Posted: Mon 3 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Pedantry, Public Transport, Travel |
As my train arrived this morning, the platform announcement said “This is a 12-carriage train for London Euston. Please use all doors to get on this train”
Being a pedantic twat, my first thought was “Really? All of them? Can’t I just use the one in front of me?”
I need to get out more.
Posted: Sat 1 February, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Getting Organised, Public Transport, Travel, Work-related |
This week I’ve been working in London, near to Farringdon station.
I’ve been commuting in by train from Milton Keynes, which is fine in general, although it’s a pretty busy route.
However, today (i.e. after the main bulk of the work has been done) I’ve had a look, and it turns out I could have actually been going from a more-local station, and getting in direct to Farringdon. It’s nearly £10 cheaper too – which is a bit of a bummer, even though I get the travel costs back anyway.
The actual travel time isn’t much different, interestingly. I assume this route stops at more stations, thus negating the speed of the MK to London express route, and then use of Underground etc. However, if it’s direct it’s a lot easier.
It’s something I’ll remember for future contracts, I think.
Posted: Thu 30 January, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Getting Old(er), London, Travel, Work-related |
This week I’ve been commuting into London on a daily basis – and for some reason it’s left me knackered. More importantly and relevantly, I don’t know why.
As has been written about before, I’ve done a lot of stupid commutes (both distance and time) and in truth the current one isn’t actually that bad – a drive to Milton Keynes train station, train into Euston, and then tube to Farringdon. It’s about 75 minutes door-to-door each way, so nowhere near the worst I’ve done.
Maybe it’s just that I’ve become more used to shorter commutes over the last eighteen months or so, I don’t know.
I’m still doing OK, and I’m sure I’d be fine with doing it longer-term as I get used to it again, but it’s just a bit weird that it’s leaving me knackered at the moment…
Posted: Thu 23 January, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Reviews(ish), Travel |
Yesterday I went off to Whipsnade Zoo – somewhere I haven’t visited in decades. I remember doing it as a school trip, and also with family, but that’s a long time ago, so I thought while I’ve got some time, I’d see what it’s like these days.
I’m not a massive fan of zoos in general. I think the work they do for conservation, and allowing people to see these glorious animals, is amazing. The breeding programmes and so on are remarkable, and there’s a lot of value to them. But – ah, there’s always a but – I really don’t like seeing them in cages, and particularly when they exhibit ‘trapped’ behaviours. I went to London Zoo about 30 years ago, and never went back – seeing (particularly) the polar bears just trapped on their plastic rocks with a tiny pool was a truly hateful experience.
It was a fairly crappy day when I arrived- grey, cloudy and with dollops of rain – but that was fine with me. I was hoping for less people anyway, just wanted to walk round the place and see what it was like. It’s bloody expensive – even in winter, it’s £18.50, and that’s with half the place closed up. That, in my humble opinion, is taking the piss.
Anyway.
The actual place is OK – although that doesn’t mean I actually want to re-visit it any time soon. A number of the animal environs are still too small, in my opinion – they’ve improved, certainly, but still several of them seem to be small, even for the number of animals within them.
The one that got to me the most was the tigers, where one of the two was just padding along the edge of the pen, back and forth. Maybe I caught it on an off day, but it brought back all the memories of that polar bear in London Zoo.
All told it was a good day, including walking somewhere around five miles. But I can think of other places I can do that without paying nearly £20 for the privilege, and where I don’t finish up slightly wishing I hadn’t gone in the first place…
Posted: Tue 21 January, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Charm School, People, Travel, Weirdness |
Every so often I have to use a public toilet – and every time, my mind boggles at people.
Primarily, I really can’t understand the entire thing of writing numbers on the walls of the cubicles. I know the history of it, and the reasons, but times have changed – so does anyone ever actually call those numbers or make contact that way? I find it pretty unbelievable, to be honest. And even less so when it comes to those ones that say “Meet me here at 7pm on a Tuesday” – really? I just don’t believe it.
The other thing that boggles me is the state some people leave the bogs themselves in. I don’t know if they leave every shitter in the same way, or just leave public ones like it because there’s someone else who’ll clean it all up. But either way, it’s vile when you walk in to be greeted by piss on the walls/floor/seat, and even worse when the bowl is covered in a haze of shitty lumps. And of course there’s also the fuckers who leave a turd in the bowl unflushed , as if to say “Look on my mighty works, mortals, and despair!”
Finally, there’s the ones who cover the cubicle in bog-roll, although that is somewhat less offensive. (At least assuming it’s not used bog-roll, of course) Mind you, even then you can also end up with the dickweeds having also blocked the entire thing with bog-roll too, which just leads to overflowage and sharing the vileness.
It’s not everyone, of course. But there do seem to be a percentage of people who feel that all of this stuff is acceptable, because every time I go to a public toilet, there’s some remnant from some other dirty bugger.
I despair of people, I really do.
Posted: Fri 27 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, News, Travel, Work-related |
The BBC today has an interesting piece about so-called ‘extreme commuters’ – those who travel more than three hours a day in order to get to/from work.
As regular readers know, I’ve been doing idiot commutes on-and-off for the last twelve years. I do have periods of commute sanity (the current phase has lasted most of the last two years) but I’ve also done plenty of long commutes. My own record has been a train commute on a daily basis from either Manchester to London (and back, of course) or Bath to London. The main section of that was roughly 1.5 hours for the Bath one, or 2ish for the Manchester one, and with additional time at each end for getting door-to-door.
More recently, the two long commutes have been from Suffolk to London, and Suffolk to Luton. The London one was two-and-a-bit hours door-to-door, and the Luton one about 90 mins each way.
What interested me the most (and to some degree defuddled me) was the person commuting by car and train from Trowbridge to Hook. According to the story, that takes 2.5 hours door to door. I’m bemused, because I know that just driving that route takes between 1.25 and 1.5 hours door to door. The train journey takes longer, and also includes two changes of train. Frankly, fuck that for a game of soldiers.
I know there is the minor advantage by train that you can get some stuff done. But for me, I’d rather get in and get the stuff done in the office.
Anyway, it’s an interesting article, but as always you kind of wonder about the decisions people make, and want to know more than is covered in the piece itself.
As for me, well, I’m quite sure that at some point in the coming year I’ll do some kind of daft commute again – although from where I am now, journeys to London etc. are nowhere near as much of a struggle as they were from Norfolk and Suffolk. But there’ll be something daft to do, I’m sure.
Posted: Fri 20 December, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, Business, Domestic, Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Project 42, Travel, Work-related, Writing |
From the end of today, I’m finished with work ’til a week on Monday. Ten whole days off.
Of course, being a contractor, it also means I don’t get paid for them – but that would’ve happened for the Wednesday and Thursday anyway.
Besides, for once I don’t mind. I’ve pretty much burned myself out this year – and the last couple of months in particular – so it’s going to be quite nice to have some downtime.
I’ve still got stuff that needs doing – Slab’s booked in for it’s 100,000 mile service on Monday, and Christmas Day on Wednesday with its associated travels – but for the most part it’s going to be time for relaxing a bit, catching up on sleep, and generally sorting my life out a bit.
Should be good – and right now it feels like it’s much needed, a battery recharge before the start of 2014.