Category Archives: Transport

Smedley Hydro

I’m currently on a train bound for Smedley Hydro. Well, I need to change at Manchester. I’ve never been to Smedley Hydro before, although I’d heard of it. It’s in Southport; I’ve never been there either. It’s only fours by train.

Benton Lane III

It’s properly miserable at the bus stop. The nice, sunny bus stop environment appears to be a thing of the past.

Benton Lane II

The bus stop in Benton Lane wasn’t so nice today.

Benton Lane

I’ve been spending quite a lot of time at a bus stop on Benton Lane of late. It’s an average sort of bus stop, with a shelter and a timetable, but no litter bin. There’s one across the road though.

The area around the bus stop’s nice; well, if you don’t look back towards Quorum, or across the road to the industrial park (but even that’s pretty well hidden by greenery.

I quite like the well-used-but-neglected-remoteness of the bus stop. Even the cracked concrete floor looks nice. And the grass and weeds growing between paving stones. I sat there for fifteen minutes this evening. In the sunshine. It was lovely.

Accessibility

I probably don’t need to say much about this. A picture of the accessible toilet at Gateshead interchange.

I have to ask, what happened to disabled toilets?

Daisy II

A last memory of Daisy. Parked outside the house last weekend.

Daisy

Sadly, Daisy is deceased. She’s served us well for almost a year and, most importantly, has been reliable (and very cheap to run).

She currently lies at rest at a garage in Harrogate. A failed water pump, combined with a disregarded warning light, has resulted in a melted engine (or something like that). With repair costs higher than Daisy’s value (indeed, her purchase price), we’ve reluctantly decided against life saving surgery.

I’m sure there’ll soon be a Daisy II, but meanwhile I’m training my second in command in the use of public transport. Fortunately, Longbenton’s within easy reach by Metro.

Fire Mountain

Acknowledging that I’ve barely ridden the Kona Fire Mountain that I bought seven years ago, and that it’s been taking up valuable space, I’ve decided that we must part company.

It was a painful decision, since it’s a beautiful bike, but at the end of the day I don’t use it.