Am I Pedantic?
There is an old joke about surgeons operating on electrical engineers, saying they like doing it as everything is colour-coded. I did find a version of the joke here.
Five surgeons were taking a coffee break and were discussing their work.
The first said, “I think accountants are the easiest to operate on. You open them up and everything inside is numbered.”
The second said, “I think librarians are the easiest to operate on. You open them up and everything inside is in alphabetical order.”
The third said, “I like to operate on electricians. You open them up and everything inside is color-coded.”
The fourth one said, “I like to operate on lawyers. They’re heartless, spineless and gutless.”
The fifth surgeon says “I like engineers . They always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end.”
I sometimes can be very disorganised, but I’m also very pedantic. This morning, after sorting my washing, I had two socks left over; one blue and one red.
Two Odd Socks
I’d obviously put one red and one blue together whilst sorting them out.
I must be one of the only people I know, who would sort through the sock balls to find the other odd pair.
Luckily, they were only the third pair I checked.
So now I can sleep soundly, knowing that I don’t have two pairs of odd socks in the drawer.
Junction Road And Tufnell Park Stations
When there is speculation about new stations on London’s railways, the possibility of a new Junction Road station on the Gospel Oak to Barking line, linked to Tufnell Park tube station by escalator sometimes crops up.
This map shows the area.
Tufnell Park
Tufnell Park tube station is indicated at the bottom and Junction Road leads up from that station to the top right. The Gospel Oak to Barking line runs across the image to the top right corner at a thirty degree angle to the horizontal. The old Junction Road station was where the road and railway cross. Only Station Road survives.
What is interesting is to follow the railway under Dartmouth Park Road towards the top left and you can see some cars parked. This is a school, that has been built over some of the tracks of the railway.
If Junction Road station was to be reinstated, it is not that close to Tufnell Park tube station, so some heroic engineering would probably have to be employed to connect them.
But a better idea for the area must be being considered by Transport for London and property developers! After all, just as the school was created on the west side of Dartmouth Park Road, surely a similar method could be used to build something else over the railway. This map shows the area to a bigger scale.
Junction Road Station
If this should lead to a rebuilt Junction Road station, then this will be a bonus for everybody in the area and a good selling point for the developers.
I have since taken a few pictures of the area.
It’s quite a large area and it does seem to my engineering rather than property development brain, that it could be developed to either create housing or perhaps a school. A reinstated Junction Road station is probably not feasible as it is quite a walk to Tufnell Park tube station, which means crossing a busy road.
Note in the picture the actual junction, where the connection to the Midland Main Line, diverts from the Gospel Oak to Barking Line. This would be used if the line is extended to Hounslow.
The question has to be asked that if the line is extended, would the Gospel Oak to Barking Line still terminate at Gospel Oak station?
I’d Like A Muse
As Christmas arrives and it will be my seventh since the death of my wife; C.
It’s obviously impossible to want her back in the same way that some divorcees want a sanitised version of their previous partner, without perhaps the violence, gambling, drinking or leaving the toilet seat up.
But I got to thinking about what I actually want and in some ways I think I’d like a muse in the way that many artists, writers and thinkers did in the past and probably do now.
C and I both had our own areas of work, but there was also a grey area, where I suggested things she might do to make perhaps a difficult case less stressful and she would criticise some of my wilder ideas, designs or flights of fantasy.
It was fun and we enjoyed life to the full. I look at the things I used to do with her that I rarely do now, as I don’t like doing them alone.A list includes going horse racing, to the theatre and I don’t go to the films as often as I used to. As to trying out good restaurants, I don’t really bother unless I’m travelling. A good meal always needs good company to make it worthwhile.
I also love going shopping with a woman, where we choose clothes for each other. I haven’t done that for some years.
What I don’t need is a cook or skivvy!
If C was my muse, then I like to think I was her consort!
Peer-To-Peer Energy
This report from the UK Solar Power Portal makes some good points.
I can envisage a time, when the solar panels on my roof, feed into a system, that gets me the best price and this is delivered at a best price to those that need it.
As a control engineer, I know it’ll probably be totally automatic and the price will be a balance that is the best for micro-generators and consumers. Just as with peer-to-peer lending, the only losers will be the big companies. Except for banks, you will read energy companies.
Pakistan’s Response To The Terrorism
According to this report on the BBC, the Pakistan government is ending its suspension of the death penalty.
He also announced an end to the moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism cases, which correspondents say is a move aimed at countering a view held by many Pakistanis that many terror suspects end up evading justice.
No wonder the Taliban just gets worse and worse.
