Announcing the Super Sunday Sutton Service

A few years ago was on a Train into Surrey and this amazing train driver was doing the announcements. And well they were just superb. Read or listen – your choice, but please enjoy.

Train line showing all the stops these audio tracks cover

Mitcham Eastfields

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, shortly be arriving into magical Mitcham Eastfields, not to be compared with Westfield, which is a shopping centre. This is a train station, a very popular train station. If you are leaving the train here, don’t forget to take yourself with you when you leave the train. Eastfields, of Mitcham.


Mitcham Junction

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the next station stop is the rather magnificent Mitcham Junction, with the junction that’s not here anymore. Please change here at Mitcham Junction if you require those half bus, half train things called trams that go to all local places like Wimbledon and Western Croydon. If you are leaving the train here, please note you need to be in the front seven coaches otherwise, you are not going to be able to get out of the train, you are just going to be looking at a brick wall or some grass. Please do make sure you are in the correct part of the train, the front seven coaches only here at Mitcham Junction. Why not leave the train here and play golf? It’s a marvellous hobby.


Hackbridge

Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, next station stop is for the heroes of Hackbridge. If you’re leaving the train here, once again, you need to be in the front seven coaches only. Otherwise, again, you’re not going to be able to get off the train. Just grass if you look out here and a road cone. If you are leaving the train here, please do mind the incredibly huge gap and step down from the train to the platform, especially if you are right at the front of the train. It’s big. Do not break your ankles. Watch your footings here at Hackbridge, front seven coaches only.


Carshalton

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the next station stop is the more caring side of Carshalton, the one without the beaches. If you’re leaving the train here, make sure you have a jolly good afternoon.


Sutton

Okay. Ladies and gents, boys and girls, we will shortly be arriving into Sutton, with two T’s and an O, a Shopper’s Paradise. Change here at Sutton, with two T’s and an O, cross to Platform 4 if you want to go around towards Wallington, West Croydon, Norbury, and Crystal Palace. Remain on Platform 2 if you want to go around to the other side of Sutton for stations towards St. Helier and Wimbledon. If you are leaving the train here, please make sure you have everything with you, mind the gap, and the step down from the train to the platform. This is your super Sunday Sutton service to Deep East, Dorking.


Cheam

If you’ve done rather well and you’re living the dream, you probably live here. It’s charming, Cheam.


Ewell

All right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the next station on today’s service is the more executive side of Ewell, the Ewell in the East.

If you are leaving the train here, please make sure you are in the front eight coaches of the train, otherwise, you are going to be looking precariously over the road bridge down at the cars below. Scary stuff. Please make sure you are in the front eight coaches only, if you wish to alight here at Ewell East.

Keys to the Ferrari on standby.


Epsom

Boys and girls, mums and dads, friends, relatives, aunts and uncles, the next station on today’s service is exciting Epsom. If you are leaving the train here and you’re right at the very back, please do mind the gap and the step between the train and the platform. Please change here, cross the platform at number four, if you want to go around towards Worcester Park and Wimbledon. If you’re like myself, you are leaving the train here, please do make sure you have everything with you, and do have jolly good afternoon. Somebody else is going to drive you on now, down to deepest Dorking on your Super Sunday Sutton Service. This is exciting Epsom.

20 years!

…since this blog was created.

I feel both quite happy and somewhat old about that. I’ve probably not always given it the attention it deserves, but it has been a nice constant throughout the last two decades—a place to call home.

I’ve likely done more redesigns than blog posts, but that’s one of the great things about having your own space: you can experiment with things, try new ideas out without having to answer to anyone but yourself. It’s really helped my professional development, being able to experiment.

This site started back in 2004 on WordPress version 1.0.1, and back then, it really was just blogging software. WordPress also recently celebrated its 20th birthday and has evolved significantly since then. Over the years, I have increasingly used WordPress in my professional career to build larger and larger sites, to the point where it is now the basis of my own business – Dogwonder Ltd.

In a rather self-aggrandising way, this blog started with a quote from a French philosopher (we do tend to think highly of ourselves in our 20s). So I figured I might as well include one here.

“The futility of everything that comes to us from the media is the inescapable consequence of the absolute inability of that particular stage to remain silent. Music, commercial breaks, news flashes, adverts, news broadcasts, movies, presenters—there is no alternative but to fill the screen; otherwise there would be an irremediable void. We are back in the Byzantine situation, where idolatry calls on a plethora of images to conceal from itself the fact that God no longer exists. That’s why the slightest technical hitch, the slightest slip on the part of a presenter becomes so exciting, for it reveals the depth of the emptiness squinting out at us through this little window.”

Jean Baudrillard

And some old designs of this blog going back through the years

Do you believe in time travel?

The Tangent Universe collapsed 8210 days, 18 hours, 3 minutes and 35 seconds ago .proceed .

K8

The Guardian recently wrote an article about 4 phoneboxes that had recently received Grade II listed status. Only about 50 remain in the country, with these 4 at various tube stations in London1

These are located at High Street Kensington, Chorleywood, Chalfont and Latimer, Northwick Park.

So naturally I took a day out to go and snap them.

For more phonebox photos including a new feature where I take photos of empty space (don’t all visit at once) go to phonebox.photos.

K8 phoneboxes at High Street Kensington, Chorleywood, Chalfont and Latimer, Northwick Park tube stations
  1. Not London ↩︎
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