It was the day before Christmas…
Dec. 24th, 2007 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
suzyscottdotcom1. … and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even my mouse… as C has gone back to bed after an early start.
2. I said I would try and think of another ten point post today. Firstly, reading today’s online Courier, it seems that we weren’t the only ones going for gifts yesterday, as Dundee United gave Gretna three points, and their first away win of the season. See, that’s why I don’t truly understand football/soccer. All I know is that DUFC play in a similar colour of orange to that of the mighty Berwick Rangers… or, do they?
3. London Underground is running the customary Saturday service today, but they are wrapping it up with last trains at Sunday times, as opposed to Saturdays, meaning (as an example) the last Piccadilly Line towards Southgate & Cockfosters will be 0023 from Kings Cross, not 0042. The Piccadilly Line does have the extra-late Sunday train to serve Heathrow Airport, so another example is the Jubilee Line towards Canning Town & Stratford – last train on a Monday-Saturday from Green Park is 0045, but tonight (and on Sundays) it is 2359. I just noticed that!
4. Other examples of integration in practice is the closure of Liverpool Street station from yesterday (23 December) to 1 January, to facilitate work on the East London Line extension/conversion. During this time, trains on the ‘one’ network will terminate at Tottenham Hale or Seven Sisters. Passengers then tip onto the Victoria Line, which is itself being partly bus replaced (trains not stopping at Victoria for building work). Some passengers from the north can transfer at Cambridge onto the First Capital Connect services via Royston, but those will be subject to disruption with building works around Stevenage. Tickets will also be accepted on First Capital Connect’s Thameslink line, but the planned bus service from Sandy to Bedford (to allow passengers to do this) is now not going to be running. So, you will get there, somehow.
5. Hertfordshire buses are Saturday or normal service today, nothing tomorrow 25th (except a Sunday service on the 510 for Stansted), only TfL services, some NatEx, and a handful of free buses in Watford on boxing day, Saturday style services during the week, Sunday service on New Years Day, and back to normal from Wednesday 2nd. Cambridgeshire is broadly similar, but only some NatEx on boxing day, nothing else – aside from a two-hourly X5 to Oxford, which is charging a premium fare (£9 local, £14 to Oxford, single or return). Slightly out-of-area, but the Oxford Tube service is running on Christmas Day, with a special hourly ‘via Heathrow’ service. Special premium single fares apply, at £25 per person. Yes, that’s right. Tube weekly passes etc. are to be accepted, which means a seven-day Tube Pass (unlimited travel across Oxfordshire, and on the Oxford Tube Oxford-London express) is the same price as a same-day return on Christmas Day!
6. Speaking of Cambridge, of course we were out shopping yesterday at the retail park off Newmarket Road. Starbucks were serving everything in paper cups and bags, because the dishwasher had packed up! Actually, this met with customer approval, being a cold day, as it meant you could take your drinks back to the car! You can ask them to do this at other times too, you know… can you? Must be able to do it. Anyway, they were red and white seasonal ones, and had this website mentioned on the bottom – do go see!
7. The January 2008 Royston area bus services changes booklet can now be found online – download it as a PDF here.
8. I noticethebustocrookes mentioned that him and his C also had two trolleys for their trip around Tesco the other night… but never quite filled them. We never had that problem, no, we still had stuff in the trolleys to go on the conveyor belt, and it was full, and we had nowhere to put the full bags (yet), so we put it into one trolley and continued!
9. From The Ticket Collector, Virgin Trains now have some £1-£9 singles from London to Manchester as part of the ‘digitix’ experiment – have a look here.
10. An interesting one to round off the set. Someone who I’d not spoke to before called Megan found my profile on Bebo, and sent a positive message to me. “…i dont even know how i came across u on bebo but i find ur story very interesting. i think ur great for telling ur story…”, which was nice enough. But get this, she’s from the Shetland isles, and lives about 30 minutes from Lerwick, where my dad grew up. Small world, right enough. OMG.
10X. Right, that’s it for the points, I’m away to see if I can awake Caroline… I will try and keep the blog up-to-date over the coming days, but no promises! Have a good time, and we will defiantly be thinking of you lot!
