Ahh yes, platform and train announcements. The platforms aren't too bad here, but what's really rubbish are the within-train announcements. For some reason, despite us having a decent fleet of pretty new trains in the last few years, they seem to have inserted the most tinny and annoying speakers into them.
Your musical notation of the announcements is both very clever and very true.
Also, major chuckles are your face gif of reaction to new Substack features! I feel much the same.
An absolute hoot - what a fantastic start to the week! You've given me hideous flashbacks of my past commute to work - of which the District Line section was the absolute pits - accompanied by immense gratitude that I don't DO that any more.
Curious choice of words by the TfL announcements team to encourage passengers to always carry a bottle of water with them to avoid getting thirsty. Is there a next-level-up announcement suggesting that if their thirst is extreme they should actually DRINK the water? I jolly well hope so.
Having not travelled in London for years and years and years I was deeply impressed by the improvements I'd noticed on my first trip to visit a certain Lord & Lady Freedman. The Elizabeth Line is fantastic, and the fact that I don't need a paper ticket makes things considerably easier (because I lose everything, as well as myself).
Thank you for including me in the persiflage! By the way, I used to find taking the District Line to Barking and then - heaven forfend! - Upminster, the most frustratingly slow train journey EVER. Thank goodness for West Ham glow up (so to speak).
The c2c to Sarfend is pretty good these days, though I tend to go by the other route. And yes, it was really slow. What did you do in Upminster? I was a teacher!
The announcer made me think of the guy in the same position Mel Blanc played on Jack Benny's radio show: "Engine now arriving from Las Vegas....boy, did that conductor have bad luck!"
I loved the comment of the announcer on the Earl's Court train. So quintessentially, delightfully British. Also impressed by the animated piece of you receiving yet another feature from Substack. Excellent, Mr Freedman
I miss old trains on the central line that still, into the eighties, had the wooden seats and windows. Put air-con in those, they'd be nicer and probably be cheaper that the Elizabeth line trains. In my minds eye, Tottenham Court Road still has that strange entrance where the two staircases down go round a pillar in that lovely beige 'is it the colour of just the age' hue. Apparently - from an ex-central line driver I knew some years back - when the Epping-Ongar branch was still open it was so little used that drivers would stop the trains along the last stretch to pick fruit. That wasn't why he got chased out of a phone box in North Weald by a husband with a double barrel shotgun (probably sawn-off as its Essex), but that's a whole other matter...
I haven't seen the pillar for a long time but then I usually emerge from the Lizzie line. I disagree about the central line. Air con would be good, but the noise of the trains is literally deafening. Plus the Lizzie line has through carriages. The only saving grace of the central is that it's incredibly fast.
Keepie uppie as they say! I read a somewhat dire article on making a successful connection with the opposite sex using the technique you describe and this I believe is known as 'negging'. Unless I have got it completely wrong which is of course possible.
Negging, what a lovely phrase. Some asking for a pair of leggings with a cold*, or similarly nasal indulging in necking after that initial chat-up. (*someone with a cold, rather than clothing with a virus, obviously. Terry can write, but me?)
Grinned through this, Terry!
Ahh yes, platform and train announcements. The platforms aren't too bad here, but what's really rubbish are the within-train announcements. For some reason, despite us having a decent fleet of pretty new trains in the last few years, they seem to have inserted the most tinny and annoying speakers into them.
Your musical notation of the announcements is both very clever and very true.
Also, major chuckles are your face gif of reaction to new Substack features! I feel much the same.
😁 Great minds, Nathan! Weird about cr*p speakers on new trains. Maybe they ran out of money. Do they also make inane announcements?
Oh yes, 90% of announcements are inane. For example: "It's raining today. The platforms will therefore be wet, so don't run."
😂
An absolute hoot - what a fantastic start to the week! You've given me hideous flashbacks of my past commute to work - of which the District Line section was the absolute pits - accompanied by immense gratitude that I don't DO that any more.
Curious choice of words by the TfL announcements team to encourage passengers to always carry a bottle of water with them to avoid getting thirsty. Is there a next-level-up announcement suggesting that if their thirst is extreme they should actually DRINK the water? I jolly well hope so.
Having not travelled in London for years and years and years I was deeply impressed by the improvements I'd noticed on my first trip to visit a certain Lord & Lady Freedman. The Elizabeth Line is fantastic, and the fact that I don't need a paper ticket makes things considerably easier (because I lose everything, as well as myself).
Lol. Glad you enjoyed it. Good point: I was wondering why I still get thirsty even though I carry water around with me. Chortle
🤣
Thank you for including me in the persiflage! By the way, I used to find taking the District Line to Barking and then - heaven forfend! - Upminster, the most frustratingly slow train journey EVER. Thank goodness for West Ham glow up (so to speak).
The c2c to Sarfend is pretty good these days, though I tend to go by the other route. And yes, it was really slow. What did you do in Upminster? I was a teacher!
The announcer made me think of the guy in the same position Mel Blanc played on Jack Benny's radio show: "Engine now arriving from Las Vegas....boy, did that conductor have bad luck!"
😂
I loved the comment of the announcer on the Earl's Court train. So quintessentially, delightfully British. Also impressed by the animated piece of you receiving yet another feature from Substack. Excellent, Mr Freedman
hahaha!! Isn't it just. Thanks, Sharron :-)
I miss old trains on the central line that still, into the eighties, had the wooden seats and windows. Put air-con in those, they'd be nicer and probably be cheaper that the Elizabeth line trains. In my minds eye, Tottenham Court Road still has that strange entrance where the two staircases down go round a pillar in that lovely beige 'is it the colour of just the age' hue. Apparently - from an ex-central line driver I knew some years back - when the Epping-Ongar branch was still open it was so little used that drivers would stop the trains along the last stretch to pick fruit. That wasn't why he got chased out of a phone box in North Weald by a husband with a double barrel shotgun (probably sawn-off as its Essex), but that's a whole other matter...
I haven't seen the pillar for a long time but then I usually emerge from the Lizzie line. I disagree about the central line. Air con would be good, but the noise of the trains is literally deafening. Plus the Lizzie line has through carriages. The only saving grace of the central is that it's incredibly fast.
Ps Chased by husband: 🤣
Keepie uppie as they say! I read a somewhat dire article on making a successful connection with the opposite sex using the technique you describe and this I believe is known as 'negging'. Unless I have got it completely wrong which is of course possible.
Negging? Sounds horrible! 😆
Well it didn't leave a very nice taste in my mouth. That's the Internet for you!
Lol
Negging, what a lovely phrase. Some asking for a pair of leggings with a cold*, or similarly nasal indulging in necking after that initial chat-up. (*someone with a cold, rather than clothing with a virus, obviously. Terry can write, but me?)
I do love a dangling modifier!
The ointment fixed mine...
🤣🤣