Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

silvercar

Masomnia wrote: »

I'd get the Metropolitan line myself, even going out of London the traffic will surely still be awful.


You may all remember that HR consultancy I had an interview with who said it was close between me and one other candidate and they'd keep in me mind if they needed someone else soon... Well I got a call today asking if I could work for a few months for them

More than anything else I'm just relieved.

Excellent news! :j:j


Met line is the wrong Watford station. So it would mean (according to citymapper) either:

Finchley road into London (euston sq) walk to euston, rail to Watford Junction (£330 a month)

or

Met line to northwick park, half mile walk to Kenton, Bakerloo line to Harrow & Wealdstone, rail to Watford Junction. (£250 a month)

Both take about 45 minutes, which is about the same as driving against the traffic. Being he wants to run a car anyway it does make sense to drive, plus he prefers driving for some reason.

Masomnia

silvercar wrote: »

Excellent news! :j:j


Met line is the wrong Watford station. So it would mean (according to citymapper) either:

Finchley road into London (euston sq) walk to euston, rail to Watford Junction (£330 a month)

or

Met line to northwick park, half mile walk to Kenton, Bakerloo line to Harrow & Wealdstone, rail to Watford Junction. (£250 a month)

Both take about 45 minutes, which is about the same as driving against the traffic. Being he wants to run a car anyway it does make sense to drive, plus he prefers driving for some reason.

Ah ok Yeah I can see that. Overground to Willesden Junction and then changing to go up to Watford Junction would probably take a similar amount of time. Maybe even a bit longer. Going by car can be quite nice, comfortable and warm, no smelly Londoners, get your music on...

And thanks all

michaels

Trampoline pic coming soon just for DG

Pyxis

michaels wrote: »

Test pic

Test pic fail.



Edit. Test pic success!

LydiaJ

Masomnia wrote: »

I'd get the Metropolitan line myself, even going out of London the traffic will surely still be awful.

You may all remember that HR consultancy I had an interview with who said it was close between me and one other candidate and they'd keep in me mind if they needed someone else soon... Well I got a call today asking if I could work for a few months for them

More than anything else I'm just relieved.

:beer::j:T:):beer::j:T:)
Well done Mas! Here's hoping it leads to more than just a few months, either there or somewhere arising from contacts that you make.

Masomnia wrote: »

Going by car can be quite nice, comfortable and warm, no smelly Londoners, get your music on...

Carrying stuff is easier by car too. But then I have the kind of job where there's often quite a lot to carry home and bring back in the following day. Not sure how much other people's jobs involve that.

My big problem with driving is that my workplace has a woefully inadequate number of parking spaces. On Thursdays I don't start until 11am (because of being part time) but often go in at 7:30 as usual anyway, just so as to be able to park. The extra hours in work mean less work to take home with me anyway.

Our council are bringing in draconian new parking restrictions in July. At present, arriving at 7:30 almost always gets me a space, not in the main car park but in an overflow one that's only about 200yds away that usually reaches capacity at about 7:40-7:45ish, although it can be earlier if lots of spaces have been reserved for visitors in the main car park, displacing staff to the overflow car park. If it's full, I can usually park on street within half a mile of work, and often only a few hundred yards.

However, once the new restrictions come in, there will no longer be any on street parking at all, so I think a lot of staff will start coming in earlier to bag a space in the overflow car park, which will then fill up earlier than 7:30. I can't plausibly get there any earlier than that - my journey in is pegged to the time I drop DD off at the stop for her school bus - so I'll end up in the more distant overflow car park, which is 0.7mile away. I'm still weighing up the pros and cons of my two main options:
a) Drive 3.1miles and walk 0.7miles - assuming that car park doesn't fill up too
b) Cycle 2.6miles and park on-site
(Public transport is not a viable option. The buses don't go at all near work, and they're far too infrequent. I have done it, once, when my car was in for repair, but I wouldn't want to have to do it every day.)

I briefly thought I could try cycling on Thursdays to see how it goes... except that on Thursdays I have to drive because I have to leave in a hurry at the end of the day and drive to DD's school 9 miles away to pick her up. On the other days she catches the school bus home, but on Thursdays she has a club after school so I have to go and get her.

The things that put me off cycling are partly weather related and partly to do with arriving at work crumpled and with helmet hair, and initially also hot and sticky, although that would presumably get better as I get fitter. I am not very fit ATM. Any NP who have the kind of hair and hair style that doesn't take well to being squashed into a cycle helmet, but who nevertheless cycle to work, I'd love to hear any hints you may be able to pass on.

GDB2222

Congratulations Mas.

I would be worried about the safety aspects of cycling, but I live in London where there is an awful lot of traffic and we regularly hear about cyclists being killed. People who cycle to work are apparently quite happy, according to the newspapers.

If I had to park .7 miles from work and had a lot to carry, I might invest in a shopping basket on wheels.

vivatifosi

Loving Mas's news!

I have to park about 1/2 mile or so (depends on how close I can get) from where I work. I am now used to it. What I have found though is that I've had to buy different coats/hats/scarves so that I can walk to work in a variety of weathers. It's too windy most of the time to use a brolly. I also keep a hairdryer in my locker so that when I get soaked I can dry myself (as much as my hair) off. It has made me a lot fitter though.

zagubov

Well done, Mas! :beer:

Lydia, I also hear abut the terrible death rate of cyclists in London. I'd be very wary of suggesting it. There's apparently some statistic that says the extra years of life you get from the fitness benefits of cycling are supposed to outweigh the individual loss of life due to accidents, but it's a potentially catastrophic answer to any problem.
If this was a country where everybody cycles that would be a different matter, but bikes and cars don't share roads well.

michaels

I suspect that despite the headlines there are so many more cyclists in London that deaths per mile are almost certainly no greater than anywhere else in the country and possibly that the pollution breathed whilst cycling is more dangerous statisitcally than the accidents.

I just watched a show with Trevor Phillips on catchup (channel 4 thusday 9pm) and learned more about uni 'safe spaces' which I has only been peripherally aware of. It seems to be about prescribing what opinions students can here to avoid offending anyone. When I went to uni it was all about gathering as many views as possible and learning to differentiate between them and students were trusted to do that as part of their learning. Now it seems only consensus views are permitted and all debate is proscribed. Sometimes I wish I had never read Orwell.

michaels

We righted the trampolines this evening. Good news is it looks like only one pole was badly bent and we have a spare from the last time it happened and we bought a new set.