Trains and tubes and interviews
Up before the throats of sparrows could thaw, and got the early train into London. Another terrible journey meant I arrived no earlier at the office. I worked hard till 3, chipping in with lines and concepts. Betsy coming up with some lovely visual stuff. If I had my own agency I would hire her instantly.
Then at 3pm, off to Merton Civic Centre. A ghastly tube ride there, at Waterloo I asked a member of staff why there were no Morden trains and he told me to keep waiting. As I began to grow late I discovered that you had to travel to the next stop and cross the platform before you could get the right train. Argh.
Fortunately I was only five minutes late to interview Sarah Tanburn, Merton's Director of Environment and Regeneration in an empty fairtrade cafe across the road from the Civic Centre. Yusuf the photographer for On Track, who I'd not met before, taking shots as we talked. Sarah, and her colleague Bronwen were pleasant people, and Sarah was clear and easy to interview. Turns out that she has ultimate responsibility for dealing snow in the borough too, and so has had a lively week of it, and saying that her teams had been working till 2.00am for nights on end to grit the roads, pointing out that because this weather has become so unusual for the UK that we're not really geared up for it like the Scandinavian countries.
Given that I have been ranting about travel this week, it feels slightly odd to be writing for Southern Railway's magazine.
On Sarah's advice I took a tram to East Croydon, and trained home from there. The trams are great.
Rallied enough to go out with Lorraine out for a lovely couple of beers in the Cricketers, where we bumped into Dawn and some of her pals. Then Lorraine and I had a hot curry, where Ash the owner sitting with us for a while, and showing his child scaring eyes, after having an operation on a torn retina a couple of days ago. Lorraine gave him lots of good advice on taking care of himself, which he lapped up.
Toddled home through the cold streets with Lorraine, and thanking God for Friday.
Up before the throats of sparrows could thaw, and got the early train into London. Another terrible journey meant I arrived no earlier at the office. I worked hard till 3, chipping in with lines and concepts. Betsy coming up with some lovely visual stuff. If I had my own agency I would hire her instantly.
Then at 3pm, off to Merton Civic Centre. A ghastly tube ride there, at Waterloo I asked a member of staff why there were no Morden trains and he told me to keep waiting. As I began to grow late I discovered that you had to travel to the next stop and cross the platform before you could get the right train. Argh.
Fortunately I was only five minutes late to interview Sarah Tanburn, Merton's Director of Environment and Regeneration in an empty fairtrade cafe across the road from the Civic Centre. Yusuf the photographer for On Track, who I'd not met before, taking shots as we talked. Sarah, and her colleague Bronwen were pleasant people, and Sarah was clear and easy to interview. Turns out that she has ultimate responsibility for dealing snow in the borough too, and so has had a lively week of it, and saying that her teams had been working till 2.00am for nights on end to grit the roads, pointing out that because this weather has become so unusual for the UK that we're not really geared up for it like the Scandinavian countries.
Given that I have been ranting about travel this week, it feels slightly odd to be writing for Southern Railway's magazine.
On Sarah's advice I took a tram to East Croydon, and trained home from there. The trams are great.
Rallied enough to go out with Lorraine out for a lovely couple of beers in the Cricketers, where we bumped into Dawn and some of her pals. Then Lorraine and I had a hot curry, where Ash the owner sitting with us for a while, and showing his child scaring eyes, after having an operation on a torn retina a couple of days ago. Lorraine gave him lots of good advice on taking care of himself, which he lapped up.
Toddled home through the cold streets with Lorraine, and thanking God for Friday.
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