London is getting more cooler and life is getting more tougher, I mean the weekends.
But now, let me finish my Stratford trip before speaking about theRoyal castle of Windsor.
14-Feb-2003. 2:46PM - The train arrived. A diesel engine train with 3-4 coaches. This is another fact I noticed with surprise. Most of the places the lines are not electrified. The trains are not more than 8 coaches long, that too very long distance express trains. The goods services, even though, are lengthy as in India, with 30-40 wagons attached. So the platforms of most small stations are very short.
3:18 PM : Got down at Warwick station. Just imagine you get down at a small station like the Malgudi described by R K Narayan. It has a posture of the Warwick castle in the public notice board and there is one more notice board which says about all the trains stopping in the station with timings.
The weather which was becoming cloudy when I started from Stratford, is slowly progressing to light drizzle ! Had a tough time walking to the castle up the hill in rain, with a three-fold St. George umbrella which is protesting against the wind. Reached the hill top, saw the castle from outside, I felt it was a glorification to show about the castle as this and that. Entry fee of 12.50 pound seems a bit high for me, and photography was prohibited in the inner areas of the castle and it was raining in the open areas. So I had no second thoughts. Walked back to the station to get the next train to Leamington Spa and then get a connection to Oxford.
4:29 PM : Even though I reached the station by 4, I had to wait half an hour to get the next train. It dropped me in Leamington within 10 mins. And luckily got a connection also immediately. Reached Oxford at 5:30. It was dark already and so I lost all the chance to take some snaps unless the university is lighted properly. I walked to the University
centre. It is a university campus, the whole town. Imagine we had arailways station and bus stand with all super markets, pubs, and traffic in a college campus, that is Oxford ! The rash road crossers, the unpredictable cyclists, a huge cycle stand in the railway station, groups of young people standing here and there, I think we can call it a campus Town !
I found the University memento store also closed ! So bad luck ! Found a store where I bought some postcards of the picture of the University and some popular photos of the town.
6:45 PM: Got a direct train to London Paddington station, took Hammersmith tube home by 9:30. The day was tiring and the weather conditions have made it worse. I cancelled the plan to visit Windsor on Sunday.
The trip was memorable in the sense I was feeling like a dream when the train passed through the routes which I had seen in TV when they show Tour de France. The beautiful houses in between the greenery, the small townships with rows of houses passing like an army parade, the chapel like a flag man, a small stream, a wooden bow bridge across it, every single sight is a postcard !
Monday, February 23, 2004
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
LONDON WEEKENDER 5
I know I am skipping some weekends' description to the ones which are more eventful and recent.
Date : 14-Feb-2004
Plan : To start from home by 5, catch Thames Rail train at 6:18 to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. Go around there till afternoon, start back and get down at Oxford by evening 4 and just visit the University and campus. Start back by 7 and reach London by 8:30.
Team : Me and my favourite Nikon.
All plans end when the war begins. And when I plan to start from home at 5, I think the plan has already failed !
5:10am : Got up ! Realised that I have to make it today. Got ready and started by 6 after a bread toast for breakfast. Got a bus from White horse junction, to East Ham tube station and waited for a tube till 6:25which dropped me at Paddington by 7.
7:10am : I got through the counter to get an offpeak-standard return ticket to Stratford for 23pounds. The person at the counter informed me that I have to wait till 9:18 for the next train even if I am ready to change the trains.
7:13am : Went to the information counter with my print out of the plans taken from net and there was a working plan with a train at 7:15. The person at the counter said it is possible and asked me to run to the train going to Temple from Platform no. 3. Just made it. And thus started my trip.
The train was more luxurious than the ones I have seen before in UK. It was running at a very speed, with not a small shake inside. I was supposed to get down at 'Reading'. According to the plan on my print out, it reached Reading by 7:40. Now my next train will take me to Birmingham. Waited for it in the same Platform till 8:05. The platform was clean and tidy with lot of cigarette bits, empty cups etc. The only thing missing was the litter. I also contributed to it by throwing my cup after having a coffee from the automatic coffee machine. I swear, I looked for dustbins before doing that !
