I have pneumonia. This is causing no small measure of pain and discomfort, and now it has been diagnosed and my wife has collected by prescription antibiotics I would like to start taking them and getting better. But I can't. Being more diligent than me, Susan read the leaflet in the pack, only to discover that the capsules contain sunset yellow, a colourant which can cause an allergic reaction in people who are asthmatic or allergic to aspirin. I hit both. I have to say the capsules look very pretty, which I'm sure is really important.....
---edit---
Well, the second prescription had the same problem (same coating I think), but the pharmacist found an alternative, phoned the doctor and got a new prescription faxed over. Susan had to hang around Boots for about an hour while it was sorted out. Don't blame doctor or pharmacy at all, but really, what are the drug companies doing????
Tuesday 30 December 2008
Saturday 15 November 2008
New cafechurch website
I have recently put together a new site for our Cafe Church efforts. It's at www.cafechurch.info The design is entirely WordPress based, a concept many have used before but I'm just experimenting with as a way of keeping things up to date as easily as possible, having been impressed with WordPress since ditching Blogger on the Island 2000 site. Only laziness prevents me moving this blog over to WP as well.
My life at the office
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Tuesday 4 November 2008
No Timewasters Please...
No Timewasters Please. It's been used in classified ads for ages, and I am now seeing it more and more on our local Freecycle list. But what is it really going to achieve? Ah, they don't want people to waste their time, I'll carry on looking for someone who doesn't give a **** how much of their time I waste.
I'm now off to put a sign in my car saying "No car thieves please".
I'm now off to put a sign in my car saying "No car thieves please".
Saturday 1 November 2008
Have I got dissapointments for you
I have just watched what must be the funniest episode of Have I Got News For You. Hosted by Tom Baker, who has clearly completely lost it, most of the show was spent (for me anyway) creasing up at the expressions as Paul Merton, Chris Addison and Ian Hislop tried desperately to figure out a way of tunnelling out to escape the crushing boredom of Vince Cable and the raving lunacy of Tom Baker. Chris Addison tried his best to make a joke out of his disappointment at the reality of meeting Baker, his childhood hero, but I couldn't help but feel it might just be a thin veneer.... Watch it, and see if you feel the same.
Saturday 7 June 2008
Isolationist tendancies and the UK housing market
Sorting through some old files I discovered something I started writing when I was researching suburbs and transport at university about 7 years ago. I couldn't decide what to do with it, so thought I'd post it here. Then I'll have an empty folder....
The cliché has it that "An Englishman's house is his castle" and in many ways that phrase still seems to ring true today. Research into residential preferences indicates that the Brits still want to be able to "pull up the drawbridge" and keep the ills of society out. House buyers aspire to detached houses spaced out from one another in socially exclusive areas with as few people passing by as possible. Most people prefer to be located away from facilities such as shops, pubs and public transport.
Achieving this ideal could have drastic consequences for the sustainability and social inclusion agendas. The land take involved in constructing detached houses to meet market demand would be enormous and car dependency would almost certainly escalate. In social terms, polarisation would intensify, with those not able to afford this detached utopia having to accept living in ghettos i the rejected areas.
This may all seem unrealistically improbable, and indeed in terms of rapid short term change it is. However if we examine trends in living patterns it becomes clear that these changes have been taking place steadily for many years.
So what are the causes of these trends? Most important in them must be the increase in teh middle classes. As more and more people see incrased income levels, location choices are opened up to people who previously had no choice over where they lived. Given the choice of isolating themselves and their families from perceived or real crime, noise and other social ills, many will exercise that choice. Secondly, in the UK we have an investment culture, with high property ownership levels and an expectation of increases in the value of our property. This means property buyers always have one eye on teh future, and aim for "safe" investment buys. Thirdly, rising car ownership has given people the opportunity to choose isolation, with proximity to facilities becoming unimportant, and increasing the need for space to permit a high level of car use.
In a market society we could argue that people should be allowed to choose freely how and where to live, however the impacts on society and the environment would be great, especially in such a small densely populated island. What has still not been explored in the UK is using new forms of development which allow people to retain a degree of isolation whilst also retaining a high focus on sustainable development and social inclusion. Perhaps it is time to look beyond the "suburban" and investigate the "semi-urban".
The cliché has it that "An Englishman's house is his castle" and in many ways that phrase still seems to ring true today. Research into residential preferences indicates that the Brits still want to be able to "pull up the drawbridge" and keep the ills of society out. House buyers aspire to detached houses spaced out from one another in socially exclusive areas with as few people passing by as possible. Most people prefer to be located away from facilities such as shops, pubs and public transport.
Achieving this ideal could have drastic consequences for the sustainability and social inclusion agendas. The land take involved in constructing detached houses to meet market demand would be enormous and car dependency would almost certainly escalate. In social terms, polarisation would intensify, with those not able to afford this detached utopia having to accept living in ghettos i the rejected areas.
This may all seem unrealistically improbable, and indeed in terms of rapid short term change it is. However if we examine trends in living patterns it becomes clear that these changes have been taking place steadily for many years.
