While I don’t travel to exotic locations, I do travel around and things happen. When I write them down I tend to remember them better, so this is as much for me as it is about informing, educating and entertaining you, dear reader. The blog was originally conceived as an outlet for OG's musings, thoughts and opinions on local, national and international events and issues, but the task of keeping it going soon overwhelmed me and it was left fallow for several months until I found the inspiration to restart.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Road Improvements
Road safety measures are all the rage in my part of town at the moment.
One important but not major road was closed for three weeks, causing a lot of incovenience and confusion for people visiting not only a large, busy doctors' practice but also one of the lager employers in the city, whose staff were all diverted via the city centre to reach their car park and users of a lage long-term car park next door. The results of these roadworks - a couple of humps in the road as far as I can see. Three weeks' total closure for a couple of humps??
Our main road into the city centre, in fact the only one without a large diversion, is dual carriageway. The stretch of road in question is only a few hundred yards long, but it funnels traffic merged from two major trunk roads into one on the approach to the city centre.
Last year the council decided to experiment by closing the gaps in the central reservation to stop cars turning right and causing holdups behind them. All very sensible in my view, although many people disagreed. Despite vocal complaints that the measure was encouraging speeding, due to the removal of potential vehicular obstacles, the council subsequently made the restrictions permanent and spend weeks installing concrete barriers to prove the point. You can imagine the tailbacks caused by single-lane traffic at that time.
Now, they are installing a new pelican crossing about 100 yards from existing crossings in each direction. Apparently, before the central reservation was closed the crossing was not required, but now it is. Single-lane traffic is back. Bless the county traffic planning department. Bless their little hearts.
I know for a fact that this work is not paid for from the county council's community local road safety budget. This may not be it's official title, but its purpose is to pay for measures to improve the safety of the county's back streets - the ones our children play in and walk along to go to school. The council has grandly surveyed the whole county and published a list of, I think, some 80-90 priority schemes. Great! Their budget allows them to do one per year. There are two schemes in our neighbourhood. If we and our children don't move away, our grandchildren just might benefit from them before going to college.
One important but not major road was closed for three weeks, causing a lot of incovenience and confusion for people visiting not only a large, busy doctors' practice but also one of the lager employers in the city, whose staff were all diverted via the city centre to reach their car park and users of a lage long-term car park next door. The results of these roadworks - a couple of humps in the road as far as I can see. Three weeks' total closure for a couple of humps??
Our main road into the city centre, in fact the only one without a large diversion, is dual carriageway. The stretch of road in question is only a few hundred yards long, but it funnels traffic merged from two major trunk roads into one on the approach to the city centre.
Last year the council decided to experiment by closing the gaps in the central reservation to stop cars turning right and causing holdups behind them. All very sensible in my view, although many people disagreed. Despite vocal complaints that the measure was encouraging speeding, due to the removal of potential vehicular obstacles, the council subsequently made the restrictions permanent and spend weeks installing concrete barriers to prove the point. You can imagine the tailbacks caused by single-lane traffic at that time.
Now, they are installing a new pelican crossing about 100 yards from existing crossings in each direction. Apparently, before the central reservation was closed the crossing was not required, but now it is. Single-lane traffic is back. Bless the county traffic planning department. Bless their little hearts.
I know for a fact that this work is not paid for from the county council's community local road safety budget. This may not be it's official title, but its purpose is to pay for measures to improve the safety of the county's back streets - the ones our children play in and walk along to go to school. The council has grandly surveyed the whole county and published a list of, I think, some 80-90 priority schemes. Great! Their budget allows them to do one per year. There are two schemes in our neighbourhood. If we and our children don't move away, our grandchildren just might benefit from them before going to college.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Potential for schadenfreude
I am not keen on Ryanair, I never have been. It's something to do with its never-ending obsession with cutting prices. In my travelling experience this inevitably means corner cutting, unhappy staff, poor customer service and a sub-standard journey for the paying public. One of its latest wheezes, to remove window blinds to shave a few pounds in weight and thus save fuel, seems no more than penny pinching and will result in a lot of uncomfortable, unhappy passengers exposed to a relentless sun beating in through those unprotected windows.
It seems to me that the airline's publicity has been very close to the mark for a long time. It is poor form to claim to fly to, for example, "Frankfurt", "Milan" or "Stockholm" when the airports concerned are clearly associated with their neighbouring town (Hahn, Bergamo, Västerås and/or Nyköping) which are a substantial distance from the city in question but may have some form of regional affiliation with it.