8:05 am : My train to Birmingham arrived. It is going to Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland. It was more luxurious than my previous one, with a small snack and publications shop with a cafeteria. It had personal music points like in the flight
and above all, a small panel on the top where it was displayed whether the seat is
reserved , and if reserved from what place till what place ! I had not noticed it till
the announcement came to look at it before you sit and sat on a window seat which was reserved from Oxford. My aisle seat was unreserved. Placed my jacket there. Till Oxford I can enjoy the country side scene from the window seat.
The journey started with an apology for being 5 mins late ! The daylight is on. The
beautiful countryside in front of me ! Like there is no ugly mother, there is no country
side in the World which is not beautiful. It was fully green, with a small settlement in
the middle dominated by a Chapel, and again it is vacant beautiful land. Then, you
find here and there, some huge farm house or ware houses, and you can see sheep or horses near them.
8:30am : It reached the first stop, Oxford. I just waited for someone to come and ask me to leave his seat. A young man came and saw the panel above me, I was about to stand. He told me he doesn't like window seats and so better he will seat in my aisle seat ! He thanked me too for that ! He is doing his Ph.D in Maths at Oxford and is going back to his home in Coventry.He sat back with some papers on Fourier coefficients.The train stopped at Banbury and Leamington Spa. The gentleman next to me got down saying Bye at Coventry. The journey is on with beautiful scene on your window passing by.
9:45am : Train reached Birmingham. I got down and looked at my print out plan. Next stage is a walk to the Snow hill station from the main station from where I will get a train to my destination at 10:25. I had no idea where this Snow Hill station is. Asked some two three people, all showed some directions and I couldn't understand anything in their local accent. Some protesters were shouting slogans and shouting at people getting into the station. There were a handful of police officers accompanying them. I just took my camera out and hung it in my shoulder and that did the trick. They just gave a smile to me and gave a 'Hi'. Asking someone outside the station, he told me to follow the protesters and they are going to the Snow hill station. I blindly walked with them. Took sometime in between to stop at a place where I think it is the town centre, to take a snap of the main Cathedral and the meadow in front. Reached the station by 10:05.
10:25am: It was a local train to pick me from Birmingham to Stratford. It stopped in all the stops every 2mins and dropped me at Stratford by 11:35. A small station like the local stations in India. Walked out, saw the map, took notes and walked towards the birthplace of Shakespeare. Just happened to pass through a village market, got in and took some snaps of the sellers which are really unique with their costume and appearance. People are more happy, wishing each other, and a smile on everyone's
face. You will, in no time, fall in love with the place.
Walked to the house where Shakespeare was born. Took some snaps, bought some
souvenirs, walked to the river Avon's banks. It was a beautiful sight, no words can
express it completely ! Walked through the banks of the river for more than an hour and
I am done. I felt my money is paid off. I can now go back home and sit at home for the
whole weekend ! The peace which Big Ben or Trafalgar can't give, this peaceful, merry
place gives you ! You have crowd here also. But this crowd has time, it has all the time
in the World to help you, to tell you about the places.
I met an old lady at a signal struggling to cross the road. I just stopped to offer her a
helping hand and we parted. Later she found me in front of a village map, she stopped
and taught me all the places to see ! A sudden change of atmosphere !
Again, I looked for a McD for my lunch, had it and walked back to the station by 2:30.
Surprises waits for the fools, always ! And the good thing is, sometimes they are pleasant! I was just checking the route I have to go back through. I was to take a train to Leamington Spa checking the stations in between, I saw the station Warwick ! The place where is situated the castle which is voted by BBC as the best in UK !
Just confirmed with the officer in the station that I can take enough breaks on the journey and get down at Warwick. May be that will delay my visit at Oxford, but it is worth. The next fear was whether I will get the connection trains properly as these
are all villages and you may not be lucky enough on a weekend to find enough trains !
I will stop at this point. Will continue next week as it is getting too long. I know I will
lag a little more, with my next week plans to Windsor and Leeds may have to wait for
some more days to be written down.
It is 8:30 here now. I am the only person sitting in the office writing this mail. This is
because I am fully busy till 7 everyday. It will a great pleasure for me if I can get some comments on the above, if not at least please don't ask me have you got no work to do.
Date : 14-Feb-2004
Plan : To start from home by 5, catch Thames Rail train at 6:18 to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. Go around there till afternoon, start back and get down at Oxford by evening 4 and just visit the University and campus. Start back by 7 and reach London by 8:30.
