This Ordinary Life

London is a hectic town. Eleven million people eating, sleeping, working and consuming. Part of the hassle of living in London is geting to work. This usually involves cramming yourself into either a bus, train or tube and spending at least a miserable 30 minutes commuting. I did this for four years and then had enough.

In 21st Centry London, where people are concerned with keeping fit, doing their part for Climate Change and avoiding public transport following the London terrorist attacks in July 2005, people are looking at alternative means of getting to work. As a result, you see more and more people walking, running or cycling.

Personally, I live about 9km from work and try to run or cycle whenever possible. Not only is it a great way to get fit without taking extra time to go to the gym (I am preparing for a number of Olympic distance triathlons and the New York Marathon), but particularly in London it will save you up to a bundle. I think in the last 12 months I have saved well over £500($800). Money that in my case will help finance my next bicycle purchase, but perhaps you'd rather spend your savings on a nice trip to the beach?

If you live in any moderately large city, a run or cycle will either be an enjoyable experience (mine takes me past Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and St. Pauls Cathedral) or a nightmare (I regularly have to take defensive manouvers to avoid being knocked off my bike by a taxi/bus or to avoid a pedestrial with their head in the air). It's a bit like being in a game of Frogger, though the stakes are a bit higher

I find the most employers are very receptive to staff cycling. My last employer had secure lock-up facilities, showers and even a tax-free incentive scheme to help people finance their own bicycle. My new employer has the same, bar the tax-free scheme. Ask your employer how they support cyclists, you may be surprised.

So my advice is, if you want to get fit, spend less time on public transport, do your part for the environment, save money, improve your reflexes... (the list goes on and on), put on your running shoes or hop on your bicycle and you won't regret it (but just make sure you watch out for traffic and pedestrians!)

Posted by this ordinary life at 6:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a new craze sweeping across London again, self-scancheck-outs. This is where you, the customer, do all the work from scanning your items to bagging your groceries. This leads not only to a reduction in how long you have to stand in the queue, but also in how the number of staff and the level of education that the supermarket has to employ.

I have come across them in both Marks and Spencers on Bishopsgate and the Tesco at Liverpool St Station and have mixed feelings about them.

When I attempted to use the system at the Marks and Spencers it turned out to be horrendously cumbersome with the system constantly accusing me of putting things into my bag with out scanning them. It was the closest I have come to to being accused of shoplifting in years. The system kept saying "Unexpected item in bagging area, please remove". Luckily, it was just a glitch and my record as a law abiding citizen was preserved. Payment was, however, quick and secure with Chip and PIN in place.

Now my experience at Tesco was much better. The system recognised my "Law Abiding Citizen" status and allowed me to process my items without a hitch. However, it was at the payment stage that I discovered that the system did have one fundamental flaw. When paying by card, it doesn't ask for neither a signature nor PIN. This made for an extremely quick payment process, but also a fraudsters "wet dream". I hope that Tesco rectify this security flaw soon or there may be droves of overweight fraudsters filing class action suits against Tesco because they made stealing food too easy.

So based on these experiences, how do I feel about these self-service check-outs. I must admit that they do make for a quick and relatively easy shopping experience. However, I do miss that banter that you have with the people working at the check-out. Plus it would be a shame if people were no longer subjected to the "Pricecheck on Condoms, Vagasile, etc" embarassment. Finally and on a more serious note, it won't do much for the level of education of those working in Supermarkets as they will no longer even be required to speak (there is a computer that tells you which check-out till to go to) or count money.

That's progress, I guess...

Posted by this ordinary life at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, well, well... where to begin.

This film really takes you on a ride or better said a train wreck. Opening with elation, it quickly decends into the depths of a depressive existence. Dick is a communications executive for a global IT company. After a long expected promotion which causes him to convince his wife, Jane, to quit her job, he becomes the fall guy for an Enron-style corporate collapse.

Thus begins their slide. No one wants to hire either of them and after innumerous failures, it is the night before eviction. As they are on the verge of destitution, they decide to embark on crime spree which involves robbing everyone as far as the eye can see.

Then when things can't get any worse, Dick finds out that he might be indicted... What could possibly happen next?

Well, it turns out the CEO of that now defunct global corporation actually siphoned off $400 million from the company before its collapse and is now on his way to a bank to deposit them in his Cayman Island bank account. What could possibly happen next?

I would put you out of your misery, but I hate ruining the outcomes of films out of principle. This is definitely not one of Jim Carey and Marissa Tome's better films. However, if you are set on seeing a Jim Carey film, I would suggest you go see Me, Myself and Irene or Liar, Liar. Either is miles better and funnier.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com), the source of all basic movie, director and actor information gave this one a 5.8 out of 10. I think they got it about right...

Posted by this ordinary life at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today I will be sharing with you Transport of London (TfL)'s, the governing body that sits behind the Tube, vision for the future, the OysterCard. This is a must have for anyone that plans on being in London for a week or more.

This is a charge-card based system that is aimed as getting more people through the Tube's barriers at a faster rate and much more conveniently. It can be used on the Tube, public buses, the Tram (limited streetcar system in the south of the city) and some normal overland trains. At the moment it is also a very cheap way to travel with tube ticket prices in Zone 1 (£1.50) half the price or normal single tickets (£3.00). Oyster prices on the bus are also cheaper at £0.80 vs. £1.50 normally.

The way it works is that it allows you to either charge the card with money (this can be done either at tube stations or a number of local shops) which is pay-as-you-go or you can purchase a multi-trip ticket (multi-day, monthly and annually) which activates your card with the details of the ticket you purchased. The smart thing is that even if you pay-as-you-go, you should never pay more than the price of a daily ticket. Just to let you know that they only brought this in after great uproar from the public when they were spending several times the daily ticket rate!

