Tube 2.0

This blog has been as much a commentary on my troubles in getting to work, as about the work itself if and when I do get there.

Having tried scooter (dangerous, stressful, cold), tube (stressful, crowded, dirty, no views), bus (irregular, slow), I have now found the least stressful, most environmentally friendly and intellectually stimulating route in from Kent to Soho. A 10 minute walk either end of a 30 minute seated train ride has left me fitter, less stressed and with the time to get into a good book.

On the rare occasions I now take the tube, it at least has novelty value for the insights it provides into human nature under pressure and a good test of my skills in survival of the fittest.

I was amused to receive a link to the 'McTube map', an alternative map of the tube if it each station was sponsored by its commercial namesake, with the memorable names of 'Old Holborn', 'Covent Gardeners World', 'iPoddington' and 'Heinz Park Corner'. Genius.

This comes on the back of attempts to put together an anagram map of the tube, or 'Turn herd on old dungeon', that is making the London Underground's lawyers very twitchy. Quite why the lawyers have to have such a sense of humour failure about a Web 2.0 celebration of a cultural icon is anybody's idea. Perhaps because the 'Great Bear' version of the famous map was licensed and these spontaneous versions are not.

Let's hope that the fascinating riffs on the tube map stay free from censure.