Team : Me and my favourite Nikon.
All plans end when the war begins. And when I plan to start from home at 5, I think the plan has already failed !
5:10am : Got up ! Realised that I have to make it today. Got ready and started by 6 after a bread toast for breakfast. Got a bus from White horse junction, to East Ham tube station and waited for a tube till 6:25which dropped me at Paddington by 7.
7:10am : I got through the counter to get an offpeak-standard return ticket to Stratford for 23pounds. The person at the counter informed me that I have to wait till 9:18 for the next train even if I am ready to change the trains.
7:13am : Went to the information counter with my print out of the plans taken from net and there was a working plan with a train at 7:15. The person at the counter said it is possible and asked me to run to the train going to Temple from Platform no. 3. Just made it. And thus started my trip.
The train was more luxurious than the ones I have seen before in UK. It was running at a very speed, with not a small shake inside. I was supposed to get down at 'Reading'. According to the plan on my print out, it reached Reading by 7:40. Now my next train will take me to Birmingham. Waited for it in the same Platform till 8:05. The platform was clean and tidy with lot of cigarette bits, empty cups etc. The only thing missing was the litter. I also contributed to it by throwing my cup after having a coffee from the automatic coffee machine. I swear, I looked for dustbins before doing that !
8:05 am : My train to Birmingham arrived. It is going to Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland. It was more luxurious than my previous one, with a small snack and publications shop with a cafeteria. It had personal music points like in the flight
and above all, a small panel on the top where it was displayed whether the seat is
reserved , and if reserved from what place till what place ! I had not noticed it till
the announcement came to look at it before you sit and sat on a window seat which was reserved from Oxford. My aisle seat was unreserved. Placed my jacket there. Till Oxford I can enjoy the country side scene from the window seat.
The journey started with an apology for being 5 mins late ! The daylight is on. The
beautiful countryside in front of me ! Like there is no ugly mother, there is no country
side in the World which is not beautiful. It was fully green, with a small settlement in
the middle dominated by a Chapel, and again it is vacant beautiful land. Then, you
find here and there, some huge farm house or ware houses, and you can see sheep or horses near them.
8:30am : It reached the first stop, Oxford. I just waited for someone to come and ask me to leave his seat. A young man came and saw the panel above me, I was about to stand. He told me he doesn't like window seats and so better he will seat in my aisle seat ! He thanked me too for that ! He is doing his Ph.D in Maths at Oxford and is going back to his home in Coventry.He sat back with some papers on Fourier coefficients.The train stopped at Banbury and Leamington Spa. The gentleman next to me got down saying Bye at Coventry. The journey is on with beautiful scene on your window passing by.
9:45am : Train reached Birmingham. I got down and looked at my print out plan. Next stage is a walk to the Snow hill station from the main station from where I will get a train to my destination at 10:25. I had no idea where this Snow Hill station is. Asked some two three people, all showed some directions and I couldn't understand anything in their local accent. Some protesters were shouting slogans and shouting at people getting into the station. There were a handful of police officers accompanying them. I just took my camera out and hung it in my shoulder and that did the trick. They just gave a smile to me and gave a 'Hi'. Asking someone outside the station, he told me to follow the protesters and they are going to the Snow hill station. I blindly walked with them. Took sometime in between to stop at a place where I think it is the town centre, to take a snap of the main Cathedral and the meadow in front. Reached the station by 10:05.
10:25am: It was a local train to pick me from Birmingham to Stratford. It stopped in all the stops every 2mins and dropped me at Stratford by 11:35. A small station like the local stations in India. Walked out, saw the map, took notes and walked towards the birthplace of Shakespeare. Just happened to pass through a village market, got in and took some snaps of the sellers which are really unique with their costume and appearance. People are more happy, wishing each other, and a smile on everyone's
face. You will, in no time, fall in love with the place.
Walked to the house where Shakespeare was born. Took some snaps, bought some
souvenirs, walked to the river Avon's banks. It was a beautiful sight, no words can
express it completely ! Walked through the banks of the river for more than an hour and
I am done. I felt my money is paid off. I can now go back home and sit at home for the
whole weekend ! The peace which Big Ben or Trafalgar can't give, this peaceful, merry
place gives you ! You have crowd here also. But this crowd has time, it has all the time
in the World to help you, to tell you about the places.
