The Sleeper to Euston
AFter a curry in Fort William, I boarded the sleeper for London around 19:30 and it left on time at 19:50. Or should I say it left for Edinburgh, where the various coaches from all parts of Scotland were joined up into one long train for London.
I had a whisky before I retired and slept soundly until Crewe. This was despite the fact that the steward had told me, I’d got the worst berth in the carriage over the bogie and I would have difficulty sleeping. The next thing I remember was being woken with my breakfast. As a coeliac, I just had the coffee and the juice, but actually, I wasn’t that hungry, as I’d eaten well in Scotland.
So would I tske the sleeper again?
Perhaps this one, but I doubt I’ll take the one we did as a family with a car to the South of France. I didn’t sleep well on that and spent most of the trip trying to find out where I was. But at least C and myself christened the berth.
The third sleeper was again with C on the Eastern and Oriental Express from Bangkok to Butterworth for Penang. That was a memorable trip, but it’s probably one I wouldn’t risk for some years.
Simon Calder on the M25
Simon Calder is one of my favourite writers and his piece on Saturday on the M25 in the free Independent, I got from East Coast was excellent.
I particularly liked this bit.
Time for coffee. No service station graces this stretch of the M25, but handily the coffee bar with the best view in the South-east is just a juggernaut’s shudder from Junction 14. The location is on the departures level of Heathrow Terminal 5. As you wander over from the car park, you can look west to Windsor Castle. And a window seat provides you with a view over one of the busiest runways in the world. On the apron below, Airbuses beetle about, while every minute or two a Boeing whizzes past the window, carrying hundreds of people with stories from afar – some of which would no doubt be told as the M25 guided them home with their meeters and greeters.
It sounds like a place to visit. But I suspect Simon’s publicity means it will be very busy!
Thoughts on Transport to the Den
As I can’t drive, I rely heavily on three things, trains, buses and good old-fashioned walking.
On Tuesday night, I went to Canary Wharf for supper and for many places it is a good place to start an evening trip in London. The parking may be a bit expensive, but you can always get a couple of hours free, if you spend over £10 in one of the shops there. I used to buy something I needed like wine in Waitrose to get the token. Incidentally, is there a more up-market supermarket anywhere in the UK, than this one?
The first step to your evening entertainment, after a meal in one of the many restaurants, is to take the Jubilee Line from Canary Wharf Station, that makes all other Metro stations in the world, look ordinary. I once took a C into the station on the escalator from the surface and asked her to close her eyes, once she was safely on the moving staircase. I then told her to open her eyes a few metres down. The look on her face summed it all up.
As I was going to the Den on Tuesday, I just took one station on the Jubilee Line to Canada Water. From upstairs, I took a P12 bus, which stopped outside the ground. what could have been simpler?
One of the problems at the Den, is that it is an area with very few pubs, restaurants and cafes. My mate, Ian, chose to drive and he had quite a bit of difficulty parking and then finding anything to eat. I got the better deal by going to Canary Wharf.
There are plans to build a new station at Surrey Canal Road on the new East London Line extension to Clapham Junction.
This will make travelling to the Den easier, but it will probably do nothing for the quality of the hostelries in the area! I’m afraid at my age and with my medical conditions, greasy burgers, fish and chips and pints of gassy lager are not for me!
But it will give you more choices of getting to the ground, as it will then be directly connected to many other areas with lots of easily accessible places to eat and drink. For example, Ipswich fans coming in to Liverpool Street, might use the Spitalfields or Brick Lane areas, before going to the match from Shoreditch High Street.
Obviously Canary Wharf makes a good starting point for anything in the West End of London, but with just one simple interchange at Canada Water or Shadwell, it is also a good place to start for anything in South London, if you live north of the river. Crystal Palace, which used to be one of the more difficult grounds to reach is now a lot easier. It’s just a pity that the interchange at Shadwell from the Docklands Light Railway to the East London Line isn’t better.
Are Water Libraries Boring?
I’m not a great one for libraries, except for reference purposes, but I was struck by this sign near Millwall’s ground on Tuesday night.
The New Canada Water Library
A library with different samples of water, must be very boring, but obviously, it is at the heart of some important sciences like homeopathy and water divining. But why would the Canadians build their new water library in South London?
Towards the Match
I was mainly gpoing to London to see Ipswich play at Millwall.
I didn’t take a direct route, as I had time to spare and wanted to do one or two things before the match.
So from Tottenham Hale, I took a couple of stops on the Victoria Line to Highbury and Islington, where I took the North London Line to Canonbury.
A house I am interested in, lies betwwen there and Dalston Junction and I wanted to see which was the nearest station. The first leg took eleven minutes and the second ten, so Dalston Junction is closer and will be a couple of minutes so, when they complete the station. It’s also downhill from Canonbury and flat to Dalston Junction, which means that it is an easy walk to Dalston to travel away and another easy one to get home from Canonbury. In some ways it won’t matter too much, as from May 2011, the two stations will just be two stops apart on the East London Line.
FRom Dalston Junction, I took the East London Line south to Rotherhithe, with the aim of seeing the Brunel Museum; which is one of the many museums on the line. I took this photo of the brickwork on the entrance to the station.
