Onesie Weekend

NOTE: As I mentioned last week, I visited the Turner Prize exhibition. Turns out it was awarded Tonight and the prize was only £25k not £40k… Silly me.

This week I did something way cooler…

I VISITED THE LOST PROPERTY OFFICE!

As you may or may not be able to imagine. IT WAS AMAZING.

Regents Park

Yes, on Wednesday, since every bugger else was having a day off, I went along to the TfL Lost Property Office with the other IM Grads and Apprentices for a tour of the building and to have a nosey at all the weird and wonderful things they have there. We sold it as a IM related trip (and not just skiving) because the LPO is migrating over to the OneLondon system very soon (there are only around 300 users left on the old system, out of 25000+ users) and TfL IM is currently developing an upgrade for the lost property database and tracking system that is currently used, Holmes. Anyway, I absolutely wasn’t there to hear about systems stuff – show me the brollies!

Lunch buddy

HUNDREDS of them. Vans drive around to stations and depots collecting things that have been left on tubes, DLRs, buses and Overgrounds and bring them back to the LPO, just around the corner from Baker Street station. Everything gets sent down a shoot and sorted into 13 different categories (none of which I can remember). All items are logged in Holmes and tagged and sent down to the storage rooms. This is where the good stuff is... bikes, bags, single gloves, toys, shoes, keys, manikins, STUFF. And the LPO only keep items stored there for 3 months, after that they get sent down yet another shoot to the sub-sub-basement where things are sorted into 3 final categories – Give To Charity, Sell Covertly on EBay, or CHUCK (which involves recycling and sustainable good things….probably). Following the tour we headed to Regents Park for a spot of lunch and a slow dawdle back to the office.

December 1st

So that was fun!

Thursday (the first day of December and advent calendar fun!) drifted by in a non-eventful blur that involved…something and nothing or something else, followed by a night out with some current and ex IM Grads. And then, already, it was Friday again! Time for Onesie Weekend! And it’s a good job a Onesie Weekend had been agreed because in my hungover state my DANGER PACKing skills on Friday morning were somewhat lacking and I left London with very little else!

ONESIE!

Sarah

Me

I arrived in Westhoughton to rain (and then SNOW!) that didn’t let up for the entire weekend and so I didn't do much other than couch sitting, tea drinking, newspaper flicking and channel hopping all day Saturday but on Sunday I headed into to Manchester with mum to see Sarah Millican at Manchester Apollo!! We saw her last Tour (which is now out on DVD) in Bolton about a year ago and she was hilarious so I bought tickets for this tour way back in March this year – it was definitely worth the wait, she is brilliant!

On Monday I went into Manchester to meet up with people I haven’t seen in about 15 years – so that was weird – and of course all the old photos came out… and I made a pit stop by the Manchester German Markets which I’ll tell you more about next week.

Next week!

This week I’ll only be in the office Tuesday and Wednesday then I’m off on a course Thursday and Friday!... Easy this working lark ain’t it?!

Until next week,

Bren x

PS, I've loved this website for quite some time but it has made me laugh ++ this week so...

My Website of The Week: Damn You Auto Correct