Friday Five News 1/4/16

If you're looking for today's A-Z post it can be found here

This is my weekly round up of what caught my eye in the news.

The INTERNATIONAL news I’ve flagged up this week is the road collapse in India.  This dreadful event in Kolkata (Calcutta) has, to date, claimed 24 lives and injured many.  The bypass that was under construction suddenly collapsed onto the roadway below.  Reading about the delays, missed deadlines, and the fact that the construction company had been blacklisted in other states it perhaps shouldn’t be surprising that it was a disaster waiting to happen.  Officials from the company are claiming it is an act of God.  Really? 

I know that we often complain about the Health & Safety Executive in the UK but sometimes you just have to be thankful for it.

In LOCAL news  - people have staged a sit in at Lambeth library as the council prepare to close it.  Although I have some sympathy with the protestors I feel they are not looking at the big picture.  According to the report the closure is a temporary one during which time the centre will be refurbished and reopened as a local neighbourhood centre with facilities for the local community including a library.

Our library is a similar venue.  There is still a library facility but there are also spaces that are available to the community for events, classes etc. and there is also a coffee bar.  I agree that we should not be losing libraries, I have started using mine more now that I have signed up for a couple of book groups and don’t want to be buying new books all the time.  But with the increase in electronic sales libraries have to change and adapt to the times.

In SPORT I found this clip where India captain MS Dhoni turns the tables on a journalist who asks him about his retirement plans after his side's World Twenty20 loss to West Indies.  Just a bit of light relief.

Continuing in that vein the ENTERTAINMENT news I’ve saved is about the great comedian Ronnie Corbett who died this week at the age of 85.  Yes that’s sad but here for light relief is one of his most famous sketches with his long-time partner Ronnie Barker.

Finally under MISCELLANEOUS  I’ve flagged this item about an April Fool joke that didn’t go down too well.  Unfortunately I wasn’t up early enough to spot the button in my Google mail.  I hope you weren’t affected by it or the subject of any other April Fool nonsense.

All links are courtesy of the BBC website. Opinions are my own.

Have a great weekend.

Friday Fave Five 1/4/16

Click here for today's A-Z post.

This is a place to come on Friday's and think back over your week and just post about 5 favourite things from your week. It can be anything that tickled your fancy over the week. Favourite quotes, posts, happenings, scriptures, recipes, pictures, great internet finds, etc., etc.
 
If you want to take part or visit other Fave Five posts, click on the picture above to go to host Suzanne's site and check out the linky list.
Here are my five:

1.  Another concert last Saturday.  This time not only our daughter-in-law but also hubby’s sister were taking part.  It was a get together of singers to rehearse and then perform parts of Haydn’s “Creation” which of course was very apt for Easter.  Naturally it wasn’t very polished due to the limited rehearsal time but it was still enjoyable and was also a fundraiser for an orphanage in the Philippines known as Bahay ng Pag-asa (House of Hope).

2.  Easter – a time of new beginnings and a return to Mass for me. And of course not forgetting the chocolate!

3.  Sunday lunch with 2 of our 3 children and their partners.  Always good to get together.
4.  Some good weather and motivation to get out in the garden.

5. An afternoon out in London with hubby, just for a walk and taking in the sights – the diversity in architecture always amazes me.  A couple of pictures here show what I mean – an old building in the forefront with one of the new skyscrapers in the background.  Apologies for the lack of photographic skills!

Lloyds building to left with St Mary Axe Church overlooked by the Gherkin.

Looking down St Mary at Hill to Lower Thames Street overlooked by The Shard.

 Some of the photos I took were also for the A-Z challenge that I’m taking part in.  Wish me luck.  April will be a busy blogging month.

Have a great weekend.

A is for Angel

Not an angel as in something cherubic and with wings but Angel Station.  Yes  the theme for my A-Z posts this year is London Underground Stations.  I've chosen a station for each letter and at the end of each post I've listed the other stations for that letter with their Wikipedia entries.  I've tried to visit each station and take my own photos.

Angel Station is on the Northern Line of the London Underground and opened in 1901.  It is in Islington and named after a famous Angel Inn which dates back to 1638.  It’s not the first alphabetically on the list of London Underground stations but it’s the first that does have some significance for me.  When I first started full time work I was employed by Thames Water, the company that manages the water supply and sewage systems in London.  Fortunately I was an accounts assistant so didn’t have much to do with sewage.  (Although a visit to the local processing plant did factor into an induction programme!)

I digress.  (You’ll find I do that.  A lot.)

Angel Station was where you had to head for if you were going to the Head Offices of Thames Water.  It is not a station I enjoyed visiting for two main reasons.

Firstly there was just one central platform that ran between the North and Southbound train lines.  There was no nice safe wall for you to lean against when the station was busy to keep away from the platform edge.  And it is a busy station.  (For a view of how it looked click here.)

The second reason I disliked it was that the trains run very deep underground here and access to them was via lifts.  I’m not good in claustrophobic circumstances so this was torture for me.

However, on starting my research for this challenge I discovered that Angel Station had a major reconstruction in the early 1990s.  (My working days for Thames Water ended in 1986 following the birth of my first child.)

The first escalator complete with overhead advertising

The station now has two separate platforms and they are reached by escalators.  Very long escalators!  It’s much less intimidating to me now.  


 I visited the station on 7^th March and found the entrance was round the corner from the entrance I was familiar with.  Getting down to the platforms was much easier via the two escalators and I was much happier to have an all-important wall to lean on.

The second of the two escalators.

Station platform with wall to the left!

The original entrance - now boarded up

The view from the old entrance.

Another thing that has changed and increased over the years is the amount of advertising there is on the tube.  Moving down the escalators there are lots of adverts to see and I eventually managed to get a shot of this ad reminding people not to rush.  These ads seem to be pretty invisible to lots of people though.  Especially when going down as people are always rushing past you.

(As an aside Transport for London (TFL) are considering making some escalators standing only and will soon be starting a pilot scheme at Holborn Station - see here for the press release.)

If you want to see old pictures of the station you can check some out here:

Other “A” stations are:

Acton Town

Aldgate

Aldgate East

Amersham

Archway

Arnos Grove

Arsenal   

Next stop B is for ….? Check back tomorrow to find out.

And we're nearly off! A-Z 2016 here I come

Well technically it's now the 1st of April here in London so the A-Z Challenge has now officially begun!

I missed the theme reveal date but I've managed to get my first 6 posts scheduled which is much more organised than I was last year.  I flew by the seat of my pants on many days, but it was the first time I had taken part so I think that can be forgiven.

This year I'm determined to do better because getting the posts sorted will, in theory, give me more time to visit other blogs.  But as, to date, 1776 blogs are signed up that will be a never ending task.  I'm currently #488 but I started at #499 so there have either been some duplicates weeded out already or some people have had second thoughts.

I've had second, third and fourth thoughts but I'm going for it.  I have a theme again so most of my posts are at least in my head, if not committed to my pc yet.

If you want to check out my theme you'll just have to see if my scheduled first post actually appears later this morning.  If you're taking part, good luck and see you along the way.