The Show Must Go On
It looks like someone tried to ram-raid the Scribbler shop at The Angel.
But they were still open for business.
Where Have All The M & S Gluten Free Ginger Snaps Gone?
I eat a lot of Marks & Spencer’s gluten-free ginger snap biscuits.
Note.
- Three make a good snack.
- I find ginger is good for me.
- They are the best biscuits for dunking I’ve ever found.
But I’ve only found one lonely packet in the last two weeks.
And that was in Marks & Spencer’s Islington store, hidden away on the wrong shelf, all by itself.
Relief At Last
I was able to buy three packets in the Marks and Spencer Food Hall today, which is the 21st of May.
A Funny Sunday Morning
I didn’t sleep that well and I got up about 05:45.
But by 06:30, I’d completed and entered the Sunday Times Prize Sudoku, as I always do.
The odds of winning must be exceedingly long, as I complete it every week and have not won anything yet.
I had my bath and flushed the sleep from my eyes in the hot water as I always do and by 10:15, I was sitting in Leon at the Angel having my usual gluten free Full-English breakfast.
I also went round the corner to the Marks and Spencer to buy a few items I needed.
- Bananas – I can never have too many
- British Strawberries – Strawberries are rich in magnesium and coeliacs can be low, so when I see quality strawberries I usually buy.
- Liver and Bacon Ready Meal for One – I have one a week to keep up my B12 levels and Ocado didn’t have any yesterday.
- Packet of Chocolate Cakes – I am slightly addicted.
The strawberries were from Dyson Farming, which I would have thought was the wrong side of the political spectrum for Islington.
My left knee also had a funny turn, which I was looking for the liver. Was it just reminding me that, if it didn’t get its B12, it would play up something rotten or was my brain using my knee to signal that it was low in B12 after the superb work on the sudoku?
Thirteen years ago I had a serious stroke and two or three serious doctors have said I’ve made a remarkable recovery.
From what I can gather on the Internet in the United States, I would have been given B12 injections for my stroke.
But then I am, as I am coeliac and Addenbrooke’s prescribed the injections, when I was diagnosed as coeliac in the 1990s. So is that behind my excellent recovery from stroke or did the Chinese doctors in Hong Kong diagnose my stroke as worse than it was?
Since I swapped to Ocado for my food purchases about two months ago, I have found it easier to buy the Marks and Spencer’s Liver and Bacon. I now eat one every week to top up my B12 and the arthitis, I occasionally get in my joints has reduced.
So I asked Dr. Google if arthritis gets worse after a stroke.
They pointed me to this paper on the National Library of Medicine. They also helpfully gave me this AI-derived answer to my question.
Yes, arthritis can worsen after a stroke:
Osteoarthritis
A common type of arthritis that can worsen after a stroke. This can be due to spasticity that develops after a stroke. Osteoarthritis can also make it harder for stroke patients to recover during rehabilitation.
Rheumatoid arthritis
Patients with RA may experience worse functional outcomes after a stroke due to pain and swelling in their extremities. RA patients may also have an increased risk of ischemic stroke.
Other types of pain that can occur after a stroke include: Headaches, Tingling sensations, Shoulder pain, and Central post-stroke pain.
Pain after a stroke can range from headaches that resolve on their own to chronic, severe joint pain.
Ic like the answer, as it fits my symptoms. Is artificial intelligence going to do some doctors out of a job?
I certainly get the tingling sensations.
I’ve just prescribed myself Liver and Bacon for a late lunch.
I’ll report back later!
Note, that I’m eating in front of the computer with the new keyboard.
Mushroom Management On TfL Buses
Transport for London or as all Londoners abuse them as TfL, are getting the masters at applying mushroom management to running the buses. Especially at the weekends.
For those of you not familiar with the last century term, it means keeping everybody in the dark and throwing in lots of manure. As in the 1970s, I used to live next door to a mushroom factory, I know it at least works with fungi, but I’m not sure of it’s effectiveness with fleets of buses about moving passengers.
