Quiet Sunday
Probably the most pleasurable Sunday I’ve had for a while…
… We woke up when it became light, and cuddled up for a bit. After over an hour, we decided we had to get up. The clock showed 0830 – several hours earlier than either of us expected. Maybe time did really stop after all. As I am sure you can all appreciate, we were both incredibly happy. We ended up going back to bed for a bit, and up again. We had a genuinely fun afternoon. I booked my return from London to Dundee using no wires at all (her PowerBook is part of her wireless network). She was doing some work on her new Mac Mini. We took some pics of the both of us together, and this was our mutual favourite of the two. She said to me “See, I told you I’d get you smiling for a photo”.
So, the time came – and we decided to make a move at 2130, for the 2144 train south. Enough trains pass by - check out the overhead line equipment and tracks that you can see from the window! As the train (in full First Capital Connect livery, complete with some of the picture branding) pulled into Platform 2 of Royston station, we said our thank-yous and goodbyes, until the next time, and I instincitvly headed for the train. Then I realised, we weren’t pulling off immediately. The clock showed we still had two minutes to go until departure time, but most trains (in the south at least) get doors closed by the guard with thirty seconds to go. So, just enough time for me to walk to the door, arms onto the platform, one last kiss, and pulled apart bang on 21.43.30. Talk about making the best possible use of my time…
… and that was it. For now.
The train journey was a little interesting. Because of engineering work, the train ran through, but via the Hertford North, Cuffley and Enfield Chase line, rather than the via Knebworth, Welwyn, and Potters Bar, that we did on the way up. You know I always like to vary my journeys, and see the world go by (even fast and dark), but this was another interesting twist to the weekend. Never been to Cuffley before either… been to Hertford North and Enfield (Chase) before. I had been winding Adam (from The Illusion Principle) up about playing one of his bands songs as we passed through Knebworth, just so we could say that TIP played Knebworth. Once he got it explained what Knebworth referred to (a music festival of old), he was happy! As you can see, didn’t get the chance, but I will be back again.
So, a few texts exchanged. Thanks sent to S&S for their hospitality yesterday, which came back with a “congratulations for you both” when I explained what had occurred after we’d left theirs. I was still in awe – it had been a wonderful weekend. I alighted the train at Finsbury Park (same trip as last time), after adding some more credit to my Oyster card. What a forty-eight hours since I passed here in the opposite direction (it’s ok, I will shut up about it by the end of the month, honest… lol)
The Victoria line train once again took me south, but instinct somehow meant I headed for the Piccadilly line platform initially… never mind, they are parallel. As we sped down the tracks, we made it to Victoria, where most things were closed at 2300ish on a Sunday night. The station was still open for access, and one or two shops still open. I spent some time and a few coins of loose change and got a few of the pictures that I took this weekend, printed off by the photo kiosk. A photo tells a thousand words, they say. I headed for Greenline Coach Station, and could see that Neoplan 50127 was ready to take us all north. I headed upstairs, sat down, and pulled out the pictures for a quick look, and some texts were sent out too.
Now, you would have thought “that must surely be the end of the weekend now?” Nope!
One last bonus was the ride out of London. Most of the time, drivers leaving London would run via Hyde Park Corner, Park Lane, Marble Arch, Baker Street/Gloucester Place, Finchley Road, come off at Childs Hill, Brent Cross Flyover, North Circular, to Staples Corner, then the M1. However, we got to just after Hyde Park Corner, and traffic was gridlocked – yes, at ten to midnight on a Sunday night. So, we turned around using one of the turning lanes, and headed back to Hyde Park Corner. We left town via Knightsbridge, which was interesting to see all the changes. The building work on the Knightsbridge station (Harrods side) has all finished now. It was also interesting to see the changes in some of the shops – Harrods now also has a small food type shop on the other side of the road – and we then headed along via South Kensington, and towards Earls Court Tesco. At this point, we were on the M4, heading for the west (towards Heathrow), and we followed that to the M25, and joined the M1 shortly after. It was an extra bonus to be above ground and seeing some of these places, for the first time in ages.
