The Bus Powered by a 2-Litre Diesel Engine
The 141 bus passes the end of my road, on its way to Wood Green, where my father’s print works used to be.
A 141 Bus to Wood Green
The route is partly operated by hybrid buses, some of which are Wright Gemini 2 HEVs, which are powered by the 2-litre diesel engine from a Ford Puma.
I’ve always been a bit suspicious of hybrid cars, but surely this bus must be more fuel-efficient, than a similar-sized traditional bus.
An interesting aside here is that the bus is also built without a chassis, partly to save weight and the company that builds these buses, the Wright Group, is family-owned in Northern Ireland.
So does innovation and good design flourish in companies which benefit from not being under the control of unimaginative shareholders and wunches of bankers?
Moaning About the Price of Petrol
I’ve had a rough three years and now can’t drive because of the strokes. I just laugh at all those idiots, who insist on using their cars to do things, that I now have to do happily on the bus, or by walking. Although I live in London, I rarely use the tube, as the bus stops within a hundred metres.
Today, I’m off to Liverpool on the train from Euston. In First Class too! Paid for incidentally, by selling something on eBay from a car I used to own twenty years ago, that just happened to turn up in the move.
Life is fun! And funny as I listen to the selfish moaners!
Walking to Victoria Park
I picked up my paper and then walked through to the Kingsland Road, where I got on the towpath of the Regent’s Canal and headed east.
Unfortunately, my camera was low on power, so I couldn’t take any pictures. I will later in the year and they will be so much better with the sun.
Next time, I must, as it an interesting walk under the bridges with the last stretch smelling of woodsmoke from the heaters in the barges parked for the winter.
I emerged on Roman Road in Tower Hamlets, before taking a 277 bus back to the stop around the corner.
The last bit brought back memories, as my late son and his family used to live just round the corner. But I wouldn’t dwell on what might have been!
After the Match
It was in some ways a disappointing draw for Ipswich, as they dominated for long periods and should have scored two before they actually did.
But we did have the pleasure of seeing the odious Marlon King sent off for a tackle well up with the sort of behaviour that got him doing time in prison.
I had been assured by one of the stewards that there would be buses from Tesco’s after the match.
Wrong! Especially, as he’d checked on the radio.
So it was a taxi to the city centre, which cost me as much as my lunch and about the same as a one-way ticket to or from London. Still the vehicle was clean and the driver was pleasant enough.
I do find it rather sad, that in some of these cities, like Coventry and Middlesbrough, it seems that the limit of ambition of many Asian youth is to own their own taxis and consequently, these cities seem to have thousands of taxis, completely non-functioning bus systems and no decent walking and cycling routes.
Perhaps though, it is not the limit of their ambition, but surely there are other worthwhile professions they could enter.
Or is it down to that belief typical of many young men and probably me at 20, that you aren’t anybody unless you have your own car.
Only now, when driving is off-limits to me, do I realise that there is something better. Certainly in London, I am more mobile now on the buses after a stroke, than I was in my twenties, when I had a car and all the attendant costs and problems like finding a place to park.
What I Had Intended to Do Yesterday!
In an earlier post, I said how disappointed I was with Coventry yesterday.
To be fair to the city, I think I should say what I had intended to do and talk about some of it.
When I got my fixture list, I saw that Ipswich Town were playing there on New Year’s Day, so I made a mental note that if I had moved to London by then, I would go and visit the cathedral, as it is a mystical place, where I could contemplate the recent deaths of my wife and son. I thought too, that I might sample a good curry before the match and perhaps visit an art gallery or a museum.
The day had started well, with just the minor distraction of being unable to buy my copy of The Times at Euston, after a twenty minute bus ride from the Balls Pond Road, just round the corner from where I live.
The train left London dead on time and all the way to Coventry, I had two seats side-by-side in Standard Class all to myself. My only complaint would be that the seat back tables are a bit difficult for me to balance a magazine on, but then that isn’t serious and as I was paying just over £10 each way, it was good value and comfortable.
Arriving in Coventry, we were still on time and as I don’t know the city well, I decided to look for a map or some form of tourist information. Perhaps, I should have gone elsewhere or perhaps come on a different day, as I couldn’t fmind anything. I almost felt that I’d come to Coventry on the wrong day for the match, as the place was totally closed. Even the WH Smith’s was closed, so I couldn’t get my paper.
outside of the station, the forecourt was equally dead with no buses or taxis. Eventually, I found a helpful Coventrian, who pointed me to a rather scruffy underpass and bridge that led towards the city centre. It wasn’t the best marked walk, but I got there passing perhaps half-a-dozen people on the way. Comparing this to the busy Upper Street, the bus had taken me through on the way to Euston, just reinforced my fears that Coventry was in fact shut and I should make my way home as soon as possible to watch other football on Sky.
