The Shape of Things To Come
BBC London has just reported live from a party in Canning Town. Some may think that the royal wedding is a waste of space, but not the East End.
Roll on the Olympics!
Olympic Ticket Problems
I had no problems with getting my places in the Olympic auction for tickets. But then I reserved them three weeks ago.
When will people learn, that the deadline is not the day you actually do something? With the Internet, you can set transactions up early, so they happen at the right time!
London Is Heaving
There must be something going on in London later in the week.
I was trying to locate some lights for my hall, so I decided to take the Underground to Warren Street and then walk to Selfridges by way of Habitat, Heals, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer.
A couple of years ago I bought some bedside lights from John Lewis, that are touch on and touch off. I would show you a link to their web site, but they are not there, although they were in the Oxford Street store. Here’s a picture of the bedside light.
John Lewis Touchable Table Lamp
They work well and what I want is three tall ones, so that I can place them at strategic points in my hall. And as I walk past in the dark, they will automatically switch on, when I touch them.
In fact, you can play lots of games with this type of concept. Perhaps, when you are out or it is pitch dark, they should switch on and they could text my mobile phone to say that someone was about.
The possibilities of this sort of technology are endless. The text message facility could even be used to locate where you have put your mobile phone. I once had an e-mail from a friend, asking to call his mobile phone, as he’d left it somewhere in his house and couldn’t find it. Like many these days he didn’t have a landline. He does now!
I finally found an elegant tall lamp in Selfridges, but why are there so few?
I can’t be the only person, who when they enter their house in the dark, doesn’t have a light in the hall, that is close to hand. But I have a space between the door and the wall, where I could put such a light.
A Space for a Tall Lamp
Ideally it would be touchable, but a foot switch would be an alternative. Note the switches on the wall. They are for the outside lights, or at least I can’t get them to work any others. At least, I’ve got a suitable powerpoint, but note the cracked plaster above it. Jerry’s electrician didn’t have a clue.
You might argue, why I don’t have a light in the hall? Jerry didn’t put one in to save money and to put one in would mean trunking all over the place as the ceiling is a concrete slab. Wall lights are so naff! And yes, I’ve got lots of really hideous ones, probably bought in some bastion of good design like Fred’s El-Cheapo Lighting Emporium in Dalston Market. Don’t knock that market, as I think, Lord Sugar started his business careeer there.
The trip wasn’t helped by the fact that London seemed to have many more people about than normal. To make matters worse there were lots of smokers lining up outside the shops having a cough and a drag. Some were even sitting on the floor, creating more unseen hazards for people with limited vision. I did think about deliberately falling over a particular well-upholstered couple dragging away with one hand and eating a burger with the other but I decided against it, as I would have hated to have contact with such an awful pair of individuals.
Let’s hope that London gets a little bit less busy as the week goes on. I have a lot of shopping to do!
Network Rail’s Pigeon Eradicator
This is not what you think it is on the platforms at London Paddington!
Network Rail's Pigeon Eradicator
It has shades of Hancock in The Radio Ham, where he was annoyed with pigeons on his aerials, so he gave them 1,000 volts and a very cheap thrill.
You may think it is to stop the pigeons sitting on the video cameras, but it is a fiendish device to kill them, by giving them a large electric shock. Note how one camera is angled so it can see the pigeons on the spikes. This allowed the charge to be accurately timed. The pigeons are then recycled in the meat pies on the trains from London.
The Herne Hill Velodrome
The reason I was going to North Dulwich was to visit the Herne Hill Velodrome, which is the last venue from the London Olympics of 1948, still in use in it’s original form.
It said everybody was welcome on the gate.
The Entrance to Herne Hill Velodrome
I had a quick look around and left fairly sharply as they had a ban on photography, which of course was one of the reasons I had gone.
Customer Service – London Bridge Style
I know London Bridge station is being rebuilt as a consequence of both the Thameslink upgrade and the hideous Shard, but I doubt you’ll find a worse main station in the whole of the UK.
Like all of the stations and lines south of the Thames, they were planned by a devious and possibly cruel Victorian mind. An example is that as London Bridge is the most easterly of the London rail stations serving the south, you’d assume it would serve all of the stations in Kent. That is an extremely logical and wrong assumption, as you get to places like Margate from either Victoria or St. Pancras.
No wonder you get confused tourists like a group of Spanish, who were trying to get to King’s Cross, by taking a train to Victoria from London Bridge and quite a few other stations, and then using the Victoria line. I told them to use the direct Northern line and was left wondering what idiot had advised them to go via Victoria. It couldn’t have been anybody in customer service as the Information Desk was closed.
Closed Information Box at London Bridge
The London Buses kiosk was also closed.
Closed Bus Information Kiosk at London Bridge
I was trying to get to North Dulwich and was advised to take the 9:48 from platform 15. At the last minute, I was told it would leave from 14 and got there just as it pulled away. After looking for some non-existent help, I found a board which said that there was a train on platform 14 at 10:03. So I ran back and after several goes, I finally got through the barrier, when a ticket inspector let me through.
One of problems I had to get through, was that in strong sunlight, the LEDs that show a green arrow or a red cross on the barrier, can’t be seen by someone like myself with degraded eyesight. After the kind inspector let me through, he said he had problems himself with the barriers and hopefully the new ones arriving soon would solve the problem.
The Two Faces of Football
This morning the news of the threats against Neil Lennon broke.
This evening, I’ve just watched a marvellous display of football as Tottenham and Arsenal fought out a three all draw.
Now, when I was young and growing up in North London, the rivalry between the two North London teams was fierce and probably on the same level as it was between Rangers and Celtic in Scotland at the time.
The rivalry is still there in North London, but it is still at a fierce but fair level. I would doubt there have been any more than a handful of arrests tonight. How many will we see in Glasgow on Sunday?
What has gone so wrong in Glasgow?
Barking Mad
Why do we always talk about people Barking Mad? There is an explanation here.
A much more prosaic derivation, that the phrase refers to mad and possibly rabid dogs, is a more probable source. There are many examples of ‘barking like a mad dog’ in print.
This sounds feasible.
There had been an item on the news this morning talking about some rather silly yellow lines painted on the pavement in Ripple Road, Barking, so as I’d never been there, I thought I’d go there for a walk in the sun.
The lines do seem rather odd.
My First London Marathon
C and I akways said that one day we’d go and see the London Marathon. But we never did!
So today, I took the East London Line from Dalston Junction to Shadwell and walked through to The Highway to see the leaders of the men’s race and a lot of the other runners pass. Interesting I talked to a couple of people, who were using the line for the first time. They were impressed. I should also say that the line was crowded, but it appeared to be coping wioth probably the busiest Sunday of the year.
It was a very good atmosphere and I enjoyed it. Quite a few of the pictures were taken by standing on the wall outside St. George’s Gardens. At least my balance must be getting quite good.
I also took this video standing on the wall, as the elite flashed by and the others jogged towards Canary Wharf.
I always said that one day, I’d do the marathon. But I suspect after the stroke and with my dodgy heart valve, it’s now out of the question. Unless of course, I can persuade a good cardiologist to run, or more likely walk, with me.
Part of the reason was always that Chris Brasher was one of my heroes. In this post, I explain why and also say a bit more about the London Marathon.
The Anonymous Widower 