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Julesd's personal blog

Friday night win Boris Bikes pt7

Posted: November 25th, 2011, 4:16pm GMT by julesd

Finally, a boris bike win. The lady in the hi-viz was filling up this bike station.
Triple whammy Boris Bikes pt6

Posted: November 25th, 2011, 9:40am GMT by julesd

Guess what this mornings rant is about? Before I start… Boris, sort it out. Your bike scheme is a wonderful idea but the way it is implemented makes you look like an even bigger bafoon.

Today I took the charring cross branch of the nothern line to see if the west end is any better than the city for boris bikes. It isn’t. I found the station easily enough. There were 2 bikes there. I tested the back wheels span on both, they were fine. Put my card in the machine, got a release ticket, and tried to release a bike. Same flashing orange light bollocks I got the other day. On both bikes.

So, I found the next station. Just two streets away, plenty of bikes, put card in machine. Fail.

Could not get a ticket for 10 mins like the other day. Bollocks.

I finally got a ticket, released a bike and headed out on my journey. When I got to where I was going, the dock station was full. Bollocks. Wasted another 5 minutes looking for somewhere to dock, and another 5 walking back to where I wanted to be. Bollocks.

In conclusion, I would have been better off walking. Well done Boris for encouraging people out of their cars, off public transport and onto their feet.

From now on, I re-dub ‘boris bikes’ to ‘bollocks bikes’. Like I said, a smart idea realised by a foolish system.
Subterfuge Boris Bikes pt5

Posted: November 24th, 2011, 11:17am GMT by julesd

With the amount of posts I have made about Boris Bikes recently, I thought now was a good time to dig out this shot I took barely a week after the scheme was originally launched.
Disappointing Boris Bikes pt4

Posted: November 24th, 2011, 9:47am GMT by julesd

Again, I feel like Boris’s Bikes have failed me. I walked out of Angel tube station, spotted a single bike in the stands and whacked my card in the machine. It printed me a ticket, which I tried to release the lonely cycle with. To my dismay, the cycle was locked in with a red light. Not available. I fired up the boris bike app on my mobile and headed for the next bike station. Of course, the boris bike system thought it had given me a release code so would not release another until 10 minutes were up. Once again, the bikes had held me up.
Blazing saddles : Boris Bikes pt3

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 5:38pm GMT by julesd

Determined not to be beaten, I tried a Boris Bike again this evening. I rode all the way from Rosebury Av to the edge of the BB map at Oval and totally enjoyed it. I have never ridden a bike in London before, and have not really ridden since I got a driving license. I might have to buy one to go work on!
Disappointing Boris Bikes pt2

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 12:23pm GMT by julesd

It gets worse… Even though my bank clear my security on my card, I cannot sign up for a key, as the Boris Bike system thinks there is something wrong with my card. Grrrr!
Disappointing Boris Bikes

Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 9:49am GMT by julesd

There was was an article in this morning’s METRO ‘newspaper’ (the one you get free at tube and train stations) about Boris Bikes. It said that ‘Just 8% of Londoners have used Boris Bikes’ and I think I know why.

Yesterday, I rented my first Boris Bike. It took a while to learn the ‘system’ but I got there in the end. I even had a little bit of a grin on when I wheeled off up the hill in first gear. Right up until the point when a young lady whizzed past me on a real bike. It took me a moment or two to figure out that the gears are on a handlebar twist. I soon caught her up.

This morning, I still had credit and so I tried to rent a bike to reverse my journey. I had to be at my training course at 9.20, I surfaced from Angel tube station at 9.10 and it was only a 5 minute cycle ride. No sweat, I thought. How wrong I was.

I put my card in the machine, retrieved a pass code and typed it into the bike stand. Orange flashing lights…. hmmm…. Ok, maybe I did something wrong. Tried another stand. Orange flashing lights. I went back tot the terminal, put my card in again… couldn’t print a new ticket, so I called the help line. After 5 minutes of automated menu chat, I got through to an operator. She tested the station, said it seemed ok, and suggested that I try the machine again. It printed me a new ticket, which I tried. Orange flashing light. The operator went off to ask for some tech support and at the same time a ‘regular’ user turned up for a bike. I could tell he wasn’t a casual user, like me, as he popped out a key and plugged it straight into the stand. Orange flashing light.

I shouted over that I was trying to get assistance. He told me “This station is always like this, it hardly ever works!” Nice! The operator came back ont he phone and explained there was something wrong with the station and that she could guide me to another location to pick up a bike. I told her not to bother, and that I would walk.

I walked off down to my training course, arrived 20 mins late after passing 2 Boris Bike stands.

For a public transport system to work, it needs to

a) be accessible to the public b) provide an easy way to transport you from one place to another.

As afar as I now know… Boris Bikes just don’t. I will try again this week, but this is no way to start.
AFF Skydive :- The full inside story.

Posted: November 20th, 2011, 8:07pm GMT by julesd

After I finished work on 16 November 2011, I packed my bags and headed out of the house on my way to North London Parachute Centre. I wasn’t sure what to expect. This was not the first visit to NLPC I had made, and last time left me feeling a bit sore, upset and dejected.

