<body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar/14058325?origin\x3dhttp://croydonian.blogspot.com', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script>

People. Honestly.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009
From those nice folk at The Globe & Mail:

"Exactly 100 years after the world's most famous maritime disaster, a cruise ship is to recreate the fateful voyage of the Titanic, complete with dinners and dancing from the era.  The Titanic Memorial Cruise will depart from Southampton, England, on April 8, 2012 and head for the exact spot where the ship sank on April 12, 1912, between 11:40 p.m. and 2:20 a.m. the next day....Replica menus of food on the 1912 voyage will be served and there will be a fancy dress dinner and numerous lectures on the history of the famous ship". 
 
No indication has been given as to how authentic the trip will be once it reaches Sea Zero, so to speak, possibly because of insurance issues.
 
The relative dimensions of the Balmoral and the Titanic are quite some way apart.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

They do things differently in...

Friday, August 21, 2009
Brazil, and more particularly in Sao Paulo. As I discover from the Romanian Times, of all things, Sao Paulo's metro is installing extra large, and extra strong seats for the benefit of local salad dodgers.

What is more, these are marked out as priority seats for the oversized, complete with a 'fatty' logo. And as such, the seats are being shunned by doubtless shamefaced people of size.

I would be quite happy for transport operators, and particularly airlines to charge based on total weight including luggage, especially if it means I never again suffer being wedged between two he doughnut enthusiasts for the duration of a flight.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

Russian roulette with a 64-chamber revolver

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
From EUPravda:

"The number of bags delayed at the airport amounted to 4.6 million between January 2008 and October 2008 in the European Union... Effectively, one piece of luggage has been reported missing for every 64 passengers".

I've only had my luggage mislaid the once - Toulouse-Paris-London - and was rather pleased as it meant I did not have to schlep it across town but rather had it delivered by courier the next day.

Labels: , ,

posted by Croydonian

French in 'good idea' shocker

Friday, July 24, 2009
From Libé, one in the eye for idiots 'extreme' tourists:

"French people who travel, in spite of warnings, to dangerous zones, could be made to pay 'some or all of the costs' incurred in rescuing them....The proposed law is inspired by similar legislation that already exists in Germany".

Fine by me, and I would like something similar in these parts, as I rather resent the prospect of paying to rescue those cretins who think that a bit of boating off the Horn of Africa, pitching a tent in Waziristan etc is a great way to spend their spare time.

A commentator has noted in the original article, the average tripper may not have the wherewithal to pay for the French equivalent of the SAS to bail them out, let alone the cost of several hours of avgas for a Transall C-160. Still, it *might* make a few folk weigh up the consequences of their actions.

Labels: , , ,

posted by Croydonian

Survey o' the day

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Commissioned by travel operation Trivago, and it asks what the French, my fellow Britons and sundry other nationals miss when on holiday abroad. It looks to be a self-selecting survey and only of its website users, and thus of zero statistical validity but tis amusing nevertheless. While I am at it, news mag Le Point should hang its head for cutting and pasting the press release without any attempt to re-write it.

Anyway, asked what they most missed, 24% of our Gallic chums missed their own bed, 15% the French language, 12% French food, 9% French TV (that high?) and 3% French wine. Adventurous, huh? However, credit to the 37% who say 'nothing at all'.

Data for other countries is only partial, but a pitiful 41% of my co-nationals miss their own bed, 34% of Italians miss Italian food (so hard to find outside Italy...OK, there may well be quality issues. ) and 19% of Spaniards miss Spanish food.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

A brief observation on train fares

Friday, February 20, 2009
Great are the rumblings from passengers and the political classes on the state of train fares in these parts, they being rather higher per mile than elsewhere in Europe. I make the odd short hop once or twice a week, off peak, so it is not much of a problem for me, although doubtless long distance commuters find the prices irksome.

While I take anything the government says cum grano salis, it is touting a figure of £500 million per year to reduce fares to the European average. For the sake of easy maths, let us say that roughly two thirds of the population are of income tax paying age, or about 40 million. Given that not all of working age are working, I have found a figure of 78.7% for the working population, which suggests 31.5 m tax payers, say 30 million to keep it simple. Put another way, that is about £17 per tax payer head, per year, which strains credulity far beyond breaking point.

Anyway, back at the point, rail travel is strongly demographically skewed to the better off, so any further subsidising of rail travel would inevitably involve redistribution of wealth from the less well off to the better off. Further, commuters are the best cost avoiders, not the general tax base, and I would suggest that commuters should not be subsidised for the travel arrangements that they have made. Even supposing that they were, a rough tallying up of entry / exit numbers at the London termini gives a figure of 400 million odd. per year Half that for passenger numbers, and the saving per year is of the region of £2.50 per year.......

Labels: , ,

posted by Croydonian

The *real* split between Communists and Trots

Thursday, December 04, 2008
has been revealed, in France at least, by a survey on holiday plans, dreams and the like c/o those nice people at IFOP.

