The Christmas post

Despite…

1. My general opinion on Christmas being an overly commercialised circus of hype.
2. London shops being rammed full with people making any kind of purchase a nightmare.
3. Mass transportation demand chaos causing huge disruption and inconvenience
4. The weird fog epidemic presently plaguing London and the south east (at least, if not further).
5. My hour and a bit long train ride from Ealing this evening because a set of doors on the train decided to open for no apparent reason whilst the train was cruising along at about 60mph (seriously I am not kidding) (having a train jump to an emergency stop is one thing I hope never have to repeat) and the resultant damage control exercise.
6. Claire still being away snowboarding.

... I am feeling surprisingly festive with a selection of now nicely wrapped gifts sitting in front of my non-existent Christmas tree.

Have a good Christmas people.

U864

Interesting article (I thought) about a toxic WW2 submarine in the North Sea only recently discovered (via).

How much First Great Western Rail suck

To First Great Western Rail, may I just say that I have been forced into using your trains for just over six months now and must say I have generally been nothing short of being thoroughly underwhelmed by your service. However your recent timetable rearrangements are nothing short of bizarre, inconvenient and devastatingly dumb.

You are not allowed to announce with great pride that your new timetable provides a greater number of services. Your new timetable only provides a greater number of services because you have decided to stop them at every fucking station along the way. And because you have ancient relic piece of shit trains that accelerate and brake about as speedily as an asthmatic snail; this means that the journey into London now takes even longer than it did with your previously (slightly less) appalling service.

Add to this that you now appear to have made all the trains even smaller so they are even more crowded and everyone is forced to smell even more of their neighbours stinky armpits than before. Seriously, at what point did you think that any mainline service between London and Reading was going to comfortably accommodate everyone from all the stations you now kindly stop at when it only has two carriages?

This is of course assuming that the train fucking works. Lest I not go into detail about how you imprisoned myself and an array of other hapless passengers on one of your delightfully shit trains when it decided to break down half way between Maidenhead and Taplow and you left us stranded in the middle of nowhere for three hours with no apology and no compenstaion.

And a further thing, on what basis do you consider it acceptable to cancel my train because of 'stock shortages.' I presume this means you ran out of trains? Seriously how can you fucking run out of trains? What did you tuck it up in the shed last night and get there this morning to find it had magically disappeared overnight?

And I say tuck it up at night because quite clearly you are no longer operating any kind of late night service. One of the few redeeming virtues of your old timetable was that I could get out of London at 2 o'clock in the morning. Now there's no chance of that, I have to sit on yet another of your slow trains having enjoyed my last drink at midnight.

So First Great Western Rail, can you confirm for me whether you are in fact running a train company or are you running a fucking circus. Should I expect the 08:15 to roll in next week being towed by an elephant, or perhaps the 17:36 won't actually be a train, perhaps it will be a baboon, or a chocolate teapot or something else equally pointless.

Travels

Well, looking back over the (somewhat thin on the ground) recent posts it seems the blog has turned into more of Nick's travel journal. So as not to depart from this general theme here is my rather fun map of where I have been. Create your own.

More adventures across the pond

In March we are going for a multi-stop trip to San Francisco and Vancouver. Claire has friends who are on work placement in Vancouver so we are staying there for free for ten days and having done considerable investigation on flights it transpires that it is barely more expensive to fly through San Francisco so we are stopping for five days there too.


We are flying out to San Francisco on Virgin (because they were very nice when we flew with them to New York) where we connect to a flight to Vancouver with United. I know this sounds a bit weird but for quite a lot of flights out (or back) you have to connect somewhere (often random places like Cincinnati or Salt Lake City) and this way we get a cheaper deal than we were quoted from Flight Centre by around 250 squids and get nice Virgin Flights rather than having to board something crappy and expensive which seem to be the only airlines that fly direct to Vancouver.

Haven't booked anywhere to stay in 'cisco yet. Was thinking this place looked rather funky and is highly praised on Trip Advisor however my parents wisdom suggests that Fishermans Wharf is tack central and not the place to stay. We will have to see...

It is still three months away but I am already really rather excited, hence why I am telling you all about it.

