Posted: Fri 5 August, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, London, People, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related |
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?
Posted: Thu 4 August, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Cynicism, News, People, Thoughts |
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.
Posted: Wed 3 August, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Charm School, Cynicism, London, Thoughts, Work-related |
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.
View Larger Map
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.
Posted: Tue 5 July, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related |
At the moment I’m commuting to London on a daily basis, which is a bit of a killer. It’s an hour (ish) on the M11 down to Woodford, then catch the tube from Woodford to central London. All told, pretty much two to two-and-a-quarter hours, door-to-door.
Parking in Woodford though is – to say the least – weird.
The car-park on Chateris Road is owned and run by Redbridge Council, and it’s pay-and-display. I use RingGo to sort out the parking, and that makes things even easier – use the iPhone App to pay using my linked credit-card, and job done. £4.80 per day to park – that’s it.
Because the weird thing about the management of this car park is that the ticket machines don’t actually work at all ’til 9am. They won’t accept money, they won’t do anything. You can’t even pay online or by phone until 9am. I tell people this at least three times a week when they’re trying to get a ticket.
It’s the weirdest and most customer-hostile method of operating that I’ve ever seen. Although, on a more cynical note, I wonder if the reasoning is that if people think the machine’s broken, and don’t pay for a ticket, maybe it makes more financial sense (to the council) when they end up with parking tickets for £30 or £60, instead of paying the proper £4.80.
Posted: Wed 4 May, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Thoughts |
Last night I watched Channel 4’s documentary about recreating Barnes Wallis’ bouncing bomb from the second world war. Apparently most of the documentation and research into the project had been lost in a flood in the sixties, so a Cambridge professor recreated the entire project.
However, the entire thing was let down by the first two minutes – it was based on the question “Will they manage to recreate the bomb?” – which unfortunately had been answered in the first two minutes when they showed footage of the new bomb skipping across the water and hitting the purpose-made dam. Indeed, I think they’d even shown that footage in the trailers for the damn programme.
I don’t know why they did it this way – the documentary was still interesting in all the technical challenges and so on that went into the initial project – but it would’ve been more interesting if you didn’t know the answer before the research even started.
Posted: Wed 6 April, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Daily Mail, Hypocrisy, Offensive Repetition, Pedantry, People, Thoughts |
At least two different media sites are today carrying the story about the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) telling clothing company Jack Wills (ever heard of them? I hadn’t) to not continue publishing their current catalogue until certain images are changed.
The story’s on the BBC here – and on the scumrag Daily Mail here.
Only one of the two stories manages to also show the image in it’s full “offensive” version. Guess which one?
Yep, you got it – good old Daily Fail, making sure its readers know precisely what they should be offended by.
[Oh, and if you do want to know what the image is, look below the ‘More’ link]
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: Wed 23 February, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Daily Mail, Media, News, People, Stupidity |
Yet another from the Daily Fail…
Organic vs. normal
Yep, in story one organic vegetables “aren’t as good for your health”, yet in story two “pesticides on fruit and veg interfere with male fertility”.
You’ve got to have some kind of admiration – and not necessarily positive admiration – for a ‘newspaper’ that can have two opposing viewpoints in two stories right next to each other.
