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October 24, 2003
Goodbye Concorde
Hammersmith in West London being practically right under the final approach line of flights coming in to the land at Heathrow Airport - a few of us from the office popped outside to watch the spectacle of three Concordes flying past on their last ever flights. We headed out to a grassy open area adjacent to the elevated section of the A4 (sometimes known as the Hammersmith flyover) which is in between the Hammersmith Apollo and Hammersmith Bridge. When we got there we noticed that there were quite a few people hurriedly making their way towards the bridge itself. So we decided to head over there. I was amazed at the crowds of people lining both sides of the bridge - and also the entire riverside walkway - as well as on the tops of local office buildings. It seems that many folks around here wanted to say goodbye. So - from my great vantage point on the middle of the Bridge I collected some video footage of the flypast with my ageing Sony Handycam - and have produced a sad and tearful 62-second pop video tribute. The video is of the last Concorde flying over the Thames at around the Hammersmith Bridge point as it descends into Heathrow - with a high-quality audio dub of an extract of the original version of Toni Braxton's Unbreak My Heart to compliment the sad atmosphere.
Sad pop video of last Concorde (see below)
Posted by jag at 11:59 PM | Comments (12)
October 23, 2003
Tube misery
The Tube. Without a doubt the most important component of London's transport infrastructure. And yet again I heard on the news last night that services are being taken out or affected in some way possibly not too far unrelated to the issues that were being the recent problems at Hammersmith and Camden Town. I also notice that Annie Mole has stepped up a campaign to get some answers. It will be interesting to see if politicians and people who can influence transport policies are able to (or willing to) connect with the opinions shared in the blogosphere. Annie is starting with Lynne Featherstone - who I understand is the Chairperson of the London Assembly Transport Policy Committee. So - all you London Transport users out there - pop over to the London Underground blog and show your support!Posted by jag at 08:07 AM | Comments (8)
October 21, 2003
6 Month Revue
A good time to reflect on the last six months of Route 79. Reflections on a bus journey home. Some of which have been a story already told - some of which remain but memories recalled ... Morning journey to work. At a time when Route 79 was a crowded single-decker - the young Afro-Carribean teenager at the back of the bus who didn't make it to the front in time before the bus started to pull away from the stop he wanted to get out at. Me, immersed in sounds of Walkman, standing at the front of the crowded bus having just got on a stop before. He: blood boiling shouting at driver to stop. Driver shouting back "Too late - next stop!" He: You f*cking c*nt - let me off!". Driver: "Too late! Next stop!". He: "Let me off you f*cking c*nt!" - jabbing at the door emergency open button. Driver speeding dangerously around roundabout in rage brought about by obstinance and foul-mouthedness of youth. Me: sensing conflict - stops Walkman and puts calm hand on shoulder of boy and proclaiming "Stay cool - it's not worth it.". Boy: gives me grim look but calms momentarily. 30 seconds later. Driver: pulls up at next stop braking sharply. Door opens. Boy: "You f*cking bastard! You f*cking c*nt!" and spits at driver - saliva streaming down over perspex shield. Driver pulls open his cabin door and makes movement towards boy. Boy jumps off bus and and picks up a half-brick lying on floor by bus stop. Driver gets out of seat and shouts at boy: "You f*cking bastard! Go ask your mother who your father is!". Boy: "F*ck off you f*cking n*gger!" and makes arm-movement with half brick as if to throw it at bus. Me: gets off bus rapidly and approached boy with intent to calm him down and prevent throwing brick. Boy reads my body language and tosses half-brick on floor and walks off - looking back and cursing loudly. Driver shouts "F*ck off! And go ask your mother who your father is!". Boy - walking off backwards making obscene gesture: "F*ck off you stupid f*cking n*gger!". Bus driver gets back in his perspex cabin - composes himself for a moment, closes door and drives off. Rest of journey uneventful - but for a few minutes after incident, elderly passengers gaze at me as if to say "Thank you". I put my Walkman back on and lose myself in the music. Evening journey back home. Get on bus at Alperton. An ordinary-looking person-turned-preacher boards at the next stop. He stands in the aisle at the front near the stairway to the upper deck and pulls a Bible out of his carrier bag. With Bible in hand and opened at somewhat random page he starts to chant out loud: "Jesus came to forgive those who sin! We are sinners! Sinners will go to Hell - but he preaches forgiveness! Hail to Lord Jesus!". And so on for a few minutes and a few stops. Everybody on bus stares at the audacity of preacher as he daringly proclaims against sinful living and affirms the forgiveness of Jesus Christ our Lord. He gets off at next stop. Everybody on bus returns to what they were doing before the interruption. Empty bus on way home. She gets on at stop on Wembley High Road. Me sat at back of bottom deck. She has a universe of empty seats to sit at - but she comes and sits right next to me. Why? I will never know. She pulls out a disgusting half-eaten Burger King burger out of her bag and starts eating. I was enraged. This is a story already told. Click here for the gory details. On the way home again. Bottom deck. Commotion on top deck - and then "Smash!". The unmistakable noise of breaking glass. Bus driver brakes sharply to a stop. Gets out of his perspex cabin and makes his way upstairs. Shouts at teenage kids to stop messing around. Gets a volley of abuse in return. Makes his way back to driving seat. Pulls off - and then "Smash!". Another glass bottle seemingly smashes against the window of the upper deck. Driver stops sharply and gets on radio to controller requesting Police assistance. Youths upstairs sense that they are in trouble and make make their way, cautiously at first, downstairs - before charging as quick as they can off the bus and onto the street - whereupon they sprint into the night. Journey home. Interesting looking lady. She looks like Tracy Chapman. She smiles at me as she makes her way to a seat the back of the bus - just a couple of seats away from me. I spy on her through the corner of my eye. And then she does something quite unbelievably shocking: Click here for the full story. The fly that attacked me - and then followed me into my home. Alperton. Journey home. Long wait for bus. Lady in front of me in queue gets on bus and mutters some curse under her breath at the driver as she waves her bus pass. Something about being late. Bus driver shouts "What did you say madam?!". She ignores him and makes way to seat. He shouts again: "What did you say madam?!". She ignores him - having sat down. He gets out of his perspex cabin and walks over to woman: "Could you repeat what you just said madam?". She ignores him. He says "Get off my bus! I am not taking your kind of f*cking abuse madam! Get off right NOW! This bus is going nowhere until you get off MY BUS!". She ignores him with smirk on face. After a minute of cursing - he walks back to cabin and pulls out a wad of "compensation forms" and starts handing them out to everybody on bus. Everybody else on board sighs and moans at lady. One passenger cries out: "Get off the bus you stupid cow! We all wanna get home!". She sits there motionless - refusing to budge. Bus driver continues to hand out compensation forms - until everyone has one - then goes back to his cabin - gets his bag - pulls out the ignition keys - gets off bus and walks off. Everybody on bus is bewildered - and eventually all get off bus and go stand at bus stop to wait for the next bus. And then there's the whispering girl. Morning journey to work. Me on top deck. Listening to my Walkman. Just an ordinary day. And then: a half-full can of diet coke comes whizzing past my ear and smashes onto the back of the seat in front of me - diet Coke splashing everywhere - just missing splashing all over me. I tare off my earphones in rage and turn around. There is a girl standing in the aisle about a metre behind me - grinning stupidly. Me enraged shouts "What't the f*cking problem?! Did you just throw this can of Coke at me?". She stands there grinning. I shout louder: "Did YOU just throw this f*cking can of Coke at me?". She is startled by my rage and cowers slightly. She replies: "I didn't mean to do it! I just meant to throw it over there". "OVER WHERE!" I shout back. She points and shouts desperately "Over there!". I quickly ascertain that that she has some sort of learning disability - and she is standing in the aisle when any "normal" person would be sitting - but I'm still angry - so I shout at her: "SIT DOWN! Just f*cking SIT DOWN!". She is frightened at this point and does as I command and sits down in the nearest seat. I continue to assert: "Just sit down and don't talk - and don't move - OK?". She nods subserviently. I calm myself down - and sit down and put my earphones back on. The rest of the journey is uneventful. Except for me occasionally hearing one of the other passengers behind me repeatedly shouting at the girl to "Sit down!". Journey home. Nearly home. Bus pulls in at an ordinary stop. And then "Crash!". Click here to read the story of me taking control of the ensuing incident. Journey home. There is a girl sitting a few seats away from me at the back of the bottom deck of the bus. She is crying. I can't help but notice. She notices that I notice. I fumble around inside my rucksack and pull out some Tempo travel tissues. I pull one out and offer it to her. She accepts gratefully and thanks me. I ask her if she's OK. She nods vigorously whilst wiping her eyes. I smile at her and get on with the rest of my journey home. She gets up a few stops later and says "Thank you" as she makes her way off the bus. I smile and say "No problem. You take care.". I never saw her ever again. There are many more stories like this. Too many for me to write about. Probably too many for me to even remember. But each journey beckons a story - some told, some banished to short-term-and-then-forgotten memory.Posted by jag at 10:38 PM | Comments (13)