There was few people about, as I walked up past a few smark banks and endless dreary stores, which seemed to be mainly amusement arcades or pawn shops.
The cathedral is surrounded by a few mediaeval steeets and I did find a Pizza Express, where I decided to have a salad Nicoise for lunch, as time was now running short and I hadn’t seen an Indian restaurant, let alone one that looked to be decent. The salad was acceptable, but the waitress got it delivered with bread sticks, so I sent it back. Although she talked and behaved like one of Catherine Tate‘s creations, I put it all down to bad training, so it wasn’t her fault.
I then walked to the cathedrals and like the rest of the city they were deserted. Perhaps, not a bad thing really, as I was able to pay my respects to both my wife and son and those who died in Coventry’s Blitz in almost absolute silence.
After the visit I walked towards the bus station and found a Sainsburys, where I was finally able to buy my copy of The Times. But was Sainsbury’s busy? No! Of course not. Perhaps, evrybody was sleeping off last night’s excesses, but it was now after two.
It was now getting to be like one of those series, where everybody has died from some sort of bug and there is no-one left. Now that I’d got the paper, I actually checked that Ipswich were playing in the city, but couldn’t find the fixture list.
The bus station was totally deserted except for a few Coventry fans looking for transport to the Ricoh. But there was none, until two kind Coventry fans suggested they give me a lift.
Surely, Coventry City shouldn’t have been selling tickets, as they did to these fans, without making sure that the transport was in place.
Travelling to the Ricoh at Coventry
Radio 5 this morning, is headlining a story that there is a bug in the iPhone. What do they think? I’ve been writing software for nearly 50 years and if you show me a man, who says he’s got a bug-free program, I’ll show you a liar.
To tell my story of yesterday, I send an e-mail entitled “Fix the iPhone, How About Fixing Coventry First”
I went to Coventry to see Ipswich play. As I can’t drive because of my strokes, I took the excellent train from Euston. However, there were no buses running from the city centre to the Ricoh Arena. Coventry was like a morgue too, with few restaurants and shops busy. In the end two kind Coventry fans took me to the stadium, but the taxi back cost more than my lunch and almost as much as a one way ticket on the train. No wonder a only a small crowd turned up to the match.
Surely, if cities like Coventry want to attract visitors, they should put in public transport that works. I suspect though that they’re all still in bed, as the Christmas iPhones don’t work.
I tweeted the whole journey on my elderly Nokia 6310i, that has no bugs and an alarm that works.
After I’ve posted this, I’ll be sending copies to disinterested parties, who don’t care. I don’t anymore, as I won’t go to Coventry again to see football, without a cast-iron guarantee that buses are running to the Arena from the Station.
New Year in the South
Last night, I went to a New Year’s party in South London. Because of the various transport options and the fact that I can’t drive, I decided to take two buses; a 21 to Lewisham and then a 75 onwards towards Croydon. If it hadn’t been New Year, but say a Sunday lunch, I’d have taken the East London Line and walked to and from the stations at both ends. But in a way, I wanted to prove that someone who has had a stroke can cope with the same problems everybody else has to deal with.
So how did I cope?
The outward run was pretty easy, as I’d done most of the journey on the 21 before. I had thought of taking the East London Line, but I wanted to be sure of the interchange for the return. I did have to wait about fifteen minutes for the 75 at Lewisham and the wait would have been improved if the bus stop had had a proper display announcing the arrival of the buses. I also got off at the wrong stop and had to walk back, but that was my mistake.
Coming home was slightly more difficult and this was mainly due to having to take the N47 to London Bridge from Lewisham rather than my intended 21. But as there was no information of any sort at Lewisham, I felt that keeping going was a better option than waiting. From London Bridge, northbound buses were thin on the ground and everything was rather crowded, so in the end I got a 43 to just past the Angel and walked home. It wasn’t the best option, but I quite like walking cities at night and always have. The trip didn’t appear to be too dangerous, with the biggest obvious danger seeming to come from police cars rushing up and down everywhere and some fairly frightening characters on the bus. But no-one bothered me in the least way at all.
So would I do the trip again on a New Year’s Eve? A lot depends if I get invited to a party again.
But I wouldn’t chose to stay as late again and would probably prefer a train or tube back most of the way.
On the other hand, why miss a good party!
So thanks to all who entertained me last night.
Walking a Lady Back to the Bus
Mary, an old friend for about thirty-five years came to see me today and we got some more of the boxes unpacked and few pictures up on the walls. As someone, who has earned her living from preparing food professionally several times in her life, she also tried to help me fathom out the cooker. In the end we baked some haddock, with onions and tomatoes. And it was very delicious too! Or at least we both thought so! But then I’d cooked it and she’d worked the oven.
