Times are good! Well, it’s been quite a while since I actually did a blog posting. Actually, that’s not true – just been a while since I’ve done it on LiveJournal. There has been plenty of transport stuff on the H2T Blog, plus plenty of newsgroup postings, as well as those on my own Facebook page. The latter is slowly becoming a replacement for LiveJournal, although I’m not getting rid of this right now! After a “ropey but as bad as 2011” start to the year, we’ve turned it around well – and all of these somehow begin with a T…

Timetables. It’s been a non-stop start to the year. In addition to what we already had planned, I’d been hoping for a good day on 1st February, when I went into Royston to have my hair done. On my return – two excellent approaches. Essex County Council enquired about the possibility of buying a bulk load of a Essex book, off the drawing board. This was an experiment to see how it went down, as it appeared to be cheaper for me to do it, then them. They’ve also been asked to reduce their print output, so ours fits in well with it. Then, Steven Knight approached me to sell his bus photo album booklets via our Here To There business – which we’ve done. Our Northumberland and Greater Essex timetable books are the first two production editions in A5 size – 244 pages and 844 pages!. We also have a new printer that means we can pass the 740 page mark, and insert colour pages here and there, without the whole book needing to be in colour. This has taken so much of my time recently, that we are now taking on freelancers!!! (as opposed to me taking a freelance role when times were quiet). Also, the books are now award winning! The first two books went straight into the top rank (Red - “Outstanding in their field”) on the Best Timetables page of Barry Doe’s Directory of Bus & Rail Timetables website. Almost non-stop fun, and there are some minor differences between these two books, as an experiment. Keep an eye on the H2T website for more.

Those We Love. In my last post, I mentioned C’s mental health. By chance, when we got to the 5-year point in our relationship, we found why Caroline had been feeling low quite a lot… having gone through everything in my head, the last thing we’d considered was when C’s Finastride dose was doubled. Our 5 year weekend may have not gone as smoothly, but ever since, C’s been feeling a LOT better about herself – which is only good. Indeed, Caroline was intended to get the guy I had problems with at CX some time ago, but he was not there for some reason… and C was able to stand up for herself and SKUF until seeing someone else. I’m proud of her on so many counts.

Transition and Tits. Going back to this time last year, I mentioned a day out shopping which included the purchase of some bras – the first I’d had in years – to give me a bit more of a figure on the top half. That lingerie is just over a year old now, so due a refresh/replacement (although the collection has still been added to!) I’d decided to experiment one stage further. Now, before you ask, I’ve not gone for a BA/boobjob just yet – as aside from the medical worries and stories in the media of late, I’ve not got the time to take a month (plus!) off work, plus there is the dealing with the likes of CX to get that far. Bear in mind it took six requests and an FOI and I still didn’t get the information promised in minutes, we’ll pass for now, but never say never. Back to the point – I got some rather attractive enhancers/shapers, or breast forms, or whatever you’d like to call them. I’ve now got even more of a chest than I did this time last year… now, I was going to go for one size bigger, but this now gives me a 44D size – now a lot more visible than barley filling a 44A! These are actually very high quality (much better than previous items used for this purpose) and now give me a much better figure. After getting regular compliments from C (and others!) about the face, hips, bum and figure, I thought this would be the last piece of the jigsaw. They adhere to the chest wall well, and my chest is getting used to it, shall we say. My mind is happy – after all, walking downstairs now feels so much better… as for the rest, time will tell, but I’ve not been Sir-ed yet! (I’ve not really been Sir’ed in person for a while – but they usually come in multiples…) I’m not being insensitive to anyone’s struggle, but my own dysphoria over the years might be coming to an end. Lets see how they work over the coming months. This is how I look now;


Tummy. Had various visits and scans lately - and the "pollyp" on my gallbladder has now gone to a stone. However, it's not causing that much of a problem of late (compared to last year!) but are keeping an eye on it.

