Hyperlocal update: New supermarket comes to E3 SimplyFresh, specifically to Bromley-by-Bow. Which is extraordinary. dual carriageway and think "this is a bit bleak", and the adjacent streets wouldn't have changed your mind. But today a fringe of highrise flats is gradually infilling the space between the A12 and the river Lea - the usual bricky stacks - and people are living here who'd never have dreamed of moving in before. Leaside Lock, despite not facing Bow Locks and despite only one building being beside the Lea. Buildings thus far constructed instead face either the A12 or the District line, neither of which were deemed appropriate for naming purposes. This however hasn't stopped people moving in, nor stopped the sales team writing some absolutely premier bolx. THE NEW heart OF BROMLEY-BY-BOW, BEATING WITH EAST LONDON PERSONALITY So far the only on-site facility is the 'state-of-the-art' gym, an essential component of many a millennial morning, which opened back in October. The supermarket will be next in a prime location immediately adjacent to the subway, tucked into the empty unit under the tallest tower. It's appeared to be on the verge of opening for several weeks because the shelves were already stacked with non-perishables, indeed December looked to be a strong possibility, but instead much interior faffing continued and now it's February. The most recent update is a sheet of A4 sellotaped to the door which says "We apologise for the opening delayed due to some work in progress. we will be open Soon." But this weekend they've finally filled the vegetable racks with carrots and onions and yesterday I saw someone at the back adding packets to the chiller cabinets so I guess opening day can't be very far away. Might even be today. Tesco Extra with its three dozen aisles of options. There's also a Sainsbury's Local on the other side of the A12 catering for the convenience needs of everyone who turns right out of the station rather than left. This new SimplyFresh supermarket will only be the closest food store to the 965 properties at Leaside Lock, only half of which have so far been completed. Technically it isn't needed, but equally residents in loungewear will appreciate not having to dash the extra two minutes for their Doritos, muesli and Andrex. SimplyFresh claims to be "an upmarket grocery store concept focusing on local and best-of-British products anchored by an organic healthy range of food", "born out of a shared desire to want something better". They have SimplyFreshes in Stratford-upon-Avon, Cheltenham, West Wimbledon and Dulwich, not to mention a store in a village outside Cheddar. Admittedly they also have branches on university campuses, at St James's Park tube station and in Bethnal Green so they're not overly snobby, but who'd have guessed there was a business case for an organic-first outlet on the Blackwall Tunnel Approach Road?  Simply  Fresh Tesco  Heinz beans (415g, pack of 4)£4.49£3.75 can of Spam (340g)£4.29£3.50 Batchelors Mushy Peas (300g)£1.3960p Napolina chopped tomatoes (400g) £1.20£1.00 Loyd Grossman sauce (350g)£3.39£3.00 Fray Bentos Steak Pie£3.50£2.80 Pot Noodle (King Pot)£1.75£1.35 Heinz Tomato Ketchup (low salt)£3.95£3.00 Colman's mustard (100g) £2.49£2.00 jar of Bovril (250g)£5.09£4.55 own brand squeezy mayo (500ml)£1.55£1.07 value tin of sliced carrots (300ml)99p50p TOTAL£34.08£27.12 26% more at SimplyFresh compared to Tesco and I have no reason to think that's not a ballpark figure. It is, I confess, a highly hyperlocal issue. But if you're also a frequenter of small local stores or premier outlets I wonder if you've ever done the maths to compare how much you might be overspending.

There are enough people who don’t like how software has evolved, don’t need all of the bells and whistles (and don’t want to pay for it), and remember how much simpler software used to be. It’s how I feel about the music app, Doppler. I don’t know the team at Good Enough, but it seems […] The post Good Enough appeared first on Herbert Lui.

