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[May. 10th, 2007|10:35 am] |
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Cycling to work has been a bit of a hazard lately. A lovely pair of Canadian Geese have decided that the best place to raise their goslings is the middle of the canal tow path.
Cyclists and pedestrians alike have had to dodge them. I was attacked this morning with old Mother Goose landling a blow on my ankle. This poor jogger witnessed the attack and decided it would be safer to brave Camden traffic than continue and get nipped by a goose.
Still, it's better than the normal towpath hazards such as crack and dope dealers.
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| Why have one when you can have six? |
[May. 1st, 2007|07:05 pm] |
Hello commuters,
I went to a gig at the Scala last night, so decided to stay at my brother's place in Sydenham. There is a direct train from Sydenham to Guildford at 7:02am, so it seems like an okay way of getting in to work the next day, right? This annotated pdf explains what happened. Start from the right hand side. Important stations are highlighted and the route taken drawn with the transparent pink thick lines. |
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[Mar. 27th, 2007|04:42 pm] |
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Ah. Warm weather. Ducklings. Sunshine. Cherry blossoms. Lovely. All is good in the world. Except. For.
THE RETURN OF THE SUMMER CYCLISTS.
They are like newborn foals trying to find their way in the world on wobbly legs. Or more accurately they are like Sunday drivers.
They don't cycle on the right side of the path. They are in fear of falling into the canal. They are bloody annoying.
I hate to say this, but can I please have winter back thanks?
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| only the internet knows |
[Mar. 26th, 2007|03:29 pm] |
1. i was charged £1 for my travel hassles i last posted about, for going 'out of zone' though i have 1-2 travelcard. can only figure that it was because it did not TOUCH OUT and though i wasn't on prepay it just spacked up. went to complain the next day and was told i had to call oyster to discuss because they could't read the last journey or some bollox. didn't bother as couldn't be arsed.
2. i am however on prepay this week and may have to do the whole tube-dlr thing but now i'm all worried i'm going to be charged. because i can TOUCH IN at TCR, and TOUCH IN AGAIN at bank to the DLR and TOUCH OUT at lewisham, but what about TOUCHING OUT at bank? hmm? and will i be charged £2 for a single zone 1-2 tube and a single 1-2 dlr? i suppose i could take the bus from TCR to lewisham but i'd be even later than i already am, and also there are roadworks that would take ages. but at least my day bus pass would be capped at £3.
wah, i hate being confused! and too blinking poor at the end of the month to afford a travelcard going out of my account till friday :( |
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| travelcard confusion |
[Mar. 22nd, 2007|09:43 am] |
i figure this place is just as good as any to ask 'hein?'
right so, i have a zone 1-2 travelcard which is valid till 25th march. this was my usage yesterday:
am - get on 53 bus, bleep in. get off bus at parliament square, get on 12, fail to bleep in because bleeper is broken. doesn't really matter anyway.
pm - get tube from leicester square, change at TCR for central line, no bleeping involved
change at bank for dlr, bleep in
alight at limehouse, fail to bleep out. don't think this matters but mayhap be wrong.
later pm - attempt to bleep in from wapping station, and am advised to seek assistance, however no staff are present. allow one of my travelling companions to attemp to bleep in, TC bleeps in successfully. attempt again to bleep in, told again to seek nonexistent assitance. complain loudly about having perfetly valid travelcard, and am forced to tailgate, for want of a better word, behind TC#2 in order to get onto train.
bleep out at new cross station, once again advised to seek assitance, however as station is closed, the entrance is out via the side and can leave anyway.
this morning: bleep in 453 bus, which reads zone 1-2 travelcard, valid to 25th march.
so what was the issue last night? was it confused that i was attemping to alight at wapping from bank? if so, why?
also: if you are going to leave a station unstaffed, then keep the flipping ticket barriers open for crying out loud! |
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| words to eat |
[Feb. 14th, 2007|09:12 pm] |
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The guy who gets on at Havant and sits near me every day has been reading Gordon Ramsay's Autobiography for many many weeks, and he's not yet half way through. Perhaps it is so good that he is savouring every word, or perhaps it is turgid drivel. I don't plan to find out which. |
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| catch me in the evening |
[Dec. 12th, 2006|10:08 am] |
(x-posted to my journal)
So this morning I queued for the W3 to get to Finsbury Park, as I do every morning. I wasn't too far back in the queue, but the bus was busier than usual, and there wasn't another one for 15 minutes, so people were really crowding on.
There's a place where the queue naturally splits because the bus doesn't pull up to the stop properly, and so it stops behind the shelter. So, instead of walking all the way around the shelter, most people walk up to the bus door, wait for the rest of the queue to get on, and then fall back into place when it's their go. I was at the split, so I took the split.
