Lane Loitering

I'm not sure about other countries but here in Great Britain it is illegal to loiter in the overtaking lanes on the motorway(highway). The first lane you come into on the left is Lane 1 and you're required to stay in that lane unless you're overtaking another vehicle or the lanes are bifurcating into different roads or if a lane is closed. If you overtake a car then you're required to return to lane 1 afterwards.  

As far as I know, lane loitering is one of the stipulations of the Dangerous Driving Law and people that loiter in the overtaking lanes(2 and 3) can receive £100 fine and 3 penalty points on their driving license. A lot of people don't know that it is illegal to loiter in the overtaking lanes and they don't know that sanctions can be placed on them; I know that because when a police car appears, some cars move to the first lane and others continue to loiter in the overtaking lanes. I see it for myself.  

Loitering in the overtaking lanes for too long makes the road more dangerous because if their car stops working, they may not be able to reach the hard shoulder on time and can cause a crash. I find it difficult because I'm required to overtake on the right hand side of the vehicle and cars that are going too fast use that 3rd lane as well and they get annoyed because I'm overtaking a car that is in lane 2. What can I do? 

Middle of Spring

 It is the middle of Spring, a bank holiday here in Britain. I recently learnt that an old colleague of mine passed away in his sleep last week. He didn't look very old so I felt shocked. I'm guessing one of his organs stopped working like his heart and that caused him to pass away while he was sleeping. 

The news of his death caused me to make a firm decision about getting a virtual reality head set. Knowing life is very short and could be shorter than you think can be unsettling. I have used family and friend's meta quest head sets before; I like playing golf in virtual reality. If I get one of my own then I can use my short down time every day to play a game of golf. The good things about playing golf in virtual reality is you can teleport to where the ball is and the weather is always nice, unless you don't want it to be; another good thing about virtual reality golf is you can play any time you like. You can play at 3 in the morning if you like.

If I can get my virtual reality head set by the middle of summer then I have achieved my goal. Being British is loneliness, you're surrounded by many people but almost all of them don't want to talk to you, unless you're annoying them, then they talk to you like a nuisance. Society makes you pay many bills to get by and you feel empty. If I say a greeting like good morning then most Brits would feel upset by that. I don't understand why anyone would want to live here. I hang on prayer,  hard work and perks. Little treats to make me smile, like a virtual reality head set. So many Brits go on holiday and drink alcohol to forget about their misery and then they behave badly because they're drunk. I don't. I drink tea and coffee. 

I don't know what is going on but I don't like the idea of Britain getting involved in the Ukraine war. I think we should mind our own business. Lets hope the two nations can settle down and put their differences aside. 

Virtual sunny Day

Son, 

the other day I learnt that a colleague I worked with about 10 years ago had passed away in his sleep. He went to sleep and didn't wake up again. The guy didn't look too much older than myself. 

I thought to myself I should try and get a Meta quest virtual reality headset. I have been putting off buying it for a long time; I love to borrow other people's virtual reality headsets and play golf in virtual reality, why don't I just get one? I could be like the colleague that went to sleep and never woke up again. Then I'll never get to use it properly. 

I also wanted to know the difference between diet coke and coke zero. It turns out diet coke contains aspartame sweetener but coke zero contains a mixture of different sweeteners and less aspartame. I prefer diet coke, I like the way it tastes. I don't drink it often enough to worry about the so called negative effects of aspartame. 

I put roller coaster tycoon on the Nintendo, why? Because I stop overthinking when I play that game. I concentrate on the game and forget about my worries for a while. It's a bit like drinking without the negative side effects. Late in the evening when there is nothing left to do, over thinking is pointless. Just do something that consumes your thoughts. 

Tape for It

You forget how vulnerable you are until your phone stops working. Anyway, most phones seem to come with a pin tool to open the sim card-chip slot. I decided it is a good idea to tape the sim slot tool to the charger brick because I would lose it otherwise, it is so small. 

I feel the same way about micro SD cards, they're so small, I feel like a strong breeze could blow it away and it could fall into a crevice that I can't search. I remember when we used to use cassette tapes, they were the perfect size, they were small hand sized plastic cartridges with magnetic tape reels nested inside them. You wouldn't lose those things so easily. They mostly stored music but there was a time when they also were used to store computer data. 

