Going back to green commuting

It’s a quarter to seven in the morning. It’s cold, misty and dark where the street lights have been turned off to save money. I walk through to the main road and the oasis of light that is my local ‘bus stop. I’m early, but have erred on the safe side as I don’t do this often. I’m no stranger to this time of the morning; I’m often well on my way somewhere by now, but that is mostly in my car whereas today I am green commuting, heading off to start a new contract and making a journey that is going to become a regular one for me; the local bus to the town centre, walk to the railway station, catch a train and walk to the office.

My switch to public transport here is a pragmatic one. The journey times are almost identical to the journey by car, assuming that I don’t have to wait too long for ‘bus or train, and the cost is, for once, lower, but the fact that it is just as convenient to travel by public transport as it is by car is what has swayed me. The only reason that I use public transport so infrequently is that most of the time it would take me all day to do what I can do in a couple of hours by car, but the cost can also often be a factor. If I need to go to London at short notice the train will cost me over £120, but I can drive it in roughly the same time for about half that including car parking while I’m there. Of course I can book early and pay less if I know far enough in advance, but the price for that only really comes down if I am willing to tie myself to certain trains and that is not always a viable option.

But here I am today heading off to start a new job. Things start well enough when the welcome lights of the ‘bus appear around the corner, but then take a swift downturn when the smart card that I have bought and pre-loaded for my journeys can’t be read by the machine. I don’t have the right change so have to pay £2 for a £1.80 journey and will have to waste some of my Saturday going into the ‘bus company offices to sort out the problem. Never mind, I’m into the town centre in plenty of time to walk to the station. The train is on time, unlike some going the other way, and I am whisked along for an on time arrival at the other end. And so the first day of green commuting to work is under way.

Over the coming weeks I will be doing this a lot. The only slight blip is that the hotel that we are all using here on site is nowhere near a bus route and so we will be relying on one of the team using their car to ferry us back and forth. Still, it is full with the four of us so we are using it to its full capacity so we are making the best use of it.

Yes I do miss the flexibility that the car gives me, and I do miss the privacy, but these are luxuries that maybe we are going to have to give up. It might be nice to say that I can relax or work on the train, but that is something of a lottery. Any papers that I might want to work on are confidential and I can’t cross examine my fellow passengers to ensure that they won’t read what I am working on. And unless I have a seat on my own there is not enough room in steerage (or standard class as they like to call it) to get comfortable with a book. There isn’t the peace either, as even in the quiet carriage there will be some ignorant oik that won’t switch their phone off; Ring ring (inevitably in some obnoxious tune) “Oh hi Fred. Hang on I’m in the quiet carriage. I’ll just go down the end”, and off they go to stand in the vestibule where they activate the proximity switch to open the door so that we can all hear them from nearly 70’ away. At least in the car I don’t have to put up with that.

And as for the ‘bus! When did ‘bus companies decide that they would only seat dwarves and midgets? OK, criticise me for my waist line, but that is nothing to do with my skeletal height or width across the shoulders; I just can’t fit into a modern ‘bus seat.

I don’t remember ever having these problems with the ‘buses of the 50s and 60s that I knew in my youth. Even in my late teens when I was 6’3” (I’ve shrunk about an inch as I approach my 60^th birthday) I still could travel by ‘bus in comfort.

I was green before it was fashionable and the only reason I keep quiet about it most of the time these days is because there are too many people talking so much nonsense about the environment and I’d rather not be associated with them. I’ll carry on in my own way as best as I can, but it would be so much easier to be green about travel if they’d make it more comfortable and convenient let alone less costly.

 

 

How much longer can soccer keep spending millions?

The other week Patrick Collins wrote in the Mail on Sunday about football risking losing a generation of fans. His point was about the ridiculous situation of having all seated stadia and allowing people to stand, citing the problem of paying a fortune for seats for your kids only for them not to be able to see anything but the person in fronts back and therefore not being interested enough to want to follow the game. I agree with the issue of making grounds have seats and allowing people to stand; I’ve written on that subject more than once, but will it cost the game a generation? I’m not sure.

This was just a small topic on his page though, the main article being about the exorbitant wages involved these days and I think that this is what will cost the game dearly. Sure there is a passion about soccer in a number of countries, but I’ll stick with the UK here for now. People will always want to kick a ball around and there will always be a bit of a crowd to turn out and watch if the players have a little class or if there is enough parochial interest. Look at any council or school pitches over the weekend and you’ll see a few interested parties watching plus the odd person who has stopped by whilst out walking their dog. Village and small town sides fielding amateur sides will pull in a few spectators, possibly into the hundreds and usually freely admitted.

