Earlswood sewage leak

Mmmm...what an interesting smell this morning along Asylum Road!  Luckily Southern Water were already on site to investigate as I walked by, pretty much the entire road was covered in murky, stinking puddles though (which I carefully worked my way around - while holding my nose)...yuk! ;p

Earlswood Station Open!

Wow, after all my moaning (mostly on Twitter) about Earlswood station ticket office being basically closed, we do actually have a new member of staff now - Hurrah...!  However, when I passed the door yesterday (quite late at night on my way home) I was surprised to see that it was *still* open hours after it should have been locked up...Just in case this was in error I pushed the query button on the platform and reported it (wouldn't want the coffee guy to turn up in the morning to a missing coffee tuk-tuk-thing)... ;)

Amazing sunrise in Earlswood...

...this morning, on my walk to the station...think it's going to be a sunny day today! :)

Earlswood Sunrise today

...another incredible view, knew it was going to be special the second I opened the front door...this was taken just as I crossed the road towards the new car park at East Surrey Hospital...only lasted for five minutes, sky was blue by the time I got up to Royal Earlswood Park...so there is something to be said for the alarm going off super early! ;)

Surrey Floods!

Oh my goodness, what a morning...I actually heard the rain through the double glazing...I mean, for a start, that doesn't happen very often...!  It's got to be pretty bad....

Decided to brave it, headed out suited as best I could for the conditions, got as far as the first field (before the hill), stepped to the side to dodge (what I thought was) a big puddle (in the dark), and my feet completely vanished under about 6 inches of water into the *proper* puddle lurking right next to it (hidden in some deceptive grassy material)...the rest of the walk was dodging (making sloshing sounds with my trainers) floods and rivers or various sizes and trying to pull the soaked flapping jeans away from my freezing legs...

By the time I got to Earlswood (bear in mind this was just about 25 minutes after checking everything was okay (from the warmth of the sofa) and leaving the house just expecting (just a bit of) a drenching) - my telephone was steamed up (as you can tell from the picture), the station was flooded and pretty much every train (that has been showing "On Time" was now delayed or cancelled (by up to 120 minutes and there was talk of bus replacements)!

Honestly, if I hadn't set off precisely when I did I don't think I would have made it at all!  Still, second day in a row that I get free rail travel thanks to "Delay Repay"... ;)

Earlswood Station Rain storm...

...it's just absolutely horrible at the moment (last couple of communting days exactly the same)...today the early train was completely cancelled thanks to flooding at Christ's hospital...this can't have been a surprise can it?  Could they not have started it from Horsham on this occasion?  What about tomorrow?

Horrible Weather this morning!

Thanking my lucky stars that I did the entire walk (listening to Larry Niven's RingWorld) in gentle drizzle, walked onto the platform at Earlswood (shaking the rain from my coat) and then -the above- happened...absolutely crazy, train was three minutes late into the station and then delayed by a further twenty at South Croydon due to a power failure...

I'm putting my assessment of the rail improvement works (that closed the entire line over Christmas) on hold for the time being...we'll see how things are after the weekend...fair is fair... ;)

So cold today!

...and the train was delayed by a points issue at Gatwick...Brrr!  Still, I got to watch the sun come up over Royal Earlswood Park (which was nice)... ;)

Walking home from Earlswood station

...on a dark, winter night...

LED Street Light Halo

You may or may not remember, but the little area where I live was the first part of the UK to get these LED lights (back at the start of 2011)...by now they must be creeping out across the land (although not in Wapping, that is still bathed in a scorching orange sodium haze after sun-down)...this is the first time I have noticed that they create quite an interesting halo (compared to more traditional light sources) and it was pretty easy to capture the effect on the cameraphone too... ;)

Christmas Railway Fun!

Just got a *very* good bit of news - I only have to cover one day between Christmas and New Years (the 31st) *and* I can do that cover snuggled into my duvet with a laptop (instead of trying to get into London)...

The reason that this is *very* good news, instead of just ordinary good news is the fact that between the 25th of December and the 1st of Jan they are basically going to shut down the railway between Brighton and London (major building works at Gatwick airport, working on the wonky signals that fail all the time in town and *totally* ripping out the huge great rickety junction outside Purley station and making a shiny brand new one)...pretty much the only way into London Bridge from the South of England is going to be hopping on a replacement bus (and praying)...

