The end of my doctorate!
I’ve added a review of my Doctoral viva. Follow the Review links or go straight to Viva (voce not Las Vegas). It was horrible - trust me, I’m a Doctor 
I’ve added a review of my Doctoral viva. Follow the Review links or go straight to Viva (voce not Las Vegas). It was horrible - trust me, I’m a Doctor
I considered doing some IBA events a few years back partially to try and prove to myself that i am cut out to be a ‘real’ motorcyclist, but also for something to do and achieve, never-the-less the idea got lost in all the hubbub of life.
So now, I fancy it again, and maybe with a new motorcycle, my current contenders are either a Harley Davidson 883 Low, or A Triumph Speedmaster… old man’s bikes, yeah maybe but I like em. Of Course I have my Bandit 12, which is probably far more suited to the job, so maybe I’ll just stick to that.
Anyway, expect some plans for the first challenges, the ‘Saddle Sore’ and ‘Bun Burner’ and who knows, maybe even a Iron Butt rally, the hardest endurance road ride in the world!
When people stayed with companies for all their working lives they would get the “gold carriage clock” when they retired. Even more recently when staying at a company for more than a few years has become unusual, when an employee leaves, one expects a small gift. So after leaving the company where I’d worked for two and a half years, regularly in excess of 50 hour weeks, was I wrong to actually expect something?
When members of my team had left I went out of my way to make sure that, for their last day, they had something appropriate as a leaving gift so that they knew they would be missed and that they had been valued. One of my team even bought me gifts when they left!
Today was my last day and although I wasn’t anticipating anything big, I honestly thought that the company was sad to see me go and I’d get something.
At my leaving lunch I was given a card, signed by half the staff, with nothing inside. Back at the office, nothing more was said, so I got ready to slope off. I was told there had been a “modest” collection and would I “like a bottle of scotch?”. I was given nothing as a gesture, not even a bunch of flowers, and I felt that the company didn’t care that I was going.
30 months of dedicated work and I wasn’t valued enough for a leaving gift (or the time to sort one out), which really underlines that I made the correct decision in leaving.
Today I filled up at my usual Shell station, a station i remember being slightly aghast at having to pay 75p/litre less than three years ago. Today I paid £1.16/litre, now I realise the price of stuff does go up but *piss off*, seriously.
Now, some people will claim that it’s appropriate given that a) Oil is running out and b) fossil fuels are ‘bad’ and we should all cycle, walk or use public transport to get to work.
Let me address this view… Oil is running out? Bollocks, ok yes, it’s finite but it’s always been finite, estimates on how much is left vary because these estimates are made up by the media or guesstimated by the people who want us to stop driving, either way it’s not going to dry up anytime soon.
Fossil fuels are bad? Yes, probably, but so is the majority of ‘modern’ living, however our pollution levels are significantly lower than 100 years ago. I hear a knob in a flowery shirt shout that car contribute towards the green house effect? Well yes, but nowhere near (and i mean so far away from) natural processes and not a patch on how much ‘developing’ countries do.
Cars are unnecessary as commuting tools? Maybe for some, especially some who live and work in cities, but for the millions that live in the suburbs and work in industrial areas they are the only feasible way to travel to and from work given how shit our public transport is. I work 15 miles away from home, and thanks to the M4 it takes me about 20 minutes each way in a car, and slightly quicker on my bike. If I bussed it to my local station, then train’d into Reading and bussed it back out to my office it would take slightly less than two hours.
I want the expense and effort I have taken to reduce my energy usage and waste in other areas to offset the cost of going to work because I *cant* do without transport, and the increase in travel costs will only serve to raise my salary expectations, which is a cost my company will have to pass on to it’s customers, and eventually the public will bear the cost (as with almost every business at the end of the chain is joe bloggs buying a product or service.
I wouldn’t have an argument if the government started to invest in industry to produce alternative ‘fuels’, infact I’d welcome a short term rise in my cost of living to look forward to buying a car/bike that cost me and the environment significantly less. Alas that isn’t gonna happen because it’d cost our government dearly and at the end of the day all this is about is money, they don’t give a shit about the environment, that’s just the current political excuse.
Lastly before anyone suggests I get a job closer to home, or live closer to work, you’ve missed the point regarding how residential and industrial sectors work outside of our cities.
Frankly all this is even enough for me to consider buying a scooter, 100mpg.
Randomly surfing the net can be a cool idea, I stumbled upon this speed camera site, it’s USA based, but the guy involved takes a stand against revenue based camera installations and even drives out to sites that are being monitored by a physical police presence and holds up a sign warning motorists to slow down.
A gut reaction may be that he is helping people cheat the law, but as he testifies in a videoed encounter with a plod he is simply reducing everyone’s speed in the area rather than the panic reaction of a few drivers who actually spot the police.
As a biker and an obvious target for the boys in blue, I support this type of action and have done it myself by ‘waving down’ oncoming traffic to warn them of mobile gatsos or police radar traps. To be honest, I’ve also done it when i think oncoming drivers are taking the piss a bit… it serves the same goal.