I don't shed any tears therefore when it is found guilty of misleading advertising over its prices.
Boss Michael O'Leary was recently painting another bleak outlook for future revenue despite retracting previous predictions of gloom. This was at the same time as others, flybe for example were expressing their confidence.
His comments imply an arline hoist by its own petard. Some people might think this was a deliberate ploy to talk down expectations, but I don't imagine analysts are big enough mugs to fall for that.
It seems to me that the airline's publicity has been very close to the mark for a long time. It is poor form to claim to fly to, for example, "Frankfurt", "Milan" or "Stockholm" when the airports concerned are clearly associated with their neighbouring town (Hahn, Bergamo, Västerås and/or Nyköping) which are a substantial distance from the city in question but may have some form of regional affiliation with it.
I don't shed any tears therefore when it is found guilty of misleading advertising over its prices.
Boss Michael O'Leary was recently painting another bleak outlook for future revenue despite retracting previous predictions of gloom. This was at the same time as others, flybe for example were expressing their confidence.
His comments imply an arline hoist by its own petard. Some people might think this was a deliberate ploy to talk down expectations, but I don't imagine analysts are big enough mugs to fall for that.
Is it really a junket?
It seems that some people may be jealous of the
heavy burden of the Bid Evaluation Commission of the XXX Olympiad.
heavy burden of the Bid Evaluation Commission of the XXX Olympiad.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Lord of the Skies
Steve Fossett is the first person to complete a solo, non-stop round-the-world aeroplane flight.
It's less than a month since we celebrated the success of Ellen MacArthur in achieving a new record in sailing single-handedly non-stop around the world. One day another exceptional individual will eclipse Steve's 67 hours and 2 minutes and 38 seconds. For the time being though we salute another hero.
It's less than a month since we celebrated the success of Ellen MacArthur in achieving a new record in sailing single-handedly non-stop around the world. One day another exceptional individual will eclipse Steve's 67 hours and 2 minutes and 38 seconds. For the time being though we salute another hero.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Olympics 2012
The International Olympic Committee's evaluation committee is doing the rounds of the candidate cities, checking out the cities' bid to host the 2012 games. It has done Madrid, London and New York. The current favourite to win the vote in July, Paris, is the next stop later this month with Moscow to follow.
London spokesman and former Olympic athletics champion Seb Coe was very upbeat after their visit. I can't share his enthusiasm.
To start with, they have not started to build the main stadium complex yet - the site is not even ready for building. By the time the decision is made there will be a bare seven years before the games open. Combine the complexity of the construction with the intricacies of our planning regulations and you understand my doubts ...
The real killer, though, is going to be transport. London's transport infrastructure can't cope with today's needs, let alone the projected growth for the next few years. Add to that the spike caused by thousands of competitors & officials and tens, if not hundreds of thousands of spectators. I predict total chaos.
I would expect New York to attract one or two transport issues of its own. New York doesn't have a ready-made Olympic stadium either. In fact, it doesn't even own the site it wants to use. While I'm not really surprised that both cities have proposed to redevelop derelict industrial sites, Stratford in east London does not really compare with Manhattan's Lower West Side. We all know America is full of surprises, but who would think there were acres of presumably prime real estate within spitting distance of Wall Street and Fifth Avenue just sitting there going to waste.
London spokesman and former Olympic athletics champion Seb Coe was very upbeat after their visit. I can't share his enthusiasm.
To start with, they have not started to build the main stadium complex yet - the site is not even ready for building. By the time the decision is made there will be a bare seven years before the games open. Combine the complexity of the construction with the intricacies of our planning regulations and you understand my doubts ...
The real killer, though, is going to be transport. London's transport infrastructure can't cope with today's needs, let alone the projected growth for the next few years. Add to that the spike caused by thousands of competitors & officials and tens, if not hundreds of thousands of spectators. I predict total chaos.
