Odds 'n Ends

When doing business travel, it is often important to get online to avoid getting behind with urgent e-mails, etc. In my old job we were issued with Blackberries which I did not particularly like. I think they were issued by my American employer as an attempt to get us to work in our private time. Also for many things - like checking spreadsheets and presentations the screen format was too small to be useful. They were good though for answering simple questions or doing e-mail approvals. If I had time at an airport I preferred to open my laptop and pay for local wifi access by credit card.

In my old job we were expected to work when flying despite the fact that I could only open my laptop properly in economy class if the seat next to me was emplty and I could sit obliquely. When I started doing market research for being self-employed, I purchased a Samsung NC10 netbook which seemed to combine good battery life, a reasonable keyboard and a very small size which is an advantage travelling. It is small enough to be unfolded on a plane or train. I was pleasantly surprised back in February to find that on the train from Inverness to Kings Cross there was a wifi service which while slow was very useful.

I am now using the same netbook on the Pendelino from Glasgow to London and thought I should compare internet access this year during train travel.

National Express Inter City 125

I used this again going from London to Pitlochry on the ECML in May. The service is free of charge even in standard class but you are asked to be considerate to other users and avoid large downloads. It was not particularly fast but certainly quite usable for e-mail or basic web browsing. Very occasionally, I got disconnected and had to reconnect but the journey was fairly long.

Virgin Pendelino

A few days later I took the WCML with a Virgin Pendelino from Lancaster to Birmingham. This time I found out that the wifi was a commercial service supplied by T-Mobile. I ended up paying £4.90 for 1 hour (24 h would have been £9.79). The service seemed reliable - though I was only connected for the hour - and seemed to be a similar speed to that from National Express. However in both cases the number of people online would have been a major factor with speed.

Vodafone 3G/GPRS Dongle

A month ago I decided that I wanted to avoid wifi charges (in airports, hotels and trains) and took the plunge with a Vodafone dongle. More rural areas are not covered by 3G, but it reverts to GPRS (2.5G) if necessary. I am using this service today as I write. Compared with the wifi on the train the speed is comparable but varies with location. The disadvantage is that you get occasionally cut off and have to reconnect (usually fairly quick). While this has not hindered me greatly it is more frequent than with wifi. Worst areas were just north of London, near the Lake District and just north of Carlisle.

For me as an infrequent train traveller I think using Vodafone has been the best choice. I suppose a regular traveller with Virgin inter city services would find the T-Mobile monthly pricing a possible alternative (though more than I pay for Vodafone). Happiest of all would be a regular traveller with National Express.

Mrs O and I have often travelled down to Cornwall rushing through Devon either on the A30, the A38 or by train. This year we decided that we should stop this and see a bit of Dartmoor. Strangely heading west from Exeter to Launceston you see very little of Dartmoor from the A30 as the views are obscured by nearby small hills and hedges. We decided to stay a few nights at Woodland Springs that is located a short distance from the A30, East of Okehampton.

The following is our quick review:

Situation and Layout

The campsite is about 100 metres from the A382 in the tiny hamlet of Venton. As such it is easily accessible from the A30, you are aware of some traffic noise but nothing disturbing. There are about 60 pitches laid out around 3 roadways generally separated by trees or hedges.

The site is well located for getting onto the moor and for walks in the Okehampton and Chagford areas.

Facilities

There is a reception/shop which sells basics and some local produce. There is a centrally located toilet/washing block that was build in November 2008 and is immaculately clean. Showers have a good pressure but work off push buttons about 10 s at a time. The campsite is obviously trying to mimimise its envirnonmental impact by having no night lighting and by clear separation of recyclable rubbish from the rest.

There were plenty of taps around the site.

There was a wireless internet service that cost about £8 for two days. The signal was very good indeed and much appreciated when there was limited mobile phone coverage; O2 worked well, but neither Orange nor 3 had a signal.

Pitches

There are a variety of pitches with grass only, half grass and gravel. We had a tent and used a grass pitch which was fairly waterlogged. In fairness July 2009 has had torrential rain and other people have said this is typical for Dartmoor. There was no evidence of waterlogging with the pitches for caravans with gravel.

