Day 239: subterranean restoration blues!

My beloved iPad Air (about 21 months old) had developed a serious attitude when I tried to upload photos to it to process (something I do pretty much daily for my 365 photo-a-day blog). So I organised a date with an Apple Genius last night in Covent Garden, who said the only solution was for them to give me a brand new replacement, and so they did. "You have backed it up" they asked. "Ummm, I use the iCloud" I respond. So I then only had to see if the iCloud has been safely squirreling away my 5k+ (not backed up anywhere else) photos all this time. I was told that a restoration from the cloud would take "a while" so I should kick it off when I could plug the new iPad in, and crucially rely on WiFi.

So I thought I'd better get my precious package home!

On the escalator down to the Piccadilly Line at Leicester Square (as Covent Garden tube is currently exit only), I was taken by how different the decor is to my more familiar Jubilee Line industrial urban look escalator jouneys. Some of the Jubilee Line eschew adverts so the cool gunmetal steel isn't broken up by all that random colour. This escalator is more traditional, and there's a moment when only one woman is riding the escalator. Moments later the escalator appears completely full. Either she's super speedy getting off, or else lingered after the previous tube disgorged it's passengers.

On arriving home I started the big restore and waited...and then waited. This morning it was showing a patchy restoration of my photos. It seemed to favour those that had been processed. But I figured it might just carry on. And after 24 loooong hours I can report that it seems to have retrieved nearly 50GB of images, plus everything else it should have done, successfully. Phew, I'm just a little bit relieved!

 

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Day 237: 'broken' tube roundel

I've been fascinated watching the tubes pulling up to the platform how the shiny new ones, even with occasional decals the carriage sides emerging from torn wrapping paper, contrast with the older, more tired ones. We were due to start yet another tube strike today, so the almost broken underground roundel on the side of the tube carriage seemed a sly dig at the current situation with the ever constant threat hanging over our heads. A little bit of politics, perhaps! Maybe the tube passenger realising I appear to be taking his photo agrees with me.

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Day 233: art on the underground

I propped my latest RAZ (random act of Zentangle) up in the vitreous enamel roundel of the Jubilee Line Westbound platform, very late on this Friday evening. Though strictly it's almost Saturday. I hope it's been discovered by a curious someone needing a little bit of art (and a tiny Bijou snail) on the way home and not by the cleaners!

 

Update: I checked on Monday and it's not there, but as you whether it's found a good home, I may never know.

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Day 215: warp drive

I’m heading up the escalators from the Jubilee line and was rather taken by the effect of the industrial metal panels studding the escalator tunnel creating such strong converging lines towards the ticket hall. And the passenger a few feet above me has a pleasing monochrome stripy top that matches the edges of each metal step. And my camera is slung around my neck…it would be most rude not to!

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Day 206: I saw a mouse...

If I'm catching one of the last tubes on the Westbound Jubilee line you can often spot dark mice scurrying across the platform. But only if there's not too many people wandering about. Despite the mice being super speedy they don't like to be out if the passengers are standing around or a tube is approaching. I'm always trying to get a photo, but they are wily and normally the moment you might just have been able to sneak up on one, some heavy footed passenger stomps up behind you and the rodent scarpers. But it's past midnight and I'm sat on a bench clutching my camera hoping one might emerge if I stay still. I can see a tail twitching enticingly from beneath the Jubilee line barrier and wait. It's lurking too close to the the shadows for a decent photo and then suddenly it makes a run for it and a fire off a quick shot. It's not the perfect London tube mouse picture, but it'll suffice until I can get a better one. And knowing my predilection for late night tubes, I'll have other opportunities.

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Day 162: be afraid, be very afraid!

To promote the film Jurassic World, Waterloo Station has been overrun by escaped dinosaurs. This has proved to be a magnet for selfie fans, but the audience very much depends on the time of day. On the morning commute there's a few children sat astride a parent's shoulder posing for a photo. On Tuesday there was a very excited boy with a tyrannosaurus head on a stick, where you could squeeze the handle and the toy sharp teeth would chomp together. He and his diminutive dinosaur were being enthusiastically photographed by, I assumed, his parents. I was tempted to capture the joyful image myself but whipping out my camera for unknown children can be misconstrued, so I resisted.