This would be fine (and probably a nice adventure) apart from the fact that Flyingpops (at that stage) is going to be just a handful of weeks from the new baby being due and I *really* don't want to be stuck in London (if "The Call" comes) waiting around for a replacement bus service (not normally terribly new/reliable buses) to shudder into view and then wend it's merry way through central London/East Croydon/Purley and the Purley way (during the sales) finally to deposit me half an hour's walk away from the hospital (goodness only knows how many hours later)...

So that's one less (big) thing to worry about...now able to look forward to my (apart from that one day of cover) twelve days (off) of Christmas! :)

Earlswood Bike update 2

Well, it's been about 10 days now (since I first noticed)...and today I had a few seconds to take a look and see if anything has actually happened...answer?  Nope...
The red bike is still there (complete with removal notice) -

- and the other two bikes are still just as securely fastened, but have had their threat letters removed (by wind or by hand?  Who knows?)...but it looks like they needn't have been too worried about (imminent) destruction...

First frost of the year...

...not too bad, but I did decide to wear my gloves today...brrr! ;)


...and just for a change instead of walking through the woods I went up past the golf course, so I could better enjoy the crisp Autumn sunrise... ;)

Earlswood Bike update

Double checked this morning...not sure when the signs first appeared, I noticed them on the morning of the 22nd, but I suppose they could have been there since Monday, but either way - the little notices say that the bikes would be "removed and disposed of" if the owners didn't wheel them away within 72 hours!  We'll see what's happened tomorrow morning, but if the threat was real, those three labelled bikes should be gone... :0

Still seems a little harsh - there isn't even a little sign telling you this might happen if you leave your bike here - not that I would have left my bike for ages, but I would have assumed it would have been (apart from bike thieves) pretty safe locked up at a station - certainly from the staff!

Original post was here...

Earlswood bike locking policy

Spotted this when I got to the station this morning, little paper signs attached to 3 or 4 of the push bikes on platform 1 warning the owners that they had been reported to station staff as "dumped"...they certainly didn't look like they were dumped, making me wonder if the owners have left them there while they have gone off on holiday or something?  Or perhaps don't like riding them in the rain (which it has been quite a bit lately)?

Anyway, being fair, I decided to check on the cycle policy and there is no mention of a time limit on storage of bikes - although it does say that if you don't own a folding bike they would advise you to keep one bike locked up at each end of your journey (which would explain why some of these bikes never appear to move - if the owners travel earlier/later in the day than most commuters) - interestingly, the station facilities section for Earlswood station notes that there are no bike storage facilities available (although it also says there is no ticket machine, which is there clearly is)...so perhaps their web site is just horribly out of date...

Wonder what is going to happen to these bikes?  Especially if the bit of paper blows away in an Autumn gust... :s

Twilight walk by the Asylum

Taken last Thursday night, walking back through the grounds of the old "Victorian Model Asylum" ("The Royal Earlswood Hospital Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles" (as it was called - not terribly PC) on the hill - the first director is still famous - Dr. John Langdon Down; he who first identified Downs Syndrome)...

This is about as bright as it's going to be from now on during my walk home, we are firmly heading towards winter fog and chills...going to need to dig out my torch...!

Tunnel...

Earlswood Childminder

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Sunrise over Earlswood

Grand Theft Light Bulb?

Very odd...not noticed before thanks to the twin factors of increased foliage and it being light when I'm setting off in the mornings, but it appears that all the street lights that line this path here (which is the route I commonly take to get to Earlswood station) appear to have been vandalised...

It doesn't make the slightest bit of difference to me at the moment of course, but come the winter months this path (if they aren't repaired) is going to be absolutely pitch black instead of punctuated by the incredibly useful occasional pool of light to aim towards as you crash through the woods...Now, the lights are fairly numerous, and also extremely tall which basically means actually going about breaking them would have taken a *considerable* amount of effort, making me wonder what the motivation was...thrill seeking is basically out, climbing up all those slippery poles (dodging attacking crows, squirrels and sharp branches) and bashing away could hardly be considered a form of recreation (unless you are incredibly daft), which only leaves two other possibilities (that spring to mind) - One - the light bulbs are sufficiently valuable to merit going to all the effort of stealing them (but then why aren't we seeing more of this sort of thing?) or -Two- (much more sinister) that someone wants it very, very dark down there at night...

Hrm... :S

Update - They aren't terribly valuable apart from the flashy LED ones (£200-odd quid), which these weren't, they were £20 sodium ones...