The £1,000,000 Junction
I like this. It gives motorists more of their favourite pastime to enjoy; moaning about the cost of motoring.
Sunday Parking Protests
There seems to be a lot of protests about charging for parking in Westminster on Sundays.
Why not? After all quite a few UK cities charge.
Anyway, one of the reasons people buy a car seems to be so that they can moan about fuel prices, parking charges, Congestion Charges, insurance and tax. I don’t have to worry about any of these things now!
According to the AA, if I had a £20,000 diesel car doing 10,000 miles a year that would cost me £6081 or thereabouts. In addition, if I invested the money on Zopa at six percent, that would give me another £1200. That gives me £140 a week to spend on black cabs and trains to take me outside of London.
Who’d Be A Banker?
According to the Telegraph, there are going to be a lot more job losses in the banking industry.
My old friend, David, ‘s judgement gets better. If he was still here now, he’d be surprised that it hadn’t happened earlier.
Top Gear on the New Lamborghini
Don’t shout it, but they felt it was rather boring.
Years ago we had a Porsche 911. At the time I tried out one of the new 911 Turbos. That was so good it was boring.
In those days Porsche 911 Turbos only had four gears, as Porsche decreed the engine was so good, it didn’t need the fifth one.
Unfortunatelty marketing takes precedence over engineering!
Cambridge Busway Gets Smart
From the day it opens, the Cambridge Busway will have its own smartcard.
It was inevitable, as having two separate operators with their own systems was idiotic, as I pointed out months ago.
Let’s hope Cambridge integrates the busway into the new universal ticketing proposed by the banks.
Kitler Finds a New Home
Enough said!
A Use for a Cheque
I got a cheque today to settle my problem with National Express East Anglia. I’m not a lover of cheques, but this must be one use for them, as they didn’t have my bank details and probably the credit card details weren’t stored either, as it was a transaction in a station.
Incidentally john Lewis give out gift vouchers for small payments and another rail company gave me compensation for a late train in a Rail Travel Voucher. For me neither is a problem, as I go to Waitrose a couple of times a week and I suspect that the Rail Voucher will be used on a trip to see Ipswich Town.
I wonder how long before Universal Gift Vouchers or something similar become commonplace. These would be bar coded and possibly issued to a particular person, very much like the vouchers I buy for The Times. I think some companies already use M & S vouchers in this way.
When I paid the cheque into my account at a branch of Nationwide in Upper Street, the counter was empty, and I joked with the cashier about writing few cheques these days. He agreed that he didn’t either and judging by his expression, he’d done little business that day. Admittedly, it was lunchtime, but all this seems to say that counter service will soon be gone.
We just need to replace the cheque.
Using People to Heat Buildings
I like this story on the BBC web site.
I think I read somewhere that a person gives out about the same heat as a one bar electric fire.
We rarely collect it to make sure buildings are warm enough. But that amount of heat does explain why the Underground gets hot.
The Dragons Can’t Cook!
Or is it most likely won’t?
I watched them last night, when they rejected a lady who had developed a product called a Gloven.
It’s exactly what I need, to get round the problems of my gammy left hand, which responds badly to hot and cold.
I have a feeling that this is a product that will be a success, as it has so many niches, that haven’t been identified yet!
The Anonymous Widower 