I've discovered that if you're around the station late at night and there are some happy passengers who've possibly consumed alcohol, they do get the urge to wrestle with the giant lizards. There were security stopping people duck under the chain fence around the velociraptors on Monday but as the week progressed they seemed to have relaxed and the scenes have got mor dramatic. I'll happily forgo the selfie, but I'm rather taken by their vibrant amber eyes so opt for the side view.

 

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Day 161: footloose

It's half past midnight and 'm awaiting the last tube home at Westminster. The station is pretty empty, just several prospective passengers standing around staring up towards the train indicator board willing their tube to be the next one. On the opposite platform there's a couple sat on a bench and perhaps after a heavy night of dancing, he has removed her shoes and is massaging her sore foot. I'm rather taken by the moment of colour amongst that expanse of concrete grey, so I try a little shooting from the hip from my Westbound platform vantage position.

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Day 147: a possible octopus

I spend a fair amount of my late evenings at Westminster Station. The last tube home runs later than my last mainline train, so if I'm cutting it fine, the tube always wins. Westminster is a relative new station, of the concrete cathedral style. It has an austere industrial feel, banks of escalators, plenty of curved satin steel, exposed cables, pipes and services, criss-crossing braces and a slightly urban futuristic appearance. But it's also very leaky. The front end of the Westbound District Line is a host to a plethora of buckets capturing the constant drips. And this doesn't seem to coincide with rain storms, so it must be coming from somewhere else.

It's still a great place for people watching though. However if you tend to favour the very last tube each day, there are few people to watch.

Tonight I glance up at the ceiling, dramatically lit by up lighters, and espy what I suspect is an octopus. Not just any octopus, but an orange toy one which I suspect is sticky due to where was suspended. The orange is a perfect pop against the dark grey and I'm assuming someone threw it into the air with some force, and this is its final resting place. I'm trying to imagine if it was a child trying to see how far they could throw or an exasperated parent having confiscated said eight-legged creature, and tossed it to one side somewhat vigorously. I wonder if the stickiness will wear off one say and some unfortunate passenger will be awaiting the tube, and get a fright of their life when the orange tentacles work themselves free and it plops onto their unsuspecting head. Hmmm something to ponder whilst I will the last tube to arrive.

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Day 143: midnight run

Maybe this photo of the day should be strictly Friday but as I didn't actually start descending the escalators to reach the Jubilee Line platform at London Bridge Station past midnight it could definitely count as Saturday. And due to the extreme sleep deprivation I've inflicted on myself prepping, executing and following up on the big training session, Saturday pretty much involved sleeping, with the odd nap do no other photo opportunities.

Even when I'm dashing for the last train, the escalators are full of others making similar journeys. But after waiting a little, all the other passengers cleared except one, and I could capture those intriguing converging lines.

 

 

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Day 110: Southwark sunset

I’ve managed to resist for a while but sat at my desk this early evening, out of the corner of my eye I’m beginning to see something spectacular. I’m safely away from the distractions of a window view but being surrounded by so much glass and shiny surfaces somehow the pinks, oranges and purples make their presence known. I grab my camera and go to the other side of the building where I am going to be able to view the sun departing. But actually I can’t view it. The automatic blinds have descended obscuring everything and I’m met with a wall of grey.

However, all is not lost as I know a spot that doesn’t have a blind. I’m not sure whether this is by design as it’s one of the awkward sticky out bits of the building, or it’s just a broken blind. But whatever, I have somewhere I can stand unencumbered by the blinds and take my stunning sunset photo. And as a bonus Southwark Cathedral is silhouetted against the deep purple and vibrant orange which in turn is reflected in the silver snakes of the trains going hither and thither beneath me.

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Day 98: train rider spotting

I don't recall ever being here at Mile End station or really these parts before. I've headed to, what 50% Spanish 50% Irish and 100% fabulous EM refers to as, "the ghetto" to see how she is fairing being struck down with immobility after breaking her foot last month. And the now rechristened hop-a-long is certainly not enjoying her confinement. There's really no one else I know who'd suffer quite so much losing the ability to dash around town at the the dizzying break-neck speed she normally adopts. I'd arranged a visit to bring over some hopefully cheering gifts, the themes of owls, skulls and red being adhered to. EM in turn prepared me some delicious home-cooked tomato-free cottage pie whilst we catch up on nearly a month of activity/inactivity.