Most Saturdays, I take a 141 bus to Moorgate and have a full English gluten-free breakfast in the Leon cafe there, as I like to set myself up for the weekend.
The 141 bus may be one of the least reliable buses in the capital, but last Saturday, I was dropped close to Liverpool Street station and yesterday, I was dropped under the Barbican.
No warning, advice or apology about the change of plan.
But then like the Mayor, TfL are never in the wrong.
Today was different!
After taking a 56 bus from near my house to the Angel I had another full English gluten-free breakfast in the Leon cafe there, before taking the Northern Line to Euston station.
I was hoping, I could take a trip somewhere, but there were extensive engineering works, so I just came home from Euston on the Overground via Willesden Junction station.
I ended up at Hackney Central station, where I did a bit of shopping in the excellent M & S Food shop.
Normally, I just get a 38 bus home from the side of the station, but there weren’t any around.
Again, there was no warning, advice or apology. Just loads of people looking for non-existent buses.
It was a full three hours before I completed my round trip.
Transport for London has no respect for its passengers.
Normal businesses would go bust, if they treated their customers like this.
A Funny Turn On Thursday
Because of my endoscopy at five on Thursday, I had a quiet day. I wasn’t allowed to eat anything for eight hours before or drink anything but water for four hours.
About one in the afternoon, I was sitting at my computer, typing a post into my blog.
And then everything, went rather fuzzy and words were coming out garbage. Often each letter was replaced by one of the next on the keyboard.
I was also a bit unsteady on my feet and as I was alone in my house, I decided to go out, so that if it was something worse and I collapsed, there would be someone to help me.
As I got to the bus stop, which is about fifty metres away, a violent thunderstorm broke out.
On the bus to The Angel, I tried to check my phone to get the time. It didn’t respond and I couldn’t unlock it. And even with help from the EE Shop and a guy on the bus, the phone wouldn’t respond to my fingers.
At the Angel, I did at least have a sensible conversation with an assistant about a clothes purchase, but in the end I bought nothing.
I left the Angel earlier than I’d intended and as I was on a 38 bus, which starts my journey to Homerton Hospital, I gave up on the idea of going home for some water.
I had a long change at Dalston Junction for the 242 bus for the hospital, but at least the rain had stopped somewhat and I was by now steady on my feet.
My phone was also working, so I was able to read the instructions about where to go at the hospital.
So what had happened to me at one in the afternoon?
Was there a low pressure before the storm, that sucked all the water out of my body and in the process made my fingers dry, so they didn’t work the phone?
Interestingly, I lost 0.9 of a Kg between 08:00 on Thursday and 08:00 on Friday. Was that just the fasting?
My INR also dropped from 2.4 at 08:00 on Thursday to 2.0 at 08:00 on Saturday. Was that because of all the fluid I lost, thickened my blood?
Traffic Constipation At The Angel
On Tuesday, I went to the Angel, with the intention of doing some shopping and then got tuck in an enormous traffic jam.
Note.
- In the end I abandoned the bus and walked.
- It looked like it was all caused by emergency roadworks at the Angel.
- These happen regularly, as Islington’s water pipes aren’t the best quality.
I believe traffic jams at the Angel will get worse, when the Silvertown Tunnel opens, as this will encourage trucks to take routes through Central London, when the Dartford Crossing is busy.
Are Boots Marching In The Wrong Direction?
My family has used Boots at the Angel since about 1900.
But have they ever been so disorganised?
Yesterday, I went to pick up some Warfarin, which I have taking for a dozen years.
It must be one of the most common and cheapest drugs they dispense.
I needed both 1 mg and 3 mg tablets.
But they didn’t have any 1 mg tablets.
The pharmacist explained that Boots didn’t have any.
Surely, this is a bit like Sainsbury’s running out of baked beans?
The 38 Bus And The Lizzie Line
London’s 38 bus is very convenient for me.
- It is a frequent route, running most times every few minutes.
- The stops are about a hundred metres from my house just round the corner.
