Please excuse the length of this cathartic piece. It is very much a “Dear Diary, well it’s been a funny old start to 2022” for reasons you will understand. In part its a manifesto to “Blog Back Better” after the manifesto using a sort of self-prescribed combination of cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness to decompress and improve my wellbeing. (Dog that sounds so pretentious.)
A late friend’s (“C”) illness and helping his sister (H) clear his apartment after his death meant I have been forced to travel across London from SE8 to W10 fairly often in the past months. In many ways this has been positive as it ended for me two years of lockdown and staying home to keep safe amd bake bread.
In the period I have learned new things about C. The Mormon led remembrance and commital welcoming his friends from London Gay Switchboard who, gave mutual respect, would have pleased him. Making sure his sister didn’t see or understood gradually certain items was fraught initially, He was on a lot of pain killers and the last version, of many, of his wishes and specific legacies was …. in part unfathomable and other people untraceable or declined the legacy. There were no takers for the bike so the final wish that the rest of the flat contents be used “for the benefit of the community” a bit widely. `The Mormons were great at collecting the various bibles, books on Mormon history and theology anything Mormony.I understand that they came well prepared for the load and had a nice chat with H and hubby. I delayed arriving to give them space.
Major spanners were thrown in the works when those due to receive the 3000+ comics plus mainly Star Trek books and some action figures declined and the Greek Orthodox church didn’t want the many, many modern icons. . Using the “find a good home” principle I eventually found a bulk comics dealer who started buying and selling after being a collector himself. It was very much a “by the foot” calculation and it was a bit sad to see the progress from them being kept upright in clear plastic folders to just being piled up as his condition deteriorated over the years. The dealer also sells direct to the public and includes otherwise unsellable copies of common editions as bonuses when he sends the order. Maybe complete BS but we ended up £300 and down 30 boxes and a couple bags - down a couple of cubic metres of things to get rid of.
The apartment block has a sort of free yard sale system where people put unwanted but potentially useful items in the entrance lobby, Anything not taken is dealt with by the janitorial staff. That helped a lot with the small items that would be difficult for charity shops to sell or find other uses for. I carefully disposed of knives and sharps like kebab spikes by wrapping them and sending the package down the chute to the huge and secured trash bins. The collected garbage is incinerated in a power/heat recycling plant near me so I know the metals will be recycled.
I was the original tenant of the council (local authority) flat in a high-rise block. About 30 years ago we swapped flats. I was working in East London and he wanted to be near the Greek Orthodox church in North Kensington. This means I am not aware of the current benevolent organsisation in the W10 area so the “good homes” I immediately identified were acquaintances or local facilities. I have even found possible outlets. For example the guy in his later 20s I called on to try to help crack into C’s computer for any (carefully chosen) pictures for H was only able to take a mirror image of the hard drive before the Windows 7 system gave up the ghost. He had suffered badly in the pandemic and is effectively homeless living in one room in his aunt’s flat making some money on the side playing computer to get often ready cooked meals. If nothing else he needed to get out of his burrow. His big screen monitor (only) screen that was given instead of being thrown out from an office was playing up. So he was the obvious candidate to thank with C’s 4K 48in TV as a monitor and the microwave so he can heat up meals or his favorite porridge.
There have been ups and downs. I skipped a couple of planned visits over feeling a bit rough. This could have been unused muscles getting a surprise and in one case typical very mild Omicron B2 symptoms of a runny nose. Computer guy could not make the van move. I hit the jackpot with the man of the “man and van” move. Not only was he great in moving the stuff, chatting to him he was from Belarus and his girlfriend is Orthodox. Along with his 25% tip, I got rid of gave him three random icons that were of shared saints. Nearly down to three boxes worth!!
Anyone interested in 100+ Greek Orthodox modern icons in various sizes most in original immediate packaging??? Please!!! (Seriously if a Greek Orthodox church or community group is interested they need only pay for shipping costs!)
All in all, dear Diary, the first half of 2022 has been a pain in the derrier.
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Now I need to get my place in order in case I shuffle off this moral (sic) coil, If nothing else I have to find a good home for the stuff that needs to go for sale or to charities or organisations I had to bring back to mine. First task is to sort out the towels I used to pack china, give them a thorough non-bio wash and double rinse for the local cat rescue place to use as bedding. I have two candidates for the planters and small garden Buddha from his balcony. They rely on government benefit, unlikely to find work and use gardening as a therapy. If the local community library does not want the DVD player, music CDs and mainly sci-fi DVDs, they can go to the local exchange store as an “I’m not paying you but I am not taking them away, it’s for charity so what’s a fair deal?” basis. Kids books like the hardback Beatric Potter collection can go the the community library or the local primary school. Some pretty nicknaks may stay until a jumble sale comes up.
