...and it continues
EALING BROADWAY - Went to Ealing Broadway, had a wholewheat vegetable pasty. Okay. Shot wasn't particularly well composed - it was starting to rain. Toilets at Ealing Broadway - free, 4 cubicles, clean but a bit smelly. :-(.
- Intending to get off at West Ruislip and walk to Ickmansworth. However, didn't realise my London AtoZ doesn't go that far! So, quick reschedule, and no doubt adding hours of extra time! :) Back down the central line to Notting Hill Gate - wasn't intending to go anywhere near there.
WEST RUISLIP - was a bit of a hit and Run - it felt grim coming out here - grim people, train getting emptier and emptier, having to redo my route and knowing I'd got to come back down again. Got to West Ruislip and I was the only person who got off the train. I went outside (it was spitting), took a quick photo (to the bemusement of a group of people sat on a bench under the station entrance), ran back in again and jumped on a train back to civilisation. Yeh!! And I've hit double figures - Yeh!! And I'm an hour and a bit behind... Yeh! My next debate is whether to skip the NW end of the metropolitan line altogether. An announcement said there are 'severe delays' - which I think is the standard service! There are 4 stations at the end of the metropolitan line - I don't think they don't think they take that long to get to and from, but there's a fair bit of toing and froing. Oh, and I spent an extra tenner just to go to 3 of those stations ;-). These trains are very empty - 4 in this carriage, 4 in the next. Nearly at North Acton (again!).
- White City, and suddenly people appeared! I fancy an afternoon snooze... zzz. :) (a sleeping smiley!).
Notting Hill Gate - it feels like a proper tube station - windy interchanging and 3 long escalators to change lines. Yet here I am on the district and circle line platform and there is daylight, and maybe even sunshine :) (a smiling sun smiley).
- 2 loud 'Notting Hill types' on the platform opposite, exactly like Ab Fab, but 25 years younger! Just had the day's fifth 'apologies for the delay' announcement outside Edgware Road - traffic jams ahead. Signal failure at Liverpool St is apparently what's causing problems elsewhere.
- I can see three carrier bags: 'Flawless and Co: Time Pieces and Jewellery Ltd', 'All Saints: Spitalfields', and Next.
EDGWARE ROAD - Very pretty, lots of plants as you come out and opposite is a gorgeous red brick mansion block(s). That's the EOL, but just round the corner and under the flyover is the Bakerloo version - which isn't an EOL but had decorative metal work above the entrance round gorgeous dark green tiles, with raised flowers. It's also 125 steps down to the platform.
- There are 2 young women a few seats away - they have produced various smells which are filling the carriage - spraying deodorant (sharing deodorant) and 4 squirts of perfume per arm for each of them - all produced from a white bag covered with mirrors, metal rivets and rhinestones that would have made Elvis blush! I quite like it though. There is now the GORGEOUS smell of freshly baked goods - but where is it coming from?? Is it the train setting alight!!
Northwick Park - Harrow and Wealdstone is an underwhelming, but confusing station. Got an overground out of there to Kenton and walked to Northwick Park. Kenton is a grot hole. (...) I am on the metropolitan line - the trains are hooj! Really wide - they feel bigger than an average rail train.
- God bless the day they put MP3s and speakers in mobile phones, so teenage boys could sing along to them. Off beat. And off key. Bless...
- A guy opposite me is reading 'The Twilight Watch' by Sergei Lukyanenko.
- The teenagers got off at Ruislip, and the train is quite and calm. At Ickenham - where I may have been some time ago...I've no idea what time it is, or where I am against my schedule - I don't really want to know. I've been out for at least 7 hours, but that seems a bit meaningless. Passing though Hillingdon (Swakeleys). The over half way mark is in site (3 more stations) - will I aim for 20?
UXBRIDGE - Uxbridge station is in the middle of being renovated, but it still has a really nice feel to it. It opens out as you pass through the gates, and the outside opens onto a semi-circle with a courtyard. Inside the station you can see stained glass windows above the entrance, but they're not there when you get outside!! Still pretty though.
