Getting Lost In John Lewis
After I took the pictures today, I wanted to get the lift down to the ground floor, so I could go to the Waitrose underneath John Lewis.
Getting Lost In John Lewis
I ended up in the car park, as I just pushed the bottom button.
Surely some annotation wouldn’t be amiss!
The Olympic Park From John Lewis
I took these pictures today of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from John Lewis in Eastfield.
It looks very different to before and during the Olympics. I took these pictures just over a year ago.
It’s Only A Duvet
A couple of weeks ago, I was too hot in bed, as I only have the one duvet and it is rather an expensive one with a high tog rating of 13.5.
I’d originally bought it after C died, as we’d always used blankets and making the bed with these, by yourself is not easy.
So I thought, it was time to get one for the summer and trotted off to John Lewis. I explained to a salesman, what I wanted and he explained how blankets don’t wrap around you like a duvet does, which means you actually keep cooler. He said I needed a cheap synthetic duvet, which tended not to wrap around you.
So despite it being the cheapest in the department, I bought one.
I’ve certainly slept well over the last couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see, when I change back to the heavy one, especially as I have pretty good tolerance of the cold.
So that was certainly one down to the salesman at John Lewis. How many others would have sold me the thinnest expensive duvet they had?
It’s Just Not Good Enough!
On Sunday morning, I heard a guy called the Casual Hopper on BBC Radio 5. As he was raising money for a reputable cancer-related charity, I thought I might send him a donation.
So I logged in to his Just Giving page and donated, using my John Lewis Partnership card. I got an acknowledgement from Just Giving, as expected. However, a few minutes later, I got a message from them saying that the payment had been rejected. Now as I’d just paid my credit card bill, I knew that I was some thousands of pounds below my credit card limit.
I then attempted to login to my Partnership card account and found the problem. Their system was down and I couldn’t log in.
I have managed to login this morning, but there is no trace of the payment to the Casual Hopper. In fact, there is no trace of any payments made by the account and I used the card twice yesterday in Sainsburys and Waitrose.
If we can use our cards on a 24-hour basis, surely we ought to be able to see the information in a likewise manner.
After all, if I missed a payment, they’d be on me like a ton of bricks.
It’s just not good enough!
Especially, as it’s caused grief and extra work to a whole series of people like the Casual Hopper, Just Giving and of course myself.
What A Wunch Of Bankers
According to various reports, of which this article in the Mail is typical, the total cost of the PPI scandal is over £18 billion. That works out at four hundred pounds for every adult in the UK.
I got caught, in that when C died, I needed to get a new John Lewis credit card, as previously my card was a second one on her account. But Waitrose didn’t advise me to uncheck the box, if I didn’t want PPI.
I have since got all my money back, by just filling in a form and posting it to their credit card services.
Ten Reasons I Don’t Like Eastfield
I went to Waitrose in Eastfield this evening, to get some bits and pieces for my supper.
1. The Waitrose there is not for me, as some of the staples I like, like Genius bread never seem to be in stock. I also found out tonight, that it doesn’t have all the small packs of microwaveable vegetables I use.
2. The Marks and Spencer isn’t a patch on the ones in Oxford Street or Finsbury Pavement for food. It doesn’t even stock gluten-free sandwiches, which is rare in a their larger stores.
3. Clothes at Marks and Spencer are probably the normal standard, but unless you get in early in the season, small sizes can be difficult to find.
4. Although, I don’t use it often these days, the Starbucks at Eastfield doesn’t use proper china cups.
5. I went into John Lewis today and it really is a bit small and inferior when compared to the flagship store in Oxford Street.
6. Waitrose and John Lewis are a long way from the main Stratford station.
7. With the exception of Marks and Spencer, I’ve bought no clothing in any of the shops there, as they seem to be almost exclusively aimed at women. The few shops that sell men’s clothes are ones I wouldn’t visit.
8. The only restaurant that I know serves gluten-free food is Jamie’s Italian. Why can’t it have a Carluccio’s like Westfield?
9. As I’m very much a guerilla shopper, who comes, buys what he wants and retreats immediately, the centre is usually too crowded for my liking.
10. In some ways my major gripe is that, if say you want to go anywhere from the main Stratford station, you have to walk through the shopping centre. I always go shopping, when I want to, not when I end up in a shopping centre by accident.
You may think that this has all been very negative.
But I do like the toilets, the only Lakeland near me and the large numbers of cash points.
Dishwasher-Safe Coasters
I was at the Clerkenwell Design Week today, when I saw some glass coasters that gave me an idea. Why can’t we have dishwasher-safe coasters? I have a messy office because, I tend to drink masses of tea all day. My late wife, always complained about the state, with tea stains everywhere.
