Taking A Muffin Break
At Lewisham on the outrun to The Valley, I had plenty of time to change from the DLR to the 380 bus.
So I went into the shopping centre by the station, which could best be described as the shopping equivalent of the Kings Cross station extension. I’m sure the architect, thinks it’s one of his best pieces of work, but I thought, this is the sort of place, I walk quickly through.
I was looking for a coffee and suspected I might find a Starbucks or a Costa. I did find one of the latter, but it was rather busy, so I gave it a miss.
I did however find a coffee place called Muffin Break, with real cups and a sign that said gluten-free muffins. So I decided to at least have a try.
The picture doesn’t do the muffin justice, as it was moist, just crumbly enough and with a proper taste of berries. The later wasn’t surprising as it was a mixed berry muffin.
It was a complete surprise to find in that shopping centre in Lewisham.
Apparently, it’s a Canadian concept that has been developed by the Australians, where it has 179 stores out of 256 worldwide. Read their history here.
Who cares? It was a good muffin.
London’s Boxing Day Nightmare
I asked for luck as I set out for Charlton and more or less achieved my objective in that I got to the match without trouble. After taking my pictures at Kings Cross, I took a 205 bus towards Bow, with the intention of getting the DLR to Lewisham. I wasn’t sure of where the bus went, so I changed at Mile End to a 277 bus and picked up the DLR for Lewisham at Westferry station.
The Reliable DLR
As ever the DLR did its bit, but then it doesn’t have drivers, who have to have a party on Boxing Day.
I changed at Lewisham to a 380 bus, which meandered through Blackheath and other green parts of Greenwich to The Valley.
Meandering Through Blackheath
It must be one of the smallest buses operated in London.
A Small Bus
But I suppose, it does have the advantage, that any hooligans arrested at The Valley can be sent directly to jail.
The nightmare started after the match, which was characterised by a first half display by Charlton, that was almost as bad of that by Ipswich at Leicester.
Normally, to get to The Valley, you take a train to Charlton station next to the ground from central London. But it was Boxing Day, so the trains weren’t running. The Underground wasn’t running either as the drivers weren’t, but in getting to Charlton, it’s not much use.
So I was left to struggle home on the buses.
And struggle I did, as they were rather overcrowded to say the least.
It took me three hours to get to the Angel, as I had to change twice at Lewisham and Bank. The second change wasn’t the best, as due to the delay, I needed the toilet, so I took the first bus that came and had a pit-stop at Carluccio’s in Upper Street. At least, I got a bus home virtually immediately.
If we are going to have Sales in the shops and a full sporting program on Boxing Day, wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a full bus, train and Underground service, albeit with a reduced frequency.
Roll on driver-less trains like the DLR. I know it’s not as simple as some think, but as a control engineer, I know that trains can be without drivers, provided there is a train captain, like on the DLR.
The Old Kings Cross Station Is Nearly Down
The dreaded 1973 extension to Kings Cross station is being finally demolished this Christmas, as there are no trains and passengers.
There are some good pictures here on the BBC of the history of the front of the station.
It is intended that the new public square in front of the station will open in August 2013.
Wish Me Luck!
I’m leaving soon to go to Charlton to see Ipswich play.
How I’ll get there I’m not sure of at present, as ASLEF are having their usual Christmas party, a day late.
I think if London had a referendum on driverless trains, there’d only be one result.
An Unintended Consequence Of Guns In US Schools
The NRA’s proposal to have armed guards in every school will lead to an unintended consequence.
Teachers showed at Sandy Hook that they are prepared to do anything to protect the children in their care. And some died!
Some, and I’ve not seen any figures, will accept the armed guards and would even arm themselves if they were asked.
But a proportion would feel that guns in a school was totally unacceptable. Many of these could easily find alternative employment or perhaps would be at an age where retirement is an option.
Could the US school system cope with a loss of a proportion of its teachers?
I Get Two Possible Christmas Day Lenders On Zopa
My lending pot is empty, but today, I did get two new lenders, who are wanting to borrow money on Zopa. Obviously, they may not pass the credit checks, but they did apply on Christmas Day.
One canny Scot got an offer to borrow £5,000 at 5.8% and an East Ender got one to borrow £1,200 at 6.1%. Both were considered to be A* or the most highly-rated borrowers.
Radio 5 Scrapes The Barrel
I haven’t got a television listing magazine, so I thought there might be something sensible to which to listen on Radio 5. all they’ve got is a program about American football called A Week with the Cheeseheads.
That really is the pits and after all they are a British radio station.
A Public Vote On Chuggers
I know it’s only a newspaper poll on this page in Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph, but it does give a definite result. On the subject of chuggers, where 641 have voted, 621 voted to say that a crackdown on chuggers was necessary and only 20, has said their tactics were sometimes necessary. This means that 96.88% are in favour of a crackdown.
So I think that this animosity, doesn’t do charities any good!
As I’ve said before, I never support any charity that I see chugging.
These days too, I usually have a few pound coins in my pocket for coffee, good buskers and worthy tins waved in front of me
They Don’t Even Stop On Christmas Day
I’ve just had one of those silly job offer messages from a Chinese company called BMT Chemicals.
Our company BMTChemicals CC requires international payment receiving agents. If you are interested in this position please write back with your Full name, Address and Phone number for more information.
I can only guess what will happen if I replied. It certainly wouldn’t be beneficial to me.
Julian Knight Hits Two Targets With One Stone
I have a trawl looking for peer-to-peer lending stories and it picked up this article in the Independent by Julian Knight.
He starts by giving an excellent review of peer-to-peer lending and the broadening of financial services in general, saying it is broader in the United States. He concludes by saying.
This, I’d argue, is one of the reasons why in the US they are more entrepreneurial and start-ups get a chance to, well, start up.
He then goes on to talk about some of my least favourite people; chuggers. This his concluding paragraph.
The town of Shrewsbury blazed a trail by banning these individuals last year and now we seem finally to be consigning chuggers to the same place as the likes of the squeegee merchants.
Incidentally, a chugger at the Angel last week, virtually chased me into the road. If there’d been a policeman about, I’d have made a complaint. On the other hand, life is too short.
I shall follow Julian in future.
The Anonymous Widower 