I met an old lady at a signal struggling to cross the road. I just stopped to offer her a
helping hand and we parted. Later she found me in front of a village map, she stopped
and taught me all the places to see ! A sudden change of atmosphere !
Again, I looked for a McD for my lunch, had it and walked back to the station by 2:30.
Surprises waits for the fools, always ! And the good thing is, sometimes they are pleasant! I was just checking the route I have to go back through. I was to take a train to Leamington Spa checking the stations in between, I saw the station Warwick ! The place where is situated the castle which is voted by BBC as the best in UK !
Just confirmed with the officer in the station that I can take enough breaks on the journey and get down at Warwick. May be that will delay my visit at Oxford, but it is worth. The next fear was whether I will get the connection trains properly as these
are all villages and you may not be lucky enough on a weekend to find enough trains !
I will stop at this point. Will continue next week as it is getting too long. I know I will
lag a little more, with my next week plans to Windsor and Leeds may have to wait for
some more days to be written down.
It is 8:30 here now. I am the only person sitting in the office writing this mail. This is
because I am fully busy till 7 everyday. It will a great pleasure for me if I can get some comments on the above, if not at least please don't ask me have you got no work to do.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
LONDON WEEKENDER 4
Life is hectic here during working days. I am happy that I am able to write one and sent by Tuesday. It makes me sit until 9 at night.
I think I should tell something, which will just give a brief idea of the transport and currency.
Pounds come in currency notes of £50, £20, £10 and £5. The £20 and £50 are broader than our currency notes and doesn't fit in to our purse by width. But they are short in length. The coins starts with £2, £1 pound and then, 50p(pence), 20p,10p,5p,2p and 1 penny.
£2 coins has inner circle made of nickel surrounded by bronze. £1exactly matches our 5 rupee coin in dimensions, the only difference is, it is made of bronze. This is vastly used for telephone booths, and many other auto payments. If our 5 rupee could work here, it will be really great ! 50p,20p,and 10p are nickel. 50p is the input for chocolate machines. 5p, 2p and 1p are brass. They normally don't have any value, but you will get back the change correct to 1p. Like South Africa, here also I have never heard a person saying I don't have change nor seen anybody rounding off the amount.
The public transport system is, as you may have heard, excellent ! It is costly, and to travel the same distance in the same tube, it is different ! London is divided mainly in to 6 zones, with zone 1 as the
central London where you have everything, from Wax Museum, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace to the banks, other museums and important places. zone 2 to 6 becomes concentric circles around zone1. If you travel to, from or through zone 1 in a tube, you will have to pay £2 for a trip ! It becomes lesser for all the other zones. You have daily,weekly, weekend, monthly passes, which you can go for the zones you want. With a valid pass in a tube, you can travel in a of the bus service inside London ! Most of the buses are double-decker buses. All the buses are single man operated. The driver collects the tickets/verifies the pass while you get in through the front door. He controls the opening and closing of the exit door in the middle of the bus and entry door. If the bus is too crowded, he will stop in front of you and open the exit door, people get down and he closes it. I have not seen anyone peeping in through the exit door.
Still there are some old style double decker buses operated with a driver and conductor, in central London. They are the same as the ones in Trivandrum, Chennai or Mumbai. You can jump and or out anytime. It is more apt for central London as the traffic moves very slow. For buses, they have taken out the zone concept. Anywhere in London for a trip, it is £1.
There are enough of cars on the road in spite of very high parking charges and high fuel prices. It averages from £2.5 per hour to park in the road side and petrol/diesel costs around 75p per litre ! People prefer tubes to buses as you don't know when you will reach the destination in a bus. But as we all know, the network of buses will be more efficient than any rail network.
I have a pass for zone 2 and 3 which costs £48 per month. During weekends, my travel will be more in zone1 and so will go for a weekend pass which will cost £7 and allows to travel free for two days in all 1,2,3,4 zones.
