It has been a while since I last made an update to the blog. How is everyone doing? These are incredibly strange times. At the turn of the year when I wrote my review of transport in London in the 2010s and looked forward to what is to come this decade, the situation we are facing was unimaginable. It does not feel right for me to blog about unnecessary use of public transport at the moment. It is really important that only those who absolutely have to use public transport are the only passengers.
For somebody who enjoys travelling to different parts of London and the country, watches some form of live sport at least once a fortnight and enjoys savoring a pint or two in a pub, staying in at weekends has been strange. I have managed to set up a routine for Monday to Friday now. A cup of tea before stating working from home, a lunch time away from the PC and getting changed into comfy clothes once the laptop lid has shut are all ways I have created some form of normality. But what have I been doing keep myself entertained in evenings and at weekends?
Revisiting childhood hobbies
Something lockdown has allowed be to do is revisit a hobby I have not done in nearly a decade, scale models. I ordered myself an Airfix starter kit for the Easter weekend, a RAF Red Arrows Gnat. I was born in Lincolnshire, the Red Arrows are an icon of the county being based at RAF Scampton since the 80s. I was pretty happy with my first attempt, although I made some mistakes. I have since ordered double kit that contains a Spitfire Mkla and a Messerschmitt Bf109E-4. I am particularity looking forward to giving the Messerschmitt a go because even as a child, I have only ever made RAF aircraft scale models. If you have any top tips please let me know.
Rainbow - brightening up the area
Whether it is on social media, watching TV or partaking in your daily exercise, in the UK you WILL have seen more rainbows now than in February and we had a go in our garden. With garden centers closed we created our flowers to create a rainbow next to another DIY project - a flat pack windmill that was in a box for months. Our local pub created a social-distant Easter egg hunt with letters all around the area that spelled out a message. We took part with the letter L in our garden.
Whilst talking about brightening up the area, somebody in my childhood village in Lincolnshire came up with a genius way to show all the walks in the local area - creating a tube styled map of all the footpaths, bridlepaths and byways in the area. I am gutted I did not think of this idea.
Blogging
Although it has been a couple of months since my last post, I have drafted a few that I will begin to release over the next couple of weeks. One of my last railway adventures before lockdown was visiting the North Wales Coast Line and Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Next month marks a couple of anniversaries relating transport in London; 150 years of Blackfriars, Embankment and Temple stations, and 20 years of the Tramlink. I was also going to write a post about the District line to Putney Bridge, one of my favourite branches of the London Underground, which opened 140 years ago last month. I have plenty of posts on their way with photos from previous travels.
Cycling
In the UK we are fortunate to be able to leave the house for one form of daily exercise. Since lockdown I have been on a few evening strolls and at the weekends been on nice bike rides. Although I cycle fairly regularly in London (3 or 4 times a week at least), I have not been on leisurely rides for sometime, so it has been nice to get back on the saddle. Across the country our roads have never been quieter from motor vehicles, now is a great time to experience what a low-traffic future could feel like or to find out new cycle routes without intense volumes of motor traffic.
Virtual Pub Quiz
If you follow me on Twitter, if not it is @TubespottingDan and you should follow me, it will come as no surprise that I have been enjoying virtual pub quizzes. Before lockdown I got my dates massively mixed up and organised a pub quiz for a night that the pub does not run their web quiz, the next rearranged date was 24th March. Day 2 of lockdown, we improvised and continued with a pub quiz but virtually. I have regularly posted some of my favourite questions on Twitter and over the week we have had our knowledge tested on many subjects including of course the London Underground, fishing and even a round dedicated to the colour yellow.
Times are strange, but I am thankful I have been able to keep myself occupied at home since lockdown. If you are doing something exciting to occupy yourself please comment below, and please do share your Airfix tips. Also, if anybody ever wants to chat about the tube, or London, or life in general, my DMs on Twitter and Instagram (@TubespottingDan) are always open.
