London Underground Fashion Victims - week two

Back by popular demand

People seemed to enjoy the Tube Fashion victims so much that I'm going to try to make it a regular feature. This week there was a huge amount of material, but I've just selected some of the best.

Orange is so last year

OK Hare Krishna people are an easy target - the orange robes, the weird hair cuts, the bare feet, or sandals with socks in the winter. All too 1960's and peace and love. I saw them yesterday outside Oxford Circus Tube - I remember being really frightened by their haircuts as a kid and even now they're still scary!



The Ballet look gone mad

I have no idea what this woman was trying to achieve with her mis-mash of clothes. Saw her on Wednesday night on the Piccadilly Line.



Ballet style skirt, brown fishnets and gold sandals with fook off high heels. Also loving the slightly blokeish way she is sitting. Doesn't do the sexy fishnet look any favours.

More Gold for the Chavvy Colleen McCloughlin look

So don't like this gold belt and white boot combo. It's sort of like a 1970's wrestler being styled by Jade Goody.



The Aladdin Look

Now I can't go too mad with this woman on the District Line, as she was quite old, so she gets good marks for the trendy brightly coloured carpet bag, but it's not helped by the very hideous skirt she is wearing with it. What set off the whole ensemble was her brass teapot on the seat next to her. I thought she was going to rub it and a genie would appear.



Another Aladdin look below. Those Asian sequinned slippers are "in" at the moment, but I think this lady's turned up a bit too much at the toes:



Possibly the world's worst jacket

Seen at Leytonstone station last Saturday. What in heaven's name was this man thinking of? Why did anyone let him leave his home like that?



Old Snake Hips is Back

Yet another item that defies description. Seen on the Central Line. Snakeskin trousers.... I am speechless

Londoners not the rudest people in the UK - it's official

Zadie Smith is so wrong

Booker nominee (and loser) Zadie Smith was bleating on about how much she hated London and how Londoners glaring at each other on the Tube was a sign of England's decline. Well, a survey in Reader's Digest has shown that despite Londoners' reputation for being miserable rude gits, we are not.

Brummies (people from Birmingham) are the rudest in the country apparently and Londoners were the fifth most courteous and polite. So anyone who wants to say we are rude bastards can fook right off. Do you want to argue with that mate? Oh have a look at the BBC's site about this if you want to disagree. Who you looking at?

Acton Depot open this weekend

For London Transport Fans

Every so often Acton Depot opens its doors to the public as it stores the reserves from the London Transport Museum:

"the galleries in Covent Garden are able to display only a fraction of the Museum's remarkable, designated collections. For many years, most of the 'reserve' collections were held at a number of different sites. The Museum Depot at Acton Town, partly built with funds awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, provides a secure, environmentally controlled store in which curators can work to preserve our heritage for future generations.

Now, the 370,000 items not currently on display, including vehicles, poster artworks, photographs, uniforms and engineering drawings are together under one roof, where they are being properly stored, catalogued and made available for the public to view."

On the 22nd and 23rd of October it will be open to the public for a Family Weekend.

Here's a couple of pictures which Neil took the last time he was there:





There's more on his blog in the right hand picture links - "Acton Museum Open Day".

Many thanks to regular commenter Fimb and Tube Relief entrant (Part of Team Billy and pictured on the right) for alerting me to this. She's going herself on Saturday, so look out for her if you are going. Unfortunately I have other plans for this weekend so won't be going along.

Underground Ernie - when are you on TV?

We are loving Underground Ernie

I've just found the website for Underground Ernie a children's series on the BBC's CBeebies channel about the adventures of a London Underground station supervisor "who is dedicated to his work always making sure his passengers get to their destinations safely and on time". I initially blogged on October 10th and we learnt how Gary Lineker, "the face of BBC sport" will provide Ernie's voice.

Incidentally, I think this image would make some great desktop wallpaper.

The trains have characters based on the lines themselves. "Victoria is the grandmother of the underground. A wise caring Grande Dame who has seen it all before." "Jubilee is the youngest of the trains - an energetic gadget mad curious teenager" "Bakerloo is a real detective - the Sherlock Holmes of the underground". However, rather mysteriously, Hammersmith and City are twins - fast & furious always trying to out do each other. "They have a question and an answer for everything" and Circle is a "softly spoken hippy chick who never loses her cool".



It's funny how the Northern Line doesn't have a train. I would suggest that Northern would be a bad tempered old grouch who struggles to get up and running. The District Line is also missing and I think she would be a bit uncertain of herself, spending as much time overground as underground and always stopping and starting in between stations. The Central Line would be noisy, brash and speedy too with a bit of a split personality.

Any different suggestions for characters above and for the missing Waterloo & City Line, East London Line, Metropolitan Line, Piccadilly Line and DLR?

And finally......

I'm officially divorced

I know some of you have a strange fascination in my personal life, well just to say that a letter plopped through my door this morning saying that my decree absolute had come through. So I'm officially able to change my passport now which did cause a huge amount of confusion I must say, as I always used my maiden name for everything else.

And no, before you ask, this doesn't mean that me and Neil are getting married!!!!!