I would expect New York to attract one or two transport issues of its own. New York doesn't have a ready-made Olympic stadium either. In fact, it doesn't even own the site it wants to use. While I'm not really surprised that both cities have proposed to redevelop derelict industrial sites, Stratford in east London does not really compare with Manhattan's Lower West Side. We all know America is full of surprises, but who would think there were acres of presumably prime real estate within spitting distance of Wall Street and Fifth Avenue just sitting there going to waste.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Winter - a week on
The calendar may have moved on to March but it is still winter here with a vengeance. While my comments about snow have been borne out by official statistics - February this year in Oslo saw the lowest snowfall since records began - the thermometer has dropped. This morning I experienced -15°C and it seems about the same tonight. Villages around Oslo saw -23°C. The weather forecasts show negative temperatures across much of continental Europe, with even Madrid displaying -3°C this morning. During the day the sun is shining brightly in cloudless skies. My colleagues are reporting blizzard conditions further east across much of southern Sweden, so I suppose I have been lucky again.
That's not to say I have not seen any snow. It was snowing hard when I flew in on Monday night so I got to see a reasonable amount of crisp, fresh snow. It really does show the town in a different light.
That's not to say I have not seen any snow. It was snowing hard when I flew in on Monday night so I got to see a reasonable amount of crisp, fresh snow. It really does show the town in a different light.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
A Tale of Two Cultures
An American in Germany got a bad experience when he wanted to get a driving licence. I shall let you draw your own conclusions.
Courtesy of Business Week.
Courtesy of Business Week.
St David's Day
March 1st is St David's Day.
St David, Dewi Sant in Welsh, is the patron saint of Wales. Celebrating his anniversary is an important event for Welsh diaspora across the world, although its significance is severely downplayed by the London-dominated media in the UK. While there have been many calls for the day to be made a public holiday in Wales, these haev so far been rejected by the government in Whitehall.
There will be many celebrations throughout Wales to mark the event, and traditionally schools have a half-day holiday in his honour.
Internationally, celebrations of Ireland's St Patrick tend to crowd out his celtic cousins. In the history of the British Isles though, Patrick's work in spreading Christianity in Ireland was matched by Dewi in southern Britain and Andrew in the north. There was a thriving Celtic church in these islands long before the Roman church arrived, and it was politics through the spread of Norman influence in the eleventh and twelfth centuries which finally put paid to its influence and existence.
St David, Dewi Sant in Welsh, is the patron saint of Wales. Celebrating his anniversary is an important event for Welsh diaspora across the world, although its significance is severely downplayed by the London-dominated media in the UK. While there have been many calls for the day to be made a public holiday in Wales, these haev so far been rejected by the government in Whitehall.
There will be many celebrations throughout Wales to mark the event, and traditionally schools have a half-day holiday in his honour.
Internationally, celebrations of Ireland's St Patrick tend to crowd out his celtic cousins. In the history of the British Isles though, Patrick's work in spreading Christianity in Ireland was matched by Dewi in southern Britain and Andrew in the north. There was a thriving Celtic church in these islands long before the Roman church arrived, and it was politics through the spread of Norman influence in the eleventh and twelfth centuries which finally put paid to its influence and existence.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Day trip to Poole
Today I had a day trip to Poole in Dorset.
Poole is a small town, near the resort town of Bournemouth, but an important holiday destination in its own right, big for sailing and other watersports. The reason for this is one of the major attractions of the area: Poole Harbour, the largest natural harbour in Britain and one of the largest in the world. It's also an important spot for wildlife.
The largest island is Brownsea Island. This is where Robert Baden-Powell took the first group of boy scouts camping back in 1907 and launched the world-wide scouting movement.
Chester to Poole is a good four to four and a half hour drive, much too long for a day out. The rail connections are, if anything, worse (although you do get to work or read on the train) which leaves flying as the only practical option. Long before my time there was apparently a service between Manchester and Bournemouth, but nowadays we have to make do with Southampton. This is probably the smallest airport I use. There's no taxiway, so the plane simply goes to the end of the runway, turns around and taxies to the terminal.
Southampton Airport boasts an adjacent railway station, which gives a very easy connection for the train to Poole. The journey lasts about an hour and provides some nice views of the New Forest en route.
Poole is a small town, near the resort town of Bournemouth, but an important holiday destination in its own right, big for sailing and other watersports. The reason for this is one of the major attractions of the area: Poole Harbour, the largest natural harbour in Britain and one of the largest in the world. It's also an important spot for wildlife.
The largest island is Brownsea Island. This is where Robert Baden-Powell took the first group of boy scouts camping back in 1907 and launched the world-wide scouting movement.
