My Week on the Trains

From Monday to Thursday of this week I was at a training course, which was held out of the office. This particular course was held at a hotel five minutes' walk from a station that was on the same line between Edinburgh and Livingston, two stops from home, so I thought it would be ideal to get the train in and thus not mess around with traffic.

So on Monday I went to the station to try this. I had arranged to arrive just in time for the last-but-two train that would get me there on time. This proved to be flawed, as before getting the train I needed a ticket. (Scotrail do have a SmartCard travel system, which is better. But that only works if you already have the card!) So I queued and got the ticket, and was just in time to get that same train, which was several minutes late.

The journey was okay, but not really something I'd recommend - by the time the train reached Livingston it was standing room only. Fortunately, I was only going two stops, so it was only briefly uncomfortable. But then it was a short walk to the hotel, which was good.

Coming home, I unfortunately got back to the station just in time to see a train pulling away, which meant a rather cold wait for fifteen minutes for the next one. Then it was, once again, standing room only, but then I was home. And that was fine.

My conclusion was that using the train was okay - it was a bit more expensive that using the car, it was quite a bit more uncomfortable, but the actual journey was considerably quicker, so provided I timed it right it would be pretty good.

So far, so good.

On Tuesday I got to the station only to discover that there was a broken down train on the line one stop past my actual destination, meaning that all trains were cancelled until it was fixed. When would that be? There was no indication.

So I got the car in.

On Wednesday, I didn't even bother with the train, and instead just used the car, and the same was true of Thursday also. The experiment had ended.

My conclusion from all of this is that I was largely disappointed by the trains. Given one of the easiest and most convenient journeys, it proved to be a fairly poor sustitute - more expensive per day (or even for a five-day week with a weekly pass - which I couldn't get as I didn't have a photocard), considerably less comfortable due to there being one two few coaches... and then plagued by a key unreliability.

It was that last that really caused problems - when I got to the station on Tuesday I couldn't know whether the train was cancelled for fifteen minutes, an hour, or several hours. The boards said to ask station staff... but there aren't any at that station. So while a broken down train really isn't something you can legislate for or realistically avoid, it wasn't handled particularly well. And since my analysis of the pros and cons was already borderline by that point, this tipped it over the edge.

And yet, that shouldn't have been the case. As I said, this was the easiest and most convenient journey in the system, and it involved a single person travelling. For both logistical and environmental reason, the Powers That Be should be trying really hard to get that journey off the roads - if every lone traveller from Livinston-ish to Edinburgh-ish switches from a car to the train, the corresponding reduction in car use would make a massive difference to the system as a whole. That's something that really needs to be facilitated.

So how could it be made better? Unfortunately, that's where I hit a blank. I think there are three obvious changes: firstly, the comparison of the costs really should favour the train over the car, and should do so based on the patterns of travel that people actually use. (That is, there should be an option of a 5-day ticket, for people who only need it for the working week.) Secondly, they could really do with finding a way to make those season tickets more easily accessed. As I said, I couldn't get a weekly ticket as I first needed a photocard - either that requirement needs to be done away with or it should be easy to get the required card. And thirdly, on that specific route they need to be adding one more coach to the average train (which appears to be an issue throughout the system). Basically, if you have people being required to stand, you have a problem.

One other thing, specifically about the SmartCard. Having looked into it, it is indeed an improvement over the standard approach of tickets and ticket machines. However, they've managed to implement it in a considerably worse manner than London's Oyster Card (which itself is less good than most equivalents on the continent... but I digress*). In London the card is loaded with money and then the system applies charges as you use it, based on how you use it (so if you use the Underground, it detects where you get on and get off, and charges you accordingly. Also, it detects if your daily usage means a day ticket would be cheaper, and caps itself accordingly, and so on). The SmartCard system, by contrast, has you load tickets onto the card, which means (a) you need to know your exact journey and (b) you need to buy the tickets four hours before you travel - if you suddenly need to go from A to B you're stuck.

* The reason that most of the systems on the continent are better is that the providers of public transport are all joined up. So the same card can be used on the bus, trains, trams, and so on. London has made some steps towards this, but the system is far from complete; the Scotrail system only covers the trains and Glasgow subway. So if you need a bus to get you to the station, it's just a hassle.