35% of the Plain People of France fancy lounging around somewhere sunny, as do 36% of PCF enthusiasts but 43% of Trots (they are referred to as the extreme left, but I know from experience that this means Arlette Laguiller and Olivier Besancenot fans). The more amusing bit is the revelation that the Trots are fearful philistines and are significantly less interested in cultural tours - 15% vs 23% for the Plain People of France and 28% for Communists. Mind you, apparently no Front National voters fancy this at all.

Further, offered a range of long haul destinations, Communists disproportionately fancy Guadeloupe and Trots Rio. Communists have a major downer on Oz and New Zealand, whereas those deeply hypocritical Greens really fancy it - what about all those CO2 emissions, eh? Better still, neither Trots nor Tankies dream of a jaunt to China - 2% for the former, 0% for the latter against 3% for Gauls overall. Shame they did not offer the DPRK (of which more later).

Labels: , ,

posted by Croydonian

"This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, this well thought-out and executed brand..."

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
John of Gaunt meets the unintentionally amusing Country Brand Index 2008, c/o Future Brand and Weber Shandwick, available here.

The rest of its short form description of this scepter'd isle runs thus:

"The UK is a well thought out and executed brand that effectively utilizes all of the natural and
cultural resources of the country.”

Which is nice.

And France: “France has a strong local identity (wine, music, fashion, language,tradition and culture) and the ability to load its brand with emotion:beauty, quality of life, romance.”

And for the prosecution, Thomas Carlyle: "France was long a despotism tempered by epigrams".

And Canada: “Canada is an exceptional country and has all of the assets to be a great brand: natural and urban beauty, quality of life, diversity,culture, entertainment, gastronomy,
business infrastructure, stability and openness.”

To which I might rebut with a quote from Al Capone: "I don't even know which street Canada is on"


And so on to the findings, which one should perhaps discount the authority thereof, given this howler: "SCOTCH WHISKEY Any whiskey labeled as “Scotch” must be produced in Scotland".


Dear old Blighty rates 6th for history and for art and culture and ease of travel (crikey...), ninth for nightlife and for shopping. Ratings as conference destinations and so forth are too dull to be worth examining. Scotland the Brave rates as the fifth most popular place to live, with the UK overall 10th, down three points on the year. Quite why Scotland is treated separately while England is not is a mystery.

Winners elsewhere are NZ for 'authenticity', Egypt for 'history', Italy for 'art and culture' and Norway for 'safety'. I think it a little raw that the UK does not make it into the top ten for fine dining but Austria and the UAE do. NZ is reckoned to have the friendliest locals ahead of our Hibernian neighbours, Thailand and Canada. Scotland rates 6th, while the UK, France, and - astonishingly - Belgium do not feature.


More later, perhaps.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

The TUC in 'can't count' shocker

Tuesday, October 28, 2008
"The TUC analysis - produced to coincide with Workwise UK's Commute Smart week this week - of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows a fall of one per cent from 2006, from 21.9 per cent (5,517,000 people) to 20.9 per cent (5,311,000 people) of employees undertaking commuter journeys of longer than one hour". Source

Erm, no, it is not a fall of one per cent, it is a fall of one percentage point, which equates to a fall of just over 4.5%.

Pedantry aside, the TUC subscribes to a position equivalent to the crowing cock thinking it causes the sun to rise, or the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy:

"The drop in commute times follows a campaign to promote smarter working by the WorkWise UK coalition, which includes the TUC, the CBI, Transport for London and other leading organisations".

I'm sure we were all well aware of this coalition.... There would appear to be a great many other variables to consider before one could show cause and effect.

They also do a great line in muddling up references to commutes to work and total commutes - "The number of people spending more than one hour per day commuting to work", "and on top of this we still have to commute an average of 54 minutes per day".

As to the data, I find it astonishing that even we London types only see 40.5% commuting for more than hour each way and 24.6% as the figure for the South East. A bit of playing around with the national rail journey planner makes it pretty clear that getting from the outer 'burbs to say Bank or Holborn in under an hour is going to be a struggle.

Labels: , , ,

posted by Croydonian

How to avoid Guardian readers - a public service announcement

Sunday, October 19, 2008
Having been tipped off by Croatian news agency HINA, I have discovered how best to avoid Guardian readers if on one's travels:

Rather amusingly, Switzerland is their favourite European country. Must be all those banks and the oh so 'progressive' politics of the silent strong box. Sweden and Croatia follow.

Nearer to home, they are plaguing Auld Reekie and Newcastle, and - with achingly predictability - Oxford and Brighton.

Further afield, beware of New Zealand, Peru, Cambodia and Japan, apparently.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

Unhappy the land etc etc

Thursday, August 07, 2008
Just why is the government so keen on getting the Greatest Generation, as our American friends call it, to leave the country?

