a slow period

london 9.17am 6.3C cloudy tuesday 2017

 first time this year that i had my pass checked by a bus inspector. i  noticed that recently the bus announces to all that there are bus inspectors operating, and to log in their pass as soon as they board the bus. i remember thinking oh are they saying that to frighten people to log in when there are no inspectors about really…

well, this morning on the bus,i noticed this young guy in ordinary clothes board the bus, and taking out a bulky gadget, that looks like a mobile and logging it onto the reader near the bus driver, and i thought it was someone operating his apple phone to pay the bus fare. then he walked up to me, and i thought he was someone begging. until he mentioned my pass, then i realised he is a bus inspector.

usually they are in uniform, and they work in pairs; so everyone notices when they board the bus and get ready to take out their tickets, or bus pass to show them. but he surprised me this time.

he went upstairs and later came down with a chinese guy and they started talking outside the bus by the bus stand. i wonder if it is a chinese tourist who did not know the system… you might say how come tourists dont know our bus system, where no money is collected, and no ticket seller comes round to sell u a ticket. but long ago when i visited europe and they have this system in place, i was caught out , and when i could not speak their lingo it was italian, and they cannot speak english, the inspector got so frustrated that he just told me to go after he got me out of the bus. it was lucky for me, because i was on the way to the airport to catch the plane home.

i wonder how they handle the tourists who cannot speak english who they caught trying to dodge paying on the buses. or who dont know this cashless way of paying the bus fare. if they dont speak or read english they will find it really difficult to get the information, because nothing in this uk is written in another language other than english. you would think london being so international and having so many visitors from abroad will write their notices in other languages, but it is not so. though nowadays with smartphones and their instant google translation by just photographing the sign, it is not such a big problem like in the past. 

the bus was practically empty , at about 1pm. i have noticed everywhere is quiet. where are the crowds of people? and the supermarkets seem to have less goods on display.

certainly brixton was so low in chilli and ginger, that yesterday i came back without buying any, simply because what they had to sell was such a small amount, and quite old too, for 50p. i thought i shall go back after a week or two, and hope that they will have replenished their stock and start selling them at the normal amount. i am used to this seasonal change in amount. in summer we get more of it. though this winter seems to be particularly scarce at least it got to the stage that i notice it. haha. most probably it is just after the big spending that occurs before a big festival like the  chinese new year that has just gone.

 added. 2.2.17thursday i went back to brixton and bought 200mg chilli , 300mg ginger for 50p each. asda sells chilli £4/kg. 

and this morning i was at the chinatown grocery shop and there were lots of gaps in the shelves and the shelves have fewer goods on them. hope it is not due to any difficulty in sourcing them from overseas. though i think it is just their workers not being able to catch up with restocking the shelves after the long holiday over the chinese new year. i see piles of stuff in their packaging, still left there by the shelves and not sorted out.

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

nice pattern made by these ivy like branches clinging  to the wall at the back of the tate britain. 

8.08pm 7C raining.