Wow, what a weekend!
Labels: caroline, london, subway, transition, transport
Dundee to Royston – on a Friday
Today formed Part One of my weekend away. The reason for going south is for my “initial consultation” with my surgeon tomorrow, in Brighton. A good friend of mine, Caroline, has very kindly offered hospitality, and transport as required. How can I turn down the offer like that? Caroline was up north on 17-19 February, which included meeting me twice in Dundee city centre. So, it’s good to see her once more.
I got to Dundee Bus Station in time for the 0900 megabus to London. To my own surprise, we started the trip with Volvo/Plaxton Panther 54009 – one of the brand new single deck, 65 seat, 15m long ones – pulls up, blinded M11 London. Is this wise, given that it’s a Friday? Well, this was all irrelevant as we changed to Neoplan Skyliner 50150 (double deck, 91 seat coach) at Perth Broxden Park + Ride.
I called Caroline on the bus, just as the controller came on the coach and yelled almost parallel to the mouthpiece of the phone… and then a young child was crying, quite a bit, so we decided to stick to texts for that point. We got in and out of Glasgow on time, to head south at 1100.
I briefly checked my email several times using the new brick (mobile). I had received an email from Stuart Henry at Travel West Midlands/Travel Dundee re my letter of complaint on Service 14. To their credit, they are willing to have a meeting at work (noting when I will be in and not). Travel Dundee’s MD is currently on annual leave, but back soon. I will deal with that in more depth early next week.
When we got to Preston Bus Station (pre-redevelopment), a few sights taken from the window of the coach included a Solo headed for Blackpool! We were very lucky with roadworks and accidents, because of many miles of stationery traffic on the M6, and then the M60, but both the opposite way! We were due into Manchester at 1540/out 1545, and were a bit late on the way out due to traffic (in the main). Roadworks then started to hit us – the M1 was meant to be a problem. Bear in mind that we were “due” into London at 2015. A few passengers asked about a stop (the toilet was blocked) when we did a driver change at Watford Gap Services, so we stopped there from 1900-1915. I sent Caroline a text at the “35 miles to London” point, but of course, that is when it starts hitting worse with M1 extensions and widening.
I spotted my first London bus – an ALX400 (DLA I think) from Arriva, running off the 142 dead back to Garston (Watford) garage. Now I know that I have (almost) arrived. Soon after, we got to the legendary Staples Corner (junction of the north Circular, Edgware Road, and the M1). It is now home to Staples stationery store, amongst others. Having said that, it was not where the name came from – apparently there used to be a mattress factory here called Staples – I never knew that until last week! We finally got in well over one hour late. I made it out to the tube station, and had enough credit on my Oyster card to make it to Finsbury Park for the First Capital Connect train to Royston. (The previous franchisee, National Express owned WAGN, was informally known as “We Are Going No-where”).
Now, here is a simple figure to work out.
OPTION ONE
Victoria to Kings Cross, £1.50 single by Oyster (off-peak) x 2 = £3.00
Kings Cross to Royston, £24.50 Saver Return
TOTAL - £27.50
OPTION TWO
Victoria to Finsbury Park, £1.50 single by Oyster (off-peak) x 2 = £3.00
Finsbury Park to Royston, £20.50 Saver Return
TOTAL - £23.50
So, work out how the same length of journey can cost an extra four quid, for no additional saving – just a different stop to jump ship. Kings Cross to Finsbury Park is about the same on the Victoria Line as it is on the overground – the latter gets about seven minutes. I had to visit overground briefly to get tickets for this bit of the run, and the first three machines had issues – only the fourth and final one was working! The new Finsbury Park bus station (remember I’ve not been here for some time) has been tidied up quite a bit, from the one I used to remember from years gone by!
