Along the Cambridge Busway
Where I was going was just a short walk from a stop on the new Cambridge Busway, but because I couldn’t find anybody who knew the rules about the busway, I decided to go to my meeting in a taxi. I did however take the busway back to Cambridge City centre on the way back to the station and took these pictures.
The bus was quite smart with leather seats and wi-fi.
But the busway has a lot of design faults.
- There is no information on the busway at the station.
- It would be logical if all buses went via the main bus station at Dummer Street and the rail station. I assumed this. When I found myself dumped in the centre, I decided to have lunch and then had to queue up for another bus for the station. I’d have preferred to go straight to the station.
- There is no timing on the bus maps, so you have no idea when you might want to ask someone to pick you up.
- The bus displays at the stops, don’t say whether they go to the rail station. They don’t list the intermediate stops too, as trains do.
- As they are new modern buses, why can’t they announce the stops like all London ones do?
- The bus map is poor and lacks detail. It does have a text system to find the next bus, but you have to type in 8 letters. How come London can handle all of the metropolis with just 5 digits! Perhaps people in Cambridge like to have their fingers tested, whereas those in London can only manage 5 digits!
It all smacks of a design that wasn’t put together by the best designer. It is attention to detail, that makes tranportation systems good. London and Sheffield have informastion systems that are so much better.
A Smart New Train
I went to Cambridge on Tuesday in this smart new Class 379 train, built by Bombardier.
Note the powerpoints for mobile devices like iPhones.
Sadly, I only got a refurbished Class 317 on the way back and I couldn’t face forward as that irritated my back, which the 379 didn’t!
On the 31st I’m going to Ipswich for the football and now, I’ll take a train to Cambridge early, have a late gluten-free lunch in the City before taking a train to Ipswich. I’ll come home direct.
A Dangerous Van?
I saw this van parked in the City
A Dangerous Van?
But it did catch my eye, which is the purpose the paint job.
Dami Killers Should Have Been Hanged
This was front page headline in the Evening Standard and it is the words of Damilola Taylor’s father Richard on the release of the two Preddie brothers who killed his son. Read the story of the case here.
I of course don’t agree, especially as the brothers were just 12 and 13 when they killed his son. They actually got eight years youth custody for manslaughter.
I know what it is like to lose a son, but I can’t help feeling that the Death of Damilola Taylor was avoidable, if the various agencies and parents on both sides had taken more care and stood by their responsibilities.
But what I object to, is that newspapers are increasingly going on that the death penalty is the solution to the problems of violence and knife crime. But we all know sensationalism sells newspapers.
One point we should always remember, is that the Taylor family relocated to the UK to get treatment for Damilola’s elder sister’s epilepsy. Surely with all it’s wealth Nigeria could do more to look after the people rather than descending into endless criminality and religious violence.
Do We Really Need More Subways?
It has been announced today, that Subway is to open a large number of new outlets and create a lot of jobs.
The jobs are welcome, but do we really need all these sandwich shops selling obesity?
As a coeliac the answer is an overwhelming no, as they have no gluten-free products. But then we’re all going to pick up the bill for the obesity through the NHS.
One of the biggest problems too is that they might create a lot of jobs, but how many small places will be put out of business, thus adding to the jobless pile.
We should tax all fast food shops on the calories of the average order.
That would fix them! Hopefully, by restructuring the product ine.
I particular hate Subway for two other reasons; they are always throwing junk mail through my letter box, despite a prohibition notice and lots of pavements are blocked by their salesmen handing out flyers.
Do we really want to import the United States’s worst export; obesity?
London Hospitals Write Off Millions
According to this report from the BBC, the NHS in London is owed £26m by those who because they are not British or EU citizens, don’t get free healthcare. Of this a large proportion has been written off.
This is not a new phenomenon.
When my mother-in-law had her new heart valve fitted in Barts in the early 1970s, some of the patients there could be be described as health tourists from the USA. They needed a new heart valve and had come to the UK, where they then got admitted to the hospital through A & E.
I guess the system is still the same.
Harry ‘Forgot Secret Monaco Account’
This was the headline on the front of last night’s Evening Standard and it refers to a claim by Harry Redknapp at his trial for tax evasion.
I have a simple question. If he couldn’t remember this, what hope has he got of remembering how one of the players he is interested in buying has played?
So why would anybody bother to employ him?
Babies At The Olympics
There was a right-old cat-fight on BBC Breakfast, this morning about whether babies should be allowed in free with their mothers at the Olympics.
I can understand the problem, as what do you do, if you’ve bought tickets and your baby has now arrived.
I am a season ticket holder at Ipswich and I’ve never seen a baby near where I sit at Home matches. There are a few ladies of child-bearing age around where I sit, and I can remember a few youngsters of about five coming in and being a bit bored. But babies no, as I suppose if you have one, you leave it at home. Which in Ipswich’s case is probably less than an hour away or so, as most season ticket holders are probably fairly local.
But when it comes to away matches it is rather different. I’ve seen several, often dressed in an Ipswich baby suit. No-one has been bothered, but then although Ipswich usually take a fair number of supporters, there is often quite a few spare seats, so the stewards don’t mind if an extra one is used for a bag with all the baby things. The local effect probably comes into play too, as you might be an Ipswich fan living in say Bristol and this is your one chance to see the team every season.
I should also say, I’ve never seen a baby behaving as to annoy anybody, but then football is a game of two forty-five minute halves with plenty of time before, in the middle and at the end to attend to the baby.
You could also argue it’s good for the baby, as they get used to being in a crowd.
Remember, too, I’ve been to a lot of horse-race meetings. Babies are generally welcomed and all children under 16 are let in free. However, this may not apply to the biggest of meetings like the Derby, although when I went this year, there were a few prams about in the cheaper enclosure I was in.
But the Olympics will be different, as some events like the athletics are quite long and you wouldn’t want to inflict that on a baby and the people around you.
On a personal note, I would prefer to sit next to a woman with a baby, than say someone eating popcorn or a burger, as I can’t abide the smell of either.
Or they could take a leaf out of horse racing’s book and have a free creche.
Magnetic Soap
You might say so-what as there have been magnetic soap holders for years.
But Bristol University have come up with something special, if it can be used to say clean up oil spills or waste water.
There’s a more technical explanation here in The Engineer.
Could it be that the next ten years will be decade of chemistry, as micro-electronics have ruled for too long? I have also heard that some of the new techniques used in chemistry owe a lot to chip fabrication methods. After all you could argue that a lot of chips are just a three-dimensional array of atoms.
The University Doctor Smellie
The GP at Liverpool University in C’s and my time there was a Doctor Smellie. He was one of the better GPs I’ve had and I’ve been lucky to have at least two good ones.
When C became pregnant with our first child, she went to see him and he suggested she have a home birth. Not something that she was thinking of and she wnt to Oxford Street Maternity Hospital instead.
If you research the name Smellie amongst doctors you’ll find an interesting history, including a William Smellie, who is sometimes called the father of British midwifery. So perhaps the good Dr. Smellie was just wanting to follow the family tradition.
The Anonymous Widower 