After I've exhausted all subjects for now I consider getting an Uber, but because we're slightly off the main road we figure they might not locate me. I head off to check out the local transport and discover a bus heading my way soon will whisk me off to Mile End tube station and I can ride the District line home from there. Whilst waiting for the bus, I amuse myself photographing some of the illuminated trees. So having my camera slung around my neck I'm ready for some snatched street (station) photography until my tube rattles in. Mile End is one of those island stations with the Circle line on the outside tracks and the District line on the inside. From my vantage point awaiting the Westbound tube I have a good view of those concentrating on their phones or contemplating life before the Eastbound tube moves them on.

 

 

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Day 91: pigeon post

I had an appointment which necessitated a later commute this morning, so joy of joys, considerably less passengers to jostle with. However, it transpires that some of the local pigeon population have taken to tube travel, rather than use their wings. Possibly Richmond pigeons are too posh to fly. That could mean I still might have to fight for a seat, but with a bird instead.

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Day 77: Train flowers

For a change I didn't photograph the flora en route to work today, Wednesdays are always a challenge, but opted to shoot the tiny flowers emerging from the hanging baskets on Turnham Green tube station platform instead.

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Day 43: Tube train, not!

I was stood on Westminster Station tube platform and thought I might try a slow shutter speed shot of the tube pulling in or pulling out of the station. I haven't played around too much with shutter speeds since upgrading my Leica and it works slightly different to its predecessors. I did figure it out eventually but by then the tube had disgorged its passengers, gobbled up some new ones and left. I checked my images and this seemed to be my favourite, bizarre the one with no discernable tube train at all. I could pretend I was attempting some ICM photography, which I was kind of trying to do. I rather like the effect, how the metal part of the roof turned into angular fractal shapes and the straight lines of the platform have been curiously rendered as wavy lines but a a slow shutter speed shot of a train, it's a fail! It looks like a dream sequence shot, and I'm am half asleep so actually it's pretty accurate.

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Day 19: The platforms that time forgot.

Monday morning commutes hold no joy for me, I'm not crazy about the other days either (especially super early Wednesdays) but the come down after the chilled pace of the weekend, is a wrench for sure. This morning as the crowded train coasted into Waterloo Station it was apparent that something was different. Since the middle of last year, very occasionally the train will creep surreptitiously onto platform 20, from whence the Eurostar formerly operated, and the passengers disembarking then have to nip through a handful of doorways, to access the adjacent platform in the rest of the station, and leave through the barriers there.

But today the train was boldly coming to a stop on platform 21 with no safety net of a neighbouring platform to disgorge the hordes onto. I felt oddly bereft...no passport, no luggage. It occurred to me that the last time I was here I'd be catching a train to France. I think my last trip here was preparing for a long weekend in Lille back in May 2006, where somehow I'd only taken one pair of shoes and they were from entirely different pairs!

Waterloo stopped hosting the Eurostar in November 2007, when they upped sticks and headed for King's Cross St. Pancras. And possibly the last time ticket barriers were in operation. Though there's been some reenginerring as there are now only a few steps to get down from the platforms, and last time there were escalators zooming you up to ground level.

I did make one further visit to these elegant platforms though, even after the trains had gone. In 2010 the other J and I secured two front row tickets for a fabulous new adaptation of The Railway Children. They built the seats on the platform around the abandoned tracks. The piece de resistance was a real life steam train chuffing into view, billowing steam everywhere for the poignant and unforgettable "daddy, my daddy!" finale scene. Not a dry eye in the house, or should that be station?

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Day 9: Farewell journey

This is a view I might not see for twenty months. The trains from Waterloo East don't plan to stop at London Bridge after today whilst they completely rebuild London Bridge Station. This is really infuriating as this is the easiest way to finish my morning commute into the office, I can even just see my final destination if I check the gap between the station awnings. There's the big pointy building acting as a beacon.

From Monday it'll be the grind of the Jubilee line with all those extra passengers who would normally be stood on this platform alongside me too. Ugh, it's not going to be fun at all. Twenty months...sad face!

