Mushroom Management On TfL Buses
Transport for London or as all Londoners abuse them as TfL, are getting the masters at applying mushroom management to running the buses. Especially at the weekends.
For those of you not familiar with the last century term, it means keeping everybody in the dark and throwing in lots of manure. As in the 1970s, I used to live next door to a mushroom factory, I know it at least works with fungi, but I’m not sure of it’s effectiveness with fleets of buses about moving passengers.
Most Saturdays, I take a 141 bus to Moorgate and have a full English gluten-free breakfast in the Leon cafe there, as I like to set myself up for the weekend.
The 141 bus may be one of the least reliable buses in the capital, but last Saturday, I was dropped close to Liverpool Street station and yesterday, I was dropped under the Barbican.
No warning, advice or apology about the change of plan.
But then like the Mayor, TfL are never in the wrong.
Today was different!
After taking a 56 bus from near my house to the Angel I had another full English gluten-free breakfast in the Leon cafe there, before taking the Northern Line to Euston station.
I was hoping, I could take a trip somewhere, but there were extensive engineering works, so I just came home from Euston on the Overground via Willesden Junction station.
I ended up at Hackney Central station, where I did a bit of shopping in the excellent M & S Food shop.
Normally, I just get a 38 bus home from the side of the station, but there weren’t any around.
Again, there was no warning, advice or apology. Just loads of people looking for non-existent buses.
It was a full three hours before I completed my round trip.
Transport for London has no respect for its passengers.
Normal businesses would go bust, if they treated their customers like this.
Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets With Spicy Honey Sauce
Colonel Sanders would have a fit at Leon’s latest recipe.
I regularly eat Leon’s gluten-free chicken nuggets, but today was a first for me, as I had a portion of their latest chicken nuggets in a spicy honey sauce.
They were different, but I quite liked them!
I shall be having them again.
A Very Bad Night’s Sleep
Last night, I must have woke several times in the night, before I finally gave up at about three-thirty and got up and started doing the puzzles on the Internet, and having some mugs of tea.
At four I went back to bed and was able to grab perhaps thirty minutes of sleep.
But my body hurt all over with a vengeance.
- There was pain in the back of my left hand.
- My toes hurt badly.
- My right hip was painful.
- All my skin felt very dry.
So at five, I decided to get up and have the cure-all remedy, which is a deep hot bath.
It certainly worked and I felt a lot better,
After the bath, I got back in bed, and although I didn’t sleep, I rose and left the house soon after nine to get my gluten-free breakfast in Leon on Moorgate, with added tea and orange juice.
As I left the house, I noticed that one of the upstairs windows was open, so I had to go back and shut it.
As I never open this window, I thought it must have been the cleaners, who’d left it open. Especially, as it had happened before, a couple of weeks ago.
But then, I realised what had happened.
- The window hadn’t been properly secured.
- Last night, a storm with a low-pressure area had gone through..
- The pressure had just been low enough to pop the window open.
- The low-pressure had then just sucked the water out of my body.
My hot bath had put the water back in, the way, that it had come out.
After breakfast and picking up a prescription from Boots, I took a bus home.
On arriving home, I needed to have a poo, but was unable to go, as I was just too constipated.
After a laxative and several drinks, that problem was cured.
Conclusion
Were all my problems today, down to the fact that the weather stole my body’s water and I didn’t drink enough to put it all back?
I Was Kathleened At The Weekend
Saturday
At 0200 on Saturday morning, I couldn’t sleep.
So in the end, I got up, made myself a mug of tea and did Saturday’s puzzles in The Times.
I had no trouble doing them, so my brain function was normal.
But my left hand wasn’t working that well.
I had breakfast in Leon and had a bit of trouble with their sauce containers, but otherwise I was fine.
I did a bit of shopping in M & S on Moorgate and came home.
I wasn’t having any problems.
For the rest of the day, I watched television and listened to the radio.
Sunday
I got up late, as I was probably catching up the sleep from the night before.
I had lunch in Gordon Ramsey’s Street Burger about one.
My left hand wasn’t working that well and I was making a bit of a mess.
After, I got home, I watched television and listened to the radio.
Monday
I slept in late, but as my left hand wasn’t being very co-operative, I had a small bit of trouble dressing, due to an uncooperative left hand.
My INR was 2.0, so I took 5 mg. of Warfarin.
I had breakfast in Leon, where I made a mess with the sauce container.
I then went looking for a book, which I couldn’t find.
Tuesday
Everything seems better today.
My INR was 2.1, so I took 5 mg. of Warfarin.
I did my usual Monday morning trip, of visit to Marks & Spencer for about three days of food and then had breakfast in Leon.
Conclusion
This seems to be a pattern.
- A storm goes through, I can’t sleep and after some drinks of tea or zero alcohol beer, I feel a bit better.
- My left hand often stops co-operating and won’t do simple things.
- But it does seem to clear up, when the storm passes.