My Current Dirty Coaster
The picture shows the one, I’m using at the moment. Pristine it isn’t!
So I went to John Lewis, arguing, if anybody would have them, they would. I found these by ashortwalk, which although, the main material will stand up to a dishwasher, the cork pads won’t.
Coasters From ashortwalk
I should say that the research I did at CDW, indicated that many would like dishwasher-safe coasters. The office market could be bigger than domestic.
Shopping Centres Aren’t For Me!
Tomorrow, I’m going to Sheffield to see Ipswich at Wednesday. As there is now a Carluccio’s at Meadowhall, I thought that it might be an easy place to have lunch before the match.
I’ve booked a ticket out of Kings Cross to get to Meadowhall with a change at Doncaster, rather than go the obvious way of St. Pancras and Sheffield.
So I thought, I’d look up where Carluccio’s was in Meadowhall on the web. They are apparently in the Oasis Dining Area. But can I find a plan, which shows me where that is in the centre? No! Of course not! After all, the one thing I don’t want to do, is walk past every useless shop in the place, as I would expect few would have any goods that I would ever need. But that is what these infernal shopping centres want me to do, as they think I might buy something. But I’m going to a football match and then home to London!
After all, I’m only ever going to Meadowhall for one reason! And that is to have lunch!
In fact this is probably why I don’t use shopping centres. when I go shopping, I generally need some specific things and have a list of shops I will visit to get what I want! I don’t want to walk miles, when I need one specific item.
I suppose you could call it precision shopping. I arrive, buy and retreat immediately.
Often with John Lewis, I just go and check out what I need, write down the stock number and then go home and order it over the Internet.
They must love shoppers like me!
A Useless Shopping Trip
This afternoon, I decided to go shopping to get some clothes from my holiday next week. I took the Overground to Stratford and walked into Eastfield.
It was not the most fulfilling of trips.
For a start, when I walked in, I thought I might like a tea or a cappuccino. Before the Olympics, I used to get this in the Starbucks by the station entrance, but since the Games, I’ve avoided it, as it only sells drinks in cardboard cups. These are for takeaways, not sitting in.
I then walked through to John Lewis and thought I’d see if there was a suitable coat. I need one with a large internal pocket on my left breast, that is big enough for my newspaper or my small Samsung Tab 2. Despite the attention of a very personable and professional sales assistant in an hijab, they couldn’t find anything, which fitted my requirements.
So it was on to Marks and Spencer, where I tried to get a second pair of cord trousers like those I was wearing. Despite having bought them only last week, I was again unlucky, as that style wasn’t stocked at Eastfield.
So I then retreated back to the Overground and came home.
That was a very unproductive shopping trip. I’ll try again in Oxford Street tomorrow. I should find the trousers, as they had quite a few pairs last week, there are a couple of Carluccio’s for some tea or coffee, but I doubt I’ll find the coat, as big pockets are so two years ago.
Step-Free Access To The Underground
Coming back from Kings Cross station tonight, I took the indirect route using the Circle line to Moorgate station and then getting a 141 bus from just outside the station to just round the corner from my house.
The reason was that I had a heavy parcel of bedding, I’d bought in John Lewis and my normal change to the bus home at either Angel or Highbury and Islington stations would have meant crossing a major road.
Although I’m not in any way disabled, sometimes I do find that my left hand is a bit gammy and it is better to take an easier route, with escalators, lifts or right-handed staircases. For this reason, I know a lot of the best routes to get around London.
As I went through the gate at Kings Cross, the staff were chatting about step-free access and how difficult it will be to put in at some stations. I said that I think we’ll be finding some innovative engineering solutions used in some stations.
I know that inclined lifts are going to be used on Crossrail, but when I got home I found that at Greenford station, London Underground is going to get its first inclined lift. There’s more here on the Crossrail web site.
I think we’ll see a lot more of these, especially at stations, where there are three escalator positions, but the middle one has never been installed to save money.
The great advantage of inclined lifts is that in these stations, they can be installed without any digging or disruption to the station during the installation process.
I also think that buses have a large part to play in step free access.
As I said, I often plot my routes around London to avoid difficult stations or interchanges. For instance, I don’t change at Green Park station, as although it has lifts and is step free, you can walk miles between trains. Kings Cross too, is a bit of an Underground maze. Often though, the best route is to go to an easier station and then get a bus.
But not all stations have easy access from the trains to the buses and vice-versa like London Bridge, Euston and Victoria.
It may improve the lot of passengers and especially those who are disabled to improve the bus/Tube interface, as it will mean that some difficult stations can be bypassed.
I want lots more step free access to stations, but lets see if we can have innovative and more affordable solutions, that allow more stations to be given the full treatment.
The Anonymous Widower 