Thursday 23 June 2011

Southern Railway's Table Mechanism

I regularly hear two sounds in my life that I would really rather not. One is the sound of the pedal bin in the kitchen. Oiling the hinge does nothing and I can't put my fingers in my ears, as the need for a bin invariably means I'm holding rubbish. The other sound is the horrendous screech emitted from the fold-down table on a Southern Railways train. I've learnt never to touch it but I can't stop the other people.

Well, today I travelled to Windsor and the second leg of my journey involved South West Trains. Different train operator, different folding table mechanism. This thing ran like a dream. The only discernible difference was the hinge that holds the superior South West Trains table in place. Perhaps this extra support allows for a looser, smoother hinge? I made a video.


You too can complain, here.

Sunday 12 June 2011

Overuse of Adjectives on Labels


Do you remember the genuine excitement when lemon washing-up liquid hit the supermarkets? Well we're hardly going to reach those dizzy heights again, but then we're far more sophisticated now. None of that shitty low-grade English lavender that's let you down so many times.

Friday 3 June 2011

Double Booked Train Platforms


I thought I'd narrowly averted disaster at the train station today, when I spotted that the controller had accidentally scheduled two trains to come in on the same platform... at the same time. I hurried over to the information screen, took a picture on my phone and quickly found a guard in the station control room. He looked at the picture, smiled and just said, "They won't both come in at the same time, mate." Really? Then you need to sort out your information screens. Mate.