I made this graph to show how busy I was yesterday. 12-1am: In bed preparing to sleep [1] 1-4am: zzzzz [0] 4-5am: No, no need to wake up yet [1] 5-7am: zzzzz [0] 7-8am: Ah there's the alarm, wash, dress, breakfast, pack rucksack [3] 8-9am: Ooh Thames Water are coning off Bus Stop M, I could probably write about that later, buy newspaper, travel to central London terminus, flash my Rail Sale ticket, sit on train. [4] 9-10am: Watch the world go by, looks like I picked a lovely sunny day to go travelling [2] 10-11am: Approaching my destination an argument breaks out at the end of the carriage. A young couple, a beardy boy and a made-up girl, both maybe 17, he insisting he takes her phone, she crying that she didn't delete any messages and he should phone Terry to check, he increasingly suspicious, she increasingly anxious, louder and louder, an underlying vibe of menace/panic. Damn I'm going to have to walk past them to get off the train. The lady who gets to the door first turns to the girl and says "you should leave him", and this triggers the boy to further fury, "what business is that of yours?" Then he turns to me, eyes glinting, "are you her husband cos I'll punch you!" Oh bugger, I think, not again. I agree with the lady that she should leave him but I don't say this, I say "we're not even related", and he turns back to her and the doors open and the argument continues just as angrily as I head down the platform, shaken. [8] 11am-12: I've done the shopping centre, the viewpoint and the A road, now onwards on my chosen walk past the rescue centre, the sewage works and the over-regimented housing estate [6] 12-1pm: It's a lot quieter out here, take the high route, take the low route, properly remote now, lovely, this is why I came [5] 1-2pm: I only allowed myself five hours for this walk, I should get to the station on time, I need to get to the station in time, it's tough underfoot, keep walking [6] 2-3pm: Might have to speed up, will have to speed up, no time to dawdle, just time for a quick dash up the best staircase in town, my feet are complaining now, 12½ miles, phew [8] 3-4pm: Slump onto my appointed train, nice and empty, pour a cuppa from my thermos, look out at all I just walked, do the crossword. [2] 4-5pm: It always gets busier later, sigh, the guy in the seat in front is making phone calls then watching naff videos with the sound up, I daren't say something, the bloke opposite eventually says something. [3] 5-6pm: London's much busier now, hordes and streams flooding home, big crowds on the tube platform. A woman with a smart coat and a bag of gifts dashes for the train and her phone tumbles out onto the track below, a passer-by has to point it out, she's very grateful then absolutely aghast. Don't worry they have grabber things these days says her companion, he goes off to find a member of staff, she stands there utterly lost, even more so when he returns with bad news. She retrieves a card from her bag which says 'Happy 30th birthday' on the front, poor lass, her big day ruined. My second train is absolutely rammed, rush-hour crowding, Saturdays are the new peak time, long gaps in service aren't helping, I expect the sniffling student I'm scrunched up against will have gifted me some winter bug. Canary Wharf is ridiculously busy, huge crowds come to see the Winter Lights, the queue to see the big one in the dock oppressively long, seething walkways, thousands walking round like sheep, where's the fun in this, a sparse selection of artworks this year too, an increasingly blatant attempt to lure suburban families into local restaurants, stuff this I'm off home. [10] 6-7pm: DLR is busy, Bus Stop M is still coned off. Cup of tea, oven on, chicken and a lot of pasta in a mushroom sauce. [4] 7-11pm: Feet up, it's OK I know what I'm writing about tonight, tap away. [2] 11pm-12: Mug of hot milk, head to bed, I shall sleep well tonight. [1]

Londoners are only just coming to terms with having different names for the six Overground lines, a change introduced just two months ago. But they could have been renamed ten years ago, indeed plans reached an advanced stage only to hit the buffers when Mayor Boris Johnson decreed everything had to stay orange. This was confirmed this week in an FoI response which revealed three official documents from 2015 detailing why the new names were needed, what they'd be called and how they'd look on maps and signage. You can find that FoI response here, or you can read on. Document 1: London Overground Line Naming approved line names Jan 15 v2.pdf "From the 31st May 2015, when London Overground takes over the West Anglia service we will be introducing a new approach to wayfinding on the network with each line on the network adopting a line name and colour. The overarching name London Overground will be retained. This is the same approach that we take for London Underground." TfL's intention was to rename all the Overground lines to coincide with their takeover of the suburban lines out of Liverpool Street towards Enfield, Cheshunt and Chingford. They recognised that adding a lot more orange to the network might be confusing so were preparing to press ahead and rename things, indeed they'd already confirmed names and colours. "After some consideration, it has been agreed that we will adopt a more traditional route and in the majority of cases use the historic names. Where this is not possible new names have developed or enhanced to ensure customer understand the route that is served." And here are those names. A total of 895 face-to-face interviews were conducted at 11 stations, the chief outcome being that "Overall there was broad support for line names with many expressing ‘strong support’". The report also notes "A minority already spontaneously call the line names by the names we will be using", because that's what happens when you randomly interview nerdier members of the public. The document also included draft signage. Document 2: LONDON OVERGROUND LINE DIFFERENTIATION Sept2015.pdf • The London Overground is rapidly expanding. May 2015 tube map, freshly splurged with orange, and I was fascinated to see whose reactions they'd included. He makes a very salient point, that fourth gentleman. More relevantly, the report included a tube map using the new colours to show what the effect of separating out the lines might be. Also it wasn't yet 100% certain how the line out of Liverpool Street should be rebranded. POTENTAL ALTERNATIVE NAMES FOR THE LEA VALLEY LINE (Branch lines converge at Hackney) (famous English Artisan associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Born in Walthamstow) (Historical reference to the 1920 services from Liverpool Street high frequency suburban service) (Geographical reference) (Historical reference to the line linking Edmonton Green to Cheshunt) Of those Hackney possibly makes the most sense, River Lea is worse than Lea Valley, Jazz would have baffled most passengers and Southbury didn't have a hope. William Morris probably came closest to making the cut, and committee-friendly Weaver is what we've eventually ended up with. pair of colours to depict each line, which brings us to the next document... Document 3: London Overground line differentiation proposal - October 2015_Redacted.pdf Option 1 is what we eventually ended up with nine years later. Options 2 and 3 reflected a perceived need to retain Overground orange alongside the new colours for overall branding reasons. They look very odd to our eyes now, and when you see them on a tube map they look odder still. believe happened is that when these four options were placed in front of the Mayor he chose option 4, i.e. the status quo, and the entire renaming project bit the dust. three documents from 2015 therefore exist only to show what might have been, indeed confirmation that if Boris had grasped the nettle we wouldn't have ended up with the six inclusive names Sadiq chose instead. Windrush, not East London Mildmay, not North London Suffragette, not Barking Weaver, not Lea Valley Lioness, not Watford Local Liberty, not Emerson Park It's been a very long journey.