helen-louise's journal

Today featured way too much stress for my liking, but it improved as the day went on. ( Bus fiasco with a happy ending. )

I saw a clone of artremis in the Costa in the Waterstones near college. This was somewhat alarming as Ludys are known for their liking of both coffee and books, and I often go to Costa and/or Waterstones with the real Ludy. The clone-grrl was the same height as Ludy and had the same shape & size face, neck, breasts and hips! She also wore similar clothes (a Uniqlo top and cotton tomboy trousers with pull-tabs to tighten them over the hips). She had the same colour and style of hair, but it was flat rather than spiky, and had rectangular glasses, but hers had normal lenses rather than pink. Also her skin was a tone darker than Ludy's. Nonetheless, it was a really good resemblance and I couldn't help staring! If I'd had any photos of Ludy on my phone, I would have said "You look just like my girlfriend" and asked to take a photo of her in return; but as it was I couldn't prove that I wasn't a complete nutter trying to take photos of strangers to perve over. So I didn't say anything. She ordered a small cappuccino, which was just as well, as if it had been a medium Fairtrade vanilla latte I might just have died of shock!

Later this evening, Richard & I went for dinner with pir, who we have not seen in far too long. When my course is over, I need to spend the summer going round seeing all the friends I have here in London that I haven't had time to see in months or years! I have satiated both my desire-for-gadgets and concern-for-the-environment by buying the iPod he wasn't using, which is Reuse of existing electronics and therefore even better than Recycling. And now I will have music wherever I go without running down my stupid mobile phone battery. I will have to buy a new phone soon because the one I have just doesn't work properly, but I'll have to deal with the guilt about that later. No time for it now. 

And, in case you care, I got 93% on my mass spec coursework, which is another A+ to add to my collection. I think I'm going to have to remember how much I rock, because I really am very stressed about these exams now.

( Boring background about bus routes. )

$random1: "All the buses to Kingston are being diverted. Apparently there's a huge fire outside Wickes."
h-l: "Oh great - I live near there."

Another random person chimed in:
$random2: "No, it's a bit further down than Wickes. It's outside the kebab shop by the railway bridge."
h-l: "Oh God - that's even closer to where I live!"

Got on the second 213 when it came, as contrary to $random1's idea only half the buses were being diverted (to try to make up lost time). I checked TFL's WAP site from my phone, and the very first entry was:
LONDON ROAD KINGSTON: Due to a traffic accident Routes 57 85 and 213 are unable to serve London Road between Kenley Road and Coombe Lane West.

This was extra-specially worrying, because TFL covers an enormous area, and normally the first page of realtime news is reserved for central London problems. For somewhere as far out as Kingston to be the very first entry, clearly something Very Bad was happening.

I will spare you the tale of woe about having to walk home with a sore leg, and give the exciting news. Yes, there is a burnt-out bus at the end of our road. It was entirely blocking up the London Road and causing many mile tailbacks in all directions. It's pretty disturbing - the engine at the back of the bus had overheated enough to melt some of the metal, the entire back end of the bus was covered in soot, many of the upstairs windows were smashed, and I could swear some of the roof looked ripped-off. Except it was just an ordinary London United 57, the same type of bus stock they always use on that route, which have been happily passing under that railway bridge for far longer than we've lived in this area. ( Sad admittance of the public-transport geek... )

I can't find anything about it on the internet, except on the Transport for London realtime travel news site, which just relays the same information I got from the WAP site. So it will remain a mystery until the local papers are published this time next week. Hrm.