A Day Not To Be Alone
I’m not moaning, but I don’t think today, is going to be a good day.
I quite like my own company, but on a day like this when it’s only 16°C, overcast and the sun is on strike, there isn’t much to do. You can only go round your favourite museums and galleries so many times and it’s not the day to explore parts of London, I don’t know well at all.
My son and his partner are both working and where my three grandchildren I never see are, I know not. Two I’ve never seen and I’ve not really seen the only granddaughter since the death of my son.
There isn’t even any decent football or cricket on the television. Although after cricket yesterday, I would probably give that a miss if it were on. I won’t be watching the Derby on the television, as it’s on Channel 4 and I don’t do adverts. I’ll probably go down the betting shop at the corner to watch the race, if I’m at home.
I’ve even done all my household chores, washed my smalls, tested my INR and had my weekly bath. The last is actually a lie, as I do bath more frequently than that!
We’ve also had a run of distinctly poor films over the last few weeks, so going to the cinema is probably not an option.
I’ve a choice of things to do for the rest of the day.
I can go and have lunch in Carluccio’s at the Angel and do a bit of food shopping for tomorrow. But I was there last night with a friend.
I will have to go and get a few things at the shops anyway. The most pressing is probably two boxes of man-sized tissues for my permanently running nose. At least, I’m probably down to a box a week now!
At least this evening, I can watch a program on BBC3 called England’s Worst Football Team. Now there’s a program for the lonely and miserable if ever there was one.
I could really put the cap on the weather, by giving up on one of my principles. I’ve never had a raincoat since I was about twenty or so. As I can afford it, I should perhaps go and buy one that I could wear over my favourite jacket. I can at least afford the best!
I think, it’s probably a good idea to do some cooking. I need to make a pie on the one to eat and one for the freezer basis. My only problem is to decide on the flavour to make. Should it be fish, fish, shepherd’s or sausage? Or perhaps a new variety!
Are Google Adverts Sometimes A Waste Of Time?
I buy a lot of things on-line.
Three companies I deal with this way are East Coast Trains, John Lewis and Southern Railway.
As when I want to go to any of these companies web site, I know where to look, surely displaying their embedded adverts in other web sites is a waste of time for me and that advert won’t get me to use their company, as I would anyway.
So they are just preaching to the converted!
Interestingly, I’ve only ever got train company adverts from companies that I use.
So how much of the money paid by companies to Google to promote companies and products is wasted?
Incidentally, I think, I’ve only ever bought one product because of an advert on a web page. I have though thought, that I won’t use that company or product because of their intrusive adverts.
But then i like to think I’m not susceptible to advertising. Or at least in the way that advertisers want me to be!
Belgians Give Up On Fyra
The Belgian government has pulled out of the Fyra project to run high speed trains between Brussels and Amsterdam. It’s reported here.
This sorry story has a lot of lessons for governments, who try to implement large projects.
Building railway lines and in particular high-speed lines is not difficult, except for the odd local political and environmental problems, as HS1 found in Kent and HS2 is now finding. But the actual line generally works well from an engineering perspective, with the possible exception of the Wenzhou crash in China, where signalling may have been at fault. None of the high speed train crashes in this country, were caused by engineering problems on new lines.
The main problems with Fyra are all about using new unproven trains. No sensible project manager would ever use unproven technology at the heart of a new project. You could argue, that Boeing used an unproven battery system on the Dreamliner. But look what happened there!
The other major problem with Fyra is that they discontinued the traditional services between towns like The Hague and Brussels, thus alienating a lot of their target market.
So when you do a large project, make sure that it fits the aspirations of your customers.
If we look at HS2 to Birmingham, the technology to be used to build the line will be very much proven, as hopefully will be the trains, which will probably be derived from something that is working well in the UK or Europe.
The line too, will be an addition to the current services between the two cities. This in itself removes a lot of risk from this line, as say there is a problem that cuts capacity on HS2, you don’t have only one basket for your eggs. I also believe the competition from such as Chiltern and Virgin trains and their successors, will make sure that HS2 is competitive and reliable. Those two services, will also act as valuable feeder services to HS2, as say you live in Banbury and want to go to Leeds, you’d hop to Moor Street station in Birmingham and then take HS2 to Leeds, when that section of the line is completed.
Crossrail And The Super Sewer
The two large tunneling projects in London at the moment are Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel or Super Sewer.
They both require long tunnels and will cost billions of pounds each.
But the public seem to have different attitudes to the two projects.
