The first thing I noticed when I got up this morning was that it was raining. Heavily. Oh well, I thought, I'm going to take a shower anyway so at least my hair won't get wet!
So I went and argued with the shower. I prefer to take a bath, but doing my bit to preserve water I try and limit my baths to the weekend. All weekend I had trouble getting hot water... either the rest of the house had used it all up (!) or the heating hadn't been on long enough. This morning I had trouble getting cold water! No matter what I tried the water remained absolutely scalding. Ah well.
The good news was, by the time I finally left the house it had stopped raining. Hurrah!
For the second day in a row the bus turned up just as I arrived at the stop. For the third journey in a row the usual single decker is replaced by a brand new double decker. I'm not sure if this means that there are now only double deckers on the 486 route or it is just one big cosmic coincidence?
I picked up a Metro as usual - but most of it was what I read last night in the Evening Standard - which is why I don't usually bother with the Standard. That and the fact that it is 50p!
Large portions of the paper were devoted to the Oscars (which happened too late to make yesterday's edition). Was fairly uninterested as I've not seen any of the films that won - and don't even plan to see most of them! It did amuse me that the Best Supporting Actress was won by a singer who was rejected from American Idol 2004 - shows what reality TV knows, eh?!
Another story that caught my eye is the proposal to make driving test more difficult for teenagers - the proposal is to give greater emphasis on road safety. Not before time I shouldn't think, given some of the fankly bizarre driving I see at the weekends in and around the areas where I live.
The Mayor of London and his colleagues are after spending our money again (well, I assume that it is tax payers money - perhaps they are getting a grant?) - the idea is to put up sculptures to 'encircle' the capital. Like the 'Angel of the North' the paper said. Presumably in concept, not design?! I'd have said like the City of London - ever noticed the dragons holding their shields as you enter the city?
Life is great if you catch a bus in London - apparently bus fare dodgers are costing TfL £1m a week. That's a lot of fares! The blame apparently falls at the doors (quite literally) of the Bendy Busses... with only one of their three sets of doors requiring passengers to show evidence of a fare. Ban the Bendy Busses! Nobody likes them, and all they do is cause traffic chaos... oh, apart from that brief interlude where they used to burst into flames!
So, if you're not fare dodging on a bus how do you get around London? On the famous underground? Hmm. When it works. Some enterprising students have come up with an ingenious idea - a version of the tube map which shows walking distances between stations. I've lived in and around London my whole life, so I know my way around above and below ground, but it always amazes me the insane tube journeys people will take when they don't know it would be quicker to walk! Check out the map
The Sky/Virgin row doesn't seem to have been resolved (see yesterday's blog entry Virgin Rant). Rich (my fiance) and I were watching Sunday's TV (Lost and 24) on videotape last night and finally saw the scene from Lost which was used incessently for advertising a while back. I'm sure you know the one where Jack shouts "If you've got something to watch, go watch it"... to which wittly replied "She can't, she's on Virgin Media"!
So I went and argued with the shower. I prefer to take a bath, but doing my bit to preserve water I try and limit my baths to the weekend. All weekend I had trouble getting hot water... either the rest of the house had used it all up (!) or the heating hadn't been on long enough. This morning I had trouble getting cold water! No matter what I tried the water remained absolutely scalding. Ah well.
The good news was, by the time I finally left the house it had stopped raining. Hurrah!
For the second day in a row the bus turned up just as I arrived at the stop. For the third journey in a row the usual single decker is replaced by a brand new double decker. I'm not sure if this means that there are now only double deckers on the 486 route or it is just one big cosmic coincidence?
I picked up a Metro as usual - but most of it was what I read last night in the Evening Standard - which is why I don't usually bother with the Standard. That and the fact that it is 50p!
Large portions of the paper were devoted to the Oscars (which happened too late to make yesterday's edition). Was fairly uninterested as I've not seen any of the films that won - and don't even plan to see most of them! It did amuse me that the Best Supporting Actress was won by a singer who was rejected from American Idol 2004 - shows what reality TV knows, eh?!
Another story that caught my eye is the proposal to make driving test more difficult for teenagers - the proposal is to give greater emphasis on road safety. Not before time I shouldn't think, given some of the fankly bizarre driving I see at the weekends in and around the areas where I live.
The Mayor of London and his colleagues are after spending our money again (well, I assume that it is tax payers money - perhaps they are getting a grant?) - the idea is to put up sculptures to 'encircle' the capital. Like the 'Angel of the North' the paper said. Presumably in concept, not design?! I'd have said like the City of London - ever noticed the dragons holding their shields as you enter the city?
Life is great if you catch a bus in London - apparently bus fare dodgers are costing TfL £1m a week. That's a lot of fares! The blame apparently falls at the doors (quite literally) of the Bendy Busses... with only one of their three sets of doors requiring passengers to show evidence of a fare. Ban the Bendy Busses! Nobody likes them, and all they do is cause traffic chaos... oh, apart from that brief interlude where they used to burst into flames!
So, if you're not fare dodging on a bus how do you get around London? On the famous underground? Hmm. When it works. Some enterprising students have come up with an ingenious idea - a version of the tube map which shows walking distances between stations. I've lived in and around London my whole life, so I know my way around above and below ground, but it always amazes me the insane tube journeys people will take when they don't know it would be quicker to walk! Check out the map
The Sky/Virgin row doesn't seem to have been resolved (see yesterday's blog entry Virgin Rant). Rich (my fiance) and I were watching Sunday's TV (Lost and 24) on videotape last night and finally saw the scene from Lost which was used incessently for advertising a while back. I'm sure you know the one where Jack shouts "If you've got something to watch, go watch it"... to which wittly replied "She can't, she's on Virgin Media"!