mattwhite.me

Every year at about this time the trains go to hell in a handbasket, that is they are even worse than usual. The wholly unexpected hot weather causes engines to break down and air conditioning to pack up. Friday evening last week was a prime example. I had heard they were screwed up so I aimed for the 16:30 which eventually pulled into Ipswich at about 19:00. There was no air-con but we did have massive overcrowding. Not a fun journey.

I suppose it is this which triggers my thoughts about moving down to London. The City at this time of year is just lovely, people seem happier, everything is bright and fresh. So I spent a while looking on Rightmove to see what prices are doing at the moment. Rather surprisingly they look almost attractive this year. I mean, they are still ridiculous (about GBP300,000) for a decent two bedroom flat in Zone 1 but that is moving towards the affordable. Anyway, the upshot is that I am actually going to look at a couple of places (if the estate agents ever get back to me) just to feel things out a bit more.

Ultimately there is a trade-off between commuting time and the size and quality of place I get to live in. In the past I have always gone for my nice three bedroom house with a garden and a two hour commute but it never hurts to re-visit the decision to make sure that’s still what I want.

I was listening to 6 Music on the radio when I woke up this morning when a feature came on about how Brett Anderson from Suede thnks that the seventh track from an album is always the best. Each week they play a track 7 to see if this is the case.

There are some classic tracks that do follow this rule such as Sloop John B, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Parachutes or Sweet Home Alabama. But luckily we can get a little scientific about this as I have finally finished rating my music collection in iTunes. You can see quite clearly from the chart that in fact the best track on an album is number 1 with an average score of 68.7% whereas rubbishy track 7 can only muster 65.3%.

Some track 1 songs include I Put a Spell on You, This is a call, London Calling, Firesuite and Godless.

There I think we can all rest a little easier now that we know this for sure.

It’s the beginning of a long weekend with Monday being a bank holiday. Surprisingly the weather is superb so I had planned to go off and do another county but I got an unexpected call this morning to do some work in a very short timescale. Actually I’m not too worried about it, the beauty of the wireless network is that I can sit out in the garden and work. The only worry is not getting sunburnt 🙂

Anyway, things are going pretty well with the work so I should be done tomorrow and then I can catch up on the original plans. Hopefully the weather will hang around for the three days.

Back on the early train this morning to the City. Nothing has changed which is a surprise in itself, normally when I go away there is something major which happens but I suppose a week isn’t enough. The good news is that there is a whole pile of new work waiting for me so I’ll be busy for the next few weeks at least.

Now onto planning for the next trip away!

I left Yorkshire yesterday morning but hadn’t checked the travel news before going so a journey which took 3 and a half hours on the way up took 5 hours back. Still the weather wasn’t bad so I just took ot slowly, listened to a lot of music and then crashed out when I got home. In the 7 days away I drove 1,595 miles which, thinking about it now is a hell of a lot but didn’t really seem it at the time. The week has really helped with progress in the County Challenge, 12 down and another 27 to go. The bonus now is that the furthest counties have been knocked off the list (apart from the south-west which I am going to in July for a week) so the remainder I should be able to do over weekends quite easily.

Before heading back to work on Monday, we have a bit of a family do for the weekend, Simon and Fiona are down with various other people popping on over today and tomorrow, should be good fun.

As might be obvious from the sudden barrage of posts, although there is a wireless network at the house, the broadband connectivity is patchy to say the least. Not a major worry as I haven’t really been there much to miss it. So now I am sat in a Starbucks in Newcastle catching up on the hundred or so emails and various other bits and pieces which come along when you are offline for more than a couple of days. I’m gradually uploading the photos so far to Flickr so go and take a look.