(Of course the best solution would get rid of the cards entirely and do everything with a mobile phone app. First set up an account to sort out payment, then you scan your phone at the start and at the end (or even better, log in/out with Bluetooth), and the app will automatically be charged for the appropriate journeys - with all the discounts for daily tickets applied automatically. That way there's no requirement for a special extra card, since pretty much everyone already has a phone, there's no need to work through an arcane system to find the optimum ticket, since the app sorts that after the fact, and there's a minimum of fuss all around. Of course, that requires a public transport system that is optimised to get people using it, rather than one that is set up to generate profit. But we can dream...)

#2: "802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide", by Matthew S. Gast
#3: "Version Control with Git", by Jon Loeliger & Matthew McCullogh

Ten Weeks

In exactly ten weeks time, unless something changes in the interim, the UK will leave the EU. At present, we will be embarking on a "no deal" Brexit, overseen by the worst government in living memory.

But, you know, no rush you guys.

Rebuilding the To-Do List

I wrapped up the previous iteration of my to-do list at the end of November, with a promise that when the new year arrived I would build a new version of the list. In the meantime, I have given a little thought to the best form for the list, and have settled on building it in phases, where I would expect to finish, or at least be well advanced, in one phase before moving on to the next one.

I expect this iteration of the to-do list to run through to the end of the Easter holiday, after which I'll wrap it up and take stock.

Already Done

We have already managed to tackle three of the tasks from the to-do list:

• I spent some time sorting through our accumulated documents, and disposed of a whole bunch that were no longer needed. (I also grouped other documents into annual bunches, meaning that next year's task will be one step easier. Which is nice.)
  
• As noted yesterday, we spent much of Saturday clearing out the kitchen.
  
• And, likewise, we rearranged the sideboard on Saturday.

Phase One
There are two tasks remaining in the first phase of the list:

• I've resumed my task of clearing out my old RPG papers. This mostly involves an awful lot of scanning and then shredding of the documents. It's proceeding apace, but is going to take several more months to get through, I think. (I don't intend to hold up phase two for the completion of this task!)
  
• There is one drawer I want to go through and clear out (again). This isn't a long job, but it's one that will bug me if I don't get it done. So that's my task for this weekend.

Phase Two
Once the last drawer has been cleared, we'll be in a position where we've finished our decluttering for the time being. This leaves us quite a lot of stuff that has been earmarked for disposal but which is still taking up space. Phase two, therefore, is to correct that:

• Take the books, clothes, and other useable stuff to the charity shop for donation.
  
• Take the boxes, appliances, and other junk to the tip for disposal.

I don't expect phase two to take very long, with the caveat that a couple of things are too heavy for me to lift by myself.
Phase Three
Once phases one and two are done (hopefully by mid-February), it will be time to move on to phase three, which consists largely of tasks that were deferred from last year...

• Digital Declutter: I started this last year when I re-catalogued my music. My intention is to do much the same with photos, videos, downloads, and documents on my PC - these should all be moved into a single, easily-backed-up location. Then I'll take a copy onto safe storage, and then go through the various files trying to find a better arrangement for them. The goal is to get everything into a state where it is easily found and accessed, where file names are help with the above, and to get rid of duplicate copies of the same document. (That last, of course, doesn't count backup copies, of course!)
  
• Re-fix the Wardrobe: As I mentioned at the time, I wasn't really happy with the end result of my 'fix' of the bedroom wardrobe. I therefore set myself the task to revisit that fix, which was deferred from the previous list. It's time to address this once again.
  
• Garden Plug: Likewise, my previous list had a task to remove and dispose of a concrete plug from the garden. This was deferred due to the winter, but will need to be tackled before too long.
  
• Redecorate Study: I mentioned this as one of my annual goals, and it's something I have pencilled in for the Easter holiday. The intention is to empty the room completely, remove some fastening plugs the previous owners left, fix the resulting holes in the wall, then repaint the room (changing the colour scheme). That done, we'll then put things back into the room, but take the opportunity to replace some of the furniture, rearrange some others, and generally make the room more pleasant to use.
  
• Repaint the Dining Room: Unfortunately, one of the consequences of the Christmas period is that the paintwork in the dining room has been damaged. Since it's not really possible to hide the damage, nor to find some paint to patch it in exactly the same colour, we'll need to redo the paintwork in this room. For the moment, my intent is to repaint the walls (only) in as close to the same colour as we can find. I'm not currently planning to redo the skirting boards or door frames, though this may well change.

And that's the list. As noted, I intend to run this one until the end of the Easter holidays, and I'm hopeful of completing eight of the nine items by then.

(Once we get past the Easter holidays, my suspicion is that I might end up without a to-do list at all - the lists have been getting progressively shorter with each iteration, so it might just be possible that we'll have reached the end, at least for the time being. But we'll see.)

