leyton.org

I’ve a love/hate relationship with bank holidays in Scotland.

Simply put, they’re just a bit different from England: An extra one on the 2nd January is well known. There’s also something different with the August bank holiday. It’s at the start of August, not the end. There was some half-baked November holiday for St Andrews day, that nobody observes. There’s a full list on wikipedia if you’re interested.

So far so good.

There are also a few more regional holidays up here than I ever observed in England. At times Scotland feels more like Germany, which has plenty of regional public holidays (as well as fascinating customs, in Dusseldorf, of “Möhnen” (generally any female old enough to hold a pair of scissors, brazenly cutting of mens’ ties during Carnival). I’d written a few years back about Glasgow fair, early in July.

The thing is, absolutely nobody I know really observes the Scottish ones, other than public sector employees. Ironic given banks weren’t public sector, at least until recently. There’s that little quirk corrected at least.

The private sector largely has to respond to economic demand, and national companies have to have standards – it’d be mad to disregard orders because of a local holiday most people don’t observe, or have one entire office shutting down when the rest of the company is open. Certainly almost all of my clients are based down south, and I can’t really down tools on a bank holiday, when they’re expecting me to work. One of my clients, an international company, has gone a step further to add bank holidays to staffs holiday allowance, so people have flexibility.

I suppose with a nationalist government up here, it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any standardisation of holidays across the UK. Perhaps there is something nice about having a day off when lots of people are working. Perhaps the idea of national holidays is just altogether antiquated, and we should all just get on with our lives and stop worrying. Or don’t we have enough of them right now?

Anyway, this Monday is the English August Bank Holiday, and it’s a day off that neither Frances or I had realised was coming up, so it’s a bit of a treat. So right now, I’m liking Bank Holidays.

I know many people love the tradition of boxing day sales. There seem to be some genuine bargains to be had out there, and it’s not hard to imagine the attraction in picking up something you’ve wanted, for a seriously reduced price.

But surely I can’t be the only person who finds it incomprehensible that people would be up at 4am on Boxing Day, queuing outside shops, so that they can be first through the door (along with thousands of others) to seek out a 20% reduction on a handbag? Especially with these chastened times meaning sales started early in a lot of places, and the difficult economic times mean consumers are likely to be in a strong position to demand continued discounts.

Pictures of crowds spilling through doors into the big department stores, explaining to camera how pleased they are, and store managers seeming quite pleased to get a bit of free publicity is all traditional Boxing day news item. But whilst I know full well what I find enjoyable isn’t to everybody else’s taste, try as I might I just can’t put myself in the mind of a 4am bargain hunter. Life is far too short, isn’t it? Or am I missing something?

So not long after getting a jury-shortlist letter, I actually received a Jury service citation. Whilst I’m clearly not going to go into the specifics of when or where I’m serving, I’m still very much in two minds about it.

On the one hand, I’m quite aware it’s a part of my civic duty. Indeed, I’m very curious about the process, and quite looking forward to seeing how it all works. I’ve only been in a court once before. That wasn’t a pleasant experience, as I was seeing through charges after a pissed football “fan” punched me in the head one evening as Frances and I were heading out to a nearby restaurant. I have only very slight recollections of the court itself – other than it was all rather intimidating. I’m still rather miffed I was never told the “fan” was restricted from visiting the borough in which the incident happened, and other than that he was found guilty (thanks to the police officer leading the case giving me a call), I’ve no idea what sentence was given. So I have a lot of sympathy with arguments that the legal system in the UK doesn’t put victims very high up the priority list, even if it was a relatively minor incident: I just felt like an afterthought.

I doubt it’ll be that different, at least initially, if I do find myself sitting on a Jury, but I’m intrigued by how the court system works, and am very curious about how it’ll feel to be presented by evidence, testimony’s. Whilst I’m a bit of a fan of the occasional American court drama, I’m in no doubt the process here in the UK (and, within that, in Scotland) will be very different, so quite how it works will be fascinating.

But curiosity will only last so long, and the rest of it is what’s weighing heavily on me, and making me feel I won’t exactly relish the whole experience. Even before I sit down in the room with the jurors, and have to decide matters, listen to others, make points and generally deliberate. A group of strangers with differing views, in a slightly stressed situation, will probably mean it could get a bit tense.

