The Door Finally Broke
I said in my post on Eastfield, that a child was constantly playing with the electric door.
A Broken Door at Eastfield
The door eventually broke, as the picture shows.
The Crush at Westfield Stratford City
It was a waste of time taking the train to the new shopping centre.
I walked out of the Overground station up the stairs and after walking past the masses of smokers, lined up outside the centre, I entered the centre, avoiding one of the doors, which was constantly being opened by a four or five-year-old constantly pressing the disabled door-opening button. He was having great fun smashing the door into people standing outside.
I did at least know where I was going and attempted to walk through to Waitrose at the other end. I don’t think, I’ve been in a crush like that for some years and that was probably at Wembley for the play-off final against Barnsley in 2000. But the football crowd was better behaved and I should say better controlled and it didn’t contain lots of children, buggies and especially aggressive youths, who were determined to get through at any cost.
Eventually, I did get to Waitrose, but decided that I didn’t really want to go through that crush again with my shopping, so I decided to just have a look round John Lewis.
I was astounded to see, two children on scooters in the shop. Some people must be mad.
I then gave up and decided that the best bet would be to get to Stratford International and take the DLR from there. It was a very wet walk around the outside of the centre. as there was no shelter.
At the station, I met a policeman and told him how dangerous it had been in there. He whole-heartedly agreed.
I must admit I did get a train to the main station at Stratford from where I took the Central Line back to Liverpool Street. After a walk, I did get a bus, but then this was delayed due to an accident on the New North Road.
This must be regarded as the least successful shopping trip, I’ve ever done.
Avon Is 125 Today
Avon is 125 this week.
I suppose they know that some of their products have unusual uses. One is a good part of a home made fly repellant for horses.
Is It Worth Keeping An Old Laser Printer?
I don’t print much these days and if I want something in colour, I have an expensive HP Laser I could connect to my network.
For general printing I’ve used an HP 3390 mono laser printer, that has worked well in the past few years, but it died on Monday. I obviously won’t fix it and it’ll go in a skip.
Checking prices for a new mono printer, that I can have in my living room, I found a wi-fi driven HP for £99.99 in Currys. So in other words, I bought one printer for the price of two 3390 catridges. Admittedly the new printer doesn’t copy, but the big colour one does that!
Soon they’ll give you a new printer for just walking in the shop and smiling nicely! Well not quite! But you get my drift.
First Impressions of Eastfield
As Bill Turnbull has used the colloquial term for London’s newest cathedral of shopping, I feel free to use it now and in future, as so many do.
So what is it like?
These pictures show that it is glitzy and it was very busy today.
Here are a few more detailed points.
The Marks and Spencer is enormous and I was actually able to find some trousers for the winter in my size of a 30 waist and a 29 leg. I joked with the assistant, that all the small sizes get bougt by the staff and he didn’t disagree.
The food hall is also large and there was both good and bad news. There was no gluten-free sandwiches, but the manager, told me she’d had that question several times in the day. So perhaps Marks will sort that one out.
John Lewis was its usual self and probably almost as large as Oxford Street.
But it was the next door Waitrose that was impressive. I’ve not seen a bigger one, that wasn’t a food shop with a mini-John Lewis attached like the one near Higham Ferrers. It seemed that they were trialing a few new products, including some Genius fruit bread, that I’d not seen before. This Waitrose will probably become the shop where I’ll go for special food shopping instead of Canary Wharf or Jones Brothers, but I’ll still do general grocery shopping at Upper Street, as they deliver. Eastfield doesn’t deliver as far as me.
The restaurants I saw, were not my sort of places, as they were typically fast food, burgers and non-gluten-free. But this doesn’t matter, as after the Olympics, it’ll be next to one of the biggest parks in Europe, so you’ll go to Marks or Waitrose and buy a picnic.
There were a few teething problems, one of which was the lack of signs to the trains in the centre, but it is infinitely better than the rather tired Lakeside and Oxford Street.
I was impressed too, that the General Manager of London Underground was there talking to travellers. Bosses should do this more often.
Nose Bleeds and Hay Fever
I was travelling on a bus today, when I sneezed so hard that my nose bled. So I had to get off and get some more tissues. The only shop was a Tesco and there was a queue, so I used the quick self-service till. It was difficult as all I wanted was two small packs of tissues and I couldn’t get past one stage because the maschine kept tellimg me to swipe my loyalty card and asking me how many bags I needed.
I don’t do loyalty, unless it’s been earned.
Tesco were lucky that the one bloody tissue I did have was enough to at least stop the blood going all over their floor.
Bill Turnbull Calls It Eastfield
On BBC Breakfast this morning, Bill Turnbull called the new shpping centre at Stratford, Eastfield. He argued that as it was in East London that should be the name.
Where We Bought Our Wedding Rings
Over forty years ago, C and I bought our wedding rings at Pykes in Liverpool.
Pykes Jewellers in Liverpool
The shop has now moved from Exchange Street East to Whitechapel.
Since the day I got married, the white gold ring has stayed on my finger.
Through The Looking Glass
I was in Liverpool in the 1960s and met C there. Obviously, she wore as trendy clothes as she could afford and Liverpool’s trendiest boutique was Through The Looking Glass on Mount Pleasant.
Was Through The Looking Glass Here?
I think it was here in this basement. I think it was owned by one of The Scaffold.
Narrowboats in Liverpool City Centre
Who’d have thought it?
Narrowboats in Liverpool City Centre
But they are here within walking distance of the Pierhead and the new shopping of Liverpool One.
The Anonymous Widower 