So, from Finsbury Park north, not quite the 2057 (fast) or even the 2111 (stopper) that I expected to get – in fact, not until the 2211 stopper an hour later! so I sent a text to Caroline to tell her… and got one back saying “I somehow knew you would not be here until 11 hunny. I’ll be at the station waiting for you”. This is nice… even more so as the train didn’t leave Finsbury Park until two and a half minutes late! The train was a nice electric thingy, but still in Network SouthEast livery (or so it looked like), and the sealing strips were hanging off the side of the wall. Lots of label sticking of new fleetnames, and even a nice poster about how things would improve under the new franchise with First. That sounds familiar… In any case, it was a quiet and smooth journey, and although it sounded like Ned-U-(Don’t)-Like at Hitchin, I was the only one in my carriage for the last few stops to Royston. The train was blinded (and announced) “Cambridge via Stevenage” until after we left there, and it became “all stations to Cambridge”. Anyway, we got in about six minutes late to Royston, and Caroline was there, waiting for me. We chatted for a bit, and then she worked on supper until about 0100 hours on Saturday morning. Appreciated, given that I’d been travelling for 14 hours…
Tomorrow is going to be more fun – a visit to the surgeon and back. The rest of the day is pretty much open. Wonder what might happen…?
Labels: caroline, london, subway, transition, transport
Two from TfL
Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone today welcomed the first ever three-year pay and conditions agreement between London Underground and the trade unions covering all staff.
All Tube unions have now advised London Underground that they have accepted the three-year offer, or are balloting their members with a recommendation to accept.
The unprecedented agreement follows a sharp fall in disruption due to industrial disputes since the Mayor took control of the Underground in July 2003.
Mayor Ken Livingstone said: "This three-year agreement is great news for both Tube passengers and staff and is a real landmark achievement.
"Passengers will benefit from the stability provided by the first three-year deal for all staff in the history of the Underground.
"Staff will receive above inflation pay rises each year. At the same time, we will be investing record amounts in renewing the Tube.
"Whilst there will always be differences from time to time, my administration is committed to developing a partnership between the trade unions and management to deliver the best possible services to Londoners.
"This agreement is a good example of what that approach can achieve."
The three-year agreement runs from April 2006 to April 2009 and provides for the following pay increases:
- Year 1 (payable from April 2006): 4 per cent
- Year 2 (payable from April 2007): RPI+0.5 per cent (or 3 per cent whichever is greater)
- Year 3 (payable from April 2008): RPI+0.6 per cent (or 3 per cent whichever is greater)
All Underground staff are also eligible for a bonus of £250 or £500 each year if customer satisfaction targets are met or exceeded.
TSSA members voted to accept the London Underground offer by over 80 per cent in November last year.
The British Transport Officers' Guild has also accepted the offer.
ASLEF is balloting its members on the offer, with a recommendation to accept, and the RMT advised London Underground today that they have accepted the offer.
London Underground Managing Director Tim O'Toole said: "This multi-year pay deal is a real achievement, particularly as it is the first for several years to be accepted by all the trades unions without any industrial action.
"This agreement is good news for both passengers and Underground staff as it delivers stability to the Underground for three years and allows us to concentrate on the delivery of the major line upgrades - the first of which, the Jubilee line, is due to be due to be delivered in 2009."
This pay agreement covers the period to April 2009 and follows a two-year agreement reached between London Underground and the trade unions in the last pay round.
Metropolitan Police officers working with Transport for London (TfL) have arrested a number of suspects believed to be linked to the biggest counterfeit operation ever perpetrated on the capital's transport system.
In an operation on Thursday 22 February, investigators from TfL and officers from the MPS Transport Operational Command Unit raided four commercial premises in west London and one residential address in the Croydon area.
The suspects arrested may hold valuable information about a wide scale counterfeit fraud of Bus Saver tickets, believed to be masterminded by international organised criminals.
This criminal operation has resulted in the need to withdraw the current design of Bus Saver tickets and introduce a new design from the summer.
