London Banter - Better to buy Family Travelcard (even if no kids with you)

On 16 Jan 2005 08:36:22 GMT, Niklas Karlsson wrote:

Well, the escalators do say "Dogs and children under 5 must be carried".
Lots of people seem not to bother to carry either, though!

Mainly because, in my 4 years' of experience of carrying three
babies/toddlers (triplets) round London, London Underground staff become
immobilised when they see parents with young children. They stand and
stare as if they're judges on the Krypton Factor, seeing how you'll cope
with this difficult task. If you look at them to seek help, they turn away
and attend to the more urgent task of opening the gate for pretty girls.

So you end up keeping them in the pushchair or giving them very early and
rather risky crash courses in how to use escalators.

Most of the time however, ordinary Londoners (who helped us lug our triple
pushchair up and down staircases all over London) step in to give you the
help which the staff refuse to give due to their unfortunate intermittent
paralysis.

--
Cliff Laine, The Old Lard Factory, Lancaster http://www.loobynet.com
* remove any trace of rudeness before you reply *
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Verbiage and the cant of sentiment fill the place [France], and a
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Hazlitt, Notes of a Journey through France and Italy