An Excursion South Of The Sewer
I ventured well past the big sewer this morning, travelling underneath it on the Overground, through the Thames Tunnel to New Cross Gate station. The other side though, was far from dry.
Rain and Few Bus Shelters South of the Sewer
You can tell too, it’s South London, as the bus stops don’t generally have shelters. It also always rains, when I go there.
My destination was the cafe called With Jam and Bread.
With Jam and Bread in Lee Green
It was good and the gluten-free orange, chocolate and almond cake, I had with my coffee was excellent.
From my point of view, the cafe has another advatange. It has its own bus stop both ways, so is easy to get to.
Has London Got Friendlier?
Every Sunday morning, I take the Overground to Shadwell, where I switch to the DLR and go to Royal Victoria station, from where I get the Emirates Air-Line over the Thames to the O2. From there, I go to Canary Wharf station, where I have a late breakfast in Carluccio’s. This was my intension this morning, but I left my Oystercard behind, so I took the Jubilee line from Canning Town station to get to Canary Wharf. I’ve done it now perhaps six or seven times and it allows me to get a good view on the mood of London. Today everybody was very chatty and there was a generally friendly mood.
This wasn’t the first time, that I’ve noticed this upbeat mood on a personal level in recent weeks. One particular feature, is that I’ve had more talks with black people lately, than I’ve ever had in my past sixty-odd years. Could it be, that the Olympics is helping us to live together better, as in fact we all have more common interests, than those things that divide us?
In one instance, I walked away from a bus, with a black woman about my age, chatting about our health problems, both of us remarking that twenty years before, we’d have probably not said a word.
If this is the legacy of 2012, I’m all for it! Or is it just that finally we’ve developed a modern society?
Olympic Rings On The Thames
I saw these on the Thames yesterday, by Waterloo Bridge
With the one hole golf course, does the Olympic Closing Ceremony have a water-borne element?
Crazy Golf at the Olympics?
I took this picture yesterday morning from the Emirates Air-Line.
Crazy Golf at the Olympics?
It looks like a one hole floating golf course for the Olympics. But then golf isn’t going to be part of the Olympics this year, although it is to be added in the future.
That is a disgrace, as golf isn’t a sport, but a pastime played by rich men in diamond check jumpers.
I suspect it could be something to do with the Olympic Opening Ceremony, as it was heading down river towards the River Lee and Stratford.
LOCOG Float In A New Pitch
I took this picture from the Emirates Air-Line today.
LOCOG Float In A New Pitch
Are LOCOG, the Olympic organisers, floating in a new pitch for one of the events?
Or perhaps it’s for one of the demonstration sports; overwater British bulldog. In this verion pushing contestants into the river is allowed.
They’ve Cancelled The Stringbag
The weather has now got worse and the BBC has announced that the flypast by the Swordfish has been cancelled.
The Queen Does Her Duty
I think the Queen was getting a bit cold in the rain and has now put a wrap on. The Duke, who of course is very much a nautical person, seems to be enjoying the pageant a lot more than his wife. But the Queen as ever carries on!
I think he understood, the semaphore signalling from the top of the Festival Hall, judging by his smile. I hope they weren’t sending rude messages, as I would have thought few people on the river could have read them these days, except the Duke.
A Place for the Little Ships
In the Diamond Jubilee flotilla today, there are about forty or so of the Little Ships of Dunkirk. If you look at the Wikipedia entry, you’ll see that some unusual boats took part in 1940. What surprised me was that 39 Dutch coasters that had escaped the Germans also took part and rescued about seven percent of the total of the troops brought home.
Pictures From a Bus on Southwark Bridge
The tourists boats on the Thames, always used to claim that Southwark Bridge was the one over the river that had the least traffic. Today, because of diversions, I was on a 21 bus, that took a detour on its way to the Deep South. So I took some pictures, which are probably the some of few taken on a bus on that bridge. Only one route crosses the bridge in normal service, the 344.
I could of course be wrong, but as you can see they were taken from the lower deck, so there is more of a chance they’re the only ones taken from the lower deck of a bus on Southwark Bridge.
The View From the North Bank of the Thames
After an excellent gluten-free sandwich and a coffee in the Starbucks by the Cutty Sark, I got onto the DLR again and travelled back to Island Gardens, where I walked along the North Bank of the Thames taking pictures.
Note you can just see the three masts of Cutty Sark in some of these pictures in front of HMS Ocean.
The Anonymous Widower 