Ten reasons why I would move to New York

Now it has been about a fortnight since I got back from New York. And I can without doubt say it was one of the best places I have ever been. Here are my ten reasons which I came up with (in no particular order) without even struggling and could easily list more.

1. Food. The food in New York is amazing. Not only are the portions huge, they are extremely tasty, not greasy, oily, fatty, re-heated or any other negative things that you seem to have to put up with to some degree at almost any restaurant in the UK unless you pay through the nose. And also the service is excellent and swift and many places stay open all night meaning you literally can get what you want, when you want. And yes you can have breakfast at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, or a Chinese for breakfast. And on top of all that it is extremely cheap, I don’t think we paid much more than $30 (£15) for two meals including drinks and everything the entire time we were there.

2. Central Park. Central Park is stunning. It is without doubt the nicest park I have ever been to. And that is saying a lot because if there is one thing London is good at it is really nice parks. The contrast of Central Park against the tall buildings surrounding it is breathtaking in its own right. However the park in its own right is amazing, beautifully laid out and landscaped and maintained to the absolute highest standard.

3. Cost. New York is cheap. Especially at the moment with the high performance of the pound against the dollar. Ok, it costs a little bit to fly out there and stay but once you are there it is totally bargainous.

4. The people. New Yorkers are great people, they are polite, accommodating, open minded and generous. Taxi drivers at the airport looking for a fare helped us to our shuttle bus drop off point even when we declined their offer of a taxi, the woman in the shuttle bus gave us hints and tips on good local restaurants and shops on the trip from the airport to the hotel, people chatted to each other on the subway and let people get off the train before trying to get on.

5. The Subway. The New York Subway is brilliant. I can't stand the London Underground because it stops everywhere (going local in NY speak), behaves erratically and you got told nothing about why the train has stopped for no apparent reason in the middle of nowhere for 20 minutes. The New York Subway has express trains which just makes so much sense, they are impeccably clean and run very smoothly and if it ever stops for more than 20 seconds, somebody will be on the PA telling you exactly why they’ve stopped what they doing about it, how sorry they are and that the train will be moving again in about 90 seconds.

6. The Staten Island Ferry. One of the most breathtaking views in the world on a very pleasant and amazingly rapid ferry for free. Seriously, how is that not outstanding?



7. Shopping. Question: What would you like to buy? Answer: Its there, whatever it is. Also imagine how little it would cost, then half the price and that’s how much it is.

8. Empire State Building. Stunning building which looks good from afar and looks good up close. And the views from the top are far ranging and staggering.

9. Street network. New York is a busy place and the streets are busy and crowded with cars. However the traffic isn’t all that bad considering. The Streets and Avenues work like this: All the lights are red on all the junctions, everything along the entire street is stationary and all you can see is a vast nest of red lights. Then bam all the lights go green in one go, all the cars stamp on the gas and everything leaps forward by about 5-10 blocks. Compared to south eastern England’s lurching and arbitrary infrastructure this is extremely satisfying.

10. Getting there. It is a seven hour flight from Heathrow Airport. Go on one of those nice Virgin Atlantic flights into JFK and by the time you’ve had your pleasant in flight meal, a few glasses of free wine and played about with the entertainment system you have arrived.

Now any one of these reasons is an excuse to go in itself. If you haven’t been book your trip now. Seriously. Here are some links to help you.

How del.icio.us

Now I got bored with Jason Kottke's self satisfied ramblings months ago however stumbled across this rather amusing piece about del.icio.us eating del.icio.us whilst finding a link to the page I linked to here. You probably have to be an internet nerd to appreciate this though.

In other news....

Right all sorts of little things have been going on that I thought I would have a brief rant about.

Firstly, you may have noticed some subtle changes to the appearance of Nick101, such as the loss of the Weather-pixie, the Blogger and Britblog icons and the loss of my nice centrally aligned format to posts. All due to the 'upgrade' Blogger Beta which I am somewhat nonplussed by to be honest (sorry nice people at Blogger (aka Google)). Additionally this has also messed up my Statcounter stats as the the html no longer works and I haven't had the opportunity to fix that yet.

Next... over the summer period those nice people at Network Rail appear to have installed a CSR (Cab Secure Radio) telecommunications mast outisde my flat which has only just become apparent due to the autumn loss of tree screening. I am not really bothered about this, and actually am not actually allowed to be bothered about this having ranted to so many people who have mobile phone masts approved by me that are at the end of their gardens that such matters were a non-issue and their children and pets wouldn't die of radioactive death plague. Interesting for me though as it tests my proffessional convictions.

This weekend I met Claire's parents for the second time which went very smooothly if I do say so myself. I also (and possibly more challengingly) met her autistic brother for the first time which also seemed to go well. I think fun was had by everyone although I do feel a little socially drained from the whole thing as I have only just recently got home from this little adventure (hence my late night post).

Speaking of Claire, if you are interested you can see her Myspace page and blog here (hope you don't mind the publcity Claire!) (I shall hold my tongue regarding my general opinion on Myspace).

More news... I am bored with my now not so new job (again) having been there nine months and am getting itchy feet again. Am intending on applying for another job with a certain other London Planning Authority. Although this one will require another move of home becuase it is massively uncommutable from Maidenhead, probably more into London (which I have been thinking about anyway... Chiswick, Acton, Fulham, Chez Bue locale methinks), says he in advance of having even completed the application forms let alone get an interview.

Erm, what else...

Presently enjoying listening to: Faithless - Bombs. Video is very good.
Presently downloading planning on hiring from the video shop as is legal and proper: Prison Break.

That is all for now. Have a good week people.

(And yes I know this post is full of repetitions and typos bt I don't care so there!)

New York photos

The majority of the photos from New York are now on Claire's flickr. However here are some of my favourites (click to enlarge - the photos are quite big).

A really nice candid shot of 106th Street off Central Park West.

Claire being all artsy in Central Park.

Central Park, looking west towards the Upper West Side.

Nick and Claire in a helicopter. Yes that's right we did a helicopter tour of Manhattan which was nothing short of amazing, even if the weather weas a little grey and windy.

Statue of Liberty from the aforementioned helicopter.

Upper East Side of Manhattan taken from Central Park across Jackie Onasis lake (this is my new desktop background on my computer).

Nick and Claire messing around in Sheep Meadow in Central Park.

The Flatiron Building in Mid Town, New Yorks first steel framed skyscraper.

Nick and Claire looking very fetching by a fountain in Central Park.

Chrysler Building et al as seen from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building.

Fun in the Skyscraper Museum.

Flight time

New York is amazing. I didn't want to leave. However, now back in glorious England and feeling a little jet lagged. Photos (of which we have around 300) soon...

Did I mention New York was amazing?

Also congratulations to Laura who gave birth to six and a half pound baby Thomas last night at about the same time I was leaving JFK airport I think.

New York baby

Nick and Claire are flying out to New York on Tuesday. We are staying here. We are going up this and going on this. And lots of other things too.

Blog may be updated and photos may be added to Claire's flickr while we are out there dependent on time and internet accessibility. No doubt there will be more on the blog when we are back.

Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

This evening I saw Borat's new movie Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. This film is funny. It is also very, very wrong. Just when you think the absolute high point of wrongness has been reached it is subsequently surpased by further even more extreme wrongness. Go see.

Additionally, apparently potassium is not Kazakhstan's biggest export.

Its bad to laugh at other peoples misfortune

Except when they are complete idiots who deserve it... Very funny video of dumb drivers having issues with rising bollards (via).

Cold and windy and omg look what I was doing this time last year

I was going to do a brief post moaning about how it is now cold and windy. And well it is. So I guess that concludes that bit.

However as I was typing the title of this post into the title bar in the blogger interface the autocomplete function popped up with a previous post title I had done, specifically cold. Which erroneously reminded me of this post about daylight which I did around about this time last year.

But in looking for these posts to link to I found that this time last year on Friday I had my interview for my current job. Now this is probably fairly meaningless for everyone else but it is the first time I have stumbled across something on my own blog that I had forgotten about and re-reading it was really cool. A lot of things have changed since I had that job interview... (he says whilst staring wistfully into the middle distance).