- To the East it goes through Hackney to the romantic Clapton Pond.
- To the West it goes to Angel and across Central London to Victoria station.
- The route connects to the new entrance at Hackney Central station, which makes it easy coming home from the East with heavy shopping.
Yesterday, I used the 38 bus to go to and from the Lizzie Line for a trip to Paddington station.
The Outrun
These pictures show the change to the Lizzie Line at Tottenham Court Road station.
Note.
- It was a walk of about a hundred metres.
- I took pictures of the entrance to the new @sohoplace theatre, which is still behind barriers.
- The walk could improve, once the works around Centre Point are finished.
It’s certainly a viable route from where I live and the Angel to the Lizzie Line, if you’re going West.
The Return
I took these pictures on my return.
Note.
- It was a walk of about a hundred metres.
- The two stops for the 38 bus are opposite each other.
- The walk could improve, once the works around Centre Point are finished.
It would certainly be a viable route to get from the Lizzie Line to the Angel, if you’re coming from the West.
It would also be a viable route for me to get to my house.
Although taking a 21 or 141 bus from Moorgate is a better route, as I suspect it is quicker.
Unfortunately, that route won’t be viable if Transport for London have their way and execute The Great Bus Robbery.
Which Route Does Transport for London’s Journey Planner Recommend?
Whoever wrote the current version of this is not a Londoner, as it recommends a route with three changes and doesn’t use the Lizzie Line.
If I type in my home address, it does recommend going via Dalston Junction and Whitechapel, which is better, but the walk is too much for me on some days.
I Wouldn’t Be Surprised To See Improvements To The Positions Of Bus Stops
They are not best placed at the moment, but the construction in the area is still going on.
So after construction finishes, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some stops moved to better places.
Face Coverings Your Choice
In England from today, you don’t legally have to wear masks.
This notice was on the door of Marks and Spencer at The Angel.
These are the words at the bottom.
Face coverings are not legally required but the Government recommends them in indoor crowded areas. If you have any symptoms of COVID-19 please refrain from entering the store.
How sensible!
It will be interesting to analyse the takings of Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Sainsburys as they are all close together on Liverpool Road.
I was standing outside Marks & Spencer, when I took the picture.
Levelling Up – The Marks & Spencer Way
When I first moved to Dalston, there were three convenient Marks and Spencer stores within a few bus stops.
- Angel, which is a basically a food store with a floor of clothes above, where my grandmother used to shop before the First World and C and I used to shop in the 1970s, when we lived in the Barbican.
- Moorgate, which is a small department store, with a medium-sized food department in the basement, which I use regularly.
- Hackney, which was a very small department store with a poor food department, was convenient as on some of my journeys, I would get a bus home from outside the store.
Over the last ten years, more Marks and Spencer stores have sprung up, Archway, Camden Town, Dalston, Eastfield, Hampstead, Liverpool Street, Old Street and West Hampstead, which I use occasionally, as they are on routes home.
This morning I went to the eye hospital in Colindale and coming home, I got a 32 bus to Brondesbury for the Overground.
As I needed some food, I had various choices of journey home.
- Get off at West Hampstead and do my shopping there, and then get back on the train.
- Get off at Hampstead Heath and do my shopping there, with a light lunch in le Pain Quotidien.
- Get off at Dalston Kingsland and do my shopping there, with a bus home.
- Get off at Hackney Central and do my shopping there, with a bus home.
Unusually, I chose the last option and got a big surprise.
I had been worried that Marks and Spencer in Hackney would close, but now it has been turned into the most upmarket Marks and Spencer food store, I’ve ever seen.
- It’s more Knightsbridge. than Hackney
- It’s large and spacious.
- There are large ranges of tea and coffee, that you normally don’t see in the store.
- The decor is localised to the store.
- It is only about a hundred metres from Hackney Central station and fifty metres on the flat from my bus home.
- It’s even just called Marks & Spencer Food
Now that’s what I call levelling up!
The Anonymous Widower 