Only just realised you can take some spectacular pics with the panorama function on the phone. The first is a bog std panorama of the departures board at Victoria station. Uses landscape format panned sideways. No particular surprises apart from the occasional train leaving on time.
The next photos were taken in the vicinity of Victoria but using a landscape format in a vertical panorama. Allows you to take much bigger canvases.
This is what a std panorama looks like of that scene (ish).
Scene around Victoria Railway Station in Laandan. Have these people not heard of Google Hangout or Lync or Skype or any number of other collaboration & voip services?
It can’t be that necessary for them to be in the office. Wtf? Lol! This isn’t a one off scene. It’s like this every time I go there for ITSPA council meetings.
Ok London has a great after work social scene but you can’t do that every day. It’s too expensive & takes its toll on the body. Would be easier to work from home and pop in occasionally to catch up with colleagues and go for that lemonade.
On the train on the way home the commuters all look tired and miserable. Most of them are heading for Peterborough. None of them take a drink off the trolley. Let’s say a coffee is £2. That would be £10 a week or knocking on £500 a year you would have to add to the cost of your rail season ticket. A lot more if a gin and tonic is what you need. That’s why they don’t do it. I imagine.
Unified Communications or whatever it’s called these days is the answer. You probably already use it. Just use it a bit more.
Other posts relating to commuting:
Ideas at the weekend – wear odd socks
Train wifi congested but 4G fine
Came across this in the Parcel Yard pub in Kings Cross Station. I liked it so took a photo.
When you look at it you can almost imagine the steam trains chuffing by, whistle blowing, engine driver leaning out of his window with blue overalls, cap and red neckerchief.
Keep away from the line. Kids! It’s bloody dangerous.
The fine for being caught is forty shillings. Takes me back. Strange to admit I was around pre-decimalisation. My pocket money was 3d which as I recall bought me a Beano and a sweet or two. It went farthing, ha’penny, penny, 3d, groat, sixpenny, shilling, two bob and two and six. As far as I can remember. Correct me if I’m wrong or have missed one out.
It’s ok to take a nostalgic trip but reality is we are massively better off where we are now. It was a nightmare trying to learn adding up in old money.
Winding the clock forward to now my Bitcoin is worth £277. I paid £292 for it a few weeks back. It’s been up and down over the weeks. V volatile but it’s an experiment. Image below shows fluctuations over the past 12 months. No Bitcoin exchange UK mind.
I’m not sure we are going to be better off with Bitcoin. They don’t take it as payment in the Parcel Yard yet and it won’t get me a Beano. Afaik. Cheers…
In a moment of bonding with Kid4 we decided to watch some TV together. Unfortunately there was absolutely nowt on the box. We settled on a programme called Parking Mad.
This has to be extreme desperation in TV programming. We wouldn’t have had the problem when there was only BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. In those days we settled for just having to watch repeats rather than total non-programmes. In fact I still like watching the same repeats these days – Dad’s Army for example.
There is an element of local interest in Parking Mad – some of it is filmed in Lincoln. There’s a bit where the mayor is seen cutting a ribbon around a ticket machine in a new car park. Rent a mayor. A mayor will turn up anywhere there is a bit of ribbon, scissors and a camera. It forms part of their balanced scorecard. KPIs. How many ribbons have been cut in any given month.
The role of mayor is very competitive. Each mayor is measured against his predecessors. How many schools visited, care homes etc. They put a premium on car parks – it’s not often you get a new one opening. Some years you don’t have a single new car park and I can tell you the mayor that year feels really hard done by.
I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong message about Lincoln. It is quite a good place to live really. There’s more to it than car parks though we do of course have our fair share. When we bought our first house it was on Greetwell Gate next to a free car park. As soon as we moved in it changed to a Pay and Display! Swines.
We used to park on the road in front of the house anyway. These was usually never a problem with this because after we had driven off to work other cars belonging to people working in town would arrive and take our spots. The same thing happened in reverse every evening so we always got the same spot right outside the house.
The one time of year we had a problem was during the Lincoln Christmas Market. All weekend visitors would cruise around looking for a free spot trying to avoid paying. Tight gits. We got to the point of arriving home from work on a Friday and just leaving the cars parked for the whole weekend. Christmas Market weekend is quite boozy anyway so a car is of no use.
