soledad penadés

repeat 4[fd 100 rt 90]

There are days in which I notice a weird ambient, and it's got nothing to do with the weather, but with the feelings the environment generates in myself. It's a bit hard to explain anyway, but those days everything is normal but strange at the same time.

For example, yesterday. I went to Victoria Station in the morning and, as usual, it was closed due to overcrowding, so I thought I had to wait while their No Entry display was flashing and beeping like if it was a war emergency siren. Ok, normal, I thought. But no, as soon as I stopped walking, the alarm stopped sounding and they opened the doors.

Then I expected to find lots of people on the platform and suffer the typical sardine syndrom of the Victoria line, with retarded passengers packing in front of the doors while having lots of space between the seats. But then it appeared a completely empty train which allowed to take all the people which was on the platform (and it was three rows of waiting people). I always wonder where do the empty trains appear, specially when it is supposed to come from Vauxhall and Brixton (which is not closed yet), so it's not an station which is the beginning/end of the line. Quite weird, and ghostly somehow.

I even got a seat, which is something one can't usually get until we arrive to Green Park or even Oxford Circus, although I have to say that the retarded passengers made their usual act and positioned themselves just near the doors even if the rest of the carriage was empty. That was the punch of normality in all of that…

To whoever which takes care of these matters at TFL: I am fed up with having to look for a ticket gate which works in King's Cross and hence be able to touch in with my oyster card when I change from the circle/metropolitan/hammersmith lines to the northern/piccadilly/victoria lines.

I am even more fed up with having to fix the incomplete journeys and finding that there's not a single ticket office open because of the new decission of having the employees wandering around the platform instead of remaining quiet in their cubicles waiting for the customers to come.

That's all my ranting, basicly.

This is hardly funny if you don't travel on the Underground. But if you do, The No Foundation will make you laugh with their self made no-stickers. A pity I still haven't found any of those in the tubes I've travelled in, but I'll pay more attention from now on…

Which also reminds me that I noticed recently that the Victoria line carriages do have that kind of stickers in the space reserved for advertisement on the walls "by default", although usually they are hidden with the advertisement itself. So if there's no advertisement, there's always some kind of ban: keep your music down, don't put feet on the seats… etc

(Once again, via Going Underground's blog)

Soy superfan del blog Going Underground. Como el nombre indica, habla del metro, no sólo londinense sino a veces también el neoyorquino. Pero lo mejor de todo son los especiales Fashion Victims, donde la dueña del blog hace una recopilación de los mejores modelitos que ve (y fotografía de incógnito) en el metro.

Ahora ha abierto un álbum en flickr y están las mejores imágenes. Aunque siempre es mejor leer los comentarios de la autora, pero si has llegado tarde, esto es mejor que nada…

Because tomorrow is going to be a very good day!
I also found several London Underground blogs and i have been reading with attention what the london underground staff thinks about working in the tube, talking with customers, etc. Lots of tales there… Funny to see how they relate their arguments with stupid tourists which leave their luggage unattended, or how they call the Northern, er Misery Line…

One of those blogs is the London Underground's Life. From that one, just let yourself go, follow the links and find more tube blogs.

And this evening I was coming back home, more or less comfortably seating on an almost empty Central Line carriage, when I suddenly heard a bump over the glass on my side and found a semi drunken victim of latest Madonna song, Hung Up, which couldn't help herself shouting once and once again a loud Time goes back… so slowly… time goes back…

Would have been nicer if she had had a nicer voice. In fact she more or less sounded like an outtuned violin… almost all of us  there were trying to not to laugh in her face, as she was certainly enjoying this sudden attention spot.

They also say tomorrow is going to snow. Who knows?