Slow life

Paul — Sun, 09 May 2010 19:14:13 +0000

Today I returned from a weekend of work in the Cotswolds. Nothing arduous and the weather wasn’t so good so no feeling of having missed out on a weekend. Returning to London from Kingham station I took the 12.15. During the day, especially on the weekends, the poor excuse for a train is nothing more than a flimsy three or four carriage bus with a noisy diesel engine. It’s not bad, and in fact an improvement on similar designs of the last 2 decades. But the train, the service, the speed are simply not good enough. The train became over-crowded at Oxford and more so at Didcot, Slough and Reading. People were standing jammed in together and the luggage racks were full. And then the speed – or complete lack of it! I have been taking this line since about 1985 and historically it was a 1 hour 20 to 1 hour 40 journey. Now it takes the best part of two hours. And it costs more than ever. Now I like the idea of life slowing down but not like this. I watched the steam trains at Didcot with envy.

Steam trains at Didcot

V&A Quilts exhibition

Paul — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:47:56 +0000

Go and see the Quilts exhibition at the V&A – it will surprise, inspire and make you cry, and you can’t say that about many exhibitions.

Quilts:1700-2010

Coverlet (detail), Ann West, U.K. 1820. Museum no. T.23-2007

The Knitting Cycle

Slow life

V&A Quilts exhibition