I’ve not been exactly enamoured by the process to date. Badly photocopied letters and bulk process the jury service seem to employ, and the expectation of wasted time (’bring something to read’ etc etc). I appreciate there’s uncertainty in it, not least they need to have more jurors available than they need for various reasons, and then there’s the ballot. So the chances of me serving are still reasonably slim. But in this technical time I’d have expected something a bit more, er, customised. Maybe even a website service. As it is I have a freephone number which I’m given to understand has a recorded message explaining who and who isn’t needed. It all feels very mass-produced, impersonal and, to be honest, ungrateful. OK, so the time-passing is necessary. The judicial system isn’t by it’s nature a swift one.

There’s also the inconvenience. I simply cannot afford to spend more than a couple of weeks doing this. In the context of the compensation forms, I don’t fall under the term ’self-employed’ (rather, I’m director of a small company, and have a salary that’s not time dependent). I’m not paid by the hour. Rather my company loses out as a result of my not being billable, not me personally in the immediate sense. The system doesn’t deal with that. So whilst my company does have insurance for this eventuality, it’s very limited. And that’s even before my clients inconvenience (Something that can’t be measured or compensated). I won’t be contactable (as I normally am) during business hours. I will have to plead special consideration if there is a likelihood of a trial going on for more than a couple of weeks, and I expect to have to do work at the end of each day to keep up with matters. Some projects and issues I’m involved with simply can’t be put on hold.

I suppose I’m annoyed too that it seems so commonplace it is that people I know here seem to have been called to serve on a Jury. It only took four years of living here before I was called. It really doesn’t speak very well of the city, unless the people I know are simply unlucky.

So I’m all a bit mixed up about it. This post is a little mixed up, which I’m not going to apologise for: It’s how I feel right now. It’ll be fascinating at first, I’m sure. Most likely frustrating (if I have a lot of time wasted, or don’t get “used” after all this build-up). Even if I do actually serve on a Jury, I’m not exactly excited by spending a lot of time with strangers in that sort of environment, with important decisions to make.

Civic duty is important to me, but – much like my experience with the courts down in London after being assaulted – I find myself feeling like a small and insignificant part of the process, and one who’s situation is different from the norm, so I risk losing quite a bit more than a few days pay. All very impersonal. Perhaps I’m simply expecting far too much of an over-stretched bureaucracy, but other than a small bit of curiosity, I’m not too optimistic this particular obligation will be one I look back on positively.

I try to make a point of writing up all experiences where I feel strongly positive, or negative about something, for restaurants, shops, service, software and so on. Recent comments on a thread, and search engine hits I’ve been getting on another, have focused my attention on some of my previous negative posts, so I thought I’d cheer myself up and highlight a few positive experiences I’ve had (see here, and hopefully a few more to come following our wedding).

So, set the clock back a few weeks back at my Stag do – organised very successfully by my best man Stew. I’d originally expressed an interest in ‘shooting and eating small creatures‘ (I know, I know), perhaps as part of a hunting lodge getaway somewhere up here in Scotland. Practicalities, including distance, travel, costs, time required and so on, but mostly the relentless forward march of time (it does do that, I’ve noticed), so we settled on Clay pigeon shooting. I’d get the shooting part, the eating part would come later. It was going to be an entirely new experience, and one I’ve always wanted to do, and it transpired a lot of my friends did too, so good all around

Stew did some research and came up with a few companies, and finally settled on Lee Leisure. They were based near Luton, so easy for everybody to get to (whether driving, flying or by train). Whilst finding the facility was a bit of an experience (the drive from the gate was somewhat longer, and bumpier, than we’d anticipated!), we found ourselves in what looked like a former quarry with the two instructors.

They were at pains to explain that they weren’t going to just give us a gun, fire up some clays, and let us get on with it. They wanted to teach us what to do, so we’d get the most from it. And they lived up to their word. After working out about dominant eyes, explaining safety proceedings, ear protectors, how the gun recoiled, and how to minimise the recoil, we got on with the shooting, and had a great time.