David Brown, Managing Director of Surface Transport for TfL said: 'The criminals who have carried out this deception have now added to their list of dubious achievements the exploitation of some of London's most vulnerable people who rely on these discounted tickets to get around the capital.
'We will not tolerate this fraud and we are taking action against those involved this week.
'Every pound these criminals skim off Transport for London's revenue is a pound taken away from transport services for all Londoners.
'We will be withdrawing the current Saver ticket between spring and summer this year to help stamp out this racket, so customers should be aware they have around four months to use up any leftover stocks.'
It is believed the sophisticated counterfeits have penetrated at least 10 per cent of the current Bus Saver ticket circulation - which itself makes up around 10-12 per cent of the Pay-as-you-go market.
Bus Saver tickets account for around 8m bus passenger journeys a year out of a total of 1.8bn journeys overall.
A new design of ticket, with a number of both covert and overt anti- counterfeit measures, is currently being produced and will be on sale from 2 April.
The current design will no longer be accepted on London Buses after 30 June 30, and we would advise anyone with spare tickets at home to use them over the next four months as there will be no refund or exchange of tickets.
Ends
Labels: london, subway, transport
Twenty Hours In One Day
I woke up at "silly o'clock" right enough! 0500 UK time! (Some of my American readers may have not gone to bed by that point!) Had to book my tickets (paid today), and the site is down each morning but I couldn't remember until when - turns out it was 0400-0700. So, went back to bed for an hour, didn't sleep but did manage to relax. Thinking of everything at once! Got up around 0620, stayed on the pc for a bit, went for coffee and a shower, had to do my hair as I'd not done it on Thursday! Then came out the shower at 0710, got my seats booked, got dried off, dry hair, out the door, got some "breakfast" from Tesco, before heading for the bus to Glasgow at 0800.Yesterday, the M80 (main road from Dundee/Stirling to Glasgow) was closed from 0100 to about 1900 after a truck did something a bit silly, and jacknifed the truck into the gantry, trapping a car with it. Nothing like that today, which is good... sometimes the weekly appointment system can be useful!This gets me in for 0953, and I manage to get around to Bath Street (for bus to Sandyford) and on it for 1001. I arrive at Sandyford 1010. I did tell Alex (the counsellor) that I may be late this week , but I managed to be not too bad in the end. We largely discussed my childhood - and a different way to look at some of what I have endured. I have another two appointments spread over the coming weeks, to add to the GIC visit (in the same location) on Tuesday 6th March.I got out at 1120, and turned my phone on. I was meant to be meeting up with the West End Poet (I do try where I can!), but he's had something else occur. Never mind, not to worry, I shall be back at least three times next month, so plenty of opportunity!So, I got some things around Glasgow city centre. Found a store in the Savoy Centre doing a nice range of cheap sweets, but also a small range of model buses in the cabinet. Will be back no doubt one day... I had lunch at the only A&W's in Scotland (combined A&W/KFC at the top of Renfield Street) - but after next week, it becomes a "plain" KFC only store. No! ...Afraid to say it is! So, from there, stopped at Sainsbury's, before heading for the bus back to Dundee, leaving at 1330. At this point I will have been up for eight and a half hours, with a lot more still to go!One of the stories that I read in the Metro, and on WEP's blog for yesterday, was that Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) are contracting First to run a "Subway Nightrider" - a night bus service that follows a circular router, at times when the Glasgow Subway is not running. This will provide a "through the night" service on Friday night into Saturday morning, Saturday night into Sunday morning, and Sunday evenings when the Subway finishes about 1800 usually. There will be a flat fare of £2.00 - double the daytime Subway train fare - to use the Nightrider service, which will commence on 20 April 2007The SPT website explains the story, and quotes Cllr Watson as saying "It may not quite be David Hasselhoff's car Kitt from the original Nightrider but the Subway Nightrider will provide a comfortable and safe journey home for people travelling late at night" After reading the Evening Times and the