I can't really remember much of this trip apart from a couple of anecdotes and that it was done on the 9th/10th November 2013.
The first story came on my drive down the M40 in the afternoon, hitting Warwick services in good time, I had a spring in my step and spotted an opportunity to repay the karma of my old Vauxhall being kept together on my long journey around Britain. Coming back out of the toilets, I saw 3 students dressed up in dinosaur onesies with a charity bucket and rucksacks. Being a former student, you can just tell they are students. These ones were doing a charity 'jailbreak' where the aim of the game was to get as far as Durham as possible for free whilst chugging for change off passers by. The best I could do for them was take them to Beaconsfield services as they wanted to go to Dover and not Heathrow, which is where I was headed to start my bash. Leaving the services with more than myself in the car was really surreal but the company was enjoyable, listening to the fresh faced first years and thinking to myself 'aww, to be back in their shoes' and then realising about end of topic exams >.< I'd also have loved to have been a passing car seeing a guy with a Columbo jacket driving three dinosaurs down the M40 must have been funny.
After I dropped them off at Beaconsfield, we just dispersed and joined the throngs of people either heading to or from London and they disappeared, hopefully further than any other team although already a pair was in Morocco according to a Twitter feed.
Back to the usual set-up, me, my car and BBC Radio 2's weekend line-up to take me through the streets of London along the Thames this time. I won't name every station I snapped exhaustively when you can see my attachment.
Looking through the list of stations I papped, I remember hoping I could possibly bump into a royal around the Windsor and Ascot area, especially Sandhurst, but I guess I was a couple of years out of luck there.
A station missing off this list is Longcross because I didn't have a working torch to help me get beyond the end of the lane and down the footpath. I corrected this on a future trip to bash more of London.
I followed the Shepperton branch into London and was a bit cautious when coming out of Sunbury, a police motorcyclist was perched at the exit on to the roundabout and I was unsure who was his prey tonight as I circled to find my exit for Kempton Park which I compared to Newbury Racecourse.
Next I plotted a course around Hampton Court Palace but at that time the only thing visible wasn't the stately home but the open to elements station which I didn't think was fitting to serve a Palace tbh.
The next stations were fairly easy to navigate to as my Sat Nav has all these stations included as 'places of interest' but sadly sometimes it can get the wrong side of the station and come up with a cul de sac which is a mile away from the side you want.
I pulled in opposite Syon Lane at sometime beyond Cinderella's curfew and found a car which had one occupant in and then a female who came up for air shortly afterwards. I didn't want to cramp their style but also didn't want to make an introduction to that kind of scene.
I felt bad at Kew Gardens for using my flash and taking a picture of the sign above the doorway when underneath was a homeless person hopefully deep in sleep and not in a deep freeze. I'm not sure whether Kew Gardens stations and it's environs are a place where homeless people can be found normally but felt sad that this still happens.
At Barnes, as fate would have it, Radio 2 phased in Telegram Sam by T. Rex as I drove by the spot where music lost one of it's most iconic, Marc Bolan, also my mum's teen idol, apart from The Bay City Rollers!
At Queenstown Road, I improvised as a human map for a drunk or otherwise impaired buy looking for some such place. I'm glad he took my first made up answer and moved on or I think I'd have been stuck with him for much longer.
At Dulwich, I jigged the route to avoid that toll-fare in the middle, as I do like to avoid such things. I do use the M50 for South Wales for example. :P
It was dark but very close to dawn as I reached the home of the Trotters in Peckham. I know it's not exactly the right place but for a non-Londoner, being in such parts of London really makes these things come alive and make me go all tourist, even at 4.40am haha!
An ex loved Millwall so I did the only thing you can do near South Bermondsey station - point at The Den and laugh!
Daylight was breaking and a friend who I arranged to catch up with would be ready to meet in three hours. I cut the list which would have included stations all to Dartford short and arranged to flip pack towards Anerley but still trying to get as much ticked off my list inbetween times. One such station was Lewisham where I walked in before the barriers were in use and as I walked out, the sum of all fears, a gate attendant with the gates in use! Explaining that I was seeing someone off and was caught out allowed me an easy way out but it could have been worse from what I've read on these forums about SouthEastern!
Cutting to the end quickly now. After I met my friend for lunch, I left and became a metal snail who slides glacially around the South/North Circular to Hangar Lane and then sped up dramatically on the M40 to come home, no dinosaurs this time!