Suddenly a woman came out of nowhere, went around me, jumped the queue, and hopped on the bus. I thought that was annoying, but the bus was nearly full anyway, and nobody else was getting on, so I also squeezed on just as the doors closed.
I spent a pleasant journey leaned up against the rail at the front of the bus. The front doors never opened for the whole journey, so I didn't have to do the thing where you have to move out 6 inches in order to let the doors open. Which was good, because there weren't 6 inches to spare.
So when we arrived at Finsbury Park, the front doors had to open, so I had to move out to let them before I could get off. But immediately as the bus stopped, the woman behind me said, "Move! Go!" I had, of course, nowhere to go. So I said so, as I finally moved off the bus:
"Move? Go? I had nowhere to go!"
The response was a glare and a tutting sound, so I said, "Honestly, selfish people." (Two typically English behaviors, good so far.)
She replied, "Say that to my face and I'll slap you," so of course I replied, "I am saying it to your face, you stupid bitch." Ahh, taking it to the next level there, marvellous.
But she one-upped me: "If I catch you in the evening, I will stab you to death for saying these things to me." And then she was off.
Another woman came up behind me and said, "Don't worry about her, she does this every morning."
So there you have it. If I get stabbed to death tonight, it was that selfish cvnt who pushes into the queue at the bus stop on Ferme Park Road, and everyone will know who you mean. That's if I get stabbed to death near home, mind--I might well piss off some other selfish cow near Paddington today. |
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| Wetness |
[Dec. 5th, 2006|09:07 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Jason Lee - All Girl Summer Fun Band | ] |
It was raining very heavily when I left the house this morning, so it was not a good time to discover that my only waterproof pair of shoes had fallen apart. I wore my oh so trendy blackspot sneakers, which although much better made than All Stars have soles which crack after a few months use, and which then let water in quite copiously.
As well as raining heavily, it was also extremely windy. I attempted to use my umbrella, pointing into the wind, but a freak gust caught it and violently turned it inside out, irreprably bending one of the spokes. Crap. By the time I had made my 5 minute walk to the station I was quite wet. I took my shoes off, hoping to place them over the heater, but the heater was not switched on, unsurprisingly. Oh well, time to visit the vegetarian shoe shop in Brighton for new shoes, I guess. |
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| Silverlink. |
[Nov. 28th, 2006|03:54 pm] |
I haven't contributed anything to this community yet as I don't have a daily commute; however, I work in Beckton twice a week. It's way out east at the end of the DLR, and is chiefly notable for having an ASDA, an Alpine range and absolutely nothing else at all (apart from my workplace). When I lived in south London I would be late for work almost every time, as I refused to accept that my commute took over an hour and a half, sigh... But since I've moved to Hackney, it's super-easy! Silverlink to Stratford and bus to Beckton, or Silverlink to Canning Town and DLR the rest of the way. I get a seat all the way, the view of London City Airport is marvellous, the DLR drivers are prone to making comedy announcements and I don't have to go under the ground at all. It's entirely great...
...except on the days when the Silverlink breaks down.
And so it was that we were all turfed off the train at Hackney Wick station this morning and advised that there might never be any trains ever again and to take our chances with a tiny bus, which had no room for anyone because people kept trying to get on with their umbrellas still up, and I tried to find my way to Stratford through a mysterious industrial area, while wearing my new boots which REALLY hurt my feet. Woe! And ouch! Though actually it only took about 20 minutes and was quicker than waiting for another tiny bus full of silly people.
By the way, the Silverlink isn't going to serve the eastbound stations after Stratford after 9th December, so if you want one final visit to North Woolwich, set off now... |
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| Portsmouth <-> Liverpool |
[Nov. 15th, 2006|11:15 pm] |
I commuted from Portsmouth to Liverpool (and back) today. Fun! It all went rather smoothly, connection--wise, though the ticket vendor insisted on giving me a very long time to cross London so that I was at Euston (figure 1) in time for the train an hour before the one I had a ticket for (and this was with me going Waterloo -> Oxford Circus -> Euston, mistakenly thinking that Euston wasn't on the Charring Cross branch of the Northern line). Still, there was coffee to be drunk and Partrick Süskind's Perfume to finish.
 | | Figure 1: Euston, one of London's famous train stations |
My Pendolino train journey to Liverpool was only marred by reasonably minor technical problems not involving delays or anything like that, but more along the lines of Power Point crashing and corrupting the talk I was finishing up that I was supposed to give in Liverpool. That and the power sockets in the train didn't work.
