Here's a rather more whimsical one for you on a Friday afternoon as I'm feeling in a rather whimsical mood.
Staring listlessly out of the carriage window this morning as we sped through the damp countryside, I began to ponder the nature of this view I stare at every morning. Now that we’re in mid-March I do at least have a view, in contrast to the deep winter months when it’s black as the ace of spades all the way to Reading in the morning and the entire homeward journey.
So what, I mulled, are the most wonderful things I see on my daily journey from Chippenham to Paddington, and what are the worst?
Here yer go - a bit like the old Big Chief I-Spy books, if anyone remembers them from the 60s and 70s (which I rated very highly - on a par with Clarks Commandos shoes!)
Top things to spot
1. Mist hanging over the Marlborough Downs on a still, autumn morning
2. A lone deer standing in a field watching the train
3. A lumbering RAF Hercules flying low near Swindon
4. Fogs on the Thames around Reading
5. The lights of Christian Malford village – my signal that Chippenham is only 4-5 minutes away
6. The five new wind turbines which have appeared on the horizon the south-east of Swindon
7. The white horse on the hills near Swindon
8. Moderate flooding – not enough to bugger the train, but enough cover roads and burst river banks.
9. A good sunrise or sunset
10. The expanse of flat countryside west of Didcot – very good landscape for cloudspotting
11. Wembley Stadium – just visible in you look hard for it
Grim things to spot
1. The DIY store just outside Reading Station that the train always seems loiter next to while waiting for a platform on the homeward journey
2. Police getting onto the train – a sure sign of impending delay
3. Old Oak Common
4. The power station near Slough
5. The big traveller encampment approaching Heathrow just to the north of the tracks
6. The area between Maidenhead and Heathrow – miles of light industrial units and nasty new-build housing
7. Smaller commuter trains going much faster than the HST I’m travelling on
8. Battery chicken farms near Chippenham
9. Weightwatchers office in Maidenhead
10. Graffiti on tall buildings in Reading town centre
11. The Nestlé factory on the run through West London
So what, I mulled, are the most wonderful things I see on my daily journey from Chippenham to Paddington, and what are the worst?
Here yer go - a bit like the old Big Chief I-Spy books, if anyone remembers them from the 60s and 70s (which I rated very highly - on a par with Clarks Commandos shoes!)
Top things to spot
1. Mist hanging over the Marlborough Downs on a still, autumn morning
2. A lone deer standing in a field watching the train
3. A lumbering RAF Hercules flying low near Swindon
4. Fogs on the Thames around Reading
5. The lights of Christian Malford village – my signal that Chippenham is only 4-5 minutes away
6. The five new wind turbines which have appeared on the horizon the south-east of Swindon
7. The white horse on the hills near Swindon
8. Moderate flooding – not enough to bugger the train, but enough cover roads and burst river banks.
9. A good sunrise or sunset
10. The expanse of flat countryside west of Didcot – very good landscape for cloudspotting
11. Wembley Stadium – just visible in you look hard for it
Grim things to spot
1. The DIY store just outside Reading Station that the train always seems loiter next to while waiting for a platform on the homeward journey
2. Police getting onto the train – a sure sign of impending delay
3. Old Oak Common
4. The power station near Slough
5. The big traveller encampment approaching Heathrow just to the north of the tracks
6. The area between Maidenhead and Heathrow – miles of light industrial units and nasty new-build housing
7. Smaller commuter trains going much faster than the HST I’m travelling on
8. Battery chicken farms near Chippenham
9. Weightwatchers office in Maidenhead
10. Graffiti on tall buildings in Reading town centre
11. The Nestlé factory on the run through West London
Any other suggestions most welcome.
5 comments:
Top stuff:
Great Wall of Reading
Stuffed Dog at Slough
PetrolStation at Cholsey
Grim Stuff:
3rd World Flats at Ladbroke Grove
Derelict Office Block at Airport Junction
The White Bus of Uffington
- those apartment blocks with blue lego roofs just outside Reading - awful
- steam train at Didcot during summer - cool
Another top thing: crossing the Thames at Maidenhead over Brunel's elegant single span arch.
those making a difference staff are just agency cleaners -some of them damned good too IMHO.
Perhaps -'picking up your rubbish to save you actually using the bins and leaving it for some poor other f**ker to clear up just so they can sit down' didnt fit?
Wembley ?? look the other side and you'll get a glimpse of that big M wheel thing on the banks of the Thames
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