Posted: Wed 2 September, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Own Business, People, Work-related |
When I have to work in London, I always remember how much I dislike doing so – but also how much fun I can have at the same time.
Currently one of my favourite pastimes is being nice to people, or just talking to them. It seems to shock so many Londoners when it happens to them – and as such is of course very funny.
Just in the last couple of days, I’ve talked to complete strangers in the lifts at the office, (being up on the 14th floor, I really can’t be arsed to use the stairs!) given directions to confused-looking people at Waterloo, and just saying hello etc. to people in the local shop. (In fairness they’re getting used to me, and are far less phased by the entire thing of being talked to)
It’s just something I find fun to do. And it takes a fair amount of skill to be malicious by being civil or helpful to people. Which is why I do it.
Posted: Mon 31 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Business, Cynicism, Thoughts |
I don’t know if it’s just me, but the recession of the last year does seem to have had one (slightly) positive effect this weekend – the number of TV adverts for “Bank Holiday Weekend Sales” appear to have dropped through the floor.
After all, there’s now no :
- MFI
- Sofa Warehouse
- Allied Carpets
- [several others I can’t currently recall]
who always used to do that kind of sale.
Of course, there’s still bloody DFS, (Although they just seem to have one big year-long sale) and B&Q and Homebase are both doing “15% off everything” weekends, but still it seems like there’s nowhere near as many Bank Holiday Sales this year.
Mind you, it could also be because I’ve hardly seen any TV over the last week or so…
Posted: Sat 29 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, National Express East Anglia, Travel, Work-related |
I’ve been doing some more research into the enormous price-rise by National Express East Anglia from the 5/6th September (as written about previously here and here) whereby the ticket that used to cost £39.50 has gone up to £74.
What it looks like is that National Express East Anglia have added a “peak time” definition to travel between Norwich and Cambridge – although they don’t say as much on their website. As written about in Part Two, the T&Cs for Off-Peak tickets still say…
For National Express East Anglia journeys it is valid for any train scheduled to arrive at London Liverpool Street or London Kings Cross at or after 1000, Stratford (London) after 0950, Tottenham Hale/ Seven Sisters after 0940. Not valid on any train departing London Liverpool Street or Kings Cross before 0930 or between 1629 or 1834 inclusive (1900 from Kings Cross) although travel is permitted on the 1636 from London Liverpool Street to Braintree, for destinations Hatfield Peverel to Braintree inclusive.
Which makes no mention of peak-travel times for non-London trains.
But if you look on National Express East Anglia’s own Journey Planner (That link only goes to the front page, you can’t easily link to inside the Journey Planner) and look at travel between Attleborough and Cambridge, the off-peak ticket is only valid for travelling after 10am.
I think I’m going to have to do some experimenting with this while actually travelling on the train – that should be fun!
Posted: Fri 28 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News, Thoughts |
Filed firmly under “No shit, Sherlock” comes this story courtesy of the Department of Health…
English holidaymakers are turning to drink on their breaks with the average adult consuming eight alcoholic drinks a day, a survey suggests.
Blimey, what a revelation. People on holiday drink more. Who’d have thought it?
As usual, the “survey” consisted of only 3,500 people (from however million who’ve been on holiday over the summer) and there’s no indication of the age ranges for the survey. So at best it’s “dip a finger in the water” guesswork.
Posted: Thu 27 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Stupidity |
I’ve just signed up for a website dealing with audiences for seeing the recording of TV shows, and had a confirmation page with the following text on it…
VERY IMPORTANT: Please ensure that your email spam filters will allow mail from [email address] as have just emailed you about you’re registration.
Now that’s got some scarily bad grammatical errors in it.
I wonder if I should email and tell them?
Posted: Wed 26 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, National Express East Anglia, Travel, Work-related |
In the spirit of being organised, I’ve just been booking accommodation and train tickets for the rest of the contract, which takes me through to the end of September.
I’d already booked stuff for next week, and that was all sorted.
However, it looks like 5th September is National Price-Rise Day – and in the case of the train tickets in particular, it’s abso-fucking-lutely extortionate.
This week and next, the return ticket from Attleborough to London (including Tube to get me to the office) is £39.50. Which, in fairness, is pretty good value.
For travelling on the 7th September, that self-same return ticket is – are you ready for this? – £74.
Yes, for reasons known only to themselves, National Express East Anglia think it’s acceptable to pretty much double the price. How the fuck can that be justified?
Posted: Tue 25 August, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, iPhone, Technology, Thoughts |
On the journey into London yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice how ubiquitous the iPhone now is – it seems like everyone and their dog has one.
When I used to commute in to London from Bracknell, Blackberrys were the thing everyone had – or at least all the “Look at me, I’m so important” fucksticks had, anyway.
While I do agree that iPhones are a nice bit of kit, I’m still not convinced I’d actually use one if I had one. That lack of a “proper” keyboard is (for me) still a significant factor, as most of what I do on a phone involves typing – text messages, emails, SSH connections to servers for admin, that kind of thing.
But there’s also the ubiquity of it that’s (for me) detracts from any desire to own one. It may be childish, but I have a built-in reaction to doing “what everyone else does”, and while it’s not an over-arching reason for not getting one, it certainly contributes.