Showing posts with label Darlington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Darlington. Show all posts

Wednesday 14 June 2017

Coffee In Pints

I'm no Mug - Oh sorry I Am!!
I know I'm not the the most gentile or sophisticated person you might have encountered, but last night I decided for tea to have some packet onion soup (how sophisticated is that?), which required a pint of water to make it up. I was going to have it in a bowl but thought maybe I'll just try a cup full.

When I emptied the pan, there was room to spare in my mug!! We got the mugs over fifteen years back on  a holiday in Budapest, memorable for many things including nearly getting arrested for fare dodging on the metro.


What happened is that three stations had automatic ticket machines that were not working, so at the main interchange I approached a couple of ticket staff about where I could get a ticket. The older one said we would be arrested if we didn't hand over our passports. The younger one looked embarrassed, her boss was obviously someone used to the old communist methods and the assumption that everyone is out to cheat the system. We got away with on the spot fines, and were directed to a ticket office three levels up, where we served by a very affable old lady who spoke not a word of English (me not knowing a word of Hungarian, the presumptive ignoramus that I am), but we still managed to sort out tickets for the rest of the week, by sign language and smiles.

The thing is for fifteen years on a Saturday and Sunday and non work day morning I have been drinking my coffee in PINTS. You go in to Starbucks and Costa and they have all sorts of not specific names for their cups, so I may have been having pints there as well. It's just that you never think of going into a coffee shop and asking for a pint of coffee do you? Well I don't. If you go into a pub you will order a pint of beer or lager (or if in The Turk's Head in Darlington wine), but not a coffee shop.

The song I decided to go for is the angry "Perfect Coffee" by the wonderful Kate Tempest. There were lots of other options but I think this is something good to make us aware of the times we live in.

Anyway it's a lovely day and it's time to set off for work, have a great one my friends.

Saturday 9 August 2014

Blood, Flood and Trains




..Apparently. So I've mowed my lawn, and cut some bushes back and filled up the brown bin , ready for next week. The weather today has been lovely, and despite the downpours this week the lawn is in remarkably good fettle.

This weekend I was intending to do nothing but managed to be so busy today that I forgot my mid day insulin injection, and was wondering why I was feeling a bit tired , just putting it down to physical exercise when I came in a saw four untaken tablets and then it clicked I'd missed my middle of the day injection, checked the blood sugar and it was a bit high but it's back to normal now.

Darlington Brick Train
Anyway looking out the window the sky is still blue ,  there's only a little cloud cover so not sure if we are going to get the downpour, but at least I'm prepared for it.

This week has been good for music and seeing friends so tomorrow I really will try to have a quiet day. Oh and earlier this week I went to see the Brick Train in Darlington which is about ten minutes from where I currently work. Because of this I chose a cover of the Kinks "Last of The Steam Powered Trains" and this version brings out the riff that reminds me of Howling Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning" which incidentally is also about steam trains,
 namely the sparks the could be seen from the funnels when you saw
the trains at night.
About The Brick Train

 Hope you are all having a great weekend, and have a fantastic Sunday everybody. There are lots of great things happening  so enjoy everything.

Say hello to your neighbour or phone a friend , do something to put a smile on your face and you will make the world a friendlier place.


Sunday 23 March 2014

So Glad and English As Tuppence



That people are enjoying my blue sky pictures, it's always nice when you do things that people like. Today we've had more gorgeous blue skies. I've been out for a couple of walks and yesterday mowed the lawn for the first time this yeatr and the garden is looking fine after the winter.

I'd ordered some Aftercut from Amazon and Yodel delivered in a huge box on Saturday, so we shall see how that performs. I need to change the bird feeders as the plastic perspex ones don't seem to do for the birds here, so I'm going to pick up a couple of wire ones and hopefully the birds will enjoy that.

The Local Church
I'm listening to Radio 6 and an advertisement came on for a program called "English As Tuppence" about Vivian Stanshall singer with the Bonzo Dog Band, presented by their musical leader Neil Innes. You can listen here for the next week, though it is three hours long. Now this would be ideal to listen to on the way to work but as you can get a consistent signal between Newcastle and Darlington and they don't let you download radio broadcasts I'll just listen at home.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, I certainly will do

Monday 14 October 2013

On The Bright Side


Stormy Monday
Well I've woken up , it's dark, it's raining , it's Monday and I have to go to work. The thing is , it's October so winter is coming on , and the rain means that gardens are watered , in fact the world is behaving as expected, which is always a great thing. Credit Nature or credit Your God but enjoy the fact that everything is happening as it should do.

