Posted: Tue 22 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Gigs, Introspective, London, Music, Self-Doubt, Stupidity, Travel |
This afternoon/evening, I’m supposed to be going to see Peter Gabriel at the O2. I’ve booked the afternoon off work, I’ve paid for the parking at the O2. As an aside, I always feel that parking cost is an iniquitous extra, but such is life – while it might be feasible for me to get there by public transport, it’s completely unfeasible for the return journey.
I will go
But right now, my brain’s wavering and havering, thinking “Yeah, but…” on a number of reasons, a range of logical excuses to not go. Tired, distance, time, return time, work – it’s all in there, all making me doubt.
I will go. I want to go.
I just wish my brain would be more certain, and shut up a bit.
Posted: Thu 17 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Navigation, Travel |
One of the things I’ve written about before is how I navigate through, and learn about, a place. My spatial sense is pretty good, and in general if I know the main things about a place, I can navigate by effectively holding a three-dimensional model of it in my head. When I’m not sure where I am, I can look up, find some significant points, landmarks etc., and orient myself based off that model. That’s not a perfect description, but it’s how I visualise things in general, so it works for me.
My map of London is generally pretty good – it’s ridiculously rare that I get lost at all there, even in the more outlying areas. Indeed, I think the last time I got seriously mislaid was when I was relying on shit satnav to get me across south London (which turns out to be May 2009) and even then, once I’d given up on the satnav, I navigated and found my way to where I needed to be pretty damn quickly. (And far faster than if I’d stayed reliant on shit-nav)
The other side of that is that sometimes I miss out on connections, or need to wander around to find those new connections that allow that map to improve.
Tuesday’s London trip was a perfect example of that. To get to CMH, I went to St James’ Park tube station (which I used to use daily while working with one of the agencies in London) but going to the other exit from the one I used when I was there last. I knew where I was going, but I hadn’t connected the two areas in my head – and it turned out that they were both ridiculously close, only I’d never realised. (It also turns out that CMH is also dead opposite the QE2 conference centre, where I attended one of the @Media conferences)
It also turns out that we walked back into Central London via St James’s Park, and went on a different route to the one I knew, so we also went through Horse Guard’s Parade, and past Downing Street without me knowing. Typical.
Anyway, as well as having a fantastic evening, it all meant I also got to add new bits to my map. Never a bad thing.
Posted: Mon 14 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Travel, Weirdness |
I don’t know why, but today already seems to be populated by car accidents
- In the village, a van has gone straight over/through one of the traffic-calming pieces of road furniture, ripping it apart and also tearing off the front axle. (I’d love to see the insurance claim on that one!)
- On the way to work, two roundabouts had vehicles pulled over into inside lanes, with people exchanging details
- A slide of my own on another roundabout while being followed by a police car – fortunately small and controllable, but enough to think “Oh shit!”. (I know I was going slightly too fast, but trying to get out the way of aforementioned police car while I had nowhere to go due to fuck-knuckle bastards not moving in the other lane)
- I did manage to destroy a low-flying slow-moving pigeon with my windscreen. Hell of a thump, no damage, and no way to avoid it, due to a Mercedes very close behind me.
So far I’m fine, and it’s just been stuff around me, but it’s still weird.
[Updated : with regard to #3 above, another colleague comes the same way and also saw someone slide slightly at the same place, so I’m now thinking more that there was something on the road at that point than that I was being a dick]
A few years back this little set would’ve convinced me that the world was out to kill me today. I’m a bit less paranoid about that kind of thing now, and more believe in “shit happens”, but all the same, I think I’m going to be driving quite carefully on the way home…
Posted: Tue 8 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Health, Travel, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Work-related |
With the job change, I’ve just regained about 2½ hours a day. My commute has gone from 45-50 minutes each way to 20-25, which gives me the best part of an hour straight away. However, I was getting to Cambridge 45-60 minutes early, and leaving 45 minutes late in order to avoid the really slow/shit traffic on the dire sections of road. So that’s another 90-105 mins regained too.