- I need coffee and water and a pee (maybe I became diabetic overnight!). I'll see what Harrow-on-the-Hill has to offer - otherwise I might wait until I've cleared this stretch.
- I need coffee and water and a pee (maybe I became diabetic overnight!). I'll see what Harrow-on-the-Hill has to offer - otherwise I might wait until I've cleared this stretch.
Harrow-on-the-Hill - This morning I (deliberately) started reading 'The Art of Travel' by Alain de Botton. He talks about the anticipation of travel, and then the 'travel' bit itself (as opposed to the actual having 'travelled' and got somewhere. He talks about Baudelaire, who apparently always wanted to 'get away', but was never satisfied with actually being anywhere. But the transitory spaces fascinate - trains, planes, boats, hotel rooms, service stations. If you ask me what today is about... it's a journey (to where?): me, maybe nowhere. It's a trance-like state (helped by the snooziness no doubt!), like floating in water.
- The area around Moor Park is very green - I suspect I will see it again... I'm now in zone 7 - haven't been there before. And it's started pouring it down again at Croxley, one stop before I get off at Watford.
- The area around Moor Park is very green - I suspect I will see it again... I'm now in zone 7 - haven't been there before. And it's started pouring it down again at Croxley, one stop before I get off at Watford.
WATFORD - It stopped raining. It's been 'changeable' all day. Bought a bottle of Volvic from a small shop next to the station (80p). Took a rather hasty shot, and am away again. Passed over a canal with loads of barges parked there.
Moor Park - I have made an executive decision that I am not going to Chesham. I've waited 10 mins for a train to Amersham, and the trains to Chesham (from stop before) are every half hour. I don't want to stand on a cold platform for over an hour - and I want to get out of this part of London - I feel like I've been here all day. And I still need coffee, and a tasty snack might be nice... it's 5pm - teatime :) !
AMERSHAM - My quickest one yet! A train was coming in as I was going through the ticket barrier so I ran outside, shot, and ran back through. The train then sat there for 5 mins but heh - my escape is in sight. I am also over half way - YEH!
- I am now considering omitting another station - the purists among you will see this as proof of the slippery slope gaining momentum following the Chesham incident. Maybe, but there is no other order than what seemed logical to get round them all - and as I'm not going to do them all each one is as valid (or not) to go to as the next. The train I'm on is (I believe) non-stopping past my connect with Jubilee line, so rather than having to go all the way back ( and still stuck in this bit of London) I'm going to carry on round to Euston Square, go to Euston, grab something to eat and subject myself to rush hour on the Northern Line! It'll be weird to be amongst people again, lots of people... The fast train doesn't go through stations, it goes round the back of them. We're racing a slow train (we're winning :)).
- There's loads of people on Finchley Rd tube, but my train's still empty - and underground. It's 6 o'clock - ENDGAME: Northern Line, probably, Aldgate and the Bank to Waterloo finishing move!
- I am now considering omitting another station - the purists among you will see this as proof of the slippery slope gaining momentum following the Chesham incident. Maybe, but there is no other order than what seemed logical to get round them all - and as I'm not going to do them all each one is as valid (or not) to go to as the next. The train I'm on is (I believe) non-stopping past my connect with Jubilee line, so rather than having to go all the way back ( and still stuck in this bit of London) I'm going to carry on round to Euston Square, go to Euston, grab something to eat and subject myself to rush hour on the Northern Line! It'll be weird to be amongst people again, lots of people... The fast train doesn't go through stations, it goes round the back of them. We're racing a slow train (we're winning :)).
- There's loads of people on Finchley Rd tube, but my train's still empty - and underground. It's 6 o'clock - ENDGAME: Northern Line, probably, Aldgate and the Bank to Waterloo finishing move!