October 17, 2003
Blondie and Me
Watched a documentary about pop-band Blondie late last night. (Yes - Blondie is the name of the band - not the name of the girl.) It was a documentary that was recorded on my Tivo from over a year ago - and I have watched it several times since - but I just cannot bring myself around to deleting it. This is because Blondie was one of my favourite sounds of my childhood. It was a Blondie record that was the first record I ever bought too. So, you can imagine that Blondie means a lot to me. So much so - that I dreamt about Blondie last night. It was a most pleasurable dream - I was a member of this most famous band - and I was performing alongside Debbie Harry (who was also my girlfriend) in front of massive, appreciative audiences as we toured and adventured around the world. I have to admit that this is a dream that I have occasionall. (I wonder if other people have similar types of dreams?) So, this morning - I hurriedly cobbled together a little multimedia anime of my favourite childhood band - with me in it. Click on the smilie to load and turn up the volume loud to enjoy. (And a warning to those of you who read this journal regularly: the image you see of me will probably destroy any mental image you may have had of me so far! Sorry about that!)Posted by jag at 06:50 AM | Comments (15)
October 15, 2003
Ealing Plaza
Sounds rather glamorous doesn't it? (Like, say, Rockerfeller Plaza.) Well - this is the name given to a parade of a few shops next to a southbound Route 79 bus stop on Ealing Road, just around the corner turning left from Wembley High Road.
Bus Stop at Ealing Plaza | 
Ealing Plaza itself |
Ealing Road, Wembley - in the rush hour
Posted by jag at 09:28 PM | Comments (10)
October 14, 2003
Off-sick and Diwali
It started to develop last week - I was in a meeting at the office with a couple of people who were noticably suffering from a cold. That's how I must have caught it. Throughout the rest of the week it got a little worse - but nothing that I couldn't cope with. Over the weekend it seemed to get better - but yesterday morning I started wilting away in the office. I just couldn't concentrate. I left office early - got home and ended up going to bed early - tried to sweat it out last night - but I'm feeling extremely rotten this morning. This is the first day I've taken off-sick in a long time - and come to think of it - one of my first day's off doing nothing in a long time. Perhaps it's all just catching up with me. What makes it worse is that it's a beautiful sunny day outside. Messing around in Photoshop. This picture sums up my current state of being:
My current state of being
Happy Diwali to everybody.
Posted by jag at 12:19 PM | Comments (12)
October 12, 2003
Bathroom Still
Was messing around with some Photoshop filters this morning. I wanted to figure out how to create an "outline" of objects or people from photographs. You know - just like you see in newspapers or school yearbooks where you see a bunch of people in a photograph - then imediately beneath the photograph is an sillhouetted outline of the people in the photo with numbers on them - and usually a "key" underneath showing who each number corresponds to. Believe me - it wasn't easy - but then I an not a die-hard Photoshop user so perhaps there is an easier way of doing it? Anyway - I started with a random picture. There is a bathroom connected to the main bedroom in my house - actually - it's a shower room rather than a bathroom. I guess you'd call it the "en-suite" bathroom - because we also have another "main" bathroom elsewhere in the house. The main bathroom is where Ms.Route79 has covered the window sill with her make-up and weird cosmetic stuff - and some months ago she decided to eject all my bathroom stuff to the "en-suite" bathroom. That way she can have the entire bathroom to herself undisturbed for the hours that she spends there every morning - whilst I can use the spare bathroom. This suits me fine - at least I can find what I need in the morning - because my bathroom window sill has got only my stuff on it. Here is a picture that I had to take in three parts - and manually "stitched together" to create a sort of panorama of my bathroom window sill:
Posted by jag at 01:27 PM | Comments (18)
October 10, 2003
Pickled Peppers
There's was a conversation going on over at Burnt Toast last night. It started with the topic of pre-travel immunisation - and has sort of ended up on the subject of hot chillie peppers. In the conversation that ensued - someone mentioned a craving for those chillie peppers that you on top of your salad at your local kebab shop. I smiled epathically at this point - and popped downstairs to take a quick picture of a big jar of those at the back of my fridge:
There is the jar of those delicious "kebab" chillies in my fridge
I couldn't resist taking one out of the jar to show off -
a particularly good-looking knarly one
Posted by jag at 07:10 AM | Comments (7)
October 06, 2003
Bloggers are typically teenage girls
