My original plan for Saturday was followed only until depositing the case at the left luggage at the front of Kings Cross Station. This time I bought only one train ticket having previously duplicated the purchase which meant having to queue at the ticket counter and seek reimbursement which was agreed without any fuss which pleased me considerably. Well done Croydon ticket office. As yesterday there was a train arriving at the platform as I descended the long walk way which led to having to run for it. The train would only make the non stop journey to London Bridge. Someone provided a copy of the daily Mirror and later there was a copy of The Times.
At London Bridge I could not find a lift so had to negotiate stairways for the Northern line journey to Kings Cross. Getting out of Kings Cross using lifts was also a problem and involved three. First I had to go to the Pentonville Road end of the station where the lift went down to a different platform level or up to another level from which there was a walk to the lift leading to the concourse level l which brought one in to the main walkway links between Kings Cross and St Pancras, and then a third lift brought to the side of the station and a walk alongside the platform and across to the front. On all this section of the journey I was accompanied by a young woman I would guess in her twenties who had been on a trip using the £18 return ticket like me from Newcastle. However she was not due to return home until Wednesday cutting short the trip by several days and would need buy a new and expensive single ticket for the premature return. I resisted the temptation to ask why although I had a feeling she wanted to share the reason with someone.
The cost for one piece of stored luggage has increased from £7 to £8 for the day. It is necessary to answer a series of questions accepting responsibility for what is inside the case and then I had to show the computer. It was all reassuring and I did not begrudge the cost. I had planned to take the underground to Green Park and from there to Swiss Cottage to see the film An Education, but asked myself if I was in the mood for the film or preferred to watch Manchester City at Chelsea which was being screened in sports pubs at lunch time. I would visit O’Neill’s at Victoria station and have a plate of sausages and mash with a pint. I decided to take the bus which was a waste of having paid the extra £3 for an all day travel card. I had taken a look at the hordes trying to get to the Northern line and decided the bus was a better option. The double size 73 bendy bus was the last to arrive by which time there was a good queue waiting for the already full bus, I managed to get a seat next to man as large as myself. I wanted to read the copy of the Times I had found on the way to the stop but he wished to pass the time of day which was only a problem as I found it difficult to decipher what he was saying. He left in Oxford Street which was already showing signs of the Saturday crush.
At Victoria station I had a shock, O’Neill’s had disappeared with no indication that any establishment had been there. I was peckish and took a look at Wetherspoon’s in the central concourse but where almost all the 50 more tables were occupied, some having a Saturday morning drink but the majority taking the opportunity of breakfast being available until noon. It wa snot what I wanted
The problem was that I had some knowledge of the pubs and restaurants in the area from a recent walkabout to look at the new development across the way and as expected there was no showing of the game nearby so I went on an explore of the roads around Victoria Street leading to Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square. I was not optimistic but then I had forgotten about Strutton Street, where on weekdays there is a street market and local shops as well as two pubs. The Old Monk Exchange comprises a small doorway with stairs going down to basement level. This offers cask ale, two main meals for £10 and the football match followed by the Rugby International. Usually I do not enter somewhere without being able to see inside, and judge the atmosphere and type of clientele so I was pleased that my endeavour was rewarded by a splendid establishment with lots of wood and brick and although by mid afternoon it had filled up the atmosphere was a good one with local people, only some had come to watch the sport, some for the reasonable fare and real ale, and some for each other‘s company. The match was brilliant from my viewpoint as Man City thumped Chelsea 4.2. I had my sausages at nearly double the cost of the four at Wetherspoons. After the meal and drink I settled nearer the screen became tired and went off to sleep with mine host sent to check that I was Okay. A good cup of coffee enabled the rest of the game to be enjoyed. It would have been a good way to have passed away although a long way from home and family.
There had been a grey sky and a little drizzle of rain throughout the morning but now ascending up to the mid afternoon there was bright sunshine. I walked back slowly to Victoria bus station going for a little explore of where I sometimes walked during lunchtimes during my two years working at Middlesex House in the Vauxhall bridge Road. I enjoyed the bus ride back to St Pancras noting that Oxford Street was crowded with shoppers. At the Circus the detour took us past the Langham hotel. At St Pancras I bought a sandwich deal from Boots which I enjoyed before going to collect the luggage and then waiting with it in temporary lounge until approaching twenty to six when I went for the platform notices which are not put up until 15mins before departure.