Yes I don't like going to work in the cold and the wet, but the 100 mile round trip from Newcastle to Darlington gives me ample time to read and enjoy myself, although I need to make sure I don't miss my stop because I'm too engrossed in a book.

I've included a video of BB King's Stormy Monday, because today is a Stormy Monday,  which was also the name of a film featuring Sting set in Newcastle!.

Anyway loads of great things will happen this week, try and make one of them happen or be part of it.

Saturday 12 October 2013

Let There Be More Light



Well I'm still looking after myself, trying to eat healthily and I haven't touched coke for week, but the weight is only coming down very slowly . But its is coming down.

This morning I had to go and pick up a package for the local Royal Mail sorting office because my friend Jo from Darlington refused to do it for me (only joking), but rather than wait for the bus I walked and almost didn't notice the journey. Well I didn't until I walked back when I realised that the mile and a half walk to the sorting office was slightly downhill, and therefore the walk back was up hill. Still it would have done me good and I didn't really notice it.

The 3w LEDs Fitted and Working
Anyway I was picking up some LED bulbs for my new kitchen light fittings, fitted expertly by my brilliant mate Dave. The fittings had halogen bulbs and basically when switched on were using about a pounds worth of electricity a day. That is fine because you don't have the lights on all the time, but I just fitted the new LED ones and they are using £1 to £1.50 electricity a month even left on 24/7 !!

LED is the lighting to have if you can get it. And that's why I had to use the Pink Floyd song on here.

So a good start to the weekend, I hope you all have a great one .

An addendum to this , if you fit the LEDs and use them for 2 hours a day they will save you a penny a day (each bulb) against halogen. I have 12 bulbs in my house so over the year that'sover £40. No doubt the power companies will have to claw back their profits by increasing prices.

Monday 30 September 2013

Good Things Happen

She Loves Me .. A New Rebecca Cother Picture - click for more
Well after the weekend, in some ways today has been apparently full of let downs. But actually those let downs then give way to more good things. I see a lot of sloganeering on Facebook saying that when something that isn't apparently to your advantage happens it's just God (or your favourite supreme entity) making way for the really good stuff to happen.

First of all I had no data signal between Newcastle and Darlington, but that gave me the opportunity to listen to music and read.

Secondly my peace and my table was disturbed by three people alighting at Durham, but we got on like a house on fire and the last part of the journey flew by.

Thirdly power failure closed down the Stand so I missed the Lit & Phil Benefit and my favourite comedian John Scott. That meant a nice meal at Dabbawal with Kirsty and Fiona, whis Juliet could have made it but she has course work to see to.

So today turned out rather well and I thought of this rather wonderful song by Lissie:




Thursday 22 August 2013

Blue Sky Day and Data Usage


Today started grey and rainy but things took a major turn for the better and by the time I left work it was actually very hot . I don't know if feeling good in myself affects the weather or it's the other way round , but a very difficult day  was dealt with and things just improved and got better throughout the day. So this is one of those blog posts which actually about nothing , there will probably be no tags unless it's about the terrible phone signal I had on my journey from Darlington to Newcastle, quite often dropping out making things unusable. It was a Cross-Country Train and some people hve said that they scramble the mobile signal so you have to use their extortionate and flakey wifi , though I'm sure that is just some kind of urban legend.

On thing though is that a signal along a main railway line should be reasonably strong , although ironically it does disappear as you approach London's Kings Cross station. These days Mobile Phone companies are heavy on the data sell , but if are going to use data you need a signal. My first desk top PC had a hard drive capacity of 10 Mb , that would store a pop song these days. My phone , a Samsung Note 2 has 48 Gb of memory and you will use 20Mb of data browsing Facebook for 15 minutes. You're gobbling and you don't realise it.

Anywa I am home now and probably have about a thousand time more processing power than what they used to  put a man on the moon. We live in privileged times and it's only going to get better. The music is appropriate and Nazareth cover of a Yardbirds song. Ended up rambling on and managing to fit one or two tags in.

