Daily: Those forges
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Post: Maillot Loop, Paris.
Date: 2010-03-17.
Tags: france, metro, paris, posetescouilles
When the line was extended the station at Porte Maillot was shifted westward and as such the entrances to the loop of Porte Maillot are visible through the train windows before one's train enters the station of the same name from the east. They're close enough for one to presume there is access between the two but on our first attempt we couldn't find it - which resulted in us bumbling laughing into an RATP train worker change room, and sprinting (laughing) back out being yelled out by an angry worker. We gave up on this plan and busted out our hurdling technique down line 1 from Argentine instead, midservice, dodging trains like drunken party girls.
Entering from the east, off the main line, to the right is the old platform which stands relatively unchanged from when the loop was used for passengers. Having successfully avoided the regular service on the main we jumped from the tracks up onto the old plaform. On the right side of the loop little has changed since the station was moved and the loop decomm'd. The track resembles regular track, the station stairs have true oldschool cred and even the old advertisments are still in place.
The other side of the loop, which would have been the inbound platform has been deformed into a workshop. This space is called l'Espace Maillot. The old platform has been totally renovated including work rooms and even an inspection bit. Of course, knowing our luck a worker turned up and we had nowhere to run. We'd been caught in the Metro... again. Shortly after a work train rolled in and we were left sitting watching the efficiency of french workmanship. It was worse than watching a grandma pay with cheque at the supermarket - an entirely normal and everyday occurance at your local supermarché. Of course nobody seems to mind this... except us foreigners who are endlessly frustrated that by this. Groceries by cheque should not exist in 2010.
Moving and unloading one work-train of two items took almost two hours of consultation, reconsultation and more of the same. Thankfully I didn't understand most of it and took a nap. Amusingly we discovered that not all the workers knew the keypad code to the main door, so they installed a complex modern system where a plastic streamer was tied to the inside door handle, then passed out through a hole so the door could be opened from outside, by anyone who turned up and yanked the plastic. Naturally we exploited this security feature until they clued in and we were forced to open the door in broad daylight, inside the station, being passed by dozens of commuters, using a fucking stick we found in the gutter. Paris, goddamn je t'aime.
Out on the western side of the metro map sits a small odd looking piece of track which always interested us. Originally Porte Maillot station was the western terminus of line one, with two platforms connected by a loop for turning the trains before they began the journey back eastward. This was the case from 1900 until 1937 when Line 1 was extended west into snob ville Neuilly, then further to La Defense. I passed the loop portals 3-4 times a week since I kicked it a lot in Les Sablons (the fine sands). Trust me, there is no sand to be found except up in the vagina of some of its snotty residents.
When the line was extended the station at Porte Maillot was shifted westward and as such the entrances to the loop of Porte Maillot are visible through the train windows before one's train enters the station of the same name from the east. They're close enough for one to presume there is access between the two but on our first attempt we couldn't find it - which resulted in us bumbling laughing into an RATP train worker change room, and sprinting (laughing) back out being yelled out by an angry worker. We gave up on this plan and busted out our hurdling technique down line 1 from Argentine instead, midservice, dodging trains like drunken party girls.
Entering from the east, off the main line, to the right is the old platform which stands relatively unchanged from when the loop was used for passengers. Having successfully avoided the regular service on the main we jumped from the tracks up onto the old plaform. On the right side of the loop little has changed since the station was moved and the loop decomm'd. The track resembles regular track, the station stairs have true oldschool cred and even the old advertisments are still in place.
The other side of the loop, which would have been the inbound platform has been deformed into a workshop. This space is called l'Espace Maillot. The old platform has been totally renovated including work rooms and even an inspection bit. Of course, knowing our luck a worker turned up and we had nowhere to run. We'd been caught in the Metro... again. Shortly after a work train rolled in and we were left sitting watching the efficiency of french workmanship. It was worse than watching a grandma pay with cheque at the supermarket - an entirely normal and everyday occurance at your local supermarché. Of course nobody seems to mind this... except us foreigners who are endlessly frustrated that by this. Groceries by cheque should not exist in 2010.
Moving and unloading one work-train of two items took almost two hours of consultation, reconsultation and more of the same. Thankfully I didn't understand most of it and took a nap. Amusingly we discovered that not all the workers knew the keypad code to the main door, so they installed a complex modern system where a plastic streamer was tied to the inside door handle, then passed out through a hole so the door could be opened from outside, by anyone who turned up and yanked the plastic. Naturally we exploited this security feature until they clued in and we were forced to open the door in broad daylight, inside the station, being passed by dozens of commuters, using a fucking stick we found in the gutter. Paris, goddamn je t'aime.
Post: Site, cameras, hamsters
Date: 2010-03-09.
Tags: hamster, life, shite, site
Secondly, I'm part-owner of a full hamster (or full owner of a part-hamster). As some of you know while I was getting my ProUrbex degree at L'institut de BHV I was sharing my room with another boarder, a hamster. He was a likable enough fellow, kept to himself, didn't squeak too much late at night except after few too many slurps of wine. Crazy little fucker would trip like mad on hash though.