I'm not saying memory modules should be the size of old cassette tapes, I'm just saying it would be nice if they were a bit bigger. Perhaps if they were the size of a standard bank card or something similar to that. Perhaps if they were just big enough you wouldn't worry about the wind blowing it out of your hand. Perhaps they could make a sheaf to contain it for use on a computer and the size is enough that it would be easy to hold 
 

Disneyland Southend

 I learned recently that Universal was building an amusement park in Bedford. I thought to myself that Disney are rivals of Universal and may also want to build an amusement park in Britain; if they did, I thought it would be a good idea to build the park next to Southend airport if it was possible. Perhaps if Rochford golf club sold their land or they used public green land nearby. If they did build Disney land next to southend airport, they wouldn't need to worry about noise complaints because the airport already makes noise. Southend is near London and on the coast so it already has tourist gravity. There is also an amusement park on the sea front in Southend itself. People would visit the area more knowing there were two amusement parks. 

If you want to know what Southend airport is like, I found this video made by a travel journalist and he covered everything about the airport. I was impressed by his knowledge and comprehensive overview.

Shai Explores Southend Airport Video 

From the government's perspective, it would also bring relief to Heathrow and Gatwick airport because tourists could fly to that airport instead and stay in a resort and still visit London. 

I think it is a good idea to build an amusement park next to Southend airport, what do you think? 

Walk Less

They started installing the new Piccadilly trains on the London metro rail network, they're made by the German company Siemens. They're a lot like the sub surface trains, you can walk freely from carriage to carriage and the train is open plan but still shaped like a Swiss-roll.  I thought I should mention some tricks I know of to get about without walking much. 

If you want to visit London and you want to walk less, I can give you a few tips. There are some special stations where the line crossings are very close together. I noticed that some people will get off at baker street station if they want to change lines from Metropolitan to Jubilee trains, they come side by side at Finchley road. 

The Bakerloo and Jubilee line come side by side at baker street station, there is a wall between the two platforms but there is a crossing near the end of the platform about 6 meters across. The platforms that are side by side are heading in the same direction. The eastbound Jubilee and Bakerloo platforms are side by side and so are the west bound platforms and they both have a discrete crossing near the end of the platform that often gets unnoticed by tourists, they head to the exit instead and work their way back again. 

A similar thing is true of 'Mile End' but there is no wall between the platforms. The central line, Hammersmith line and District line all share the same platform island, they come side by side and changing lines there is as easy as stepping off one train and onto another. 

New Pope

Yesterday I learned that the Vatican cardinals had chosen a new pope to replace Pope Francis, he died from an age related illness on the 22nd of April. They chose Robert Prevost, he was born in the USA and had dual nationality, he is both Peruvian and a USA citizen. When I think of the Name Robert, I instantly think of the famous British Radio manufacturer, they make all sorts of hybrid FM, Dab and Internet Radios and like to use polished wooden panels on some of their models, they look very cool. They Renamed him Pope Leo XIV(Leo the 14th). I think Leo means Lion in the Latin language. Pope Leo has a ring to it. 

Close to the time the pope was appointed, we had local councillor elections. The results of those elections had shown that the British community had largely written off the main parties and gravitated to independent leaders and the Reform Party. The Main Labour and Conservative parties had become very unpopular in recent months. 

While the Pope was appointed and local British councillors were elected, Nintendo had started manufacturing a new games console called Nintendo switch 2, it is like the Switch 1 but it can handle PlayStation 5 games and can run 4k games at their intended frame rate, for a portable console that is astonishing. The pre order market for the console had opened so one can buy the console before it was manufactured and shipped over. They will be shipped to Britain by June onwards. It is backwards compatible with switch 1 games. I don't like the prices of the switch 2 games though. 

Unfortunately there was a conflict at the India and Pakistan Border. The Indian government believes the Pakistan government was involved in an attack on their territory in Kashmir. The Pakistan government deny their involvement, they claim the terrorists worked alone and had nothing to do with them. There was an exchange of missile fire and the two nations are at loggerheads at the moment. Hopefully they will avoid war. I wish the best of luck to both nations. 