I thought I was going to be lucky and have a table for four to myself again, but at the last moment a mother with six year old daughter and grand mother or mother in law arrived having been to matinee from Peterborough. The little girl was attention seeking and kept kicking accidentally intended I think. The mother wanted to talk to her relation rather than attend to child and at their station did not check that she had left the belt for her coat behind and which I only spotted later. Fortunately they left at the first stop. However I then found that the power was not on the compartment on either side. The train left at six and arrived at nine and on the Metro there were several groups of young people young people getting on and off for late evening activities at Gateshead, Hebburn and South Shields. There were spits of rain during the journey but I was able to complete the walk home without getting wet.
Given my uncertainty about going on the trip because of the weather it had worked out well and I was pleased I had made the effort.. In addition to £18 train fare I had bought two Travel Cards, total £15 and two single journey tickets of £3.40 and £3.10 making a total travel expenditure of £39.50. Accommodation for 3 nights was £57 and entertainment of three cinema tickets £11 (two with Cineworld Vouchers) and the Music Exhibition fee.
Food and drink expenditure was Pumpkin Cafe, a coffee at £1.79 before journey and Waitrose first evening Pains au Chocolates 1.49 and two egg custards .69 total 2.18, £3.97 for day.
Second day cold coke 60p on way to cinema and a Cheese burger and Coffee £2.67 during the Interval from McD followed by Marks and Spencer’s Clapham Chicken wings 2.49, Feta cheese and olives 2.69. Two 500 cartons of Grapes £3 and sandwich pack.49 a total of £10.67 £12.94 total.
Coffee at Dome £1.90. The Moon under Water Leicester Square sausage, beans and chips with half of fosters £5.57 Waitrose on return Pains au chocolate 1.49, grapes 2 x 2.49 with discount £3, Prawn Pasta Salad 2.39 and Coca Cola .49 a total of £7.37 with for the day £ 14 .84.
Final day lunch sausage and mash and a pint off Carlsberg £10.18 Boots sandwich deal with crisps and water £3.49 making a day total of £13. 67 and a food total £45.42 and a trip total of £152.92 well within my short trip budget of £250 and less than £40 a day all in. There iless than week before my next trip to the midlands.
At London Bridge I could not find a lift so had to negotiate stairways for the Northern line journey to Kings Cross. Getting out of Kings Cross using lifts was also a problem and involved three. First I had to go to the Pentonville Road end of the station where the lift went down to a different platform level or up to another level from which there was a walk to the lift leading to the concourse level l which brought one in to the main walkway links between Kings Cross and St Pancras, and then a third lift brought to the side of the station and a walk alongside the platform and across to the front. On all this section of the journey I was accompanied by a young woman I would guess in her twenties who had been on a trip using the £18 return ticket like me from Newcastle. However she was not due to return home until Wednesday cutting short the trip by several days and would need buy a new and expensive single ticket for the premature return. I resisted the temptation to ask why although I had a feeling she wanted to share the reason with someone.
The cost for one piece of stored luggage has increased from £7 to £8 for the day. It is necessary to answer a series of questions accepting responsibility for what is inside the case and then I had to show the computer. It was all reassuring and I did not begrudge the cost. I had planned to take the underground to Green Park and from there to Swiss Cottage to see the film An Education, but asked myself if I was in the mood for the film or preferred to watch Manchester City at Chelsea which was being screened in sports pubs at lunch time. I would visit O’Neill’s at Victoria station and have a plate of sausages and mash with a pint. I decided to take the bus which was a waste of having paid the extra £3 for an all day travel card. I had taken a look at the hordes trying to get to the Northern line and decided the bus was a better option. The double size 73 bendy bus was the last to arrive by which time there was a good queue waiting for the already full bus, I managed to get a seat next to man as large as myself. I wanted to read the copy of the Times I had found on the way to the stop but he wished to pass the time of day which was only a problem as I found it difficult to decipher what he was saying. He left in Oxford Street which was already showing signs of the Saturday crush.
