Delayed Construction
Posted: Fri 18 July, 2008 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Thoughts 1 Comment »Today, the BBC is making some kind of big story out of the fact that the new visitor centre at the top of Mount Snowdon is going to be delayed until next year. The reason? There’s been a lot of bad weather while they’re building the thing.
The authority said progress on the scheme had been “remarkable” considering the conditions, including snow, heavy rain and winds regularly gusting over 80 mph.
Now my problem with this is simple – surely all the bad weather detailed above is exactly what you’d expect when you’re on the top of a mountain that’s some 3,560ft (nearly 1,100m) above sea level. What the fuck did they expect on a mountain top in Wales? Perfect sunny weather for two years?
So I just don’t see why it’s such a big thing – it would be far more newsworthy if the thing had been opened on time. In fact, it would be far more newsworthy if Carillion, the contractors, had actually planned the project and timescales correctly in the first place. Common sense, competence and professionalism breaks out? That’s a story that would be front page news at the moment.
Changing Broadband
Posted: Thu 17 July, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised Leave a comment »I’ve just started off the (hopefully fairly painless) process of switching broadband providers. As we’ve been in the house a year now, I knew that the contract with BT was up, so the time was right for changing.
With BT, the broadband was costing me £25 per month for unlimited downloads etc.
With Tiscali, the same deal will be costing me £15 per month.
I know people have said that Tiscali’s customer services aren’t great, but I don’t expect to be using that side of the service much. So we’ll see how things go.
The changeover should happen in about ten days time – so if I fall off the face of the world at the end of the month, you can be sure that the first post on my return will be one cursing Tiscali and the twelve month contract I’ve just entered into…
National vs. Local
Posted: Thu 17 July, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts 1 Comment »Way back in May, Gert left a comment on a post I’d written about local elections.
And why on earth should national and international factors matter in local elections? Or are you saying people are too thick to understand democracy…which is a rather patronising view?
Now, at the time I wasn’t saying that at all. But when I look at certain politics stories, it’s certainly true that both the media and the various political parties do connect national and local politics in local elections.
You only have to look at yesterday’s stories about Gordon Brown postponing the 2p fuel duty rise – “The planned 2p fuel duty rise is postponed – but Gordon Brown denies the move is linked to next week’s by-election.” (the BBC’s summary paragraph)
And in last week’s by-election win by David Davis, the story carried a quote of “Mr Davis said: ‘We have fired a shot across the bows of Gordon Brown’s arrogant, arbitrary and authoritarian government.’”
So yes, it certainly seems like there’s plenty of people who do connect up national and local elections and politics.
Sleeping Places
Posted: Wed 16 July, 2008 Filed under: Animals, Domestic Leave a comment »I swear, Psycho Cat has the cushiest life sometimes. This morning, after a hard night out going in and out all the time, we found him sleeping like this…
It’s a hard life, isn’t it?
Oh, and yes, that is my manky foot at the top of the first photo. Shows the poxy creature’s brave, as well as a lazy little git.
Knock-Off Nigel
Posted: Tue 15 July, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism Leave a comment »Out of interest, how is this supposed to make anyone decide to not download films?
The logic behind some adverts just leaves me utterly bemused…
Non-suspicious?
Posted: Mon 14 July, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts 2 Comments »There’s something about this story that’s just bizarre.
A man – the last resident of a block destined for redevelopment – is found in his house beheaded by a chainsaw. And the police say it’s “non-suspicious”.
Now it’s obvious that I read far too many crime/thriller type novels, but the entire thing just sounds dodgy as shit to me. If nothing else, it’s an impressive way to kill yourself – using a chainsaw to behead yourself.
Still, as I’ve said before, I’ve just got a cynical mind.
Dual Carriageways
Posted: Mon 14 July, 2008 Filed under: Driving, Thoughts 4 Comments »I know, I’m writing a lot about driving standards at the moment – it’s mainly because I seem to be doing one hell of a lot of driving at the moment on some of the poxier roads in the region, namely the A14, A127, M11 and M25.
The great majority of those roads are dual-carriageway. Obviously the M25 isn’t, and a small section of the M11 isn’t – but the great majority is dual-carriageway.
And the more I drive on them, the more I’m convinced that if there were one new law/rule that would improve traffic flow and reduce road congestion (and, not coincidentally, driver frustration) it would be to insist that truck drivers can’t overtake on dual carriageways.
I’ve lost count of the number of times over the last few weeks where the entire road has been held up because two or three fuckwit bastard truck drivers have been playing leapfrog down the M11. All it does is lead to jammed up traffic – not stationary, but jammed up and queueing behind the trucks for miles, which just then leads to people being stupid and making stupid manoeuvres any time they see a gap. God knows, it’s tempted me on occasion to drive past the shit-for-brains twats on the hard shoulder. I never have – but dear Lord, it’s been a temptation.
So yes, to sort out a lot of driver frustration and traffic hassle, that’s the law that should be made. No overtaking for truck drivers. And if they don’t like it, well, they shouldn’t have driven like arseholes in the first place.