Take A Step Back. With everything happening so fast, I’ve handed control of the Anglia & Thames Valley Bus Forum and Dundee Area Bus Forum over for a three month trial to Andy/Sam (Anglia) or Tails (Dundee). There has been a pile of “to do” stuff on the Forum for quite some time, getting larger, which I’ve just not had the time to do. Stuff that needced to be done, but I’ve had to put some other work first. In addition to the self-employed stuff, BABUS, PSV Circle, and being a part of many other groups.

Terrors. One of the things to take my mind off work etc. has been watching more sport. Of the last year or so, Dundee United FC had a bad start, but managed to round off the season with Europa League qualification. This was sealed yesterday by beating Celtic at home 1-0. I mention this because the Celtic fans had turned their back on the pitch, to celebrate and spur on their team, doing their huddle. At that moment, we had the first corner of the game, which Scott Robertson duly netted, for the only goal of the game. Priceless. Was it really 25 years ago that we were watching DUFC in the final of the UEFA cup?

It’s been over a month since I did the last post here – but there has been a lot happening behind the scenes.

First of all, I will get the small amount of depressing stuff out the way, and then we can talk a bit better.

( Cut for some MH/SH stuff that may be triggering )

Now that's done, I can talk about the good stuff!

We are both back at work, and I have done some “business development” work, to try to speak to a few areas where nothing is currently available, in advance of TNDS going national and giving us all the eData we can handle. Well, a few more have said yes in the last few days – one has supplied quite a large number of timetable files which are more or less ready to print! We have the Herts books still being finished – these were briefly paused to allow me to catch up with more-than-expected January & February changes – see the H2T Blog. Having said that, once this is done, future English editions (Traveline South West are now in as well as South East, East Anglia, East Midlands – all use the same system) will be a more lightly edited format – to get these out. Once we have the eData (and a customised program!) rolling, we will be able to use it to format the data how we want – without me going through every timing point (wo)manually!

To give you an idea of a long-term aspiration, I heard for the first time about the Espresso Book Machine – of which there are currently TWO in the UK. These books are basically a high-speed double-sided printer, and a BOOK BIDNING UNIT to allow you to print and bind a book in the office, in just four minutes – the time it takes to drink an Espresso coffee, hence the title. See what you think of the video;


Now, it’s two-thirds of the cost of a Mercedes Citaro single deck bus – MkI and non-Borish-banished-bendi - around £120,000 when Blackwells got theirs a few years back. But it’s nice to have a dream - I'd also need an office, as the study is tight enough for space right now. Blackwells in London also do print-on-demand in minutes, and it’s good to know there is an emergency plan, if I ever need one of my books printed with massive urgency.

Aside from the books – we had a quiet time together over the holidays. Nothing majorly flash, just a good time with each other – and it was. I was genuinely able to “shut down” and make good time together, but still having stuff to do if either was bored!

Making more of the good things will continue over the coming weeks – keep watching! If you don’t follow me on Facebook – please do so – I’m doping a lot of short things there, and the odd post to Twitter too. For all the transport blog posts – happening virtually all the time – see the Here To There Blog. It saves me boring the non-transport enthusiasts here!

I’d like to do a few of these each week (plus some randomly-timed randoms), including mental health as well as everything else. Oh yeah, and it’s someone’s birthday tomorrow…

A quick post to wish you all happy new year! I'm not posting on either blog (or Twitter) between the holidays, so the randoms are on hold. However, you can still see what I'm doing via Facebook :-)

Well, the first one of these features was going to feature a different Uni pen, but I don't see it - so that's for another time.

This close neighbour is a very versitibe pen - it is waterporof, feadeproof (I think I read somewhere virtually indeillibile), fine point, nice rolling action, quick drying, comes in a wide range of colours - where do I stop ?

Tonight's chocolate is another "back to basics" example - Cadbury's Caramel. Large blocks of choc with caramel inside each pillow are currently flying out of the local shops on special - so I bought one to try. Well, nothing too new, but something - I don't know - certainly random. Just as good as before - chocolate is good, caramel is good, and I think they've got the choc/caramel ratio and consistency of the Caramel just right. No bunnies on the pack now though...