MILL HILL EAST - Just did another super quick turnaround. Downstairs (no ticket barrier) - shot - back on train (there's only one track). Not sure if it will come out - camera flashed. It's kinda dark-y, but hard to say if that's due to grey skies or if it's really that dark. It's only 10 past 7!
- After High Barnet it will take another hour to get to and back from Edgware ( and1/2hr to get from HB to start getting to E @ Camden Town). That means I wouldn't get to Aldgate until 9.30 and it would be a real push to get to Bank b4 Waterloo and City Line closes. Ok - no Edgware, still on target for 20!
- All the people had gone to Euston, the train was packed but not the worst - appear to have slided through again.
- Loos @ Euston are 30p (!), clean and there are 28 and of them :). Bought a Wiltshire Ham and mozzarella baguette from Upper Crust (with 80% off - almost paid my loo fees for the day) but still no coffee. The trains are empty again ( and I'm outside), but strewn with 'London Lite' and 'The London Paper', and not a Metro to be seen. At least one person's reading the Evening Std - so I shall read it on the way home.
HIGH BARNET - Another pop out/pop in. The entrance is on what looks like a country/Parisian lane (well, the quick glance I had of it :-)). It's very dim, so not my finest work.
King's Cross St Pancras - Spent the journey from High Barnet reading Art of Travel (about the exotic in the everyday in other cultures/countries, and how we are attracted by the opposite of what we have here (or what we dislike 'here'). The train was empty and then suddenly... Euston: the carriage was overflowing. Farringdon - it's getting dark... and it's 8.10pm. I have just done an amazing fart - not noisy, but vibrating and very cabbage-y :) Must be all the polos I've had today! Nicole Cooke's on the front page of the 'South Wales Echo'.
King's Cross St Pancras - Spent the journey from High Barnet reading Art of Travel (about the exotic in the everyday in other cultures/countries, and how we are attracted by the opposite of what we have here (or what we dislike 'here'). The train was empty and then suddenly... Euston: the carriage was overflowing. Farringdon - it's getting dark... and it's 8.10pm. I have just done an amazing fart - not noisy, but vibrating and very cabbage-y :) Must be all the polos I've had today! Nicole Cooke's on the front page of the 'South Wales Echo'.
BANK - Someone under a train at Oxford Circus and a broken train at Liverpool St (wasn't that this morning?) made it quite tricky to get to Bank - but I managed! And discovered a new exit/entrance (useful for work) and nipped round the corner to an exit to take the photy (as new useful exit doesn't have a sign - probably why I never spotted it b4 ;-)
- I bought a coffee from a little shop in Bank - £1 and quite nice. (Also sold samosas and bhajis and lots of different sorts of flapjack).
- I bought a coffee from a little shop in Bank - £1 and quite nice. (Also sold samosas and bhajis and lots of different sorts of flapjack).
WATERLOO - Voila! No 20. Very uninspired shot of the entrance from the concourse - I don't think M will be trying to pass these off as his ;-)
- Time has been strange today - almost non-existent. I kept putting my mind in places, and suddenly I'd think 'Oh yeah, this again.' The EOLs weren't a distraction, they gave structure - but it was about the journey. I have spent most of the day in what I could call an 'inbetween' space - but it's more positive than that - in terms of being a 'substantial' thing ( and a 'good' place too). Is it art? Probably not by M's definition - it's an everyday odyssey - and that's the point of it. Putting oneself in a different place (psychologically). Being in a different way.
- Time has been strange today - almost non-existent. I kept putting my mind in places, and suddenly I'd think 'Oh yeah, this again.' The EOLs weren't a distraction, they gave structure - but it was about the journey. I have spent most of the day in what I could call an 'inbetween' space - but it's more positive than that - in terms of being a 'substantial' thing ( and a 'good' place too). Is it art? Probably not by M's definition - it's an everyday odyssey - and that's the point of it. Putting oneself in a different place (psychologically). Being in a different way.
