Over the weekend we stayed at the Premier Inn in Watford (easier than parking/driving from Wembley post-gig)

One thing that intrigued me though was the way the plug sockets were fitted in the rooms…

Australian?

Australian ?

Yep – both upside down. No idea why.

Over the weekend, one of the significant crossroads near us was completely closed for re-surfacing. The problem was that at least one route to get to that crossroads didn’t have any mention of said road closure.

Which means I get to send sarcastic emails to Norfolk County Council. (Again)

To whom it may concern,

I’d just like to congratulate the person(s) involved in sorting out signage for the road closure in Hingham this weekend.

If (as many people did) you took the road from Little Ellingham towards Hingham using Hingham Road->Little Ellingham Road -> Attleborough Road to the crossroads in Hingham, there was not *ONE* sign saying that the road ahead was closed. The signage was in fact before this junction (at roughly the spot of the red circle in this map)

This meant that anyone coming through on the route from Little Ellingham came round the corner to find the entire road closed off, and then had to turn round and go back. This also had the effect of stuffing a significant amount of the newly resurfaced road before the junction.

Of course, the road from Little Ellingham isn’t that heavily used. Except when Little Ellingham has its Vintage Working Weekend event- yes, the weekend just passed.

I look forward to any response Norfolk Council deigns to give in explanation of why there was no thought given to this route, or signage on it.

Sincerely

Lyle

I know it’ll do bugger-all good, but I felt better having written it. And that’s what matters.

Another Saturday in Tesco, another tossbag who can’t park their car

This time it wasn’t even over the blank spaces for clear view lines, it was just slap-bang over two parking spaces…

Twat

KC51WTE, you park like a cunt.

In my post about the mileage I’ve covered this month, Gordon pointed out

I use this invention called ‘the train’. Saves adding miles and miles to your car (cost).

And that’s a perfectly valid point. If I could, I’d use public transport – and particularly trains – a lot more. But there are some reasons why this month I couldn’t/didn’t/wouldn’t.

Among those reasons are :

• Hound
• Cost
• Convenience
• Time
• Practicality

Let’s look at just one of the journeys I did – taking Hound down to Berkshire – Wokingham, to be more precise – and compare driving to trains.

• Hound : There’s no way Hound could go on public transport without being muzzled. In the temperatures that were around when we did the journey, that’s just not going to happen – she’d be unable to pant properly or anything. She’d also be a complete pain in the arse – not just to me, but to everyone around – for the entire journey. And taking Hound through the London Underground while changing stations? You’re having a fucking laugh. In the car, she just slept in her basket, cool in the car’s air-con atmosphere.
• Cost : The cheapest I could do the journey, for a return ticket is (at the time of writing) £48.40. That’s not including getting to the station nearest home, or the cost of getting from station to kennels at the other end. (And back again)  The 300 mile round trip in the car cost me about £30 – £35 (I can’t remember exactly) all in, door-to-door.
• Convenience : Again, door-to-door vs. all the fucking about of train travel, getting to station, travelling, three changes, getting from station to kennels, and back again. All while carrying dog stuff, my stuff, and the dog basket. Yeah.
• Time : Just for the train journey is four and a half hours. One way. Driving? Three hours one way. Door-to-door.
• Practicality : I’ll let you figure out which one’s best on this score. And we haven’t even touched on delays, travelling with other people, the ability to have peace and quiet while travelling, so on and so forth.

The trip to Manchester(ish) is an even better example, even if Hound’s not a factor…

• Hound : N/A
• Cost : Train (return ticket) £80.80 – best I can find. Car : £40 fuel.
• Convenience : Train ? Office to Bury St Edmunds Station. Three changes. Manchester to Oldham. Oldham to [Village]. Car? Door to Door.
• Time : Train (again, train only, one-way, not including sodding about) five hours. Car? 3 hours.
• Practicality : Car wins. Again.  And I don’t need to fix everything around when the trains run.

I would use public transport more. But when you look at the factors in this way, you can see why I don’t…

This month (as I’ve mentioned before) has been a bit of a hog when it comes to mileage done.

So far (and excluding the normal 350 miles per week for work/commuting) it’s involved…

• Down to Berkshire to drop off Hound – 300 mile round trip
• Odds and Sods for party organisation, ferrying stuff and the like – 50ish miles
• Across to Peterborough to collect Herself’s brother for the party weekend – 75 miles
• Down to Berkshire to collect Hound – 300 mile round trip
• Down to London to deliver Herself etc. for her break – 200 mile round trip
• Down to London to collect Herself etc. from her break – 200 mile round trip
• Up to Manchester and back – 600 mile round trip

That’s just over 1,700 miles this month.  If you include the work commute, we go up to just over 3,100 miles.

I don’t mind the driving, it’s not resented or anything – for the most part it’s actually enjoyable (except for a small dollop of aquaplaning on the A1, but the less said about that the better) but it does amaze me on occasion just what kind of mileage I do knock up over time – although this July has been pretty excessive, even by my standards.

I probably need to check when the car’s due for its next service, don’t I?

I’m back home. I know, I didn’t actually say anything about not being home, but that’s because last week was chaotic, and I rather missed the opportunity to write any foreward-dated posts. Ooops.

Anyway, I spent the weekend with friends up in Manchester, and had a really good time. A three hour run from Bury St Edmunds up to Manchester, and three-and-a-half hours from Manchester back to home.

A really good weekend, just without access to t’internet (couldn’t remember the D4D password to use on the iPhone) which was also no bad thing.