The man opposite me that got on at Crewe and off at Runcorn read a porn mag poorly hidden inside a regular lad's mag, and the old lady behind me snored.
 | | Figure 2: The view from my seat, earlier |
The journey back was quite pleasant. As I sat on the return train and waited for it to leave, I spent a very foolish 75p on 10 minutes of wireless access to slurp the day's email for replying to on the journey home. This would really have been quite a sensible thing to do if I didn't click the "buy" button literally a second before the train pulled away and out of reach of the wireless signal. There was a modest amount of mobile phone conversation, and radio 4 wasn't working on the built-in audio, but quite a nice journey really. At Waterloo I legged it thinking I might make the 9pm train to Portsmouth, and would have done if the wait for the Northern Line train wasn't so long. So now I sit on the 9:30 to Portsmouth, suffering only the common nighttime train syndrome of girl with burger king meal making the carriage smell. As I wait for this train to pull away, I took a pretty picture of train things (figure 2). Now, to finish tomorrow's lecture (I'm glad I didn't try NaNoWriMo).
edit: aggghhh! I hate bloody chewing gum and the oaves who stick it under the tables. gah. now I have somebody else's gum on my jeans. |
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| bus wars episode V: the douchebags strike back |
[Nov. 2nd, 2006|11:03 am] |
sometimes i truly loathe humanity.
today i was towards the front of the bus. those of you familiar with bendy busses know that there the first aisle consists of an aisle with a single seat and two seats behind the driver, and then a set of four seats in an aisle, two front-facing, two back facing. i was in the front-facing second aisle.
a lady, not quite what you'd call elderly but definately older, with a shopping trolley and on crutches got on the front of the bus. i sat for a few moments, figuring one of the people in the first aisle would offer their seat. no dice. the bus moved on to the next stop.
i unplugged my earphones and said (rather loudly i must admit) 'excuse me ma'am, would you like to sit down?' as it was apparent no one was going to offer their seat and she was too shy to ask.
she smiled at me gratefully and replied 'yes please, thank you.'
at the next stop the bus got very packed but luckily i was next to the luggage-rack thing and put my bag in there and read my book. after about 10 minutes, the lady got off at e&c and thanked me again. i managed to get the seat across from my original seat. instant karma there, marvellous.
honestly though. some people... |
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[Nov. 1st, 2006|01:54 pm] |
I am still sans bike, having not the funding to acquire a new one for at least a week yet.
This means I take the Silverlink everyday from Dalston Kingsland to Kensal Rise.
That's a loooong way to have a gentleman chewing gum really loudly in your ears. He had his mouth wide open and he was slurping and smacking his lips just a few centimetres away from my ear. He was also breathing really heavily, as if he had a blocked nose. Big rasping slurping breaths of air. In an out. Arrrggggghhhhh.
There's nowhere to run on a packed commuter train.
I tried making tutting noises and glaring at him but he had his headphones on.
Eventually I turned to him and signalled him to take his headphones off and politely asked him for some gum. He looked at me funny, as you would when a complete stranger asked your for gum. He went to reach into his pockets and get the packet out.
As he did so I said "it's funny, I never chew gum but I got a sudden craving because you were chewing it really loudly next to my ear."
He turned bright red and the other passengers who were suffering in silences alongside me grinned. |
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| A Bus Story |
[Nov. 1st, 2006|11:59 am] |
Hello, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) commuting_tales. The other day I went to my friend's house for dinner and I was asked what I'd been up to recently (as one gets asked, when the other party is politely pretending that they do not read one's interminable LJ posts, for perhaps indeed they do not).
In any case, the first response that came to my head was that I had recently ridden on a bus route that I'd never been on before. Specifically, the S2 bus which runs between Stratford and Clapton (Millfields Park), a distance of not very far at all as the crow flies, but a journey which is stretched in every random direction you can think of and becomes excessively long. Needless to say, I quickly went on to mention the London Wine Show, and also a few gigs and London Film Festival films I had also attended.
But nonetheless, let me say, the S2 is very useful for getting from where I am living now (in Clapton) to Bow Church DLR station, as it is a direct 14 minute ride. This allows me to then take said DLR straight down to Lewisham for the Wednesday evening pub quiz, without going through zone 3 and thus accumulating additional zone extension charges on my zones 1/2 travelcard. The journey back was similarly exciting (overland > underground > bus), but I'll spare you that.
Gosh, isn't it wonderful that this community exists? |
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[Nov. 1st, 2006|11:25 am] |
thanks, douchebag on the bus, i now have 'i want to know what love iiiis, i want you to shoooow meeeee, i wanna feel what love iiiis' by journey/foreigner/air supply/delete as necessary lodged in my brain. i mean COME ON. do you really need to listen to soft rock at such a volume that it explodes out of your headphones?
i suppose it could have been worse - it could have been a tinny mobile mp3 without headphones.
