Recently in Life Category
First Capital Connect measure their overall performance on the following:
% of planned train service that was less than 5 minutes late at final destination
This sounds like a great way to measure performance but for anyone who has read The Fifth Discipline they will immediately see the problem.
The immediate problem with the above performance measurement is that there is no mention of the customer. Taken to the extreme there is no requirements for passengers to be on the train at all for them to meet their performance targets. I know this sounds daft but think about the people under pressure to meet those targets. When a train pulls into a station 30 seconds late with a normal allocated 60 seconds allowed to get the passengers on the train then cutting the time the train actually stays at the platform by 10 seconds means the passengers have 20 seconds to get on the train. This is not too bad but during rush hour it can be a problem, especially at the likes of St. Albans where the train is particularly full.
The problem I have in Luton is that the problem becomes extreme because the train I catch can come in on any of two platforms. The platform is indicated on the board but if any of the trains are falling behind at all the platform might change.This would be no problem but to get to the other platform you need to go up a flight of stairs and across a walkway and down another set of stairs. I have had to do this three times in the past because the platform number has change three times before the train comes in. Originally I thought it might be the controllers working on the nations obesity problem but since some of them were in as bad a shape as me I decided that could not be it.
I then witnessed, one November morning, over sixty passengers changing platform due to a board change. Off they went leaving the platform to get to the other side. I waited on the original platform. I watched as the people got to the other side only to see the board change again. I felt glad I hadn't changed. They all came back to my platform. I could see the train and I noticed that it did not look like it was coming into my platform but I decided not to go to the other side. Anyway, there was an announcement and the sixty potential passengers trudged off with a lot of swearing about how crap First Capital Connect are. I watched the train pull into the opposite platform and open its doors. I have never seen doors on any train in my four years using Luton station open and close so fast. I would not be surprised if people actually got stuck on the train. Anyway the people who had moved to the platform the train was leaving from arrived to the tune of the beeps indicating the doors were about to close. A couple of people (ie the young and fit) got on the train but the vast majority where left standing like lemons on the platform. Having been in the Navy I was convinced no civilian would ever teach me a new swear word, I was wrong.
This was when I realised just what was going on. In pursuit of the set performance targets First Capital Connect had not thought through the impact on their customers. Or if they had they had decided that performance targets are more important than customer service.
I have no idea what would be worse, late trains or being unable to catch the train you want and I imagine Luton is a particularly bad case because of the way the platforms have been laid out. All I can suggest to people in Luton is don't trust the board and wait at the top of th stairs until just before the train arrives. This introduces its own problems but I have found it works reasonable well for me.
see on the right the scar.
The scar is between five and six inches long and you can see that there is an opening along the scar. The pale colour in the opening is an infection and it hurts like hell. The area around the scar is numb to the touch. It is an odd sensation to have no sense of feeling when I touch the area with my finger but for it to actually hurt when I move.Not sure if this is because the wound is quite deep or some other reason.
I have been taking Ciprofloxacin to get rid of the infection. It is working because the wound above is a lot better than it was. I am a bit worried that even though I have been on the antibiotics for about a week now the wound has not closed yet.
I finally got around to getting my PADI Open Water diving qualification while I was on holiday. Its something I have meant to do for a long time.
We decided to go to Key Largo to do it. Jenny made a few phone calls and to be honest the prices where all quite similar, $400 to $450 each. We eventually phoned Pleasure Diver.
Jenny asked them if they could squeeze us in the following day and they said they could, they also offered to lend us their DVD player so that we could watch the PADI DVD's in our room. This extra effort on their part sold them to us and although we did not know it at the time we had really landed on our feet.
What we liked about Don and Janet was the fact that they had paid attention to lots of the details and that they went out of their way to help us. It was a real personal service and judging from what I have heard about larger dive outfits this is quite rare.
Everything was very relaxed and when we went out on the boat if the visibility was bad we would move somewhere else. We could have quite happily have dived in the areas and got the qualification but as far as Don and Janet was concerned getting the qualification should be fun which means you should be able to see wildlife or anything else you wanted to see while doing it.
It was also made interesting each time because instead of going through the motions and coming up we would do some exercises and then go looking at the wildlife and then do some more etc etc. This took the monotony out of the course while consolidating the pool work.
Another thing I didn't expect was to have Chocolate Brownies waiting for us after each dive. They also laid on complimentary refreshments. After breathing all the dry air an ice cold bottle of water and a chocolate Brownie was exactly what the doctor ordered.
