To & From London
Steve Parker was up today - fully recovered from last year, it seems - as he was delivering a car from Dyce to London. A Daimler saloon, no less. See the pics here.Now, I'm heading for London, Brighton & Portsmouth in one weekend. Come back next week to read the rest of my happenings! (this week cannot get much worse! lol)
Citylink/Megabus hybrid timetable
The following has been issued by Citylink/Megabus to show the fact that at the moment, the planned "new" timetables have reverted back to "old" (except for the new cross border services) - at very short i.e no notice.
Citylink/Megabus:
Delay to Service Changes: 27 MArch 2006: reversion to current timetable:
Journeys requiring delayed etc detailed below. Journeys which were being
retimed to operate earlier have been ignored from this list.
Note: Edinburgh - Newcastle - London service will be introduced, including the
pick up at Ferrytoll.
Glasgow - Aberdeen Corridor
Current 1830 M9 Glasgow to Aberdeen requires to operate at 1845
Current 2030 M9 Glasgow to Dundee requires to operate at 2045
Current 2225 M9 Dundee to Aberdeen requires to operate at 2240
0930, 1130, 1230 and 1430 ex Glasgow journeys will NOT now serve Forfar.
0835 (Monday to Saturday only), 1035, 1335, 1535 and 1635 ex Aberdeen journeys
will NOT now serve Forfar.
Edinburgh - Inverness Corridor
Monday to Friday Edinburgh to Inverness
Current M90 Edinburgh to Perth journeys from 0930-1530 require to operate 10
mins later: this will result in pressure on turnarounds at Broxden which need to be managed
on site.
Current 1840 M90 Edinburgh - Inverness requires to operate at 1850
Current 2040 M90 Edinburgh - Inverness requires to operate at 2050
Current 2300 M90 Edinburgh - Perth requires to operate at 2305
Current 1850 M90 Inverness - Edinburgh requires to operate at 1855
Proposed M90 services due to depart Edinburgh at 0940, 1140, 1340 and 1540 will
NOT now extend from Perth Broxden to Perth City Centre.
Proposed 1040, 1240, 1440, 1640 and 1940 M90 Perth Broxden journeys changed to
start twenty minutes earlier from Perth City Centre and operate via Perth Broxden to
Edinburgh will NOT start at Perth Bus Station.
Proposed 0655 M91 Edinburgh to Perth will continue to start from Dunfermline at
0730.
CAN SOMEONE TRANSLATE? I know it's a bit cluttered, but a lot of the uncertantity is due to goverment investigations, which are ongoing.
Ken's found another hole...
One of this week's press releases from TfL (Transport for London) relates to the long running project to include Wembley Park station. This one is perhaps not quite the closest to the stadium and arena - the one on the Chiltern Railways line seems slightly closer to me - but it can handle the main bulk of the traffic on the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines, as well as being an interchange point between fast, semi-fast, semi-sort-of-not-stopping-fast, and all stops trains. As if you needed to know that...
The press release on the subject of the work shows a picture of Red Ken, and aptly enough, David Seaman - the latter of course got chipped with a very opportunistic lob in a foriegn match for Arsenal once - or was it England? Anyway,
"Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: 'Wembley Park gives London a world-class station to serve a world-class sporting venue and provides local residents in Brent with a substantially improved transport link, coming just weeks after the addition of an extra carriage on every Jubilee Line train.
'The station has been delivered on time and on budget by Transport for London."
i.e. unlike the stadium.
Thursday - even sillier!
Following yesterday's request for a statement, (this was supplied yesterday). The person under my team coach/manager (who is covering her right now) said they wanted a plain statement, removing everything else. I stated that everything else was a formal complaint on the facilities, but I was told to edit it.
Right.
I went down to the agency for a chat. They've already passed the complaint onto the managers involved with this, for a start. (So, no need to rely on anyone else!)
I said I'd do it in two parts, stapled together. Upon printing these, same person tried to seperate the items.
I knew this would happen, if I did this, so I distributed the rest myself. As the complaint/whinge is already passed the hands of the agency, it's already been logged. So, no sweeping it under the carpet now!
This weekend cannot come quick enough... given the past three days, waiting around Newcastle for two and a half hours for a lost megadriver seems like bliss compared to this!