We began to have guests coming to stay for the weekend to see the market. On these occasions on the Friday night we would park our own cars really inefficiently so that there wasn’t quite enough space between them to park another. It was fun watching motorists pull up along side the gap and curse the fact that we had parked badly thus depriving them of their spot. When our guests turned up I’d nip out and reverse my car just enough to make room for them to slot in. Saw ted.
Come to Lincoln. We have some nice parks and some good pubs and a mayor who likes to cut ribbons. There’s a lovely cathedral too. You should visit.
Other Lincoln posts
Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance
Eleanor Cross – choosing the stone
Header photo – a bit of Lincoln cathedral.
Other travel posts from the Isle of Man:
The empty sea
Chandlery
Signs of Danger
Back in the office Tuesday ish in case anyone’s wondering.
It’s worth the 501 foot climb to the top of Peel Hill. From there you can see pretty much the full length of the Isle of Man. Out across the sea can be seen Scotland to the North and the Mountains of Mourne to the West.
When I was a kid in one field on the side of the hill you could see a large 3 legs on Man planted in clover by Italian prisoners of war during their WW2 internment. It’s sadly not there any more.
On this occasion someone had left a bunch of yellow roses at Corrin’s Folly at the top of the hill. Made me wonder what was the story behind it. Will probably never find out.
501 ft might not sound that much to the expert hill climber (eg Snowdon is 3,500ft or so) but you still need to take care and take the right gear. The weather can blow in from the sea at very short notice. On our way up yesterday we encountered a couple going in the other direction. He wore sensible walking boots and she a flimsy pair of sandals. Probably looked a lot nicer in them than in boots!!!
They looked as if they had come from Glen Maye which is a few miles further along the coastal path. This trip is was easy to persuade the family to come on the walk. The last time we did it the kids were younger and far less enthusiastic.
Having got them to the top I decided we might as well carry on for a bit as it was mostly on the flat or even downhill. It’s a wonderfully scenic coastal path although if it does skirt dodgily close to the cliff edge from time to time. We found ourselves once or twice climbing into a field to find safer ground. Were those cows or bulls in there…
Eventually coming down to the beach (pic right) in Glen Maye we realised how far we had walked and were forced to take shelter in the pub at the top of the glen. My dad had to come and pick us up in the car. Close timing as he had been about to crack open a beer.
The video below was taken on this trip. It’s the waterfall in Glen Maye. V scenic and a v relaxing place to take a stroll.
Other travel posts from the Isle of Man:
Sometimes people have to be told what is good for them. You have to get your opinions from somewhere. That’s why they have leader columns in newspapers – to present ideas for you to mull over and chew and either spit out or swallow.
This is why it is good to be able to dip into the weekend section of this blog and be presented with subject matter that has been pre approved as being interesting.
In this case it is the dredging operation being carried out at Peel Marina. The post contains two videos shot live on location in the Isle of Man. The first is of the dredger scooping up silt from the marina “floor”1. I didn’t know that’s what a dredger looked like. In this case it is just a big digger. I’d always assumed it was something dragged along the sea bed scooping up large quantities of gunge and depositing it via a chute into a waiting barge. Maybe there are different sorts of dredgers.
The second video, at the end of the post, shows the bridge across the river at the entrance to the marina swinging open to allow a couple of boats through. The boats are very colourful. I do somewhere have a video showing them lifting the bridge into place when it was first installed. If I come across it you will be the first to see it:)
In between the videos you are presented with some pics out of a sequence showing the muck being emptied into the barge. Note the glorious weather. Why holiday anywhere else?
Look out for other interesting weekend posts on trefor.net.
Other travel posts from Peel:
The empty sea
Chandlery
Signs of Danger
1 Floor doesn’t sound right. Not as if it’s an ocean floor. You can choose your own noun here and if you find a better one please let me know:)
Some shops have magnetic properties. They are able to draw you in to extract the cash from your wallet. As if there is someone from a Harry Potter book pointing a wand at you and sucking out money. Almost certainly one of the Dark Lord’s sidekicks. B4$^4£). Earn yer own money.
A ship’s chandlery is one such shop. Very fortunately I don’t own a boat1. So whilst I can’t pass a chandlery without feeling it’s hypnotic lure once inside all I can do is gaze jealously at the arrays of cleats, hooks, pulleys, blocks, ropes (of all sizes) and other useful artefacts of a nautical nature realising that the purchase of any one item would be totally unjustifiable.
