I’m now back in Blighty, at least for the time being. I can never discount the possibility that I’ll be sent away on another foreign errand at short notice. But that’s a good thing: it keeps me on my toes.
There’s some kind of socialist slot-sharing system for the black cabs at Heathrow airport. I live just the other side of an imaginary boundary having driven across which the taxis have to wait an hour before they’re allowed back in the airport queue. This means that in order to avoid annoying the taxi driver, I have to lie about my destination to the fellow with the hand-held computer who enforces the rules and regulations. The trouble is that after a nine hour flight from a different time zone my brain doesn’t usually work well enough to remember to tell the right lie, which results in the taxi driver complaining and lecturing at me all the way home.
No doubt the rules are there to make everything “fair” for everyone. The fact that they don’t make any sense, involve the employment of otherwise pointless staff to enforce them, and are regularly contravened through deception is just another example of the inefficiency of trying to control people. A free market free-for-all might be a little more chaotic, but at least it’d be honest.
Why are taxis allowed in the M4 bus lane? It doesn’t make any sense.
Things I miss from Los Angeles: Ubiquitous air-conditioning; proper plumbing; parking spaces; cheerful service; and air I’m not allergic to.
Go on then Rob, enlighten us as to what’s so “proper” about LA plumbing compared to that in good old Blighty.
I think the trouble is that British plumbing is often so *old*. But even new British plumbing isn’t as good as American plumbing. I don’t know whether they use bigger pipes or what, but the showers have real force behind them, the hot water comes through straight away, and all the taps are proper mixer taps: the type that lets you adjust the temperature and the pressure separately. There are some good showers in the UK: I have one in my flat. But most hotels I’ve stayed in have pathetic showers — even the one that had a notice saying “Warning — Powerful Shower”. And don’t get me started on the two taps…
There are ways to get instant-on hot water, but they require constant recirculation c.f. http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/plumbing/plumbingpage1.html#thermal
Costly (partly because they’re relatively uncommon in the UK), bulky and comparitively expensive to run. But it does mean your hot water is at a decent pressure too…
Shower pressure would seem to be affected by the type of shower head as much as anything. We had some problems with our shower and our landlord ended up replacing the head and controller. The new combination is less powerful, but on the flip side it uses far less water – before the water draining out of the bath would be up to my ankle and take a couple of minutes to drain out, while now i’ve barely got out of the bath before it’s finished draining.
“Air I’m not allergic too” – in LA?!?! One of the smoggiest most polluted parts of the world?
Ooops…and Welcome Back!
But, Mr Harris, it would seem it’s the pollen I’m allergic to, not the pollution. It’s nature that’s the problem. Nature’s overrated in my opinion: everyone claims to love nature but put them in amongst it for any length of time and they’re soon clamouring for their sanitation and their central heating!
Thanks for the welcome back.
Incidentally, according to a table I found, Los Angeles’ air quality is better than London’s. LA looks worse that it is because the clouds and smog get trapped by a meteorological effect called an inversion layer. (The people are on the ground, not up in the inversion layer!)
Plumbing … dont talk to me about bl**dy plumbing. Free Market Towers is the small manner of about 425 years old & I dont think the plumbing has been updated since.
We are currently in, lets call it, the interesting smells season. I can’t speak for LA, never having been there – but I reckon that I can out ‘blocked pipe’ just about anyone.
(Would you happen to be the same charming and debonair gent I sent some crumbly chocolate chip cookies to?)
Tree hugging sister: that would be me, although I remember the chocolate chip cookies more than I recognise myself from your description.
“Why are taxis allowed in the M4 bus lane?”
I can answer that as I drove to London on Monday – the sign says “Buses, Taxis and Motorcycles”
http://www.cbrd.co.uk/indepth/m4buslane/
There! Question answered?
Things I miss from Los Angeles: Ubiquitous air-conditioning; proper plumbing; parking spaces; cheerful service; and air I’m not allergic to.. Shame some of that won’t run without power
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1080717&tw=wn_wire_story
Thanks for the M4 link, Jon, it’s very interesting. But no, it doesn’t answer my original question. As for rolling blackouts, I think it’s caused by California regulations that prevent power companies from either charging more (to reduce demand) or increasing capacity.
…on second thoughts, it does make sense once you understand that it’s not a bus lane at all. Almost any arbitrary category matching a small number of vehicles would work. It could be a “yellow cars only” lane and achieve its purpose. In fact, that taxis are allowed simply proves the thesisi in that article. Thanks for clearing that up.
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