A white “Hare Krishna” guy got on my bus tonight. He nearly missed it. I saw him sprinting at full speed to get on before the bus pulled away from the stop. He climbed up to the top deck - gasping for breath - and sat down near the front. I was way behind him - right at the back. But I could see that his head was shaved bald. Even though he was wearing a woolly hat. His thick grey coat protecting him from London’s cold November chill betrayed his bright orange clothing underneath. He was more “Oxford Street” than “Wembley High Road”- and proceeded to wire himself up to his walkman/discman/IPOD/MP3-player.
I then wondered what he was listening to - and wondered what he was doing round these parts. Attending a puja or kirtan perhaps?
Meanwhile - a Michael Palin travel documentary is being played out on the flat-panel TV screen in front.
 |
That’s a snappy looking bus interior! Is that a TV up the front or a view of the driver ? Excuse my ignorance but the last time I was on a London bus was a routemaster from Hounslow depot to Kingston (Route 281 ?) wayyyy back in 1977 (went to the Poly, as it was then). Enjoy your blog - cheers !
Posted by: IanH on November 15, 2004 11:57 PMYou have TV on your bus? What? I get only chewing gum on the seats in mine!
Posted by: Anand on November 16, 2004 11:56 AMAnother amazing clear picture. What model of camera do you have if I might ask?
Posted by: Fritz on November 16, 2004 06:18 PMDo my eyes deceive me — is that a telly???
Where, when, how, what the…!!
I’m amazed the bus company could fund it and amazed it’s still intact.
How long it’ll last remains to be seen — but I hope it does and we start getting some on buses down our way, over in north-central London.
Ian, Anand, Spanish Bill, Zoe: YES - that IS a TV screen on the bus! It’s a 19-inch flat-panel LCD screen - and there’s one on the bottom deck too! They’ve been on my bus route for around for nearly a year! See my posting from March this year:
http://www.route79.com/journal/archives/000206.html
They also have them on Route 83 and Route 92 (I think.)
Spanish Bill: The bus has no less than six - YES SIX - CCTV cameras - which pipe the images onto those very TV screens every now and then - just to remind passengers that they are being watched - and thet everyone else can watch themselves being watched too! Thus - I have never seen these TV screens vandalised! Quite often I see myself on the screen!
Basically: if you click on the link above you will see from my article from earlier this year what is played on the TV screens - and every five minutes or so the programme is interrupted to give a show of what’s on all the CCTV cameras LIVE at that moment. There is no sound - so subtitles are displayed instead.
Fritx: thanks - the camera does it all - believe me! It’s a Sony DSC-V1 - I bought it as a New Year present for myself at the end of 2003 - you can read about it here:
http://www.route79.com/journal/archives/000148.html
It’s quite compact - and has so many “semi-pro” features on it that it will take me years to work out how to use it properly. Other than that it takes really nice pictures. Also: I NEVER use flash - and the only post-processing I do is Adobe Photoshop “Auto Levels”. I never adjust colour balance - and I only occasionaly use the “sharpen” feature.
Posted by: Jag on November 16, 2004 09:29 PMFritz: I didn’t buy any accessories for the camera as such - but I did buy 2 higher-capacity memory sticks a few weeks later (256Mbyte ones by ScanDisk) after I realised that what comes with the camera is simply not enough. The trick to taking great pics in low-light situations is to NOT use flash - and to take the pic with extremely steady hand. This is because with no flash the exposure time will have to be longer which means you have to be even stiller to avoid blurring. The end result though will be far superior an image because the colours will be a lot more natural - as opposed to the artificial harshness of flash. ALL my pics are taken without flash - but be aware I’ve rejected loads of pictures for being unacceptably blurred!
Posted by: Jag on November 17, 2004 07:32 AMthey have TV’s on buses now!? blimey.
Posted by: Jaina on November 17, 2004 07:08 PMHi Jaina: yes they do! Have done on 79 for nearly a year!
Posted by: Jag on November 18, 2004 09:08 PM