A Big Achievement

Originally, our plan for the weekend was to try to get out for a walk on Saturday afternoon. However, due to a spot of inclement weather we ended up having to cancel this, and when Funsize went for a sleep we suddenly found ourselves with a block of free time and no clear plans.

After some debate, LC and I finally settled on a task for that afternoon - we would clear out the cupboards in the kitchen, have a big declutter, and rearrange what was left. And, as a side effect, we would also rearrange the sideboard in the dining room, making better use of all of the available storage.

Fun times!

This task then took us the next several hours, and was fairly tedious work. And the end result was that almost everything was rearranged into the same places they were stored previously - I'm sure it's possible to find a better arrangement, but in the event I couldn't see one that had sufficient benefit to justify throwing away my knowledge of where to find things.

But the main result was that a significant amount of stuff that never gets used was marked for decluttering, another significant chunk of stuff was moved out of the kitchen to the aforementioned sideboard, and the remaining stuff was therefore given room to breathe.

All in all, it was a good job well done. Although we were left absurdly pleased at this, frankly minor, achievement!

#1: "Dark Sun Campaign Setting", by Richard Baker, Robert J. Schwalb, and Rodney Thompson

Christmas Preparations and Wash-up, Part Two

Okay, it's a little odd posting again about Christmas this far after the fact, but the post-Christmas activities didn't finally complete until yesterday. Additionally, I've had something of a blog-holiday, and am only now just getting back into things, so here we are. This post picks up from a previous post on the topic from back in December...

• Cooking the Meal (revised): The major 'lesson learned' of the Christmas period is that when cooking the big roast dinner the oven doesn't actually reach the claimed temperature - between the oven being so very full and between the door being periodically opened (for basting the joint and/or putting things in), it was probably a good 10 degrees lower than was hoped. This naturally messed up my cooking times, especially for the turkey.
  
• Leftovers: The big Christmas meal is likely to leave a significant quantity of leftovers, especially when catering for a family of two adults and one tiny person. The leftovers will keep for a few short days, so it's a good idea to have a couple of plans for using them up - this year I made a turkey korma and a festive soup, which was good but still led to more waste than I would have liked.
  
• Sorting the Gifts: This is a fairly benign task - the wrapping paper goes straight to recycling, the various bits of packaging want removed (and sent to recycling), and then homes need to be found for the various gifts.
  
• Dealing with the Cards: At the end of the Christmas season, the Christmas cards should be gathered and quickly checked: are there any that need to be saved (for craft use, or similar)? If so, these should have the relevant sections harvested and taken away. The rest need to be checked for addresses and other personal information, and shredded if appropriate. And then it all gets recycled.
  
• Packing Up: The decorations come down on the 6th of January, in a reverse of the process of putting them up. Fortunately, this is a rather quicker process, since there's no need to worry about an artistic arrangement or similar. The only things to check are that (a) anything fragile needs to be packed with care, and (b) anything that has become damaged should be discarded immediately - don't wait for next year, or you'll never do it!

And that is that. I've been pretty happy with the way Christmas has gone this year, with only two caveats: the cook-time on the turkey and the wasted leftovers. If I cook again next year, I'll need to address both of these. (That said, hopefully next year I'll be in better health, and so be in a better place for that cooking. But I guess we'll see - being ill for Christmas happens distressingly often.)

The main thing I hope to add for next year, which I've quite fancied for a few years but just haven't found time for, is some Christmas baking - some nice festive biscuits or muffins or something. I think that's my next step, which I'll be building in some time early in December...

Books of the Year 2018

As part of the end-of-year round-up, I can once again present a list of books read in 2018. Note, however, that this list is slightly provisional, as I have had to compose this post in advance, and won't have opportunity to update it for a few days. It is therefore possible that I may have to add a book, or even two, early in the New Year.

(Update: I didn't have to add anything to the list. I've been reading "Anna Karenina", which is taking a fairly long time to get through!)