Just There

 The other day I was sitting outside looking at the trees swaying in the breeze thinking of nothing for a little while. I see the trees were driven by purpose, it was reaching out, reaching out for the light and reaching out below for water, the solvent of life. I live for those little moments when I forget about who I am and where I stand in the world and just observe the world. Looking up at the clouds and the grass on the ground and breathing in the fresh air in the morning. 

My steadfast tea drinking parents that I love very much always showed me the beauty of reading. Recently a few years ago they bought me a kindle paper white. It imitates the inky paper-like nature of real books. With amazon prime, you're permitted to read through a selection of e-books on your kindle account. I thought I should mention that on here because that feature wasn't available when I first set up my kindle  account. At this time of this post, you could read a lot of popular books for free. It's still nice to keep real books. Some of the best books I have come across have been from charity shops; I'm guessing that when people are done reading them, they send them to the charity shop to be read by a new person. They're making space on their book shelves. 

Take time to be still and allow the good positive thoughts to seep through your mind. Perhaps on your day off, early in the morning. 

One Hundred Men vs one Gorilla

I noticed in recent days a debate about one hundred unarmed men fighting one silver-back Gorilla was trending on social media. I think it was a popular debate on all platforms; x, Facebook, Tick Tock and You Tube. It is an interesting debate, the Gorilla is much stronger than the men but they outnumber it. Would the Gorilla beat the one hundred men or would it get tired before it was done beating up all the men to death. 

I was thinking to myself that in a lot of car parks there are 15 disabled parking bays and only one or two of them are being used, the other 13 disabled parking bays sit empty. I was also thinking to myself I could learn sign language so I could have a conversation with the Gorilla. 

Alan: Hello 

Gorilla: Hello

Alan: When I park my car, 13 out of the 15 disabled parking bays sit empty, if you cripple 100 men, I would call it capacity building. 

Gorilla: That's True, Why do they want to fight me to the death? 

Alan: There are 100 gullible thugs out there ready to respond to an internet debate. They risk their life for fame.

Gorilla: They're Daft

Alan: True.... Have you seen the movie 'The thing' from 1982 ?

Gorilla: The Zoo keeper showed it to us 

Alan: Do you think Palmer knew he was an assimilation? He got the other assimilation burnt. 

Gorilla: He knew, it was all a part of his deception, remember he looked very nervous during the hot needle test. 

Alan: I thought that he didn't know because, he was infected by contaminated food and slowly taken over from the inside.

Gorilla: So why were there torn clothes in the kitchen? was he not taken over in one go?

Alan: I thought the torn clothes were from Blair or Norris. I think Blair was assimilated quite early. 

Gorilla: Could be. But look at his face during the hot needle test. He looked worried. 

Alan: That's true. But maybe he thought McReady had gone insane and was about to burn everyone. 

Gorilla: We can debate about this later, the zoo keeper is bringing lunch, see you later alligator. 

Alan: In a while Crocodile. 

What April 2025 Means To Me

 April is that kind of month when you don't know what to wear. The weather seems to change by the hour from hot to cold. There were lots of little comforts, little familiar sights, Dandelions and Daisies sprouting flowers on all the grass verges and lawns. Migratory Birds returning to nest. Longer days, temperature in double digits. Lots of things like that. 

We went on our first short break for the year to celebrate Jacob's birthday in Southampton in Paulton's park. It's nice to use public transport to visit these places because the Journey is a part of the break. An opportunity to see another part of your country. You also get to see how your country is linked together through infrastructure. You can't really appreciate all that when you're driving. 

In the background was a lingering trade war between America and China. Import tariffs were shooting up higher and faster than the temperature. At the same time there was hope of the Ukraine war coming to an end. Negotiations were under way. I thought to myself they should let go of the Crimea Peninsula because the people that live there consider themselves to be Russian anyway; that was the one area of Ukraine that didn't resist the Russian annexation. The rest of the occupied lands are different. I don't know but the war is pointless and is going on for too long.   

The Pope passed away during the last third of the month, he was aged in his eighties and his death was common for his age group. While I was writing this post, they were in the process of choosing the next Pope to take his place.