Reasons To Be Cheerful (1, 2, 3)

I know we're in the cross hairs of a medieval-pandemic with bodies piled so high the putrefaction is awkward to avoid, but there are plenny-of-things that are rewarding and make me and many others happy.

The first, is that my long-held dream since Beijing, of municipal services, transport-electrification of inner cities is happening in my home city of Southampton. You have no idea how happy it makes of me to see an ever expanding cross-section of demographics, adopt the two wheel electric scooter instead of the rotten and decaying stench of 5+ passenger vehicles occupying valuable road real-estate while belching fossils *winky*

Some days when I'm zipping about town on my ridiculously small electric bike, weaving in and out of the scooters, or just just plain hanging on to their slip-stream, I feel like those memories of life in Beijing with electric-bike stories have enabled some kind of manifestation of dream-wishes-come-true, into real life.

I feel blessed, lucky and happy. It really is a dream come true.

Part II tbc.

Advertising on the London Underground

I'm not very fond of the Underground because it's overly congested, can get hot and is a little claustrophobic. There is one upside that doesn't often get mentioned and that is the advertising. The poster advertising including the cross tracks are often unseen above ground and don't seem to get mentioned all that much. I love the simplicity of this execution advertising the V&A's Ice Station Antarctica Exhibition.

I also really like this campaign for a new type of Barclay Card that is a credit, debit and Oyster Card which is a cashless card first inspired in places like Hong Kong and Singapore.

The £800 million launch of the St. Pancras Station refit with its new Eurostar trains cutting the time from London to Brussells down to 1 hour and 50 minutes is also being advertised above ground.