*rage* |
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| Clock change |
[Oct. 30th, 2006|09:15 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Leave the Planet | ] |
I'm not convinced that putting the clocks back in autumn is such a good idea. Today it was light on my journey in the way in, and people were much noisier than they had been. I prefer it when it is still dark and people still sleepy. Bring back BST! |
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[Oct. 20th, 2006|10:53 am] |
I thought I'd get some studying done for my course by taking my textbook to read on my commute today. Of course I didn't actually get it out of my bag, as reading that textbook would be even more boring than not reading anything, so instead I watched my fellow commuters.
Highlight was this short, scrawny, skinny, odd looking bloke with a navy blue t-shirt that had "The Man" written across his chest in big, bold white text. If that wasn't funny enough, lower down on the t-shirt there was a red arrow pointing to his, errhm, package. Above this arrow were the words "The Legend".
I guffawed out loud, as did the rest of the carriage.
However, this guy ignored the snorting and carried himself with a really impressive self-confidence that you rarely see. He thought he was Arnie and Russell* and every other teh hotness actor rolled into one. It was amazing to watch.
* both Crowe AND Brand |
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| Bikeless, penniless, heartless. |
[Oct. 13th, 2006|02:59 pm] |
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So. I am now bikeless. In the grand scheme of things, with the week I've had, it's not so bad.
Here's what happened:
My bike is always in locked shed at work or locked garden at home. I never leave it anywhere else. But on Tuesday night I needed milk and bread, so chained up bike to railing outside Morrisons in Stamford Hill. Stupidly, didn't put chain through wheels.
Came outside five minutes later - back wheel gone, the one with special bolts on it so it can't be stolen. Easier to steal and cheaper to replace front wheel left alone. They really smashed at it - I now need a new wheel, chain, deralliers or whatever they are called - the lot.
The lot adds up to over £100. Plus labour. Ouch.
I am going to treat myself to a new bike through a scheme at work. I am going to keep it by my side at all times. My poor boyfriend will have to sleep on the airmattress next to my bed.
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| commuting CHEAT! |
[Oct. 12th, 2006|08:43 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | ec1 | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | early | ] |
| [ | music |
| | arcade fire | ] |
Good morning! This morning I UTTERLY CHEATED getting to work, as my boyfriend stayed over and he has an EVIL CAR (haha I nearly typed "evil cat" there) He has to leave my haus very early to get to work as he works in St Albans and I live in SE16, so at 7am this morning we both zoomed off, and he dropped me at Old Street, and I walked all the way down Old Street to my office in Farringdon.
It was a really nice walk - hardly anyone about, nice and sunny, all sort of peaceful. London at 7.40am = lovely! The only problem[0] was that Pret hadn't made any hoummous sandwiches yet, but you can't have everything can you.
[0] The only problem, of course, apart from the fact that I am in work TWO HOURS EARLY sheesh. |
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| 's not nice |
[Oct. 9th, 2006|08:05 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Motoroller Scalatron | ] |
At Petersfield, a man got on the train and sat next to me, then proceeded to sniff constantly. He made a symphony out of various noises involving his liquid snot gurgling and bubbling around his nasal cavities to which I didn't really want to listen.
I was rather glad that he got off the train at Haslemere. Maybe I should bring along some tissues tomorrow to offer him. |
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[Oct. 6th, 2006|10:28 am] |
hello, i am bec and this is my commute!
instead of getting on a packed, sweaty, lurching, nearly always late train from new cross or nx gate to london bridge, then getting onto a packed, sweaty, lurching luvvly jubbly line to bond street and walking to oxford circus, and paying about £90 a month for the privilege, i have gone against my hatred of the bendy bus, and now take the nearly always empty as i pick it up 1 stop into the journey 453 bendy bus.
it takes me twice as long, but i can actually sit down, and read or play my ds. also, it cost me £40 less a month.
however! you can always complain about something, so this is my list o' bus beef:
1) douchebags who listen to music on their mobiles without headphones, so we all have to listen to tinny rubbish.
2) douchebags who crank up the volume on their personal stereos so loud that even with headphones you can still hear their tinny rubbish
3) driver, the tannoy means your voice is amplified. therefore you do not have to SHOUT INTO IT.
4) rude ticket inspectors. i once had a man interrogate me regarding my season ticket. he should have checked it was valid and moved on, instead i was asked if it was my ticket (yes), if i got it via a work season loan (yes) and where i worked (uhmm...none of your business?)
i still do not approve of bendy busses. |
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