Work... now getting somewhat silly!
I don't talk about work here - well, not a lot. There's not a lot to say - we take calls, and we still don't know for definate how long it will be before we go "offshore". The most recent events will happen no matter who we are working for, though.
On Saturday, the door handle on the rest room fell off. Now, it's been hanging off for well over two months - maybe even a bit dodgy going back to the end of last year. No-one had reported it, as far as I was aware. (There are plenty of other things we can complain about first, if it came to it!). On Saturday, myself and a few others got locked in when the door shut, and there was no handle on the inner side. Later on Saturday night, someone else got totally locked in. By that time, there was no handle on either side.
Management came in during this past week, and (yesterday) decreed that this was vandalisim.
Yes, I'm being serious. The room had been closed yesterday - leaving late shift people with no eating facilities - all because management assumed we'd broken it. As they'd never needed to use it (they usually leave around the same time the canteen closes), they'd never noticed the door handle coming loose...
I was asked to sign a statement saying what I'd seen, but I don't like the idea of blank cheques, if you get my drift. So, in the meantime, I've widended it into a complaint about the run-down of the facilities that I've seen in the last three and a half years, and therefore I'll shut up about it until then.
That f******g mobile phone again...
2500 downloads of phone clip
The 13-second sexually explicit video clip featuring a senior Dundee secondary school teacher was downloaded more than 2500 times in just 12 hours yesterday.
A link posted on a past-pupils Internet forum attracted a massive surge in interest after a link to download the footage was posted shortly after 11am yesterday.
The site, predominantly used to reunite school pupils, was bombarded with messages looking for information regarding the clip.
The footage first started circulating in Dundee two weeks ago after the teacher’s mobile phone — featuring the video — was stolen from an unattended classroom.
One forum visitor posted a message last week calling for a link to be posted. It read, “Who has got the phone video? First one to post wins a prize?”
Yesterday morning the forum user’s message was answered with a period of frantic Internet activity ensuing as thousands flocked to secure their own copy of the clip.
One concerned former pupil contacted the Tele today and said he was extremely concerned by the groundswell of interest in the raunchy antics.
“I contacted the school to tell them about the link and the number of downloads and they seemed completely shocked to me,” he said.
“Obviously this website has a connection to the school, but I don’t believe it’s official or is tied to the school.
“It’s been out there in the public domain for a while now, but I couldn’t believe the number of downloads in such a short space of time.”
The continuing interest in the video clip follows an uncertain period for everyone involved with the school over the past week, where the teacher in question is believed to have continued working amid the controversy.
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said today they had nothing to add to their earlier statement on the matter, that a teacher has reported the theft of a mobile phone to the police.
The Tayside Police investigation into the theft is continuing.
The phone was stolen on Wednesday March 15, between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.
The teacher immediately reported the matter to the police, and officers were examining CCTV footage from the school.
OAP dies going for smoke
The first death as a result of the Scotland wide smoking ban was in tonight's Tully...
A DUNDEE pensioner has died after falling and striking his head on a pub bar as he made his way outside for a smoke, writes Graham Huband.
The shocking accident came just two days after the introduction of the ban on smoking in enclosed public places.
Eighty five-year-old Jim Donachie of Greendykes Road, Craigiebank, had been in the lounge bar of the Boars Rock pub on Arbroath Road when he decided to go out for a cigar.
As he walked across the lounge of his local, Mr Donachie stumbled forward and hit his head on the bar top before falling to the ground in front of shocked regulars...
Gordon Whiting, managing director of Redwood Leisure which owns the Boars Rock, sent his condolences to Mr Donachie’s family.
He said, “It was just a very unfortunate accident. We called an ambulance but unfortunately he died.”
The Scottish Executive was asked to respond to Stewart Donachie’s comments, but a spokeswoman only said, “This is a tragic accident and our thoughts are with the man’s family and friends.”
WEP in Newcastle
Co-incidentlly, Bobby had booked a trip from Glasgow/Edinburgh to Newcastle the day after I did. He had to guide the coach driver from the MetroCentre to Newcastle... which is a very good trick, especially as he'd never been to Newcastle before today... have a look here!