I don’t think Mrs Davies would appreciate me coming home with some useful links of chain saying I thought it would look good on the mantelpiece. I will one day but I need to have a garden shed to keep this kind of stuff, where it will be appreciated. A classic yellow souwester would look just right hanging on the back of the shed door innit? Don’t know if they still do those. Will have to nip back and check…
This particular emporium, purveyor of useful seagoing supplies, sells mainly to the fishing industry – there are 20 vessels working out of Peel, harvesting crabs, queenies and scallops. You never know when that information is going to be handy in a pub quiz. I found that out from the bloke behind the counter yesterday. To get the most out of a visit to a ships chandlery you have to chat to the bloke behind the counter. What’s selling well this season? Is the catch up or down on last year? All good stuff:)
Anyway enjoy the pics. Splice the mainbrace…
1 Every time we come to the Isle of Man I’m tempted and start looking at online yacht sales sites.
Saw someone on the beach yesterday. Was a bit of a surprise because it isn’t exactly high season in the Isle of Man. We have grown used to finding signs saying “Opening 12th April”. We are off back to the mainland on 13th so that’s a lot of things we will have to cram in on our last day. School holidays don’t start here until next week.
I took a look online for potential visitor attractions. I note that there are three films on at the cinema in Douglas and Peel has a Pilates class running on Friday. Seven quid. The local pool is closed this afternoon for schools swimming lessons.
The upshot is there is nobody around except for a few pensioners whiling away their days and one or two kids over from the UK staying with grandparents (ditto us).
There is bingo on Friday night but by popular demand we are off to the Royal India, one of the world’s great curry houses which happens to be just around the corner from where my ma and pa live. Handy that.
We still have fishing to do and a walk up Peel Hill which holds spectacular views for those who have made the effort. We are saving those activities for tomorrow when the weather is supposed to be at its best.
The header photo is a picture of no boats out on the sea. If you want boats you will have to use your imagination because here they are all safely tucked up in harbour. We did see a lone kayak yesterday but it was too far out to photograph. I could only see it through my binoculars. Bit dodgy I thought, being that far out in a kayak on your todd.
This morning we are off to the Sound to see the Calf of Man and thereafter for lunch at the caff at the far end of the beach in Port Erin. It’s a goodun.
Catch ya later.
PS I’m still alive (see previous post)
Felt a bit of a rebel taking this photo. It’s a sign on Peel breakwater listing dangers, prohibited activities and precautions that must be taken when passing the spot.
I was taking the pic with my Samsung Galaxy S4 and am clearly not wearing a hard hat. Hadn’t noticed that my eyes were shut when the shot was taken which at a stretch could be interpreted either as me being in denial about the dangers that lay ahead or pretending not to see the sign.
For completeness I should also mention that I wasn’t wearing high visibility clothing (unless the white legs exposed by a pair of shorts counts for high viz) , am not aware of being authorised but can reassure you that I was not smoking.
You will have to wait to see whether I post again after this to find out if I survived. Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye. Fingers crossed…
Other fun filled holiday posts:
I’ve just allowed Google to use my location. Up until now I’ve always rejected the request. Having mulled it over for a few years (I don’t like to rush these things) I’ve decided I’m ok with it. It will enhance online services for me. I don’t care about whether others know where I am or not. My location is pretty obvious if you read this blog.
Location data is useful to me when I use Google Now. I’m happy that it is able to give me hints about things in my locality. Currently it shows photos of nearby places. V handy I’d say.
Years ago when we were working on the commercialisation of SIP one of the things it was going to bring to the party was presence. Presence wasn’t really just about whether you were online and available or not. It was also about where you were online.
Getting off a plane in a new place was going to be made easy by automatically telling the hotel you had landed and pointing out good bars and restaurants you might want to hit. Only possible with location information.
I think I also like the idea that all my photos will have location information in them. Why not? It’s hard enough finding photos. Why not make it easier by telling you where the photo was taen?
Embrace the future. The future has the presence. The future is here and Google Now.
PS I’ve written about GoogleNow before. Had forgotten when writing this article. I don’t think I’ve had location switched on as standard before though.
PPS Off for a stroll now. There are places to see within 14 minutes walk! 🙂
We present for your entertainment and delight three short holiday videos. The first is an artistic work filmed on the rocks surrounding Peel Castle. Whilst the video requires no commentary the small element of speech inserted towards the end serves to draw the viewer’s attention to some of the key environmental content.
The second video was taken during a weekend break a few weeks ago. The weather here is very different. The filming was done at Fenella Beach on the other side of Peel Castle during a violent storm.
