A Saturday Morning Routine
There are two radio programmes, I like to listen to on Saturday morning; Danny Baker and the unsporting quiz, Fighting Talk, as they appeal to my unusual sense of humour.
The trouble is that if I’m going to football, as I am today, it doesn’t really leave much time for me to get to the shops, as I have to leave by about midday to get the train.
So this morning, I got to the Angel, by bus at just after 8:30. I actually took a seventy-free, as if you sit at the back and get out of the rearmost door, it’s much easier to walk to the four shops, Carluccio’s and the physio, that I visit at the Angel.
Today, it was just Boots for some rat poison, Marks and Spencer for some gluten-free sarnies for the train and a beef Stroganoff for tonight and Waitrose for two large carriers of heavy stuff like alcohol and Coke. I went to Waitrose first and found that if I shopped immediately, could get it delivered before the start of Fighting Talk at 11:00. I think I rather caught them on the hop, but hopefully it’ll come on time. But I do have two hours of total float in my critical path, so if they come by one I’m OK.
The only problem, was that Marks didn’t have the gluten-free sandwiches, but then I’ll pass three of their shops that stock them on the way to Liverpool Street. If they don’t have any, then I shall complain. If there aren’t any, it’s probably because they are too good and all those food fadists on a gluten-free kick have snaffled them!
I was back home listening to Danny Baker by ten o’clock.
It sounds like I’ll be repeating this on Saturdays in the future.
The routine could be even better, if Carluccio’s opened at 8:00 for breakfast on Saturday, as they do in the week.
Update at 11:20 – Waitrose have just delivered, so I have plenty of time to catch the train to Ipswich, after scouring Marks for some gluten-free sandwiches.
Thinking about this post. When C and I lived near Newmarket we would go shopping early, often visit one of our horses in traing and then we’d generally be back home around eleven.
I suppose, I’m only repeating what we did together by myself. In some ways, it was easier in Suffolk, as Waitrose opened earlier. But then I had to carry the shopping from the car to the hall. Here, that is all done by the van driver from Waitrose.
Who said manners and service are dead.
Fuel Prices
After my stroke, I gave up driving and moved to a highly-insulated house in Dalston.
If you don’t like fuel costs, then move somewhere, where you don’t need a car and your house has affordable and efficient central heating.
I do all my shopping either on the Internet or by bus. I even go to IKEA on a bus and that is real fun!
The Cambridge Busway at Cambridge Station
I went to Cambridge on my way to football at Ipswich yesterday. The infamous Cambridge Busway is now open.
As you can see from the pictures, there would appear to be a lot of work to do, to make the walking experience between the trains and the buses a lot easier.
Cambridge Busway Gets Smart
From the day it opens, the Cambridge Busway will have its own smartcard.
It was inevitable, as having two separate operators with their own systems was idiotic, as I pointed out months ago.
Let’s hope Cambridge integrates the busway into the new universal ticketing proposed by the banks.
Will Electric Cars Ever Hack It?
I'[ve always had my doubts about electric cars and on BBC Breakfast, Rory Cellan-Jones was showing a new charging system, to help you do long journeys in an electric car.
As someone, who used to enjoy driving but doesn’t now, I’m rapidly coming to the point, where I think in the next few years many people will come to my decision and almost abandon cars completely.
Electric cars will not be the solution, unless they dsolve the range and cost problems, so they will only be for those who just can’t break their habit of driving everywhere. They will also probably only work if they are small and I doubt we’ll ever see an electric Range Rover.
On the other hand, where electric power and more efficient hybrid power will work is in larger vehicles, like buses and delivery trucks. Where I live some of the buses are hybrid and people like them because they are smoother and quieter than normally powered buses.
But we will change our lifestyles much more than you think.
As an example, these are things I do to avoid driving.
- I get my big grocery shopping done at Waitrose in Upper Street in the normal way and then they just bring it round an hour or so later. Even if I had a car, it would be less efficient and I’d to drive several miles to find a supermarket with a car park.
- I walk to the end of my road to the Overground and can get a train or tube to virtually anywhere in London, quicker than I could drive.
- For local trips, there are several efficient bus routes.
- Larger deliveries are easy, as delivery vehicles can park outside to unload.
So whether electric cars do hack it, I suspect that there are so many ideas to avoid driving, that they won’t be needed.
First and Second Class Buses
The London bus route 73, is one of the last of the dreaded bendy ones and hasn’t got too much longer. Today I was going to the Angel and one of Ken’s chariots of fire arrived followed by a 476.
At the stop with me were several kids, who made their way down the bus so they could use the rear entrance of the seventy-free far from the gaze of the driver.
As the 73 was very crowded, probably with non-fare payers, I walked past it to the 476 behind and had the bus almost to myself.
Who says there is no class system on London buses?
Through The Angel,Islington On a 30 Bus
I took this video in the style of Mitchell and Kenyon, from the top of a 30 bus, as it went through the Angel at Islington.
Note the tram washing shed on the right, which is now the Jack Wills store and the statue of Hugh Myddelton on Islington Green.
In the end, I got off to go to the Carluccio’s on Upper Street.
Is It Legal To Take Inflated Balloons On A London Bus?
I took this picture today by London Bridge.
Balloons On a London Bus
It clearly shows that some of the passengers have inflated balloons.
Is this legal?
I ask the question, as when C and I were students at Liverpool University in the 1960s, the buses there displayed a notice that clearly stated that the carrying of inflated balloons was not allowed.
Another London Bus Route Goes Non-Bendy
This picture shows one of the new buses on route 25 at Stratford.
A Proper Bus on Route 25
It replaced one of the dreaded Spanish-built bendies.
Note that the bus is a Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, built in Northern Ireland. Wrightbus is incidentally a family owned company. So hopefully not for them the problems of external shareholders, who want to paddle someone else’s canoe. The company is very much involved in developing the New Bus for London. We may worry about the demise of trainmaking, but do we have in Wrightbus a company that is going places in that much neglected and very unsexy part of transport; buses?
July 7th 2005, Six Years On
Today is six years to the day since the London bombings of July 7th, 2005.
I didn’t suffer in any way and wasn’t even in London at the time, but still my heart goes out to anyone who suffered loss or endured physical or mental trauma at the time.
I must admit though I’m getting rather annoyed with the media images shown every time the horrendous bombings are mentioned. Showing the bus with its top open as if operated on by an enormous tin-opener surely doesn’t serve any purpose,when Wikipedia can illustrate the scale of the horrors, by just showing the emergency services lined up outside Russell Square station.
It is about time the media moved on and stopped showing the damaged bus and trains.
But then they rarely do!
For over five years now, every time the BBC talks about breast cancer, they show the same poor lady being scanned.
The Anonymous Widower 