Fifty Shades of Grey on the Tube
This morning,as I went to the dentist on the Central line, I noticed that the young lady next to me was reading a book. But not just any book, but Fifty Shades of Grey.
It’s funny, but I don’t think a man would even have read Lady Chatterley’s Lover on the tube even a dozen or so years ago.
Hopping On And Off Buses and The Underground
I often don’t do all my trip around London in the obvious and direct way.
Today for instance, I went from The Angel at Islington to Oxford Circus. I could have taken a tube changing at Kings Cross, but in the end I took a 30 bus to Kings Cross and then the Victoria line. So sometimes you inevitably have to choose where you get off from deep underground. Wouldn’t information on the weather be useful? Especially as the weather changed dramatically, whilst I was underground. But I’ve heard complaints of information overload already.
The other thing that irks me is that the Underground is a right-handed world. You stand on the right of the escalators, most staircases are easy to go up and down on the right side and the gates are always set-up to be right-handed. Why can’t at least the wide gates have a touch pad on both sides to speed-up those dragging mobile wardrobes? I always try to be left-handed to give my gammy hand something to do.
No Engineeering Works on the Underground This Weekend!
I wondered where the board with the information was yesterday, as I travelled on the Underground to and from Euston.
But it wasn’t needed!
I suppose someone thought about all the Jubilee traffic.
A Dalmation on the Tube
Dalmations don’t have the reputation of being the brightest of dogs and perhaps this is why you don’t see too many. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen one since I moved to London.
So it was quite a surprise to see one behaving very well on a lead in the depths of Highbury and Islington station this morning.
A Design Crime – A Badly-Designed Handrail
I noticed this hand rail on a new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 double-deck bus.
A Badly-Designed Handrail
The supports for the handrail mean that you can’t slide your hand up the rail, as you climb the stairs. The supports too are square, with unnecessary sharp corners.
When you have a hand with limits to what it can do, you want the rail to be as smooth as possible. This is only one example of several that I’ve encountered on London’s transport system. Some of the worst examples are on steps into the Underground.
Paying by Phone
They are discussing this on BBC Breakfast this morning.
It won’t work for me, as I use a 12 year old Nokia 6310i. In fact, I’m now going the other way, taking just one credit card, my camera and my Freedom Pass with me, when I go travelling or shopping in London. I sometimes leave the phone at home anyway, as when I’m in the Underground, there is no signal.
It Was the Jubilee Line Again
When there is a London Underground chaos story, it’s always the Jubilee line, just like it was on Wednesday. I think a lot has to do with Blair’s government, who were desperate to get it finished for their millennium bash at the Dome, so they paid what the workers demanded. But you never hear of such horrendous problems on other lines.
How Few Use Oyster!
On the London Underground this morning, I was surprised how many people seemed to be holding old-fashioned card tickets.
Is Transport for London doing enough to tempt passengers to use the cheaper alternative of an Oystercard.
A Thought of Angel on Google
This was the Thought of Angel yesterday.
Thought of Angel – Google
No-one was seeming to mind, that it was a bit sexist. Or are wives and their mothers still fair game.
You Get a Better Class of Busker in St. Paul’s Tube Station
I took this picture tonight, on the mezzanine floor between the escalators at St.Paul’s Tube Station.
A Busker with a Celtic Harp
I would have thought that usually those playing a harp, were well above the cathedral, rather than underneath it!
I hope I got the type of harp right!
The Anonymous Widower 