2. I said I would try and think of another ten point post today. Firstly, reading today’s online Courier, it seems that we weren’t the only ones going for gifts yesterday, as Dundee United gave Gretna three points, and their first away win of the season. See, that’s why I don’t truly understand football/soccer. All I know is that DUFC play in a similar colour of orange to that of the mighty Berwick Rangers… or, do they?
3. London Underground is running the customary Saturday service today, but they are wrapping it up with last trains at Sunday times, as opposed to Saturdays, meaning (as an example) the last Piccadilly Line towards Southgate & Cockfosters will be 0023 from Kings Cross, not 0042. The Piccadilly Line does have the extra-late Sunday train to serve Heathrow Airport, so another example is the Jubilee Line towards Canning Town & Stratford – last train on a Monday-Saturday from Green Park is 0045, but tonight (and on Sundays) it is 2359. I just noticed that!
4. Other examples of integration in practice is the closure of Liverpool Street station from yesterday (23 December) to 1 January, to facilitate work on the East London Line extension/conversion. During this time, trains on the ‘one’ network will terminate at Tottenham Hale or Seven Sisters. Passengers then tip onto the Victoria Line, which is itself being partly bus replaced (trains not stopping at Victoria for building work). Some passengers from the north can transfer at Cambridge onto the First Capital Connect services via Royston, but those will be subject to disruption with building works around Stevenage. Tickets will also be accepted on First Capital Connect’s Thameslink line, but the planned bus service from Sandy to Bedford (to allow passengers to do this) is now not going to be running. So, you will get there, somehow.
5. Hertfordshire buses are Saturday or normal service today, nothing tomorrow 25th (except a Sunday service on the 510 for Stansted), only TfL services, some NatEx, and a handful of free buses in Watford on boxing day, Saturday style services during the week, Sunday service on New Years Day, and back to normal from Wednesday 2nd. Cambridgeshire is broadly similar, but only some NatEx on boxing day, nothing else – aside from a two-hourly X5 to Oxford, which is charging a premium fare (£9 local, £14 to Oxford, single or return). Slightly out-of-area, but the Oxford Tube service is running on Christmas Day, with a special hourly ‘via Heathrow’ service. Special premium single fares apply, at £25 per person. Yes, that’s right. Tube weekly passes etc. are to be accepted, which means a seven-day Tube Pass (unlimited travel across Oxfordshire, and on the Oxford Tube Oxford-London express) is the same price as a same-day return on Christmas Day!
6. Speaking of Cambridge, of course we were out shopping yesterday at the retail park off Newmarket Road. Starbucks were serving everything in paper cups and bags, because the dishwasher had packed up! Actually, this met with customer approval, being a cold day, as it meant you could take your drinks back to the car! You can ask them to do this at other times too, you know… can you? Must be able to do it. Anyway, they were red and white seasonal ones, and had this website mentioned on the bottom – do go see!
7. The January 2008 Royston area bus services changes booklet can now be found online – download it as a PDF here.
8. I notice
thebustocrookes mentioned that him and his C also had two trolleys for their trip around Tesco the other night… but never quite filled them. We never had that problem, no, we still had stuff in the trolleys to go on the conveyor belt, and it was full, and we had nowhere to put the full bags (yet), so we put it into one trolley and continued!9. From The Ticket Collector, Virgin Trains now have some £1-£9 singles from London to Manchester as part of the ‘digitix’ experiment – have a look here.
10. An interesting one to round off the set. Someone who I’d not spoke to before called Megan found my profile on Bebo, and sent a positive message to me. “…i dont even know how i came across u on bebo but i find ur story very interesting. i think ur great for telling ur story…”, which was nice enough. But get this, she’s from the Shetland isles, and lives about 30 minutes from Lerwick, where my dad grew up. Small world, right enough. OMG.
10X. Right, that’s it for the points, I’m away to see if I can awake Caroline… I will try and keep the blog up-to-date over the coming days, but no promises! Have a good time, and we will defiantly be thinking of you lot!
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Date: 2007-12-24 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-24 01:52 pm (UTC)