The Story Of An O-Ring
I have a very unusual skin, as is partly shown by these pictures.
Note.
- There is a scar on the back of my left hand, where I cut it on the glass bathroom door in my bedroom.
- But with skillful gluing at the Royal London hospital and TLC and stern words from the practice nurse at my GP’s it healed perfectly.
- If I give blood samples or have an injection, I don’t need a plaster.
- My left foot is a deeper shade of red to the right. No-one has given me a reason for this.
- My previous now-retired GP, always took his own blood samples, when he needed them and had smiles all over his face. Perhaps, he was proving to himself, that it was happening?
- I wrote about my skin before in My Strange Skin, in 2020.
- One therapist said unusually for someone, who had a left-sided stroke, that my left leg is the stronger.
As my ancestry is part-Jewish and part-Huguenot could it just be that only the strongest genes survived from their poor living conditions my ancestors endured in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
My Cardiologist And His Wife, Have Suggested I Use An Emollient In My Bath
I am now adding Oilatum Emollient to my bath water, which I get delivered by Ocado.
It is not cheap, but my feet are now more made for walking.
I put three cap-fulls in a bath and lie in it for about 10-20 minutes.
An O-Ring Failure On Bad Friday
A rubber O-ring sitting in a groove on the plug, should keep the water in the bath, but as this picture shows the O-ring had seen better days.
The picture of the new O-ring shows how it should look on the plug.
On Bad Friday, the O-ring finally gave up and any water put in the bath, went straight down the drain.
A Fruitless Bad Friday
Internet searches proved fruitless in my search for a shop that was open on Bad Friday.
So I vowed to try again today.
Searching For cp Hart At Waterloo
cp Hart, from whom I bought the original bath, appeared to be open at Waterloo, so after breakfast on Moorgate, I made my way to look for the branch of cp Hart at Waterloo.
Note.
- Why does South London and its trains have to be covered in graffiti?
- Most of it, is not even good graffiti.
- In my view, the Bakerloo Line should not get new trains, until the graffiti has stopped.
- I wandered round Waterloo for about ninety minutes before I found cp Hart, with the help of two police constables.
- And when I finally found cp Hart, they didn’t do spares.
- I tripped over the uneven pavement in the last picture. But as I usually do, I retained my balance and didn’t fall. Is that all the B12 I take for coeliac disease?
My mother always used to say, that you shouldn’t go to South London without a posse.
Eventually, I had a coffee in Costa and took the 76 bus home.
Success At Last!
To get home on a 76 bus, I have to change in De Beauvoir Town and whilst I waited for the 141 bus to take me home, I checked out the local builders merchants.
The owner was his usual self and fitted my plug with a free new O-ring.
I was now able to have a bath.
And watch the snooker.
I can certainly recommend a television in your bathroom.
Note the vertical handrail, that allows me to step easily in and out of the bath.
From Denmark Hill To London Victoria – 12th August 2023
I took these pictures this morning on a Southeastern Metro train from Denmark Hill to London Victoria.
Note.
- The evidence of trespass; graffiti is everywhere.
- Banksy it ain’t!
- The security doesn’t seem to be top class.
Surely, improvements to security are needed.
TfL’s First Brand New £8million DLR Train Trashed And Covered In Graffiti At London Depot
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on MyLondon.
This is the sub-heading.
Not a single passenger has even been able to ride the new train yet, but it has already been entirely tagged with graffiti
This is so sickening.
Transport for London, must have known the train was a target after what happened to Merseyrail’s first Class 777 train whilst it was parked up in Tonbridge on the way to Liverpool, according to this article in the Liverpool Echo.
It should be noted that Liverpool’s trains, don’t suffer from these morons in the city and even their forty-year-old Class 508 trains are untouched.
Conclusion
Where were the Police?
Findlater’s Corner At London Bridge – 11th February 2023
This restoration was shown on the BBC London news in a story, which was entitled London Bridge: Derelict Railway Arches Restored To Past Glory, and I thought it was worth a visit.
Note.
- It is a fine restoration.
- I shall be interested to see, the tenants it attracts.
- The railway bridge needs an appropriate repainting, to eliminate the graffiti.
I think, that with the right tenants, the tea room could be a gem.
The BBC article says this about the tea room.
The project team also made a surprise discovery when removing a section of plaster from a wall to another of the arches; a glass mosaic for an Express Dairy Tea Room dating back to the early 1900s.
Railway stations were a popular location for tea rooms because at the time they had access to the freshest milk, often transported from farms on trains before being sent to urban milk dairies.
“The tea rooms were one of the first places that ladies, who couldn’t necessarily go and eat in bars or eat in chop houses, could come, get together as single women and meet their friends, so this is perhaps an important part of the emancipation of urban woman in London”, said Mr O’Looney.
Mr. O’Looney is the architect of this project, who is the gloriously named; Benedict O’Looney.
He featured in this blog before in It’s Not April The First, where I wrote about his restoration of the waiting room at Pekham Rye station.
Is This The Worst Bus Stop In London?
This article on MyLondon is entitled The ‘Creepiest’ London Bus Stop Hidden At The Bottom Of A Dark, Grimy Staircase In East London.