This final video shows a working fishing boat unloading a sack of crabs at the quayside at Peel breakwater on a bright sunny day. The skipper had called ahead and the lorry arrived at the quay just before the arrival of the boat.
Look out for more evidence of good times being had on trefor.net.
Other Isle of Man posts:
Images of Peel
Fenella Beach far away in time
A twitter story
I like a good sign. This one is a particularly fine example at the end of the promenade in Peel, Isle of Man. It is a very helpful sign especially if you are looking for a tourist attraction.
We have visited each attraction many times. I particularly like the chandlery which has lots of useful supplies for the seagoing type: ropes, pulleys, blocks, sou westers etc. Although the sign mentions “Town Centre” Peel is actually a City because despite only being a small town it has a cathedral.
The panorama is the view towards the beach from the breakwater in Peel. The view has changed very little since Victorian times. The @harbour_lights cafe and the Davidsons ice cream parlour are just right of centre. Clicking on the image brings up the full size 6ish Megs original and you might be able to zoom in.
Look out for other holiday snaps from the Isle of Man during this week’s vacation:)
Other Isle of Man posts:
Off roaming again. Mobile roaming that is. The Isle of Man. A place which will be all about relaxation, healthy walks, tea and scones in the @harbour_lights cafe, fishing boats, fishing from the breakwater, a stroll along the prom, ruined castles, seals, guillemots, rock pippits, basking sharks, meals out, meals in, great food and drink, sleep.
I might call in on Manx Telecom for a chat. Check out the latest developments in offshore telecom. I made a call over the Manx 3G network before it was introduced in the UK. Few years ago now. Was quite a cool thing to do. The Isle of Man was a test bed for O2 at the time.
The beauty of our modern world is that we can work from wherever we are. Although this is a holiday I like my job and can spend a couple of profitable hours each day doing stuff. Travel time is also time that can now be usefully spent rather than just staring out of the window wondering how much longer it will be before we sight land – something to break the monotony of the journey.
The hotel had WiFi. There was 4G in Liverpool whilst we queued to get on the ferry, the ferry has free WiFi, at least where I am sat. My mam and dad’s place has WiFi, the Harbour Lights Cafe has WiFi. The Whitehouse pub doesn’t have WiFi but who on earth would want to waste good pub banter time by staring into a screen.
I switch off mobile data roaming because the cost would be ruinous and there is in any case plenty of connectivity. I’ll settle for ruining my waistline.
It is now 11.49 and we would appear to be out of sight of land. The windows in the lounge have steamed up so we wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway:) All is quiet.
When walking to work I have to cross a railway line. There is of course a set of barriers that come down every now and again when a train comes by. I find myself picking up my walking pace as I get nearer to the crossing so that if the warning the barriers are about to come down starts to sound I can get across before my way is barred. I have sometimes had to wait 4 minutes before a train comes. Not good.
Whilst I normally walk I have had occasion to take a taxi home. If I get the cab to pick me up from the side of the level crossing nearest my house the fare is £4.20. A pick up from the side nearest the office, that’s the side with the Tower Bar in the pic, costs £5.40!!!
I have for your information and education taken photos of the queues caused when the barriers come down. Enjoy:)
Related posts:
Gotta tell you Sparkhouse is a great place for an office. It’s attached to the University of Lincoln and is slap bang in the middle of town. A pleasure to walk there every day. This is the view from the front door. The river to the right is the Witham.
View of Lincoln Cathedral from the same spot on the same day. With and without mist. I pass the building every day one the way to and from work. The clear view was taken this evening and the misty one this morning. The photo doesn’t quite give you the right feel for how warm the evening is but I was wearing shorts which was somewhat of a gamble on my way in first thing.
Other travel features:
This sign, on the pedestrian crossing near my house, is on red. Red means do not cross. It could be unsafe as there might be traffic coming that could hurt you. Badly.
When the sign turns green it is safe to proceed as any cars should have stopped to let you cross. Usually there is a beeping noise when the sign is green which makes you want to hurry across.
Sometimes if they think there are no cars coming people are tempted to cross when the sign is on red. This is a personal decision. No responsibility is accepted here if you are run over.
Occasionally people press the button and cross before the sign has changed to green. This tends to annoy drivers who may find themselves sat there waiting when there do not appear to be any pedestrians wanting to cross. Most of us will be guilty of this. Ah well.
On the way from Lincoln to Manchester yesterday for the Convergence Summit I changed trains at Sheffield. A man got on and sat opposite me.