We both noticed that a lot of effort was put into customer service. We did not know it at the time but they had owned a B&B in Virginia which meant they really knew there stuff when it came to looking after guests and it showed in everything they did. The fact that they limit passengers to 6 on a 40 foot boat is a good indication that they know what it means to travel in comfort.
We spent 4 days there and I want to go back to dive with them again. For anyone interested in diving and thinking about the Keys then I could not recommend Pleasure Diver enough.
I don't think so. Just when I think I am getting to grips with something I get a good slap around the face from out of the blue. Is it this that has kept people all through the ages fighting for some insight in the hope that they might deliver a good slap back.
It all seems so much like an enormous quagmire were an unwary step might have you screaming for help before being swallowed up in muddy oblivion. On the other hand when you hear Ian Stewart describing Mathematics in his books he seems to alternate from quagmire to utopia. I have yet to find this utopia (but I'm still looking) and as far as I am aware there are no maps for sale down the local camping store.
I just wish I had a torch or even a compass, so even though I have no idea what direction is the best to take I have an idea what direction I am heading in and can be psychologically comforted.
Mathematics is the most frustrating yet fascinating subject I have come across. I just hope I find a compass soon and I imagine I am not alone.
I suprised Jenny by taking her to London to a concert at the Barbican Concert Hall. We seen the "Valentines Day Love Classics" and we really enjoyed it.
The Programme
Tchaikovsky Waltz from sleeping beauty.
Bizet Carmen Suite
Grieg Paino Concerto in A minor
INTERVAL
Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld Overture.
Strauss Blue Danube Waltz
Delius The walk to the Paradise Garden
Verdi Prelude to Act 1 from La traviata
Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Suite
It was really good, my favourite piece was by Bizet.
There where a few smiles when the blue danube was played, this was because I had surprised Jenny on her Brithday two years ago by taking her to Vienna we spent some time on the Danube.
All in all it was a good night.
Started my new job today. So I think I might be getting very busy very soon. I am now employed as Assistant Webmaster at the Associaltion of Commonwealth Universities.
The sites that I am involved in are as follows:
ACU
Marshall Scholarship
Observatory
CSFP
All being well there might be a few other things to get my teeth into.
I found a reference to my brother, Lee Jackson while sarching for information on our family name etc. There is not really much there just that he won a darts match. Its weird when you just happen to come across it.
I remember when I was a kid that I always seemed to bored out of my scull. I could never find anything that I wanted to do, I had no hobbies that did not involve something I shouldn't be doing and there was not really an awful lot to do in Cullybackey.
Things did not change when I joined the Navy. This is one organisation that makes watching a kettle boil positively exhilarating. I decided to leave the Navy after 8 years of mental abuse from which I think I have made a full recovery. I am only thankfull I was not in when we went to the gulf to take part in what I think may become one of the biggest fiascos of this century.
Since leaving the Navy 3 years ago I have not got enough hours in the day and it seems to be getting worse. We where taught time management in the Navy ie. if you don't manage it you are in the shit but I seem to be struggling to do everything I want to do and the list just keeps getting longer.
Looking back I wouldn't change anything but I sometimes crave for an hour of boredom.
Officially left Colt-telecom today. If anyone is ever offered a job there, take it. It is a nice place to work and they have a go-getter attitude in everything they do. There was quite a bit of restructuring that was taking place when I left but I imagine once that is over it will be an even nicer place to work.
I was given "Gardening Leave" today. What this means is that I am on paid holiday. Colt did not have to do it but it is nice to get some time to decide what I want to do with my life. I really want to become a developer so I am going to concentrate on that. I also need to decide if I am going to look for a job straight away or not.
I have decided to do Maths next year and I have not done any since Collingwood 94. This means that I am tempted to take the year off work to refresh my Maths and to concentrate on some personal goals. The thought of doing Maths and building websites in my spare time while trying to hold down a job I do not want to be in is not very appealing to me.
Was in a horrendous crash at the weekend 8 Aug 2002. A 40 ton truck decided to move from the fast lane into the slow lane immediately on coming out of a roundabout. Needless to say both Jenny and I where in the slow lane. We where pinned in front of the truck for about 100 metres before we where flipped into the central reservation. We where close enough to the grill of the Lorry to feel the heat from it.
I was rummagin around in google a while back looking to see if I could find anything relating to my family and I managed to turn up the following link.
http://home.alltel.net/fjingle/jackson.htm
The guy who runs the site is a relation of mine who now lives in America. It took me by suprise to realise that this information has probably been on there for years without me knowing. I also had no idea that I had these relatives living in America.
Its a small world.