Anyone interested in 100+ Greek Orthodox modern icons in various sizes most in original immediate packaging??? Please!!! (Seriously if a Greek Orthodox church or community group is interested they need only pay for shipping costs!)
So the plans are made if in need of some work but the experience has changed my outlook.
I’ve decided I need an excuse to get out and about once a week apart from the everyday travel like shopping. (At least I don’t keep rent statements back three decades and grocery delivery notes for the last 2!) What better than to impose on you a semi-regular photo diary about the quirks and novelties of transport in London. It’s not all buses, trains and boats. Some of the Transport for London system uses structures and rights of way dating back to 1802.
There is a lot going on in London with new railways, newly abandoned lines and more stations opening. My first will be about a trip on the new Elizabeth line, formerly Crossrail, on its opening (sort of) day, May 24. The line’s tunnel under the old docks in East London recycles one built in 1848.
I must be entering my dotage as this project sort of reflects what I was doing about 60 years ago. One day each weekend, usually Sunday, from about age 10, Mum would pack me sandwiches and a flask of coffee for me to go (alone or with a friend) to go bus spotting using a Red Rover ticket which gave unlimited travel on red buses. London Transport also had a “Green Rover” for a day’s unlimted travel on their limited stop long distance network where the buses were painted yelllow (just joking).
I now suspect this provided a good excuse to have the house clear to entertain her friend who was to become my stepfather a few years later. This was a much more innocent age when I was not unusual in walking a mile to primary school, over a main road and alone from about age 8. The school entrance was opposite my grandparents’ house, convenient for lunch and tea if Mum was working late. We moved nearer when I was about 6 but before we would go on the trollybus from home. It had to cross a rail line but if you went to the pedestrian bridge a bit furthe into the common, you could get engulfed in steam and coal dust from the the trains.
I was not a good bus spotter. Each year a paperback book would be published which had the fleet numbers of every red London bus. The ideal was to carry on until you had spotted every one. In the early 60s the old trollybuses and diesel RT family of buses from the 1930s and 40s were being replaced by the iconic “Routemaster” buses. I paid more attention to exploring the city, especially the center, rather than hang out outside a fumey bus garage .
Even so, I could still probably tell you if the Routemaster was an RM, RML, RMC or one of the experimental front entry versions (6that one’s obvious!)
Out with the Boris Bus Mk 1
I must say I have no interest in the Boris Johnson (as Mayor of London) specified “New Routemaster”. The nostalgic third rear platform to “hop on and hop off” between stops is a failure. The doors have to be closed before pulling away for safety. The cost of a second crew member to supervise the rear platform and staircase is uneconomic. These design “features” mean they are cramped, low, dingy with multiple levels on the lower deck making carrying shopping, wheelchairs and strollers difficult. The short windows on the upper deck make it claustrophobic. Taller tourists have to hunch down if they don’t want their sightseeing consisting of different sidewalks or the opposite road lane surface . Their major failure is that they do not spontaneously combust like the “Bendybuses”. Thankfully it looks like thier days are numbered.
Rotund, red and jolly good fun on the outside, the reality of the New Routemasters tells a vastly different story. Shambling, retro-fitted Frankenstein's monsters, they no longer know what they stand for. They are lies on wheels. They sold themselves to Londoners as one thing, and unravelled as a stinking coil of unpleasant surprises. The British company that made them has since gone to rack and ruin (British rack and ruin, mind).
And although plenty of Londoners retain a fondness for these buses — or the way they appear on the surface at least — TfL is through with them. It won't be buying any more. It'll be glad to see the curvaceous back of them. It won't be long before the New Routemasters are put out to pasture, to work on the transportation version of the after-dinner circuit; heritage open days. Making people laugh and revel in their silly rambunctiousness. But not actually playing an actual daily part in their lives. Hell not that
Increasingly strict requirements for all commercial vehicles in London’s Ultra Low Emmissions Zone already spelt the doom of these diesel/electric hybrids. In some circumstances they performed so poorly that they were relying on the inefficient diesel engine to provide power rather than the batteries. As a result they produced more emmissions that the diesel buses they replaced,
In with the “New Bus for London” (cross fingers)
The prototype all-electric “New Bus for London” is as different as American cheese and Stilton. Gone are the tiny windows, bench seats, low ceiling and the rear staircase and curve (“like the old Routemasters had” on steroids). In is a huge rear window, skylight and individual high back seats with power outlets to charge your phone etc. You are travelling through London rather than on a bus going through London. The pandemic has put extreme pressure on TfL finances so full introduction may take time.
