Where are those tube fairies?

Tube gods and fairies on holiday

For the first time this year, I missed my stop through falling asleep on the tube coming home. I'm always falling asleep on the tube, as I mentioned quite recently (on Christmas Eve Eve), but I also tend to have an innate sense of knowing when my stop is. This evening I went to see the fantastic film Lost in Translation (just go and see it), then had a meal afterwards and full and satisfied fell asleep on the Piccadilly Line. Like I normally do, then relied on the tube fairies to gently prod me awake at my stop.

I woke up to see Turnham Green (my stop to change onto the District Line) out of the window. But it took some time for my sleep addled head to connect with the fact that the doors had already closed and the train was about to leave.

I swear I have never known the Piccadilly Line take so long to get to the next stop of Action Town (sorry) Acton Town. Stop, start, stop, start. Infuriating, plus I was worried I might fall asleep again and end up at Heathrow Airport, somehow sleepwalk my way out of the station and onto a plane bound for Barbados. Second thoughts, that might not have been such a bad idea.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 16, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Subway Life

Interesting art project

Ralf, from The Cartoonist, got in touch with me asking if I'd heard of the following (which he heard via Dublog):

"Antonio Jorge Goncalves makes drawings of people sitting in subway trains in 10 cities around the world. He stays an average of three weeks in each city, making around 300 drawings which seek to cover different times of the day and the different lines in the subway system."

Not having heard of it, I popped over to the website - Subway Life - to have a look.

I haven't had a look at the other lines yet but thought the London ones were interesting:



My particular favourite is the one of the bloke below with hair, like chips or chips for hair.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 16, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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On this day in 1956

15th January 1956 - Covent Garden Tube Ghost Spotted

It was reported in the Sunday Dispatch that a ghost was seen in Covent Garden London Underground Station.

"Is the statuesque figure wearing white gloves and seen by members of the station staff, the spectre of William Terriss, the actor stabbed to death at the Adelphi Theatre by a maniac 59 years ago?

One member of staff, Station Man Victor Locker, a West African, who believes he saw a ghost, cannot bear to work at the station. His application for a transfer to another station was granted immediately."

Personally, I don't know how anyone can bear to work at Covent Garden station, ghost or no ghost. For more on tube ghosts.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, January 15, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Cone busker - Part two

Perhaps the Brit Awards should have a busking category

Another "farty noise" traffic cone busker who we first saw on the 31st December was spotted today by Ross Sleight and he kindly sent me a picture that he took with his camera phone and blogged on phathouse



Ross wrote a pretty top article in New Media Age about the power of blogging and how it can be used commercially, which gives me the perfect excuse to blog at work in the guise of "researching the blog medium" and become the company "blogging expert".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, January 14, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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More Guardian Award referral comments

Annie Mole - real name or pseudonym?

Ross Sleight from the post above, and many other new visitors and commenters have come as a result of my blog being Highly Commended in the Guardian British Blog Awards. M C Morgan did recently and wrote the following:

"The Pepys' Diary project by Phil Gyford gets a mention, as does London Underground Tube Diary by Annie Mole (making a case for well-chosen pseudonyms [Actually, I'm assuming it's a pseudonym: a dangerous assumption].) Annie's project is impressive and enjoyable (and, for me, a little nostalgic) - every bit as impressive as the Pepys' Diary project. There's value inherent in documenting observations of the daily round from the inside, as Pepys and a thousand other diarists have done. But Mole goes a little further, using the blog medium to create a broad and deep document.

But people seem to mis-read what she's doing, including missing out on her gender and who she works for. "

Mmm is Annie Mole a pseudonym? Anyone who's been reading my main site or some of the other links on this blog, will know the answer to this one. But thanks M C for your other comments too, they rock.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, January 14, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Pictures I'm looking for

Or rather pictures I won't be able to take on the tube

Tony, who's just signed my guestbook was drawn to the opening section on my main site, where I list some pictures that would be most rare to see on the tube.

He said: "I noticed that you are looking for a photo of a smiling member of staff Believe me if you had to work for this cowboy outfit (I do) you wouldn�t Smile! But the best time to try is every 4th Wednesday, which is pay-day"

Other pictures which I claim would be hard to find are:

A Northern line train (most rare)
(although someone who works on the Nothern Line signed my guestbook and said that he smiled on their days off and at going home times!!)

Commuters looking happy during the rush hour

A ticket machine that does not say "Exact fare only"

A busker who is playing music just for the hell of it

A chocolate machine on a platform that works

A "photo-me" photo booth that you can fit more than a mouse into

A penalty fare inspector who is not a sadist

A District line train that does not stop between every stop.

