Car Service, Toy Town Railway and a fun job

Car had it's service. The drive towards docklands isn't too bad. Tend to be stationary near traffic lights on roundabouts, rest of the time the traffic flows.

Drop off the car and walk to the nearest DLR station. Look at the indicator board. Next train Stratford, 2 mins. 2 mins later a train appears, it says Bank on it. Makes no difference can't get on. Look at board, trains have all moved backwards. 15 minutes later a train finally arrives that it's possible to get on. I'm told the DLR is reliable.

No major work needed on the car so £700 less than last year. Trouble is I get the car at 5:15. Evening rush hour. Traffic not too bad for start of the drive. I go through the stations to find the Oz-Sri Lanka match. Then the traffic grinds to a halt. Move forward a few yards and then stop. It's like this for a few miles. Not enjoying this, wonder how people do this every day. then I see a central line train. People jammed against the doors. It's a warm day so I know what it's like on there. So I think again. In my car I have a nice comfortable seat, air con and my own music. I don't have to put up with 'personal' stereos, inane conversations on mobiles, BO or, on the off chance of having a seat, someone trying to take up two seats. The traffic seems much nicer now.

The other day I had a job photographing make-up. So the interest isn't the model, the clothes or the props just how she is mad-up. It was quite fun. The traffic going there wasn't though. The AA route planner gave a time of 30 minutes. So gave myself an hour. 30 minutes after setting out I had travelled a few miles, traffic was solid in both directions. Made worse by people sitting across junctions - buses are good for this. Got to the clients with a few minutes to spare. I can't put any of these pictures on here. However, I did stick a camera to the dashboard after the car service and was able to trigger it.

So here's a picture of a traffic jam!

Slow bus through a building site

Went to get change from mainline to the Central Line at Stratford and noticed the tube passengers where all standing by the doors. Decided to get back on the overground, then heard announcement that Central Line wasn't running. At Liverpool Street I went for a bit of a walk, had a look at the old Stock Exchange Tower where I used to work. It's being refurbished and the ugly concrete is being covered with glass. Do not know if it's possible to make a coffin shaped building attractive but you never know.

Having checked out the old building I caught a bus to get to the west end. Watching the news we're led to believe the congestion charge has reduced traffic. Can't say I noticed. The traffic was moving at less than walking speed, same as it did when I worked in the area in the 80's and 90's. The City is a building site once more. There's always some building going on but it seems to be in one of it's busy times at the moment. Cheapside has scaffolding most of it's length on both sides. Don't know what new buildigs are being put up but I hope there's some inetersting ones going up. Cheapside was the only place in the City with shops a few years back and had some of the most non-descript buildings in the area. It was always a bit of an architectural desert.

Eventually I gave up on the bus. it was a nice day so I couldn't see the point of going slower than walking speed, different if it was snowing or raining (though I like rain and snow).

I did take a picture out of the back of the bus using the old Ixus. it sums up the journey, a traffic queue and a building crane.