The game will always exist and be enjoyed by those that play and watch, but it is clear that it has become an extraordinarily expensive game at its pinnacle and how long can it sustain that, especially in today’s economic climate?

We hear an outcry about a bank chief possibly about to earn a little under £1m as an annual bonus and yet no-one bats an eyelid at a soccer club spending 50 times that on acquiring a player and then paying them staggering amounts of money per week regardless of whether or not they pay or perform.

The money for all of this has to come from somewhere, and there has to be a point where there isn’t enough of it to sustain this level of expenditure. Yes there are some big benefactors ploughing money into the game, but their fortunes have been made through commerce (of one form or another). They are canny business people which is why they have the funds in the first place, but as the world economy squeezes the sources of those funds what next? Formula One is another business where exorbitant amounts of funds have been consumed over the years, but there they have recognised the need for restraint and cost capping amongst the teams. Their problem now is that several of the newer circuits that have joined the circus to host races in recent years are struggling to pay the cost of running a race, much of which revolves around the TV rights, and can’t fill the venues anyway.

The F1 teams and the governing body recognise that, if they want to keep the sport, then they have to manage what it is costing, but football shows no sign of even recognising that they have a problem. With so many clubs in foreign hands, and with debts leveraged in some cases as well, how long will it be before there is a high profile casualty? And once that happens, as with the banks in 2008, there will be a domino effect.

No-one seems to consider the genuine fans in all of this, especially in the context of the hard times they face to fund their pleasures. The lunacy has to stop somewhere, so will it be the clubs or the governing body that see sense, or will natural causes that kill off the professional game as we now know it? Maybe we should just let it die and then we could enjoy what arises from the ashes?

the joys of writing part five

This week I received from the printers my proof copy of “Trousers” in paperback. The moment of joy at having my own book in my hands was soon over though when I spotted the errors on the back cover. Now these are mine as I had used a precis of an existing piece with some changes to tense, but had failed to carry the changes through fully. Easily fixed though.

What is taking time, and has upset me more, is that I had employed an editor to review the text before if was passed to Kindle. They had been recommended to me and had suggested some changes and corrected some spelling all of which gave me confidence that they had found the things that I had missed, and it was this text that was supplied to the printer for the paperback edition.

I have therefore been horrified to find that that text is riddled with errors; grammar, spelling, tense and orphan words where an edit has not been tidied up. I am about half way through reading it slowly and carefully with the aim of putting things right as I can’t afford to pay for another edit at this stage. All being well I will be able to revise the Kindle edition and the paperback at the same time.

Another lesson learned the hard way. I shan’t be using that editor again, but will be on the look out for one to take on my next two books, both of which are coming along, albeit the pace of writing has slowed as my primary source of income is placing demands on my time.

So writing is still a joy, but the hard work that I mentioned last time still applies; throwing words onto paper is not necessarily that hard, but the effort that needs to be put in to polish these into coherent sentences and paragraphs, to ensure balance and pace and all of the other things that go into good writing all take time and effort.

the joys of writing part four

A month on from the publication of “Trousers” I finally yielded to temptation and looked at how many people had obtained a copy. I was hopeful that I might have been up towards the top end of  my wildest expectations because of the contact that I have had from people who have read it, but the figures from Amazon show that it is close to six times those wild dreams.

Much of the feedback has been around the three link sections that I wrote about my first, second and third steps on the leadership ladder. To help me write those three pieces I had put together a precis of my career and some stories of events around the places that I have been privileged to visit over the years. The interest in those stories suggested that they might make a book in their own right and I’ve spent much of the last few weeks revising and adding to them to the point that I now have over 90,000 words written and proofed towards what will now be two books. The first will be stories from my various jobs since leaving school in 1969 and the second a series of stories of places and people around the UK and Europe. Current plans are well enough advanced that the e-Book version of the first of the two could be available next month with the paperback about May or June.

Back with “Trousers” for a moment, there has been enough interest shown to warrant a paperback version and that will be out around May. Once released it can be bought from Amazon and other book shops on-line or in your High Street.

As with so many things though, none of this is all that easy. Yes, Amazon make getting the finalised text onto their platform fairly straightforward, but there is a lot to do to get a book to the stage that it is ready. If you put in the effort then it is all worth it in the long run, but even something as simple as blogging takes time and effort to put together. I have been able to keep hitting my 600 words every week for Monday Musings as well as hitting deadlines for three magazine columns, but all of my other blogs have suffered from a lack of my attention as the books take precedence. Oh for 36 hour days and  nine day weeks!

the joys of writing part three

Happy New Year to all of those who follow these jottings.

