Chit-chat from London
 

I'm sitting at Easyeverything on Tottenham Court Road. It is a sunny chilly afternoon in London( the past couple days have been downright cold!
I decided I needed a bit of down time this morning, all the late evenings have finally caught up with me. I was in Paris for a week, have been in London for a week, and will return to the US a week from today.
I'm not complaining about dining out and going to the the theater, mind you ;-) )
So far I have seen ' Wait Until Dark',
'Noises Off',and 'Anything Goes'.
I'm going to see 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' on Tuesday.
If you have seen the film version of 'Wait Until Dark ', you probably will do as I did and sit there in the theater comparing the stage's female lead with Audrey Hepburn and find her performance lacking, but I guess that was not really fair of me to do.
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of meeting up with 2 Fodorites, Kavey and Erinb.
There was a derailment on the Northern Line last week which continues to disrupt service this week. The tube workers are protesting the safety of the Underground's maintenence and may vote to strike next month,I believe the date of the strike would be Nov 24. I also heard a BBC news report that some of the Heathrow workers plan to strike next month, too...just a heads up for those of you who plan to travel to London.

Thanks for keeping us informed, SS.

Let's hear more.

Hi startspinners.

What are your plans for the next week?

It has gotten very cold where I am on the east coast as well. There's frost on the ground. I just got back yesterday from 5 days in San Diego where it was unseasonably warm (and georgous!).

Any comments on Anything Goes?

Keith

How did you like Noises Off? Thought it was a riot!

Hi starspinners

Welcome to the UK. Apologies for our somewhat nonfunctional transport system.

Just a quick point to any Fodorites currently in the UK: the clocks are going back by 1 hour in just over two hours time - 01:59:59 (sunday morning)will be followed by 01:00:00 as we go from BST to GMT.

As far as I can see, no-one has mentioned this as yet, and having been caught out by daylight saving time in other countries before, I thought you might like to know.

John W -
Thanks for reminding those in the UK about the time change. This year it falls on the same date as when we in the US go from Daylight Savings Time to regular. Twice we have been shoved out of museums in Paris on a Sunday because we didn't know about the time change the night before [slow learners!].

travelinwifey,

I saw Noise Off last year and enjoyed it a lot.

But the matinee crowd was pretty old and it seemed that many of them either didn't get it, or didn't like it. Some of the reactions were really odd.

Keith

Hello!

Thank goodness I haven't had to work in Central London again since that night we met! It took me a long time to get home - normally from Charing Cross I'd just shoot straight up the Northern Line to Woodside Park but that night I took a tube to Baker Street, changed and tubed up to Finchley Road and then caught the 82 bus to North Finchley!

Transport problems have really been one after the other this year in London...

Still, it was worth it, it was nice to meet the two of you for dinner.
I'm off soon for India but will catch up with you via email when we're both back in our respective homes.

Bestest,
Kavey

Hey starspinners! You all are getting me quite excited for my trip to London in late November!

I am just wondering....this is the first time that I have heard anything about strikes with the London Transport service. Is this going to cause huge problems during our trip? That is the only thing that is makin' me nervous...

Whatcha think?

Thanks!

The main union at London Underground (NOT London Transport) is sending out ballot papers about some industrial inaction.
If the ballot goes the way the union wants (a biggish if, as union members want money for Christmas like the rest of us), the union can then call strikes or whatever. Since the Tube can't transform all the stuff the union wants transforming, the ballot simply gives a weapon to the union it can use in lots of negotiations about lots of things.

If the union were to call for a strike (a bigger if), it then needs a large proportion of members to go along.

So in practice, there's a risk that bits of the Tube (but not buses or trains) might be disrupted if a number of things go badly.

Few Londoners are losing any sleep about it yet. But it might be a nuisance.

Keith,
We saw Noises Off at a Matinee too and were surrounded by groups of very noisy school children - however, once the play started they were absolutely riverted to the stage. I was amazed as thought it would have had far more appeal to adults than children!

I was in London a few weeks ago and saw Anything Goes. It was fabulous...great production, perfect cast, and of course wonderful music. The audience really loved it. It got great reviews and definitely deserved them.

flanneruk, would the buses still run uninterrupted in the event of a Tube strike?

Will:

Yes (as will trains), but obviously, were there a strike, traffic congestion would increase and more people (a LOT more people) want to use buses and trains.

But both the official arguments (about safety) and the real arguments (just stuff) that apply to the Tube are irrelevant to buses. And the management system is different: London buses are, in a complicated way, pretty much privatised already.

But before any of this becomes worth worrying about, the union has to win the ballot.

Above all, remember this: when these strikes happen, they last a day. Sometimes a day that's repeated every month or so, but a day. Most of us can organise our lives to accommodate a day of walking.