Rose tinted web?

I commute from Godalming in to London Waterloo every day. The trains have been running o.k for the past few months, but recently they have been bad. Some works on the line which finished late last weekend led to huge delays and three trains being cancelled in a row with no contingency. This morning there were faults on the trains which led to a cancellation in one direction and delays on the other.

I am coming to the conclusion that the trains service is like the little girl with the curl in that when, “they are good they are very very good, but when they are bad they are horrid”

There seems to be no attempt to mollify the passengers that get on between Haslemere and Guildford, despite the fact that the number of commuters seems to have increased significantly. As you may understand this is particularly frustrating when the service provided at peak travel hours seems to be straining to cope with demand. An automated apology doesn’t really cut the mustard.

South West trains have just been re-awarded the franchise. I hope that they actually think about how to accommodate their passengers better. It might even be nice if they could link up with the local bus companies and provide bus travel when they can’t provide a train service. 

I am just wondering why this current news cycle seems so focussed on the Tony Blair succession story?  Personally, I’m bored with the debate. I wish he would just get on with it and yes they need a fair selection procedure for his successor. What more is there to say, and why does it need so much analysis?

I am wondering though whether the coverage at the moment is trying to compensate for lack of news or whether its smoke and mirrors to hide something else. Let’s have some real issues please.

I keep coming across Sitepal advertisments online.  http://www.oddcast.com/sitepal/

Apparently, its meant to ‘enrich the user experience and increase sales’. On face value it sounds like a really neat idea to include an animated shop assistant to talk to your customers.

But having heard the ads ’enrage users and decrease sales’, seems closer to the mark IMHO. The adverts are driving me mad at the moment. I have switched the sound off on my PC.

Maybe, I’m just tooooo old.

(The name ’sitepal’ makes me think of  its pronunciation in a  broad Glaswegian accent for some reason).

There is something stangely fitting about going to see the Comedy of Errors with identical twins. My friends M and M managed to get some tickets at the Globe last night.

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. It was hilarious. The decision of setting the play in the ancient world, did lend the presentation a slight sense of Up Pompeii, but it was far classier than that. It really was fantastically entertaining.

Sarah Woodward, played Adriana to great effect, her tantrums and remonstrations were particularly amusing and not so different from the sitcoms or dramas of today. The two Dromios and two Antipholus were equally excellent.

Well, its sad news. Steve Irwin has died. He was stung by a stingray on the barrier reef whilst filming a documentary.

He was a passionate naturalist. Some mistook his exuberance for cavalier showmanship, but from all I have read and seen he really cared about wildlife preservation. When we were up in Daintree, Northern Australia back in 2004, it was clear that the guides there had great respect for him.  

Whilst tragic, I can’t help but feel that there was something strangely appropriate about his death. He was after all doing something he loved. He will be greatly missed. Sympathies to his family and friends.

I know that the day of ‘the Long Tail’ has arrived and we are all meant to be beavering through the internet and looking for niches and chatting to pals getting the skinny on what’s hot and what’s not, but I am feeling really lazy - and as the Nirvana lyrics indicate I want to be entertained!

It’s Friday night and having flicked through the TV channels I have already ascertained that my hopes for being spoon fed entertainment over the airwaves are thwarted. It’s endless repeats, reality tv and lame, dated ’comedy’ all the way - it seems.  What’s with the rancid dross that seems to be being pumped out on UK airwaves at the moment? We have been using Screen Select and it is clear that there are good new programmes out there (most of which seem to be American - Deadwood, Firefly, West Wing and Battlestar Gallactica) and there are lots of wonderful films and old series that for some reason don’t see light of day - probably because there is a feeling that black and white is dated or that the technicolour doesn’t do justice to the latest HDTV or they want a glossier homogenised American version of a grittier European original. What happened to the entertainment factor, oh yeah and a good yarn?

I am so tired of all the remakes that seem to be churned out as a safe bet. I noticed with dismay that The Wicker Man has been remade - surely the original version is seminal! Why do we need another treatment of the same film? And if I see another remake of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in the next 15 years I will scream. I still haven’t forgiven the BBC for the crappy dramatisation of the Hound of the Baskervilles, they squandered my license fee on a Christmas or two ago - the Jeremy Brett verson is still the ‘hounds b****cks’ as far as I am concerned. I’m still reeling that there wasn’t a decent movie on over the bank holiday, not even a dodgy old bond movie. 

Anyway, I’m now going to read something. The Anansi Boys beckons … and I need some chamomile tea to help me calm down.  

…Why am I paying a license fee and Sky subscription. again..?