March’s monthly musings

31 March, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

🚓 What Cab News

Black cab fares are going up by 7.6 per cent next month, and the reason being given is “to ensure there are enough cabs available to help women get home safely”. The argument goes that if cabbies stand to make less money at night, then fewer of them will work those hours, which means there are fewer options for women looking to get home after dark. Maybe, just maybe, if TfL hadn’t done its darndest to create an uneven playing field between cabs and private hire, those undertaking The Knowledge wouldn’t be at their lowest levels in a generation. Just saying.

🎧 What I’m Listening

A weird London podcast returned on Valentine’s Day. Season 6 of Subterraneans began with an episode about the Aberfeldy Estate in Poplar, and lingering spirits, mould and the housing crisis – so romantic. If you haven’t been introduced to Subterraneans yet, download it on your favourite podcast app.

📖 What I’m Reading

The geek in me thoroughly enjoyed John Grindrod’s Concretopia a book about – well, concrete. I’m now reading Iconicon – Wimpey homes; Millennium monuments, riverside flats; wind farms; out-of-town malls, the buildings designed in our lifetimes that encapsulated the dreams and aspirations of our culture. John Grindrod reveals the sobering realities.

📺 What I’m watching

Atlantic Crossing, is the story of Norway’s Crown Princess Märtha, who fought for her country and her marriage during the tragic events in the early years of World War II, with the excellent Sofia Helin in the lead role. The series portrays Märtha’s journey from Norway to the White House where she sought refuge and became close to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Crown Princess tried to convince Roosevelt to save her country and Europe from Nazi Germany at a time when American voters were strongly opposed to being drawn into another world war. Although this production was first broadcast in 2020, the parallels of today’s invasion of Ukraine by Putin can’t be ignored. Amazing engineering.

❓ What else

I’ve taken out a subscription to London in Bits. If you’ve ever read The Big Smoker, which then became the Londonist, these are the people who started these blogs. Unfortunately Londonist, apart from the odd article, is now a giant advertising board. While London in Bits, on the other hand, produces a newsletter writing about both the beautiful and the infuriating parts of the capital. As they say in their blurb ‘something that’s interesting, funny, surprising and worthy of your inbox’. I have to agree.

Thinking allowed

Superloop(y)

30 March, 2023 Gibson Square 6 Comments

I have been checking up on Sadiq Khan’s Superloop bus service which is designed to help me navigate London post-ULEZ. It is of particular interest as I live 5 miles from ULEZ’S border and Superloop is designed for those of us who live in ‘the sticks’.

So to reach Superloop I have to take the 294 bus for a 12-minute ride to Romford Bus Garage (294 frequency is every 12 minutes peak time). From there a 296 bus would deliver me to connect with Superloop. This bus takes 32 minutes to reach Ilford (296 frequency is every 20 minutes peak time).

Now in Ilford, somewhere Khan regards as the outer fringe of the capital, even though it’s a full 40-minute drive to the M25, I can catch Superloop, but not until next year.

Next year (or is it the year after?) Superloop costing north of £6 million will take me to Walthamstow or the Royal Docks on the X123 route. But what is Royal Docks: Beckton, North Woolwich, Custom House or Silvertown, and why should I have the need to visit Walthamstow?

All I know is Havering going to miss out because Superloop won’t reach every outer London borough – at least this one gets nothing at all.

Puppydog tails

Johnson’s London Dictionary: Mobile phone

29 March, 2023 Gibson Square 2 Comments

MOBILE PHONE (n.) Elecktronic device which Londoners habitually peruse when promenading the city whilst ignoring obstructions.

Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon

A window on My World

A blank white space

28 March, 2023 Gibson Square 6 Comments

Every day on my Apple Note app I get to stare at a blank white rectangle. Sometimes a few ideas enter my consciousness, on other days all I see is that white rectangle and wonder how best to fill it.

My SwiftKey app (thank you Bill Gates), offers me the use of 26 letters, plus a plethora of numbers, punctuation, signs and emojis, which I can arrange in a variety of different orders, some of which might even make sense.

Along with the text I could chuck in some web links, I could even throw in some pictures, but the space is all mine to fill in any way I choose.

Today is one of those white rectangle days, I could…

… write something almost original that will be linked to websites around the world (London’s top secret tower)

… write something prosaic about my life that doesn’t even raise one comment (Where Are We?)

… write something that gives me personal blog satisfaction (statistics 2021)

… copy a chunk of witty text off someone else’s site and modify it, in the hope that everyone thinks I wrote it (Metacognition)

… republish something I wrote on here many years ago in the hope that nobody notices it’s a repeat (Previously posted: Weather we care)

… list a lot of other websites that have come up with something much more interesting than anything I could think of (London links)

… write just nine paragraphs that take all evening to compose (A period of inactivity)

… write something with spelling or grammatical mistakes that people will delight in picking me up (Everyone is entitled to my opinion)

… write something controversial that ends up getting lots of derogatory comments (ULEZ Zone)

… write something controversial merely to try to get lots of comments, derogatory or otherwise (ULEZ Zone)

… write something cathartic that gives readers an insight into myself (Why won’t the blog just write itself?)

… write something that will be ignored by everyone on the world wide web (Cabbie’s dead end)

… write something that is not particularly about London, but it fills a slot (Search Me!)

… just fill the space by writing something about writing something – although I’d never do that, of course, because it would be cheap and easy (A blank white space)

A blog is a blank canvas ready and waiting each day to be filled by something – anything. The only limits here are time, imagination and one’s creative ability. The best blogs are those where you know the theme, but never quite know what angle someone’s going to find to post next, but you know that whatever it is, it’s probably worth reading.

They’re the blogs you go back and read time and time again, and as you’ve reached the end of this rather self-indulgent post I suggest you are willing to read and return to this little corner of the cyberverse.

I like writing my blog because I never quite know what’s going to pop up in my thoughts and what I’m going to write next either.

There you go, that’s another daily white rectangle filled. I wonder what I’m going to write tomorrow…