Here is the list:

1. "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún", by J.R.R. Tolkien
   
2. "Pathfinder: City in the Deep", by Amber E. Scott
   
3. "On the Road", by Jack Kerouac *
   
4. "The Darkling Child", by Terry Brooks
   
5. "Pathfinder: Tower of the Drowned Dead", by Ron Lundeen
   
6. "Against a Dark Background", by Iain M. Banks
   
7. "Lolita", by Vladimir Nabokov *
   
8. "The Sorcerer's Daughter", by Terry Brooks
   
9. "Feersum Endjinn", by Iain M. Banks
   
10. "Only Dead on the Inside", by James Breakwell
    
11. "Pathfinder: Beyond the Veiled Past", by Thurston Hillman
    
12. "Ready Player One", by Ernest Cline
    
13. "The Black Elfstone", by Terry Brooks
    
14. "A Fine Balance", by Rohinton Mistry *
    
15. "Pathfinder: Crownfall", by Thurston Hillman
    
16. "Coruscant and the Core Worlds", by Craig R. Carey, Chris Doyle, Jason Fry, Paul Sudlow, John Terra, and Daniel Wallace
    
17. "Espedair Street", by Iain Banks
    
18. "Dangerous Women", edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
    
19. "William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Force Doth Awaken", by Ian Doescher
    
20. "Pathfinder: Songbird, Scion, Saboteur", by Crystal Frasier and Richard Pett
    
21. "The Hobbit", by J.R.R. Tolkien * **
    
22. "O.L.D. Fantasy Heroic Role-playing Game", by Russ Morrissey
    
23. "Walking on Glass", by Iain Banks
    
24. "The Enchanted Wood", by Enid Blyton *
    
25. "Pathfinder: The Twilight Child", by Ron Lundeen
    
26. "The Algebraist", by Iain M. Banks
    
27. "Rhyming Rings", by David Gemmell
    
28. "Norse Mythology", by Neil Gaiman
    
29. "The Magic Faraway Tree", by Enid Blyton *
    
30. "The Bridge", by Iain Banks
    
31. "The Jesus Storybook Bible", by Sally Lloyd-Jones **
    
32. "Pathfinder: City in the Lion's Eye", by Mikko Kallio
    
33. "The Folk of the Faraway Tree", by Enid Blyton *
    
34. "Canal Dreams", by Iain Banks
    
35. "Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes", by Wizards of the Coast
    
36. "Pathfinder: The Reaper's Right Hand", by John Compton
    
37. "White Knight, Black Swan", by David Gemmell
    
38. "Up the Faraway Tree", by Enid Blyton *
    
39. "Winnie the Pooh", by A.A. Milne * **
    
40. "Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game", by West End Games
    
41. "Stonemouth", by Iain Banks
    
42. "Fools and Mortals", by Bernard Cornwell
    
43. "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", by John le Carré
    
44. "Pathfinder: the Six-Legend Soul", by Amber E. Scott
    
45. "The Quarry", by Iain Banks
    
46. "The World of Peter Rabbit", by Beatrix Potter **
    
47. "The Star Wars Sourcebook", by West End Games
    
48. "Pathfinder: Secrets of Roderic's Cove", by Adam Daigle
    
49. "Midnight's Children", by Salman Rushdie *
    
50. "Complicity", by Iain Banks
    
51. "Rivers of London", by Ben Aaronovitch
    
52. "Dungeon Crawl Classics", by Goodman Games
    
53. "Pathfinder: It Came From Hollow Mountain", by Mike Shel
    
54. "Dunstan", by Conn Iggulden
    
55. "Pathfinder: Runeplague", by Richard Pett
    
56. "Whit", by Iain Banks
    
57. "Father Christmas's Fake Beard", by Terry Pratchett
    
58. "Pathfinder: Temple of the Peacock Spirit", by Jason Keeley
    
59. "A Song of Stone", by Iain Banks
    
60. "Pathfinder: The City Outside of Time", by Amanda Hamon Kunz

So that's 60 books at the time of writing, including ten books from The List. Of these, there are twenty RPG books. There are two re-reads, and four Books for Funsize (including both re-reads). I should note that I have read quite a lot of other books to Funsize, but elected early on not to include most of them - only those with both a meaningful plot and also a reasonable page count. Otherwise it would just make a mockery of the count (even that Beatrix Potter set is a bit of a stretch - since the box contains 21 books each with their own covers, by the strict rules I laid down they should be 21 individual entries).

The book of the year goes to "White Knight, Black Swan", by David Gemmell, which served as a reminder of just why he was my favourite author for so long. A shame that there shall be no more from him.

None of the books from this year were particularly disappointing, so I'll leave that dubious distinction unassigned for this year.

And that's that. For 2019, the target is once again stated as being 60 books. However, the sublists are in a state of flux this year - I only have three (books from The List, books by Iain Banks, and Pathfinders), and two of these will end early. The rest will be made up of a mix of books. We'll need to see if I can come up with some more sensible sublists for the year...