So what are the causes of these trends? Most important in them must be the increase in teh middle classes. As more and more people see incrased income levels, location choices are opened up to people who previously had no choice over where they lived. Given the choice of isolating themselves and their families from perceived or real crime, noise and other social ills, many will exercise that choice. Secondly, in the UK we have an investment culture, with high property ownership levels and an expectation of increases in the value of our property. This means property buyers always have one eye on teh future, and aim for "safe" investment buys. Thirdly, rising car ownership has given people the opportunity to choose isolation, with proximity to facilities becoming unimportant, and increasing the need for space to permit a high level of car use.
In a market society we could argue that people should be allowed to choose freely how and where to live, however the impacts on society and the environment would be great, especially in such a small densely populated island. What has still not been explored in the UK is using new forms of development which allow people to retain a degree of isolation whilst also retaining a high focus on sustainable development and social inclusion. Perhaps it is time to look beyond the "suburban" and investigate the "semi-urban".
Wednesday 23 April 2008
Next day at no cost. Why should we pay more?
Well, it has been a hectic few months. Not helped by being asked to do some work for Waverley Excursions about the MV Balmoral in March. While most welcome in income terms and an interesting piece of work, it was one of those that required dropping everything. Only some stuff couldn't be dropped. So we've been busy. Still, clearly leads to less time to spend grumbling.... But I'm back, I'm bad, and I'm grumpy!
Something which pains me at the moment is the cost of couriers to the Isle of Wight. Many couriers treat us as part of the UK mainland in pricing terms - Royal Mail, Parcelforce, Citylink, I am lead to believe UPS do, and I've forgotten more I'm sure. Some such as Interlink (again, can't recall the others) charge a premium, often more than doubling the cost of delivery. Ah, you say, but they have to pay a ferry fare, so it is only reasonable! But no, it is not. Here's why.
1. Even calculating the ferry fare, driver time on the ferry etc. £12+ per parcel is still extortion.
2. Citylink used to run 2 vans across (as far as I can tell) and both appeared to have a days work, so we don't appear to be short on volume.
3. You can ignore (1) especially after you factor in (2). Assume you have no Isle of Wight depot - reasonable enough. So you run a van over on the ferry, drop off parcels across the Island, and then back across. Probably from a Portsmouth depot. Ferry time inc. wait either end, maybe 60 mins each way. Cost of ferry, maybe £50 on account? Compare this cost and time with delivering in a remote area, with few deliveries, miles and miles from the nearest depot. Hours of driving, little custom, high fuel costs. How can the Isle of Wight be more expensive.
Of course the answer is, its not. Its just a convenient excuse to rip people off. Unfortunately some companies refuse to use an alternative courier. You know what? I refuse to use them now. Especially those that try and charge a premium when I know the courier they are using don't. Either they can't tell the difference between the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Isle of Wight, or they are just fleecing us. Either way, my custom goes elsewhere.
I recently had to buy some PA equipment. Dolphin Music wanted to charge me £10 extra to send by Citylink (same zone as UK mainland). So I waved goodbye and ordered from Thomann. Who delivered completely free of charge. From Germany. Oh dear.
Something which pains me at the moment is the cost of couriers to the Isle of Wight. Many couriers treat us as part of the UK mainland in pricing terms - Royal Mail, Parcelforce, Citylink, I am lead to believe UPS do, and I've forgotten more I'm sure. Some such as Interlink (again, can't recall the others) charge a premium, often more than doubling the cost of delivery. Ah, you say, but they have to pay a ferry fare, so it is only reasonable! But no, it is not. Here's why.
1. Even calculating the ferry fare, driver time on the ferry etc. £12+ per parcel is still extortion.
2. Citylink used to run 2 vans across (as far as I can tell) and both appeared to have a days work, so we don't appear to be short on volume.
3. You can ignore (1) especially after you factor in (2). Assume you have no Isle of Wight depot - reasonable enough. So you run a van over on the ferry, drop off parcels across the Island, and then back across. Probably from a Portsmouth depot. Ferry time inc. wait either end, maybe 60 mins each way. Cost of ferry, maybe £50 on account? Compare this cost and time with delivering in a remote area, with few deliveries, miles and miles from the nearest depot. Hours of driving, little custom, high fuel costs. How can the Isle of Wight be more expensive.
Of course the answer is, its not. Its just a convenient excuse to rip people off. Unfortunately some companies refuse to use an alternative courier. You know what? I refuse to use them now. Especially those that try and charge a premium when I know the courier they are using don't. Either they can't tell the difference between the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Isle of Wight, or they are just fleecing us. Either way, my custom goes elsewhere.
I recently had to buy some PA equipment. Dolphin Music wanted to charge me £10 extra to send by Citylink (same zone as UK mainland). So I waved goodbye and ordered from Thomann. Who delivered completely free of charge. From Germany. Oh dear.
Thursday 24 January 2008
Voyage of the purple Kite
In need of some cheering up, so I thought I would further spread my epic (cough) first YouTube video.
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