Some Thoughts About Food and Railways

Much though I enjoy my days off, I rarely want to fill all four to the extent that I return to work exhausted. This then was the day in these four for rationed activities. There was little incentive to stay out in the cold and grey and every incentive to stay in during the afternoon with my new haircut, new magazines, a full stomach and a blanket round my legs. We had been to Fareham and then to the Abbey Garden Centre where lunch was very good and deserved praise. They have devised a series of filled baps (turkey in my case) with garnish and the whole was generously filled, tasty and good value. Whilst I have no complaints about my privileged life, it may yet be that the garden birds occasionally eat better than us. They gained £82 worth of food today and it will be used carefully as it is evident from experience that, if we emptied our 12.5Kg sack of peanuts, the pigeons and some of the other large birds would simply eat them there and then. On this occasion we did not buy worms - does anybody know why they are so expensive?

The afternoon and evening afforded opportunities to peruse Railways Illustrated, a good magazine which would benefit from improved proof reading. I read two or three railway magazines a month for entertainment and information. The contents allow me to formulate better notes for my photographs as well as furnishing ideas for subjects. It seems to me (perhaps my memory is clouded) that stock movements are far more volatile than they used to be. Under TOPS, which has been with us now for more than 40 years, many changes require renumbering which, frankly, frequently annoys me. London Overground Class 378s have hardly been in service as 3-car units and are now being renumbered as fourth cars are added.

In preservation, my views on identity changes are well known. In a particularly bad and avoidable example Class 11 12082 is to move to Mid-Hants Railway and be renumbered as 12049 the shunter lost in the 2010 fire at Ropley. So wrong; right to replace the rare loco, completely wrong to renumber. Wrong, pointless, annoying, wrong. In an even more extraordinary development a group has for some reason decided that we can not live without a Class 23 Baby Deltic. None was preserved after 1977 so, bizarrely, they have decided to build one FROM A 37! If ever there was a cause for the use of WTF? WTF? This is a ridiculous and pointless idea which I do not support.

Fortunately my motive power motivated dyspepsia did not spoil my enjoyment of my ASDA Thai Green Curry. Another success for the often maligned green supermarket. I have suspended the use of their card (as has a special friend of mine) after an outbreak of ineptitude by new provider Santander. Their food, however, continues to offer many delights and surprises.