Contractual

Posted: Thu 13 August, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Own Business, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

So yes, as I alluded earlier in the week, I’ve got a new contract starting a week on Monday.

It’s not a long-term one for the moment, and is currently “just” for a month, but will be based in London, so I’m going to be going back to my old ways of leaving on Monday and coming home on Friday.

I *could* go down by train every day, but I’d be homicidal by about Wednesday. In addition, bizarrely it’s cheaper to stay down near the office in London than it is to get peak-time train tickets on a daily basis. It’s £78 for staying down there, vs. £91 for a train return – and the loss of (at least) four hours, assuming the trains are all on time. (We will only briefly touch on the fact that the trains would also be packed like the Black Hole of Calcutta)  Travelling off-peak is cheaper by far, but would mean being home even later, and not getting into the office on any day until at least 10.45 or so, which is kind of frowned-upon.

Driving down would most likely drive me crackers too – the office is South of The River, so I’d likely be looking at at least 2.5 hours each way, plus fuel and [swearwords] Congestion Charge.

Which means that staying down there is actually the best (or at least the most sensible/fiscally responsible) option. Herself’s not so sure of that, for obvious reasons.

So I’ll be down in London for a month during the week. We’ll see how things go from there.

D4D™ will of course continue to be updated – although I’m not sure yet whether I’ll be able to do so during office hours, I’ll have plenty of time in the evenings, I’m sure.

Locational Errors

Posted: Tue 11 August, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Creativity, Own Business, Travel, Web Development, Work-related | 4 Comments »

Checking out some information about the location I’m going to be based in over the next month or so (from a week on Monday) I had a look at the dreaded Tesco website to see what stores are close to the places I’ll be working/staying.  (And in this case, the answer is pretty much “fuck all”) I’ve also looked at the locations for other supermarket-type places, and will obviously wander around the area a bit too, see what’s around that isn’t easily web-findable.

Anyway, while looking at the map on the Tesco site, I noticed this…

I think they haven't checked the work on placenames

I think they haven't checked the work on placenames

Yep, there’s notation for “Waterloo Strain Station”…

NOTE : You can find the same thing by typing “SE1” into the store locator.

Electric vs. Diesel

Posted: Thu 23 July, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts, Travel | 2 Comments »

I have to say that attempting to justify electrifying the main train line between London and South Wales as “cutting the running cost and environmental impact of train services” really is utter, utter bollocks.

Now OK, I’m not an engineer, nor am I a train person in particular, so I don’t know the exact correlation of energy usage/efficiency between a diesel train and an electric one. And maybe the electric trains themselves are more energy-efficient than the diesel-powered ones. Fine.

But when you look at the bigger picture, that’s one fuck of a lot of electricity being chucked down the trainline. And that electricity has to be generated somewhere – which is still generating CO2 (unless it’s a nuclear power station, of course) and thus still having an effect.

So far as I can see, when you look at the entire thing, at least a diesel-powered train is using the energy it creates purely to power the train on demand. The electric line is (to my knowledge) powered constantly, rather than just “on demand”, which simply has to be more of a drain/waste, unless I’m completely mistaken.

This is the future. It’s greener, it’s cleaner, it’s faster, it’s more reliable. It’s making the railways fit for the 21st Century and encouraging more passengers to use the railways”

Aye, right. A £1billion project that’s not greener or cleaner. And I’d be more encouraged to use the railways if the services were a) on-time, b) organised and c) not utterly fucking extortionate.

Ouchy

Posted: Mon 20 July, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Driving, News, Thoughts, Travel | Leave a comment »

Well, it’s nice to see that the UK isn’t the only place for interesting road crashes etc. – I think this 259-car pile-up in Germany is a pretty impressive achievement.

Amazingly, no-one died in the accident, although 10 are apparently in a serious or critical condition in hospital. Even so, ten out of what? At least 259 people – which goes quite a way to showing how much safer cars are now than they used to be.

Big Mileage – Part Two

Posted: Wed 15 July, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | 1 Comment »

So, yesterday’s drive to Brighton and back went fine. There were a couple of ropy sections of the M25, as usual, but other than that it went well.

It took me three hours dead to get down there, and then another half hour just to find somewhere to park. How is it that the manufacturers of sat-navs still can’t add the facility to find the nearest car-park to your destination?

Still, the interview went OK – should find out today, all things being well.

And today I’ve got a meeting at home with a new website client, and then back on the road, down to London and the O2 to see Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction there, which I’m really looking forward to.

Big Drive

Posted: Tue 14 July, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Driving, Own Business, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Today’s another day with a big drive involved – this time it’s for a contract down in Brighton, of all places.

So it means a trip of roughly 160 miles each way on this occasion – all told, it’ll be about seven hours driving, and that’s assuming that traffic doesn’t turn to shit at some point in that drive. Which, in the case of the M25 is quite an assumption, needless to say.

If I get the job, it’s a bit of an easier drive, because I’ll be going down on the Monday and coming back on the Friday, rather than doing the entire thrash in one day.

All the same, it means there won’t be any other updates here today. Them’s the breaks.

Road Widening

Posted: Wed 8 July, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts, Travel | 4 Comments »

Oh Good, just to make life even more fun, the M25 is going to be buggered until at least 2012. Not only will it be getting widened between Junctions 16 (the M40) and 23 (The A1M), but there’s also going to be similar work going on round the other side, from the M11 to the Dartford River Crossing.

I know, it’s hardly a shock to the system to know that there’s going to be even more congestion on the M25, but widening it by only one carriageway isn’t going to do a damn thing – well, not until Peak Oil kicks in, anyway. By the time the work is completed, I’ll pretty much guarantee you that it’ll go straight to being solid traffic jams again – just on four lanes instead of three.

What I don’t understand is why the planners for these projects (or the people at the start, when the M25 was originally being created) don’t just say “Oh fuck it, let’s actually think ahead for once, and make it six lanes in each direction, to cater for future demand.” Do the whole job at once, no need for further sodding about.

I’m sure there’s a good reason (rather than just that the planners are fuckwits) but it’s beyond me right now.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →