Two trips to London in recent days, and another in prospect. I repeat myself, I know, but each trip reminds me how grateful I am that I no longer have to do it every day. I'd a meeting last Friday at Guildhall, and the travelling was reasonably painless, even if the 9.00-ish up train was pretty crowded. Disaster looms, however: I've got into the habit of using a country station where one can park free, and find that a lot of groundwork is in progress to create more parking. You guessed it: parking will cost £4.30 a day in future. Wednesday's London trip was the other way round - quiet on the 1:00 pm-ish up train, but no direct evening train. Train 1 was packed like a jar of anchovies, and I'd a lengthy wait at an intermediate stop for train 2. For some reason, evening peak hour trains do not stop at our station. But although parking is much reduced by the groundworks, I did find a slot each time.
It was rather striking to see how much the City has changed since I worked there. Familiar buildings have come down (and no bad thing, in the case of BTI's monstrous ziggurat, Mondial House) to be replaced with new landmarks like the Shard (only the bottom few floors of which were visible in last Friday's gloom) and the Gherkin, but also by some pretty ordinary structures. Bucklersbury House has come down, leaving a large hole diagonally opposite Cannon Street station. A problem in London just now is the sheer scale of disruption caused by work on the Crossrail link. The bus I use to get from London Bridge to Islington goes pretty well straight there as before via the Bank, Moorgate and City Road, but on the way back it has to thread its way round the back streets almost as far as Liverpool Street before twisting back to Threadneedle Street. Good job I'd allowed plenty of time.
I'm quietly pleased with the outcome of the elections for our county's Police and Crime Commissioner. First because a vast majority of the electorate treated the whole thing with appropriate disdain. Second because those of us who did vote returned the outgoing chair of the police authority (who stood as an independent) with twice the vote of the runner up political candidate. I'm less happy with the amount of money it has cost the taxpayer, though I suppose it pales into insignificance compared with recent governments' other futile gambles.
The election meant that the art group could not meet at its normal venue, a scout hut in a neighbouring town. We were due to debrief a project, so I invited the crowd here, and we did the session in the sitootery. Very pleasant, and I got to show off with a bit of home baking.
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