Are Pound Coins The New Threepenny Bits?
I know pound coins are worth eighty times more than the old brass threepenny bits, but they do have some of their qualities.
I was in Carluccio’s yesterday afternoon having tea and some polenta cake, and after I’d paid my bill early in cash, I found I had a pile of about half-a-dozen pound coins in front of me. I then started playing with them, by doing things like building stacks, just as I used to do the same thing with threepenny bits over forty years ago. After all, they are about the same weight and have the same clunky feel!
Ridiculous Ticketing
I went to the football at Ipswich today. at least the trains were running normally and after a late breakfast or was it an early lunch, I caught the 13:30 from Liverpool Street station. Before I’d left home I’d tried to buy the ticket I’d wanted which is an Off Peak Return from Harold Wood to Ipswich, but for some unknown reason the computer wouldn’t let me choose this ticket. Why Harold Wood incidentally, you may ask? The reason is that my Freedom Pass takes me that far and so I just need to buy the extra.
So I had to buy the ticket in the booking office at Liverpool Street station. Usually, they sell me an Off Peak Return from Harold Wood to Ipswich, but this time, they sold me back-to-back Off Peak Returns from the Zone 6 Boundary to Manningtree and from Manningtree to Ipswich. The cost was £18.25. Two weeks ago, I was sold one ticket for the journey from Harold Wood to Ipswich at £20.95. I questioned this with the clerk and he said this was the best deal.
On the train, just like I usually do, I upgraded to First Class at a cost of £7 each way. But this did give me pretty good free wi-fi and a soft drink or coffee if I wanted one.
My reason for calling it ridiculous is that if I want a First Class Off Peak Return ticket, why can’t I buy one in one go on the Internet? I know that my Freedom Pass only gives me Standard Class to the Zone 6 Boundary, but surely they could have two Senior First Class tickets, one for those with Senior Railcards and Freedom Passes and one for those without the Freedom Pass. Properly priced and thought through, it might actually be a big seller, as quite a few of those in their later years spend money on the better tickets.
As it is I bought the First Class Upgrade on the train and got yet another orange ticket. I was also issued with a Penalty Warning on the way up to Ipswich. According to the Inspector, this was Department of Transport rules, but I’ve never had one before.
Ridiculous Ticketing
I do wonder how much all this paperwork costs GreaterAnglia and their passengers in extra charges. But at least all of the staff I met, were extremely curteous and had my needs uppermost in their mind. And the clerk saved me £2.70.
The system would probably be easy to implement as everything is computerised.
If you are buying a ticket on the web, it would just be necessary to check a box to say you had a Freedom Pass.
If you’re buying at a Ticket Office, the clerk needs to see your Freedom Pass anyway to give you the right ticket. He would do the equivalent of checking the box.
The orange ticket would instead of having SNR have another code of perhaps SNR* to indicate it was only valid with a Senior Railcard and a Freedom Pass.
Santander: The Worst Bank?
This headline is in the Money pages of The Times.
I can’t judge them, as my only dealings with the bank are the occasional cash machine withdrawal and money sent to my account from people who have accounts there.
But they do fit my great friend’s David’s criteria of someone you don’t bank with! And that is they are not head-quartered in the UK. Or the last time, I looked Spain wasn’t part of the UK.
That doesn’t make them the worst, but it does mean, I’m never ever going to find out.
Call For The Dulux
We may have had a couple of near misses with asteroids lately, but I like the call from Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnett of Oxford University to use a giant tin of Dulux to make the asteroid white and thus make sunlight deflect it from the collision course.
Who needs Bruce Willis?
How Not To Do Your Dirty Washing
Of all the terrible stories today in the news, the abuse that went on in Ireland in the Magdalene Laundry system is one of the worst. It’s here in the Guardian.
We rightly condemn the systematic abuse of women by such as the Taliban , but why was this system allowed to flourish within my lifetime in Ireland?
But then the Roman Catholic church is not very sympathetic to the things that are taken for grated in civilised countries like contraception, gay rights, divorce and necessary abortion.
I suppose it won’t get any better, as the new Pope will probably be another decrepit individual with thoughts rooted firmly in the Dark Ages.
A Rum Deal
This article about the coat of arms for Deal is such a good example of how we all get involved in wasting money, because some self-serving organisation or quango, thinks it knows that’s best and doesn’t use common sense.
Obviously, the College of Arms doesn’t, as surely there’s only one Deal in the UK.
An Obvious Shortcut
I did chuckle, when I saw this sign outside of a pub.
An Obvious Shortcut
It’s funny, but Π for pie is rather obvious and simple, but I’ve never seen it used this way before.
Getting A Good E-Mail Address
If your name is rather a common one, with a surname like Smith or Jones say and a first name of perhaps James or Susan, you will have difficulty getting a good e-mail address.
My name is not unusual, but by putting the last three characters of my post code after my name, I was able to get a Gmail address without trouble.
As the Post code of 10, Downing Street ends in 2AA, I suspect DavidCameron2AA would be available to the Prime Minister, who is probably not the only David Cameron in the world.
A Walk In Mile End Park
Yesterday, I went to Leon in Canary Wharf for one of their excellent breakfasts and came back on a 277 bus, where I got off in Mile End Park for a walk.
The park was refurbished as a millennium project and is well laid out between the canal and the road that runs north from Docklands to Victoria Park.
It is very much worth visiting for a walk. Especially for anyone, who lives like I do by the 277 bus route.
It would also be possible to start at the southern end and then switch to the Regent’s Canal at the northern end of the park.
The Anonymous Widower 