Catmachine

After a couple of weeks complaining about other things I am returning to the subject of two earlier blog entries as I just can't leave it alone. And of course because there is still more to say. Yes, I'm going back to talking about travelling on the railways. So far the majority of the negative things I've been saying about train travel have been to do with fellow passengers. This isn't surprising, as Other People are generally responsible for 95 per cent of trouble, irritation and annoyance in the world. However the third and final whine in the railway trilogy concerns the attitude of the railway people themselves. A while back the railways - who were probably all one nation under the flag of British Rail at the time - stopped calling their users "passengers" and started calling them "customers". I seem to recall something of an outcry at the time, complaints about over commercialisation and the inappropriate application of a business model to a pu

Today is the anniversary of me being single. Being on my own in this way is really starting to have a deleterious effect on my quality of life, and I'm not just talking about gloomy solitude or lust frustration. I feel that in order to meet someone I have to look my best, which means that I have to lose weight, which means that I have to exercise and diet. Exercise is never any fun (no matter what the steroid-freak body nazis at the gym might say) and even though I'm no foodie, a strict diet can be annoying and unpleasant. But I persevere in the hope that - in the face of all the evidence - it might make a difference. But no matter how much I try and make myself more attractive, the problem remains that I'm not meeting enough eligible women for there to be a chance of it having an effect. The people I'm surrounded by - be they friends or work colleagues - are all firmly in long-term relationships Probably hanging on for dear life if they've spotted what it's lik

This still isn't very good. It seems almost impossible to get me to write this thing on a daily basis. I've already offered up my excuses; despite this I am rather disappointed in myself. Its almost as if writing on a weekly basis is my limit. The easiest thing for me to talk about would be the weather were I to conform to the British stereotype. So I won't do that. However, I will use it as a jumping off point. It's been exceptionally hot of late, and whilst I'm more than happy with the long days and the amount of light (which amongst other things prevents SAD), the temperature makes me want to hide in a cave. How lucky am I then to work in an office with brand-new, kick-arse reinforced steel air conditioners. Very lucky, that's how lucky. Except... since moving into these offices a couple of months ago I've had more colds (or respiratory disorders as I call them when I want to sound high falutin') than I have in the past couple of years . I'm sure