Tarifs

Full informaiton is given here.

We paid £19/night for a "standard pitch" with electricity and found this OK.

Overall

We were happy with our visity despite the wet ground underfoot. It is a good location for doing Dartmoor walks. An environmentally friendly place.

One point I have not mentioned is that it is "adults only". With our first holiday without kids this was not an issue. However many visitors had 2-4 dogs! You miss the sound of kids playing but must be prepared for barking dogs. However overall it was a quiet site apart from the "dog moments".

Just before the New Year my brother-in-law took us for a trip on one of the water bus routes in the Rotterdam area. These are fast travelling catamarans that complement other modes of public transport - the closest analogy in the UK would be the Thames Clipper.

We boarded the waterbus near Krimpen aan den Ijssel although the river here is the Lek rather than the Ijssel. In the background the large Brienenoordbrug can be seen which links Rotterdam with motorways leading south and east. Close to the waterbusstop there was a shipbuilding yard with a large ocean-going tug under construction.

The waterbus route went to Dordrecht which is the oldest city in the Netherlands. After a few minutes travelling upstream the waterbus took the Noord rather than the Lek then stopped at Ridderkerk.

Again there was another shipbuilder across the Noord on the East bank. As is usually the case on the big rivers there was plenty of barge traffic.

Most barges were quite substantial such as the one above on the right carrying containers.

However, there is a "pusher" boat pushing no less than six barges here; it is being overtaken by the container barge.

At the end of the Noord there is the point where the Merwede river splits into the Oude Maas and Noord. Dordrecht is on the south bank. Papendrecht is on the north side and Zwijndrecht on the west side.

We took Voorstraat (means 'Forestreet') towards the city centre. Many of the buildings looked quite old.

Many gables were stepped such as the one above. However, what was very obvious was that older buildings suffered subsidence and as a result had walls at an angle.

The walls bordering this alley off Voorstraat look like they want to kiss each other! After taking a look around the centre, we did a loop walking around some of the old harbours. Some fronts had an art deco look to them.

One harbour was bounded by historic buildings. I do not know the name of this harbour however the street on the east side was called Kuipershaven (literally "Cooper's haven").

This is shown in the photo above.

The west side was called Wolwevershaven (literally "wool weaver's haven"). Many historic barges were moored on this side of the harbour.

We then went to the Grote Kerk (Great Kirk) which was shut. A sign outside said that it leaned 2.5 metres out of true at the top which was comparable to the leaning tower of Pisa! By this time we were freezing so we went into a cafe for a toastie and coffee.

We returned to the waterbus stop on the east side of the old town. This view in Noordendijk shows how many buildings lean out of true.

On the return journey I was impressed by the number of bikes being taken on the waterbus. In fact behind the photographer's position there was a large bike rack in the stern of the boat.

When we took the waterbus back towards Krimpen the light was fading completely. We decided to take the waterbus all the way to Rotterdam to see the skyline by night. It was quite spectacular but none of my photos are any good due to the motion of the waterbus and the slowish exposures.

The waterbus station sign for Rotterdam is the only evidence I can show that we got that far!

In conclusion, I can recommend the waterbus as a means of transport for any visitor. It is fast and offers great views by night and day. Also Dordrecht is probably not the most famous town to visit in the Netherlands but is well worth a visit.

A few weeks ago I reported that I have an occasional job as a fish & game van driver. After a few deliveries with a white van I am now allowed to drive with a properly marked van.

This is part of the design on the side of the van. It is of course an angler fish, which is better known as monkfish on the fish counter.

I have also had much better success in programming the satnav. Found I liked km/m more than miles/yards and have finally got the thing to stick to the windscreen. Visiting customers for the second and third time also means that I am knowing the route rather than blindly following the satnav.

This will almost certainly be my last post this year as I will be offline in the Netherlands for the coming week.

Happy New Year to all!

After a month without work I got a job as a relief driver last week delivering fish for a local wholesaler. I spent a day delivering fish to restaurants, pubs and hotels in Winchester and Portsmouth.