Newcastle trip-ped up
Today, I did a day trip from Dundee to Newcastle, to try the new M20 service (see previous mention earlier in the month). Neoplan 50133 took me from Dundee to Perth, and then 50053 took me south from Perth via Ferrytoll and Edinburgh to Newcastle.
On the way into Newcastle, the driver got seriously lost. It appeared that Cowdenbeath drivers (who do the Ferrytoll - Scotch Corner bit) had not been route trained - merely given verbals on how to get to the A1, and a street map of how to drive around Newcastle... After a few loops of the MetroCity towers, he stopped to ask a Go-Northern driver, then a police officer, before stopping to walk into a recruitment agency to ask them... The stop we were looking for was just two blocks away at this point, right outside Newcastle station.
When we'd finally got to the Station, had a look around the sights from the town, which included some of the Arriva North East Volvo B10BLE's that started life with Arriva Scotland West as 531, 536, and one of their purple and gold Gemini's.
The former London vehicles were sparse, but a former Arriva Metrobus M1112 was spotted. Whilst I saw some 9X MetroRider's (Arriva North East) similar to home, I also liked the idea of Stagecoach PS types and MAN/ALX300's going to Newbiggin(g) - even if it missed the last letter... I also liked the sight of the Enviro 300's in Stagecoach livery on the 100...
Then, it came to the time to come home. Traffic across the tyne was solid due to the tunnel being shut (part of the pensions issue strike), a man was said to be threatening to jump off the Tyne bridge, and the Metro was closed for the pensions issue too. I waited quite a while for the bus - and called Megabus control, to be told he was late, but not sure how long. After rain, wind, the lot, sitting and trying to keep warm, I nearly gave up. When a passer-by passed me for the second time, she (jokingly) said "I'd have given up on him by now love", i.e. whoever you are waiting for isn't there. Quick lookup via WAP to National Rail enquiries, after several attempts to reach megacontrol failed.
The end of it was - £4.00 round trip, but I had to get a GNER train back from Newcastle (the last one direct to Dundee is the 1600 ex KX, and conviently it was late when I'd given up, so I was able to get a through train). A standard single was £56.00 - but a Saver return was offered for £56.10 instead... More money than I had to spare, but I pestered TA2040 to help me till I can ask for it back. Got back to Dundee and defrosted on the train up. The irony was, the London Evening Standard included a press statement on the success of Megatrain...
Definatly not my best trip, but thanks to all who assisted! Thanks to Gary Mitchellhill for his assistance by text message with my questions! I'd not been to Newcastle since 1998... and the Stagecoach shop is now a shoe shop... but I think I may have another trip to use the other half of the Saver return at least... For the meantime, I will be passing by this coming weekend...
B**b threats....
I understand that yesterday, on my day off, the police were up here, after a customer smart-arsed a call handler who'd told him he'd need to pay an extra £1.50 a month to get what he wanted by saying "or I could just blow up the nearest BT building..."
Probably just as well I wasn't here, as I'd probably would have gone to lynch them in person... although I understand they've since been arrested.
Yet another extra passenger?
More than two thirds (71 per cent) of pregnant women in the Capital cited rude and discourteous behaviour as a growing source of anxiety and stress during pregnancy
One in three (36 per cent) frequently felt they had to avoid public transport for fear of having to stand for the duration of the journey
One in five (20 per cent) of expectant mums in the Capital spend more than £100 on taxis and private vehicles during their pregnancy to avoid situations where they may have to stand for long periods of time on the Tube
Almost one in five found restaurants to be unaccommodating of their dietary requirements, while 16 per cent felt their needs were overlooked by employers
More than a third (38 per cent) feared for their health and safety at least once during their pregnancy because of the behaviour of others around them
Women are working longer into their pregnancies than ever before, with one in six women in London working an extra month beyond the recommended cut-off point of 36 weeks
London emerged as the least pregnancy-friendly place in the UK, with 45 per cent of London mums having been shocked by the lack of consideration they were shown while pregnant.
Wales was revealed to be the most pregnancy-friendly area of the country, with only one in 20 (six per cent) expectant mums experiencing inconsiderate treatment
So, if someone gets on your tube with a "baby on board" badge, it's true, so get out of the seat...