That little rant illustrates some of my experiences and, if sometimes cursory interest in transport, design and ergonomics. Teenage fads included interest in ecology, industrial archaeology and classical music.Photography gave me an awareness of composition and darkrooms. Interest in design and materials really started with my grandfather who was a skilled metal and wood worker. In the 19-teens he built vehicle coachwork that was put onto the chassis with the engine, wheels and undercarrage. Childhood memories include the smell of the wood being turned on the lathe in his (asbestos!!) back garden shed.
Like many during the pandemic I turned to YouTube for audio-visual input. I went more for information from reliable sources. After a crash course in virology and immunology, I wanted more input.
To make it clear, I am not a hypochondriac, I only research disease I have or have a strong chance of getting so I am used to reading peer reviewed research papers. I once found an early experiment in rats which identified a side effect which went to explain an annoying side-effect I had experienced with an anti-depressant. Finding this after nearly a year of discomfort and after discussing it with my doctor, my medication changed and the symptoms went away. I now can rattle off the answer to the follow-up question when I am asked to tell a medic what I am allergic to. After penicillin I have to add “plums” knowing what’s coming which is often just “Plums???”. I didn’t research that one, just avoided them. The best theory one doctor came up with is that the fungal bloom on the fresh plums I had really enjoyed on vacation in Portugal had caused the allergy. The strange thing that the time I developed the P allergy I was sick in bed at Mum’s home reading “The Lord of The Rings”. I had also taken the same book to Lisbon to read on the beach. I dismissed it being involved` any causal connection between the two allergies.
YouTube needed to give more and obliged.,
Elon Musk provided some entertainment blowing up water towers near the Texas/Mexico borders. Then he landed a Starship without a RUD (“Rapid Unexpected Dis-assembly” — it went bang). Iceland stepped in with a vocano that went bang more regularly and I got into “Reykyjavik Grapevine”, usually presented by the editor-in-chief Valur Grettisson with entertainment provided by his “Chief of Morale Officer” who is a bitch. She’s a lively sheepdog/collie (?) mix who has her own following. Her background antics with one of the many balls or frisbees they have sent her can distract.
I have also enjoyed catching up with transit developments worldwide, especially in London and the progress of the much delayed Elizabeth line peviously called Crossrail.The best coverage of this has come from the “Hidden Hangouts” team who produce it as part of their work for the London Transport Museum. Its main public facility is in Covent Garden, near Trafalgar Square. Their visits have given some amazing insights into the designs and construction of these huge stations (240m long with trains over 200m capable of carrying 1500 people each. While the underground platforms have common design elements which makes them instantly recognisable as Elizabeth line platforms. However as you go up to street level each station and each exit at stations with two plus reflects the surrounding area of the city. So there is a lot of visual material out there.
My first excursion will cover Paddington. Its design pays homage to the historic station next door. Its brickwork can be glimpsed through the glass walls of the street level pavillion. The main line station is well known from children’s literature and the movies made of them. There is a statue of the eponymous ursine on the concourse. After Mum’s busspotting supplies I sometimes take some refreshments with me for longer days out. Marmalade sandwiches would seem appropriate.
It’s not only London that I might cover. Alone on my bucket list of modes of transport remains a hovercraft trip. Sitting inside the top of a Bezos dildo while they set fire to the other end is guaranteed to set off my vertigo. There’s one passenger hovercraft service left in the world and it happens to go to the Isle of Wight where I have some very fond memories. So a trip there is definitely on the books.
I suppose I could always regail you with stories from my mispent youth — OK life — I have some amusing tales of mishaps and disasters. Let’s face it vacations where something goes wrong but it’s OK provide much better stories. Living and working in London can leave you time rich and cash limited so much of my longer travel has been by some crafty measures (two trans-Atlantic tickets if you by a vacuum cleaner) that unfortunately are no longer promoted. For my last long distance flights to Zambia and back from Cape Town in 2001 I paid under £50 in cash using airmiles I banked without flying.
So I don’t know if this is a promise or a threat, but you will be seeing a lot more on transport as well as politics and less on COVID in future. Let me know if you are interested in any of these broad areas you’d like me to go on to.