Metro, I got the cracked old mobile out, fired up Messenger to chat with a certain person who has been good at supporting me in the last few weeks... and we chatted right through to Dundee... and Jay, as ever, you have been wonderful! Almost about as low-tech hi-tech that you can get (i.e. via GPRS and WAP), but it still allowed us to bridge almost four thousand miles! You can be alone in the middle of no-where, yet still feel together!I made it into Dundee, and hotfooted it to the Seagate for a bus to work. Got in for 1600 hours - 15 minutes earlier than last week because I pre-bought my food ("lunch") at Sainsbury's in Buchanan Galleries Glasgow, rather than in Dundee city centre. Got in just as the boss was doing the timesheets to take down to the agency... By this point, I have now been up for 11 hours.I got signed into the computer and phone system, and then I got called over for my performance review for January! Bear in mind I was depressed, coming off the Androcur etc. and everything else, I was a bit concerned. In the few seconds it took to walk from my own desk to the relevant manager's desk, that was all - then, I was happy when I saw the result - 21/30! That is somewhat good, but February may be a little lower. At this point, I'd been up for just over 12 hours. I then went back to my own desk, which was beside the window, looking out onto Riverside Avenue. I could hear someone's car alarm going off, so I got up to have a quick look. I put my left and on the right-hand side of a large A1 size whiteboard, placed horizontally on the windows ledge, but without any fixed support. By the time I realised it wasn't fixed to anything, it was heading for the floor.... I tried to grab it with the hand, and thus noise ensued, and everyone else looking in my direction.... I then tried to rescue it, but it slipped, more noise! Got it back on ledge single handed, and everyone went back to what they were doing, and I went for my break before I could cause nay more damage!Yes, clumsy as ever, but what can you do! The duty desk person asked if I was alright... but I think it was more a "more noise than damage" thing.How come this gets more blog space than anything else that happened today? Well, what's life if you can't have a laugh at yourself sometimes?Headed for my break at 1815 (just over 13 hours up), and tried to explain the whiteboard incident to one of the team coaches that missed it... We actually got unusually busy - for a Friday evening - more so than I would have expected. By the back of eight, it was all over though. I made it to the end, in one piece, and finished bang on 2300 (by this point, up for eighteen hours). Pleased with my week, and progress (excluding whiteboards), and marginally happier this week than I was this time last week, I decided that I could just about stretch to a pizza takeaway, and I'd not had one from the local kebab shop (Corfu) for some time. I've noticed my appetite appears to be coming back... but it comes and goes... but I managed to demolish the lot, and ended up in bed around 0100 - twenty hours up in the end.Tired, but happy.
p.s. No whiteboards were harmed in todays events.
Labels: shopping, subway, transition, transport, work
The Androcur Made Me Do It
I got the 0720 Citylink from Dundee. Weather wise, Dundee was ok, Glasgow was ok, but there were some snowy bits in between around Stirling/Cumbernauld. As the M8 was the usual weekday morning car park, we were 18 minutes late in, so I called them to let them know I'd be late around (we got into Glasgow 0953, not 0935).Once I got in, gave them my details etc. and Dr John Ewan was ready to see me, almost immediately (this was an appointment, not a drop-in). I got there just after 1010, and my appointment ran until about 1135 - quite a while in the end. I couldn't tell him everything that I'd been up to (since last November), but included all the good, and bad bits. I explained about the feelings I'd had, stopping Androcur, all the stuff we'd already discussed earlier on. He said it was reasonable to have stopped Androcur in the circumstances. I asked about changing it for Finasteride, and we talked a bit more about things, and he then agreed to this. He then explained that they'd had the funding approval (for surgery) back from NHS Tayside last month (shortly after, he tried to check on as to what was happening next, but no information).I went back to the subject of the Androcur, and he explained that out of those who take an anti-androgen, it's about 50/50 each in terms of those who take Androcur vs. Finasteride. Later he admitted that Androcur can have the effects similar to what I had - depression, upset, tiredness