HUBBERS DOT COM BLOG

Tonight I rode across London to the Tooting Bec Lido because the Lido near my house at Parliament Hill closes at 6pm for some bizarre reason. The weather was warm and the ride was awesome.

Tooting Bec Lido is the biggest outdoor pool in England and it’s lucky that it is because they have to cram a lot of filth into it. The list of things I managed to identify on the bottom of the pool included: dirt (lots of), sand (lots of), leaves, twigs, band aids, toilet paper (I think) and a panty liner. Disgusting.

As one of the other swimmers said it was, “it’s good for your immune system”. My personal opinion is that if you swim regularly in the Tooting Bec Lido and you don’t die then you probably have nothing to fear from swine flu.

This photo is stitched together from two photos taken using my not-very-wide-angle Canon Ixus 970 using the magic of photoshop.

I completely don’t get this war memorial and the tens of thousands of pounds that must have been spent on it. I mean it’s not like a signal animal will ever come to visit it and appreciate its significance. Not even a really smart monkey with a massive head would have any clue what this massive waste of tax payers money means.

Today after meeting some friends in Holborn for lunch I rode to the Thames Barrier. I’ve been meaning to get down there for ages to take some photos.

The Tames Path ride isn’t really what I expected. At several places along the Thames, apartments have been built right up to the edge of the river so you have to cycle back to a road to keep heading in the same direction. Sometimes when travelling on one of these back roads the Thames Path is signposted back towards the river and when you get there the path only goes for fifty meters or so before another apartment block forces you back on to the road you just came from. The net effect is that you end up with the feeling that you are zigzagging down the river and sometimes you end up a bit lost or on a main road.

A bit frustrating and not really what I expected from a quite cycle down the Thames.

Today was my last day at LexisNexis and as I was wrapping up project work and writing final emails we were evacuated from the building because the building next door was on fire.

This is a photo I took from my office window before we left.

Earlier this month my girlfriend of nearly four years got back from three months in Africa and told me that our long term plans to move to Australia, get married and have babies had changed. More specifically she was still planning to do it but I am no longer invited. Dumped. Bugger.

Today my boss took me out and bought me a coffee. She told be that my contract would be ending in March. Fired. Bugger.

The point is that now I have lost my girl and my job my life is starting to resemble a country and western song. If I had a dog or a bible I would be watching them very closely. Instead I will be keeping a close eye on my laptop (trusty companion) and my copy of Bill Bryson’s, A Short History of Nearly Everything (probably the best book on science ever written).

London has been covered in more snow recently than any time in the last 18 years. A lot of people have been complaining but personally I loved the opportunity to get the camera out and take some once-in-a-London-time photographs. I also wanted to try out this excellent flickr slide show tool that I saw on my mate Erik’s blog.

Having made quite a few trips to the post office recently I have had many an hour in long queues to ponder ways that they post office could reduce the size of it’s queues.

Ignoring the obvious idea of employing more people at busy times … I though the best idea would be to have a machine that could handle regular postal duties.

THE HUBBERS POSTMACHINE 3000^tm

The Hubbers Postmachine 3000^tm is an all in one weighing, payment processing, stamping and package collecting machine that could be installed in post offices and other postal outlets all over the country.

The first part of the HP3000^tm (might need to have a word with Hewlett-Packard about the name) is a weighing shelf to weigh the package. A touch screen would allow the customer to select destination, postage type etc. The machine would then take payment from a credit or debit card. Finally any stamps or stickers (airmail, customs declarations) that are needed could be printed. The customer would then place these stickers on their package and drop the package into a slot on the machine or a larger collection area elsewhere in the post office.

The machine could even be programmed to deal with other day-to-day post office tasks like collecting bill payments, selling foreign currency, selling insurance or issuing forms etc.

Every post office would have several of the HP3000^tm that would operate alongside some regular chair moisteners post office workers who could specialise in larger packages or more complicated enquires.

Stop Press!!! They Stole My idea!!!

I saw this in the Post Office on Saturday 4th of October . It’s bigger than I would have built it and it looks like it was designed by students in a woodwork class at high school but it’s basically the same idea. Also I bet it doesn’t let you do all the other things I thought of like bills and currency :)

MUSTARD CHEESE

My other good idea I have had recently is “mustard cheese”. I think this would be a really cracking flavour if done well. I have found one place that sells Mustard Cheddar on-line and when the Mutarde (Rachel) gets back from Africa I will ask her if she thinks it is any good.

Today when I rode to work it was SNOWING!

I saw this staggering statistic about English public spending in the latest issue of Money Week.

If public spending had only grown in line with inflation since 1997, we could have abolished income tax, corporation tax, capital-gains tax and inheritance tax, leaving the taxpayer £200bn better off.

Governments have gotten very rich in the ten years of financial boom prior to the onset of the credit crunch. In the UK the Labour government has managed to spend it all and nothing was put aside for leaner times like um a global credit crunch.

I suspect people will look back on the UK governments fiscal looseness during the boom and wonder whether they were mad, drunk, on crack or all of the above.

Just after 9am yesterday morning I rode through the intersection of Southampton Row and High Holborn as I do on the way to work every day.

Yesterday the intersection was surrounded by police who had a white tent set up and were filming the intersection. Rather ominously a large white lorry parked half way around the corner of Southampton Row and High Holborn. I chatted with another cyclist about what the likely reason for the white tent was. He suggested it was probably another stabbing as the UK is having an epidemic of them at the moment.

I forgot about it until today when I saw this newspaper banner outside my office in Holborn.

This is the full article form the Evening Standard. Cyclist killed in lorry collision is the second victim in a week