I've been up to things
Sunday, 27 November 2011 16:39![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iguanaHello! This post is a whopper. Grab some tea...
What with it being Not Advent Yet, everywhere has Christmas stuff going on, and that includes the London Southbank, which has its annual Christmas market going on at the moment. Emily and I went along last weekend to check it out, and ended up riding on a Carousel, which was much more fun than I probably should let on. We also had foods there at surprisingly low prices (and avoided food poisoning) - I had a beef goulash and we shared an apple and cinnamon crêpe afterwards. There were also wood carvings and crockery and bratwurst and beer. The place was shutting down by about 20:30 though, so I think at the moment it's aimed at the going-home work crowd. Most of the sellers seemed to be continental Europeans, which makes sense since Germany and the like are well-known for Christmas markets.
This weekend (yesterday, to be precise), we went to a tour of the closed Aldwych tube station. The 1907 station was closed in 1994 when its (pretty awesome) lifts broke down, and would've cost millions to repair or replace, more than the short fork of the Piccadilly line from Holborn could justify given its low traffic. Aldwych has been popular since then (along with Charing Cross' Jubilee Line platforms) as a set for films such as V for Vendetta and Die Another Day.
The station itself hadn't been redecorated before its closure, so still had a very old fashioned look to it. It was originally designed to be a major interchange station, and had three lift shafts, although only the rightmost shaft was ever used for the two now-defunct elevators. The information office was even placed at the top of the middle shaft. From there we headed down to platform level, using the 160-step spiral staircase.
The West platform contained an unpainted tube train, which could still run and was used for staff training and similar, although the electricity was switched off that day, I think to allow easy evacuation along the tunnel to Holborn should there be an emergency.
While the station was built with two lines and two platforms, the East platform only managed to last until 1914 when it was taken out of use. This was the more interesting platform of the two, as it had a much more derelict feeling, partly because half the platform area was never decorated because they ran short trains there, leaving old tiling only part way along.
Afterwards we went to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, which our tickets to the tour provided us with free admission to. It was a nice way to round off the day with examples of all public transport vehicles right back to a 1800s horse-drawn omnibus, most of which we were allowed to get in and sit for a while. It was a good way to round off the day, although I'm glad we didn't have to pay to get in, because £13 seemed a bit steep for what was there.
My full set of photos is here: Aldwych Tube Station.
Surprisingly my knees are feeling okay today despite all those stairs. (However I said that last entry too, and then found myself aching on Monday.) I saw a physiotherapist last week, and he showed me how to use zinc tape to support where my ligament attaches to the tibia, which we're hoping will help. I have another appointment in a couple of weeks' time to report back. Last session was a bit disappointing because although my knees got a thorough prodding at the time, they weren't painful while I was at the appointment, so there wasn't a positive diagnosis of what was wrong.
Anyway, what with the knee and working from home (the new office now has a fibre connection, but drops packages every so often for a good few seconds, making Skype conversations tricky to say the least), I've had more time to watch through classic Doctor Who, which I've been renting from Lovefilm (watching during my lunchbreaks and would-be commute time, before anyone accuse me of slacking off).
As it happens, this Wednesday was the 48th anniversary of the broadcast of the first William Hartnell episode, and this weekend I finally finished watching through all the (released on DVD) episodes of the black and white era. The quality of the episodes (in terms of script and production values) varies wildly, so I've put together a list of the serials that stood out to me:
Next week: Third Doctor!
Anyway, that's quite enough blogging for one day, I think. Stay tuned for next month's exciting instalment!
What with it being Not Advent Yet, everywhere has Christmas stuff going on, and that includes the London Southbank, which has its annual Christmas market going on at the moment. Emily and I went along last weekend to check it out, and ended up riding on a Carousel, which was much more fun than I probably should let on. We also had foods there at surprisingly low prices (and avoided food poisoning) - I had a beef goulash and we shared an apple and cinnamon crêpe afterwards. There were also wood carvings and crockery and bratwurst and beer. The place was shutting down by about 20:30 though, so I think at the moment it's aimed at the going-home work crowd. Most of the sellers seemed to be continental Europeans, which makes sense since Germany and the like are well-known for Christmas markets.
This weekend (yesterday, to be precise), we went to a tour of the closed Aldwych tube station. The 1907 station was closed in 1994 when its (pretty awesome) lifts broke down, and would've cost millions to repair or replace, more than the short fork of the Piccadilly line from Holborn could justify given its low traffic. Aldwych has been popular since then (along with Charing Cross' Jubilee Line platforms) as a set for films such as V for Vendetta and Die Another Day.
