JP's Corner of The Blogosphere

I tweeted so prolifically yesterday that even the most inobservant of you probably know that I was on a train through Wales.  Some of you are probably already on the edge of your seat in anticipation of my latest train-related blog post. Please control your excitement, however.  I regret to inform you that there are no tales of romance .  There isn’t even much of a rant , having instead added my frustrations to the cloud of annoyance with Arriva Trains Wales which is already present on Twitter. There isn’t, if I am honest, much to say about trains, either. Still, my story begins with me sat on a station platform, where I was waiting for a connection.  I was watching the electronic sign list the stops for the next train: Filton Abbey Wood Bristol Bath Spa Bradford-Upon Avon … Westbury … Salisbury … Southampton Central … Admittedly this was probably only marginally more interesting than watching paint dry, but please bear with me.  As the place na...

As I get older and wiser, I am realising that I cannot avoid the fact that I may come across as a bit of a geek.  This is probably not surprising (I am a ferroequinologist, after all), but it does mean that even folks with names like Mike Posner think that they’re cooler than me. I do try and make up for this by adding chic to my geek, although this doesn’t always go as planned.  My brother’s reaction to my new Versace glasses, for example, was “are they fake?”* Thankfully, I realised today that there are always some people in the world who are geekier than you, no matter who you are.  Unless you’re the one of the guys I saw on the train this morning. The guys in question were sat a little further up the carriage from me, and I don’t think that anyone would question whether or not their glasses were genuine, because I don’t think that there is a market in counterfeit NHS items.  As is the way with such types, they were conversing quite loudly, and I was able to en...

Shock horror.  Someone writing for The Guardian has written an article complaining about BBC’s Top Gear .  Whereas I wouldn’t usually bother giving such drivel any airtime, I have, on this occasion decided to throw my hat in to the ring.  The article in question is about an episode on electric cars, and as a researcher working in the field of Sustainable Transport I feel that I ought to be in a position to pass comment on the matter. Anyone who has watched the episode in question will know that it wasn’t unfair of Andy Wilman (the producer) to assert that “the programme wasn't testing the range claims of the vehicles, and nor did it state that the vehicles wouldn't achieve their claimed range.”  Indeed, the point of the episode was not to see how far the cars would go on a single charge, and complaints such as "at no point were viewers told that the battery had been more than half empty at the start of the trip” are an irrelevance. Instead, I thought that Top Gear...

I am currently enjoying the letters page in today's Metro. It is awash with responses to a "party political" letter evidently recently written by one 'J Alan.' Evidently said letter blamed the Conservatives for the riots and I am delighted to see that many folk have written in, crying "ignorance" and reminding the readership about 13 years of a Labour government under which "anti social behaviour, laziness and a culture of crime without consequence were allowed to thrive." Of course, it is one thing for members of the public to take political shots. What I find completely abhorrent is Ken Livingstone's use of the riots to further his own political gain. His recent comments effectively imply that the rioters had an excuse, which is just unacceptable. Boris may look like a joker but at least he's not a weasel.

  One of the songs I really enjoy singing in church is ‘ Blessed Be Your Name .’  It’s quite old now, but I find it really expressive.  It helps me to remember that we have a lot to thank God for (and that sometimes we need to see beyond current circumstances). I found myself thinking about this song when I was away last week.  It was quite appropriate because I was feeling very thankful and I had realised that there are times when God really does bless us in abundance.  As an aside, one of the things that I had wrestled with when I changed jobs was giving up some fantastic travelling opportunities – and yet I have ended up not lacking in this area at all. The song was also quite appropriate because it contains the line “when I’m found in the desert place.” Of course, I was taking the line more literally than perhaps it was meant, because I was actually to be found in the desert. I’m fairly certain that no-one really cares where I was, and that it was a pr...

This is a quick post for the more regular visitors amongst you; if this is the first time you've joined us in this part of the Blogosphere it may be a bit of a pointless exercise. The basic question is this. If you had to single out one of my blog posts as a particular favourite* which one would it be? Please dig through the archives and post the link to your selection as a comment. Thanks! *"least worst" is also an acceptable method of categorisation here.

