstead to Canary Wharf.
Who’s Be A Politician’s Dog?
I just had to link to this set of pictures from the BBC. Look at the one of MP, Gregory Barker with Otto.
Yahoo’s CEO’s Stupid Work Ideas
Marrisa Mayer the new relatively new CEO of Yahoo, has decreed that employees can’t work from home any more. I think it is stupid, but just read this article on CNN.
I think that any dictatorial employment policy is bad.
It would be just as bad to say that everybody worked at home as to say that everybody had to work in the office.
Admittedly, I’ve worked at home since about 1970 and in that time, I like to think, I’ve done some world-class work, so perhaps I’m biased one way.
On the other hand a few years ago, I remember meeting a lady, who used to analyse failure reports from government agencies and companies from around the world. Each analysis run took days on the fastest computers available and she used three PC’s on a network at home. The work she did was truly world-class and very important. All of these unusual arrangements were with the total agreement of her boss and the company she worked for. Then the company was taken over and they said that all employees must work in the office. She resigned immediately and I have a feeling that the work is now no longer done with the same thoroughness.
Getting the arrangements right, is all a question of good management.
With some employees home is the right place and with others it is the office.
Increasingly though, it strikes me that more and more people are combining the best of both work places. How many people for instance, check their e-mails before they go to work, so they can deal immediately with anything that is urgent? Are Yahoo going to ban employees from answering e-mails outside of office hours? Now that would be really stupid! On a related point, are they going to stop employees making personal phone calls or e-mails, when they are in the office?
I suspect if you look at really successful people and companies, they will have working arrangements that are not cast in stone.
What A Surprise!
This story from the BBC web site doesn’t affect me, as I only drink the odd bottle of what is best described as a properly made gluten-free beer like Celia. Here’s the first couple of paragraphs.
Beer drinkers in the US have filed a $5m (£3.3m) lawsuit accusing Anheuser-Busch of watering down its beer.
The lawsuits, filed in Pennsylvania, California and other states, claim consumers have been cheated out of the alcohol content stated on beer labels.
The suit involves 10 Anheuser-Busch beers including Budweiser and Michelob.
It certainly reminds me of that joke about that terrible beer of the 1960s, Watney’s Red Barrel.
Why is drinking Watney’s Red Barrel, like having sex in a punt? They’re both f**king close to water.
Although, I suspect the joke has been updated several times since.
The Anonymous Widower 