The station itself hadn't been redecorated before its closure, so still had a very old fashioned look to it. It was originally designed to be a major interchange station, and had three lift shafts, although only the rightmost shaft was ever used for the two now-defunct elevators. The information office was even placed at the top of the middle shaft. From there we headed down to platform level, using the 160-step spiral staircase.
The West platform contained an unpainted tube train, which could still run and was used for staff training and similar, although the electricity was switched off that day, I think to allow easy evacuation along the tunnel to Holborn should there be an emergency.
While the station was built with two lines and two platforms, the East platform only managed to last until 1914 when it was taken out of use. This was the more interesting platform of the two, as it had a much more derelict feeling, partly because half the platform area was never decorated because they ran short trains there, leaving old tiling only part way along.
Afterwards we went to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, which our tickets to the tour provided us with free admission to. It was a nice way to round off the day with examples of all public transport vehicles right back to a 1800s horse-drawn omnibus, most of which we were allowed to get in and sit for a while. It was a good way to round off the day, although I'm glad we didn't have to pay to get in, because £13 seemed a bit steep for what was there.
My full set of photos is here: Aldwych Tube Station.
Surprisingly my knees are feeling okay today despite all those stairs. (However I said that last entry too, and then found myself aching on Monday.) I saw a physiotherapist last week, and he showed me how to use zinc tape to support where my ligament attaches to the tibia, which we're hoping will help. I have another appointment in a couple of weeks' time to report back. Last session was a bit disappointing because although my knees got a thorough prodding at the time, they weren't painful while I was at the appointment, so there wasn't a positive diagnosis of what was wrong.
Anyway, what with the knee and working from home (the new office now has a fibre connection, but drops packages every so often for a good few seconds, making Skype conversations tricky to say the least), I've had more time to watch through classic Doctor Who, which I've been renting from Lovefilm (watching during my lunchbreaks and would-be commute time, before anyone accuse me of slacking off).
As it happens, this Wednesday was the 48th anniversary of the broadcast of the first William Hartnell episode, and this weekend I finally finished watching through all the (released on DVD) episodes of the black and white era. The quality of the episodes (in terms of script and production values) varies wildly, so I've put together a list of the serials that stood out to me:
- An Unearthly Child: The first episode of Doctor Who. While the serial that followed it was terrible (cavemen had meetings too, you know), it introduces The Doctor, and shows his confusion that his TARDIS hasn't changed appearance when it leaves the 1960s
- The Aztecs: An average storyline, but establishes that the Doctor believes that (at least some) events should not be changed, and also sees the First Doctor accidentally marrying an Aztec, which was just hilarious to watch with Eleventh Doctor hindsight.
- The Dalek Invasion of Earth: While not the first Dalek serial, this was the first time that Doctor Who did any location filming, and showed the start of much higher production values. It also shows the departure of the Doctor's granddaughter, which is one of the saddest moments in the early series, especially with new series hindsight.
- The Romans: the serial that really endeared me to Ian and Barbara as companions, finally showing some friendly-with-more-implied interaction between the two, and the first time the series had pulled off a genuinely funny performance. It's odd that it was so ill-received at the time that it took until the Tenth Doctor before the returned to Pompeii.
- The Space Museum: Unfortunately nothing special in the end, but the first time the series had done wibbly wobbly, as the TARDIS crew encounter stuffed versions of their future selves in a museum. Also features the First Doctor popping out the top of a museum Dalek; what's not to like?
- The Chase: An honorary mention as the last serial to feature Ian and Barbara, as I feel the series struggled to find a likeable male lead companion after this, especially during the First Doctor's era. Given that the female lead's job back then was solely to scream a lot, this meant the series had lost something good.
- The Time Meddler: The first time to feature another member of the Doctor's (as yet unknown) race, and some great interactions between the First Doctor and the Meddling Monk.
- The War Games: the final story for the Second Doctor and the only one of his era that I'd recommend, as I never warmed to the Second Doctor or any of his companions (sorry
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ugerchucker, Jamie's only purpose seemed to be to flag interesting things with "Heeeeey"). The War Games finally reveals that the Doctor is a member of the (introduced) Time Lord race and that he stole the TARDIS from them. Even before it reaches that bit, the story is excellent and doesn't have any silly aliens, and the only futuristic set even looks pretty good. Plus, it features the great Star Wars-esque line from the rogue Time Lord called The War Chief: Now we can turn this savagery to some purpose. We can bring peace to the galaxy!
-- eleven years before even A New Hope came out, let alone Revenge of the Sith
Next week: Third Doctor!
Anyway, that's quite enough blogging for one day, I think. Stay tuned for next month's exciting instalment!