The distant rail system amazed me with the infrastructure these people have. There are more than 10 rail stations situated around London. No British rail will drop you in the central London. I will clarify. All these rail stations are built with a tube station in the border of zone1. Each station has its own set of destinations and each are like our Chennai central with some 10 platforms at least ! So if you want to go to Oxford, the train starts from paddington and if you want to go to Cambridge, it is Liverpool Street and so on. The passes are valid in the British rail for the trains that travel till end of zone 6. The comparison of British rail and tube are very easy : just like our normal trains and electric suburb trains. Here the only difference is, all is closed air-conditioned and is as costly as our air-conditioned coaches are. But the rates are very flexible and you will get a good deal if you know the system and plan your journey.
But what I appreciate is people love to walk here. I am walking with a crowd anywhere in Central London. You can see long queues for Wax museum and London Eye on all weekends.
Again, I find a lot of India here. People don't have time and suddenly you will find a person who has all the time in the World to help you. If you are not that lucky, may be the person who is ready to help you to show your way to an address will be a drunkard who is wandering around because he couldn't find his own house ! I am not joking, it happened to me first thing landing in London. I was wandering with all my luggage in Victoria at night 11 and got only a drunkard who came to me and asked me 'Can I help you ?'. I got the address of the hotel I had booked from the airport and then, had everything I have with me- including the traveler’s cheque ! So I realised then, London is safe at 11 if you are in Victoria; even if the streets are empty. That is all for now.
I think I should tell something, which will just give a brief idea of the transport and currency.
Pounds come in currency notes of £50, £20, £10 and £5. The £20 and £50 are broader than our currency notes and doesn't fit in to our purse by width. But they are short in length. The coins starts with £2, £1 pound and then, 50p(pence), 20p,10p,5p,2p and 1 penny.
£2 coins has inner circle made of nickel surrounded by bronze. £1exactly matches our 5 rupee coin in dimensions, the only difference is, it is made of bronze. This is vastly used for telephone booths, and many other auto payments. If our 5 rupee could work here, it will be really great ! 50p,20p,and 10p are nickel. 50p is the input for chocolate machines. 5p, 2p and 1p are brass. They normally don't have any value, but you will get back the change correct to 1p. Like South Africa, here also I have never heard a person saying I don't have change nor seen anybody rounding off the amount.
The public transport system is, as you may have heard, excellent ! It is costly, and to travel the same distance in the same tube, it is different ! London is divided mainly in to 6 zones, with zone 1 as the
central London where you have everything, from Wax Museum, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace to the banks, other museums and important places. zone 2 to 6 becomes concentric circles around zone1. If you travel to, from or through zone 1 in a tube, you will have to pay £2 for a trip ! It becomes lesser for all the other zones. You have daily,weekly, weekend, monthly passes, which you can go for the zones you want. With a valid pass in a tube, you can travel in a of the bus service inside London ! Most of the buses are double-decker buses. All the buses are single man operated. The driver collects the tickets/verifies the pass while you get in through the front door. He controls the opening and closing of the exit door in the middle of the bus and entry door. If the bus is too crowded, he will stop in front of you and open the exit door, people get down and he closes it. I have not seen anyone peeping in through the exit door.
Still there are some old style double decker buses operated with a driver and conductor, in central London. They are the same as the ones in Trivandrum, Chennai or Mumbai. You can jump and or out anytime. It is more apt for central London as the traffic moves very slow. For buses, they have taken out the zone concept. Anywhere in London for a trip, it is £1.
There are enough of cars on the road in spite of very high parking charges and high fuel prices. It averages from £2.5 per hour to park in the road side and petrol/diesel costs around 75p per litre ! People prefer tubes to buses as you don't know when you will reach the destination in a bus. But as we all know, the network of buses will be more efficient than any rail network.
I have a pass for zone 2 and 3 which costs £48 per month. During weekends, my travel will be more in zone1 and so will go for a weekend pass which will cost £7 and allows to travel free for two days in all 1,2,3,4 zones.
The distant rail system amazed me with the infrastructure these people have. There are more than 10 rail stations situated around London. No British rail will drop you in the central London. I will clarify. All these rail stations are built with a tube station in the border of zone1. Each station has its own set of destinations and each are like our Chennai central with some 10 platforms at least ! So if you want to go to Oxford, the train starts from paddington and if you want to go to Cambridge, it is Liverpool Street and so on. The passes are valid in the British rail for the trains that travel till end of zone 6. The comparison of British rail and tube are very easy : just like our normal trains and electric suburb trains. Here the only difference is, all is closed air-conditioned and is as costly as our air-conditioned coaches are. But the rates are very flexible and you will get a good deal if you know the system and plan your journey.
