Suzy's alphabetical August
Sep. 1st, 2010 01:22 pm( Cut for stuff that might be triggering! )
To precede my hospital stay, I decided to have a day out around London, for a number of reasons. We were both well enough (lurgy more or less gone) and C was working the morning, so I decided to do part of the trip by public transport, using a Travelcard from Royston, with full Zones 1-6 validity [plus train to/from Royston], in and around the capital. After purchasing the ticket (with Station Cat behind the ticket window on the chair!), it was onto…
First Capital Connect train Royston – London Kings Cross
Underground Victoria Line Kings Cross St Pancras – Victoria
London General Dart/Plaxton LDP4 C10 Victoria – Victoria Coach Station
Walk back via Greenline Coach Station and the back of the rail station
Arriva London Mercedes Citaro MA33 73 Victoria – Euston
Met Malc McD here to handover a couple of bags of timetables etc. as well as meeting for lunch at the restaurant in the Quaker’s building opposite Euston Station. This is a really different place – not as busy as some as the others in town at lunchtime, cheap enough etc. Anyway, after about an hour of talk, we both had to be on our ways…
Underground Victoria Line Euston – Vauxhall
First time changing here since Millennium Eve! Pictures of the new bus station snapped as I walked by, but not in the direction of the ambulances that were on scene.
South West Trains Vauxhall – Kingston
Transdev London United Trident/ALX400 TA318 Kingston Cromwell Rd Bus Stn – Kingston University & [Surrey County Council] County Hall
Quality Line [Epsom Buses] ALX400 DD10 418 Kingston University & County Hall – Kingston Cromwell Rd Bus Stn
Metrobus Scania [single deck] 538 X26 Kingston Cromwell Rd Bus Stn – Croydon, stop behind West Croydon bus station
Very busy journey on this recently doubled in service route, had to stand all the way from Kingston to Wallington Green, but did manage a seat for the last 10 mins or so!
Metrobus Scania [double deck] 947 405 West Croydon Bus Station – Redhill, Bus Station
This last journey took me down the A23 into Surrey, and is the limit to the TfL network on this direction. Caroline picked me up in the car, and we continued to Travelodge at Hickstead, where we spent the night. Even though I only travelled in one direction, this still remained the cheapest option of the day.
Cats - while they may be the LOL fuel that keeps the engines of the internet going, they're notoriously hard critters to keep track of, frequently living double lives in multiple households.
So, in an effort to prevent neighbourhood cats from sneakily stealing his own pets' food, one clever cat owner has rigged up a cat flap that only allows authorised cats (identified using RFID tags) through, and sends real-time information about the cat-flap usage to the internet.
Naturally, this being 2009, the information is sent directly to Twitter, so the entire world can follow the cats' daily peregrinations via messages like 'Gus is out to sit on the porch' and 'Penny is in to vomit in owners shoes.'
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