The UK-wide train timetable change happened this week, so I was planning on mentioning at least one of the better books here. Now, one has came to me that I had no idea existed, even as late as last week, until I browsed the timetables page of Southern Railway website.

The book itself is a complete compendium of timetables in an A5 chunky book, sold for £5 (plus £2 postage if you have it mailed to you). Like near neighbours South West Trains – who never got rid of theirs from Network South East days – and recent A5 chunky book inductee First Great Western, this is a unique opportunity to replace 40 leaflets with one book, for a small fee – and for the last few years, Southern had been rather selective about posting stuff out – but don’t let that put you off! Victoria (London) at least should have copies, along with some ticket offices around the rest of the network.
 
Now, the book itself is chunky, but clearly a quality publication. 452 pages of information, plus another 4 devoted to bus/train tickets with sister company Brighton & Hove – and one devoted to another sister company's routes - a mini-map of the Metrobus interurban routes superimposed against Southern Rail routes. Clever, but the right-side of the Metrobus map got caught in the binding. A double-fold foldout colour map at the back – full network plus Tube in central London. Copious mentions of the forthcoming Key smartcard – and only one page devoted to Loco Toledo.

Now, once you get to the timetables, each route key is colour-coded. Incidentally, the full colour is used throughout the book – and colour local maps are added per local route, on rather thick (120g matt art paper it feels like – covers are about 300gsm matt laminated!) paper. It’s clearly been designed irrespective of price, and the £5 tag is well justified for (a) the range of detail, and (b) the high quality paper. The new National Rail timetable book remains printed in a lot smaller lettering, and on almost tissue paper (about 60gsm) so you see where the room for improvement was clearly showing!
 
Aside from the Metrobus map getting caught up in the binding and trimming process, it’s a great piece of publicity.  Ideally I’d like a bit more of an introduction – perhaps for the Summer, a list of what has changed since the Winter edition, or vice-versa, and maybe a brief rundown on forthcoming developments i.e. Oyster PAYG and Key smartcard rollout?  It’s a perfect guide to take along on a Southern DaySave or Downlander ticket – get the best for your £12 or £12.50!

Now, do you think we can convince Southern’s half-sisters at London Midland that a book is an idea?
 

#randomcoffeewednesday – Café Blend (aka Tesco) Colombian Freeze Dried Instant Coffee

This came into the flat a few weeks ago – I think we had a few pounds left to spend before the end of the month, and I needed to go for a mid-range coffee. This one is one of the Tesco “discount brands” – i.e. not Tesco branded on the exterior, but copiously mentioned on the instructions label. It’s Colombian freeze dried instant coffee, and is 3/5 on the flavour scale. I paid £1.99 for this, as a stop-gap. Having said that – and I don’t want you thinking I’m biased – but it’s a good strong cup. Had most of the jar and still drinking it – it’s got the usual bold, strong, loud Colombian blend tatste. I think I got an absolute bargain here, might even go back for another jar one of these years!

#randomchocolatetuesday – Tesco Finest Swiss Milk Chocolate with Caramel Pieces

I bought a bar of this last month, but have only just finished it this past week. (To show you how busy I’ve been, there has also been a carton of Ben & Jerry’s in the freezer since the Summer…)

Anyway, this flat luxury-style chocolate comes in inch-or so large squares, about half a centimetre thick. Caramel is a bit of a short title, as it’s actually “with a touch of ground hazelnuts and crunchy almond pieces” – think a  flat Toblerone with some milled hazelnuts mixed into the chocolate. It’s “Chocolate made from premium grade cocoa beans sourced from South America and Africa. Crunchy caramel almond pieces provide the perfect compliment to the smooth, creamy chocolate”. It is a good bar, and the milky taste does shine through. The caramel helps to give it a bit of crunch too.