I turned up at the warehouse at 07:30 and was duly assigned a white Mercedes Vito. I have never driven one before but have always been impressed by Mercedes vehicles. When I asked about how I was to find my way to the different customers I was given a Tom Tom satnav device, but the boss couldn't tell me how to use it.

The first two hours were a bit of a nightmare. Firstly I could not get it to stick to the dashboard so ended up putting it on a flat surface in the middle of the car above the dashboard. I managed to work out how to program the device for the first customer using the postcode and set off. Unfortunately the Tom Tom slid around the flat area and it was not possible to read the display. Worse still when I grabbed the device the touch screen was triggered and it went into a menu mode! Also I found it very hard to get use to a display showing tenths of a mile then yards; I simply do not think in multiples of 176 yards - what is 0.4 miles in yards? I actually really missed the simplicity of driving with kilometres that I had in my decade in Germany - you know without thinking that 0.4 km is 400 metres.

I made the first delivery to a village pub. I had taken quite a roundabout route to get to the village which I had never previously visited. Later in the day I realise that the village was off a B road that I know well and I could have taken a much shorter route. The third drop was to a hotel in a former stately home. I was suspicious when the satnav device indicated that I should drive past the main entrance; but I assumed that the tradesman's entrance had a separate driveway. It then showed that I should turn right into a single track lane, which after 500 metres was completely flooded with a 20 metre long puddle. Finally it took me almost back to the main road I had started on and suggested that I turn through 315 degrees right. This was a tree-lined avenue leading to the house - perhaps formerly the main entrance - but now a muddy bridle path.

Although I have occasionally done sightseeing in Winchester I know none of the hotel and restaurant locations. I duly managed to go round the circulatory system about 4-5 times trying to find customers. In two cases I drove right past them before realising I had to turn off the road.

All this time I had not got the Tom Tom to speak to me. I duly checked the preferences and ensured that the sound was on maximum volume but it still refused to speak to me.

So off to Portsmouth...at least I could find my way there on the M3 and M27 without satnav. It was a clear day with great views so an enjoyable drive. Two customers were in Old Portsmouth on the harbourside or near the old defences. It is a quiet and attractive area that I have not visited for 3 decades. Then for the last deliveries I was again at the mercy of satnav - I totally lost my sense of direction in Southsea. The problem with these devices is that they do not help you to learn to drive round the town you are visiting. It is like having tunnel vision! The last two restaurants both complained - one that I had not found the tradesman's entrance and had delivered fish via the restaurant and the other that I had found the tradesman's entrance when I should have come through the restaurant. Ho humm!

Then back to base...this time thankfully navigating with my brain rather than a GPS device. Technology seems to take us two steps forward and simultaneously one backward! At least the return journey had great views and no snarlups.

Recent behaviour of our banks has reminded me a lot of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:23-30. I planned to write this a few weeks ago but did not get round to it.

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accunts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and all that he had should be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him, 'Be patient with me', he begged, 'and I will pay back everything'. The servant's master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.

But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow-servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!'. He demanded. His fellow-servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back'.

But he refused. Instead he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

The excesses of the banking industry have made joyless reading. However, isn't it galling to see the behaviour of some of the newly-nationalised banks? A year or so ago they were offering mortgages (e.g. 125% or 6x salary) that were quite irresponsible as a small setback (e.g. uptick in interest rates) would make the mortgage payments unaffordable. Northern Rock was one of the leaders of this with them raising money on wholesale markets. Then banks hit trouble and the state has to bail them out. With us entering a recession you would think that they would show some flexibility towards their debtors; yet Northern Rock has been reported as being one of the most aggressive reposessors! Indeed responsible for 10% of repossessions.

Of course, banks need to recapitalise and really bad debts need to be dealt with. However, I suspect that many of these reposessions are either a result of people being encouraged to over-borrow or due to short-term payment difficulties. It behoves the banks who invested so much in persuading the public to get into debt to invest time in helping customers replan their finances to remain solvent.

I was encouraged to see yesterday that the Royal Bank of Scotland is postponing the process of reposession to 6 months in arrears. Let's hope that this is not simply a marketing gimmick and that banks proactively engage with their customers to help them replan their finances.

