More Things I Like, Things I Don't Like

Things I like: Trains.

These past two weekends, I've ridden my bicycle to Cambridge and ridden a train back, and taken a train to Stevenage for a running race and come back. In both cases, my wait for a train was minimal and travel time was tolerable. Train service is frequent and more often reliable than unreliable. You can get to more than 2,500 destinations by train. Now if you ask a Briton, it's gone downhill since Margaret Thatcher reorganized it. And having been on Swiss trains recently, I can say that they appear to make more allowances for bicycles than British trains do. But still, the rail service makes car ownership optional for a larger share of the population than the United States.

Things I don't like: Northern accents.

I shouldn't make fun of the way people talk, but there is something in the northern English accent that rubs me wrong. I love a broad Scottish brogue and a Welsh lilt, but strong Yorkshire and Liverpudlian accents are at times almost incomprehensible to me. The TV serial Hollyoaks best exemplifies the accents I hate. See if you don't want to punch your computer screen when you click through to this Hollyoaks clip for which embedding has been disabled.

That's Pants

Yes, a British English expression for something that's really bad, or your underwear. Annie Mole, as usual, has spotlighted the Pants Day, a version of the No Pants days on mass transit in several American cities. As Annie notes, going without "pants" in Britain can get you arrested, hence the name variation.

Stay Tuned For This Party Political Ad

Or not. Annie Mole is hot on the trail of a Tube ad campaign featuring Barack Obama's image that nobody is quite sure about.

The London Bus Boycott

I'm having a customer service battle with both our horrible bank and Transport for London, which runs the Underground and the buses. To sum up, there has been a botched transaction of an automated payment that neither one wants to take responsibility for, despite hours on the phone and a few shouting matches with snarky, lazy customer service types. For this, neither one deserves my limited funds.

I think I've resolved that it will be more than worth it to sever our ties with the bank, but denying TFL my money will be a little bit more of a challenge. For obvious reasons, there's no real market alternatives, except for minicabs, black cabs, and overground rail. I'm already off the overpriced, overhyped bullies of the street they call the black cabs, which leaves minicabs and overground rail. But I have resolved to avoid using TFL services whenever possible, because they've made me angry. Today, I have to get up to our old neighborhood, and I've decided to ride my bike, despite the on-off rain. Rail would be an option if I wanted to walk some distance, but I think I'll just stick to the old pushbike.

We'll see how this goes.

That Worked Out Well, Didn't It?

Boris' Tube drinking ban ended up making things worse:

Thousands of people have marked the banning of alcohol on London transport with a party that ended with arrests, assaults and cancelled trains.
Drinkers, many in fancy dress, gathered on Tube trains and station concourses in a last celebration before the ban came into force at midnight.
But police said what should have been a fun event came to an "unfortunate" end.
Six Tube stations were closed, while police made 17 arrests. Six assaults were reported on Tube staff and police.
There were also numerous reports of damage to Tube trains, which led to suspended services.

Think George W. Bush and the Middle East, only with beer.


UPDATED: London/Diamond Geezer is right.

Boris Lies

Well, we learn from Annie Mole that Boris' promise to bring back the Routemaster may not happen, which means we really will be stuck with those stupid, not-designed-for-narrow-London-streets bendy buses, which can't fit down the street, annoy taxi drivers because they can't fit in the designated bus stop areas, and by the way endanger pedestrians.

Of course, being a good right-winger, Boris would go back on a promise to do a good idea but would never back down on an authoritarian promise, which is the Tube drinking ban. Annie Mole reminds us of the final night parties on the Circle Line. Drink up: Happy hour is now enforced by law.

UPDATED: For more good anti-Boris vitriol, go visit London Geezer, who unfortunately doesn't make his permalinks obvious.

Deep Thought

Why does National Rail suppose that nobody would want to travel by train on a holiday weekend?

Welsh You Were Here

Howdy. The Werbenmanjensens are in Holyhead, Wales, where we've spent the last couple of days. The Rough Guide to Wales describes it as "downbeat," which is true in its own way, but there is a bit of natural beauty out here. We've been to near the top of Holy Mountain to see a couple of dazzling views (we'd give you photos, but we're using internet cafe terminals right now so publishing photos is out of the question). The path up was a good deal easier than those Scottish mountains, and we had bright and clear conditions. We're hopping the ferry to Dublin today, although our fast ferry has been canceled because of rough weather out on the Irish Sea. We're now on the "cruise ferry" leaving at 2-ish. I'm happy to report that we have American-made Dramamine so we don't have a repeat of another rough ferry ride.

Thursday Catblogging

Via Annie Mole, we learn that a cat is now the "official stationmaster" of a Japanese train station.

Where Have You Been? We've Been Worried Sick About You!

Uh, hi. Blogging has been light this month because of a number of factors, not the least of which has been squaring away my UK taxes for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. In addition, as you may have guessed from this post, we've been flat-hunting, an experience described to me by a wiser man as "a soul-destroying experience." The good news: We think we have a place, within walking distance of Mrs. Werbenmanjensen's work, but with room for visitors. I did a lot of work to line up some rather unproductive viewings of places in the last three weeks, but Mrs. W made one call and hit a home run with it. That's how things go. I'm going to have her pick some numbers to play in the lottery.

More Things That Are Better Back Home

Automobile licensing agencies:



Memo to the DVLA: If you impound the car and sell it at an auction rather than crushing it, you can defray some of the costs of enforcement. I know that's thinking outside of the, ahem, box ....

Happy Wednesday!

The former Miss Mind The Gap has a happy message for you.

Public Service Announcement: The Final Word

BBC Radio 6 Music awarded Emma the Don of the Week award, whatever that means.

Public Service Announcement: Emma's Back

Well, not as the Voice of the Tube, as far as I know, but at least you can go to her website:

This is an emergency!

Public Service Announcement: You're Fired

The voice of London Underground loses its job.

I'd link to another of my favorites over on Emma's website, but sadly, since the story broke, it appears her site is overloaded.

I'll save 'em for later.

Updated: Oh wait, I can get through. Here's one for you sudoku fans.

Updated again: Well, no you can't after all. We'll see how long this takes.

Public Service Announcement

The voice of the London Underground wants you to know something.

(Hat tip to Annie Mole.)

The New Tube Maps Are In! The New Tube Maps Are In!

Featuring the London Overground.

Looks like we can walk down to Gospel Oak and catch a train straight to Barking (hmmm) or Kew Gardens (yay!) using our Oyster cards.

As Long As We're Talking About The Tube

The Tube has its own unique species of mosquito.

Take that, you intelligent design folks.

Tube Icon Undergoing Change

Yesterday, I got an email from Transport for London informing me that the overland train lines known as the Silverlink Metro are now going to be known starting next week as the "London Overground." Not a big deal, but the overground routes will be included in the iconic Tube map starting next week. Annie Mole has a sneak preview of the new map. She says it looks crowded. I think it looks like a stone of potatoes in a half-stone sack.

Happy Leif Erikson, er, Guy Fawkes Day

Guy Fawkes Day, aka Bonfire Night, is the holiday named after the villain, unless you're Roman Catholic, in which case, well, never mind, it gets really complicated and, oooo, look over there, things are popping and exploding in mid-air!

We went up to the Alexandra Palace, (the "Ally Pally"), and watched one of London's organized fireworks displays last night. I won't go into the details of getting there and back, other than to say it proves an earlier point I made about London's inability to manage mass events, so those who are planning to come to the 2012 Olympics are forewarned. We shared space with a lot of folks, including some who liked their personal displays along with the organized fireworks ....


See what you can do when you insist on shooting only in natural light?