I had a whole bunch of pledged money waiting for me to complete the jump. I had been training for such a long time to lose weight and make sure I was in good physical shape. I had lots and lots of people expecting me to jump on the day I published on my sponsor page. More than anything, I felt I had let down the charity I had signed up to help.

I really didn’t want to come back feeling the same this time. As I drove around the corner at the end of my road, I spotted my wife pushing my little girl home from nursery in her buggy. I stopped to grab a quick cuddle and my little girl said to me “No want Daddy to go, want Daddy to walk”. She knew I was heading away, and wanted me to walk back home with her. I gave her an even bigger hug, got back in my car and drove off with a lump in my throat.

Three hours later, I arrived at the parachute centre. I got out of my car to find the bunkhouse, and realized it was going to be a cold night. The bunkhouse was not locked though, so I moved my gear inside and settled in for the night.

I fired up the electric heater and pointed it towards the bottom bunk that I had selected. Laid out my sleeping bags, Plugged my phone and PSP into wall sockets and ate my service station sandwich meal. Having not much else to do, except possibly trudging up to the pub a couple of miles away, I switched of the light and lay there thinking about the day to come. In my head, I went through my drills, as I had done a million times during the last month and a half since I was last here. Eventually, I decided to get some sleep. The next day started early and being fresh was important.

The next morning, my alarm went off at 7.00am. I put all my stuff back in bags, threw them all in the back of the car and waited for everyone else to turn up.

It was misty outside though. At one point it didn’t look like anyone would be jumping all day.

Different instructor from last time. We spent the morning going through the same training course as before, but it did feel this time, as though I had the drills down. A couple of times during the day, our instructor had to run off and get his jump suit on. He had tandem jumpers to take out. I sat and chatted with the guys on my course. One of the guys from my last course was there. He had jumped pretty soon after the course, and was now doing his 5th AFF jump. He mentioned that he didn’t think I was that far off the mark last time either.

As I went through the day, I gained more confidence. I had remembered all the drills well. I’d missed the names of a couple of bits of equipment, but knew what they did and how they could fail. My emergency procedure drill was getting pretty good too. As we began our lunch break, My instructor ran in the canteen to tell us there was a change of plan… he was extending lunch so he could go and help someone else jump a tandem. I read my notes as we watched the tandems land in front of us.

Heading back into the AFF training room, my instructor took me over to one side… yet another change of plan. “Do you want to jump today? I think your ready!”. Of course, I agreed and that was it… I was getting ready to jump. I went through a couple of short reminder lessons with my first instructor, got my gear together and got in the back of the plane. It was really on.

The jump went well. My exit was clean, although they said I needed to make my moves more visible. I was stable and first read my alto meter at about 11,000ft. Did my practice pulls… Struggled to find the toggle the first time, but was happy to let my instructor help me find it. Second time I was nearly back to it and the third time, I totally knew where it was. I had more free air than I thought I would, and when I got to 6000ft, I pulled my own parachute.

I counted off… 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and looked up to see if my chute was big, rectangular and sound. Well, it was…. but the tines were twisted and the slider had not fully come down. I remembered my training, stayed clam, took a deep breath (they are very deep at 120+mph) and pulled the twists out. And there I was, dangling from a big napkin in mid air with a grin from ear to ear. And bloody marvelous it was too. I have never seen anything like the view I had that moment. I could hear my instructor over the radio saying that the wind was high and too keep heading at the sun. Wow! it looked fantastic.

I landed withing 20ft of the marker, pulled my chute in and walked back to base, still wearing a smile across my face. I’m only sorry I have not got photos. Next time!
AFF… I did it.

Posted: November 17th, 2011, 4:08pm GMT by julesd

Get in.
My google+ public posts November 10, 2011

Posted: November 10th, 2011, 1:03pm GMT by julesd
- Curiously, I don’t think I have pimped my podcast on g+ yet…. Curiously, I don't think I have pimped my podcast on g+ yet….
  [julesd-hod.podomatic.com]
  
  julesd's broken podcast
- just this Google+ Platform — Google Developers just this
  Google+ Platform — Google Developers
- The Muppets originally shared this post:
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  The Muppets: "Montage" Film Clip javascript:void(0);
- Don’t forget:- julesd’s broken records show, 8pm – 10pm UK time, www.hodrad Don't forget:-
  julesd's broken records show, 8pm – 10pm UK time, www.hodradio.net
  
  Tonight, I think, some breaks and some dnb maybe
  
  Neil Armstrong's Radio Trailer javascript:void(0);
- Nice sunset, you might be able to spot the cop chopper. Nice sunset, you might be able to spot the cop chopper.
- Just 9 months? Just 9 months?
  Child porn policeman sent to jail
- Wow… Wow… these shots are amazing… gobsmacked.
  Javier Miranda originally shared this post:
- Steak night! Steak night! Couple of pints and a steak and chips down the old battlecruiser!
- More power to the #ukulele Electric Ukulele Land originally shared this pos More power to the #ukulele
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