I just had to go and take a look at the bus stop.
Note.
- The bus stop is on the road leading to the modern Southbound tunnel.
- There were a surprising number of full-size articulated trucks.
- The traffic was moving fairly slowly.
- The pollution was bad, but I’ve been in worse.
The stairs were covered in graffiti, but they appeared to have been swept recently, as there was only a small amount of litter and that was mainly a few leaves.
This Google Map shows the junction and the position of the bus stop.
The bus stop is in the bottom-right corner of the map.
Network Rail Uses Tree Planting Initiative To Combat Graffiti Hotspot
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
These two paragraphs introduce the article.
Network Rail has planted 35 trees, as part of its many sustainability initiatives, at a graffiti hotspot location in London with the hopes of acting as a vandalising deterrent whilst also improving the natural habitats within the area.
This action marks the first time that Network Rail have used ecological measures such as these to prevent graffiti and vandalism. The tree planting at the Bermondsey Dive Under – a junction where one set of rail lines tunnel under another – will not only create nicer visual stimulants for passengers and local residents but will also contribute to significant cleaning cost savings. It is estimated that the graffiti at the South-East London hotspot has cost taxpayers £150,000 in cleaning and rejuvenation works over the last 2 years.
I would expect that £150,000 buys a lot more than 35 trees.
These pictures show the trees from a train going Between East Croydon and London Bridge stations.
I also wonder whether those that are caught for painting the graffiti, should be sentenced to a community service order to plant new trees to stop the vandalism.
Do They Paint Their Own Toilets Like This?
I took these pictures in the toilet of a Thameslink train.
It is vandalism, pure and simple and those that did this should spend a long time in a suitable prison!
But then I hate graffiti and others might consider it art!
Between Camden Road And Camden Town Stations Along The Canal
This walk is preferable to walking along the busy Camden Road with its heavy traffic and narrow pavements.
Note.
- The entrance is at the side of a Costa Coffee on the Camden Road.
- The canal seems to have more than its share of green algae.
- Hawley School in Buck Street will be the site of the new entrance to Camden Town station.
- Kentish Town Road could do with some decent buildings.
- It is not an area, that is short on graffiti.
- But is short on signage compared to some parts of the Regent’s Canal.
- It took me seven minutes walking along the canal and another seven minutes on Kentish Town Road. But I wasn’t walking fast.
The route is also an easy way to get to Camden Lock from Camden Road station, which avoids the chaos at Camden Town station.
Graffiti Vandals Paralyse Island Line Service
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railnews.
This is the first paragraph.
The Island Line timetable was suspended on Monday morning, after the only serviceable train on the route was sprayed with graffiti. Passengers were being diverted to buses until the graffiti could be removed.
I can’t understand the motives of people who spray graffiti and I hope that the culprits are found and given time in one of the Isle of Wight’s prisons.
West Anglia Route Improvement – A Look At Lea Bridge Station
Lea Bridge station opened in May 2016, so as I was investigating the new STAR service, which will call at the station, I took some pictures.
These are my thoughts on the station and its design.
No-Frills Station
In some ways the station could be considered a no-frills station, with two simple platforms on either side of double-track line with a bridge at one end.
There is none of the following.
- Car parking.
- Station buildings.
- Staff
- Anything to stop people walking in.
But there is the following.
- Secure bicycle parking and clearly marked bicycle routes.
- Several bus routes stopping outside.
- A step-free bridge.
- Shelter from the worst of the weather.
- Enough driver screens for Driver Only Operation to satisfy reasonable union officials.
- Lots of CCTV cameras.
- Clear sound system for announcements.
In some ways the station is unusual for one in an inner city area of London.
You can imagine a station like this in a rural county like Suffolk or Wiltshire, perhaps with a bit more shelter.
No Graffiti
I use this station fairly regularly and I’ve never seen any graffiti.
Could the lack of graffiti be bacause.
There are lots of CCTV cameras.
Despite not many trains, there always seems to be passengers around.
Anmy graffiti os quickly cleaned away.
Stephen Bayley has said that good design discourages graffiti.
Whatever the reason is, it seems to work.
The Curious Secure Walkway
When I saw it, I wondered why there was a secure walkway inside security fencing at the station.
I think it must be so that workers can get from the portable offices a couple of hundred metres South of the station to the various worksites for the STAR project, some of which are North of the station.
I wonder when STAR is complete, if the walkway will be converted into a cycle path alongside the railway.
The Cable Duct
A lot of the work at present for the STAR project seems to be moving the cables out of the way and installing a new cable duct.
The pictures show the new cable duct coming from the Tottenham Hale direction along the East side of the railway.
At the North end of the platforms, the duct disappears and looks like it heads under the railway to continue on the other side.
Could this be a deterrent for cable thieves, who now would have to dig up the railway to find them?
The Possible Platform 0
To the Eastern side of the station behind Platform 1, a space would appear to have been left for a possible bay platform.
I have not seen any plans that might need another platform at Lea Bridge station, but if it was absolutely necessary to create one, it wouldn’t be too difficult.
Network Rail score high for future p[roofing here, but it would be good, if it was now standard practice, when a new station is built.
The Anonymous Widower 