The journey:
...London Bridge (Northern) to ELEPHANT and CASTLE
1. ELEPHANT and CASTLE (Northern) to Stockwell (Victoria) to BRIXTON
2. BRIXTON (Victoria) to Stockwell (Northern) to MORDEN
3. MORDEN (Northern) to Stockwell (Victoria) to Victoria (District) to Sloane Square (District) to WIMBLEDON
4. WIMBLEDON (District) to Earl's Court (District) to KENSINGTON (OLYMPIA)
5. KENSINGTON (OLYMPIA) (District) to Earl's Court (District) to RICHMOND
6. RICHMOND (District) to HAMMERSMITH
7. HAMMERSMITH (Piccadilly) to Acton Town (Piccadilly) to HEATHROW TERMINAL 5
8. HEATHROW TERMINAL 5 (Piccadilly) to Acton Town (District) to EALING BROADWAY
9. EALING BROADWAY (Central) to North Acton (Central) to WEST RUISLIP
10. WEST RUISLIP (Central) to Notting Hill Gate (Circle/District) to EDGWARE ROAD
11. EDGWARE ROAD (walk) to Edgware Road (Bakerloo) to HARROW and WEALDSTONE
12. HARROW and WEALDSTONE (overground) to Kenton (walk) to Northwick Park (Metropolitan) to UXBRIDGE
13. UXBRIDGE (Metropolitan) to Harrow-on-the-Hill (Metropolitan) to WATFORD
14. WATFORD (Metropolitan) to Moor Park (Metropolitan) to AMERSHAM
15. AMERSHAM (Metropolitan) to Euston Square (walk) to Euston (Northern) to MILL HILL EAST
16. MILL HILL EAST (Northern) to Finchley Central (Northern) to HIGH BARNET
17. HIGH BARNET (Northern) to King's Cross St Pancras (Circle) to ALDGATE
18. ALDGATE (Circle) to Liverpool St (Central) to BANK
19+20. BANK (Waterloo and City) to WATERLOO!
1. ELEPHANT and CASTLE (Northern) to Stockwell (Victoria) to BRIXTON
2. BRIXTON (Victoria) to Stockwell (Northern) to MORDEN
3. MORDEN (Northern) to Stockwell (Victoria) to Victoria (District) to Sloane Square (District) to WIMBLEDON
4. WIMBLEDON (District) to Earl's Court (District) to KENSINGTON (OLYMPIA)
5. KENSINGTON (OLYMPIA) (District) to Earl's Court (District) to RICHMOND
6. RICHMOND (District) to HAMMERSMITH
7. HAMMERSMITH (Piccadilly) to Acton Town (Piccadilly) to HEATHROW TERMINAL 5
8. HEATHROW TERMINAL 5 (Piccadilly) to Acton Town (District) to EALING BROADWAY
9. EALING BROADWAY (Central) to North Acton (Central) to WEST RUISLIP
10. WEST RUISLIP (Central) to Notting Hill Gate (Circle/District) to EDGWARE ROAD
11. EDGWARE ROAD (walk) to Edgware Road (Bakerloo) to HARROW and WEALDSTONE
12. HARROW and WEALDSTONE (overground) to Kenton (walk) to Northwick Park (Metropolitan) to UXBRIDGE
13. UXBRIDGE (Metropolitan) to Harrow-on-the-Hill (Metropolitan) to WATFORD
14. WATFORD (Metropolitan) to Moor Park (Metropolitan) to AMERSHAM
15. AMERSHAM (Metropolitan) to Euston Square (walk) to Euston (Northern) to MILL HILL EAST
16. MILL HILL EAST (Northern) to Finchley Central (Northern) to HIGH BARNET
17. HIGH BARNET (Northern) to King's Cross St Pancras (Circle) to ALDGATE
18. ALDGATE (Circle) to Liverpool St (Central) to BANK
19+20. BANK (Waterloo and City) to WATERLOO!