Technical Troubles Emergency blog (1)

Hamlet, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude

Readies will doubtless be familiar with Shakespeare's ,"Hamlet", notably Act 4 Scene 5. Here King Claudius utters those memorable words,

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."

Most authorities explain these words as follows:

Claudius uses this metaphor when he is completely overwhelmed by a cascading wave of crises. Polonius has been murdered, Hamlet has been exiled, the public is restless, Ophelia has lost her mind, and her brother Laertes is secretly returning from France to start a rebellion. Claudius realizes that his problems are not arriving one at a time, but are crashing down on him all at once in a massive wave of misfortune.

But fbb knows different. He understands the taxt thus:-

"When technological troubles come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."

In the last year or so, fbb has been moving from laptop to tablet for composing blogs. It is easier for the old man's slightly dodgy eyes with a brighter picture and more old-man-friendly operating system.

BUT ...

Since about a week ago, the device has not been charging effectively. On Saturday night it was on charge all night and only made it to 50% then going into near terminal decline throughout yerterday.

Things had declined to 17% by lunchtime yesterday and it WAS plugged in to the charger ...

... AND, the charger was plugged into mains electric!

Aaaaargh! And even more Aaargh!.

Then there is an uncomfortable dental extraction tomorrow.

And the fbbs are off on holiday for a few days on Thursday (of which more later in the week). The hotel has dodgy WiFi in the lounge area only.

"When any troubles come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."

So it is back to the laptop with a need to re-re-organise downloaded pictures and cope with a less satisfactory screen.

Oh yes : and both the aged fbbs have been beset by minor but debilitating ailments over the weekend.

fbb will soldier on with perseverance and determination, BUT ...

Wuhan Buses And Trolleybuses

That would be lovely, but where do you start?

Thus far, fbb has found no timetables, no complete list of routes and no map, so immersing himself in the rhythm of this dynamic city is a bit of a problem! The minimalist web site that provided the above is not much help despite claiming to be a guide of Wuhan buses.

No thanks! At least not if fbb has to cope with the Chinese language.

Apparently you can pay the driver with money - now there's a novelty.

Or you can use technology including on-line payment.

So that is all we need to know?

Hmmm?

One fact does emerge, however, is that the basic bus fare in the city is just TWO Yen. A Yen is about 11p. 

So your normal city bus ride costs you a tad over two shillings in real money. Maybe there is some benefit of total state control?

fbb suspects that the full timetables information is available, but only on Chinese language web sites. 

He has had a little more success with information on double deck tour buses ...

... of which more tomorrow.

New Times for New Quay

It would be fair to say that the Par to Newquay branch line was allowed to decline to almost nothing over the years. Economies brought a reduction in the track layout which in turn brought a reduction of service.

So real trains gave way to a poor diesel service at unhelpful frequencies.

Until a few years ago, Newquay station would better have been described as Newquay platform.

The station has been given something of an upgrade, but from the May timetable change the erratic service has become hourly. There have been substantial improvements to the track layout by reinstating passing places and improving the signalling.

The trains are better too. 

But just look at the new timetable.

The summer schedule is not "clock face" due to the need to accommodate through trains from Exeter and London.

But look at the beauty of the winter schedule. There is a train from Par every hour at a fixed sixteen minutes past. fbb thinks that Newuay has never before had such a good service!

And Newquay station is getting better! It has even got a Tessile Canopy at the buffer stops end!

Internet Idiocy ...

... which does NOT look like the picture above!

Neither is there a cruise ship that looks like this ...

... or a railway station that looks like this.

This "accident" never happened ...

... what would a large sea-going cargo ship be doing on a reservoir?

But these gets fbb's vote for utter nonsense on-line.

It is just possible (but only by a huge stretch of credibility) that a passing drone could have caught this near miss at a busy level crossing. But what are the chances of this?

An alligator ambles across just as both the identical trains are passing in exactly the same place.

No alligators were harmed in this computer montage!

As well a Wuhan Tour buses we will be looking at fbb's problems with some of these.

Coming soon - hopefully?

 Next Emergency blog : Tuesday 19th May