With that time, my primary aim is to get back into doing something healthier, the cycling, maybe some workout stuff as well. That’s the plan, anyway.
However, despite the new workplace being a lot closer, I’m not planning to aim (yet) for cycling to work and back. Even the shortest route is a ten-mile journey, and some of the roads are pretty dodgy. I might explore a bit, see how things, go, but for now that’s firmly in the “see what happens” side of the list.
When all’s said and done, I’m just glad to have the time back, alongside having a better contract that’s making me happier too. I don’t mind idiot commutes (as regular readers know anyway) when it’s a job I’m enjoying, and when I’m happier with how work is coming along. When it’s a shit job though, the crap commute just exacerbates everything, makes me even less happy, knowing that I’m wasting even more time, that the entire thing is just a faff, and one I can’t be arsed with. It also turns out that when I’m down about my work, it also has a lot of knock-on effects on other bits of my life, as well as my self-image/ego/whatever, which I plan to write more about for tomorrow.
Posted: Thu 3 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, People, Thoughts, Travel |
Over the last few days, the BBC website has had some really interesting pieces on Nationality, and people giving up one Nationality for another. What I’ve found really interesting has been the motivations for doing so – and how so many of them seem to be financial, of the country they’re no longer resident in making financial demands on ex-pats. America is particularly hot on this, apparently (<sarcasm>I know, hard to imagine America being fiscally tight.</sarcasm>)
Anyway, it’s made for interesting reading…
I’ve often thought about going to another country – I still don’t know if I will in the end or not, there’s a lot of rebuilding to be done yet, regardless – but it’s been interesting to see these knock-on effects that you don’t really think about all that much, and particularly about the ongoing demands of the country you’ve left.
Posted: Tue 27 August, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Business, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Public Transport, Travel, Work-related |
Today I start my new contract, over in Cambridge. The commute is kind of weird, I’m going in the opposite direction to last time I travelled that route.
As long-time readers of D4D know, I’m not averse to the odd idiot commute. This one is actually pretty sane in comparison, although I suspect I’ll have to spend some time finding the ideal route. There’s a couple of sections – primarily from St Neots to Caxton – that are vile, although honestly I suspect all the routes are much the same when it comes to heavy traffic.
As it is, I’ve gone from the 20 mile journey to Previous Place (well, Previous Long-Term Place) to a 40 mile journey to the new one, so my commute has doubled. Although, weirdly, it’s pretty much the exact same distance as the drive to the office of the short-term contract – just in the opposite direction.
Apparently for a lot of people a 40-mile journey to work is too much, but for me it’s nothing – it’s still less than half of what I was doing when I was living in Norfolk and Suffolk, and working in London. And it’s nowhere near my record commutes – although they were by train rather than driving – of Bath->London (115 miles each way, each day) and Manchester->London (200 miles each way, each day) although I will never do a journey/commute/contract like that again. It pretty much killed me when I did it fifteen years ago, I can’t see it would be any different now.
Still, in that context, a 40-mile journey is absolutely nothing. I’ll spend some time figuring out best routes, best times and the like, and settling into the new schedule. But really that’s all just part of a new contract for me.
I’ll write more about it once I’m more settled into the routine, and know more about what I’m actually doing.
Posted: Sun 25 August, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Public Transport, Travel |
While out in the car today, I heard the weekend’s local travel news.
Among other things, it appears that there are no trains at all running between Milton Keynes and London all weekend, due to “Planned Maintenance”. On a Bank Holiday weekend, with things like Notting Hill Carnival, Leeds and Reading festivals, and many other things. So yeah, let’s cancel (or at least disrupt) all the public transport to get there.
Even London Underground is prone to it…
I know that the thinking on this is all that the long weekend means that work can be done without needing to think about the penalties and reimbursements that need to be made to season-ticket holders (which is why none of the planned work takes place on weekdays) but it still sucks balls for those of us who want to visit London (or even just go through it) on a weekend.
