During my regular commute at the moment, I drive down the M11 into London. This involves one of my most-loathed junctions ever – the M11/M25 junction.

If you hit it at the wrong time, it can be snarled up beyond belief, for miles on either side. It’s a hateful piece of road.

You can begin to see why from the Google Maps image of it…

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It’s just a nasty piece of work. If you’re sticking to the M11 coming from London, you have not one but two lanes trying to get onto it from the M25, and everyone tries to get out into the outside lane. It’s totally common to see people wedging their cars into gaps only slightly larger than the cars themselves, and it leads to tailbacks and frustration.

Then once you’re (finally) past the two lanes, all the idiots decide that they’ll stay out in the outside lane, and add their stupidity to the mix too.

All in all, it’s a piece of road that I loathe with a passion.

At the moment, as I’ve said before, I’m working in London. The carriages on the tube are full, (sometimes to bursting, and leaving people on the platform to wait for the next train) the roads are pretty much full, and the buses – well, I don’t use the buses, but I’m pretty sure they’re full too. In short, the infrastructure of London is pretty well stretched already.

This time next year London will also be hosting the 2012 Olympics – which should make things pretty interesting.  The other day, advice came from the transport minister that Londoners – the people who live and work in London – should ‘try and avoid peak times for travelling in London’

Transport minister Norman Baker urged Londoners to avoid peak times or change their routes to avoid pinch points during the 17 days of the Games, saying: “It’s time to oil the creaking bike, dig out the walking boots, work out how to use the video conferencing equipment, and fire up the laptop,”

Genius.

So the people that use – and pay extortionate amounts to use – the transport services should find alternative methods, while visitors for the olympics are here. In other words “The transport infrastructure can’t handle the extra traffic“. Well there’s a shock. People have been saying it for at least the last ten years, to my knowledge.

So what’s the point of bidding for a huge event like the Olympics, if you already know the infrastructure is knackered and can’t deal with the extra people?

I see today in the news that Heather Mills is complaining today that her phone was hacked by the Mirror Group of newspapers 8 years ago. Yep – 8 years ago.

Is it only me who thinks that this might – just maybe – be a bit of a bandwagon jump? Phone hacking has been in the media for most of this year, and even more so over the last month. And it’s only now that Mills (and several others) jump into the ring too. Very odd.

At the moment, Westminster School is high up on my Most Loathed list. I’m sure they neither know nor care about this, but they’re still on the list.

Currently, I’m back working in London – same place as before, different client, different contract, same agency – and the nearest bit of green space is the one visible in the map below.

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Indeed, it’s the only big bit of green space around here, within a decent walking distance. It’s mainly a cricket pitch, but with benches round the outside, what appears to be a play area, and – well – it looks like a nice spot to sit and have your lunch.

Except you can’t, because it’s owned by Westminster School, who keep it all locked and secure, so it can’t be used at any time. Fair enough, it’s a playing field, so I can understand the “No Dogs” – but really? A big (for London) bit of green space that’s totally unusable except to a bunch of privileged school kids.

Tosspots.

A while back, I bought a Kindle . I’d been playing with the iPhone version for a while, and with the onset of Big Commute, thought I’d give it a thrash.

In general, I have to say I’ve been pretty impressed with it.

On the downside, I’m now on my third one – the displays don’t appear to be strong enough to withstand being carried in a backpack without an additional case. The first one cracked after a couple of weeks, the second one cracked within 24 hours, and the third one has been fine – allbeit because I’ve now got a purple leather case for the damn thing.

Throughout the problems, and the need to replace two devices, I was really impressed with Amazon’s customer services. In both cases, I went to the website, registered the issue, and clicked “Call me now”. Immediately, the phone rang, I was put through to an adviser, and the issue got sorted. The replacement was couriered out (and arrived next day) and I then had 28 days each time to send the broken device back – again, postage paid and done by courier. It was the most painless returns scheme I’ve seen in a very long time – and impressively done.

As for the Kindle itself, it’s a nice bit of kit. The eInk display is a bit slow and weird to update, but you get used to it very quickly. Actually, the entire thing is a bit slow – if you’re used to blipping through options etc., you have to learn to slow down a bit. I think it’s all down to the limitations of the display, but it’s livable-with.

Reading on it is – I find – very simple. No eye-strain (there’s no backlight, so it’s black text on a grey screen) and no problems. The text is clear, regardless of font size, and all told it’s pretty good.  Purchasing books is totally painless – click to order the book, and within 30 seconds it’s on the device. Very nice indeed.

It’s not the same as reading a ‘proper’ book- but it’s also a lot less intrusive, and easier in crowded situations. A lot of the books I’m reading at the moment are “trade paperback” size – which seems to mean ‘about the same size as a hardback’ – and on the Tube or whatever, they’d be a pain to read while people thump past all the time. With the Kindle, it’s a lot easier.

All told, I doubt Kindle will replace my books totally. However, when it comes to reading while commuting, it may just make the difference.

Over the weekend, Cricket (the silver Bengal) escaped from the house, and went walkabout.

It was my fault – a combination of an open bathroom window, and a door that hadn’t been properly closed – but it meant the little sod was out’n'about. She’s not used to it – we live near a very busy road, so the cats don’t go out as a matter of course – which meant I was pretty worried about her all told.

Thankfully, the back of the house rolls onto field, hedgerows, trees and the like, so the odds were that she’d stay on that side – and hopefully not stray too far in the interest of finding other New Fun Things.

We went out several times to try and see/find the little bugger, but with no real joy. Lots of bird alarm calls around the place, but no sign. At night I went out with a torch, and could see her eyes reflecting from way inside some of the undergrowth, but she wasn’t coming back ’til she was good and ready.

She did eventually come back – at 1am – and all’s been well. She spent most of Sunday trying to get out again whenever possible, but that’s no surprise.

Evil little sod