The bloke looked a bit stressed. He was dark haired with a little beard and wore a shawl around his shoulders that gave away the fact that he was from somewhere in the Middle East.
He was continuously on the phone and regularly frowned at his iPhone when the signal kept disappearing. We are on a train I thought to myself! The signal is going to be crap!
The person at the other end kept ringing him back but then seemed to give up. We were through tunnels and out into the Pennines.
Turns out he wasn’t carrying a ticket. The conductor came along and charged him £25 to get to Manchester Airport. The return was about £34. He considered it but decided only to go for the single. Seemed like a good saving to me. He was clearly planning on coming back otherwise he wouldn’t have asked how much the return would be. Nowt as queer as folk.
As we approached Manchester his phone started to work again and I began to pick up snippets as he occasionally lapsed from Arabic into English. The conversation went like this:
“if …….. my life is finished. I will call you. I will call you. I will try and cross the border. Turkey… Syria.”
Wow. No wonder this guy looked stressed. He was on his way to Turkey and then trying to cross the border into Syria. There’s a big untold story behind those few words. Something we only ever see on the news played out in front of me on the train.
The train arrived at Manchester Piccadilly and I got off. I wish him luck…
More train posts:
It keeps happening. I go on a website to do a particular thing – e.g download Real Player onto a different computer or visit a website for a specific purpose – and the site makes assumptions and decisions for me which are completely erroneous.
Remarkably relaxed sat in the bar after security at London City Airport. It’s curling on the telly, cmon girls, a cup of tea in front of me (ye-es) and a stress free experience getting here. The weather hasn’t yet hit and it looks as if all the planes are running to time. I have 3 bars of EE4G on the MiFi giving me a perfectly usable 9 megs down and 14 megs up. I checked in for BA3284 dep 11.20 to the Isle of Man using my BA Android app yesterday. The barcode on the phone just worked. That’s easily. No problem. No messing about. The only paperwork I have is a book – I’m not an e-reader, and a birthday card for me dear old dad who reaches yet another milestone next week. I also have a few beer vouchers to spend at the Whitehouse pub in Peel over the weekend.
Ah I see we are boarding. Good timing. Just finished my cuppa.
C ya later.
Just flicked through my emails to find one from British Airways telling me I’m only 140 tier points away from reaching bronze status.
A frisson of excitement ran through my entire body (not just bits of it). I eagerly scanned the rest of the email. With bronze I will be able to check in at the business class desk and earn extra Avios. Wahey.
Then someone opened a curtain and in streamed the harsh reality of daylight. My current tally of tier points stands at 160. Another 140 means booking almost as many flights again as I’ve taken in the whole of the last 12 months. That’s two whole trips.
It just not gonna happen.
My imagination began to
I used to drive to the office.It was a 40 minute trip and consumed a tank of diesel a week. Now I walk to work. It takes 30 minutes. I have over the last two weeks only used a half a tank of fuel.
My walk to and from work takes me past Lincoln Cathedral. It’s a beautiful building. I am very lucky.
When I drove to work I would keep an eye on the time using the clock on the dashboard. Wouldn’t make much difference as to when I arrived mind you. Totally depended on the traffic.
Now that I walk to work I can if I so choose check the time as I pass the Cathedral. There is a sundial. It isn’t particularly accurate but there again it doesn’t particularly matter what time I get to work:)
Of course the sundial doesn’t work when it is cloudy and under those (extremely rare – this is Lincoln) circumstances I can pick up the time from my phone – it gets it from somewhere in the cloud. Today I start monitoring my progress using Runkeeper. Stay tuned.
Click on the picture for a close up of the sundial.
There comes a time in a man’s life when he must visit an icebreaker. The cognoscenti amongst you, and I know there are many, will know that an icebreaker is the ultimate boy’s toy.
You may talk about fast cars (0 – 60 in 3.5 seconds) or the latest and greatest (Android) gadget but let me tell you that none of them come close to being as cool as having your own icebreaker. Urho, moored for the summer months in Helsinki, is such a beast. I visited Urho on Sunday.
An icebreaker is something where size really does matter. A few numbers would aid the understanding. Five main diesel generators 
with 22,000 horsepower can generate 17 MegaWatts of power – yes I said 17 MegaWatts!! That’s enough to supply 708 houses with standard 100Amp feeds. Basically a small town. They typically use 40 tonnes of diesel a day but can peak at 100 tonnes.