One of the biggest surprises to me, having never done this before, was that there was more to it than just a clay being flung into the air. There were three different types of clay shoot, to mimic the different hunting experiences. A clay being fired up as if a bird was flying out of a bush (the only one I’d heard of); A clay being fired more towards us (and further away) to mimic a bird in flight; A clay being fired along the ground. Like what a rabbit does. Which was great fun, and the hardest.

They offered a money back guarantee – should you not hit any targets – but it was entirely unnecessary. They’d done a great job of coaching, and advised us as we went along. I think everybody got a few 6 hits from 6 successive shots. We each had about 20 shots on each type, and my shoulder certainly felt that that was more than enough!

There was a tie-break for the prize, and Alis won that, but I don’t think anybody begrudged him that after a spectacular first-shot hit that I think surprised the instructor, who’d taken 5 shots!

So, I highly recommend Lee Leisure for your clay pigeon shooting needs. Far more than “here’s a gun, there are the clays, shoot them”. It was an entertaining and enjoyable experience, showing us all how it’s done, and giving all of us an experience, I think, we’ll remember for a long time.

URL: www.lee-leisure.co.uk

The council, in it’s dismissal of the Save Pollok Park campaign – like to suggest its opposition to Go Ape in Pollok Park is a negative, single-issue campaign, devoid of constructive suggestions for how the council could meet it’s goals and targets to improve the use of the park.

So to counter that, I thought it’d be worth putting up my own suggestions to Glasgow council. These are just the results of a mornings thinking (aided, I should add, by a wonderful 14km run this beautiful spring morning through Maxwell, Queens, Bellahouston and Pollok Parks).

Cycle hire

We have a hut in Bellahouston park where you can borrow some putters for the pitch and put facility there. With Pollok park, why not introduce similar for bikes, so that better use can be made of the parks mountain bike circuit? It seems woefully under-used: I don’t recall seeing even one biker on it this year, that I recall. Bikes are obviously a bit more valuable than a putter, so a returnable deposit would probably be necessary, although free-bike schemes do operate in some cities.

Rename Pollokshaws West railway station

Pollokshaws west station really needs to be renamed “Pollok Park”, because it’s, well, extraordinarily convenient for the park – but you wouldn’t know it from the name! The free shuttle bus service operates there. Perhaps then visitors to the city, staying in the city centre, would be more inclined to come and visit if they could look at a train map and immediately know where to go?

It’d make sense on another level too. Even locals (myself included) get confused at times as to which station is which. A recent new member at my running club, a long-term Glasgow resident, understandably got mixed up between:

• Pollokshaws West (for Pollok Park)
• Pollokshaws East (on the Cathcart Circle, and at least a 10 minute walk from the Park)
• Pollokshields West (also on the Cathcart circle, and a full 20 minute walk from the Park!!). This is the most confusing name of all. Pollokshields vs Pollokshaws? Throw in, perhaps, a strong Glasgow accent from the person selling you a ticket, and it’s easy to imagine most people getting confused, and winding up in the wrong place.

So we’d actually solve two problems: Understandable confusion, and making it clear Pollok Park is easy to reach, without using a car. On which note…

Traffic

It’s a bit of a bind that cars dominate the central part of Pollok park, and I’m not entirely sure why it’s necessary that the two car parks need to be joined up. It’d be really rather nice if they could look to pedestrianise (at least during peak times/weekends) the section of road that runs from just by the Burrell, through to the back of Pollok house.

Cars also frequently drive at speed, and often (I feel) without due consideration to other road users. Getting rid of them would make the main paths through Pollok entirely traffic free, and more conducive to walks, running, cyclists and more.

If they also reviewed the traffic lights at park exits (they’re not green for long enough at weekends), they might also prevent accidents as cars race to exit, also ruining the benefits of what was supposed to be a relaxing stroll in the park, for many visitors.

Improving existing spaces and facilities

This sounds fun, doesn’t it? But the fields to the east of the park, at the exit on to Haggs/Shawmoss Road, are very poorly drained, and frequently flooded. So they really need to improve the drainage to enable better use of the field to be made. If there have been efforts to improve drainage into the stream, it’s not really worked.

It’s such a great green space, it seems woefully under used, largely just as an overflow car park, and by occasional golfers. Such an open space could be useful for fairs, fetes, parties, camps, and perhaps even markets.