It’s occurred to me that I’m probably not divulging particularly great clues about my location – my friend John, for example, who is normally quite good at this sort of thing, thinks that I am at RAF Northolt.  Which I am not. So let’s bring everyone up to speed. - on Wednesday, when I was at the Red Desk, my HTC thought I was in Hillingdon - if you follow me on Twitter you will also note that I queued for a seat and a G&T after leaving said desks. Moving on you know that I went by bus to a capital city this morning.  I stood on a carpet which is famous for being big, saw some big chandeliers and visited a hotel which was expensive to build.

Today’s post, for those of you tuning in for clues of my current whereabouts, is short, sweet, and possibly not a huge help. Tomorrow I shall be going on a bus, with my friend, to visit a capital city.  The bus journey is between 2 and 2 1/2 hours.

Obviously if you’re playing the ‘Where’s JP?’ game, it’s a bit unfair of me to show you a couple of featureless corridors and expect you to home in on where I am.  So here are some shops I passed today… For the record, I didn’t go in to any of them.

From the Red Desk I was sent to the Blue Desk.  And then I arrived here.  Where there is another corridor.

The red desk lies off this corridor. The person manning it is crucial to my travel plans. I'm praying for good news.

  For my birthday, the people I live with gave me the Top Gear “Where’s Stig?” book.  It’s like the “Where’s Wally?” books but much cooler, and I find it entertaining. I have also found it quite entertaining to not tell people where I am going this weekend, other than the fact that I am off to visit a university friend.  Having kept it quiet (if nothing else because the plans have only really come together in the last few days, and I didn’t want to get too excited if it was all going to fall through) I am now enjoying being a man of mystery. I’m not going to post drawings of people which may include me somewhere so it’s not really like “Where’s Stig?”* However, I may post a few clues over the next few days for those of you who are bored and like this sort of thing.**  *I’m sure some wisecrack will point out that because I’m a ferroequinologist it’s more like “Where’s Wally” anyway, but we’ll gloss over that.  Besides, I like to think that I do have some chi...

Along with Halfords, Vodafone is the second entry on my current blacklist. I can’t be bothered to give them airtime by boring you with all the details at the moment (I’ll save them for a rainy day) but I am now staggered at the levels of incompetence I have had the dubious pleasure of experiencing. In a nutshell, they have failed to bill me correctly.  None of their figures match what I agreed to, and every single adviser tells me something different.  The amazing thing is that even though the entire thread can be seen in writing even their customer service emails are contradictory. I know I’ve already spoken a bit about getting what you pay for with customer service, but this is more akin to a lucky dip than any sort of service. Besides, if I end up paying what they’ve tried to bill me I would have expected no hassle at all. Honestly, I think I would have had more chance of finding someone who was able to put in place what I had agreed to by ringing a random number from t...

It’s just gone 1130, which means that it’s time for me to kick back with a coffee.  And inject some thoughts in to the Blogosphere whilst I do so. I had a lovely day with friends in the New Forest yesterday, and for part of the journey there we were behind a Range Rover whose number plate just about read “Losers.”  Although this is something you’d expect Jeremy Clarkson to have, and has shades of being ostentatious and obnoxious, I quite liked it.  However, it was later pointed out to me that the effect of overtaking someone whilst displaying that message is offset by the fact that the car must also have had the same numberplate at the front.  From that point of view the reaction is likely to be “oh look, a car full of losers.” On reflection, this own-goal is further enhanced by the fact that the numberplate didn’t spell “Losers” exactly, but was spaced so that the desired effect was achieved.  I can’t recall whether it was “LOO5ERS” (in which case the owner ...

There’s an interesting report about Private Sector Pension provision on the BBC News Page this morning.  There are some fair warnings about the need to save for retirement, but I’m not sure I like the tone of the article.  After all, it is left to a commentator at the bottom to point out that Gordon Brown made a fair crack of raiding the aforementioned pension schemes when he was Chancellor.