Armchairs Outside St. Paul’s
As someone, who is getting on in years, I do like to see nice places to sit on the street. These chairs were outside St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Armchairs Outside St. Paul’s
I don’t think, I’ve ever seen single oak armchairs before. Sadly, it was so cold and miserable, I just walked on past.
Interchanging At Walthamstow
For years it has been claimed that you can interchange between Walthamstow Queen’s Road station on the Gospel Oak to Barking line and Walthamstow Central station on the Victoria line.
But the promised footpath hasn’t been delivered.
It should make a lot of difference!
Boots Off Driving
I’ve often had strange problems wiuth the feeling in my feet throughout my life.
I can remember that years ago, I used to slip my shoes off and drive in bare feet. This would probably have been in the mid-1960s.
It’s strange but walking around Palma tonight, they felt exactly the same.
So I suppose I shouldn’t worry!
It does strike me though that my health is regressing to what it was like when I was in my late teens and early twenties.
How weird!
A Pedestrian Crossing From Hell
I could have labelled this crossing between Bordesley station and Birmingham City’s ground of St. Andrews, the worst I’d seen, but the pictures didn’t do it justice.
A Pedestrian Crossing From Hell
They don’t show how there was no signs, lights or a policeman on a road, where cars took the junction at well over the legal limit. Two cars actually touched as I waited to cross.
But nothing will be done, as a proper solution would slow the cars. And cars are of course kings in Birmingham, with only losers using public transport.
One day, there’ll be a serious accident.
Liverpool University’s Metric Signs
All of the fingerposts around the campus at Liverpool University are metric.
I’ve never seen so many metric signs in the UK. Even Liverpool council avoids the argument by using minutes, as one picture shows.
Walking From Leamouth To Canning Town Station
This morning in what could be the last of the summer sun, I took a 277 bus to Leamouth and then walked to Canning Town station along Bow Creek.
The area is one of the more interesting in London, with the River Lea of which Bow Creek is part, gradually silting up and reverting to reed beds. The inside of the bend used to be the the home of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company and now it is one of the tunnelling sites for CrossRail. The successor of the works football team of the Thames Ironwork still exists as West Ham United, but the company is long gone, deespite building many ships for the Navy and companies like P & O.
From Canning Town station, I got the DLR, the Emirates Air-Line cable-car and the Jubilee line to Canary Wharf for lunch. I suppose, I could have taken the Jubilee line from Canning Town station, but the cable-car has better views.
Thinking about the route, you could take the 277 bus from any number of places like Highbury and Islington and then go back to Central London on the Jubilee line. but on a sunny day, don’t cut out the cable-car as it gives some spectacular views.
Dalston’s Diagonal Crossing
Oxford Circus may have the latest X crossing, but here in Dalston, we’ve got a simple diagonal one.
Dalston’s Diagonal Crossing
Time will tell, if it works or not. It could certainly do with a countdown number for the green. But then like the other stroke of the cross, lights is extra. I suppose though, if you do get knocked over, you haven’t far to go to get help from a solicitor.
Safety isn’t helped at the junction as the bus stop has been removed, prior to relocation.
Wot No Bus Stop!
People coming out of the Overground at Dalston Junction station get completely lost looking for a bus.
Brighton Has A Bicycle Problem
Or at least as far as I’m concerned it does!
Brighton Has A Bicycle Problem
I don’t bump into them now, as my eyesight is better. But I used to.
Pavements should be pleasant places to walk, not obstacle courses.
Olympic Walking Routes
Yet again last night, I feel victim to the badly laid out walking routes away from Olympic sites.
From the Olympic park, they always assume you want to get away on the Jubilee line to the centre of London, so late at night they always ban you from going to Stratford, where they funnel everybody across the bridge to the station. As I want the Overground out of Stratford, it’s very difficult for me. They want everybody to walk to West Ham. It’s probably quicker and easier to get to Dalston from Welwyn Garden City, than it is from West Ham.
Let’s face it, the Jubilee line is about as useful to me, as a chocolate teapot.
In the end last night, I walked to Eaton Manor Gate and then found I just missed the W15 bus, I needed to get to Hackney Central for any number of welcoming buses home. I should have taken the Victoria Gate and walked through the park for a 277 or 30. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I had a similar problem at ExCel trying to get to the cable-car, where you had to walk twice the length of the Excel building to get going in the right direction. Wasn’t the Emirates Air-Line supposed to be an important part of the Olympic transport network?
I can only assume that Olympic travel routes were drawn up by someone who doesn’t walk or use a bus and probably lives in Houston. They certainly didn’t bring the 488 bus into their thinking, despite the fact that Transport for London said they extended the route to Dalston for Olympic purposes.
They certainly made it difficult for those who live close to the stadium and just a couple of Overground or Underground stops away difficult.
Why I Won’t Drive Again!
I now suspect that in a couple of years, my eyesight might be good enough to drive again.
But I’m pretty certain that I won’t!
Given my medical history, suppose I was to hit a child and kill them, when even the impeccable witnesses said it was not my fault, would I really want to have to go through any legal process, from perhaps vindictive parents. Especially, if it came out, I’d had a serious stroke and been stopped from driving for medical reasons.
What worries me, is that there are many out there with worse medical problems than me, who still drive. As it was I could be dead now, if this morning I’d gone by the pedestrian lights near me, as an idiot in a blue Nissan Micra went up the clear inside lane at about sixty with the lights on red to go straight over. What a wanker! His medical problem was in his head. Why I hadn’t stepped out I do not know! But who cares? I just didn’t! I suspect I heard him.
Thinking about it, he must have gone straight over the crossing seventy metres or so before the lights at speed. I just wish I’d got his number.
The Anonymous Widower 