Similarly, the clay courts by this same exit have not – in all my years visiting and living in Glasgow – ever been used. Other than, it seems, to provide a short-cut for cars/vans judging by the damage to the grass verge. Quite simply, they should either be turned to some other purpose, or they should be approaching local schools and clubs to find out why they’re not playing fields of choice.

More events

There seem to be a few ‘big’ events at Pollok park, and elsewhere, but it’d be good to see more events making use of the parks in a structured, but perhaps smaller way. I’m working on my own suggestion (which I’m hoping to be saying more about later this month, after I’m married), to bring the successful UK Time trial events, to Glasgow.

How about also working in partnership with local groups and organisations that already make use of the parks (my running club, and Jog Scotland, for instance), to enhance it in ways they suggest. I’m sure there are other groups (football clubs, cycling clubs) that’d help.

Anything else?

These thoughts are just my own, from a bit of thinking as I ran, and as I avoid some boring accounts work I should really be getting on with. I’m sure that the people of Glasgow, and the Save Pollok Park campaign, have even more suggestions. It’s important that the council realises that the energy and passion demonstrated by thousands of people here in Glasgow for Pollok Park, and many of our other similarly threatened green spaces, is not seen as hostile, but enthused and passionate about our parks, with ideas and suggestions: If only the council would reach out and listen, rather than running flawed consultation exercises that merely give them the result they want.

So when the council finally sees the error of it’s ways, hopefully they’ll start listening to the park users, and then discover – if they do it properly – that we’re not a bunch of nimby’s (as they’ve accused), but an engaged, passionate, and constructive group of people who would actually like to see better use being made of our parks, without selling it off, and charging people unrealistic amounts for the privilege, in some dressed up attempt to “improve” the park.

Since moving in to our house over two years ago, we’ve had our windows cleaned by the same window cleaners who used to do it for Frances’ parents, who lived here before us. I just got back from a nice long run in the snow, and as Frances is away this weekend on her Hen do, the house was empty. I returned to find a note through the door from them saying they’d visited.

They do appear to have closed our gates for a change, so the usual feelings of frustration I have about them dispersed. But the note said that from next month it’ll be £7. It was £5 when we moved in, moved to £6 quite soon after (perhaps two years ago), so from next month it will be 40% more over the course of two years. That’s some rate of inflation.

We do have an end-terrace house, so a few more windows to do than the terraced houses along our street, but given we’ve stained glass on the top-half of many of the windows they don’t have to do as much glass per window. They also get a convenient way to the front of the street through our garden.

I’m curious what is considered reasonable for this service elsewhere? It’s always paid in cash, after they visit: This frustrates me as my work gets interrupted, even before the puffed cigarette smoke that’s invariably being smoked by the cleaner wafts into the house when I open the door. They do seem to have more considerate folk on at the moment, compared to much of last year when gates were left open and you felt positively under siege when being cleaned. Perhaps the time of year means it’s harder to find labourers. I’m also wary it’s heavily cash-in-hand, so probably a bit of a tax-dodge (Something I despise). I’d much rather pay by cheque, invoice or something else that doesn’t require somebody to knock on my door when I’m working.

I challenged the guy to ask about the price rise, given it feels like it was quite recent the price went up. He talked about insurance and other costs rising, but I’m a tad sceptical.

So, I’m curious what the situation is elsewhere. How much is reasonable? Do you bother? If not, is it because you don’t care, or do you keep the outsides clean some other way? Please vote in the poll too!

[poll=3]

Oh, and if you’re in the Shawlands area, or even elsewhere in Glasgow, feel free to recommend somebody that you feel would do a better job than I feel we’re getting.

A week after attending the Go Ape Public meeting, Frances and I were at another public meeting, this time on the future of our local ‘town centre’ of Shawlands, in the heart of Glasgow’s south-side. It was organised by the excellent G41 local news organisation, and very well attended – I’d estimate between 200 and 300 people.

The problem facing Shawlands is not particularly unique. It’s somewhat tired and run down, and hoping to find a way to improve itself. The hope is that there’ll be a ‘Town Centre Action Plan’, which will enable it to develop, with some council or government funding assistance. One thing that feels unique to Shawlands is “The Arcade”, a badly designed shopping centre that is half-populated with retail outlets, the rest of the units remaining empty. It’s a depressing place that doesn’t inspire confidence. It’s been like that for years, and unfortunately it counts for a large swath of the main shop fronts on Kilmarnock Road.