Who wants it?
This week's BOFH episode - after a fortnight since the last - shows the dangers of asking who wants to do Health & Safety stuff...
"What the hell's a floor warden?" the PFY asks, reading the back of his jacket.
It also shows you how to get a new monitor out of it, but I won't spoil the surprise...
My busweb sites...
... any links for any of my old sites on Busweb should now be deleted. Thanks to a message, I've checked it (for the first time), and the old archive is now no more. I'm not sure why, but it's not really worth worrying too much about, as I suppose we all have to move on.
Another quality video...
... shows what happens when someone doesn't get their p1rn...
Customers this week...
I don't know what's up, it's not even a full moon this week. Obviously, I cannot go into details, but these calls are now common knowledge around most of the call centre (up to 700 staff), so it's just as good as public news.
On Monday, a customer said they were to write to the Manchester Evening News about us... so, I bought one the following day when I was down. No sign of us! No complaints! Nothing! I want compensation... I want my 35p back... honest, I'm out of pocket as a result...
On Wednesday, I had one excellent call from a customer who'd been cut off too many times, and naturally called just after billing are shut. After various lies, he topped it off with "I can get 2mb broadband - for a year - for free - this evening.." and I said "You can? Well, you've got our number... get me one too, and phone us back..." and terminated the call. Well, I was taking the p155, but he started it... he never did call back.
On Thursday, I helped a customer with Mac OS9 (remember that?) and got her online in around 8 minutes. After she asked my name again, she said "Oh, would you like to come and live with me?" And I bet she won't call back either...
Familiarity breeds contempt - perhaps, but it's funny sometimes.
Adventures in Operating Systems experimentation and bastardisation
No, I've not been having any more late nights recently - thankfully. I've finally managed to cobble together a few old hard drives 2.1gb - wow! - sounds big vs. the 1.7gb on my original machine, which was a p166 back in the day... and just to think, in the days of the Amiga, the entire os fitted onto one 512k floppy disc...
Red Hat Fedora 2 (Linux) was good, but I don't really have the time to learn everything over again. It was slow on a p400 with 96mb of ram, but I guess it's a more up-to-date version than WinME, which I had, and now do so again. It does some things "out the box" that windows does not - support for my Epson CX3200 (printer only - not the scanner!), opens pdfs, and can burn CD's. With Windows XP, the latter is now include by default - and it is so much easier... then again, there were some things that Windows could do, but Linux could not... like boot and install on the first attempt, not the fifth or sixth...
(As I type this, I find that Firefox has CTRL-U as "View Source", which is a p155er if you are in blogger editing suite, trying to do underlining...)
So, I'm getting back to how it was.
Now, to start "war" on the almightly "client", who think they can ignore my requests re my phone line... which has now gone on far enough...
Additional bits...
Forgot to mention my run home on Saturday night... the 29 got stoned (where a gang of kids aim stones at the windows) just before South Road near Gowrie Park, and then later, the driver threw BOTH passengers off, for attempting to double up on a DaySaver (magnetic cards have a 3 minute "passback" built into them...) - now you know why I call the 28/29 (officially called the Discovery Line) the Thuggery Line...
W4NKR...
As reported in the Daily Record...
PLAYERS HIT BY RUDE REG PRANKSTER
A PRANKSTER is putting rude words on footballers' car registration plates.
One Motherwell player was branded "shr", while another found "b**bag" on the front of his sportscar.
And manager Terry Butcher - who has also been a target - last night vowed to find the culprit.
Midfielder Kevin McBride was even stopped by the police after falling victim to the joker.
Last night, Butcher said: "We have launched a major probe following the ruthless sabotage of the players' and management's car number plates.
"I'm spearheading it myself after I became the latest victim."
The ex-Rangers and England skipper had his plates switched for ones featuring a saltire - and renaming him Terry McButcher.
He said: "We park the cars in a school down the road from Fir Park and I can only assume that my car was tampered with during the match.
"When I got up on Sunday morning, I realised that my plates had been removed and replaced.
"But I got off lightly because some of the players have not been so fortunate in recent weeks."
He added: "Kevin has just bought a new car and on his way home he was stopped by the police.
