Nationalisation of British Railways

Recently the new labour government had decided to re-nationalise the railways, they're doing it by not renewing the contracts of the line operators; when their contract finishes, the line becomes part of the states public controlled services. As far as I know, south western railways have already become part of the state owned railways. 

I thought it would be a good idea to abolish peak time rates, even if it makes the off peak rates more expensive. I think a lot of Brits feel blind sided or ripped off when they pay for peak time rates, they don't get a better service for paying more for their ticket. I think the price of the ticket should reflect the distance travelled alone.  Perhaps they should set the price to 5p per kilometre for the whole Island of Britain. Perhaps 10p per kilometre if that is what it costs to abolish peak time rates.

In my model, the distance from Wembley park station to Finchley Road is 7 kilometres , so the price would be 35p because they were charged 5 pence for every kilometre travelled. 

Another example would be going from Barking station to Southend Central, the distance between those stations is 43 kilometres  so they would pay £2.15. it would be £4.30 if they were charged 10 pence per kilometre. In my model there is no peak time or rail card. The customer pays for the distance they were moved by the train, that's it. 

The distance between London and Edinburgh in Scotland is about 500 km  but the trains bend and turn around the valleys so I think a train journey would be about 600km, in my model, the ticket would cost about £30 or £60 for 10p per kilometre. That is probably the longest journey people will make on this Island. 

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.