Thursday 23 July 2009

1765 Guide to rough travel to London

It is Thursday July 23rd 2009 and I am in my Travel Lodge Room in the heart of London and I am looking forward to an interesting day where I must pace myself in terms of activity, and food. I was woken early by people banging doors and with no regard for the position of others. This is not necessarily their fault as my door at the Trowell service area could not be closed without a hefty bang and was due for replacement. However there is a tendency for people, especially young people it disregard even more than usual the welfare on others when they are hotels on holiday, especially in other countries to their own.

I had a good day yesterday despite my luggage being heavy just to drag along pavements and the journey by coach being excessive long and exhausting. The day commenced, as it has today early but I was in a relaxed mood, but with some continuing nervousness about travelling to London where it has been reported that the flu outbreak is already severe.

I had insufficient milk for a cereal breakfast and although I could and on reflection should have gone to the 24 hour store for a pint was not in the mood wanting to finish writing and play some games against the computer. This thought association prompts to plays Free Cell which goes well but then I am held up and regret the decision as it at best has to be described as a tertiary activity in the grand scheme and balance of my life these days. However I returned to sort out the difficulty so I could move and back to the writing.

The case became heavy, too heavy for the journey in hand because it was load with a small quantity of emergency rations, single tins of rice and beans, one of crab meat chunks and one of sardines. The new black casual shoes in addition to go with brown sandals, and this laptop. However there were less shirts half a dozen to the dozen of previous trips so that overall the difference between being manageable and not was a small one. I will have to do better when I return in August and not have the problem of having to move out on the morning of the cricket and am not able to travel and book in on the place of stay in the evening. To achieve peace of mind before then I will investigate left luggage possibilities at St Pancras which will be the ideal, or Kings Cross and then if both of these fails check the position at Victoria where there has been left luggage of the locker type. What happens if for any reason there are not does not bear contemplation at this moment.

I will also look of out inexpensive cooked breakfast and the purchase of sandwiches, fruit and other such items, There is and M and S at St Pancras but there should be cheaper in the locality. Until I have done this I will not settle on the rest of the day although I am inclined to go to the pictures in the afternoon and then the concert in the evening at the O2 arena.

I also recharged my mobile phone, ensured I had all the relevant papers and tickets and had an early lunch of two barbecue beef cuts and the remaining lamb cake as opposed to fish cake, together with the carton of sliced melon. It is seven now, the alarm clock has sounded and I will continue writing until eight, get myself ready and then make my way out around nine with a view to commencing travel with a one day travel card rather than use the buses as I am returning late in the evening. I decided on an ad hoc breakfast of coffee and then tomato cuppa a soup with crotons and wholemeal crackers.

Yesterday morning I was therefore ready for departure at midday when it started to rain. This was the one thing which could adversely affect my plans as I retain a vivid memory of one occasion when it commenced to rain heavily as I set off down the hill towards the Metro station where I was catching a train for Newcastle Station. However seeing that it was dry around 1pm I decided to use the break in the weather to go to the bus station even though it would mean about a half hour wait. In fact my timing worked well because I arrived at twenty five to 2 and the coach came at ten to and being early meant that I was able to selected the corner seat at the back of the coach. This has two major advantages on other seats. It is by the rear emergency door, but it is not this aspect which attracted by the additional leg and movement room. It is also a three seat area so that even, as happened someone came to the position there would be a seat space between us.

I was alert for the first part of the journey and enjoy the ability to look out and around which is not possible when driving a car or on a train. The main feature of my coach journey was the conversation from York to the coach station at Victoria with a young South African of Dutch descent. The second is the cosmopolitan nature of the fellow travellers with different languages and skins. Less than a quarter were of white skin and the majority were under 30 although there was one other elderly man on his own and one grandparent travelling with two other generations. The position has changed within a year although the trend was apparent over the past two to three years.

On the way out of Shields close the area of the adult education college I noticed the juxtaposition of the Brown Sugar next to the Meadow Grass although we passed by too quickly to take in what the shops provided although one served food, I think. Brown Sugar was the name of Acid in the sixties and grass for pot. Given the prevalence of hundreds of students passing this area daily I decided the chosen names were not accidental.

The King George the V road is the main road from Sunderland into South Shields running parallel to the coast road. It could be called a boulevard matching the finest anywhere as it central reservation is at the evening wider than that to the roadways it separates. The space is covered with ornamental trees surrounded by ever changing floral beds and structures to take eight hanging baskets. There are also areas of trees and shrubs. There are also grass vergers to the pavements with more trees. There is a cycle lane in both directions and parking bays for local residents and delivery vehicles. The quality of the landscaping pales on reaching the centre of Cleadon Village with has a prize winning floral display.

On reaching the road into central Sunderland I noticed that the large Lord’s Tool Hire branch is closed along with the Cartridge World store. Approaching the city centre I noted the Art Studios close to the former College of technology complex and where the nearest building is not identified as the Design centre suggesting this is where the art and design courses of the university are now held. Opposite the coach stop at Sunderland station the new office complex appears completed and empty and the sign board mentions there re 41 square feet of space for hire and that the building contains a bar restaurant.

We stopped over a road bridge just outside of Sunderland on the A19 to collect the second driver steward. And then went via the attractive Norton Village to Billingham and Stockton where we picked some passengers but it was the Boro than the coach filled with some new arrivals having to share the aisle seat with a stranger. Someone came to the third seat in what had become my space, said nothing and got off at York. He was replaced by the South African on his way to Southampton to stay with his brother and who was getting another coach at the Victoria Station. He had been to Dublin for a time, as well as his life in South Africa and this led to a wide ranging discussion which included drug misuse, the language of young people and discipline, plus the future of humanity and the planet.

This was just as well as several hours passed by. This used to be a six hour journey but over an hour had been added going in and out of York as to get to the stop at York station one has to follow the traffic into the city one way system.

For part of the journey I commenced to read Sons and Lovers the D H Lawrence early work which describes his childhood and paints what appears to be an accurate picture of his mother and father and their relationship. The descriptions are excellent and provide a vivid account of the community of miners at the turn of the nineteenth century.. For people born in the 1980’s such as my South African new acquaintance this is ancient history more than 100 years ago. With my birth and care mothers born in the first decade of the twentieth and their eldest sister born in the last, I am very much still connected. I noted a period of torrential downpour about a couple of hours from central London but the weather changed to sunny warm and it was a good night on arrival although there was evidence of recent rain.

My first intention was to drag the case to Victoria Coach station and the travel by the Underground train to Kings Cross and from there drag the case to the Travel Lodge. However I just did not feel up to it at that time of night and hailed a taxi which proved to be the latest with relayed speech and air conditioning. As expected the journey across London at that time of night resulted in a charge of £20, about the same cost as the eight hour coach trip into London.

There has been a furniture and door upgrade at the Travel Lodge which was a former Hotel so there is a large reception and bar restaurant as well as three lifts. However despite the upgrade I noticed there was no chair and having stripped and got into pyjamas, for comfort rather than bed, I first decided to leave enquiries until the morning, But then on finding there was no milk for the tea and I dressed again and was told the rooms did not have chairs but the staff meTravelsmber suggested that I borrow a light chair from the restaurant which I did and presently use as it makes a substantial difference. I also enjoyed the cup of tea and the coffee this morning. It is approaching nine and there is sunshine outside. It is time to make good use of this day.

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