And, just before anyone sends these pictures in to me, it's a joke, you know, I'm trying to be ironic.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, January 14, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Eye, eye, eye

Fish Eye Lens

As yesterday's pictures seemed to get a lengthy comment from jag about cameras, and not using flash photography, and Lomo's (yeah I didn't know what they were either), today's header seemed appropriate.

I was sitting opposite a woman this morning on the District Line and was drawn to a hole in her fish net tights. It's not just me, but doesn't that hole look like an eye?




Once I thought that, I simply couldn't stop staring at the eye.

Then later on I visited Marieke's blog - Bunny Factor 10 who had picked up the point I made on the main site about doing Magic Eye on tube seats.



Marieke said - "Look at the picture: does it or does it not give you Magic Eyes. Makes you wonder what secret images the London Underground have hidden in their seats. Maybe messages for terrorists? Security hints?"

And also I wore my glasses today for the first time in ages, certainly the first time this year, as I was getting eye strain.

It's funny how you can find so many eye references when you are looking for them. Shit there's another one. Must stop now before I hypnotise myself - Quote the hypnotist, Kenny Craig, from Little Britain - "Look into my eyes, my eyes, my eyes, deep in the eyes, not around the eyes, but in the eyes - click - you're under"

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, January 13, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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To Stun a Mockingbird

or Rocking Mockingbird to sleep

I had to go to City University today for my postgrad course so got the Misery Line (the Northern Line) to Angel. Opposite me was a woman who was clearly not reading her copy of To Kill a Mockingbird and was about to nod off. She certainly looked how I felt:



It's awful when you just can't keep your eyes open particularly when there's some psycho sitting opposite you with a digital camera and an evil glint in her eye.



A stop further down the line and she'd clearly gone beyond passport control for the Land of Nod.



I'm loving how she managed to keep her book upright, and how she wasn't leaning onto the person next door to her or snoring, or drooling (well her hair was in the way, so I really couldn't see if there was any drool going on).

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, January 12, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Underground Buskers

Meet the Going Underground Buskers

No, they're not me and a couple of mates, and I didn't commission them. On the way into town today to see Lost in Translation (which was bloody sold out when I met my friend at the Curzon, so we had to see American Splendor instead, which was excellent anyway and very, very funny). I was reading in the carriage and a couple of buskers got on board. Crikey, that's all I needed as I was trying to concentrate.

But "imagine my surprise" when about 15 seconds into their loud song I realised they were enthusiastically and madly playing The Jam's "Going Underground", the song my site is named after.

Luckily my camera has a little microphone on it, so if you click here, you'll be able to download their rendition complete with train background noises and the giggling gaggle of girls in the carriage further along, who gave them a large round of applause at the end.



It was quite hard to take the picture above as they kept moving backwards and forwards to meet each other in the middle. However, I'm pleased I caught their can of Kroenenburg on the floor by their guitar case.

UPDATE

Just returning to American Splendor for a moment, I was struck by how much like blogging, Harvey Pekar's cult cartoons were and obviously I'm not the only person to have thought this:

Before bloggers made it ho-hum to share their daily grievances with all mankind, Harvey Pekar was chronicling his annoyance with co-workers, old Jewish ladies in grocery lines, and women who wouldn't date him in his underground comic American Splendor. From Slate

Harvey couldn't actually draw the cartoons himself, so his stories were told in story board form with stick men, and he got cartoonists to do the illustrations for him. Much like my blog where my digital camera and scanner does the "illustrations" for me.

Incidentally, Harvey Pekar even has his own weblog - although being famous again means it's not been updated since October 2003 (maybe that's when the film came out).

Pekar is a big jazz fan and I was delighted to find out that he's soon going to be guest DJ on my evening & weekend radio station of choice - Jazz FM (24th Jan). There's also a mini interview with Pekar & review of the film in this month's WORD magazine - which incidentally is what I was reading when the Going Underground buskers came on board.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, January 11, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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More Guardian Awards stuff

I am in Love with Pundit Mania

Many thanks Pundit Mania for such a nice comment below:

"In the "best specialist" category the Guardian considered the excellent London Underground Tube Diary, which has a nice design, good photos and readable text postings. One can see immediately that this site is "alive". Strangely, the Guardian did not give the award there but went to Pepys' Diary, a nice site but not even remotely comparable to the overall effort and quality of the London Underground blog. One can surmise that the Guardian is still engaged in a love affair with an age that is long past and perhaps it is time to give some more sensible priority to OUR own modern day."