She had to get back to her car to get home, so about seven-thirty I walked her back to get the bus back to the Central Line. Mary is about two years younger than me, so as we walked along, I asked when was the last time, she’d been properly walked back to get the bus home. She thought it was perhaps when she was about 19. After we’d said good-bye, I reflected on when was the last time I walked a lsdy to the bus. I may be wrong, but I can’t remember it since about 1966, when I walked a girlfriend to get her bus back to Aigburth in Liverpool. In all the time C and I were together we either went home together or drove in a car. I may have walked the odd lady to a tube or train, after a business meeting or because we were working together, but to a bus, never!
It was all so relaxing and very pleasant really!
A Simple Transport Planner
I need to get some household goods and the place I would drive to would be a B & Q. But I can’t drive and although I have a nice, friendly DIY store round the corner, it doesn’t have what I need.
My nearest B & Q is some way away at Lea Bridge Road, but I want to explore London and what better place to go than Peckham. I chose this location as it is about the fourth nearest and I thought one of the buses that stops very near me goes right past.
Normally, I check the best bus route on Transport for London’s Journey Planner, but it is a bit overblown and tedious to say the least. However on the B & Q site I was pointed to a web site called the Transport Direct Door-to-Door Planner. I just entered two post-codes and it gave me a direct route, using the bus I wanted.
This site though is seriously good. I have a friend in Edinburgh, so I typed in both our post codes and to see what the site recommended. It was totally feasible and even gave me details on how I could find the bus at Edinburgh, which is quite difficult, if you are not a resident of the city.
I also saw what it said about going to Coventry to see Ipswich on New Year’s Day. It made one mistake in that it missed the special bus from Coventry Bus Station to the Ricoh Arena. I’ll forgive it that though, as with a lot of these journeys all you want is a general route, which you can modify to suit what you are doing. For instance, today, on the way back from B & Q, I’ll break the journey at Old Street, so that I can go to Waitrose in the Barbican.
Who needs a car?
ASLEF Put Their Marker Down for the Olympics
The various rail runions have never got on well and have always tried to see that they could get more out of owners, managers and ultimately taxpayers for as long as I can remember.
Today’s action by ASLEF was supposedly about triple pay and a day-off for working Boxing Day, in variance with an agreement they are reported to have signed, but was it also to show their power with the Olympics coming in 2012? They didn’t get the Danegeld this time and as millions of Londoners and tourists were seriously inconvenienced, I doubt they’ll get it if they try to do something similar about extra benefits for themselves during the games.
I was seriously inconvenienced today, as I had intended to get a Central Line train to Newbury Park for a friend to take me to the football at Ipswich. As I said earlier, the direct trains weren’t running. Instead I tried to take a 25 bus to Ilford, from where I would complete the journey on another bus.
But I was running seriously late for a pre-arranged pick-up time on a bus that would have had just a small bit of space for a couple of Snow White’s friends. All of the overcrowding could be put down to the non-running Central Line, as people had things like cases and bags of presents with them. So I abandoned the bus with some difficulty at Stratford and thought I’d get a bus home. The queues were enormous, as I suspect many had come to the interchange to get buses like the 25 to Oxford Circus. The shopping centre by the interchange was very busy too and it looked like things were getting worse rather than better.
I’d determined that I needed to get a 276 to Stoke Newington, but as that shared a stop with the 25, it would not have been a sensible proposition, so I walked back down West Ham Lane to the previous stop of the bus. Eventually, I got on a small single-decker bus after about a quarter of an hour, as that is the Sunday frequency. It then drove back through Stratford and the overcrowded stops and was probably carrying twice its legal capacity by Bow Church, where it started its meander towards Hackney.
It was then, that I got a text saying that the match at Ipswich had been called off due to a frozen pitch. So at least I was saved a long journey, even if my shorter one wasn’t much fun!
In the end I abandoned the 276 when it got to Mare Street in Hackney and went to look for another to get me back home.
I shall be interested to see how this story develops. ASLEF have seriously managed to annoy all of the shops in London, Transport for London and I suspect several million Londoners. At times, at Stratford, I felt some were going to seriously explode and that was one of the reasons, I walked away to look for a bus. I saw mothers with children getting distraught, as youths refused them access to buses with buggies, drivers and other staff were getting abuse and no-one was offering the disabled and the elderly the priority seats.
Still it was all good fun and practice for a man with dodgy eyesight and only one 100% hand. But the idea is to see if I can improve the parts of my body that don’t woek too well, by using them!
The Anonymous Widower 