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Tuesday 26 January 2010

London to Ashford in a flash

Today I when from St. Panceras International station in London to Ashford in Kent on the new Javelin high speed train. It took just 38 minutes platform to platform and was very smooth & comfy indeed. That's how modern train travel should be.



It might not sound all that amazing, but believe me it is. If you compare the journey time with the regular service from Ashford to London Victoria, on a good day it saves you about an hour.

From where I live the train into London takes about an hour and it's far nearer than Ashford. Perhaps I should move to Kent!

Regards
Chris
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Friday 22 January 2010

11 Speed Cameras per mile on A13 in East London?

I found this article at pocketgpsworld.com. Yet more pain for the easily targeted road user.





Drivers of a 7.5-mile stretch of road in east London are bracing themselves for the installation of 84 average speed cameras. However, there is some good news for those in a hurry - when the cameras become operational next summer, the speed limit will be raised from 40mph to 50mph on a section of the route.

Situated between Canning Town and the Goresbrook interchange, the cameras will be spread out along multiple entrance and exit points of the A13.

Average speed cameras appear to be proving more acceptable to drivers than fixed speed cameras, but they still have their detractors. Speed camera zones that are introduced with a higher speed limit should go some way to bring many round.

It will be interesting to discover just how much of the A13 route's speed limit will in fact be increased. It will also be interesting how motorists gauge their average speed over two speed limits. Will there be zones within zones? Will more accidents be caused by speedo gazing?

Original article



Regards
Chris
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Wednesday 20 January 2010

AAARRGGHH!!!! I Hate Salesmen!!

Last night I had a phone call from a national home improvement company who did some work for us a few years ago. They regularly ring up trying to sell us something or other. Usually I'd just make a polite excuse and hangup. Yesterday however they caught me off guard with an "Existing Customer" discount. I was assured that the man, who was "currently in the area", would not be a salesman. That was my big mistake.

He arrived half an hour late, having driven 60 miles from 2 counties away, just before we were going to sit down for dinner. Mmm, not working round the corner then! I showed him what we wanted (new guttering & facias), so he could workout his price while we ate. I even told him the measurements. He sat there and waited instead.

After dinner he showed me sample, told me how good their finance deal was and even showed me a DVD of how the work is done. All very nice, but HOW MUCH?

"Just need to measure up" said he.

Then he kindly explained that he needed to call his boss to find out what my banding would be. I think he waited on the phone 15 mins. And the price? That'll be £5945. For 15 metres of gutting! You have got to be joking!

That's where the "Existing Customer" discount comes in. I'll give you a discount for this, that and the other. That brings the cost down to £3900. I informed him that that was also far too much and I never sign on the day as I wish to get other quotes first.

"I need to let my boss know that you won't sign and he can put your discount back in the pot for others to use". Whatever, said I. "I'll packup your gear while you do that then!".

His call went along the lines of , "Oh. I see. That's interesting. Really?". I half expected to be asked to speak to his boss. Fortunatly I wasn't. He hung up, scribbled something on his pad and told me that they had had "a poor night" and could offer me a one off, never to be repeated price of £2600. It was a bargain, apparently!

By this time he'd been with us for 2 hours to do something that would have taken a builder about 10 minutes. In fact, after I'd showed him the door, I made a call to a builder I know who, made a few calculations and said it should be under about £2000. That took him about 5 minutes. I should have called him first.

When will I learn not to let these people over my door step?

Regards
Chris
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Tuesday 19 January 2010

Free music for your iPhone

Although I must admit to not being a big fan of iTunes, I have discovered one redeeming feature. Pod Casts.

For those of you who are not familar with Pod Cast, they are audio download that are provided by various publishers. They can be on virtually any subjects from news to technical talks. But my particular favourites are the music mixes from Internet radio stations. I typed "Trance" into the search bar and WHOOSH!!!!

My iPhone is now full of fresh new tunes, of my favourite flavour, which course is free. 8-)

Regards
Chris
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Friday 15 January 2010

I kan't speel and neighther kan me iPhone

When blogging from my PC I always use a spell checker and get Mrs P to proof read my posts before inflecting them upon the world. Now I blog with my iPhone, often on the train, I've noticed how bad my spelling really is. My sexy little mobile device makes a good attempt at guess the words, but it just can't correct them all. Such is life I suppose. I'll just have to learn to spell or download a dictionary app.

Regards
Chris
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Is It Art?




These rather curious looking things are the hand basins at work. I was rather taken by their curious design. They do the job for which they were intended perfectly well, but do rather remind me of urinals or animal drinking troughs.

What do you think?

