Alastair Mackie

@freddjohns @thedulab What’s a post office

@thedulab Go to the post office and try speaking to them in English

Some personal observations. Everyone is generally friendly and open to conversation. Clean and well maintained public spaces. Occasional homeless sighting but rare. Zero mental illness on the subway. Didn’t see any pickpocket type stuff and felt completely safe walking at night Talked to a handful of everyday people too. Both transplants and natives, 20’s and 30’s working in retail, cafes, etc. Pleasantly fascinated by how positively they all spoke about their lives. Said they were paying ~$1k for a 1br apartment, up to $1.5k in the more posh and central areas. Despite the relatively lower salaries, common sentiment was “I love it here” and you could tell it was genuine Honestly such a life changing trip. Every stereotype turned out to be untrue. Definitely my new favorite European city by a mile and will surely be back often. Can’t wait to get home to NYC and continue the adventure Final comments. Boulangeries are top 3 greatest inventions of all time. Bastille is the best neighborhood to stay in. No tipping culture will be desperately missed. Hot people exude an entirely different aura here. You can just drink wine with friends outside of a tiny Le Marais bistro with Tame Impala’s End of Summer adorning the scene during a random weekday evening in the permanent underclass and nothing bad will happen

@CitySamuel @thetimes This you?

My @thetimes column: 10 years ago, I voted Remain. But today, I’d vote for Brexit

@ClassicII_MrMac Why have they put “April 1, 1976” in Garamond Condensed when they didn’t start using that font until 1984? Seems strange.

Apple 50th Anniversary employee gifts!🎁 Each employee gets a 50th T-shirt, limited edition poster and enamel pin!

@ikeijeh @risky_business9 I thought it was originally apartments, then converted to offices (hence the balconies).

@risky_business9 Yes. Used to be offices for Lloyds Bank.

Work starts soon to replace the Bankside building on the left with the right. Left isn't perfect. But its mock-warehouse aesthetic is far more suited to the river than the lobotomised crate planned. The historic Anchor pub sits helplessly to the far left. London self-harms again.

@markaizatt @VodafoneUK Did a FaceTime whilst roaming on 5G 2,100m up an Italian mountain the other day - worked perfectly. Back in London, can’t check email standing inside London Bridge station.

A weekend in Egypt (Cairo and Aswan) with superb 5G connectivity, blistering speeds. Now back in London, Piccadilly to be precise and I may as well have a string and a couple of tin cans. @VodafoneUK what is the issue ?

@sentient_korma @SciFiArchives Engine failure.

@mackieap @SciFiArchives Why, out of interest? Downdraft?

All British Airways Concorde aircraft gathered together

@GinieSigonney AI slop.

The #AirFrance Concorde, the pioneering Airbus A300 and the iconic Boeing 747 that once ruled the skies. ❤️🇫🇷❤️ #France #aviation #avgeek . . . 📷©️AirFrance

@dave2_too @Tetramesh How did they expect to get from Homerton to Leytonstone if not via Leyton…?

@Tetramesh The proposal as seen on a Tube map. I’ve also seen a version where it took over the Hainault loop rather than the Epping branch. IIRC that version was older as it still had Epping–Ongar shown on the Central Line.

Chelsea-Hackney line. A 1991 4-page leaflet issued by London Underground with information about the proposed Chelsea–Hackney line, including a map of the route. The route had been safeguarded just a few weeks before this leaflet was issued. ➡️ buff.ly/GLTKcpi

@OnDisasters The previous one was far superior.

Not because I´m Portuguese, but this livery is spot on. Great work by the designers

@chinafutureclub The Coca-Cola in Shenzhen was probably made by Swire too as they hold the rights for a lot of China swire.com/en/businesses/…

Hong Kong prices are insane. Most expensive city in China. I bought a coke, it’s made/imported by Swire group, a British company.. so it costs $2. Yet if I go 15 minutes away to Shenzhen: it’s $0.3! Almost no EV in HK. Taxi prices are like Australia, infrastructure is old.

@MichaelJPryce The timetable was tweaked over the years from what you’ve posted, up until 2000 the BA1 would get you in to JFK at 0925 (or a little earlier) and BA4 could take you back to LHR at 1330 (landing at 2225). With a helicopter to/from Wall Street, enough time for a 2h board meeting.

This is an excellent listen. One reason Concorde's speed was no great benefit was due to the Earth's rotation. You could have a short meeting at JFK, or stay overnight. A full day trip would mean leaving NY at 5pm and arriving London 2am. Better to sleep on a slow red eye.

@rorysutherland Surely cleaning and resetting a room for the next guest is a relatively fixed cost/time meaning you’d need to insist on at least a booking of 24h anyway in order to keep your costs under control.

The price by the night model is probably outdated. You should be able to book hotel rooms "by the hour" for non sexual purposes. Provided people were prepared to commit to an arrival and departure time in advance, it could work.

@LukeEdwardsTele Shindig was great!

The first time I saw this video I thought the smart phones ruined it because we didn’t have them. And then I read this and I get it now. We got old but this was once every weekend, every Bank Holiday, every summer vacation, every festival from Glastonbury to Creamfields, to Homelands to Exit. And it was absolutely brilliant. I went all over the world. I met my wife on a dance floor at Shindig (it was actually a Friday at Promise but I went to Shindig the following night.. anyway details). What a time to be alive. And yeah the memories are everything

@ClarkeMicah You can get a steak and chips from Hawksmoor in the wonderful restaurant of the former Midland Hotel for £19 + service. Hardly banker territory.

Don’t think so . @ kynohy Everyone else has. Also I dislike the conversion of the old hotel into an unaffordable bankers’ paradise, and the bare ultra-modern new bits jammed in at the north end.

@otets_nervegas @FLitsenburg Mainly because Brown was using his control of the Treasury to exert a de facto control over all government policy. I think the infamous Blair response was to announce on live TV that health spending would rise to the European average without telling Brown?

@FLitsenburg None of them are academics but blair was infamously known to make announcements without consulting anyone as to how they would actually happen or what they would mean, or how they would be funded.

people calling blair stupid in roundabout ways in the new doc

@ParachuteAdms2 @LizWebsterSBF Incorrect. Ireland is not in Schengen and their citizens do not need to register as they are EU members.

@LizWebsterSBF Never had a problem getting into Europe The current issue is the biometric registering which even if we were in the EU would still affect us as we are outside of Schengen

It’s extraordinary to watch Brexit’s architects complain about Brexit reality. This is getting your country back - Being able to moan about queues you insisted upon.

@London_W4 Try The Lord Tredegar next time. 5 minutes north of the station.

And after a million hours on a rammed district line tube from Chiswick, I’ve arrived in Mile End, East London. It’s dark and raining, so I’m thinking that what I need, is the warm embrace of a pub. As it happens, I know of one just around the corner. A proper boozer.

The calibre of politician the Re-formed Tories is now attracting is something to behold… well known for scandal and mismanagement, here’s the twice sacked former home secretary exhibiting her skill set early in her career when she led the country destroying ERG…

@bmay Looks like she's swallowing *several* wasps

Priti Patel here, oscillating between the vapid stupidity that attracted her to Boris Johnson and her customary aggression under polite pressure. Brexiteers absolutely cannot cope with being faced with the real life consequences of their massive blunder.