Reason To Travel

Posted: Sun 15 November, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Driving, Travel | 1 Comment »

A quick thanks to Yorkshire Soul, who has managed to write a post that gives me a reason to go to San Francisco.

That just looks like so much fun. (Although I don’t think it would be worth the flight just to do that, of course)

Travelling Month

Posted: Thu 12 November, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | 3 Comments »

This month is looking like it’s going to be a heavy one for mileage.

With the new job, I’m travelling roughly 70 miles a day, which works out as 350 miles a week before we’ve even started. So that’s 1,400 miles this month already.

In addition to that, November holds two trips to the NEC – one last weekend, one at the end of the month. That’s 140 miles each way, so another 560 added to the total.

Combine that with the normal weekend stuff, and it’s up over the 2,000 mile mark for the month.

I’m sure there’s other stuff I’ve forgotten too, so that’ll get added on when I remember it.

I don’t mind, to be honest – in many ways it’s just kind of a fact of life that I do a lot of driving. Hell, that’s why I ended up buying a sodding Ford Mondeo – the fact it’ll shrug off doing that kind of mileage without a hitch.

Away Day

Posted: Sun 8 November, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Driving, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

There’s not likely to be many updates today – we’re off to the NEC for Herself to visit a show there. Of course, it’ll have some interest for me as well (companies without websites, and all that malarkey) but the odds are that I’ll spend some time writing bits on the laptop, and/or reading a book.  Yes, I’m taking both, just so I’m prepared.

No idea what to expect, to be honest – it might be interesting, it might not. Either way, it’s a three-hour run each way. We’ll see.

All You Can Eat

Posted: Thu 29 October, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Business, Own Business, People, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | 1 Comment »

Seeing this story on the BBC about Taybarns (an all-you-can-eat restaurant whose business is growing during the recession) I was reminded about something I was going to write during my time down in London staying at a Travelodge, and again saw the other weekend when we stayed down in Berkshire. Buffet-style catering – and particularly buffet-style breakfasts.

Personally, I try to stay pretty sane in ‘all you can eat’ environments. From what I’ve seen at Travelodges and the like though, I seem to be in the minority in that aspect.

I lost count of the number of times I’d see people with plates piled high with food for breakfast and/or going back for second, third even (on one memorable occasion) fourth helpings. Obviously some people were just hungry, but others were doing it out of greed, and some kind of misplaced “Well I’ve paid for this so I’m going to get every single penny’s worth out of it” attitude.

I don’t understand that attitude – no, that’s not true. I can see the way some people’s minds work. I just don’t like it, and it’s not a mindset that will ever sit with me. I’d rather have the food I want, not necessarily what I feel I deserve, or that is mine because I’ve paid £x for it.

There’s more to this, I just haven’t yet got it straight enough in my head to be able to get it written down properly.

Body Scanning

Posted: Mon 19 October, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Media, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness | 2 Comments »

In another breakthrough for idiocy, I see that the ‘see through’ scanner being tested at Manchester Airport has raised a problem that no-one appears to have thought of before now.

This scanner goes through clothes, and shows what has been termed (incorrectly) an ‘X-ray image’, which is more of an MRI body-scan, as I understand it. What it does is show (in black/white ‘ghost’ form) an image of the naked body.

And lo, they’ve suddenly thought “Oh shit, what happens when young people go through the scanner? It means we can see underage bodies…” so they’ve now stopped doing the scans on all under-18s.

Absolute brilliance – in all the hype, not one person in the media (or in the project itself) has said “Hang on, what about this scenario?”.

Where Not To Stay

Posted: Sat 17 October, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Advertising, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Bah, HumbugLast week I got an email from Travelodge about a promotion they’re running.

Basically, it’s a heavily discounted rate on their rooms over the Festering Season, on limited rooms booked for stays between 29th November 2009 and 10th January 2010.

For myself, I’d hate to be in a Travelodge over the Festering Season. While they’re OK for an overnight stay – and even, to some degree or other, for staying in while working away from home – they’re still soul-less holes at best. And to spend time over the Festering Season in one of this sinkpits of despair would, I suspect, be more than I would want to bear.

Then again, I’m probably not the target customer for this kind of thing. I stay in Travelodges when I have to (like the recent contract in London) rather than for leisure/pleasure. Given the choice otherwise, I’d rather stay pretty much anywhere than going to a Travelodge.

Taking a Break

Posted: Fri 16 October, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Animals, D4D™, Domestic, Travel | Leave a comment »

Today, Herself and I are off down to Berkshire for the weekend. Partly it’s about seeing friends in the area, partly just for a weekend away from the world, and partly just because.

Hound is coming with us and will go off to stay with the people she used to see when we were down there, so she’ll be happy.

Psycho Cat will have the house to himself for the weekend (we’ve got one of the family to pop in for purposes of feeding/watering, and dealing with the chickens) so he’ll be as happy as he ever is – although he’ll also cop a strop when we get home, because we’ve brought Hound back with us.

The Girls won’t care one way or another, so long as they’re let out, fed, watered, get their eggs collected, and get put away at night.

So all told, everyone should be happy.

D4D™, on the other hand, might be a bit quiet. Depends how many things I get to write and set up for future publishing, really.

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