Yes, the company LEVC makes them, although these days for a global market and not just for London. Also Nissan makes one. The industry is rapidly converting to electric.

Saturdays are an adventure and can take you anywhere, which today was from the Science Museum up to Muswell Hill, and then on to Winchmore Hill. A friend happens to run a pub there, and I stop by for a quick orange juice before returning. I have been meaning to visit for a while, and must return soon for a proper drink. We were in the same class all the way through both primary and secondary schools, apart from in the sixth form, and then coincidentally both went to Newcastle University. Didn't meet again until at a class reunion three years ago. Found out today that we both spent four months in India at a similar time, a few years after university. Spooky.

Look up Newcastle University, close to the River Tyne. It appears to ooze elegance. The university I mean, not the river.

Not much of Newcastle can reasonably be described as elegant, including the university. The Handyside Arcade had an Edwardian elegance, but was demolished for the tumour that is Eldon Square shopping centre. Following the extinction of the coal mining and ship building industries, the entire economy seems now to be founded on some self-supporting cycle of leisure and consumerism. Sunderland, however, is still a shocking example of what happens when the economic plug gets pulled on somewhere, in conjunction with the town planners having had carte blanche to implement their multi-level, concrete utopia. So much talent gone to waste. At least the Philosophy department was in the Armstrong Building, the oldest and nicest part of the university, made possible by the philanthropy of one of the leading arms manufacturers in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willia...aron_Armstrong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Dan_Smith

If you want to try European cathedrals have a go at Durham, it is so incredibly beautiful.
Saint Marks in Saint Petersburg is also worth a glimpse.

Sunderland is so rubbish that I guy that I lived with there used to gaze lovingly at Newcastle glowing in the distance.

However the ladies in Sunderland are remarkably uninhibited.

Both you yahoo’s just reminded me why England is worth nuking; but Ireland isn’t.

proof that the vulcan mind weld is fact and in use.

“That’s Eros, the God of Love. He fires an arrow at people, and that’s when they fall in love. You know, like Cupid’s arrow.” And then I drive through Piccadilly Circus for a third time, because… well, just because. Just because it’s Monday. A cruel and unkind god, if you were to ask me. It isn’t even Eros, but his brother Anteros. Love is blind. Finally, a happy couple get in. The first one of the evening, I tell them. “We’ll see how long it lasts.” they reply.

^^^

I like that the image is in black and white. It seems very fitting somehow.

Interesting statue and buildings/architecture. Even if a bit blocky. You damn brits constrict yourself’s too much. That says a lot about you and your ghastly history.

Hotlinked from wikipedia, for those of you who don't know how to use the internet. I was confused by the possession of wings by the greek gods. I like it. The wings are more like a butterfly's, except for the feathers.

I’m a God. I have no feathers.

Vulcan mind meld. Weird.

Between five and six is a nice hour in town to sip at a pint in the Lyceum Tavern and watch the world go by and the sun go down. People leaving work or going out for the evening. Well-dressed, young office-women chain-smoking outside. Long since free copies of the Evening Standard. There are eight million stories in the naked city. Perfect meal in the India Club, and then on to see Saturday Night Fever, of all things, at the Peacock Theatre. People going out to see a show about people going out. A few hours of escape. Dancing in the aisles by the end of it. Wonderful. Pure theatre. Disco RULES.

The India Club upstairs in The Strand is still going? I found that strangely comforting. Used to frequent it in the 80s when it was one of a few very cheap eats in town. I particularly remember the fiery chilli bhajis.

For cheap Indian food I also used to go with friends to Anwar's (which I think disappeared some time ago) and the Indian YMCA, near each other off Tottenham Ct Rd, and the Pollo Bar in Soho for Italian.

But the pick of the cheap eats was Malaysia House, off the top end of Oxford St. A friend's wife was Malaysian so it wasn't a stretch to get into the canteen, and the food was brilliant and stupidly cheap.

I too was surprised, and hadn't been there for many years. They are having ongoing problems with their landlord. Details here:

https://www.theindiaclub.co.uk/save-india-club

I don't know that one. I liked Centrale. One of my favourite places ever. Pretty sure they got ****ed over by their landlord too.

I don’t want to be a know-it-all cab driver, giving passengers the benefit of my views on everything from immigration policy to global economics, but I am not good at small talk, and often one has to say something in order not to be a silent weirdo. Language is a virus. A woman got in on a busy Saturday evening, when there were few available cabs about, and said a voice inside her head told her to look around and there a cab would be, and there I was. The universe is not trying to communicate with you, I inform her. “Are you sure about that?”. Pretty sure. But I’ve been getting voices, telling me where to go to get jobs. Have a look down Pond Street, someone at the Royal Free Hospital needs you. Sure enough, a young couple with their first-born child. They’re from the Estate, like me, so they get Estate fares. Such a seminal moment. Your lives have just changed, I inform them. “Are you sure about that?”. Pretty sure.

"From the estate" and "estate rates"? I suspect you've done a good deed here, Charlie, but don't know the British.

You can press a button on the meter, after which it charges just for distance travelled, and not for time spent in traffic jams. I do it a lot. When someone gets in, I have by now a good idea of what their journey should cost given reasonable traffic conditions, and that's what they get charged. So they wanted to go from the Royal Free to Westbourne Park Road, and the only reasonable route is via Swiss Cottage, and then along the beautiful diagonal of Elgin Avenue. But there are currently major roadworks at Swiss Cottage, so that's when they got the button.

I really like this establishment; it has a gritty but friendly feel. And the fact that you can bring your own wine (as noted in the window) adds extra appeal.

Pollo

I can see you in Collet's bookshop, Jalfrezi.

That's a blast from the past I'd forgotten about until you mentioned it. I didn't go there very often.

City Lights in San Francisco is still alive, founded in 1953 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

architecture like that will never be built again except for isolated pieces.