Thank you, Boris!

Seems that commuters have been carefully listening to Boris' [Johnson's] announcement in the run-up to the Games. My colleagues and me had been dreading the start of the Olympics and the - or so we thought - inevitable chaos that would ensue and make the commute even more miserable than it is at the best of times (usually half-term, when at least some of those with kids don't travel to work).

We were all pleasantly surprised: I got a seat on both the DLR and Northern Line. Even Bank was LESS crowded than usual. Despite having been branded one of the hotspots. During the morning as well as evening rush hour, everything was running smoothly. Touch wood, that it will stay this way.

There were a couple of problems on Sunday though: Waterloo closed because of a fire alert, DLR between Bank and Shadwell was suspended for a while with severe delays on the rest of the line and they had to bring the cable car to a halt at some stage. Due to adverse weather conditions. Quite worryingly, the cable car was still moving (with passengers on board) while that announcement was made! At the time it was raining only lightly. And I thought that it would be rather impractical, if the cable car wasn't able to run during light rain. Given that the probability of rain in London is quite high... As it turns out though they had been worried that lightening would hit! Fortunately, nothing happened in the end.

Which also reminds me, that a few days ago, the cable car came to a standstill and passengers were stuck for about half an hour up in the air. Again, fortunately, nobody got injured or anything. But not exactly the place you want to be. Especially as nobody seemed to be able to figure out what cause the problem. This all shortly before the Olympics in a city like London, people instantly feared a terrorist attack.