"Since October 2004, every British citizen born on or before 2 September 1929 has been exempt from application or renewal fees for UK passports in recognition of the bravery of both veterans and civilians during World War II".

Apparently some 519,000 of our septuagenarians etc have taken advantage of this outwardly rather minor free lunch. I doubt that the free passports were ever planned as a reward for the wartime generation etc, but rather there was an assumption that take up by the over 75s would not be that great and it could be listed as a government achievement at election time. Based on the footnote to the press release, some 4.5 million souls were eligible in 2004, so let us say that around one in nine has taken it up, and with income etc not taken into account, this is necessarily a fairly regressive piece of wealth redistribution - anyone who can afford to travel overseas is likely some way from the breadline.

I am yet to hear of free TV licences for oldsters as being a reward for wartime sacrifice, but maybe it has been spun that way. One might also note that an awful lot of pensioners would probably have preferred to receive the funds in another form.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

Research finding of the week

Tuesday, June 17, 2008
From the Chicago Tribune:

"Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other "territorial markers" not only get mad when someone cuts into their lane or is slow to respond to a traffic light, they also are far more likely than others to use their vehicles to express rage —by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior".

What's more, sticker content has no bearing on the level of aggression etc etc, so transferring the findings to these parts, one is as likely to get hooted at by Save the Whales / Baby on Board types as much as 'Don't follow me, follow Generic FC' sticker sporters.

I cannot think of any car sticker equivalent of those carried by American right wingers. Maybe we feel less of a need to display something we already know and nobody else cares about, or more likely there is the prospect of some freedom-loving Socialist key-ing the paint work.

Labels: , ,

posted by Croydonian

A nation of troll lovers

Tuesday, August 07, 2007
That is what we would appear to be, or at least those of us who holiday in Norway, judging from some wholly unscientific research carried out in a souvenir shop by Norwegian daily Aftenposten:

"Souvenir shop managers that Aftenposten spoke to, said however that tourist from different countries generally buy different souvenirs. The Norwegian jumper is especially popular with Americans, Germans generally prefer a bumper sticker for their car, Britons have a predilection for trolls, while the Spaniards and Italians love the Vikings, said shop manager Tor Fredrik Frøberg".

I think it is to Mr Frøberg's credit that he can tell said nationalities apart. I can't help but think that the Norwegians are possibly missing out the profits from some other choice merchandise - the "My uncle Sven went to Bergen and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" T-Shirt, a 'Hammer of the Gods' for Led Zeppelin fans and perhaps a series of items commemorating Norway's frequent outbreaks of good sense in shunning EU membership.

Readers sharing my advanced age may have fond memories of O and A Level geography lessons in which one could gain the impression that the entire Norwegian workforce worked fjord-side farms, or maybe that was just me.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

Just one year's peace and quiet on The Drain remaining.

Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Drain being the underground line between Waterloo and Bank. Mobile 'phone coverage will be available at the stations, and even more horrifically on the trains themselves from April next year, probably, with the 'success' or otherwise of this trial defining whether the 'benefits' of miobile reception will be rolled out across the rest of the network.

At the risk of being accused of hypocrisy, it seems blinding obvious that success will be measured solely by whether London Underground makes money out of this venture, with the desire on the part of other passengers to be allowed to complete their crosswords etc in comparative peace not likely to be factored in. Given the lay out out of the network, one would be hard pushed to spend more than an hour underground, and doubtless many journeys are much shorter, so is it really too much to ask that connectivity a-holes contain themselves for the duration of a tube journey rather than inflicting their conversations on everyone else? From my use of the overground network and so on, oafish mobile use seems to span age, gender and class, and perhaps the network operators might care to point out that modern mobiles have extremely powerful microphones and high volume speech is not required. Mobile phone bellowers are therefore either morons or exhibitionists. Probably both. And no apologies for returning to this again.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

How others see us...

Wednesday, March 14, 2007
US operation Trip Advisor has polled its users on European destinations and has come up with some curious findings:

Paris - Favourite city, most romatic, top for culture, but also the most over-rated and the unfriendliest.

The Great Wen - Second favourite, top for shopping and night life and the most family friendly. Crikey...

Auld Reekie - Joint most under-rated along with Prague.

Prague - Home of the bargain.

Dublin - Friendliest.

Rome - Best looking locals.

Germans - most annoying travellers followed by us and the Gauls.

Italy - Best food, followed by France and Spain.


More here, but it is PR Newswire and requires registration

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian

Escaping speeding fines the Italian way

Monday, February 19, 2007
It can be done, but being a priest on the way to give the last rites or to take someone's last confession helps. Seems a reasonably civilised attitude to take, all things considered.

Meanwhile, watch the speed limit if driving anywhere near Santa Luce in Tuscany. The town's speed cameras raised €1.7m in 2005, more than three times that raised in local taxes.

Labels: ,

posted by Croydonian