My London ride

Had to do my normal cross London commute today so jumped onto the train
to Kings Cross with my faithful Brommie. Train was as crowded as normal
for the time of day although most of the people got off at Finsbury Park
- maybe because of the problems with the Tube at KX

KX itself inside was much like any other day but the moment I stepped
out the door the place was packed with camera crews. Michael Brunson
was stood doing an interview for ITN next to about five other crews, the
Japanese had set up a pavement encampment across the road while the
side roads were crammed with TV vans of every type. A minutes pedalling
took me away from all that, that is until I hit the first road closed
signs.

I had naively forgotten that many of the streets round KX would be
closed and it provided an interesting navigation challenge to work my
way across to Gower St through all the closures and cordons. Russell
Square seemed to have a two way system around it that vanished part way
round leaving traffic going the "wrong way" with nowhere obvious to go
and facing puzzled and unexpecting traffic going the normal way. Easy
for me, jump off the B, cross the road and take the cycle path that goes
the wrong way down a one way street. For the drivers behind me the
solution was not obvious.

Central London was back to pre-congestion-charge levels of traffic and
congestion and there were notably a lot of people out on bikes of
various types that did not look to be regular London cyclists. Perhaps
there is a silver lining.

From Long Acre on, traffic levels apart, everything was pretty much as
normal. Popped into M&S at Waterloo Station and was approached by the
Manager who said it would be easier for me if I left my B by the door
and then proceeded to stand guard over it while I got my lunch and paid
for it. Personal service indeed and when I commented on it he told me
to let them know next time and I'll get the same bike-minder service again.

Off onto SW Trains, everything running dead on time for the whole journey.

Life goes on and a luverly day to be out and about.

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

At Mon, 11 Jul 2005 17:50:36 +0100, message
was posted by Tony Raven
, including some, all or none of the following:

KX itself inside was much like any other day but the moment I stepped
out the door the place was packed with camera crews.

Ditto Reading. Lots of pointless film of people doing exactly what
they do every other day, and staged shots of security / BTP walking
along the platform (which they weren't until the camera crew asked
them to!).

*But* there was one significant change! In addition to the recorded
"any unattended articles" announcement, we had a Real Live Station
Announcer telling us... the same thing. Oh, with the addition of the
comment: "this includes bicycles".


Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 17:50:36 +0100,
Tony Raven wrote:

Central London was back to pre-congestion-charge levels of traffic and
congestion and there were notably a lot of people out on bikes of
various types that did not look to be regular London cyclists. Perhaps
there is a silver lining.

I thought there were a lot more people on foot as well, especially
heading from KX towards Angel. I don't know whether this is because of
the good weather, the bombs, closed lines or what but it's nice to see.

Tim.

--
God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = - @B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t,"
and there was light.

http://tjw.hn.org/ http://www.locofungus.btinternet.co.uk/

In message , Tony Raven
writes

there were notably a lot of people out on bikes of various types that
did not look to be regular London cyclists. Perhaps there is a silver
lining.

Except when they cycle for just a few days and then decide to leave the
bike at work, where it takes up another bike parking space but means
they have more space in their hallway.

--
congokid
Good restaurants in London? Number one on Google
http://congokid.com