My holiday period has been spent with a heavy cold and so I have been more than happy to sit and write. My first book, I Don’t Have My Decision Making Trousers On, or “Trousers” as it has become known around my closest circle, was released on Kindle before Christmas and I’m delighted to see that a couple of hundred people have obtained a copy up to the end of December. I will not be buying a yacht of the proceeds, or not at that price, but it is a real pleasure to know that folks are interested enough to have clicked the link on Amazon. If you don’t have a copy there is a link you can click on at the top of the page here to buy yours. If you don’t have a Kindle you can download Kindle for PC or Mac from Amazon. It’s free and you’ll get three free classics delivered with it (or that is the current deal).

Because Kindle isn’t for everyone and some kind people wrote and asked if a printed version was available I’ve just signed off a deal to get “Trousers” into print in paperback form and that will, all being well, be ready to buy in March this year. In its paperback form Trousers comes out at 141 pages, so should meet the criteria of the pocket book that I had in mind. More details when I have them.

At the time that I was putting Trousers to bed, and that took almost a month on and off, the challenge for another book was issued. From various suggestions I have two more under way, but the discipline of writing dictates that I must concentrate on one, and so the choice was to do the business autobiography and leave a second management toolkit book for later in 2012.

Writing about my career and the many places that I have been to has brought back many happy memories. I started writing it two weeks ago and, after a stuttering start as I fathomed out the format that I wanted to use, I have averaged over 3000 words a day so far, parking the book very tidily on 44,444 words last night. Given what I have written so far and what I have roughed out to complete the book it would look very likely that the current project will turn out at over 100,000 words.

Over the course of writing the book I need to decide on a title. Currently I have a working title of Have Briefcase, Will Travel, but there is a list of over a dozen possible options. As many of the sales of Trousers have been international (I did wonder about having a US version where Pants would substitute for Trousers), I’ve been advised that some of my possible alternatives, such as All Roads Lead From Swindon, or North of Watford Gap, or A Stormy Night is Stockport might not mean anything outside of the UK.

Decisions, decisions! There is nothing easy about this writing lark you know, like everything else worth doing the results are best if you put the effort in. And in any case, decisions should be no problem for me, as long as I have the right trousers on.

of beards, and of sexual equality

For those who have picked up on my beard Tweets, the new beard was about a week old when it’s tenure was terminated. I hadn’t intended to grow one, but in feeling rotten with the stinker of a virus that took me over I had neglected to shave for about four days and decided that, with Christmas coming and no need to be anywhere special that I would cease thought of shaving and see what the effect was.

This was not my first beard; I had one for a while in 1980. This was neatly trimmed and in the style of Noel Edmunds. I had worn it for about a month prior to going off on the family holiday with wife, daughter, mother and mother-in-law. Part way through that two week break in Devon I shaved it off. It was two days later that my daughter, then three, mentioned it and the other women in my life caught on. I was unimpressed.

My father wore a moustache for all of the time I knew him, but my personal preference has really always to be clean shaven. I felt that my nose was prominent enough to not need underlining and, as a younger man, my facial hair growth was none too strong, so any dereliction of shaving duties tended to result in me looking as though I hadn’t washed for a week. Designer stubble has always, to me, just looked scruffy and as for the soul patch fad!

But I do recall the wonderful Jack Hargreaves telling us in one of his Out of Town programmes that he had decided to stop shaving on reaching retirement age, and that perhaps was partly in my own decision to just let the beard grow last week. It wasn’t an impressive or bushy fungus, but I had begun to quite like the look and had got used to the feel. However, the distaff side had other views, and yesterday’s ultimatum was issued. It was, like so many such utterances, completely futile, but I felt that compliance was best and so the razor was deployed.

Did she notice? No, she didn’t, not until I enquired if she was satisfied with the results. Imagine the results of my failing to notice the new coiffure, dress, perfume or whatever? There is no way on earth that women really want equality of the sexes; why would they want to give up this power over us men?

the joys of writing part two

Over the last month I have put together my first eBook, published yesterday. I’ve also written my regular column, a few other blogs, an article for a sports industry magazine and about another 10,000 words towards another project. An enforced inability to do what I normally fill my days with has allowed extra time for all this writing, but it has also heightened my respect for those who earn their living from the written word for, whilst I do earn an element of income from some of my writing, most of what I put on paper is not where I earn my crust.

Anyway, it is a very nice feeling to have got the book done. I have gone down the exclusively for Kindle route to start with partly because it is economically viable, partly because it is environmentally friendly, but also because it can be downloaded to your smart phone or PDA so that you can have instant access from your pocket. If you don’t have Kindle then Kindle for PC/phone/PDA etc is free to download so, if you would like a copy of the book you can Get my eBook for less than the price of a cup of coffee!