Thanks Andis - your cheque's in the post.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, January 11, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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No talking, no eye contact

More unofficial tube rule stickers discovered

Fan-bloody-tastic, while browsing some of my many favourite blogs on my links on the right. I came across an entry in funkypancake's blog, where he had actually managed to get a picture of one of those spoof tube signs I'd mentioned on November 11th. On that occasion it was a "No Talking" one and the one below spotted on the Glamoursmith & Shitty Line (Hammersmith & City Line) is also great, and must have confused the hell out of any tourists:



For more on this unofficial "no eye contact" rule - check out my main site.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Sunday, January 11, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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On this day in 1863

10th January 1863 - Passengers travelled on the tube for the first time

Blimey, they didn't know what they were letting themselves in for. The world's first underground railway opened to the public on a Saturday at 6am from Paddington to Farringdon and formed the world's first tube line - the Metropolitan Line.

But even then the London Underground's line didn't launch when planned:

According to The Times on January 2nd 1863:

"It appears that arrangements have been made for opening this line on the 10th [of January] for public traffic, but as the 1st of October, the 1st of November, the middle of December have been announced from time to time as the probable date of opening, it is presumed that no one will feel disappointed if a further postponement should take place. " From this excellent page on the tube's opening.

On the actual day of opening The Daily Telegraph reported:

"Of the general comfort in travelling on the line there can be no question, and the novel introduction of gas into the carriages is calculated to dispel any unpleasant feeling which passengers, especially ladies, might entertain against riding for so long a distance through a tunnel. "

Any gas that I experience being introduced while I'm in a tunnel is calculated to make me hold my nose and change carriages at the next stop.

(Cool - a page from my main site comes up second in Google when searching for 10th January 1863 london underground).

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Saturday, January 10, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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On this day in 1863

9th January 1863 - Private opening of the tube

A ceremoninal tour of the Metropolitan Line, the world's first underground railway, took place with the tube's directors and 700 guests. Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, had been invited but as he was more publicity shy than Tony Blair, he declined, saying that he was anxious to keep above ground for as long as he could.

He died two years later.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 09, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Sniffer dog on the tube

Mind the Ganga

Really exciting journey home last night, as when I got to Piccadilly Circus there was a bit of a kerfuffle going on. A brown and white spaniel was barking and looking very interested in a flushed looking guy with a rucksack. The guy was suddenly and quickly bundled off without too much protest by a couple of policeman and the dog ran round in circles while being pulled back by another burly looking copper. It took me a few seconds to work out that I was seeing a sniffer dog in action, which was rather cool.



By the time I had manoeuvred myself into a position to take the picture above of the policeman and Sniffy (we shall call him) and an Oystercard promoter , the dog started barking and lurching forward again. (Incidentally perhaps the police were talking to Oystercard man about the daylight robbery of the recent price hike in tube fares)

"Shit" I thought, "he's after my Nurofen", so I backed off a bit. Sniffy was after someone else who must have been shitting themselves, but fortunately it was a false alarm.

Now I'm assuming here that Sniffy was after drug carriers rather than explosive carriers. Piccadilly Circus is the nearest tube to that hot bed of vice - Soho. And also at the far west end of the Piccadilly Line we have Heathrow Airport.

But who knows, it was the first time I'd ever seen Sniffy and his police mates, perhaps they'd been tipped off. Perhaps it was just a routine sniff.

Update

A fellow blogger linked to this entry in the last line in their LiveJournal, he seems to be a bit confused about my gender. Although I make postings about trains, people tend to assume that I'm a bloke. I just can't seem to put the message across that I'm a chick (Regular readers know I have a bit of an obsession about this oversight or assumption).

Och well, I think the majority of people who read the blog know I'm a woman (the posted by Annie at the bottom of each entry is a bit of a giveaway). However, some people are always going to assume I'm a trainspotting bloke, so I spose I just have to live with it.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, January 09, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Pigeons and pigeon droppings (and penguins)

Why is being used as a pigeon loo, lucky?

Continuing this blog's lavatorial theme, Pixel Diva had a great post yesterday about being lucky enough to have a pigeon crap on her. It is an old wives' tale that this is supposed to be lucky, but I have no idea why. Can anyone shed any light on this?



With all the pigeons I've encountered in my life, from the cocky commuter pigeons on the tube, (see 31st December entry) the exhibitionists in Trafalgar Square, the mad Italian ones in Venice, I've never been lucky enough to have a pigeon shit on me.

