Another Gulf Oil Rig Blows Up
This time it does not appear to have been as large or tragic, than the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, but it did blow thirteen workers into the water.
There doesn’t appear to be any leaks as yet and the risk should be lower, as the well is in shallower water and supposely wasn’t producing any oil or gas.
But it does illustrate the problems of offshore drilling.
The Taxi Problem
For some reason in this country outside of big cities, like London, Edinburgh, Liverpool and others, taxis don’t seem to work very well.
Take where I am now and there are no local taxis, so you have to get one from either Cambridge, Newmarket or Bury St. Edmunds, which makes transport for people like me difficult. I can’t always book and this results in the sort of situation last Saturday in Bury St. Edmunds, where I couldn’t find one and had a very long walk in cold weather, which is probably not to be advised.
last night, I had to get back from Whittlesford and because I wasn’t sure about what would be happening, I hadn’t firmed it up with my usual driver at Sawston Taxis. He did know that I might be coming and I knew that he had a trip to London City Airport in the early evening. So after a couple of texts, he told me that he’d be at the station, but not before 7:30. So I took a train to arrive there about that time and texted him to say I wouldn’t mind waiting a bit. In the end, he was waiting for me as I arrived and it all worked out without pain. In fact, another of his regular clients had also contacted the taxi driver by text and he did a double trip.
The taxi driver used to be an AA repairman and they had a system, that automatically located the nearest guy and sent him to the breakdown.
So the technology is there with GPS, text messaging and computers to organise what we have now a lot better.
Perhaps, what is needed is a UK-wide number for taxis, which gets the nearest professional one to where you want to go. Surely, in this day and age something better can be done rather than what we have now. Unless, you pre-plan it and use someone you trust, you now have to take pot-luck and perhaps end up with a rather tatty one from the rank at the station or phone and say there is no taxi available.
A good system would also allow shared taxis. So say if four people were coming off a particular train, then they would be allocated to a sensible number of cabs in a monetarily and environmentally efficient way.
I’d be interesting to know whether other countries organise things better, so that you have a good value service. A good system, should lower the cost for passengers, but also get a lot more business for the drivers.
A Letter and a Question in The Times
A letter in The Times today asked what is the etiquette about using a mobile phone on a horse and whether it is legal or not.
To me it’s rather stupid unless of course, you have effectively parked your horse quietly at the side of the road. Riding needs both hands a lot of the time to have proper control of the horse, so one outcome of using a phone on a horse, is that you might drop the phone. I’ve never phoned from a horse, but I did try using a camera in Kenya and it wasn’t too successful.
So using a phone, might well cause you to have to dismount, which in any case is not a good idea on a public road. Your phone may also not survive the drop in one piece!
On the question of emergencies whilst on a horse, one thing that is greatly to be desired for a man, is a widdle-proof horse. I can remember a kennel-huntsman, who spent hours with a Fairy Liquid bottle getting the Master’s horse used to water passing by his ears. The Master later said he would never buy another horse off a woman.
I had that Black Stig in My Kitchen!
The original Black Stig, Perry McCarthy, once came to see me about a business venture, I was involved with. He was a likeable guy, talked a lot of sense and I regret slightly that we didn’t meet again. I wish him well in whatever he is doing now.
I can still see him standing in my kitchen by the fridge and every time I get milk out with someone else standing in the same place, I have a little smile.
The Anonymous Widower 