"A man and a woman police officer approached Kevin and asked him to step out of his car. Asked by the male officer if he had seen the front of his car, Kevin said, 'Yes, it's an Audi TT'.
"The officer said, 'No, no - have you seen the number plate?'
"Kevin said, 'Yes, it came with the car'. The officer said, 'Are you sure?'
"When they went to the front of the vehicle, Kevin's plate had been replaced with the word 'sh****r'.
"The male cop fell about laughing but the female officer wanted to give Kevin a ticket."
Another player drove around for days with the "b**bag" plate on his car before noticing it.
Butcher added: "We have an idea who is committing these crimes but the person in question is denying all knowledge of it.
"Players and staff at the club are so paranoid now they check their car plates on a regular basis."
But... I liked the last bit...
Police said no one from the club had complained to them.
The best case for a school knickname...
As "exclusivly revealed" - the story, not her clothes! - in the Daily Retard
23 March 2006
Cops called in after teacher's mobile is stolen from school
By Brian Mccartney
A WOMAN teacher's mobile phone sex movie is being passed around her pupils.
Her raunchy antics have been doing the rounds since her phone was stolen from a classroom.
And the full-frontal footage - which shows the teacher engaged in a sex act - is now being widely distributed among camera-phone and email users.
The risque 13-second clip shows the teacher wearing nothing but her spectacles and reclining naked on a purple sheet, her head resting on pillows.
The pouting, dark-haired teacher proceeds to fondle herself.
The footage has been widely circulated in the last few days following the theft of a phone from an unattended classroom at a school in Dundee.
The teacher was yesterday continuing to teach at the school while police probed the theft.
A spokeswoman for Tayside Police said yesterday: "We are investigating the theft of a teacher's mobile phone.
"It was stolen from her handbag, which was left in an unattended classroom."
She added: "The phone was stolen some time last week and the teacher immediately reported the matter to us.
"Officers are currently examining CCTV footage from the school in a bid to identify the person or persons responsible."
A spokesman for Dundee City Council's education department said: "A teacher has reported the theft of a mobile phone to the police, who are investigating."
The teacher has not committed any criminal offence making the video but some parents are extremely concerned over the footage.
One irate mum who phoned the Record said: "To say she is in an uncompromising position is putting it mildly. It is pornography.
"Parents are disgusted and there is a lot of us who think she should quit or be sacked."
She added: "I doubt if there is a pupil at the school who doesn't have the video on their computer or mobile phone."
The school is widely used for community activities including sporting pastimes.
Each evening, the school is the venue for sporting and other extracurricular activities.
but... the school's local knickname is... "the johnnies"... hmm that'll be mildly amusing to someone I am sure...
Manchester megatrip...
Full day trip from Dundee (leaving at 0620!) to Manchester, getting home in the early hours of tommorrow. Due to the Megabus "sale", £0.00 up and £0.00 down! Managed to get round as much as I could for the afternoon... and I got a look at "Hey Hey 16k" (see Saturday's posts - cheers Neil ! ). And no snow this time, which was good.
Micro Computers - A Retro Moment
Following the discussion...
… in the Venus Envy Comic discussion group about Zoe’s visit from the “titty fairy”, Erin has drawn something to shut you all up…
Travel in Coventry
The timetables for their recent network revisions made it to me today. Initially, it looked like one of the bundles in the envelope (which had partially burst) got lost in the post, until they materialised on the stairs… For those who used the bus routes to try to work out the City, you may have to try again!
Interestingly, all local buses in the area will divert via Pool Meadow Bus Station – two years after it was meant to be closing – with the exception of Stagecoach services, which will apparently have nothing there at all, except for the travel shop. CENTRO (now Network Coventry & Network West Midlands) minutes show that deprture charges (increased) at Pool Meadow are still lower than those in Strathclyde, where Stagecoach buys quite a lot of space. But hey, that’s where local management is fun…
Mark Stanley Thinks You’re Rubbish…
One of my colleagues by the name of Adam Hobson plays in a band called The Illusion Principle. It’s a crash metal band, and I’ve been pestering him for his demo disc. Well, perseverance pays off, as I’ve now bought a copy of the disc for £1, chocolate stained from his accident with a bar of chocolate in his bag two weeks ago…
As one of our managers says (re: The tracks on the website) “… I listened to one of those, and three days later, I got my hearing back…”
Although it’s not normally my thing, I had a listen soon after getting home, to the whole disc of six tracks. It’s basically loud thrash, and Adam’s picture on the band's biog says he “hits shit with sticks” – in that respect, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Their website describes the music as "Rock / Post Hardcore / Emo"...
