Posted: Mon 29 April, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Food, Gigs, London, Music, Photography, Public Transport, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel |
Over the weekend, I went down to London to see the Rebel Rebels perform their final show.
Conveniently (for me, at least) it was held at the Elixir Bar, just round the corner from Euston – ideal, and meant I didn’t even need to consider overnighting in London.
As it was, I met up with Merialc and Erzsebel beforehand, and went for a curry at the Erzsebel-recommended “Diwana Bhel Poori House“. (round the other corner from Euston) The food was excellent – although I can honestly say I have no idea what the hell I was eating – and made for a good start to the evening.
The evening itself was a fun time too – and while not being ‘official photographer‘, I still had the camera with me, and got some good shots. I’ve missed the Rebels’ previous shows for a number of reasons, so I’m glad I got to be there for the final one.
The journey home was OK too – albeit incredibly long, due to the train service stopping at every single station on the way. Being sober on the late train’s an experience in tolerance, not rising to any number of inane pisshead conversations and the like, but thankfully there was only one puker, so it could’ve been a lot worse all round.
A great evening all round, and it’s a pity that at the moment there aren’t more planned.
Posted: Thu 21 February, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Public Transport, Travel, Work-related |
Yesterday was another Devon run – I didn’t get to go down (Fnarr!) last week due to feeling ill, so it ended up being this week instead.
I was doing the trip with my direct boss, and he suggested that instead we went by train instead of driving. I’m not quite sure of the reasoning – except it meant we didn’t do stupid mileage – but all told it wasn’t an experience I wish to repeat.
The journey down was OK – as much as train journeys ever are – but it took just over four hours when the drive takes three. So leaving home at 5.45, train at 6.30, into the Devon office just after 10:30. (Usually if I leave at 6 I’m in the office at 9 – 9.30)
To be fair, we got a bundle of stuff done, several meetings, and some very happy customers.
For whatever reasons, we stayed overnight at a local hotel (well, pub with rooms) and came back this morning. And that journey was a pig.
We’d forgotten it was half-term, which meant the train back was absolutely packed. It had eight carriages, with three “First Class” carriages which were utterly empty. (No idea why – I assume that Devon -> London has a lot of First Class passengers usually) The other five carriages were all full, every seat with a ‘reserved’ ticket on it.
So instead I ended up standing all the way from Devon to Reading, where I finally got a seat for a whole 20 minutes.
The journey back to Milton Keynes took three and a half hours (which wasn’t too bad) and then another half-hour to get back to the office.
All told, it’s been a long journey. I feel like the time’s been a little bit wasted – particularly today – and could’ve been much better used if I had the long one-day trip instead of splicing it between two days in this way.
Still, it’s done, and I’m home now.
Posted: Sun 18 November, 2012 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Old(er), Public Transport, Thoughts, Travel |
It really doesn’t seem possible that it’s now 25 years since the fire at King’s Cross station in London which killed 31 people.
It’s not (for me at least) one of those events where you always remember where you were when you heard about it, but it was still a major event, and brought about so many changes with train stations, including replacing all the wooden escalators with metal ones, banning smoking in stations (it had already been banned on the trains, but was OK in stations) and secondary influences and improvements for things like fire-fighting services and so on.
But knowing it’s 25 years ago is a real surprise – time flies, and all that jazz.
Posted: Sat 29 September, 2012 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Public Transport, Travel, Weirdness |
While looking today at train ticket prices, I came across this…
Now I might be missing something, but if the train will take me 35 minutes, and cost £13(ish), why would I be interested in going by National Express, which would cost me more to travel for three times as long ?
I think someone might’ve missed the point…
Posted: Sat 22 September, 2012 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Driving, Public Transport, Thoughts, Travel |
While I’m no hater of public transport in general (with the exception of Virgin Trains, but that’s a different matter) I find that at the moment I’m a bit bemused by the apparent craze in cities for “Guided Busways” at the moment.
When I was in Norfolk/Suffolk and working around Cambridge, they had the Cambridge Guided Busway (also known as “The Busway“) being constructed, and now I’m working near Luton, I see the same construction going on for the Luton-Dunstable Busway.
I do understand the thoughts of getting buses out of the main roadways, freeing them up to run punctually and not affect (or be affected by) other traffic. That makes sense. But as far as I understand it, the perceived negatives far outweigh those positives.
As I see it currently…
- Guided busways reduce the number of available stops, and easy-on/easy-off of ‘normal’ bus routes
- The investment required is massive
- The construction takes a long time, and so
- The disruption involved is equally massive
- In short, it appears to be a total pain in the arse.
I wonder what the real motivations for these things are – I assume there are a whole load of incentives, grants and funding whatevers for this kind of boondoggle.