Thanks to all of you who read myblogs and columns and support me through your comments and emails.

Alec Baldwin and the elegance of air travel

I wrote here the other week about falling standards in passenger appearance at airports. Since then we have seen Alec Baldwin respond to being taken off an American Airlines flight for failing to comply with the directions of the cabin crew.

Mr Baldwin has since issued an apology to his fellow passengers citing falling standards in the elegance of air travel and, in that sentiment, I agree with him. His point supports the thrust of my recent blog, but we come at this from different angles.

I agree with Mr Baldwin that airline standards have fallen as times have got harder for the airlines. I am a fan of American as an airline, and choose to fly with them whenever I am able to make that choice. Certainly they get my vote for any transatlantic flying that I need to do, but they, like all of the airlines that I have flown with over the last couple of years (add United/TED, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to that list) have sat me on ‘planes that were generally a bit on the scruffy side.

So the airlines have some part in the loss of elegance in air travel, but I would contend that the passengers play the greater part in that loss. and I would cite these reasons for that:

As I have said in my recent blog, dress standards are generally appalling. If people turn up looking like vagrants then they must take the blame for a loss of elegance.

Passenger behaviour is also generally appalling. As with Mr Baldwin, people do not comply with basic instructions. Turn it off means just that, but people don’t. They have some level of ignorance or selfishness that requires then to keep making calls or using the specified devices long after they have been told not to. And US travellers are very bad at this. The ‘plane will barely have slowed on the runway before you hear seatbelts clicking open, phones chirping into life etc.

Next we have carry on baggage. On any visit to a US airport gate there will be people carrying on bags as big as the one I checked into the hold; and they will have more than one. Sure they airlines carry some blame for allowing this, but the passenger is the one pushing the boundaries here.

And this arrogance and selfishness in using devices when you have been told not to, carrying on more baggage than you have been told that you should and dressing like someone who sleeps rough by preference extends to invading the personal space of other passengers and showing a complete lack of respect or courtesy to other passengers.

Yes Alec, I completely agree that air travel has lost its elegance, but the age of elegance was when it was expensive to fly and those that could afford to do so knew how to dress and could behave in a civilised manner towards each other. As whoever it was said, enabling travel for the masses meant that the masses would travel, and as they have done so they have dragged down standards. Catching a ‘plane nowadays has declined to the level of the Greyhound bus as Alec says, but I suggest that it is the passengers who have brought it to that level rather than the airlines (excepting, possibly, Ryanair,  but my contention there is that they are just meeting demand rather than leading the industry).

I mourn the loss of style in travel. I’ve also recently blogged on this in relation to travel by train, and there is little chance of getting it back which is a shame, but declining standards in behaviour generally across society I think mean that it will not come back in the years that I have left on the planet.

Still, I do have some good memories for my dotage, or maybe I could just watch some of Mr Baldwin’s excellent work on film to take my mind elsewhere…..

I could find that offensive, but I’m a grown up and I choose not to

What is it about modern society and this obsession with taking offence?

A supermarket correctly labels its burgers as being reindeer and parents say that it has upset their children, so now they are calling them moose burgers. Well if, on behalf of the moose preservation society, I am offended about that, so what should the supermarket do now?

Jeremy Clarkson makes some extreme remarks about shooting strikers and folks are up in arms. Grow up people; Mr Clarkson makes his living by making extreme comments. His books and TV appearances depend on it, otherwise no-one would take the slightest interest in him and he’d have to get a proper job.

It’s the same with all this manufactured nonsense that surrounds reality TV shows. Simon Cowell allegedly has the hump with his fellow judges (or vice versa), the contestants are slagging each other off or whatever. Does this repetitive pattern not start to dawn on people as “here we go again”. It’s just another attempt to get a hackneyed format into the news.

Personally I find a lot of it offensive, but I grew up years ago and don’t waste my time on such negative thoughts. I could be offended by all sorts of things that I don’t agree with or like, but life is short enough anyway and I’ve used most of mine up now.

Being offended is a self indulgent waste. Get a life, as they say these days, and do something useful and productive.

How to avoid dying in a plane crash

I have cracked the secret of not dying in a ‘plane crash, and all for less than $20. I just bought myself a Ralph Lauren shirt cheap in T J Maxx to wear when I fly.

How does it work? Well, as an inverse label snob I’ve always told people that I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing an RL product, so if I wear one when I fly I can’t die. Simples, as Aleksander would say.

Feel free to pass on the tip, substituting your own preference of fashion house. So far it has worked for me and I’ll let you know if it fails. Oh, of course I won’t be able to will I?