The name above comes from Track 2, “Mark Stanley Thinks You’re Rubbish”. As a result, I’ve used this as a general wind-up for Adam since he mentioned this i.e. “Rubbish…” but not quite in a Dom Jolly esq situation…
This is the last day of our acquantance...
… or it was it? Remember back to December... All our jobs were supposed to be in India by now… but it’s on hold for now. Yet, it won't be for ever. The march for dial-up has progressed this week, as that service has now moved from Bristol to Delhi & Bangalore.
Additional bits……
to last week’s update… My mother had another stroke, although I only found out when someone at work asked how she was! By that time she was out… the computer is behaving, but as regards to a phone line, I am considering my stance, given that my yelling is being ignored! There were a couple of things I wanted to add, but now forget, so email me if you think I’ve missed anything!
Chilled Out
A few hours in Glasgow at the cost of £1.00 each way – despite booking as late as last Friday! “Service M8A” on Megabus is the “slow” service from Dundee to Glasgow, marketed as Citylink Service M8, but now 10/15? Seats are for sale, per departure, on Megabus.com – so, got the 1030 M8”A” down.
Met the West End Poet for coffee as soon as I arrived, and discussing of our relevant workplaces duly followed…
Afterwards, got the 1700 M8”A” back to Dundee, and headed for home. The PDF’s have gone from the Citylink site now though!
Citylink....
… had new timetables (from April) online today, but they don’t print properly and are huge (for PDF’s), given that they are basically spreadsheets!
Catch Up
I’ve now been able to catch up with the last four weeks of blogs. Drip (US)/Filter (UK) yourself a Suzy Coffee (tall), or cuddle up with a Frank Carter-sized mug of your favo(u)rite hot chocolate, then scroll back to Sunday 19th February… and “enjoy” the pain of my last four weeks of fun…
The December/January bus photo stuff is all now on my fotopic, with more to follow.
Work was fine in the end today - had another new start sitting with me, so it was good that because the work I was doing was quieter, I got a chance to help him out as we went along.
Replace: Word Processor/With: World Domination?
Google's new online word processor sounds fairly nice, until you realise the development plan had even more holes than one of mine. As the article at The Register says,
“A measure of how mature the software is can also be gleaned from this blog post. Writely gained the feature "delete from trash" five weeks ago, a lower priority for the team than "new toolbar". When the ability to remove your own work from a hosted web service is considered less important than cosmetics, you have a fair idea of the software designers' values.”
… then again, is it another way for Google to takeover the world (available to US Residents Only?) After all, the G-Drive leak gave away some of their ideas…
“Store 100% of User Data ... With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including: emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc). We already have efforts in this direction in terms of GDrive, GDS, Lighthouse, but all of them face bandwidth and storage constraints today. (...) This theme will help us make the client less important (thin client, thick server model) which suits our strength vis-a-vis Microsoft and is also of great value to the user. As we move toward the 'Store 100%' reality, the online copy of your data will become your Golden Copy and your local-machine copy serves more like a cache."”
… In theory, it sounds fine, until you get a problem like with my phone line and then you are out of sync for months on end! But, if it all goes pear-shaped, they could always rename blogger to G-Spot…
I got up this morning…
… yes, and got up even earlier than I did last week, because I’m heading into work to cover for SDSL and other goodies from 0800-1700. I don’t usually do Saturday morning shifts for anything, but the manager in question is good.
Day off
On the way out, I thought I’d inadvertently thrown out my new MP3 player/pen drive, as I’d last seen it in the carrier bag… which I threw out on the rush to tidy up and get out of work… but, in the end, it had been in on Wednesday’s bag. So, don’t worry too much, as it’s still here. Used the day to book a few enhancements to some previous trips, and a £1.00 each way Dundee-Glasgow for this coming Tuesday… and no broken shoes this week...
