Liverpool’s Bucket Fountain
I mentioned this in the comments on an earlier post. So today, instead of going direct to my meeting at the Unversity, I took the Wirral line to James Street station to see the Bucket fountain.
It was actually working, although I have read that normally the water is turned off.
My Thames Water Bill
I had my Thames Water statement this morning. People complain about the cost of water and sewage, but I paid just £82.54 for 179 days.
That works out at 0.46 pence a day. And I thought the halfpenny wasn’t legal tender any more.
I actually used twenty one tonnes of water over that period or about 117 litres a day.
According to the Times today, the average Thames Water bill is £354 a year. I pay less than half that, which is to be expected, as my house is single occupied.
Anybody Fancy A Drink?
I saw this outside the National Theatre in Oslo.
Anybody Fancy A Drink?
You don’t see many these days. Especially, in such a prominent location.
They Must Have A Lot Of Burger And Kebab Joints In Kingston
According to lots of reports, like this one in the Metro, the sewers in Kingston have been blocked by a fatberg which is the size of a London bus.
The last report of this type of blockage was in Leicester Square, which I was told on good authority, when I visited the sewers was close to McDonalds.
So I can only conclude that they have a lot of fast food restaurants in Kingston.
Crossrail And The Super Sewer
The two large tunneling projects in London at the moment are Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel or Super Sewer.
They both require long tunnels and will cost billions of pounds each.
But the public seem to have different attitudes to the two projects.
Nearly everybody seems to support Crossrail, whereas there is substantial opposition to the sewer.
I did ask a friend, if there had been any opposition to Crossrail and he said, there was a bit in the early days from places like Mayfair. People seemed to have been worried about dust and noise during the construction phase. But now everybody just gets on with life and hopes that Crossrail will be finished and walking and driving will get back to normal.
To be fair to Crossrail, they seem to have gone out of their way with green walls to minimise noise, using the river to carry tunnel spoil and being a good neighbour as at Stepney City Farm. They have also launched a well-funded and publicised archaeology program.
On the other hand, the Super Sewer, doesn’t seem to have done the same to allay the fears of a public, who don’t want all the problems of construction and the increase in water bills.
I do wonder, whether the difference is down to the fact that a new railway is something people can use and feel gives them tangible benefits, but a sewer, is something that they only use a few times every day and don’t want to think about. And it looks to me, that Thames Water have not done a good enough job to sell the benefits of the new sewer to the general public.
And We Think We Have Food Safety Problems!
This story from the BBC about rat meat in China, makes me think we’re lucky. I like this paragraph.
I heard one anecdote about a restaurant in southern China that serves up rat meat dishes. Believe me these establishments do exist.
At this particular restaurant, the owners reassured the customers their rats had been caught in the countryside and not in the sewers.
Incidentally, when I visited London’s sewers, I didn’t see one rat.
I Tend To Avoid Sun, Swimming, Salt, Cold And Water
I was wondering today, if my lifestyle choices have been my problem all along.
As a child I spent endless hours in my bedroom playing with my Meccano, and in most of my working life I was programming alone in my office, often watching the television at the same time. Even today, living alone in East London, I spend a lot of time on my computer, with either the television or the radio in the background.
The difference now, is that I try to get some sun and even today, I’ve had an hour or so in the sun walking around the local area.
But I don’t eat much salt and I’ve never liked it. So could I be that rare person, who doesn’t get enough salt?
Paradoxically, although I’m not a sun lover, I do hate the cold and C used to complain that my office and car was too hot. This winter though, I’ve felt a bit better by deliberately keeping the temperature down to 20 °C or less inside most of the time. My gut, which is usually troublesome, has been perfect all the time.
I am trying to drink more water, but only in the form of tea, lemonade, milk or beer. But all I seem to want to do is pee it down the toilet!
So can I get decent health, by controlling my avoidances?
One conclusion, I’m coming to, is that when I was living with C, she used to drag me out for walks and probably curbed some of my excess.
So does that explain, why my health was better for all those years I was married?
The Water We Drink
The BBC has done a blind tasting test of the tap water from various parts of the United Kingdom.
I don’t drink much water directly, although I do drink a lot of it in cups of tea all day.
I was brought up in London and I suspect that the water I drink now in Hackney is vaguely similar to that I had sixty years ago in Enfield. It’s probably exactly the same to that we had in the Barbican, as that area is only a kiolmetre or so away and I can see the flats from the corner of my road.
I certainly will drink it again, if there is nothing else, which is something I hardly ever did, whilst living away from London.
Except for the four years or so, that I lived in Liverpool, I’ve always lived in hard water areas. In fact, at one time, I lived in Melbourn near Cambridge, which in the 1970s reputedly had the hardest water in England. It also had quite a few sets of twins and the doctor thought there was a connection.
It’s funny, though but a few months ago after a couple of days in Liverpool, the tastes and smells around my mouth were quite different. It was almost if they were much fresher. But that could have been the Liverpudlian sea air.
Incidentally, one of the waters they tasted was from Woodbridge in Suffolk, where C and I lived for twenty or so years. The water didn’t come out well in the taste test! But I do remember C, who was an obsessive water drinker, saying she didn’t like the water, when we moved to Newmarket. She used to drink masses of bottled water, although usually insisted on tap water in a restaurant.
Hillsborough
Hillsborough is not one of my favourite stadia, although I’ve no reason to dislike it. I’ve been three times, twice recently including yesterday and once in the 1960s, when I was at Liverpool University, where I did visit quite a few grounds in the North.
The West Stand At Hillsborough
Perhaps, I dislike Hillsborough because visiting supporters sit in the West or Leppings Lane Stand, which featured so grimly in the Hillsborough disaster.
It certainly isn’t because of over-officious stewarding or policing, as it was a very painless and friendly process to get inside. Perhaps not as friendly as last time, where a tout knocked down an unsellable Senior ticket to me for less than cost price. What he was doing with the ticket I do not know, but at the time he seemed pleased I gave him a tenner for it.
Inside Hillsborough
I think it must be because the stadium shows its age, although it doesn’t in the picture. But, there are still roof supports obstructing some views and the facilities are in a severe need of an update. They’re not as bad as some, but when you look at places like Hull, Brighton, Ipswich, Derby, Wolverhampton and others, you realise that the toilets and food outlets at Hillsborough, are not of the standard most supporters expect.
I think that some innovative thinking is needed in this area, which would benefit supports and clubs alike. As an example, last Tuesday at the Crystal Palace game, I desperately needed a drink of water, so I went to the catering outlet a few minutes before half-time. I found Ipswich Town were selling a new East Anglian brand of water called Iceni. Perhaps, if there is one, clubs might benefit from selling local water.
Water At A Price
Or not as the case may be!
Water At A Price
It says €1.85 on the display, but they added twenty-five cents for recycling.
Why can’t the price be displayed as €2.10?