The grand hope, until recently, was that the companies that had purchased the arcade (for something like £23m) was going to redevelop it. Unfortunately, it was announced at the meeting in a discrete sort of way, that the primary developer had been overtaken and/or was moving out of property. This leaves the future of the arcade facing fresh uncertainty.

The large number of people there all seemed behind the idea of ‘doing something’, but I found it frustrating that many of the public who took the opportunity to speak seemed focused on many of the usual things facing a council: Rubbish collection; Crime; Parking; Night Clubs, rather than the larger scheme of things I’d expected the meeting to try and address. All certainly serious issues that I agree need action. The argument was “start at the bottom and work up” and tackle the things which do the area down, but it seemed – to me at least – the wrong forum to do it in. People appeared to feel it was an (the?) opportunity to express their grievances, perhaps in many cases because previous channels – councillors and community councils – hadn’t been working, or that people weren’t appropriately aware of their function and purpose.

What also struck me, almost to the point of actually trying to ask a question, was the attitude was one of “Somebody else should come and do something”. What my grandfather sharply called the “They attitude”: They being “someone other than me/us”. The community, and the council representatives (elected and officials) acknowledged that the plan would be difficult to progress without the arcade owner, but there was still the feeling that They would have to do something. That They were obliged to develop it.

The thing that was missing – to me at least – was that the public (and I suppose I have to include myself here) didn’t seem to be feeling it appropriate to ask themselves what needed to be done to make existing or future owners want to do something about the arcade. To find the business case of leaving the centre as it is a bad one. To make the business case positively compelling for investing and redeveloping it. That means that the rest of Shawlands is such successful centre for retail and business. To some extent, it is a chicken and egg situation (it feels run down, so who’d want to open a shop?), but if we’re going to start anywhere, it’s in making people in the area choose Shawlands for their shopping, rather than another cookie-cut and busy shopping centre with the same-old shops.

Our local MSP, Nicola Sturgeon, and all of the local councillors for Langside and my own Pollokshields ward were present. Sturgeon once again demonstrated why she is a senior, and very accomplished, political figure. She was by far the best performer, actually committing to take certain actions (ie. track down the owners and learn their intensions), summarising points well, and leaving me feeling that she – of all the elected representatives – would actually do something as a result of the meeting.

The Langside councillors did a good job, but I felt badly let down by my own councillors. Perhaps because (I think) they’re all newly elected, and perhaps new to such meetings (much like I am), but not one of them inspired me in any way. Political shots that seemed unwelcome, irrelevant points and a frustrating inability to say or commit to much left me feeling altogether uninspired.

The political shots that were largely unwelcome to the audience did none the less resonate with me: It is actually a rather relevant point. Glasgow has had a Labour run council for decades, and keeps sending them back for another term, so our complaining about the lack of change in Shawlands is a tad bizarre: If we’re as fed up as we seem, surely voting for a different party is something to actually consider? Cynically though, after the comment from the floor of “I didn’t know we even had three councillors”, I’m not sure I’ll be holding my breath.

In business it’s frustrating attending a meeting that have no direct action items: Things that will be done to move the matter under discussion forward. A manager just waffling for an hour; a meeting where there isn’t enough information to make decisions; or a meeting where everybody agrees there’s a problem, but not what to do about it. This meeting seemed to agree at the outset that there should be an action plan, but I’m still at a bit of a loss as to what the next steps will be, and/or who will be involved. I’m largely with shawlander, who argues that we don’t really need more ineffectualy bureaucracy or groups, so hope somebody will take a solid and active role in driving it forward over the next few months. Personally, I’m hoping it’ll be Nicola Sturgeon.