TfL have also looked to next generation internet technology as you can manage your card online. This includes topping up your card and buying multi-trip tickets. This website is also very good for claiming back the money for delayed trips (20 minutes or more) as this is a little known fact to most travellers.

The foundation of this system are sensors at all tube stations that you have to swipe your card over when entering and exiting the public transport system (except for buses where you only swipe when boarding). These sensors are linked to a sophisticated computer system that recognises the type of card you have and registers where you swiped. It then deducts moeny from your card or validates your multi-trip ticket as appropriate. The fact that it registers where you are is a bit Big Brother, but it can be a bit entertaining as you can choose to view the last 5 journeys you made when recharging your card at a ticket machine.

The system actually works quite well, but does still have a few shortcomings...

- When the system doesn't register you, your go through the barriers to quickly and it still is registering the person in front of you or you forget to swipe somewhere where barriers are open. The system then registers an incompleted journey, which you then resolve by paying the difference at the ticket window. However, I am told this also deactivates the daily capping of pay-as-you-go users, even if you resolve the incomplete journey. When this happened to me, I was told "that is what you get for not swiping in and out". A very forgiving system.

- The other problem is that there is not an option to have your card automatically topped up. Therefore, it is up to the user to either go online or wait in line to put money on their card or to validate it with a new ticket. This occassionaly leads to uncomfortable situations where you are turned away from a bus (you can't charge up your card on the bus or in a train) because there isn't enough money on your card and nowhere to top it up. Automatic top-ups are in use for a number of other pay-as-you-go systems such as Toll Passes in the US. So, I hope TfL will hear my cry and introduce this in the near future.

All in all and despite a few minor short comings, an Oystercard is the must have accessory for travellers in London.

Posted by this ordinary life at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you don't want to spend your evening in a seedy Japanese Karaoke club or in front of a drunken hoard and don't want to spend the earth, you can now enjoy the highs and lows that is Karaoke in the comfort of your own home.

Gone are the days of rickety tape casette based units with cumbersome sheets of lyrics and here are the days of slick onscreen lyrics overlaid on actual music videos.

Sony has actually recognised that the way to enhance value of the still wide spread PS2 is to innovate. SingStar does this by using a nifty little adapter that plugs into the units USB port and connects two microphones. It's great that the cords are long enough to ensure that the singer's eyesight isn't strained from standing two feet from the television.

Currently avialable are 150 songs across most singable genres of music. Each version has 30 songs and the versions currently avialable are:

- 80's with great hits like Jefferson Starship's 'We Built This City' and Survivor's 'Eye of the Tiger'
- Rock which is great for the guys with Gwen Stefani's 'What You Waiting For?' and The Killers' 'Somebody Told Me'
- Popworld with Fountains of Wayne's 'Stacy's Mom' and Hoobastank's 'The Reason'
- Party with Destiny's Child's 'Survivor' and Maroon5's 'This Love'
- The original game with Village People's 'YMCA' and Ricky Martin's 'Livin' La Vida Loca'

Soon they will also be releasing a new version called 'Anthems'.

There is definitely some great songs here, but it is important to note that although there are all the big names, they have not always included their best and most well known songs. Despite this there is more than enough to keep you going for hours with minimal disappointment.

The game also keeps you entertained because it scores you for "how well" you sing. This may sound scary at the onset, but even the most tone deaf person should be able to do reasonably well on the "Easy" setting as it only listens for the intervals between notes and not the exact note you should be singing. The game then rates you anything from "Tone Deaf" to "Lead Singer" to "Super Star" depending on your score.

Combine this with the functionality to sing duets or battle each other via singing, it really does deliver and will make your home a party zone.

Personally, I recommend combining a night of SingStar with cocktails. I hosted a SingStar night last night and combined it with steins of beer and caprihina's. It went down a treat.

Lastly, SingStar is really quite affordable with games costing about £15 - 20 each and the starter pack ca. £30. I found the best prices in the UK on HMV.com.

It would be great to hear your experiences with SingStar as I think it can bring out the singer in all of us, but sadly won't make all of us a singer.

Posted by this ordinary life at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, it is appropriate that you should ask as this will set the tone of my blog and also give you an idea of where I am coming from.

I am an ordinary guy living an ordinary life, or perhaps not... Of course, it really would be interesting if it were that simple. But what is ordinary?

My version of ordinary is being a guy roughly thirty, living the life of a young professional on the mean streets of London, shaped and burdened by a background that involved multinational living and leaving the nest at an early age. You might say there are rumblings of Freudian issues there, but I think it just has the makings of a colourful existance.

I think that I am representative of a large proportion of modern society irrespective of ethnic group or social class, which is why I people may actually benefit from my commentary on the world. If they don't, at least I will have found an outlet for my stories and a source of mild entertainment for my readers.

Many people say "Talk is cheap"; however, I actually think some talk is more valuable than action. Particularly when it communicates something useful to another person. That is the objective of this blog and I hope that I achieve this.

Posted by this ordinary life at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dear reader,

Welcome to my blog. Being new to this avenue of expression, I have decided to take a broad brush approach to what I will be posting. In a nutshell, at the moment this is London-based blog about life, technology, travel, sports, politics, culture and the pursuit of happiness..

Of course, not necessarily in that order...

I hope readers will find this a useful source of information about London, tips and reviews of technology, various rambling about various aspects of life (travel, sports, politics, culture, etc) and also some enjoyable annecdotes about how I see the world.

I don't promise to have all the answers, but I hope you agree that I have a lot of fun trying.

Posted by this ordinary life at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)