Update - Today's Metro momento

It seems also appropriate to report that in today's Metro there's an article on penguin poo:

"Penguins' poo-power takes the biscuit
......The birds are able to expel their faeces with such force that they can project them some 15 inches from their nests......(scientists) found that penguins point their rear ends out of the nest and then fire their thick white to pink faeces with such force they land far away from their nests. ....Penguins, they found, can generate pressues of up to 60 kilopascals (WTF?) with each poop - more than four times the amount of force humans generate, reports New Scientist Magazine"

Fantastic. So at least we can be grateful that a) penguins can't fly, b) we don't have them in the UK and c) getting crapped on by penguin shit would probably cause you serious injury.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, January 08, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Toilets on the tube

No lavvies on the london underground

Continuing with yesterday's theme of feeling sick and puking on the tube, fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, there aren't any toilets on London Underground trains. Someone from "The United States" signed my guestbook yesterday to ask this very question.

Despite the cartoon below (from the excellent Geoffrey The Tube Train and the Fat Comedian), you won't find loos in the carriages and there aren't too many at stations either:



The handy site tubeplanner.com provides a list of the facilities at each station and I think there's even a tube map around somewhere which might show which stations have loos.

But some people do improvise on the tube and find their own conveniences.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, January 07, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Computers on the tube - part two

Is the London Underground selling computers?

I don't know what it is about me, but I seem to attract people who carry their computers on the tube. I don't mean laptops in nice carrying cases, I do this all the time, but people who carry their computer monitors around on the tube often sit opposite me. OK, often is an exaggeration, but just over a month ago I saw a young couple clutching each other and a monitor and hard drive on the tube. This evening there was a bloke sitting opposite me with his computer on the seat next to him.



I could hardly take the picture this time as I couldn't believe that this was happening again and I was shaking with supressed laughter, but managed to compose myself to get the shot above.

I just hope he bought a ticket for it, as it was occupying a valuable seat - for more on inanimate objects taking up tube seats click here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, January 06, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Feeling sick

Don't feel ill on the tube

I felt like a bag of shite coming in to work this morning. This District Line was lulling me to sleep and also making me feel really sick at the same time with its constant stop, start, stop, start, stop, start. I felt like I was on the latest Channel 4 reality show Shattered and could hardly keep my eyes open.

Changing at Glamoursmith (Hammersmith) I didn't even get a seat, as I was coming in earlier than normal for a first thing in the morning meeting. Fortunately, by the time we reached Earl's Court, I finished strap hanging and collapsed into a seat behind me. The Piccadilly Line sped into Piccadilly Circus, the lurching finished and by the time I was in the lift at work taking a phone call to say my visitors had arrived, I was fine. There's nothing like a two hour early meeting and a cup of Lemon & Ginger herbal tea to clear your stomach.

While on the Piccadilly Line I kept my eyes shut so just had an aural perception of the tube and I don't know if I was dreaming or aurally hallucinating (again I seem to be living Shattered vicariaously at the moment), but at one of the stops, a station assistant shouted in a really sing song voice, "Stand Clear the Doors, Stand Clear the Doors, Stand Clear the Doors." His microphone must have broken and he was seriously unfamilar with the word "of".

Feeling like I was about to feel sick reminds me of one of the first stories that a person sent to my main site many moons ago about throwing up being catching on the "subway". I still don't think the story is true, but only read this if you have strong stomach.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, January 06, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Extracting Varicose Veins

Seen on Funkypancake

According to Funkypancake various London Underground lines were brought to London from different towns and villages.

"This is why each of the lines has its own individual characteristics, and why so few other towns in the UK have their own underground transport. One engineer on the project said "it's like extracting varicose veins and putting them back in someone else's legs, but much more rewarding""

It's a nice myth/urban legend/fairy story. Or it may even be true?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, January 06, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Shock horror Gwyneth Paltrow travels on the tube

Daily Mail report on Gwynnie's tube travel

Tube flick, Sliding Doors' star and mum to be, Gwyneth Paltrow, really travels on the London Underground. The Daily Mail said so today, so it must be true:

"Should commuters on London's beleagured Circle Line (strikes, duvet days, cancellations, hardly a train to be seen) be heartened by Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow's endorsement of the line. Says the Belgravia based thespette: 'I do take the tube. I mean, of course I don't dress up and put on make-up, I just put on a hat. Trust me, it works.' The disguise might, Gwyn, but not the train!". Boom, boom, that's a cracker.



Trust us Gwyn, the disguise probably wouldn't work as my celeb spotting prowess uncovered her tube film co-star John Hannah last October and even a woolly hatted Matthew Kelly and red fleeced Rageh Omaar did not escape.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, January 05, 2004 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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