Sleeping on the Floor
No problems last night except that the central heating is designed for Eskimos and a broken smoke detector keeps beeping.
But interestingly, I’m breathing much better in the clear London air.
Throwing a Life Away
In today’s world, there is not the point of keeping anything like there used to be. I’ve just spent an hour shredding bank and credit card statements, as if I need them they are on-line anyway.
Whole boxes of memories end up being compressed into a box a third the size of what you started with. Things that you hoped you would trawl through with your wife in front of your grandchildren, just go straight in the skip. Is it sad! Perhaps! But if I don’t do it now, my son will have to do it in a few or hopefully twenty years time. Even my travels of the previous few months, has ended up in a rather small box. But I will make a collage of the train and football tickets in memory of an adventure.
Ocassionally, you find the odd gem, but most of it is just rubbish. The real memories are in my mind or as photographs on disc or in more boxes.
But hey, I’m only 63 and may have a few years yet, so perhaps this is only throwing half the first half of a life away. In a way I’m going back to where C and I started in that area to the north of the City of London, bordered at the top by the North London Line.
The Masons Arms
This pub in Devonshire Street played a major part in my life in the 1970s.
The Masons Arms
It was just round the corner from the offices of Time Sharing Ltd., the company we were all associated with in the early 1970s, so often if you needed anyone they were drinking in the Masons, as it was always called. One of our staff, who later joined Metier, even developed a long-term relationship with the landlord, which still flourishes today.
But it’s not just me, that has pleasant memories of the pub One of my friends, who sadly died a few years ago, had a part-time job in the pub, whilst he worked for AEI. He claimed that someone from AEI New Zealand, the landlord of the Mason’s and himself, enjoyed themselves immensely on a spree in London. Now this was after AEI had been taken over by GEC and all expenses had to be approved by Arnold Weinstock‘s office. It was queried by asking who they had taken out for the evening. The reply was that it was the New Zealand High Commissioner. And to prove it he gave the office, the personal telephone number of the Commissioner. The expenses were paid.
Business is very different these days, but I’ll always remember the Masons Arms with fondness.
The London Transport Lost Property Office.
After lunch yesterday, my friend needed to go to the Lost Property Office to collect a bag, that her husband had left in a black cab a couple of weeks ago.
I’d lost something myself years ago, and then it was very much the haunt of the jobsworths!
But yesterday it was a totally different experience and after paying a reward for the taxi driver, the bag was efficiently and politely retrieved.
It all went to show that putting in a good and well-thought out system can bring significant benefits to both your company and your customers.
A Very Much Better Day!
I should say I had a very good day yesterday, as although I had a slight problem caused by my stroke on Monday, the Keppra that the doctors have put me on have made my life infinitely better. I met an old friend in Hampstead and we had a good lunch. I then spent an hour or so walking round the shops and I have found that my gammy left hand and my eyesight are both almost back to normal. Just typing this is very easy, but for the last few months, it has required endless corrections. So I did make three, but two weeks ago, I’d have made 33!
I caught the six forty-four home and even got a seat from Royston!
The RSPB get Everywhere!
I was reading The Times this morning and they have a slightly tongue-in-check report on the Erotica exhibition at Olympia.
They were rather surprised that the RSPB were there with a stand. But as their spokesman said, “We’re an inclusive organisation. We’re meeting our new market halfway!”
They’ve probably done the right thing, as it says the average spend is £200 a person!
The Last of the Bendy Buses
I’ve only travelled on a bendy bus once in London.
Route 29 Bendy Bus
As a passenger I don’t like single decker buses, as wherever you sit, you usually find that there is a lot of junk on the floor like cases, buggies and children. So when your eyesight like mine isn’t 100%, it’s better to get out of the way on a double-decker and only come down, when you want to get off.
So I sometimes wonder why Ken introduced these buses, if passengers don’t like them.
I’ve heard two theories.
In the first, the length is ideal for blocking junctions and slowing motorists.
And in the second, because they have multiple entrances, it means that a lot of revenue is not collected and that helps with reducing the cost of public transport to the general public.
I don’t know enough to judge why these buses were introduced. I don’t think many except fare dodgers are mourning their passing. As I took the picture, several people did get on the bus through the wrong door.
There’s a detailed article on the BBC about their problems.
Incidentally, I used to use the route 29 to get to school and sometimes to my father’s print works in Wood Green. But those buses were good old-fastioned RT‘s.
A North London Line Panorama
The North London Line from Caledonian Road and Barnsbury to Camden Road is one of those journeys that every visitor to London should go on!
You travel across the city behind King’s Cross and St. Pancras stations, seeing all the new development for the High Speed Line to France and the buildings behind the station.
This video was taken on the trip I took yesterday.
For the best views sit on the south side of the train.
The North London Line is one of London’s hidden treasures, in that it links Stratford and the Olympic Park to Camden with its Market and on to Hampstead Heath, Kew Gardens and Richmond by the River Thames. The best place to start an adventure is from Highbury & Islington station which is also on the Victoria Line.
And to think the line was nearly closed in the 1960s Now that it has been upgraded with new trains, it is a real asset to London.
South From Tottenham Hale and Over the River Lee
Ever since I moved to West Suffolk and have been travelling to London, I’ve been fascinated by the view as the train goes over the marshes south of Tottenham Hale and over the River Lee, before disappearing amongst the houses, buildings and factories of East London.
So yesterday, I took a video from the train.
It looks a good place for a walk and there seem’s to be a propwe pub by the water. But how do you get there?
Living Alone
This is not a moan, but today, I’m having supper from the freezer, as the fridge is getting empty. The reason is that the weather is so awful, that I really didn’t want to go into the shops today. I will have to tomorrow, as I’ll be out of bread and milk by lunchtime. As it happens, I won’t be here then, as I’m going to London, unless the weather is really bad again, in which case I’ll go to Cambridge and then take the train from there to the football.
It will be so much better in London, as I can walk to a couple of decent pubs and if it was raining, I can even take a bus somewhere warm and nice. Not that my kitchen isn’t warm and nice. It’s just that it’s lonely and I have to do the cooking.
But that is not really cooking tonight, as I’m just putting a Waitrose Indian meal in the oven.
The Anonymous Widower 