Anyway, I always thought the hamster (I never learned his name) stank but now I've learned he only stank because he was lazy and confined to his cage. See our hamster is more evolved. I discovered this because we bought the little fucker a hamster ball and now he doesn't shit where he sleeps. He's taking his shitting show on the road, he's a mobile shitter. His ball is vented so he can breathe of course, but curiously he's taken to shitting inside his ball, then rolling it around the room to widely deposit small portions of shit to mark his territory against the invasion of other ball-equipped hamsters. Amusingly, the ball is slightly too large so to gain adequate gravitational force to rotate the ball he must climb halfway up the side of the ball and run. While doing this he has his nose right up in the air and cannot see where he's going, running into anything and everything possible. So in one case he seems highly evolved, the other plain retarded. Our hamster might have aspegers.
The astute reader may recognise this font and where it's commonly used. A clue to future updates perhaps.
Now, site news. As you can probably see there have been changes to the site of late. Most beneficial to you as a reader is the desktop option which makes a bunch of photos available for desktop backgrounds/wallpaper up to 1600px wide. Since none of the photos will exactly match your screen res they're available in custom sizes, resized then cropped down to fit your aspect ratio or with black strips top and bottom (or left and right) to fill out the width and totally cover your desktop.
If there is a particular photo you'd like to see available as a wallpaper drop me a line and send me some film (120, 135). I'm sure some arrangement can be sorted.
Also, since some of you are social networking nerds/tards/whatever you can follow/stalk/molest sleepycity via the following services.
Ride sleepycity's nuts on Facebook.
Find perfect fap material on Flickr.
Avoid like the plague, Twitter.
Updates will be posted to facebook and twitter, new photos to flickr and twitter. The ven diagram of that sentence is depressing since twitter should never be the catch-all for anything, yet since their API is so easily plugged into, well, that's the way it is.
Of course the two RSS feeds are still great ways to get new content delivered to your door.
Add the post feed to your reader of choice.
Touch yourself to the photo feed whenever your spouse/gf/partner is tired/headache/menstrual pain/pregnant/cheating/dead.
Peece, paix, vrede.
ds
Firstly, I have a new camera.
Secondly, I'm part-owner of a full hamster (or full owner of a part-hamster). As some of you know while I was getting my ProUrbex degree at L'institut de BHV I was sharing my room with another boarder, a hamster. He was a likable enough fellow, kept to himself, didn't squeak too much late at night except after few too many slurps of wine. Crazy little fucker would trip like mad on hash though.
Anyway, I always thought the hamster (I never learned his name) stank but now I've learned he only stank because he was lazy and confined to his cage. See our hamster is more evolved. I discovered this because we bought the little fucker a hamster ball and now he doesn't shit where he sleeps. He's taking his shitting show on the road, he's a mobile shitter. His ball is vented so he can breathe of course, but curiously he's taken to shitting inside his ball, then rolling it around the room to widely deposit small portions of shit to mark his territory against the invasion of other ball-equipped hamsters. Amusingly, the ball is slightly too large so to gain adequate gravitational force to rotate the ball he must climb halfway up the side of the ball and run. While doing this he has his nose right up in the air and cannot see where he's going, running into anything and everything possible. So in one case he seems highly evolved, the other plain retarded. Our hamster might have aspegers.
The astute reader may recognise this font and where it's commonly used. A clue to future updates perhaps.
Now, site news. As you can probably see there have been changes to the site of late. Most beneficial to you as a reader is the desktop option which makes a bunch of photos available for desktop backgrounds/wallpaper up to 1600px wide. Since none of the photos will exactly match your screen res they're available in custom sizes, resized then cropped down to fit your aspect ratio or with black strips top and bottom (or left and right) to fill out the width and totally cover your desktop.
If there is a particular photo you'd like to see available as a wallpaper drop me a line and send me some film (120, 135). I'm sure some arrangement can be sorted.
Also, since some of you are social networking nerds/tards/whatever you can follow/stalk/molest sleepycity via the following services.
Ride sleepycity's nuts on Facebook.
Find perfect fap material on Flickr.
Avoid like the plague, Twitter.
Updates will be posted to facebook and twitter, new photos to flickr and twitter. The ven diagram of that sentence is depressing since twitter should never be the catch-all for anything, yet since their API is so easily plugged into, well, that's the way it is.
Of course the two RSS feeds are still great ways to get new content delivered to your door.
Add the post feed to your reader of choice.
Touch yourself to the photo feed whenever your spouse/gf/partner is tired/headache/menstrual pain/pregnant/cheating/dead.
Peece, paix, vrede.
ds
Post: Haxo, station abandonnée
Date: 2010-03-08.
Tags: abandonned, haxo, metro, paris, posetescouilles
The station has only one platform, which sits on a piece of track named la voie des fêtes. No stairs or surface access was ever installed so Haxo provides some hurdles, insurmountable by the manhole crowd. The highlight of the trip is often the trains stored in the approach tunnel, la voie des fêtes, and sometimes even in the abandoned station itself.
The station is just this one platform, covered in graffiti and little else, but its status as one of the two never opened make it a must see and the interesting route to reach the station guarantees one some adventure.
You can read more about Haxo here and on wikipedia.
Constructed in 1920 on the line between Porte de Lilas and Pré Saint Gervais, Haxo is one of two stations in the métro which was built but never finished nor opened to the public.
The station has only one platform, which sits on a piece of track named la voie des fêtes. No stairs or surface access was ever installed so Haxo provides some hurdles, insurmountable by the manhole crowd. The highlight of the trip is often the trains stored in the approach tunnel, la voie des fêtes, and sometimes even in the abandoned station itself.
The station is just this one platform, covered in graffiti and little else, but its status as one of the two never opened make it a must see and the interesting route to reach the station guarantees one some adventure.
You can read more about Haxo here and on wikipedia.