The diesel generators don’t power the ships four engines, two in the front and two in the back (sorry none of this bow/stern stuff, nosiree Bob :)). These are driven by electric 
motors. The stress put on diesel engines would be too great of they were directly driving the propellers. They have to go from full power forwards to full power backwards at the flick of a switch.
There is more. A normal ocean going ship will have “stabilizers” to minimise discomfort to its passengers. Not on an icebreaker. An icebreaker has “destabilisers”. 1,000 tonnes of water can be pumped from side to side of the ship to create a rocking effect. You have to have good sea legs to work on an icebreaker. As the ship’s sides rock against the ice some lubrication is provided by air bubbles released from underneath.
The main method of crushing the ice however is from the sloping bow (oh ok then). The ship “climbs” over the ice and crushes it with its weight. Doing this is obviously quite stressful on the ship itself so as you can imagine it is built from very thick metal plates. There was some debate afterwards about the thickness of these plates. I thought they were 3.5 cms thick but others said 9cms so I’m not sure. Anyway they are thick plates. The median thickness of the ice in the depths of winter is 80cms.
The season is of course the winter. The seas around northern Finland freeze every winter. It’s a tough part of the world to live in – Helsinki is only 60km from St Petersburg. The country still has to function so the icebreaking service is provided free of charge as part of the standard shipping license fees paid by each boat operator.
Each of the four icebreakers assists around 250 ships a year. I say assist but really I mean rescue. The icebreakers come to the aid of ships locked in ice. In fact they only come out when the ships are stuck. Typically they will circle a trapped ship and this usually does the trick. Occasionally they will have to tow the “customer” (struggling to find other suitable nouns so I don’t have to keep using the words ship and boat).
The freed boat will follow the icebreaker, sometimes as close as a few metres behind because the pressure of the ice field soon closes the gap.
The ship’s company of 21 persons includes a captain and four watch officers together with engineers and other ranks. The officers and other ranks eat and live separately. Watches are 6 hours on six hours off. It’s an all consuming lifestyle during the season.
These icebreakers are big. 
The accommodation is also fairly extensive and includes a gym including a ping pong table, sauna (two – officers and other ranks) and even a pool. The pool was empty when we were there. Empty of water that is. Note the sign reads “allas tyhja”. That is for the benefit of litigious American readers – in case they are daft enough to dive in and hurt themselves.
So there we go. Icebreakers. Every bloke should visit one at least once in their life. Been there, done that. Tick.
As a footnote I visited Helsinki for Euro-IX 23. On the Sunday morning the sun, low in the northern hemisphere sky, was dazzling. Helsinki looked beautiful. Later and without warning the mists descended and you began to get a sense of what like would be like in the winter at such latitudes. Stay warm and take care…
🙂
backsoon
on 1st July
Just been invited to an industry event in Perth (Scotland – not Australia) on the 9th July. I won’t bother telling you about the event but it was from a reputable source. The invitation was to “Dear Colleague” so it was almost certainly a blanket mailing to an entire list.
I checked. It is 325 miles from my house and 5 hours 22 mins driving in current traffic conditions. I replied to the email asking them whether they were planning an event in Lincoln which is 0 miles from my house and I could walk there.
Not heard back yet but I only just sent it so it’s only fair to give them a bit of time.
The point is that this was not a particularly well targeted email and is a waste of everyone’s time who doesn’t live within striking distance of Perth. Mind you I’ve never been to Perth. Is it nice?
That’s all
Sat on the train and can’t get anything done. Some bloke behind me talking very loudly on his phone. Keeps ringing up to try to invite “CEO”s to a dinner in a month or so. He is a former CEO apparently. None of the people he is trying to reach are in and he only gets their PAs. Very distracting. I could move seats I suppose but the train is fairly full and I can’t be bothered.
Also the internet connectivity on this train is totally rubbish. The WiFi is like sludge and the cellular connection no better.
Usually I like to use train time to get stuff done. Rant over.
On the plus side it is a beautiful spring day and Mervyn King has told us all not to worry and that everything is going to be ok with the economy. He has nothing to lose of course but I am inclined to believe him.
I spoke with a customer this morning who said that things had started to move forward at their end. I think he is right. Having been to ISPA and ITSPA council meetings recently I note that membership is on the up and businesses in the new industries are growing. You do wonder how much of the recent recession is down to the negative hype of the media.
Anyway I’m not going to solve it all. I’m just going to wait until I get a signal and upload this post.
Ciao…