But what I appreciate is people love to walk here. I am walking with a crowd anywhere in Central London. You can see long queues for Wax museum and London Eye on all weekends.
Again, I find a lot of India here. People don't have time and suddenly you will find a person who has all the time in the World to help you. If you are not that lucky, may be the person who is ready to help you to show your way to an address will be a drunkard who is wandering around because he couldn't find his own house ! I am not joking, it happened to me first thing landing in London. I was wandering with all my luggage in Victoria at night 11 and got only a drunkard who came to me and asked me 'Can I help you ?'. I got the address of the hotel I had booked from the airport and then, had everything I have with me- including the traveler’s cheque ! So I realised then, London is safe at 11 if you are in Victoria; even if the streets are empty. That is all for now.
Monday, February 02, 2004
LONDON WEEKENDER 3
"Pee pe pe pee pe
Pee pe pe pee pe
Pee pe pe pee pe
Pe pe pe pe.... .........This is London.......( the song continues)... 18 hour Greenwich Mean Time BBC World Service..............(and it goes on).... "
This is what I have heard tuning to the BBC news at 11:30pm IST. Greenwich is something very synonymously comes with London, something the English have given to the World - a standard to follow. When it is 13mins past an hour in Greenwich, it is 13 mins past some hour in the rest of the World (or 13 minutes past half an hour)!
I wanted to make sure I don't become a fool like asking Amazon in South Africa, here. So carefully looked in to web and then maps to make sure that Greenwich is here in England and it is very near to central London. You have local tube to Greenwich it is that near!
My destination was Greenwich on last Sunday ( I know I am lagging a week, but I am making notes in my diary that I will not miss anything nor will pack everything in one mail). I got down at Canary Wharf to take a DLR (Dockland Light Rail) tube to Greenwich. The information on the way, the announcement on the earlier tubes, none told me that DLR is closed for maintenance! I saw the station closed with a board in front saying alternate arrangements are been made with special replacement bus services. Walked to the bus stop as directed in the map attached with the notice.
Got a bus after waiting for some 20 mins. It dropped me in Island gardens, just some 500 metres away from Greenwich. I can see Greenwich Royal Observatory on the top of a hill on the other side of Thames! A beautiful sight! I would have missed this if I had come by the tube, which will drop me in Greenwich itself!
Crossed Thames through an underground tunnel some 200 meters long, built in 1919 ! A good experience!
Climbed the hill, nice views of London from there. The Canary Wharf buildings were projecting out of the city view. Canary Wharf is known as the 'Manhattan of London'. Took some snaps standing on zero degree line, the clock that sets the time for the World, the standard measures of 1foot, 2 foot and inches.
The sky was cloudy and it was getting more cooler. The biggest problem with the winter is its connection to the 'bladder'. Your priority slowly changes to finding a toilet, whether you are standing in front of London bridge or Big Ben or Greenwich Observatory! You look for the sign board and the funniest thing here is, I follow the sign boards and after 10 mins of walk, the next signboard shows the arrow in opposite direction! I do not know whether they mean the open space :)!
It was 4:30 by the time I came down and was really hungry when I realized I have skipped lunch. Tried an Indian restaurant in Greenwich (the waiters were speaking some funny language which does not belong to even any neighbours of India! ), named 'Taste of India'. A peshwari naan, bindi masala with a Mango lassi cost me £7 ! I had to pay that buggar 50p tip also! Took a DD back to Canada Water and then took my usual Jubilee and District lines to reach back home by 7.
That was my last weekend coming to an end. What is our perception of the people here ? The people who are punctual, who insist on cleanliness, who has taught the World manners, who introduced etiquette, and what not......
I think things are not exactly what it seems to be. For punctuality,5-10 mins is allowed for any meeting to be delayed, but for trains and services, they are punctual up to an extent. Perfect !