Brickwork at Rotherhithe Station
I’ve always liked good brickwork and in my life, I’ve designed and had built several important brick features including a traditional crinkle-crankle wall at Debach and my round office here. Are we training bricklayers to be able to do the difficult stuff? Ralph who did the wall, used to work in rubber gloves to save his hands and spent his holidays looking at buildig techniques all over the world. His colleagues used to laugh at him, but he certainly knew how to lay bricks.
Bad Driving
There has been a lot of reports about the reasons why people drive badly today. Various solutions are being proposed including restrictions on young drivers.
I have driven for many years, but don’t now and I may never do again. But I’m happy to use buses and trains, with lifts to the nearest station.
I sometimes think that the reason we have a lot of bad driving is because people are pressured to use their cars, by lifestyle, family or jobs.
Let’s look at some categories, who get blamed for bad driving and accidents.
- Young drivers often have no other means, except a battered car to get to work or have a night out. It will be interesting to see if things like the new East London Line and the extensions to the Manchester Tram, actually cut accidents involving young drivers, as they take quality public transport instead.
- Elderly drivers who won’t give up their car, as they need it for the shops etc. You see quite a few round here, who should not drive. But there is no alternative.
- Company car drivers, who feel pressured to use the car, rather than perhaps take the train. How many companies refuse train expenses to people with company cars?
- And what about wives who are pressured to drive their husbands after a good meal out!
I have recently seen a change in that some people I know have swapped their cars for trains on longer journeys.
This needs to be encouraged, by more comfortable trains, better stations, more parking at stations, better connections and perks like free WiFi. I know of one person, who now commutes to his office in the nearest big city by bus because of the WiFi.
One thing that is accelerating change to rail and bus is Railcards and passes, as I found on my trip to Great Yarmouth.
Calcium and Vitamin D
Yesterday afternoon, I chewed a calcium tablet and took a small one for vitamin D, after a chat with my doctor about the results of the blood tests.
I hadn’t expected a quick effect, but did I get one last night, as I felt a lot better in the evening, with a lot less pain in my mouth and arm. I went to bed at half-ten and slept well until six in the morning, which is usually my time to start the day.
Typing seems a bit better this morning, so who knows if the pills have had an affect. I can’t believe one of each can bring an improvement. It could be just psychological, in that I now know there’s nothing wrong!
Here’s hoping that they did.
Today, I’m off to London to see Ipswich play at Millwall. I shall be exploring hidden parts of London for this blog. So let’s see how my body holds up today!
If nothing though, I would argue that everybody needs a full set of blood tests at about forty to see if they have any underlying problems. If I had it earlier, they might have picked up my coeliac disease, but reading about calcium deficiency and its symptoms, I may have suffered from that too at times. I have always tended to have pins and needles in my left hand and even saw the doctor about it once. We put it down to the break in the arm caused by the bully at school. But could it have been a calcium deficiency?
Also, as I feel used to feel that all gluten-free bread was made from cardboard, I didn’t eat it. so was I getting my recommended dose of cslcium, as by law bread in the UK has to have added calcium?
I knew that there was something wrong, as I lay in hospital and wanted them to do a full blood test because I felt it was a coeliac problem. Should all of those recovering from a stroke, be given a full set of blood tests, to make sure they don’t have any underlying problems that are hindering their recovery?
Scotland and London Get the Pope, Suffolk Gets the Tour of Britain!
Today, the Tour of Britain came to Clare, which is a village a few miles from where I live.
I asked one of the local officers about it and he definitely felt we’d got the most entertainment and the better deal.
There was quite a few people on the streets of one of Suffolk’s most pleasant villages, as this video shows.
After the excitement, I went down the pub and had a half of Aspalls, before returning home for lunch.
Looking back on today, I’m rather pleased at how the video has turned out. It’s the first real one, I’ve done since the stroke and it’s a lot better than some I’ve tried. But this was done with my trusty Fuji S5700 and Windows Movie Maker.
Is Lincolnshire a Nanny State?
This story, about a father being threatened with action because his seven-year old daughter walk twenty metres to the bus stop to go to school is ridiculous.
At the age of six or seven in the early 1950s, I used to be taken to the bus stop at Oakwood by my mother to catch the 107 bus to Enfield for piano lessons with my Aunt Mabel. I had my couple of pence for the ticket and used to sit in one of the back three seats by the conductor. When I got to the stop just past Enfield Town station, I would get off and run down to my aunt’s. It should also be said that my aunt didn’t have a phone at the time. Were my family responsible or not? Perhaps, my illnesses are all down to letting me look after myself from an early age!
An Express Return to Suffolk
I must admit, I did leave a few minutes before the end of the match, but time was tight, if I was to make my taxi home, as he had a later booking to collect someone from Gatwick.
So by 17:14, I was on a London train out of Fratton station.
Waterloo to Liverpool Street is one of those journeys that isn’t the best on the Underground. You can change from Northern to Central at Tottenhsm Court Road, but because I had my case with me, I’d found out before that there was a direct bus; the 26, which stops just outside the back entrance to Waterloo and goes directly to Liverpool Street. It was a good choice, especially as it dropped me at the Bishopsgate entrance at Liverpool Street. I just had time to purchase a ticket from a machine that worked, unlike at Whittlesford, and then board the train.
Admittedly, it was a few minutes late into the station, but the taxi was there and I was watching the television by a quarter to nine. So it was about three and a half hours door-to-door!
The Anonymous Widower 