small talk for a small world
Posts tagged #uksnow
Getting bored of the weather
Jan 13th
It has been over a week now since this cold weather hit the UK and the media hyped the “Big Freeze” and is still milking the story for everything it has left to give.
However I need to say that I am now officially getting annoyed with the weather, well not the weather specifically but getting annoyed with the lack of preparation we still have as a nation even though we are now a week or so into this. Especially the shocking service coming from First Capital Connect. Only a week a go I blogged how impressed I was that the train services are still running with some degree of reliability and now it seems that has all gone to southwards.
First Capital Connect have so far this week cancelled nearly every train into London and those that do run stop at every station along the route from Bedford picking up everyone they possibly can until the train is at bursting point and there is no longer room to stand. I have seen people left stranded at the stations looking pissed off and annoyed that they have at least made the effort unlike some to actually get out of bed and make their way to work only to be left stranded on a platform as the one train that is running is full to the brim.
I am one of the lucky ones I guess as the First Cap trains start the journey at Bedford station where I get on and thus I am able to comfortably get on the train and get a seat. However the train is taking too long to get to London and when it finally does hit London it gets cancelled at St Pancras as apparently the trains can’t go any further south. This morning we eventually got into London at 9:30am starting at 7:50am at Bedford then I walked the 2 mile walk to work from Kings Cross to Farringdon, not a bad walk but when it is cold and snowing it is just pretty slow going.
I am looking forward to the weekend when I hope the weather is going to warm up a little and lets pray that the trains start running on time.
Twitter, why so interesting
Jan 8th
There is a part of me that loves Twitter and a part of me that is still struggling to understand the world wide appeal this has. There is also a part of me that admires the people that thought of the concept and gave the world twitter in the first place as I wish I had come up with the concept myself.
What does the average person use Twitter for? I have been looking through the people I follow and the typical Tweet is about what they are currently doing, such as making a trip to work, as work, at home eating dinner, letting the world know they have just seen a good or bad movie at the cinema. Some people I know Tweet to the extreme and almost give me a 5 minute interval peak into their day which to me a little too much.
Recently I have been using it more as an instant messaging service allowing me to converse with friends about subjects and share links and items I have seen on the Internet. Other times I use Twitter to vent my spleen over something that is currently annoying me, as you will also see from my blogs this week mainly the media hype of the snow and the train service into London.
Some media outlets are now using Twitter to share with those who choose to follow them latest news and current affairs, some people are using Twitter now for a direct marketing tool as well. So what does 2010 have in store for us on the Twitter front, are we going to see the model change where you have to follow someone to be able to see their tweets. Surely there must be some value in Twitter themselves in marketing your identity to other companies, selling you as a follower to the highest bidder. We will start to see unsolicited tweets appearing on our screens direct marketing to us even though we are not following that person or company.
What about the companies as well that have boomed since Twitter took off, such as bit.ly, there link shortening service from what I gather is currently free for all. They must be doing something on a commercial level, maybe selling MI data, but how can they sustain the service that so many use without some commercial backing. Maybe 2010 we will see that we have to pay for a URL shortening service, maybe buy a pack of 100 URLS at a time for a small fee or a subscription based service paid on a monthly basis. Anyways these are just my ponderings and right now I am going to go Tweet that it is snowing again where I live.
UK Freeze, stupid media
Jan 6th
Ok so we have some snow in the UK, ok there is a little more than we normally get, but hey we have all been so used to mild winters for the last decade. I can remember back to when we had snow on the ground over the winter, that it actually used to drift on the back roads around where I live and form these amazing snow tunnels over the ditches at the sides of the road. I remember less winging about it as well and less press.
The BBC news site as usual as coined a media frenzy name for this current snow “UK FREEZE”, making the whole thing sound as if the Ice Ages have returned to our queens shores. Motorways have been closed, airports are shut, the schools have closed (hey one flake of snow and the schools shut so nothing new there) and trains are delayed or cancelled. I work in London by the way I commute from Bedford to Farringdon every day and I have managed to get into work today, as have thousands of other people. So here is some news for you BBC, trains are running yes a little disrupted but they are running, people who actually make the effort to get to work have got into work.
Sure there are parts of the UK that have had a lot of snow and I pity the old and frail who live in the remote villages at these times as it is hard for them to get mobile, I appreciate some road are dangerous and in some places people should just stay home instead of risking putting their car in a ditch. However there is not need for all the press, there is no need for headlines and “UK FREEZE” quotes. Get over it, deal with it. Moving on….
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