Life, the Universe and Everything

I suppose my political leanings might be described as liberal or "left of centre" and lead to a natural scepticism about CCTV surveillance. However, a recent experience has made me less sure. I went to a dance in London the weekend before last and planned to get home via a National Express coach from Victoria. They messed up and stranded me overnight. After I finally got home and caught up on some sleep, I emailed a detailed complaint to their MD who despatch his Head of Coach Stations to Victoria where she grabbed the CCTV recordings. This not only allowed her to verify my account, she identified more shortcomings. The upshot was that they have suspended some staff pending disciplinary action and are sending me a compensation cheque - enough to have covered a night in a decent London hotel. It's also pleasing to see a business in transition: The poor performance of the staff at Victoria was not a complete surprise to this occasional bus user but the superb complaint han...

Before I got into dancing I got dizzy very easily and had nasty experiences on some fairground rides. As I did more dancing, my tolerance for rotation increased greatly and nowadays I can do very long swings, spinny French waltzes, etc. without any trouble. Of course, I sometimes find myself partnered with someone who gets dizzy and have to look out for that. Novices who get dizzy often get advised to do "spotting" or to focus on some convenient part of their partner's body. I've always suspected that this is rubbish advice because:  I don't use either technique and I'm fine If you are the leader in a couple on a crowded dance floor you need to use your eyes more intelligently than that! So I was interested in some recent research that suggests that dancer's brains adapt over time to suppress input from their vestibular systems, I thought about this again at a recent ceilidh where I danced with a very old friend who I hadn't seen for about...

Due to a cockup by National Express (that they've already described as “appalling”) I found myself at Victoria Coach Station at midnight last Saturday with the next coach at 0730. I thought I'd try and have an adventure or at the very least survive 7 degrees C and occasional rain. After speaking to cluster of 9 hotels I asked a policeman for advice about safe places to sleep. He pointed out that “This is Victoria!” before directing me to a shopping arcade up the road. I got asked for change three times on the way and I found it was quite a haunt of mainly young people with wheeled suitcases and i-phones waiting for coaches to various airports. Some were more organized than me After sitting on a step for about 2 hours, I was shivering so much I probably fooled a few local seismographs into reporting an earthquake. So I went for a walk and was bored enough to read a sign at a bus stop that said “Night Buses”. Aha! A night bus, I reasoned would take ages to get anywh...

Ivy is a foliage plant, right? It does flower and like many gardeners, I have never thought about it much. Then I saw some of mine being mobbed by bees and even a butterfly. I think I've seen pigeons eating the berries too so maybe it ticks the "wildlife friendly" box.  Its flowering habit is interesting in its own right. Normally, it lurks around near the ground, climbs a few things and doesn't flower. However, it it reaches the top of something such as a wall, it has "nowhere to go" and so it flowers.

“Well, Bernard” said Sir Humphrey, “how are you getting on with your new Minister?” “Oh, Iain's OK but some of his policy ideas are a bit strange” “A minister with policy ideas? Extraordinary!” “Yes, he's had another idea to give benefit claimants an incentive to get into work” Sir Humphrey shuddered “After the row he had when he claimed the benefit cap had incentivised 8000 claimants to go out and get a job?” “Yes, and despite the roasting he got from the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority for it” “As I remember, I suggested you persuade him to talk about liars, damn liars and statisticians but you let him go all religious and say he believes he's right” “I know, Sir Humphrey, I know!” “So what is this latest idea?” “Well, it's a bit of partnership working with the MOD” “No Bernard! No, no, no! The army does not want the reintroduction of National Service, especially if it involves the unwashed and the unemployed!” “I know that's a h...

Plantar fasciitis is a pain in the heel that is typically worst first thing in the morning. This is my story of continuing recovery. I am not medically qualified and if you suspect you have Plantar fasciitis, get a doctor or physiotherapist to check and follow their advice. For standard information, try this Wikipedia article and for evidence-based advice, try the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence article So, I "caught" Plantar fasciitis at the Chippenham Folk Festival at the end of May. I did a lot of vigorous ceilidh dancing mainly on a "wood" floor that probably had concrete a few mm down. By the time I got home, walking was extremely painful. I had already booked for two festivals in August so I needed to fix things fast. I have largely succeeded. Here's what I tried, my thinking and observations: I stopped walking 4km a day to work and drove. In fact I became a total couch potato.This was intended to reduce further damage and pain ...

There's been a lot of fuss recently about the "Benefit Cap" that's being introduced to the UK. Basically it limits the total amount of welfare benefits anyone can receive to around the average working wage. You might be shocked that anyone on benefits can get anything like the average wage? In fact, only around 1% of benefit claimants do and will have their income reduced by the cap. Typically, these are people with quite a few children living in expensive rented accommodation. Iain Duncan Smith believes this isn't so much a problem as an "incentive to work" and he has claimed that thousands of people notified that they will be affected have gone out and got a job. However, the UK Statistics Authority are not happy with this claim In rather dry language, they say: We have concluded that the statement attributed to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions that 'Already we've seen 8,000 people who would have been affected by the cap m...