There is something wrong with the UK's approach to transport infrastructure. We cut too much of the railway network under Dr Beeching, have failed to electrify it, then have dithered for decades over really important projects like London's CrossRail. I always find it refreshing to see a more strategic approach in Germany or France.

Munich started its U-Bahn around the time of the 1972 Olympics and has invested steadily in expanding the network since then. Unlike London's deeper underground lines which seem to be designed for dwarves, the U-Bahn trains are wide (probably slightly wider than those on the Circle, District and Metropolitan lines) with plenty of headroom for tall people.

On my trip this week I was impressed at the design of some stations. On the U-Bahn map two lines are showing as crossing over but in the intersection station the lines come into the station in parallel. Such stations like Innsbrucker Ring have 4 platforms in parallel.

I noticed that in the rushhour, the trains were synchronised to allow passengers to change line. The way it worked is shown in the following photos:

In this example the eastbound U5 train arrives in the station.

Before the U5 train has stopped completely, the U2 eastbound train arrives in the station.

A fair number of passengers change trains. The trains leave with a separation of about 30 seconds. In rush hour both lines operated one train every 3-4 minutes.

The pictures above show the older style of train with distict coaches - up to 6 per train.

However the more modern trains have a concertina between each coach meaning that the six coach train appears as one continuous space as shown above.

This week I visited the Electronica trade show in Munich; Europe's largest in this industry branch. The trade fair centre - Neue Messe Muenchen - was under construction in the late 1990s before I moved back to the UK, however I have never taken a look at it. In my decade in Germany I often represented my company at Electronica. In those days however the trade show as at the old fairground to the west of the Theresienwiese.

The Messestadt is well served by public transport with two U-bahn (underground) stations and plenty of bus connections.

There is an entrance building at both east and west ends of the centre. The photo above shows the west entrance.

The exhibition halls are in three rows (A, B & C) with a large green space between each row of halls. On the first day it was pleasant enough to sit outside, but on my second day there was constant rainfall. The photo above looks towards the end of the B row with the A row out of view on the right.

Most exhibition halls are 161 metres long and 71 metres wide and have extensive spaces in between presumably for vehicles when setting up and tearing down exhibition stands.

Inside the halls have a vast volume.

I only stuck to row A at Electronica but that row alone accomodated a huge number of stands.

It is decades since I visited South Wales and Mrs O has never been there. This is a shame as it is only 3 hours drive away. We booked a weekend in Monmouth staying at a B & B above the Bistro Prego. I had expected tow ork a full Friday but since I am no longer working we were able to get away early.

We crossed the older Severn Bridge and then drove up the Wye Valley from Chepstow. This is all new for me and the trees on the east side of the valley were lit by the fading sun. When we got to Tintern, the sun was aready behind the hills to the west.

Nevertheless the abbey rin looked great with the backdrop of sunlit trees in their autumn glory.

Monmouth is at the junction of the Wye and the Monnow rivers. We made our way to Prego which is very close to the centre of town.

It is in the narrow street in the photo above which is for pedestrians only. The Prego B & B is small and reasonably priced with about £40 for single occupancy and £60 for double. The room was simple but comfortable. We headed out for a curry, which tasted good but the service was less than friendly. We decided we would try the Prego restaurant the following evening.

At the foot of the main street there is the bridge over the Monnow. It was built in the 1270s and is the only surviving old bridge with a town gate on it. I have seen many pictures of bridges like this in history books but it was good to see one for real.

On the whole I thought that the town was very pleasant. The shopfront signs on the main street were noticably subdued compared with the typical high street. There were lots of buildings a few hundred years old with lovely high ceilings. A fair number of the older buildings had 4 storeys.

I knew nothing about the town until last weekend, but was pleasantly surprised and would not mind going there again.

After almost 16 years, I had a surprise visit from my boss and was told I was being made redundant. I had half expected this a year ago, yet it was still a surprise to be hit yesterday. I have much to be thankful for, having had steady employment since graduating and as far as I can see I am being treated fairly...however it is a sobering time to be thrown onto the jobs market.

...ho humm.

O.