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Day 6: On the up...

I always feel a little furtive taking pictures of people in the street (or station on this occasion), not the most intrepid of street photographers I'd make. It's because I don't like being photographed myself, so always suspect everyone feels the same. Though I know that can't be the case as several of my friends sneak in a cheeky selfie whenever they can. So when I do resort to photographing people I sometimes wait until they are in a position that obscures their identity. As usual I start thinking of monochrome compositions when travelling through Westminster Station and the escalators always seem prime material for my surreptitious snapping.

 

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Lymeward bound!

Going home for Christmas. That's what we generally do. There's songs written about it, movies dramatising the arduous journey. We expect traffic jams, violent weather, and delayed trains, as that's part of the tradition. I would always have way too many bags stuffed with elaborately wrapped presents for home and then a New Year in Cambridge. A massive M&S expedition would be on the horizon on arrival. I would be tasked with menu planning for the wider family party plus the more intimate festive fare, "never knowingly under-catered" was our motto!

My one regret is a lack of photos, from any of these lovely Christmases. But we always were a family of reluctant photographic subjects, so if I'd been attached to my camera as I am now, I'd probably have an artful, soft bokeh shot of the sprouts dusted with bacon slivers, and still not one of us!

A very early reoccurring memory is Christmas Day sat on the floor in front of the "visiting a children's hospital programme" in little Gran's front room (seemingly only used at Christmas), whilst I painstakingly ordered my new felt tip pen collection, yes there is a correct order! Even today I colour code my clients and arrange them in that very same order (my eight-year-old self would be very proud!)

Nowadays there's no home for Christmas for me, so I make other plans to celebrate the holiday. This isn't a cry for sympathy, just a fact. Of course I'm going to hark back to all those special times, the fabulously bedecked tables, the crazy obsession with canapés (that's you M!), the obligatory carols and festive films (D's domain), the first soft pfftt of a Champagne popping, the evocative aroma of M's Chanel No. 5, the patiently opening and admiring each present at midnight Christmas Eve before moving to the next, and the time we had a full Christmas lunch at 3am (and pretended it was normal!) A few ghosts of Christmas past, all treasured memories, surrounded by a train full of people going home for Christmas, I'm allowed a moment of wistfulness. And yes, secretly, I do wish that tomorrow morning I could set cross-legged in front of the TV, reordering my new felt pens!

But tomorrow there won't be any felt tips but I hope a delicious festive breakfast in my lovely hotel. I discovered Hotel Alexandra in Lyme Regis after a sadly slightly washed out photography workshop. Not that we hadn't had a great time and done fantastic photography but the weather really let us down. I stayed in the Alex, with the hatches firmly battened down but when the rain cleared I really enjoyed my time in Lyme. I figured it would make a great spot for one of my Christmas coast hotels but they haven't done a Christmas for thirty years. I checked them out again this year and fantastically they'd decided to lay on a Christmas package.

There's a fabulous warm welcome on arrival and I was delighted to hear of been upgraded to a larger room and more crucially, with a sea view. Immediately I set up my tripod and could try and capture the first seagull before a spot of afternoon tea. They've even provided a little robin ornament to decorate my room.

After a warm scone, the lure of the Jane Austen gardens and the distinctive lampposts had me wander out of the hotel grounds is search of my first sunset shot.

On returning, I added more sequins and headed down for a Christmas Eve dinner. I had remembered that the food is very good here and they don't disappoint. as usual there's the challenge of good photography on the ambient light in a dining room but I tried my best.

Feeling very pleasantly full, I retire to my elegant room and plan further photographic adventures tomorrow, no felt tips though!

 

 

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Day 302 : after the storm

So the winds have disappeared, the mornings are brighter and the evenings are clear and so much bone-chillingly colder. After all the weather and transport drama yesterday it was interesting to see the blue sky,the sun lower in the sky piercing from behind the railway bridge. As the train whooshed past the blinding sun was tempered and the silhouette of the bare tree was striking against the sky. When the train clatters past the sun bursts through sending glorious iridescent shooting stars on the waiting bus queue below.

It hurts your eyes but it’s also rather joyous. Despite the turn in the weather it’s still necessary to wear sunglasses. That can't be a bad thing!

 

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