I have got so fed up with all the problems in the Middle East and Pakistan, I now rarely use any shop or business that is owned by people from the area, who are obviously Muslims.
As the Qataris seem to be one of the funders of Islamic State, I also steer clear of anything they own if I can.
I’m beginning to feel very sorry for the average hard-working Muslims, who will feel the backlash of the nihilists in the Middle East.
I must say, I’m glad to see the old price going South, as it’s hurting some of the most odious people in the World. But sadly they’ll just have to not buy the sixth Bentley or Lamborghini.
I Have Issues With My Electrical Goods
Or should I say my washing machine and television?
Yesterday, I decided to wash a few towels. But in walking to the Bosch machine in my garage, one escaped my grip and after switching the machine on, on return I noticed the errant towel on the floor. So I went back to the machine with the idea of pausing it, so I could add the towel to the load. But this machine has no simple pause, so I could add to the load, unlike the old top-loading Hotpoint machines, we used for about thirty years. So now I will have to run another wash, just to get just one towel clean.
How eco-friendly is that?
And then there’s my really annoying Samsung television!
When I switch the Sony in my bedroom back on, it remembers where it was last time and connects to the last channel. As generally, I only watch or listen to two channels; BBC 1 and Radio 5 Live, it’s then a simple matter of keying in 1 or 705.
But not so my Samsung. On startup it insists of giving me a choice of umpteen useless channels I never watch and I have to press another button to get the last channel I watched.
That is just one button too many!
During the day, this is particularly annoying, as I generally have Radio 5 on in the background and when I come in, I usually want to get the latest news or sport.
It is also extremely verbose, when I use the on-board BBC iPlayer, as I have to scroll through endless features, I never use.
If I had designed this interface, all of those other features like players for ITV and Channel4, would be buried under a More button, until the television had discovered my pattern of usage. As the BBC iPlayer is the only thing in this area that I use, why isn’t the television adjusting its choices to my behaviour.
The television also has the annoying habit of switching itself off, when it deems I’ve watched too much television. As it’s probably been on silent and Radio 5 for a lot of that time, does it matter?
I suspect the idiot, who designed it, is as stupid as the television itself.
I’ve just heard that there is a new kettle coming out, that requires you to key-in a four-character code before you can boil the water. Apparently, there’s a new EU safety rule coming in.
There’s also the clock, that requires that it be adjusted to the correct time, at least once a day.
Why can’t we have simple design?
Trying Out The Bath
I thought some people would like to see a picture of my toes in the bath.
Trying Out The Bath
The only problem so far, is when it starts, you get a few jets of cold water, that has been in the pipes, since you last used the bath.
Our New Police Patrol
I heard the unmistakable clip-clop and by the time I’d got my camera, they were walking sedately into the distance.
Our New Police Patrol
I’ve not seen them patrolling here before, but an ex-policeman I used to know years ago, said that horses are not a bad way to show yourself and have a look into residential areas. I know myself, that the view from a horse as you walk around, is times better than the one you get from a car.
I suspect though today, as it was a Sunday morning, it was more about giving the horses a stretch and some exercise.
As I didn’t take a good look, I got to wondering where the horses came from. I found this article from Spitalfields Life, describing the stables of the City of London Police at Wood Street, just South of the Barbican. I would suspect, that they could have come from there, as the distance would be a very suitable walk for a working horse.
What Idiot Designed This Obstable Course?
I came across this awful set of street design, as I walked across Manchester.
It’s one of the most elderly and disabled-unfriendly pieces of street design I’ve seen in recent months. If I found out who designed it, I will send him a strong and alnost abusive letter, giving him a large piece of my mind.
Is Nigel Farage Like Joan Rivers?
Having seen and read a lot about Nigel Farage, I sometimes think that what he says is not unlike things said by Joan Rivers.
But there’s a big difference! Joan Rivers based a lot of what she said on things that most of us think, but she was not expecting to be taken seriously, except as a comedian. Nigel Farage on the other hand, although he bases his statements in a similar way to Joan Rivers, very much expects to be taken seriously.
I didn’t watch Farage’s performance on Question Time and his confrontation with Russell Brand, but the reports I’ve read, reinforce my conviction, that Farage’s policies are not for me.
I hope that in a few years time, we’ll all be able to look back on Nigel Farage and his politics as a hiccup in history.
If he makes us think the unthinkable in sorting out our serious problems, like obesity, poverty, pollution, smoking, health, illegal drugs climate change, child protection etc., the hiccup will have been a good thing.
A lot of the old ideas have failed, so we’ve got to consign them to history and move forward.
The Anonymous Widower 