But coming to the next, I have seen people throw away cigarette bits on the road or on footpath, seen people taking out wet tea bag from the cup straight to the meeting table (that too while in the middle of a meeting), leave behind food, magazines, newspaper etc. in a very bad state in tubes and, in buses and DDs, the situation is worse.
Yesterday, coming back from the central town, two native kids were fighting in the tube, approximately 10-11 years old. They were hitting each other with tins lying on the floor it went on until they got down after five stations. No one seemed to bother. A Chinese guy sitting next to them changed his seat that is all.
What I am saying is it is all the same, the people! It is the same World. I have not seen any difference in what a normal man thinks, let it be anywhere in the World.
Pee pe pe pee pe
Pee pe pe pee pe
Pe pe pe pe.... .........This is London.......( the song continues)... 18 hour Greenwich Mean Time BBC World Service..............(and it goes on).... "
This is what I have heard tuning to the BBC news at 11:30pm IST. Greenwich is something very synonymously comes with London, something the English have given to the World - a standard to follow. When it is 13mins past an hour in Greenwich, it is 13 mins past some hour in the rest of the World (or 13 minutes past half an hour)!
I wanted to make sure I don't become a fool like asking Amazon in South Africa, here. So carefully looked in to web and then maps to make sure that Greenwich is here in England and it is very near to central London. You have local tube to Greenwich it is that near!
My destination was Greenwich on last Sunday ( I know I am lagging a week, but I am making notes in my diary that I will not miss anything nor will pack everything in one mail). I got down at Canary Wharf to take a DLR (Dockland Light Rail) tube to Greenwich. The information on the way, the announcement on the earlier tubes, none told me that DLR is closed for maintenance! I saw the station closed with a board in front saying alternate arrangements are been made with special replacement bus services. Walked to the bus stop as directed in the map attached with the notice.
Got a bus after waiting for some 20 mins. It dropped me in Island gardens, just some 500 metres away from Greenwich. I can see Greenwich Royal Observatory on the top of a hill on the other side of Thames! A beautiful sight! I would have missed this if I had come by the tube, which will drop me in Greenwich itself!
Crossed Thames through an underground tunnel some 200 meters long, built in 1919 ! A good experience!
Climbed the hill, nice views of London from there. The Canary Wharf buildings were projecting out of the city view. Canary Wharf is known as the 'Manhattan of London'. Took some snaps standing on zero degree line, the clock that sets the time for the World, the standard measures of 1foot, 2 foot and inches.
The sky was cloudy and it was getting more cooler. The biggest problem with the winter is its connection to the 'bladder'. Your priority slowly changes to finding a toilet, whether you are standing in front of London bridge or Big Ben or Greenwich Observatory! You look for the sign board and the funniest thing here is, I follow the sign boards and after 10 mins of walk, the next signboard shows the arrow in opposite direction! I do not know whether they mean the open space :)!
It was 4:30 by the time I came down and was really hungry when I realized I have skipped lunch. Tried an Indian restaurant in Greenwich (the waiters were speaking some funny language which does not belong to even any neighbours of India! ), named 'Taste of India'. A peshwari naan, bindi masala with a Mango lassi cost me £7 ! I had to pay that buggar 50p tip also! Took a DD back to Canada Water and then took my usual Jubilee and District lines to reach back home by 7.
That was my last weekend coming to an end. What is our perception of the people here ? The people who are punctual, who insist on cleanliness, who has taught the World manners, who introduced etiquette, and what not......
I think things are not exactly what it seems to be. For punctuality,5-10 mins is allowed for any meeting to be delayed, but for trains and services, they are punctual up to an extent. Perfect !
But coming to the next, I have seen people throw away cigarette bits on the road or on footpath, seen people taking out wet tea bag from the cup straight to the meeting table (that too while in the middle of a meeting), leave behind food, magazines, newspaper etc. in a very bad state in tubes and, in buses and DDs, the situation is worse.
Yesterday, coming back from the central town, two native kids were fighting in the tube, approximately 10-11 years old. They were hitting each other with tins lying on the floor it went on until they got down after five stations. No one seemed to bother. A Chinese guy sitting next to them changed his seat that is all.
What I am saying is it is all the same, the people! It is the same World. I have not seen any difference in what a normal man thinks, let it be anywhere in the World.
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