Book Learnin'

Who needs toys, books are where it's at.

Nikon D300, Sigma 30mm f/1.4
1/60 at f/2.8, ISO 320

How To ... Bemusement

Sometimes you just need to grin and bear it.

Sometimes you just need to bear it.

No matter what is going on around you or being done to you, you know there is nothing you can do to change it.

It's at times like this when you just need to zone-out and try to forget that in years to come this moment may come back to haunt you ... it's time to look 'so lost in thought as to be unaware of one's surroundings.'

This third instalment in the How To ... series is for when laughing just isn't right - How To Look Bemused.

Driving to Work

I've been driving to work recently, now that I found out I have somewhere safe park. Do like my reserved spot?

Actually, no, I haven't been given a huge bonus (this photo was taken in Switzerland, not London). Instead, the company who manage the office at work have announced that there are two parking bays in the car park reserved and free for use just for bikes - the motorbike kind, not the pedal kind.

This is a bit of a surprise as I'm sure we asked a year or two back and were told we'd have to pay.

Anyway, now that summer is finally here and I can leave my bike safe in the knowledge it will be there when I return, I can arrive and leave at times that suit me and save a bit of money too, rather than relying on the trains all the time.

EDIT: I wrote the above last night and was thinking about it again while riding in this morning: I realised that, if anything, driving is actually more expensive than the train. A weekly train ticket costs something like £92 - call it a round £19 a day. Driving costs £13 a day in petrol, tyres add maybe £8 a day (really! A pair costs nearly £300 and will last possibly 4000 miles, which is about 35 daily commutes), while general servicing and wear and tear add even more. Who would've thought the train would be the cheaper option?

Abstract Jersey

I went to Jersey for a couple of days the other month with work. The distance between hotel and office was walk-able, and the weather good, so I decided to leave slightly early and amble.

Along the way I noticed this pair of houses, looking almost symmetric, with a massive gas container thing pretty much in their back gardens.

Must be a nice view - from one window the busy A7, from the other a hulking metal shell full of something flammable. Here it is from the air.

Sony DSC-T200                  

Last of the Cooks

I can't let June go without at least one post. Hopefully I'll get round to posting all my new stuff again in July, but for now I'd like to show you another couple of photos from the few days my wife and I spent on the Cook Islands.

The first photo below is my favourite, and epitomises the relaxing time we had between a 24 flight from the UK and starting our tour of New Zealand. The second photo is a view from the small villa we were staying in and shows just how close we were to the sea - I can certainly recommend Crown Beach Resort as a honeymoon location.

 

Nikon D70, 18-70mm lens

State of the nation (2)

It's not often I read a newspaper. This week though I've had a couple of free copies of The Times and a particular story in Thursday's edition, about proposed changes to the driving test, caught my eye.

The on-line version of the story has been re-worded for some reason - maybe to give a work experience kid something to do - but the gist is the same. The sentence that caught my eye in the print version says 'The DfT consultation paper, entitled Learning to Drive, also proposes to stop publishing the questions for the theory test, meaning that candidates would no longer be able to memorise the answers without understanding the principles.'

For anyone who is unaware, the driving theory test for cars and bikes consists of a set of multiple choice questions, of which 43 from a selection of 50 must be answered correctly, followed by a hazard perception test in which only about 60% of potential hazards need to be spotted. The multiple choice questions can be downloaded, bought or practised on-line, while mock tests for the second part are also available in numerous places, such as here.

The proposal sounds reasonable then doesn't it? After all, the questions are derived from the Highway Code and multiple choice quizzes are never the hardest in the world, often relying more on common sense than knowledge. Almost everyone who pays their £28.50 (!) must pass easily with minutes to spare right?

Wrong. The actual pass rate for the driving theory test in the UK is less than two thirds.

<sigh>

Burning Trains

My train journey home last night took two and a half hours for what is normally a forty minute high-speed dash up the country.

It all started well, but the train came to a halt at Wembley Central and some of the lights went out. About ten minutes later the Train Manager announced that there was a burning freight train just ahead of us and, as the fire brigade were busy spraying water around, the power to overhead lines in the immediate area on both sets of north/south lines had been cut.

A while later the train's backup power supply depleted and the remaining lights went out. All passengers were forced to vacate and wait on the platform for a while, before squeezing into an already overcrowded London Overground train to Watford where another fast train was waiting.

Stopping the trains sounds very sensible - everyone knows that water and electricity don't mix very well (or do, that being the problem).

But ... hang on ... what happens when it rains?