Odds 'n Ends

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.

I first got to know St Pancras station in 1979 when I went for my first job interviews at the end of my B.Sc (Eng) at Glasgow University. I recall taking the sleeper from Glasgow Central to London Euston then taking the train from St Pancras to Bedford for an interview at Texas Instruments. My impression then of St Pancras was a very mixed one - on the one hand it was incredibly drab and stank from the diesel exhaust from the multiple units that took the short term traffic to Bedford, on the other hand there was this enormous arched roof that was larger than any other London terminus or major railway station in Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, etc.

There was the terrible story about selling off the antique clock (and destroying it when taking it down!). With the electification of the "Bedpan" line in the early 1980s there was the sensible development of electic traction and the Thameslink local service. However, St Pancras remained a fairly grim and neglected terminal compared with the others serving northward destnations e.g. Euston or Kings Cross.

I was happy to hear that St Pancras would be redeveloped as the Eurostar terminus. The arch over the train shed had tremendous potential. On my previous Eurostar trips from Waterloo station, I was very impressed by the redevelopment of the Gare du Nord from drab terminus to modern TGV terminal (including French TGV, international Thalys trains to Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, and Eurostar to the UK). There was a lot of use of glass and the whole station seemed much lighter than decades ago.

The huge William Barlow train shed is a very fitting London Terminus for the Eurostar service. I am delighted that this much neglected building is now pivotal to London's international connections. This is a worthy complement to the redeveloped Gare du Nord. I recall the Barlow shed as being so dingy and yet the glass panels and the blue metalwork come across very well.

When I first read of the new terminal and the bronze statue of an embracing couple, I was quite moved. I understand that the sculptor is British and that he had a long term relationship with his French wife. This brought back strong memories of my long-distance relationship with my wife over 20 years ago when I was in London and she was in the Netherlands. Despite that I found the scale of the sculputure overbearing. To my surprise I much preferred the life size status of John Betjeman.

The development of the lower level - former brewery storage - was very good.

The retail and restaurant spaces in the old beer storage looked generally well-architected. It seemed like an imaginative combination of old and new.

I have not yet made a Eurostar journey from St Pancras but think that it is a very fitting terminal for international train services.

What a shame that the "regional EuroStar" services going from Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh to Paris and Brussels were dropped! What a shame that there are no services from St Pancras to say Amsterdam, Köln or Lyon. What a poverty of vision!

I was greatly saddened yesterday to read of the assisted suicide of Daniel James in the Independent. Daniel had been an outstanding rugby player who had played for England Under-16s and for his University team. In early 2007 he had an accident in training which left him quadriplegic. It is not surprising if he was in despair following this shock. However I am disturbed with the reason given for his suicide.

Yesterday afternoon Daniel James's family issued a statement through their lawyers. It told of how he refused to live a second-class existence, and concluded: "This is the last way that the family wanted Dan's life to end but he was, as those who know him are aware, an intelligent, strong-willed and some say determined young man."

Having only a few months ago seen the Paralympics I am amazed at what disabled people can do even in sport; we saw some of our medal winners in the parade in London on Thursday. My wife works at a school with children having severe physical and mental disabilities but is so happy to see children reach their potential.

When I read that Daniel was quadriplegic I recalled a book I had borrowed some 3 decades ago about a young woman - Joni Eareckson who was very successful in sport but was paralysed from the neck downward in a diving accident (Joni ISBN: 0553115723). This book tells of her struggles and suffering in hospital initially; a time of total despair. She ends up only being able to move her head but finds meaning though her faith in God and as she developed new skills as an artist.

It is sad that Daniel's condition was not as bad as this.

Yesterday, his physio, who asked not to be named, told The Independent that she believed Daniel could have gone on to live a "worthwhile life". She added: "I heard that Dan had died last month and I was totally shocked. He was improving and, despite technically being a quadriplegic he still had the use of his arms and hands. He could feed and dress himself and was able to push himself around in his wheelchair. Most quadriplegics do improve over time; these improvements come perhaps two or three years after the accident. It was early days for Daniel."

In the same newspaper there is a story of another young quadriplegic rugby player - Matt Hampson - also aged 23. He had a long recovery but is active in the rugby scene as a journalist and business.

My passion for rugby has never diminished, in fact it's probably stronger than it ever has been. The support I've had from the rugby community has been amazing, it is one big family and I'm proud to be part of it. I still watch the Leicester Tigers, in fact I'm probably one of their harshest critics....Life is busy and a lot of fun. I have my own website and memorabilia company and I'm in the process of writing a book with sports writer Paul Kimmage. I have regular physiotherapy sessions which are a great help. Although physically I'm not an athlete, mentally I always will be, and I need to be pushed.

While there are gut-wrenching stories of people who are terminally ill and want to die, the flip side if assisted suicide is legalised people who are ill or severely disabled may feel under pressure to commit suicide to avoid being a "burden".

It is important that our society values disabled people as having real and meaningful lives as fellow-citizens and not as having "second class lives".

Daniel was not terminally ill and his treatment was showing great promise. Given another two years of treatment he might have been like Matt Hampson and found a new "first class life". The poor guy was obviously in despair but did he get help to cope with the shock and depression of his condition?

I hope that the investigation will look into whether we do enough to help people like Daniel cope with their condition and rebuild their lives. A life at 23 with use of arms and hands ought to be a life of opportunity not despair. We need to learn to help future accident victims - suicide should not be the answer. Measures to help those close to a victim - such as families and friends - are also needed.