"... the typical blog is written by a teenage girl who uses it twice a month to update her friends and classmates on happenings in her life." Well - (thanks to The Register for bringing it to my attention) here are the results into a fascinating bit of research into blogs and the whole blogging phenomenon: http://www.perseus.com/blogsurvey/ What next fellow bloggers?Posted by jag at 09:52 PM | Comments (8)
October 05, 2003
Can't get you out of my head
Well - in the last couple of days I have been experiencing the joys of driving a brand new, top-of-the-range Vauxhall Omega. What a car! A real pity I had to give it back; it was a courtesy car whilst I was having my own car repaired. I think I fell in love with it. (My other car is also a Vauxhall - a Corsa.) I don't normally feel like this with temporary cars, because you know up-front that you've only got it for a short while - so you go out of your way to ensure that you and the car don't get intimate. Like you don't transfer your entire CD or cassette collection into it - you don't relocate your Greater London A-Z to it - and, most important of all, you don't chuck in the ice-scraper onto the floor of the front passenger compartment. This luxurious car had everything you could possibly want by the way of creature comforts. Everything. The first thing I noticed was a highly stylish electronic LCD panel that displays graphics of every airflow combination that the air-conditioning system can manipulate in order to perfect to the one-tenth of a degree the temperature of the environment in every part of the car. Fantastic! There was also a gadget for warming the seat underneath you - ah yes "I've seen this before in many other cars" you might say - but this one was different: it had no less that five - yes FIVE - different temperature settings to satisfy every mood that your backside could ever experience! But the thing that really made this car special was the audio system. This - was just quite simply exquisite! Remember, I didn't have any CDs with me in this car - so I only had the radio to go by - but the sheer quality of the sound was exhilerating. And the volume - well the volume could go to ear-drum bursting levels without "breaking-up" the quality and fidelity of the music. And this I did - I surfed every radio channel I could to ensure a constant supply of good music - and this was made easy by a handy little widget on the steering weel that made this possible without taking your hands off the wheel. Utter pleasure! Now - the reason why I am writing this is not really to rave on about this car - but to expose a very disturbing phenomenon. It was the car's high-quality audio system that did it. It all started when I settled on a particular radio station that was playing the Kylie Minogue song - you know that one that goes "can't get you out of my head - la la la, la la-la-la-la, la la la la-la-la-la " etc. Now this particular song didn't really appeal to me before - but it sounded quite good on this stereo - so I actually turned up the volume and got quite in to it. And then, all of a sudden, it happened: I started hearing my mobile phone ringing. So I turned down the volume to listen out for my mobile phone going off - but it wasn't - so I turned up the volume again. A few seconds later I heard my mobile phone ringing - and again - I turned down the volume in case my phone was going off - but it wasn't. At this point I just didn't bother trying to figure out why I had heard my mobile phone ringing - you know one of those things that you just don't waste precious brain-cycles worrying about. Only later on - when listening to another song - I heard it again! And you know what's coming next - I kept on hearing it - in several songs - but only when I had the music turned up loud. There was no pattern to the types of songs that I kept hearing the ringing in - it was just random - but consistent - if you know what I mean. By this time - I couldn't help but be so "bugged" by the problem that I was determined to try figure out why I kept hearing my mobile phone ringing when it wasn't - but no matter what - I still cannot find any explanations. Wierd. The only thing I can suggest is that, subliminally perhaps, I was concious about me not hearing my mobile phone ringing if the music was turned up loud - and subconciously - perhaps the thought of me missing my mobile phone ringing caused my "hearing" part of the brain to make me "hear" my phone ringing when it wasn't! But once it started - I just couldn't get it out of my head ...
Kylie Minogue - a fan of Route 79
The above article I actually wrote about a year ago - and published on my Views from Broadway pages. (I was feeling lazy today!)
Posted by jag at 04:33 PM | Comments (6)
October 02, 2003
Dog shit in my wheelie-bin
It was around 6:30am this morning I was listening to the radio (Radio 4 Today programme) as I got out of bed - and I had just heard the radio presenter talking about how the hot weather that we had this summer is resulting in a spectacularly colourful Autumn. So instead of heading off to the bathroom for my normal morning rituals - I stopped to spend a few minutes looking out of my bedroom window at these spectacular colours of Autumn.
The spectacular colours of Autumn as viewed from my bedroom window.
Posted by jag at 07:37 AM | Comments (18)