At the risk of sounding presumptuous, here are my views for some positive actions and directions:

• Local people support the businesses in, or setting up in Shawlands. Publicity and encouragement is needed, but ultimately individual action, and a communities resolve to support the area’s businesses wherever possible. Southside happenings lists a few local tea and coffee shops for example.
• Local people need to take it upon themselves to make a fuss and complain about the problems that concern them: A cleaner, tidier, more civil area would help considerably improve Shawlands, but the council and councillors can and do already help in this regard. If not, shout louder and get others involved.
• Business rates and rents are improved so as to encourage small independent traders to open, existing ones to grow..
• Businesses build on other businesses. Boutique shops, groups of traders in a similar vein, interesting shops, to create something worth travelling to. The shops on, and near, Skirving Street are starting to set an example: A barbers shop, lovely delicatessen, and a coffee shop, with some clothes shops, all set a nice atmosphere.
• The idea of a business association is good, but it shouldn’t be restricted to purely retail (the impression I was left with). There are, I expect, plenty of other self-employed people, and small businesses in the area, my own included. Whilst they may not be directly interested in improving the high-street shopping experience, we are interested in facilities, services, decent office space, and supporting our local communities in other ways.
• The internet is an opportunity, not a threat, as somebody seemed to suggest it was last night. Certainly for shops with a “unique selling point” of some sort. It’s not actually all that difficult to operate on the internet as well as on the high-street. To plug myself (it is my website, after all), it’s something I actually help with for a living.
• It’s right and proper that people have grievances, but the correct forums already exist for many that were aired. If they’re ineffectual, it’s important people bear that in mind when voting. If they’re not listening, shout louder and find other people. The onus should also be on the elected representatives there. Get out there and meet people. Put aside the party politics and perhaps reach out to the community in a ‘big way’ more often.

Links

• G41.org.uk was one of the organisers of the meeting. Their website and newspaper is excellent, and should be on every south-siders bookmarks and newsfeed.
• Jo, from G41 has transcribe many of the points from the meeting, which may be of interest.
• Glasgow council staff present referred to a document that specified Shawlands as one of Glasgows 5 (6?) ‘Tier-2 town centres’. I’m hunting about for it, but so far haven’t located an online copy. I’ll update this when I get my mitts on it.
• A Southside Happenings refers to a previous post about the state of the shops in Shawlands. In short: Use ‘em or loose ‘em.
• The Evening times meeting write-up

As part of my job I have to think of worse-case scenarios, and plan/consider the response for them. As I’m a full-time computer geek, this is along the lines of “what if this computer fails”, or “how to recover last months reports”, or “can we cope with double the demand”. Disconcertingly, managers always also go on to ask “what if you get run over by a bus?”.

I’m sure they mean well, they’re worried about system passwords and such, but… It’s always a bus.

Do they know something I don’t? They often go as far as suggesting it’ll be red. Never a number-plate though. Oh no. That’d be helpful, and we all know where management stands on that

But I digress slightly. I got to thinking of this when I was reading the news of a tragic death. Such events are always sad and always different. But I’m struck by the similarity of the reporting for such events. The press seem to follow a specific pattern.

First they find neighbours (or is it the other way around?) and get some sound-bites, usually along the lines of “he was popular in the local community“, “he’ll be greatly missed“, or (if the person in question is suspected of something dubious) the more implicitly sinister “he kept himself to himself“. Always wonder why that’s viewed as abnormal in London, where I rarely knew any (and liked even fewer) of my neighbours.

Secondly they seem to find a local politician (or is it the other way around?), who talks in generic terms about the “sad loss for the community“, and that they’ll make sure “we get to the bottom of it“, and other such vague assurances.

Finally they seem to find the local priests (or is it the other way around?). This is what really bugs me. There’s an implicit assumption that the priest has a right to get involved. Maybe they do check the views of the affected, but I’m suspicious given the ubiquitous dog-collar-at-sad-event. Can I put it on record that, if ever I get hit by a bus and it makes the news (Probably something along the lines of ‘weblogger predicted own death by bus‘. Deary me, no broadsheet coverage for me…): Don’t get priests involved. I’m an atheist, and don’t even like most priests. Far too sanctimonious for my liking.

Interesting aside is that “The State” always appears to insist on religious “memorial” services for the great and the good, even when the subject of the service was a Humanist. Ronnie Barker is a case in point. Well loved. Has a Humanist funeral. Gets a religious memorial service from the state. Go figure.