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Heatwave



Despite the rain during the night the temperature tells me it's still hot. T-Shirt for work today I think , though not a Star Spangled Chestwigs or Half Man Half Biscuit one, which will confuse or offend the more genteel among the people I will run into today. Hopefully trains will be stopping at Darlington.

I need to get off extra early to get my train tickets for the next three work days, which is unfortunately always a trial. The number of times you pass a piece of paper with your exact requirements and they still come back with an super saver instead of a normal ticket. Though in my time in my current job cost of travel has increased by 50% and wages not. We're continually told to practice austerity while governments , banks and corporation are profligate in what they take out of the economy.

Anyway it's nearly 6:30 am so time to publish , pack up and get out.

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Sun and Soak, The Beatles and John Niven


Just a short post. After all the fantastic weather we have had for the music Festivals such as Mouth Of Tyne and Summertyne , today we had a downpour of Biblical proportions in Darlington . It was very very wet. We are now back to hot and sweaty and obviously very summery, not great weather for work.

There's not much else to report without actually going into a diatribe about petty annoyances, although I always like to maintain positivity and starting from last Saturday it's actually been a great week for me, I just wish it could be as good for everyone else.

I've managed to watch a lot of films , about to finish a book that's going straight to the charity shop although it's full of surprisingly pertinent coincidences involving names and ice cubes, but it's continual name checking of eighties bands is very trying , but I won't let it beat me.

Oh yes I'm looking forward to August 15th when John Niven's new book Single White Male is released. His whole canon is to be recommended though I didn't really like Music From Big Pink , boringly serious for me. He's worth following on Twitter (@NivenJ1) but be warned not for the easily or even difficultly offended.

Anyway I think I will post a music video as well , which I've done before , one of my favourite two Beatles' songs "Rain" . Apparently the bass on the original single was so heavy it had to be damped down when remastered for CD. I don't remember having taht problem with my seven incher , but that's another story .........


Saturday 19 January 2013

The Weekend's Getting Better



I was thinking that this weekend wasnt going to be any good. I came to the conclusion on a snowy Darlington station yesterday with a one our wait for the next train , knowing that the was work to be done and needing my annualy eye test with my opticians. Well we have proper Christmassy snow , the work was resolved remarkably smoothly and C4 Sightcare did my eye test  and everything is hunky dory in that department.

It's funny how when you are feeling a little down , it's easy to find other things to moan and complain about , but instead I picked up a couple of CDs by Bentley Rhythm Ace and Apollo Four Forty from Thats Entertainment  and then had an excellent meal at Dabbawal.

Tonight I watched an installment of Arrow , which I enjoy as there's some good one liners and the bad guys always get their come uppance although some people refer to it , a trice unfairly I think , as a "Primark Batman".

Friday 11 May 2012

My Third Mobile Blog Post


I've just noticed that you can add pictures to the mobile blog post. I am going to try than on my bus ride from work to Darlington Railway Station. The drive is not too awe inspiring but fine as a trst run for mobile blogging.

Not sure how to arrange pictures but have attached a photo of the approach to Darlington Station.

Managed to catch the 1615 north and should be in Newcastle in half an hour. This is now my longest post by mobile. Still not sure how to include rich content but am sure that will come in time.


Monday 7 May 2012

Back To Work .... Back To reality



Well today I start back after a pleasant holiday interlude looking forward to getting my new Samsung Note. Incidentally I installed the Kies software , complete rubbish , doesnt detect my works issue Samsung Galaxy , and just keeps reinstalling drivers. Oh it's also slow and resource consuming.



Anyway will be taking my car back , hopping on a bus , then a train , then a bus and arriving in Darlington with hilday cake for all assuming people are back after the Bank Holiday.



Oh incidentally have you every thought that if you are on a capped data allowance for phones or internet , that advertisements use up a great deal of your data allowance , an example of which is below this paragraph!!



Oh and the song I nicked the title from Soul II Soul's Back To Life:

Monday 30 January 2012

London / Darlington



This is a very short rant as I have just priced a train journey to Epsom from Newcastle , Epsom being effectively London . The cheapest price is £124 though a normal return is £250 . The trip is a 500 mile round trip.

Waiting for a train at Newcastle
A 100 mile round trip to Darlington costs me £12 return . If I apply this rate to Epsom I should pay about £60 return , instead I have to 100% to 200% premium. Is it any wonder that people think they have to travel by car?