Nandos sun dried tomato and basil peri-peri marinade

I have always been a bit disappointed with those sauces that you can buy in the supermarket that kind of imitate the sauces you get in the restaurant. However Nandos sun dried tomato and basil peri-peri marinade is yum! And I believe available from all good retailers (or at least Waitrose in Maidenhead).

Spurt

In case you haven’t seen this advert running in a number of papers recently.

“Spurt calls upon Britain’s nimby whingers to stop complaining about flight paths, noise and air pollution and the demolition of listed buildings. Be grateful you live so close to an airport.”

And the official site and an explanation of what is actually going on.

Motorola Razr Spazr

Up until recently I had been happy with my present mobile phone. It looks jazzy, its nice and small, had a reasonable amount of functions and a just about adequate camera that can be employed for impromptu photo opportunities.

However, I am now officially really fucking fucked off with this fucking phone and as soon as I come to the 12 month contract expiry point which is in the next week or so, I will be demanding an upgrade.

For starters the phone’s battery has never been that great and formerly would only last 2 days before dying. However recently it has started lying to me. For example one morning earlier this week I unplugged it from its charger in the morning despite it insisting it wasn’t charging despite being plugged in. Later that morning it showed low battery despite being charged overnight but reassured me that that was ok because it was charging, notwithstanding that it wasn't hooked up to a plug. In the afternoon it told me it had a full battery and that the charge was completed despite still not being anywhere near a charger. It subsequently died in the late afternoon.

Later I was heading out to Reading in the evening and travelling on the M25. I got caught in major traffic chaos and would like to have rung ahead to let folks know I was going to be late. But I couldn’t because the phone died. I then had a stroke of genius and tried to hook it to my car charger which I remembered I had. But no, at this event the phone advised me that it was unable to charge. So it had power to display an error message, but not sufficient power to charge. I mean wtf? So maybe the battery couldn't charge at the point. God knows why because it later found the ability to charge. But why draw what I presume was direct power from the car socket to display an error message. Why not draw direct power to normal phone functions?

Additionally the bluetooth link is fucked so I can’t export my present selection of particularly amusing photos I took on it recently. And it refuses to recognise any .wav file types so I can’t play any sounds or video on it any more or change the ring tone (not that I actually give too much of a toss about the ring tone but it would be nice to have the option).

So Motorola, take your fucking Motorola Spazr or whatever wanky name you choose to title it and stick it up your ass because I am getting some nice blocky, reliable, functional Nokia like I should have done ages ago.

Muffin anyone?

(Possibly only amusing to those who know him). You can now buy your very own deep filled version of Dave for the bargain price of £1.69. With blueberry no less.

Sadly out of stock when snapped in Waitrose Maidenhead.

Phone dump VI

If you don't know how my phone dump posts work by now then well, erm... you'll just have to look through the blog archives and work it for yourself. So here is phone dump VI, also known as the 'show us who this Claire person is' post.

My new sofa in situ. Possibly the most comfy sofa of all time but I would say that.

I bumped into Kenny from South Park in River Island the other day. Also known as Claire wearing an amusingly oversized boy coat.

Internal courtyard thingy to the Lloyds insurance building on architecture weekend (or whatever it was called) a few weeks ago.

Also wanted to go up the Gherkin (aka as 30 St Mary Axe) (aaka the Swiss Re tower) however it was pre-book only and was kinda booked solid.

Suprisingly blond moth, who spent an evening in my flat getting hit upon by generically brown moth. I didn't know you could get blond moths.

The most amazing shower of all time as seen at the Ideal Home Show at Earls Court. Being modeled here by Claire. Seriously look at this thing. Rotate the pod Hal.

Nick and Claire inside the most amazing shower of all time. The picture fails to capture the the life support display but you can see the surround sound speakers inset in the mirror some of the ancilary shower jets.

Here's a random link by way of an apology for not updating the blog very much at the moment and details about what I am having for lunch

What can I say, I have been busy (not naming any names). Anyway here's a random link to some funny flash thingy. Not really sure what its all about but it looks quite funky and you can click stuff, sometimes.

Right I am now going to have a toasted bagel and maybe some juice or tea.

Update: The bagle was very tasty. And I had a mug of green tea too. That was also good.