How now brown Slough

I had the misfortune to be in Slough recently. Aside from evoking thoughts of why anyone would ever live there, and why British English deems it pronounced like cow and bough instead of like buff and rough, or toff and cough, it’s also home to the following, welcoming slogan as you drive towards it on the A4:

Slough: home of the bus station of the future

On its own that’s not really news, but is probably the best thing the council could come up with to label this scary, traffic light riddled, industrial incarnation of hell.

I didn’t spot the sign on the way in and my wife read it to me as we passed. What made it stick in my mind was the fact that I mis-heard “bus station” as “crustacean”, which is actually pretty funny and evokes wonderful images of a colossal, genetically-engineered lobster rampaging the town and, inadvertently, making the place better.