Chester to Poole is a good four to four and a half hour drive, much too long for a day out. The rail connections are, if anything, worse (although you do get to work or read on the train) which leaves flying as the only practical option. Long before my time there was apparently a service between Manchester and Bournemouth, but nowadays we have to make do with Southampton. This is probably the smallest airport I use. There's no taxiway, so the plane simply goes to the end of the runway, turns around and taxies to the terminal.
Southampton Airport boasts an adjacent railway station, which gives a very easy connection for the train to Poole. The journey lasts about an hour and provides some nice views of the New Forest en route.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Juice Your iPod off Your Parka
The title comes from a futureboy email newsletter article from business2.com.
A startup company named Konarka Technologies, working in the field of nanotechnology, is planning to develop flexible, plastic-like solar cells to generate electricity. Such cells could be incorporated into new types of fabric, then into our clothes. Initially these items would be expensive and limited to, say, military uses, but in time plastic solar cells would be printed like newspapers or film. That should make them really, really cheap.
Add a power jack linked to some solar fabric and you'll never run out of juice. What a potential difference that would make to us regular travellers. No more batteries, power adaptors, fewer leads. It could totally transform camping and all sorts of other outdoor activities.
Good luck, Konarka Technologies.
A startup company named Konarka Technologies, working in the field of nanotechnology, is planning to develop flexible, plastic-like solar cells to generate electricity. Such cells could be incorporated into new types of fabric, then into our clothes. Initially these items would be expensive and limited to, say, military uses, but in time plastic solar cells would be printed like newspapers or film. That should make them really, really cheap.
Add a power jack linked to some solar fabric and you'll never run out of juice. What a potential difference that would make to us regular travellers. No more batteries, power adaptors, fewer leads. It could totally transform camping and all sorts of other outdoor activities.
Good luck, Konarka Technologies.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Plat du jour: roast cockerel
Fifteen thousand Welsh men and women travelled to Paris this weekend, and after 20 minutes most of them wished they had stayed at home.
France comprehensively outplayed Wales in the first period, and a complete humiliation was on the cards. Few, if any, would have predicted the correct result at that time and the eventual Welsh victory was a fitting reflection of the team's spirit, determination and courage.
Whether sitting in the freezing cold of the Stade de France or in the warmth and comfort in front of the TV, those who saw it witnessed one of the best international rugby matches for a long time.
The dragon is breathing fire again.
Friday, February 25, 2005
A long way to go for a soccer match
Manchester United are playing at home tomorrow. I'm not really into soccer, and I certainly don't support the Red Devils, so how do I know? I have spent the flight home from Oslo in the company of this weekend's contingent of their Norwegian supporters, many representing the Manchester United Supporters Club, Scandinavian Branch.
These are an incredible, wonderfully enthusiastic bunch. Every time I have flown back to Manchester from Oslo and Man U are at home, the plane is full. Some people make the trip several times a season, others scrutinise the fixture lists and plan the best opportunity for them to take in perhaps two or even three matches, some shopping and sighseeing to boot. One large group of a dozen or so I chatted with make more or less the same weekend every season and take whatever soccer is on offer.
They seem perfectly happy to spend money. Match tickets at Old Trafford do not come cheap, and one of the more select hotels in the region together with taxis to ferry them everywhere is often the order of the day. Mind you, even the Swedes wince at prices in Norway so I don't begrudge them making the most of their money. I 'm sure that a fair proportion makes it to Chester, being such an important tourist attraction, and they're welcome for the contribution they make to the local economy. There's even soccer on offer although it's played out in the lowly depths of the English fourth division.
These are an incredible, wonderfully enthusiastic bunch. Every time I have flown back to Manchester from Oslo and Man U are at home, the plane is full. Some people make the trip several times a season, others scrutinise the fixture lists and plan the best opportunity for them to take in perhaps two or even three matches, some shopping and sighseeing to boot. One large group of a dozen or so I chatted with make more or less the same weekend every season and take whatever soccer is on offer.
They seem perfectly happy to spend money. Match tickets at Old Trafford do not come cheap, and one of the more select hotels in the region together with taxis to ferry them everywhere is often the order of the day. Mind you, even the Swedes wince at prices in Norway so I don't begrudge them making the most of their money. I 'm sure that a fair proportion makes it to Chester, being such an important tourist attraction, and they're welcome for the contribution they make to the local economy. There's even soccer on offer although it's played out in the lowly depths of the English fourth division.