At Victoria station I had a shock, O’Neill’s had disappeared with no indication that any establishment had been there. I was peckish and took a look at Wetherspoon’s in the central concourse but where almost all the 50 more tables were occupied, some having a Saturday morning drink but the majority taking the opportunity of breakfast being available until noon. It wa snot what I wanted
The problem was that I had some knowledge of the pubs and restaurants in the area from a recent walkabout to look at the new development across the way and as expected there was no showing of the game nearby so I went on an explore of the roads around Victoria Street leading to Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square. I was not optimistic but then I had forgotten about Strutton Street, where on weekdays there is a street market and local shops as well as two pubs. The Old Monk Exchange comprises a small doorway with stairs going down to basement level. This offers cask ale, two main meals for £10 and the football match followed by the Rugby International. Usually I do not enter somewhere without being able to see inside, and judge the atmosphere and type of clientele so I was pleased that my endeavour was rewarded by a splendid establishment with lots of wood and brick and although by mid afternoon it had filled up the atmosphere was a good one with local people, only some had come to watch the sport, some for the reasonable fare and real ale, and some for each other‘s company. The match was brilliant from my viewpoint as Man City thumped Chelsea 4.2. I had my sausages at nearly double the cost of the four at Wetherspoons. After the meal and drink I settled nearer the screen became tired and went off to sleep with mine host sent to check that I was Okay. A good cup of coffee enabled the rest of the game to be enjoyed. It would have been a good way to have passed away although a long way from home and family.
There had been a grey sky and a little drizzle of rain throughout the morning but now ascending up to the mid afternoon there was bright sunshine. I walked back slowly to Victoria bus station going for a little explore of where I sometimes walked during lunchtimes during my two years working at Middlesex House in the Vauxhall bridge Road. I enjoyed the bus ride back to St Pancras noting that Oxford Street was crowded with shoppers. At the Circus the detour took us past the Langham hotel. At St Pancras I bought a sandwich deal from Boots which I enjoyed before going to collect the luggage and then waiting with it in temporary lounge until approaching twenty to six when I went for the platform notices which are not put up until 15mins before departure.
I thought I was going to be lucky and have a table for four to myself again, but at the last moment a mother with six year old daughter and grand mother or mother in law arrived having been to matinee from Peterborough. The little girl was attention seeking and kept kicking accidentally intended I think. The mother wanted to talk to her relation rather than attend to child and at their station did not check that she had left the belt for her coat behind and which I only spotted later. Fortunately they left at the first stop. However I then found that the power was not on the compartment on either side. The train left at six and arrived at nine and on the Metro there were several groups of young people young people getting on and off for late evening activities at Gateshead, Hebburn and South Shields. There were spits of rain during the journey but I was able to complete the walk home without getting wet.
Given my uncertainty about going on the trip because of the weather it had worked out well and I was pleased I had made the effort.. In addition to £18 train fare I had bought two Travel Cards, total £15 and two single journey tickets of £3.40 and £3.10 making a total travel expenditure of £39.50. Accommodation for 3 nights was £57 and entertainment of three cinema tickets £11 (two with Cineworld Vouchers) and the Music Exhibition fee.
Food and drink expenditure was Pumpkin Cafe, a coffee at £1.79 before journey and Waitrose first evening Pains au Chocolates 1.49 and two egg custards .69 total 2.18, £3.97 for day.
Second day cold coke 60p on way to cinema and a Cheese burger and Coffee £2.67 during the Interval from McD followed by Marks and Spencer’s Clapham Chicken wings 2.49, Feta cheese and olives 2.69. Two 500 cartons of Grapes £3 and sandwich pack.49 a total of £10.67 £12.94 total.
Coffee at Dome £1.90. The Moon under Water Leicester Square sausage, beans and chips with half of fosters £5.57 Waitrose on return Pains au chocolate 1.49, grapes 2 x 2.49 with discount £3, Prawn Pasta Salad 2.39 and Coca Cola .49 a total of £7.37 with for the day £ 14 .84.
Final day lunch sausage and mash and a pint off Carlsberg £10.18 Boots sandwich deal with crisps and water £3.49 making a day total of £13. 67 and a food total £45.42 and a trip total of £152.92 well within my short trip budget of £250 and less than £40 a day all in. There iless than week before my next trip to the midlands.
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