etc. He remembered I mentioned headaches and upset from the time before, when I visited. We discussed the dates that I'd felt bad, and I asked about the possibility of changing the Provera. Initially, he said that was it, but I then suggested Duphaston. He stopped for a moment (on what he was about to say about provera vs. provera), and then explained what this was, and then we agreed that he would write to my GP, to change the Provera & Androcur for Finasteride & Duphaston. I then explained that I'd recently become aware of the Laser (hair removal) facilities locally, and asked about referral. He agreed to this, as he felt that the face hair is still be a "problem" for me to overcome. In the past, I didn't think I had enough hair to make it work, and although lots have changed recently, the light/dark balance appears to be right. He will be writing the referral shortly. We then talked about work, amongst other things, but largely work. He asked how they had taken the news about surgery etc. being in the near future, and I explained what they'd said, and offered etc. He also asked how settled things were in terms of work (remember this time last year, we had the threat of off shoring over our heads). I explained about recent developments at work (right up to yesterday/next Monday!), and the fact that from the time I'd seen him last in November, up to starting on the email team Next Monday, I'd had six team coaches! In regards to my voice, he said progress had been made! I then went back to the subject of the GRP, and he mentioned again what I'd said before pre-op applicants and stuff. I explained that I'd heard of a few who had managed, so I was willing to try, and to get it out the way. I left him a copy of the form, which he is going to mail back to me. One other issue that was brought up in passing - Professor Mizra, who was the psychiatrist who originally saw me way back in March 2005, has now retired (initially without direct replacement). That kind of makes me feel old! As with everything and everyone else, he wants me to stay positive etc. over the coming weeks and months... and that was it, and I was out, once again happy with my lot! [edit]The rest of the day in the west, was good enough. Met up with Bobby in Glasgow, and used the rest of my FirstDay ticket around a bit of a loop around the south and the east... only for me to notice how inadvertently I'd done a similar trip to those I used to do when the Ailsa's were around! Today I hadStrathtay 52431 M8 Dundee - Glasgow BBSFirst 69070 18 Bath Street - SandyfordFirst 61697 57 Sandyford - Jamaica Street (he stopped without question this time - unlike November's driver who said "you want aff here?" after driving past the stop AFTER i'd rung the bell!)Lunch, meet & greetFirst 61469 45 Jamaica Street - Pollok building site/bus stationFirst 33406 22 Pollok bs - Braehead Shopping CentreFirst 69041 Bullet (111 on Wayfarer) Braehead Shopping Centre - PartickSubway car 118 Outer Circle Partick - Buchanan StreetWalk to George SquareFirst 31516 X1 George Square - BBSR900 WCM M8 Glasgow BBS - DundeeOn the Bullet, as we approached Partick, I caught sight of a McKindless Excel parked up, with the driver looking towards the river, outside the bus. Turns out we'd caught site of the ship being launched! It's on the Evening Times website, according to the "dead tree" edition (Glasgow paper sellers still giving you a ton of freebies in return for trashing the planet...) The Bullet had seven or eight passengers, for anyone wondering! One was a reporter, sat at the back, who was on before the bus got to Braehead (from XScape I'd presume). He had got on the bus with the intent of snapping the events as they were going on, from the bus passing on the dual carriageway... and he was happy enough! So, turned it into quite a nice afternoon, if a little on the cool side.
After I got back to Dundee, news reached me via the Forum that there had been another bus smash, this afternoon in Ardler. Travel Dundee Optare Solo 201 was involved, on Service 93 (1615 from Tech Park to Douglas). While details were sketchy, the BBC News report said "Eight people have been hurt after a bus crashed into the front of a house in Dundee after a collision with a car. Six of the passengers on the bus and the occupant of the house had to be taken to hospital where they were treated for minor injuries. The accident happened late on Tuesday afternoon on Rosemount Road in the city's Ardler district. It is understood there was a woman in the house at the time. No-one has been badly injured."
[edit]
(later edited)
Labels: depression, subway, surgery, transition, transport