This is probably the third time, that it’s happened.
Note.
- My left humerus was broken by the school bully.
- I had a stroke in 2011, which affected my left arm.
- If I carry shopping in my left hand, the pulling action on my humerus seems to help.
Any ideas will be gratefully received.
Extra Capacity On The Elizabeth Line At Tottenham Court Road Station
When I go to Oxford Street, I generally use the Elizabeth Line from Moorgate.
- If I need the Western end of Oxford Street, I use the Western entrance of Bond Street station.
- If I need John Lewis or Leon in Hanover Square, I use the Eastern entrance of Bond Street station.
- If I need the Eastern end of Oxford Street or Marks & Spencer at the Pantheon, I use the Western entrance of Tottenham Court Road station.
- If I need Tottenham Court Road or the British Museum, I use the Eastern entrance of Tottenham Court Road station.
Today, as I was going to Marks & Spencer at the Pantheon, I used the Western entrance of Tottenham Court Road station.
It wasn’t very busy and the tunnels and escalators were easily coping with Christmas shoppers.
But if Crossrail 2 ever gets built, Tottenham Court Road station could be the only interchange between the Elizabeth Line and Crossrail 2.
So I was pleased to see that someone had had the foresight to leave space for a fourth escalator at the Western entrance of Tottenham Court Road station.
I took these pictures as I returned.
A fourth escalator could easily be fitted on the right of the escalator on which I descended.
My First Takeaway Since Before The Covids
The pictures show my first takeaway since well before the Covids hit!
Note.
- Leon are now following UK railways and doing takeaways in a paper bag with handles.
- We all used to laugh at British Rail catering, but their invention of the paper bag with handles is still the only practical way of gong up and down a train carrying a hot drink.
- I do like Leon’s chilli sauce, so I bought a bottle.
- It was only a snack, which I followed with a plastic of strawberries.
As there is a Leon, where I change from train to bus to come home, I should do it more often.
Coping With My Cough
Over the last few weeks, I’ve developed a terrible hacking cough.
I used to get these as a child and regularly had months off school.
I can remember that our GP; Dr. Egerton White was worried and visited me regularly.
But I can’t remember having one since and certainly, I never had one in the forty years I lived with C.
About ten days ago, I noticed that a Marks and Spencer chilli con carne seem to calm my coughing down.
So I consulted Doctor Google and found several pages like this page on Rochester Regional Health, which is entitled Spicy Foods and Your Health.
Under a heading of Spicy Foods Help with Cold Symptoms: FACT, this is said.
Spicy foods contain capsaicin, the bioactive ingredient in chili peppers. Capsaicin breaks up mucus, which can help effectively relieve coughing and a sore throat. However, capsaicin can increase the production of mucus, causing a more prevalent runny nose.
My nose is running, but not excessively so. But I am generating a lot of mucus, just as my father always did.
His remedy was a mixture of strong mints and catarrh tablets.
I have started eating my Leon breakfast, that I eat most days with a pot of their chilli sauce.
It does seem to calm my cough throughout most of the day.
Moorgate To Charlton Via Cannon Street
I needed to go to Charlton station this morning to take a couple of photographs for a possible blog post.
- I had had my usual breakfast in LEON on Moorgate, so I started from Moorgate station.
- I took the Northern Line one stop to Bank station.
- It was then straight up the double escalators.
- I followed this by a brisk walk along Cannon Street.
The total time between entering Moorgate station and sitting on my train at Cannon Street station was about ten minutes.
One of London’s more difficult stations to access now has a North-South Underground line, to go with its East-West line.
A Quality Takeaway With A Station And A Large Garden
It was cold today and on walking from the Hanover Square entrance to Bond Street station to the Marks and Spencer store on Oxford Street, I came across this Leon, where I had a hot chocolate.
Is this the ultimate pit-stop on the Elizabeth Line?
East London Is A Duckers And Divers Paradise
This is the East End Tube Map, which I clipped off the full tube map.
I live just South of the East London Line between Canonbury and Dalston Junction stations.
Today started just after nine, as many others do by braving the nightmare on the buses to take a 141 bus to Moorgate.
- At Moorgate, I had breakfast as I do regularly in the Leon, by Moorgate station.
- After breakfast, it was one stop South on the Northern Line to Bank, to see if the new entrance had opened.
- It was then a trip on the new moving walkway to the Central Line.
- I took the Central Line to Stratford to do my main shopping at the start of the week, in the large Marks and Spencer in Eastfield, by the station entrance.
- It was then on to the North London Line to go back home.
- I didn’t go all the way home on the Overground, but got off the train at Hackney Central and using the new Graham Road entrance, I crossed to get a 38 bus, which would take me home.
- But two 38s passed as I tried to cross the road and in the end I took a 277 bus to Dalston Junction station.
- From the Junction, I got a 56 bus home.
I got home about eleven.
At least now, I’ve got food until Thursday!
The Anonymous Widower 