Tuesday 16 February 2010

How Good Are British Rail?

How goodat planning are British Rail. They show a complete lack of faith in their customers by installing ticket barriers at Darlington and Newcastle. Each time I come to them usually half are out of service , and the others either have staff or clueless customers blocking them , and even when you get someone who can use them properly often the tickets don't work.

Added to that all the cash ,achines on Newcastle station are inside the barrier , tough if you want to buy a ticket and dont have a debit or credit card , or just needed some cash as you were passing by. Also the pastie and sandwich stalls are inside the barriers so they must be really pleased at their loss of trade!!


Then there's Darlington , where the cash machines are outside the barrieres , but the barriers are situated at the far end of the station giving you an unneccessary extract five hundred yards to walk to catch the train going north, capped off by the idiot placement of one of the barriers right in front of a canopy supporting pillar rendering the barrier unusable!!

Yuu'd be better off taking the bus!!

Thursday 11 June 2009

The Train Can Be Fun

Train journeys can be annoying , borring and infuriating. There's lots of things can go wrong , unexplained delays , drunken idiots , jobsworth officials who just seem intent on obstructing you in any way you can.

However the experience can often be enhanced just by talking to the person you sit next to. Sometimes it can be amazing the number of things you find in common. Speaking to a young lady who alighted at Durham for a 62 mile journey to her job in York, we found that we both like the Sage, Richard Thompson , Half Man Half Biscuit and our conversion finished as she recognised my alarm tone of ELP's Hoedown which was meant to be my alarm call to wake me up at Darlington, which thanks to her I didn't need.

Hopefully there will be more journeys like that and less where they guy at the barrier at Darlington spends an age inspecting my ticket making me miss my train.

Here's the video for "Dickie Davies Eyes" one of my favourites, and it features Forton Services , I remember it when it was modern. When this hit number one in the Indie chart the band split for the first time!!

'

Friday 15 May 2009

On The Way To The Longest Day

Sat on the train between Newcastle and Darlington this morning, thinking it's a bit dark , considering we're getting towards summer. After several sunny days , it looks like rain is here for the weekend , still saves having to water the garden.

We must have passed the Spring Equinox this year , and now looking forward to a summer of music festivals , though the awful Evolution Festival in Newcastle doesnt count as it's just about controling the crowd while extracting the maximum amount of cash from them , a bit like Glastonbury has become , just corporate extortion to watch the media's flavour of the moment!!

Then again you could always buy a Dukla Prague Away Kit!!!

Monday 25 February 2008

Seven Days On A Train

My current work situation means that I travel on a daily basis between Newcastle and Darlington using a combination of bus and train . Amazingly a 40 odd mile journey generally takes around 70 minutes door to door . I doubt I could do that by car.

The first time I made the journey it was by car , and in the first 45 minutes I'd managed to progress aropund three miles . Once I'd passed the Metro Centre bottle neck it was plain sailing down the A1 until the Darlington turn off whereupon I became hindered by an RAC tow truck for about 5 miles . Not really a great recommendation for travel by car.

However despite the general excellence of the public transport in this part of the country there are strill those who contrive to make the journey as awkward as possible. For instance:

  • As you run for the bus at the stop, the driver who shuts the doors and refuses to acknowledge you as you hammer on the side of his bus as he pulls away, despite the fact that he's two or three minutes early. And you know the next bus will be cancelled or at the least very late.
  • When you run into the train station , the train is standing there (doors shut) and you're told by the smarmy uniformed rail employee that "You've missed it"!! Five minutes later the train pulls out . It makes you want to visit physical violence on these people.
  • On the Arriva busses in Darlington the ticket printers havent been re inked for years resulting in very faint weekly tickets being printed. Certain myopic drivers cant read these and take ages before grudgingly letting you on the bus. In Newcastle the tickets are generally very legible.
  • Why is it on trains , when your trying to find a seat , certain people insist on standing in the gangway to rummage through their luggage , ensuring that no one can get past them!!
  • Similarly is the drinks / sarnie trolley that pins you in your seat just as you need to leave the train.

Despite the number on annoyances on the trains and busses , they're still far preferable to and hour in a traffic jam , followed by an age trying to park your motor!!