More runaround
The day was a little more straightforward today, though! I got a second evening looking after the new starts tonight – more fun!
Cleaning Up The Town
I woke up to several envelopes of post. When I opened, several were the same. It’s a design company sending the formal word of note to everyone in the area, as the pub downstairs wants a patio. But, they don’t know the area, because…
They’ve sent one to Flat D,35 Constitution Road, and one to Flat D, 33, etc. – when these are all DCC’s way of saying the same thing…
They referred to enclosing Aberdeen City Council’s standard form…
Constitution Road is referred to as Constitution Hill… Brummie at work there, because I’ve had that before…
So, what makes me wonder is, why didn’t I get a formal objection form when the trees behind the car park were cut down? That’s one for next week, as I have a few things planned for the day!
Went back to the doctors for my scheduled appointment (see Friday past!). Upon getting there, I was waved through, but everyone was in formal dress. This usually means they have visitors, or a funeral, but asking the latter is only usually in jest. As it turned out, the 1130 appointment I got on my mobile last Friday, should have been 1100… but I’m sure… never mind there isn’t an 1130 slot… but then we continued with the main question, and as to why this was on my repeats list, if you’d not had the letter? The doctor then allowed me to take a look through the screen, to prove he couldn’t see anything. After that, he was more than happy to issue a script for the required tabs.
Finally.
But, you should know, my life isn’t that straightforward. Took the script to the chemist at Menzieshill (Orleans Place) shops, and was asked to come back 30mins later. Got breakfast, had a look in the library. When I was in the library (mobile still off), I got a call from Tallgirls re the shoes. They have agreed to refund me in whole (by cheque), and they are now looking at the quality of the remaining stock of this range of shoe, after I’ve had two faulty pairs in a month…
I went back to the chemist… “We’re going to have to order it in…” Well, (A) I’m not going to be passing this way again, and (B) I had to come back to them three or four times for a balance owed the last time! So, at this point, I’ve got just over 30 minutes before I am due to start work (although I did pre-warn my team coach, just in case it took more than 90 minutes…)
The next nearest chemist is the one in Invergowrie village – sort of other side of the by-pass from work - who close at 1pm for lunch… so had the food I bought, and waited on the 54, which is my usual bus to work on Mondays and Wednesdays. Driver was really surprised when I asked for Invergowrie…
I went in, handed over my script. The two of them mentioned supply issues… and were surprised my docs had only prescribed two months (well, first things first!). They found enough i.e. two x 28 day blister cards, duly put in a white box with a leaflet, labelled and checked… and I was out the door just in time for closing.
I had a look at the leaflet. It mentions “various… natural oestrogens” but does not specify the source – other than to say it’s not artificial.
I got to look after one or two of the new starts this evening, giving a little extra help for them in their first week live on their own. I ended up starting 30 minutes later, and finished 60 minutes later (I offered to stay for the last 30 minutes with the same new person, and it was accepted! but today only…)
Away… not…
Manchester megadaytrip for today, postponed when I woke up and saw an inch of snow. This then made me feel a little bad when I went back to bed (0500), and by the afternoon it was all gone! Went online to upload some pics, and despite only doing a hundred or so, managed to suck out most of the web café’s bandwith! Sent the shoes back to Tallgirls, and also a digital copy, with 5mb worth of digital pictures for them to chase the makers…
Mercedes always were meant to be fast…
Strathtay Mercedes Vario/Plaxton Beaver 2 167 was covering for a defective Optare Solo for Service 13 this lunchtime, but only for a trip and a bit before the Solo was put back out again. I was dropped off at the end of Luna Place, and two people followed me, but the driver started driving before the other two made it to the platform… used to a Solo, you see…
More of the same!
Following yesterday, I went to the Dundee store of same chain, and found a size 9 and a size 10 pairs of footwear that fit comfortably. These two were on sale for £10 each… meaning I managed three different pairs for the same price (£38) as the one I paid for the broken pair… That, and headed for home.
If I said I was a size eight, would you believe me?
I found myself in a somewhat weird situation i.e. having to try to find an emergency pair of suitable footwear, in Glasgow, in the morning. I’d already arranged for the day off, so today I was on the Omnibus Soc tour, which I shall come to in a moment or two.