The other thing is my tongue-in-cheek “or is it the other way around?”. Where do they find the people? The press turn up to record some event for the news, do they then start knocking on doors, or do they grab the rubber-necking neighbours and ask for a sound-bite. Do the neighbours then get all excited back at home when they appear on TV, despite the sad event they’ve commented on? Strange combination of emotions, I’m sure, if they are genuinely sad about what happened, but genuinely excited to be on TV (as I think most people are… right? Certainly judging by the frequent looning going on behind the “live at the scene” reporter)

News reporting with too much self-selection is worrying as it skews the event. Perhaps not that dissimilar to the thing so many programmes do of ensuring “balance”. Giving equal weight to alternative arguments paints a false picture. Global warming is a great example: Massive science behind it, but it’s reported “fairly” by ensuring the few scientists who disagree frequently get equal airtime, making it appear to be more “uncertain” than it is in reality.

Similarly, is the BBC on an anti-alcohol moral campaign right now? Sure too much alcohol is bad for you, but I count three major news items that featured prominently on their flagship news programmes, in the last 3-4 weeks: Labelling of alcohol; Youth binge-drinking endemic; Middle-class drinking the real problem. All fair enough, but I’m detecting a particular morality focus from the BBC news editorial team at the moment.

But to try and bring this ramble to a close, wouldn’t it be funny if I did get hit by a bus. OK, maybe not… Just don’t invite any priests to comment on it. Unless they were Pastafarians of course. Preferably dressed as pirates. Now, that would make me laugh.

I was resting up yesterday, recovering from a long and drawn out cold that finally caught up with me and sapped all my energy. Couldn’t face work, so just took it easy and wandered around in my dressing gown, largely sipping orange juice and watching old saved programmes on our almost-full PVR.

The door-bell rings, and I wander downstairs to see who it is. Even through the misted glass door I can tell it’s a delivery guy from the brown box shape I can see on the ground next to him. I know I’m not expecting anything, but Frances’ new employer have been sending her increasingly large letters, maybe this is the next step?

Turns out he was actually trying to delivery to a neighbour, and wanted to drop the parcel off with me. I’m afraid, dear reader, that I refused. Don’t exactly know the neighbour very well. We say hello to them, and have commented on their new extension (it’s very nice), but I’m afraid I didn’t want to take in their parcel.

“It’d save them a trip to collect it“, said the delivery guy (from Ryman or such?). I must have looked quizzically, as he added “I’d put a note through their door“. I gathered my thoughts. “Sorry“, I said, “but I know I’d feel rather uncomfortable if my delivery was left with a neighbour I didn’t know“.

This is where the delivery guy struck me as perturbed. This had clearly not been in The Plan. Nobody does this. You’re in a nice quiet street. Surely you have street parties, know everybody else, and take in parcels like this. I’d clearly caught him out. I could see him recalculating. But quite why he’d knocked on our door (we’re across the road and along a bit), I don’t know. Perhaps the car in the drive, or a light on. But it still struck me as a bit random. I suspect, rather cynically, a return trip to base was on the cards so a few neighbours were worth trying.

But it’s deeply unprofessional in my view. I would have had to have signed for it, and taken responsibility for whatever it was. I may have saved the neighbour a trip to a depot somewhere, but maybe they were planning for that, or didn’t care. Perhaps it was the wrong item. Perhaps these neighbours were my sworn enemies? Delivery guy didn’t know that. He must have just presumed “It’s a quiet street and they’re all nice people”, or something.

I do take parcels for our immediate neighbour. We get on well, and they do us favours on occasion, and us likewise (although it’s mainly of the “have some apples from our tree”, given they rarely go away leaving the house empty for us to lock up and move their post aside).

I’ve noticed some parcels have the pigeon english “No leave with neighbour” scrawled on them. Not sure if that was the case here (wouldn’t have surprised me), but I suppose there must have been cases of neighbour confusion/fall-outs over “lost” deliveries with their signature on it, and the amazing coincidence of the neighbours just happening to get the same 32″ plasma TV….

So it’s more a case of my being uncomfortable with not really knowing the neighbours well enough. To be honest, I do regret it slightly, as I suspect the simplest explanation is best, and she may have just nipped out for a bit, and the delivery came at the wrong moment.