[youtube]vgiDcJi534Y[/youtube]
The first story came on my drive down the M40 in the afternoon, hitting Warwick services in good time, I had a spring in my step and spotted an opportunity to repay the karma of my old Vauxhall being kept together on my long journey around Britain. Coming back out of the toilets, I saw 3 students dressed up in dinosaur onesies with a charity bucket and rucksacks. Being a former student, you can just tell they are students. These ones were doing a charity 'jailbreak' where the aim of the game was to get as far as Durham as possible for free whilst chugging for change off passers by. The best I could do for them was take them to Beaconsfield services as they wanted to go to Dover and not Heathrow, which is where I was headed to start my bash. Leaving the services with more than myself in the car was really surreal but the company was enjoyable, listening to the fresh faced first years and thinking to myself 'aww, to be back in their shoes' and then realising about end of topic exams >.< I'd also have loved to have been a passing car seeing a guy with a Columbo jacket driving three dinosaurs down the M40 must have been funny.
After I dropped them off at Beaconsfield, we just dispersed and joined the throngs of people either heading to or from London and they disappeared, hopefully further than any other team although already a pair was in Morocco according to a Twitter feed.
Back to the usual set-up, me, my car and BBC Radio 2's weekend line-up to take me through the streets of London along the Thames this time. I won't name every station I snapped exhaustively when you can see my attachment.
Looking through the list of stations I papped, I remember hoping I could possibly bump into a royal around the Windsor and Ascot area, especially Sandhurst, but I guess I was a couple of years out of luck there.
A station missing off this list is Longcross because I didn't have a working torch to help me get beyond the end of the lane and down the footpath. I corrected this on a future trip to bash more of London.
I followed the Shepperton branch into London and was a bit cautious when coming out of Sunbury, a police motorcyclist was perched at the exit on to the roundabout and I was unsure who was his prey tonight as I circled to find my exit for Kempton Park which I compared to Newbury Racecourse.
Next I plotted a course around Hampton Court Palace but at that time the only thing visible wasn't the stately home but the open to elements station which I didn't think was fitting to serve a Palace tbh.
The next stations were fairly easy to navigate to as my Sat Nav has all these stations included as 'places of interest' but sadly sometimes it can get the wrong side of the station and come up with a cul de sac which is a mile away from the side you want.
I pulled in opposite Syon Lane at sometime beyond Cinderella's curfew and found a car which had one occupant in and then a female who came up for air shortly afterwards. I didn't want to cramp their style but also didn't want to make an introduction to that kind of scene.
I felt bad at Kew Gardens for using my flash and taking a picture of the sign above the doorway when underneath was a homeless person hopefully deep in sleep and not in a deep freeze. I'm not sure whether Kew Gardens stations and it's environs are a place where homeless people can be found normally but felt sad that this still happens.
At Barnes, as fate would have it, Radio 2 phased in Telegram Sam by T. Rex as I drove by the spot where music lost one of it's most iconic, Marc Bolan, also my mum's teen idol, apart from The Bay City Rollers!
At Queenstown Road, I improvised as a human map for a drunk or otherwise impaired buy looking for some such place. I'm glad he took my first made up answer and moved on or I think I'd have been stuck with him for much longer.
At Dulwich, I jigged the route to avoid that toll-fare in the middle, as I do like to avoid such things. I do use the M50 for South Wales for example. :P
It was dark but very close to dawn as I reached the home of the Trotters in Peckham. I know it's not exactly the right place but for a non-Londoner, being in such parts of London really makes these things come alive and make me go all tourist, even at 4.40am haha!
An ex loved Millwall so I did the only thing you can do near South Bermondsey station - point at The Den and laugh!
Daylight was breaking and a friend who I arranged to catch up with would be ready to meet in three hours. I cut the list which would have included stations all to Dartford short and arranged to flip pack towards Anerley but still trying to get as much ticked off my list inbetween times. One such station was Lewisham where I walked in before the barriers were in use and as I walked out, the sum of all fears, a gate attendant with the gates in use! Explaining that I was seeing someone off and was caught out allowed me an easy way out but it could have been worse from what I've read on these forums about SouthEastern!
Cutting to the end quickly now. After I met my friend for lunch, I left and became a metal snail who slides glacially around the South/North Circular to Hangar Lane and then sped up dramatically on the M40 to come home, no dinosaurs this time!
[youtube]vgiDcJi534Y[/youtube]
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