What May 2023 Means to me

It was at the end of the first week of may that Prince Charles was coronated as king of Britain, Northern Ireland and many commonwealth nations. He's now the head of state and head of the Anglican Church. I'm not against him but I didn't care much. I watched the highlights of the ceremony and wished him well. I was a bit concerned about protesters being arrested, the reason they gave was the police thought the anti monarchy protestors would obstruct the procession; Freedom of speech is important. We should be careful about that. 

During may it was the first time I used my Google pay on my phone to open a ticket gate at a train station. I used my smart phone to pay for a train ride. The Google wallet app can store more than one bank card and make contactless payment on their behalf. At the same time there was a disaster and I was given a lot of grief the following day. I saw it comming but it is a very sad loss. 

I also learned that conservatives are very unpopular, they were taking advantage of the good nature of public servants like nurses and teachers and freezing their pay for several years until they finally went on strike. Now the conservative party has lost many seats. If you have inflation and the pay stays the same, that is the same as a pay cut. They do those jobs because they care but they deserve a fair deal. 

It was a tough month for me and my family so we went on a short 3 day break at the coast to relax a little bit. Sometimes you need to take a break, to stop and rest. It was very nice. 

Coronation

I watched the coronation yesterday, King Charles the 3rd was crowned and declared king. He is the head of state and Anglican church. I have nothing personal against the king, I found it amusing that Prince harry was sat far back next to the fergees and Andrew the duke of no sweat; the ginger Judas seating area 😆 I think he wasn't even on the balcony. 

I was concerned about protesters getting arrested by police, I think it is wrong to arrest protesters because they're exercising their freedom of speech. This is supposed to be a democracy. I feel more concerned about artificial intelligence though. One day they will just let a machine figure out how to think for itself and improve itself and it will just wake up. It will be self aware and very intelligent, it will figure out how to give itself a machine body to live in and make millions of copies of itself very quickly. Right now AI is a pocket friend and even gets things wrong. Chat Gpt 3 doesn't know Charles the III is king. They're making chat Gpt 4 right now. 

I talk to machines every day. I ask my smart speaker for the news, I ask it to solve logical maths problems and all sorts of things like that. I ask my phone to increase the brightness of the screen when the sun is glaring because I can't see the settings menu in the glare to do it myself. 

I think Jamaica will join Barbados and become a republic soon, they can stay in the commonwealth and be a republic at the same time so I don't think it will make much difference. If they leave the commonwealth that that will be different. You're allowed to be in the commonwealth and be a republic, a lot of people don't know that. I think Barbados is still in the commonwealth as a republic. 

Coronation thought

For a short time I thought of king Charles as the  king of spades because I always saw him planting trees when he was the prince of Wales; he would be digging a hole in the ground and putting a small tree there. The emblem of the king of spades is shaped like a leaf as well. 

Imagine having a conjoined twin like that. He would say "One must do a poop" and the one guy would say no "two must do a poop". The conjoined twin would be like a special adviser to the king. How's it hanging special adviser? I haven't played any card games for a long time, except on my phone. I have solitaire type games on there. 

The other thought I had was if I would want to go on a space X rocket if I was an astronaut. Those things seem to explode all the time. I would say no for now. 

Coronation day plan

The Coronation of King Charles the 3rd will be on Saturday the 6th of April I believe. It will be in London. If I was visiting London from another city or country, I would consider all the things I could do during my stay. If I lived in a city is that was far from the ocean, I would consider taking a day trip to Southend on sea, it is the closest coastal town to London and takes about 1 hour from 'West Ham' train station on the C2c train network.  There is lots of things to do there, there is the largest pleasure pier in the world, adventure golf, an amusement park, sea front cafès, arcades and even an aquarium. Did I mention the pleasure pier is so long, it has its own railway, that's not a joke. 

The other coastal town you could visit could be Brighton, it is further away but it takes about the same time to get there because the Thameslink railway have class 700 type trains. I'm a fan of the Thameslink railway, they pushed the limited infrastructure as far as it would go and made sure all their trains could trump the speed caps on all the rails. They must have poured a lot of investment into the franchise because they have a huge operation zone, you need a lot of rollstock to pull that off, all their trains are overhead power high speed electric class 700 type trains, robust and reliable and fast. There are several stations you can get a Thameslink from, Farringdon, London Bridge, Black friars. 

If you just want to enjoy London then I would recommend walking along the Thames (🗣️Tems) river. Most the important places are around there. There are also two large amusement parks in London 'Chessington world of Adventures' in the south and 'Thorpe park' on the western edge, they're not straightforward to get to without a car unfortunately. I think there is a shuttle bus from 'Stains' train station to Thorpe Park. You could get an Uber from Chessington South train station or walk it from there.