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Went for a wander at lunchtime yesterday and came across the Lloyds building, which is utterly fab! It's got pipes and glass and metal and glass walled lifts which go up and down the outside. I want to have a play in the lifts! Actually, as you walk along Philpot lane (where my office is) you can just see it protruding over Leadenhall Market and the old buildings across the road which makes a fabulous contrast especially at dusk when they light bits of the Lloyds building up. It's very cool basically.

I am once again thinking seriously about a car. It would be very cool (I know - I'm an evil polluting capitalist) and I could (I think) use it to drive to work part of the way (stopping at Hillingdon and getting the Met line the rest of the way) which would allow me to sleep in a bit more but I'm still not sure. I think I'll have to sit down and do some serious budgeting, see exactly what I can afford and stuff...

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You want to play in the lifts, eh? ;)

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/lifestyle/londonlife/top_review.html?in_review_id=499752&in_review_text_id=462003

I can't believe you've only just discovered the Lloyd's Building! Guess you didn't need to go up to the Fenchurch St area much before you moved office?

OK, that would be even cooler! I was just going to gawp at the view :)

Sad to say, I'm pretty lazy at lunchtimes so I don't get out and explore much - I'm trying to do it more so that I get fitter. When I was at Wood St, I don't think I came down here at all. It's actually quite a pretty area here - more so than Wood St which is what has encouraged me out. Any other easy walks you recommend?

If I were based at Fenchurch St I'd wander down to the Tower, I mostly head west when I'm going for a walk, up Fleet Street or Holborn, bit far for you.

You could go up the Monument if you're feeling fit?

Ooh, your office is just around the corner from mine at London Bridge. Of course, I'm hardly ever there. *smirk*

Grin, you aren't an evil capitalist polluter until you *get* the car. Thinking about it is ok, and causes no perceptible pollution although if the alternative was thinking about nothing, then that might mean you produced a tiny bit more CO₂ :)

I still think you should get a Smart car like

soulsong who will, I'm certain, give you the inside scoop :)

Regarding car commute to London:

1) It will be more expensive. There's the initial cost of the car, the cost of wear and tear, insurance, tax, MOT costs (if buying second-hand) and of course the petrol cost. A quick estimate (not sure of the accuracy) works out that the petrol costs alone would be roughly equivalent to five annual season tickets to London. Also, stopping at Hillingdon means that your tube fare would presumably be more expensive. However, that's the point of "serious budgeting" as you put it.

2) It will probably only be a little quicker. You admit to getting the express bus, and buses aren't *that* much slower than cars. The actual time it takes to get you to Hillingdon might be cut by up to twenty minutes by travelling by car - but if it's traffic that causes the long journey, you will not be travelling that much faster.

3) You can *not* doze while driving. So, if the journey to London takes you an hour instead of an hour and twenty minutes, meaning that you were able to get an extra forty minutes in bed (because of the extra time you save tubing in from Hillingdon as opposed to stuck in the coach through London - another twenty minutes is a guess) that means that you cannot doze on the coach for that hour and twenty minutes. You've lost forty total rest minutes (more if you don't doze on the tube at all) for forty, admittedly better, sleep minutes. Is twice as much doze worth half as much sleep? Not only can you not doze while driving, you cannot afford to be sleepy while driving. This means you have to ensure you get reasonable sleep levels, or you are dangerous to yourself and others, as opposed to a bit dopey at work.

4) Driving on the motorway is both stressful and boring.

5) You've already admitted that cars are for evil polluting capitalists.

Further to point 1), according to quoted figures for a Smart car, the petrol cost for one of them would appear to be only about 2 and a bit times as much an annual coach ticket.

Further timing points:

Coach: Timetable to Victoria - 1h40m
Victoria to L'pool St - 27m
Total travel time - 2h07m

Car: 50 miles to Hillingdon @ avg. 70 mph (you'll be lucky...) - 42m
Hillingdon to L'pool St - 59m
Total travel time - 1h41m

Time saved driving - 26m (plus wait for coach)
(Not included: getting off coach before Victoria)

Yes but it's *never* 1h40 on the coach in the morning because once you get to White City the traffic all stops so that it can slowly filter through the lights on the West way. It normally takes me between 2h15 and 2h30 in total.

1) Yes it will, but not quite as much as you think according to my roughs. I have a cunning and fraudulent plan for the tube tickets so that it won't be a huge amount more. Plus, I'll actually have something at the end - a car. Much depreciated, but a car none the less which I could use for going riding, visiting parents, etc.

2)See below - I reckon I could probably wake up 45mins later

3)True, but I think that (from past evidence of myself) the extra rest would be significantly more effective than dozing on the bus which, nice though it is, is not really proper sleep.

4)I've never found it stressful - it calls for a certain zen alertness though.

5)Sadly true

And the traffic is fine until about 10mins past Hillingdon on a normal day - that's one of the things which made me think of it. The bus (if you catch the one which stops there) takes 1hr including stops etc to get from St Clements to Hillingdon so I should be able to do it in 45 max I should think.

Get off the coach at Hillingdon, then. Solves both problems.

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