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I went on a lot of trains this week, and remembered a thing about the free Wi-Fi on a lot of trains: various endpoints like
http://www.ombord.info/api/jsonp/that return the location of the train etc. With that I spent some hours on the train trying to use Swift Playgrounds to make a live map, because it’s nice to know when to look out for the Angel of the North (south of Newcastle), the field of polar bears (south of Ipswich) etc. -
Some more pleasant days in Edinburgh. On my final evening there, I managed to see two fringe shows which weren’t sold out: Ivo Graham’s Orange Crush and Adam Riches and John Kearns ARE Ball & Boe. And I saw Ray O’Leary crossing the road.
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To Woking, to take in a terrific work-in-progress preview of the Elis & John tour. A long way to come from Edinburgh for 20-ish hours, but I have no regrets.
I liked Woking, although the lack of vegetation and abundance of concrete felt oppressive on the hottest day of the week. They’re big on the HG Wells lived there thing, but what about all the other notable people associated with the town?
Took a series of local buses to get back to London, and it was a bit interesting to glimpse the McLaren Technology Centre – the fastidious spectre of Ron Dennis was there to see in the manicured grass and neatly arranged trees, definitely no wildflower meadows, someone doesn’t like pollinators :(
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I arrived back to something shit and annoying. I’ll write about it next week unless some better news draws attention from it.
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When you’ve a bank account or mobile phone contract that comes with “free” “perks”, it’s often a rush at the end of the week or month to spend the vouchers before they expire. (Sometimes I don’t get around to it.) On Sunday afternoon, heading towards Gregg’s to claim my free sausage roll, I paused to rummage in my rucksack when a fellow called me “buddy” and offered me the paper-bagged Gregg’s sausage roll he was holding. I politely declined, but what a mildly interesting coincidence, and of course I was touched by the kind gesture.
There are loads of more deserving hungry people around, but is it relevant that I looked more dishevelled and unwashed than usual, so this pastry philanthropist didn’t recognise me as a fellow posh bank account holder?
- Months ago, in Lidl, I looked pityingly at a hunched old man buying some wheat bisks and maybe one other item, then he drove off in a Mercedes-Benz E-Class All-Terrain. I suppose that by forgoing expensive branded Weetabix, he was able to afford such a sweet car (in a frugal non-metallic paint option).