But I do know I’d feel a bit put out if a parcel I’d been expecting was dumped with a random neighbour, so I’m kinda hopeful the delivery guy understood that. At least, I hope he didn’t scrawl on the “collect from depot” note that he’d “tried your neighbour in number blah. The man is an ass and refused to take your box of kittens. Blame him if they die”.

As it is though, he probably just scrawled the usual illegible details on the card. I suspect he just thought I was an introverted and unshaven computer geek who walked around in his dressing gown all day being rude, at least indirectly, to his neighbours. That’s my reading of the perturbed face he seemed to pull.

So I did succumb, and picked up a shiny iPhone on Saturday afternoon. I gather that the Glasgow store had somebody queuing from the morning on Friday (I just can’t understand that level of expectation), but certainly would have been shocked myself it there had been much of a shortage: Apple have had almost six months to get production up to capacity for the Europe launch.

So I didn’t actually activate the phone until Sunday evening. Delay was mainly that I wanted to be entirely sure there was a decent O2 signal at home. My brother was visiting and he had an O2 signal, so that checked out. But the pre-activated emergency signal on the iPhone had me a bit worried (it bears no relation to the actual O2 signal). I was also wanting to check a few of the finer points of the O2 contract, specifically that I could transfer my number later (it’s not clear that you can), and whether the inclusive minutes covered any network or just O2 and landlines. The great news is it’s every UK network, includes 200 text messages, The Cloud access and Edge data transfers, so it’s a much better deal than my existing Orange contract.

Anyway, after activating the phone I get a decent signal, and the call quality, even with just one bar of signal was still very good. Hooking it up to my home wireless made sure it was all working perfectly.

So, yes, I love the iPhone. It’s a decent phone, and fits well with what I want to do, with (to me) a great tariff. Orange were always reasonable enough, and the free cinema tickets were always nice. But I’ve a suspicion my details were sold to a third party around contract renewal, as I had a couple of phone calls trying to get me signed up again that didn’t strike me as originating from them.

Any gripes with the iPhone? A few. That the landscape/rotated thing doesn’t work everywhere, that the camera is really rather sub-par (but as I’ve a digital SLR, it’s not a biggy, but it’d be nice if it was a better camera for instant snaps), the one-recipient-per-SMS, the lack of Java, the US-centric Stock application (it does UK stocks just fine it seems), and the lack of choose-your-own Ringtones. I really am not prepared to pay money for some song excerpt. I have one I like (and many friends despair at it when I explain), and I’d like to use it on the iPhone. Also that it has speakers, quite good ones all said. Although I’m doubtful too many teenagers will be playing iPhones on the bus…

As far as the user-experience is concerned, it’s a delight. I find it intuitive, and judging how much my brother seemed to enjoy using it, for him too. The lack of keys is great, as I inevitably have problems with moving parts in phones. But I am worried the phone is a bit fragile with all the glass: Especially as I’m sometimes a bit clumsy. So I’ll be looking for an iPhone protection case of some description. Consensus was that it’s a bit heavier than my old k750i, but I prefer the iPhone form factor over a condensed – but thick – phone.

The cost is certainly something, but I looked at it more as an iPod/mobile-browser than a phone. Exclusivity to one provider is a surprise, and I’m puzzled that Apple think the cut they take from O2 (and other providers in other networks) outweighs the money they’d make by getting more providers on board to support it and sell more units. I remain terrified I’ll drop it to find the screen has broken, but there’s not much to be done about that.

In short, I like it, and expect most of the software shortcomings will be fixed in due course, especially as the SDK is due out next year. I’m sure the platform will make for some interesting software solutions. It’s not for everybody, but Apple have certainly given the existing mobile phone manufacturers (and network operators) something to think about, and that’s got to be good for everybody in the long run.

Update

• So I got a text on my old mobile phone that my number porting date has been set for 20th November, which is a week away. Quite a bit longer off than I had hoped. I’ve only done this once before (Vodafone to Orange after we moved to Glasgow, as Vodafone had an atrocious signal around Glasgow)

• I didn’t mention that I actually have an Edge signal at home. I’m a long way from the M25 people, and not really that close to the centre of Glasgow either (I’m in Shawlands, if you wondered). So some hope the Edge service might be more useful to me than I’d expected.