Nearly everybody seems to support Crossrail, whereas there is substantial opposition to the sewer.
I did ask a friend, if there had been any opposition to Crossrail and he said, there was a bit in the early days from places like Mayfair. People seemed to have been worried about dust and noise during the construction phase. But now everybody just gets on with life and hopes that Crossrail will be finished and walking and driving will get back to normal.
To be fair to Crossrail, they seem to have gone out of their way with green walls to minimise noise, using the river to carry tunnel spoil and being a good neighbour as at Stepney City Farm. They have also launched a well-funded and publicised archaeology program.
On the other hand, the Super Sewer, doesn’t seem to have done the same to allay the fears of a public, who don’t want all the problems of construction and the increase in water bills.
I do wonder, whether the difference is down to the fact that a new railway is something people can use and feel gives them tangible benefits, but a sewer, is something that they only use a few times every day and don’t want to think about. And it looks to me, that Thames Water have not done a good enough job to sell the benefits of the new sewer to the general public.
How To Recycle A Roof
This story on the BBC, tells how the old station roof at London Bridge station, is going to be given to the Vale of Rheidol railway in Wales to help build their new museum.
It wasn’t many years ago, when this structure would have been reduced to scrap, so Network Rail are to be congratulated. Hopefully, the new museum in Aberystwyth will bring tourists to the town and create some new businesses and jobs.
I think too, that this story illustrates how intelligent recycling might be slightly more expensive, but properly done, it can save lots of money elsewhere. The new museum in Wales is reported to be costing ten million, but how much more would it cost without the recycled roof.
How To Make A Big Hole In Solid Concrete
This video will be one of the most watched news stories tonight around the world and the Independent seems to have got there first.
The BBC are also running it this lunchtime in the local news.
A Message For nPower Customers
After my article on nPower’s cheaper tariff, that they hadn’t told me about, I’ve just had a phone call from a friend, who saw it and like me he saved a few hundred pounds by not switching suppliers, but by switching tariffs.
So if like my friend and myself, you get your energy from nPower, it might be worth checking with one of the comparison sites to see if you are getting the best deal. You may find a painless call to the company, will save you money, without changing energy suppliers and hopefully little hassle.
Comet Of The Century?
The BBC is showing a superb image of Comet Ison on its web site. They also make this comment.
It could be the “comet of the century” if it does not burn up entirely on the way.
Here’s hoping!
Chaos At Richmond
The reception was at Ham House and to get there the Transport for London journey planner, said go to Richmond Station and then get a 371 bus from stop E to Ham Street and walk.
Unfortunately, the finding of a 371 bus wasn’t easy, as south West Trains didn’t seem to have provided any of TfL’s useful bus spider maps at the station. So I couldn’t locate stop E. as I was early, I had a tea in the Carluccio’s by the station and the waitress told me that I got the bus to Ham House from outside the station.
So I got the 371 bus, when it turned up a few minutes later, at the temporary stop, which partly explained my problem. But I didn’t find a bus route map anywhere.
It is an area I don’t know well and it didn’t help that the information system on the bus wasn’t working. But I got there without delay.
Coming back, I was a bit worried about buses late at night, but the stop was covered by the SMS message system that tracks most of London’s buses and I got back home without further trouble.
Checking this morning, it would appear that the 371 actually starts now from stop D at Richmond, so TfL has got a touch of the misinformations.
How To Do Service
Yesterday, I went to Carluccio’s in Upper Street, Islington, as I needed a good lunch, as I was going to a reception in the evening, where I felt gluten-free food, would be non-existent.
Admittedly, I’m known well there,, as I go probably two or three times a week, but I was ushered quickly by the manager, to an out-of-the-way corner table, where I can sit and do my sudoku, without bothering anybody. He had the gluten-free menu at the ready too. Not that I need it these days, as I could probably repeat it by heart.
I do like saltimbocca and as they had a pork one on the specials menu, I asked if they could do a gluten-free one. The answer was yes and the waitress didn’t even check, as she said, they’d done one the day before for another customer.
But unfortunately, the pork saltimbocca had been popular, so she came back and asked, if I would like a chicken one. I said yes and this is the what I had for my lunch.
Carluccio’s Chicken Saltimbocca
It was very good and it kept me going all day, especially as the reception was gluten-free free.
I think I can draw a big conclusion from this incident and other experiences lately. In general, service and the provision of gluten-free food is getting better in restaurant chains, with possibly the exception of All Bar One.
The Anonymous Widower 