Now, I’ve not been to Evans for footwear before. Their sizes are wider than most, meaning people who’d normally take an outsize can fit into something more acceptable. Their clothing sizes are broadly similar, as I found when I went in for something that isn’t falling off me… (thanks to the weight I’d managed to lose, I’ve gone down two skirt sizes since the new year…) … and was given a catalogue. These go up to a 10, but I’d been told by friends that if you usually do an 11 in a shoe (as I do), you can fit comfortably into a 9 or a 10 of theirs. I tried the Glasgow store, and got a reasonable pair of wedges reduced to £18. The broken shoes were an 11C, these are an 8EEE. So, if I said I was a size eight… no you wouldn’t… or would you…?
Anyway, managed to get them on, and get back to the bus station in time for the trip. We went around in preserved former Northern Scottish & Stagecoach Perth Olympian/ECW TSO 16X – one I remember from the 16’s, as well as my time in Perth bus station. We left the bus station, heading to the GVVT at Bridgeton, before continuing to First Larkfield (Parkhead was planned, but due to building works, we were not allowed – although First gracefully offered their ususal toured visit around the much larger, and slightly more open air Larkfield depot instead…), then Coatbridge town centre, First Cumbernauld. Stagecoach Glasgow Blochairn, and back to the bus station. Lots of good stuff, including lots of former Dundee area buses with new users. Watch the Fotopic for pictures as soon as I can upload them.
You won’t fool… the children of the revolution…
Go back to the January/February posts… and you will see I was cleared for commencement of hormone treatment. I was told to allow at least 2-3 weeks for the letter to get from Sandyford to my own doctors. So, having allowed about four weeks, I made an appointment for this afternoon… where, ironically, we discussed another case of bad administration by Ninewells i.e. sending letters to say I wasn’t there (yes, Genetics again…), but I never got the appointment… and also to say that the letter from Sandyford had not yet got there…
So, I left, vowing to chase both these up on Monday.
And I get on the bus, turn the prescription over, and have a look at my repeat prescription reorder sheet. Hmm, it’s sprouted to ten items again… what’s item number 1 – Premarin 1.25mcg tabs…
They’ve got the letter, acted on it, and lost it. Either that, or they are prescribing by blog…
So, having called them back, nothing for Monday, I might be away Tuesday, so appointment is now Wednesday. Remember we were talking about mis-administration?
And, just to show exactly how slimly I managed to get by, I went back out early evening to upload some pictures. Managed a few steps, before my left shoe gave way, tumbling me down a couple of steps to the next landing. The left shoe is now fubar’d – and earlier in the day, I could feel it starting to give way. This was on the left… the last pair was on the right… now I know what you are thinking, I should have kept the last left one, to go with this right one…
Good news!
There has been some disagreement at work as to holidays. Our holiday year ends on 31 March, and I queried if I had any left. Not expecting to get any, as I had one day turned down recently on basis of no (of my own) leave left, although the campaign had the availability… after the agency blamed the command centre, and vice-versa, it looks like maybe I had the holiday after all. Anyway, end is, I’m off this Saturday…
Today included helping our new starts through their first evening of “live” calls.
New Mega
Another new Megabus.com route is to be Service M20 – Inverness – Perth [Broxden] – Ferrytoll Park & Ride! – Edinburgh – Newcastle - Scotch Corner – Sheffield [Meadowhall] – Tibshelf Services – London! I kid you not, as this is the service that Stagecoach always said would never operate due to the road layout of the east coast road!
It’s going to operate through, but through tickets for passengers north of Ferrytoll to London will not be sold… you have to take this coach and change to the M9 at Ferrytoll, and get there an hour quicker… For the 12 hour trip to Inverness (with a fairly good chance you have another coach afterwards), an hour’s difference for one less change of coach could make more of a difference with so many pieces of luggage… oh wait a minute… the “TwoCases” brigade from Parks are here… :-) ;-)
(that story is for a Parks driver who was doing a duplicate 592, who parked his bus half-backed-off from Dundee Bus Stn Stance 1, to stop the whole bus station, just to tell the other driver of the service car that someone has two suitcases… from the days when it was disallowed…)