Regards
Chris
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Thursday 14 January 2010

I've Made The Paper 8-)

Last Wednesday I couldn't get to work due to the snow, so I met my Wife from work and spotted the Police fencing off the front of M&S in Queensway Crawley Town Centre. On closer inspection it appeared that a few of the coping stones on the roof had fallen off.

When I got home I emailed the photo and details to a local paper. This week they published this photo and here's the article.





Regards



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Wednesday 13 January 2010

More Lovely Snow

Just when I thought last weeks snow was showing signs of melting away, it snows some more. This when I'd just got used the walking on all that ice which still covers the pavements.

It wasn't too bad really as we only had about half an inch here in West Sussex. I hear it was far worse to the west of London.

Unlike last time it appears that few schools or trains are affected.

Fingers crossed that Juniors school bus arrives this morning. Yesterday it went AWOL, causing huge problems.

Enjoy the snow peeps 8-)

UPDATE

I spoke to soon. Juniors school is now not opening today. Another difficult day all round 8-(

I got to Croydon without drama and my colleagues managed to travel far further. What is it with teachers?

Did you know that the teachers get paid if they can't get in. The school kicthen staff don't and neither do Mrs P & I. Maybe that's the problem!!

Regards
Chris
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Posted from my iPhone

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Three Reported Missing After Animal Rights Activists Take "War on Leather" to Motorcycle Gang Rally.

I saw this news article in an email from Motorcycle News. It's a hoax, but I'm surprised that it hasn't yet happened in this mad world of ours. It's simply brillient 8-)

The full story is here,


Regards
Chris
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Posted from my iPhone

Sunday 10 January 2010

BlogPress for iPhone

I've spent the last week testing out various blogging apps on my iPhone. The one I've settled on is BlogPress.

I tried the free version "BlogPress Lite" which ticked all the boxes. It allows you to post blogs which contain photos direct from your iPhone, while also storing them to your Picasa account. I did need to set up a Picasa account, but because I was already a google user this was very easy. The free version will only work with Blogger & Blogspot blogs, but the paid one works with far more.

The feature that made me upgrade to the paid version is that it automatically posts a Twitter Tweet linking to my blog post. At last I've found a use for Twitter 8-)

Regards
Chris
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Posted from my iPhone

Saturday 9 January 2010

A Garden Visitor


I'm sure you'll all be glad to know that we didn't waste our time while snowed in on Wednesday 8-)

I must admit that my head is now a little cold as he's wearing my hat. But there really is no need for sympathy as I have a spare.

Regards
Chris
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Posted from my iPhone

Friday 8 January 2010

Have we turned soft down south?

On Tuesday evening it started to snow. By 6:30 Wednesday morning it was 4" deep and 2 hours later, 6" deep. This raised several questions for us at home.

1 - Would my son's school be open?

2 - Would I get a train to work?

3 - Who would look after Junior if his school was closed?

The first question was answered quite quickly by the local radio station. Question 2 looking like a definate no, which made the 3rd one easy to. It would be yours truly and Mrs P could walk to work. That wasn't a popular decision apparently, but a practical one none the less.

By Wednesday evening it was clear that Juniors school would be closed again on Thursday. This time Mrs P was to stay at home & I would try the train. To my surprise I had very little trouble getting to work and I even got a seat!!

Today (Friday) the school was still closed. Unable to get any child care, we decided to both go to work and trust Junior to stay at home on his own. After all he is now 13, he had everyone's phone numbers to hand and it was only for 4 hours. It all went very well and when I phoned him, he was sick of people checking up on him.

All this brings me to my main point.

Q- Are we so soft now that the powers that be won't let our little darlings into school because it's a bit slippery and they might fall over?

Q- Or are the schools worried that they'll get sued if one of their charges takes a tumble?

What kind of example is this setting for our youngsters? At this rate they'll grow up thinking it's ok to stay off work because it's a little nippy out!

Regards
Chris
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Posted from my iPhone

Wednesday 6 January 2010

London Fox in the Snow

I found this quite amazing photo on the LBC Website. I wish I'd taken it, but sadly not.

From the LBC Website

Our friends at Bread and Shutter Photography sent us this magnificent photo of a fox in the London snow.

Uploaded on 6 Jan 10


Regards
Chris
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Sent from my iPhone

Monday 4 January 2010

New Year, New Job

After a somewhat turbulent 2009, I am now looking forward to 2010 with renewed hope. The main reason for this positive outlook is that today I start a new job, having been made redundant from my old one in December.

That was a first for me, which makes me lucky I suppose. There are many others who are nowhere near as lucky. In fact I had secured a new position before I had even left.

Anyway, I'm now waffling.

Happy New Year to all in the blogging world.

Regards
Chris