transport

in the last few months these funny boards have appeared in most tube stations. they tell you how all the other train lines are doing so you don’t feel so bad that the line you are about to travel on is a bit broken too.
occasionally you can even feel smug that your line is ok whilst all the others are broken.
i like how they are written by hand in felt pen. makes them somehow more human.
this one today caught my eye. it uses the words ‘normal’ and ‘good’. standards have fallen so far that normal is bad and good is noteworthy.

click for big version

here is a lad on a bike on a phone box. a bunch of them had their BMXs and were bunny hopping up benches, across flower beds and up walls in the name of fun.
they were wearing crash helmets which was a little dissapointing. if they were in to danger and destruction they should have gone all the way.
the lad in the picture hopped (whilst still on his bike) off the phone box on to the grey box and then on to the black bin before dropping to the floor and cycling off.

it snowed this afternoon. i know this because it took me 2.5 hours to get home from work. but it was interesting as people broke the rules and spoke to each other.
when i found a train which was working i was dissapointed to find on my exit that the next carriage along had no working lights. i would have LOVED to have been in this spooky carriage. anyhow …
this sign came hurtling along the road in front of me down Praed Street like it was on castors. it was a nice advertising techique as everyone turned to look at it. it also got stuck in the middle of the road so lots of car drivers looked at it too.

a man on the train said to me he loved the snow and when he grew up in Wales he used to go sledging using a Volkswagon Beatle bonnet. my reply to this random piece of information was “i didn’t know they made hats”. i don’t think he understood, but then neither did I.
why were there so many VW Beatle bonnets in Wales ? I asked him and he said “I dunno, but they had loads. even the schools had some”.
(American visitors will note that a ‘bonnet’ is a ‘hood’ – which is also a head covering so the joke still works).
here are some wires looking good in the snow:

another moped. this time with stick

it’s usual to leave your bike chained to something random in london, usually without the front wheel. the idea being that bike thieves are too stupid to think about doing a wheely as they steal your bike.
here, someone has gone for the opposite approach. they’ve chained their front wheel but taken the rest of their bike with them. i like that approach.
it’s a bit like those car radios you can take out so they don’t get stolen. people with those should leave the radio in the street and take the car inside. primarily because cars are worth more than the radio.

travelling by dog is a good way of avoiding the congestion charge. unfortunately you still have to pay to park your dog at a meter. i still remember when they called them inches.

here is a mysterious key hole on a Central Line platform (Bank i think). It’s a door in the floor. but it’s more than a door in the floor. it’s also got a key hole.
it’s obviously an entrance to another world. it’s not a parallel world because the door is the wrong angle. perhaps it’s a perpendicular world instead ?

here is a fantastic site on disused london underground platforms and tunnels.

i love this picture. not sure why. but i do. so there.

trains are good value (but not in the monetary sense). there is still lots of opportunity to see big mechanical things which are all greasy.
the buffers (i mistyped this the first time with hilarious consequences) at paddington station are a good example of this.
if i were a train driver i’d been tempted to use the buffers to stop my train once in a while. just for kicks like.

my train took a long time to get home this evening. but then these late night trains do.
when i arrived at my station there were loads of vans parked up and there were strange lights further up the track. i think they were doing some mending.
as i walked away i heard a strange whiring noise. i turned and saw what looked like a dinosaur going along the tracks. i took a photo to show you (it was quite dark):

here is a bag of banana skins on the District Line this evening. There were obviously some monkeys on the tube earlier (perhaps going to a chimps tea party) as there were banana skins everywhere else as well.

i got a different train this morning and walked to work a different way. i even bought a different type of confectionary. i was trying to see what it would be like to be someone else doing a different commute.
on the train the window wouldn’t shut. this resulted in much angry huffing from fellow passengers who variously tried to slam the window shut to get it to stay closed. each time someone succeeded the train would wobble and it would drop open again.
i was sitting next to the window so i got a steady icey blast from the outside which i quite enjoyed. it’s great being wrapped up in a warm coat and hat, with your feet gently warmed by the floor heating, whilst your face is being frozen off.
i might break all the window catches so i can experience this again (in winter)

occasionally the display screens at my local train station don’t work. today was one such occasion (though it was working 7 hours earlier, at midnight, when i came home last night).
it was pulsating a nice wobbly pattern, reminiscent of an oscilloscope on a 1970s Open Univeristy program.
There was a man with wild hair and a big beard wearing a labcoat pointing at it with a wooden stick whilst chalking something on a blackboard besides him (i made this last bit up)

the conditions were ideal, if a little windy, for a lunchtime race on Tottenham Court Road.
It was the first annual funkypancake paper puddle boat race.

There were four boats two from John (top and bottom), one from Pete (on the right) and one from myself (on the left).

Read More »first annual paper puddle boat race

here is a man travelling by tea trolley down by Middlesex Hospital (congestion charge exempt). he’s pushing fast to build up speed and is about to jump on.
There has been a bit of a pedestrian backlash recently because train travellers soemtimes get drinks trolleys. This chap is a drinks trolley vigilante. i salute him for that. i also quietly applaud his lab coat.

here is a moped. they are exempt from the congestion charge you know. and you can park them anywhere.
stick not included.

here is a new transport idea which seems to be very popular (poplar?) this morning. it’s pine tree transport. i think the idea is you take your old christmas tree, ride it around london then park it outside your house.